Do we have any muslim members or lurkers here?

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After reading a minority of comments on the "Are muslims...." thread, I felt pretty disgusted. Are there any muslim contributors on this forum?

It would be good to get a muslim perspective on this debate.

My mother converted to Islam(both my parents were non-religious Jews) and she and her husband are Muslims. Their family is Muslim. They rarely mention god or whatever. My stepfather's entire family that lives in the U.S. and the Muslim community are not part of what a lot of people associate Islam with. None of my Muslim friends harp about religious crap. They are just wanting to live an American life and give their kids more opportunities and a better home.

After 9/11 there was a lot of violence toward some of them, those who were very obviously Muslim. In the apartment complex we lived in before my mother and stepfather started an accounting firm(we were living in a crappy area) a guy saw my sister and I and assumed we were all my stepfather's wives. He pulled a knife on me one night when I was walking to the store. People are ignorant. People are full of hate. People are... people.

Even Muslims are, but no more than any other group. Islam doesn't make people bad, and sorry ruveyn, but not all Muslims buy into the Hadith books, many know it's complete and utter BS.

I'll admit a lot of the comments I see on Muslims here repulse me because of the violence I've encountered, the myriad bigots I've had to deal with and eventually just let it go. That's the attitude I see here, that someone Muslims are set apart and they can't be normal, average people. So they become objects and it becomes OK not to treat them as human etc.

It makes me want to vomit. But like my stepfather's family, I most often try to ignore it and not get upset about it. I had a hard time reading that thread. Not for anger but for sadness.

My family members and friends who are Muslim do take some of the Qu'ran seriously, but only about as seriously as your average hald-assed Christian takes the Bible. They just want to get along in society without fear that someone is going to knife their stepdaughter because he heard him speaking Arabic and his wife covers her hair.

I mean that's an insane reason to harass someone. We aren't responsible for how people around the world act. Anyone should wish to end violence and oppression etc but what can we really do about some cave dwelling scavengers? What can I do? If I consider myself a part of a Muslim community/family, where does my responsibility begin and end?

And no, I don't take the Qu'ran seriously. While I consider myself a part of a very large Muslim family, I'm not a Muslim. I don't believe in any of that nonsense. I'm an atheist, raised in a Jewish household, I see nothing appealing about Islam, but I just don't understand saying Muslims do this or that and then "oh, I don't mean all Muslims!"

I do agree, the first rule of religion should be the same as the first rule of fight club. But most Muslims I know also agree with that and it's due in part to fear for their safety.