Another list of behavior... just for balance

Submitted by Mark (United Arab Emirates), Mar 29, 2006 at 13:41

You can read my posts here and you will know that I am not a fan of Islam. But it would be unfair of me to leave it at that. I need to write something of the admiration that I have for many muslim people.

I have lived in the middle east for the last 11 years. For the most part I have found muslim people to be charming, kind, generous and honest so I want to make a little list here.

1) This week Shaikh Mohamed, the ruler of Dubai visited a local primary school in Ajman (a neighboring emirate). While chatting with students he struck up a conversation with a young 7 year old boy. He discovered that the boy was living with his family of many children and mother and father in a very small dwelling in humble circumstances. The next day, the boy's father is contacted by the ruler's office. By the end of the day he is the owner of a brand new house value 270,000 USD and a brand new Nissan Patrol car.. Now that is generousity.

2) In 1996 the then ruler of the UAE was diagnosed with life threatening throat cancer. He traveled to the Mayo Clinic in the US and was treated successfully. On his return he celebrated and so did everyboy else. All government employees, including yours truly were given a bonus of 1 months salary.. Now that is also generousity.

3. I have been invited in local homes and had wonderful hospitality, with very attentive, polite and what I would say just plain good people.

I like 90% of the muslim people that I know. They really are lovely. You see I don't think they are bad. I just think they are wrong. It would be quite wrong of me to say that I wouldn't like to live with muslim people. They are great to live with here..

I hope that it is clear when I launch my own polemics about Islam that it is not the people I have a problem with. If I will take issue with Christianity it is also nothing to do with the people.

You see humans seem to have a natural connection with each other. We tend to break into tribal groupings easy enough but given a chance to get to know each other we tend to build community and help each other out. We don't need religion to do this. This transcends religion and I would say is the essence of humanity.

I want to leave this post on a positive not so I won't launch into any of my polemic on Islam. That can come in some following posts...

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