What is "muslim"?
Offline I've always been under the impression that "jew" is the only word that describes both people of a certain race AND people of a certain religion. I've always been under the impression "islam" and "muslim" simply referred to someone of a particular religion where as "arab" or something else would be the race for those from the middle east. More and more I'm seeing people use the term "muslim" to refer to a race, calling anything that is (mistakenly or not) anti-muslim racist, where as I would have thought it would have to be anti-arab to be racist. To me it's like someone calling something that is anti-christian, anti-scientologist, anti-mormon, anti-hindu etc racist. So what is it? Is my blood boiling every time I see "muslim" being used in regards to race wrong, is muslim actually a race?
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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You are right in assuming that the word "muslim" simply refers to someone who is a believer in the religion of Islam. Nothing more nothing less.
So you are also right in pointing out that it can't really be termed "racist" to be anti-muslim, since I, a caucasian, could just as easily be a muslim as a person of any other race, if I simpy converted.
However, whereas Christianity has spread itself out to a vast variety of races and nationalities around the world by now, Islam is still percieved as a religion practiced mainly by arabs (though this is not entirely accurate: a very large amount of the world's Muslims are asian, for example Indonesians).
So it is easier, if not accurate, to jump to the conclusion that Muslims and arabs are the same thing.
But then again, "Racism" is a tricky word to pin down. What exactly is "race" anyway? What "race" is Obama for example? He's always called "Black" but he's really only half black, and when you consider that he has never really known his father, and that he's been raised entirely be his white family, what exactly is he?
I saw, on Danish television, yet another interviewee from America say with complete conviction today: "he's a muslim"... I mean, nobody in America can have missed the Rev. Wright thing, so they have to be aware that he practices Christianity. So how do some of those paranoid rednecks still conclude that he's a muslim? Well, I saw one person say: "Listen to his name. It's in his bloodline"...
Bloodline has to do with inheritence, which has to do with race... So is the above statement racism, even though it is talking about "muslim" and not "arab"? (note that Obama would never be an Arab, regardless, since his father is from Kenya, not the Middle East.)
Well I was born an original sinner
I was spawned from original sin
And if I had a dollar bill for all the things I've done
There'd be a mountain of money piled up to my chin
Gotta go with Nikolaj there. IIRC "muslim" is Arabic and literally means "one who subjects to god".
"Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternizing with the enemy."
Thanks for the clarification/confirmation guys. I have just been seeing people called racist so much in the news these last two months due to supposed anti-muslim stances I was starting to doubt my own understanding of the word, and I'm sure many others are too. These false usages have all been in national and normally reliable news outlets too. It's a wonder they can make such a glaringly obvious mistake yet it seems to be increasing. I say "supposed anti-muslim" because a lot of the time it's something as simple as non-muslims not bending to muslims every whim.
Organised religion is the ultimate form of blasphemy.
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Yeah, "it's in his bloodline" is bull.
Being Muslim does not necessarly mean you're Arabic (As someone mentioned Asia..)
And being Arabic does not mean you're Muslim (Lebanon 40% Christian population for example..)
So even if Obama was from the mid east, it does not mean that he he was Muslim, hell even Iraq has a small Christian population.
His dad was from Kenya, not Arabic and his mom was a white American.
I have had this discussion before, actually 5 days ago on the street corner of dundas and yonge with some muslims preaching. Now I stated that I don't believe in any god(s) and that I don't believe that any religion should have any say on how a society operates, that and that I feared that if muslims did get into power in a society the freedoms that we enjoy would be taken away as per many islamic states that stiffle freedom of speech and expression. So apparently that is racist, to which I corrected them I have nothing against arabs, africans or others races that follow the islamic faith, just don't believe in the islamic faith and against the islamic faith being in power, since it is a faith and not a race I cannot be a racists, I am however anti religious. So that blew up into a 30 minute rant...and mind you they were pissed. To which at the end I simply responded, after letting them pretty much yell at me, that if allah was the way to peace, they have much anger issues and maybe should address that before trying to convert others, and left it at that...as I never raised my voice at all to them.