abaya

How would you answer that question? Or any other direct question about whether you belong to X religion?

Ktsp and I were leaving the gym last night, when a clearly non-Icelandic guy came bounding along down the stairs past us--he paused briefly to ask ktsp (out of the blue--but it happens sometimes between foreigners here), "Where are you from?" Ktsp answered, "Lebanon." The guy's next question was, "Are you Muslim?" (This all happened during a split second as we 3 were hurrying down the stairs outside the gym.)

Now, ktsp answered in the moment, without knowing where this guy could be from (he looked African to me, but ktsp said that he could have been an Arab as well)--if he was from Lebanon, then ktsp's answer would have been "Yes" because ethnically/legally (through his father), he is Muslim, even if he is not religious at all, and is in fact an atheist in terms of belief. However, if the guy was not from Lebanon, then ktsp could probably have just said "No" and the guy would have proceeded along. But since there was a lot of ambiguity, and there was only about 3 seconds of this encounter from start to finish, ktsp answered, "Sort of," as a safe way of responding.

The guy laughed and said, "What! You either are, or you aren't, a Muslim. If you are, then you say Salaam Alaykum," and ktsp laughed back (it was all a very awkward situation) and said "Salaam Alaykum," and that was the end of the situation.

Now, I proceeded to discuss and dissect the whole thing on our way home from the gym, which no doubt irritated ktsp a bit (I tend to over-analyze and nit-pick a bit much on these types of things)--but I found the whole thing to be so interesting. In Lebanon, actually, no one would so casually ask about your religion 1 second after "meeting" you--it's a rather subtle, hush-hush thing there that gets "discovered" through proxy questions about your hometown, name, etc. And in America, some people do ask ME if ktsp is a Muslim (because they assume all Arabs are Muslim, I guess), and I promptly answer no, he's an atheist, and leave it at that.

However, I don't think I've ever been asked straight up, "Are you Christian?" right on the spot. I was either always assumed to be Christian (when I was in that crowd), or I wasn't, also depending on the crowd. I think that today, if someone asked me that question like they asked ktsp last night, I would just have to say "No," but then proceed to mention my history with both Christianity and Buddhism, if there was time.

Personally, my identification with a religion ultimately depends on what I ACTUALLY believe AND practice. It doesn't have to do with an ethnicity or another form of identity, as it does in Lebanon--or even sometimes in America. I know of many people who would simply answer "Yes," even though it might have been years since they went to church, and in reality perhaps they are more agnostic or atheist than religious... because they want to "be" something, or they don't want the other person to think badly of them, or they simply don't know what to say other than "Yes, I'm a Christian," even if it's not really true. I find this response to be spiritually dishonest, in a way, but I know that I'm on my high horse when I say that... not everyone feels as cut and dry about religion as I personally do.

So, in a way, I agreed with the man bounding down the gym steps. You either do or do not identify with a religion--no ifs, ands, or buts. But I also recognize that these kinds of questions don't always have those kinds of unidirectional answers, so that's why I'm interested in hearing how you all would respond. Consider yourself answering not just in your own frame of reference (your neighborhood, your country, etc), but say you were traveling abroad, around people who knew nothing about American religion, who were perhaps very religious themselves--and you simply had to answer their question.

__________________
And think not you can direct the course of Love;
for Love, if it finds you worthy, directs your course.
--Khalil Gibran