(March 28, 2016 at 3:56 am)Thumpalumpacus Wrote:(March 27, 2016 at 10:16 pm)paulpablo Wrote: I was asking a question, when thump said Muslims don't push their beliefs on us, when he says us, does he mean, people who don't live close to large populations of Muslims. If so then that doesn't really say much about Muslims. It's like me saying bears are peaceful creatures, I live in England where the bears live in zoos.
I lived in Iran for four years (before the Revolution) and Saudi Arabia for six months. None of the Muslims I met in either place proselytized me. The Saudi government does push Islam with its laws, no doubt -- as does the current Iranian government, but governments aren't individuals.
To extend your metaphor, I lived in the cages with the bears, and not only didn't get eaten, I got fed -- treated with kindness, respect, and dignity.
Your assumption that I don't know what it's like to live amongst large numbers of Muslims is misplaced. There aren't many here at AF who have more experience doing that than I do, and that is why I speak up about generalizations made regarding Muslims -- because I know first-hand what it's like to be a non-Muslim in a Muslim country.
No I wasn't making an assumption, it was a question. Laws and governments are formed by people. In the case of Islamic countries they're formed by Muslims. If their laws push Islam then if you break those laws I imagine you will be arrested by a Muslim, sentenced by Muslims, and that the law was originally put in place Muslims. Also I'm not generalizing all Muslims, but there is something that exists in Islam called dawah and it involves proselytizing. There's a difference between generalizing Muslims and pointing out they are doing the same thing Christians do.
Are you ready for the fire? We are firemen. WE ARE FIREMEN! The heat doesn’t bother us. We live in the heat. We train in the heat. It tells us that we’re ready, we’re at home, we’re where we’re supposed to be. Flames don’t intimidate us. What do we do? We control the flame. We control them. We move the flames where we want to. And then we extinguish them.
Impersonation is treason.