dlish

firstly..congrats on the shawarma joint..its not officially a muslim area without a decent shawarma joint...nothing like a decent shawarma at 3am on the way home from a night out...legendary!


although im unsure about the demographics in your area, i can get a gyst of what you;re talking about. we have had similar situations in sydney where different areas get usurped by certain ethnic minorities. some of them muslim, some not. what i do tend to find though is that the 'locals' end up being rubbed up the wrong way, and then make every effort to make life hell (excuse the pun ) for the newcomers. sometimes its the new comers' misunderstanding the new culture, or quite simply ignorance of the status quo in the neighbourhood. irrespective, its still causes some sort of commotion and ruffles feathers in the existing cimmunity.

one thing you need to remember is that a large majority of these people come from poorer countries and have no sense of understanding local customs in terms of what is right and wrong. this is no excuse for anyone to break the law of course.

you will also find that if you have a large contingent from the subcontinent that the level of driving skill will plummet. here in the UAE, we have huge problems with incompetant drivers. many of my workers do their driving tests up to a dozen times before they pass.

as for the double parking, it will probably be worst during the friday prayers. the friday prayers ae considered the most important prayers of the week and are carried out around lunchtime on fridays. Friday prayers for the devout muslims absolutely cannot be missed. during this time, many latecomers attending will double park to make sure they dont miss the prayer which is carried out for about 5 minutes at the end.

we have this issue here in the UAE, but it is widely accepted, and even the police officers double and triple park with the rest of the attendees. it sets a bad example, and so people think its ok to do it on other parts of the word.




the concerns you raise are standard concerns that most western communities have whenever an alien culture is introduced. one such example is an islamic school that tried to set up in a western sydney suburb called camden. campdens' a pretty 'aussie' area, and all of what you mentioned (and more) were brought up as reasons to reject the development applicaton through council. parking, terrorism, etc etc. eventualy the application was knocked back and the school never eventuated. though some of the reasons given would have been valid, a lot of it would have been fear mongering

there is an excellent satirical show called "Little mosque on the Prairie". i think you will find a lot of what you speak about in this show..its well worth the time. i think its canadian too.






islam and the west..how many volumes would you like me to write?

are they concilable? sure..i think you can meet somewhere without the need for clashes. people speak of the clash of civilisations, but i think many people have been able to reconcile their beliefs with the west without the need to rub each other the wrong way. i think im importance is education on both sides of the fence...seconded by mutual respect. with education (secular and religious) people start to see things from the other side.

i guess i can count myself as someone who's managed to reconcile my beliefs with my nationaility. i am however, far from being a perfect muslim, but i am damn proud to be a fair dinkum aussie. i only realised this when i moved to the middle east!

with regards to clashes...there will always be disagreement. islam can co-exist, but its misunderstood. i could elaborate, but this topic is a thread on its own!

---------- Post added at 04:38 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:23 AM ----------

islam permits marriage to the 'people of the book', which is essentially christians and jews.

muslim men can marry christian or jewish women, but muslim women must marry muslim men. so a non muslim man must convert to islam to marry a muslim woman. the conversion must be because he believes in the faith and not because he wants to marry the muslim woman.

the reason for this is because the man under islamic law is considered the head of the household and the main breadwinner and if the husband is not a muslim it could cause the woman and the children to comprimise their faith.

no i didnt marry a non muslim. my wife is a lebanese australian like myself.

---------- Post added at 05:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 04:38 AM ----------


there are 5 compulsory prayers per day, that have a set structure. the others are not. the 5 prayers are set through the day...

1) dawn
2) midday
3) afternoon
4) sunset
5) evening

for the non structured prayers,you can pray for any reason, and ask for anything (provided it is not forbidden. you cant ask for a big pork roast at the next get together for example). prayer can consist of asking god something, it can be in a ritualised form of prayer like in the youtube video. its up to the individual. but the 5 compulsory ones must be formal.


formal prayer usually comprises of set movements and recitals from the quran. they can be done in a group or on your own. here is a very brief youtube video on it
other non formal prayer might be quiet time and contemplation. but theres other prayers or short sayings that muslims say when they do certain things like sneezing or leaving the house, or getting in a car etc.


as for prayer rugs, rugs are well known throughout the entire silk road from china to persia. rugs and carpets are an important part of everyday life in central asia and turkey. im unsure of the meanings of some rugs, but some have higher meaning than others. it doesnt really have a religious meaning, but rather more of a cultural/status thing. i read a book a few eyars ago called 'the carpet wars' by the auther Christopher Kremmer. one of the best books ive ever read by far!

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