If:
… how can a Muslim bodega owner – nearly all of them, in my experience – sell lotto tickets and beer?
They give their income a higher priority than their religion? It’s not unheard of.
My (Muslim) grandfather was yelled at by a (Muslim) bodega owner for buying a lottery ticket once. Not sure how the bodega owner knew his religion but he said it was a sinful thing to be buying, and my grandfather asked why he was selling them then…apparently the bodega owner thought it was fine to sell it to non Muslims.
Are they? Many (most?) Islamic societies (both current and historical), and individual Muslims, do not hold this to be the case.
Remember there is no “Muslim Pope” to decide what is and is not “haram”. It is up to each Muslim (and each Muslim society) to decide that.
because hypocrisy transcends religion?
Are they? In all of Islam?
Birth control is forbidden in Catholicism. Why don’t Catholics in the US have larger families than average, as was so often the case in the past?
The Nation of Islam sometimes likes to take a Pakistani shop owner and rough him up a bit to make a point.
Very, very, very few people in this world follow the letter of their religious beliefs. Islam- like Christianity, Judaism, and every other religion on Earth- has plenty of people who don’t really worry about the details too much. Would you be that surprised to meet a Jewish person who likes bacon? Then why would you be shocked at a Muslim who likes the occasional glass of gin?
Alcohol is not considered to be forbidden in all of Islam. The Qur’an specifically forbids wine, which some Muslims interpret to mean all alcoholic drinks while other groups only abstain from grape-based alcoholic drinks.
And to the OP: While I don’t doubt that many Muslim bodega owners do sell liquor and lottery tickets, are you certain that you can identify Muslims on sight? There are lots of Arab Christians and a few Jews, and frankly I’m not certain I’d be able to distinguish between a Muslim and a Sikh at first glace, especially if he (or she) wasn’t particularly devout. Besides, there are plenty of Jews and Christians in America who are connected to their religions more culturally than spiritually, and I see no reason why a Muslim might be equally ambiguous.
I can tell from the pushkes (soliciting donations for the local mosque, most pertinently), but this is a largely Bengali neighborhood anyway.
But if only grape-based alcoholic beverages are prohibited (and I didn’t know that interpretation existed, thank you, I wish I knew the sincerity emoticon) that indeed allows for the beer.
I thought the consensus, such as it is, was that Islamic law was intended for all humans, and the word “Islam” indicates submitting to said law.
And obviously “they’re not following the religious strictures” is a sensible answer to the question as asked.
You have it wrong. Personal laws (marriage, divorce, dietary stuff) have never been thought to extend to non-muslims. To this day in Pakistan for instance, these laws are separate. In fact, extending them to non-muslims would violate a fundamental tenet of Islam.
Pakistan has its own national beer as well as a national lottery unt. So does Egypt.
BTW, the wine/beer thing. Most muslims consider the prohibition to be against all alcoholic drink, not just wines.
All alcohol is forbidden to Muslims, and it’s not just alcohol, it’s anything that clouds the mind. The final word on the subject is that if a bucket of something will make you drunk then a drop is forbidden. It is generally assumed that there is an exemption for medical stuff such as anaesthesia, but any recreational use is a no-no.
However, Muslims are specifically told to respect the beliefs of other Abrahamic faiths as sister religions. Christians are allowed alcohol and Jews are at times required to drink it. In more modern times, in many Middle-Eastern countries, Muslims are sought after as bartenders because the owners know they won’t be drinking the profits. So it’s not a conflict.
Not sure about gambling in Christianity, but isn’t the dreidel game a gambling one? So same deal.
It’s not hypocrisy in general. A Muslim who says “you shouldn’t drink” then snaffles a shot of tequila is a hypocrite, but just because you don’t believe Muslims drink alcohol doesn’t mean they don’t or can’t.
People interpret religious rules how they care too - per Catholics upthread even though Catholicism has a centralised rule base, unlike Islam.
True, most Muslims don’t drink and many imams say that drinking is a sin - but many do. For example - there’s a lot of local booze produced and drunk in Turkey (Efes Pilsen is lovely); the Rubayyat of Omar Khayam has a lot of wine in it; there is a local hooch produced and drunk in Iraq; my local Bangladeshi shopkeepers in the UK sold alcohol, lottery tickets, pork products; I know many Thai Muslims who like an ice-cold beer; a Bangladeshi friend of mine used to give up alcohol for Ramadan.
Sounds like a bit of the ‘no true Scotsman’ fallacy.
I don’t think most Catholics would feel that a waiter who served meat dishes on a Fridays during Lent, when Catholics are expected to abstain, was doing anything amiss.
I apologise for “too” where “to” was meant. I shall throw myself on the mercy of the creator.
Male Sikhs are nearly instantly recognizable by their distinctively wrapped turbans. A minority of Muslims wear turbans, but I don’t think those even vaguely resemble the dastar.
I agree it may be difficult to distinguish female Muslims and Sikhs.
Fair enough. That’s pretty positive.
Respectfully, to claim that there is only one real or true interpretation of the Qur’an and Hadith and the ensuing laws is misleading. Many different schools of thought exist, and the scholarly debates between different Imams are as complex and intricate as Christian theology, and occupy a similar position culturally. While schools of thought certainly exist (and are the majority in the modern world) that interpret the laws as you lay out, they do not necessarily represent the beliefs of all Muslims.
I’m aware that there’s a difference, and I believe I could tell after a good look (even before your prompting pictures) but I don’t doubt that many people couldn’t. Awareness of Sikhism as a religion at all in the West is fairly low, and I know a lot of people who assume that turban=Muslim=Arab, when none of these things necessarily imply the other.
That’s a bit of a sweep. It’s very well known in the UK.
Yeah, seems to be an ongoing problem. (They’re all blogs so not sure of the veracity.)
In my observation, however, the ‘turban = Muslim’ thing seems to be confined to the US.
Re the Sikh, Muslim confusion. If a man us wearing a turban over a suit, or generally not wearing “traditional” dress, it’s a Sikh. A turban is not everyday wear for most Muslims, it certainly is for a majority of Sikhs.
Respectfully, you are dead wrong. It’s like saying that belief in virgin birth is not necessarily the beliefs of all Christians, yes there are some for whom that is not the case, but you are pretty safe in saying that “Christians believe in Virgin Birth”.
Islam also has exceptions. For instance if the funds from the sales were to go to wage jihad then there can be an exception made. Muslims are allowed to engage in activities so they can fit in where they are the minority until their numbers are such that sharia can be enforced etc… The word for this is taqiyya.
All religions have such hypocrisies but many of Islam’s come from trying to explain the actions of its prophet. For instance, lying is forbidden but Mohammed created the concept of the hudna where you lie to your enemies long enough to buy time to rebuild your forces.
Mohammed being as much a warrior as a prophet leads to a lot of these problems because the only true moral imperative in war is that you win.
Luckily, most people have more good sense than to actually believe and practice their religions as they were intended so you get a continuum of behavior that is weighted closer to the current secular norm. I guess in all fairness this can be both good and bad depending on the religious edict under discussion.