# I may have Muslim neighbors **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 3, 2017, 6:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388 "2017-09-03T06:32:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2017, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/41 "2017-09-03T23:41:06Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > Oh, fortunately they’re not proselytizers or anything. Nice enough people. It’s more the tackiness of so many figurines scattered about that I was alluding to. Born and raised Catholic and I can attest to that – we love our gaudy saint figurines. Are they the kind the big gaudy plastic ones, that glow in the dark? (Yes, it’s not just for Nativity sets, kiddies!) My mother has like, two, but they’re just your generic small stone ones. You can’t really see them among all the plants. ---
**Author:** ![jtur88](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e9c0ed/32.png) [@jtur88](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jtur88)\ **Post date:** [September 3, 2017, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/42 "2017-09-03T23:49:32Z")
Now, you actually might have a chance to learn something about Islam. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/43 "2017-09-04T00:26:15Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Born and raised Catholic and I can attest to that – we love our gaudy saint figurines. Are they the kind the big gaudy plastic ones, that glow in the dark? (Yes, it’s not just for Nativity sets, kiddies!) I grew up Catholic, too, but we didn’t get into the statue collecting business. My neighbor’s are stone, most about 3 ft, and all with lighting on them (fortunately pretty low level lighting). I don’t care what he does as long as I don’t have to stare at them every time I’m enjoying my own backyard. Like I said, we fortunately have some mature landscaping for privacy. ---
**Author:** ![Reddy\_Mercury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/43a26b/32.png) [@Reddy\_Mercury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reddy_Mercury)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/44 "2017-09-04T00:36:44Z")
I’ve had Muslim neighbors since I was 3. There’s nothing exotic about it. Just treat them like you would any other neighbor, with respect and fellowship, and like any other neighbor, hopefully they’ll treat you the same in return. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/45 "2017-09-04T01:08:00Z")
I don’t plan on making any special plans to interact with them more than any other neighbors. I’m not exactly the most social person, and our neighborhood seems to have settled into that basic “say hi and chat for a bit if we see each other” routine. And I would never dream of asking a stranger about their culture unless it naturally came up. Heck, if I were more social, I could have just went out and asked “So what’s the occasion?” and introduced myself. But that didn’t even occur to me. I just googled to find out if _anyone_ had a holiday going on. And even then I didn’t find anything. It was only at like 1:00 AM when I was just surfing the net before bed that I noticed someone wishing people “Eid Mubarak” and looked up what holiday they might be referring to. I still don’t even know if they’re really Muslim. It’s just a hypothesis. They could just have leftover Fourth-of-July fireworks and are able to set them off now that they live outside the city limits. It could be totally random. Maybe they had a Muslim friend come over, and they wanted to be nice to him. I don’t know anything. Given how often I’ve interacted with my neighbors more recently, I may never know. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/46 "2017-09-04T02:56:24Z")
actually my Arabian neighbors son owns the retro video game store in the area and I buy all my tweaked x boxes from him … cool guy but does drive a bit too fast down the cul de sac … ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/47 "2017-09-04T02:58:31Z")
Ah, I was wondering why there were some fireworks going off outside my apartment building about an hour or so ago. Makes sense now, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 5:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/48 "2017-09-04T05:26:35Z")
My last supervisor at the _Bangkok Post_ was a Muslim. She wasn’t Thai but rather an ethnic Malay from Singapore with British citizenship through her husband. Not devout at all though. She had lived in England for decades including a long stint at the _Financial Times_. Very liberal, she did drink, and of her two grown children, she lamented her son being an arch conservative. ---
**Author:** ![Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ccd318/32.png) [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Paul_in_Qatar)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/49 "2017-09-04T07:47:19Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > We do? Sometimes. Not this year, not around here. Or maybe I slept through it. (Is it asking too much to bring back the Ramadan cannon?) ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 8:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/50 "2017-09-04T08:58:05Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > My last supervisor at the _Bangkok Post_ was a Muslim. She wasn’t Thai but rather an ethnic Malay from Singapore with British citizenship through her husband. Not devout at all though. She had lived in England for decades including a long stint at the _Financial Times_. Very liberal, she did drink, and of her two grown children, she lamented her son being an arch conservative. Drinking alcohol is no indication as to being “liberal”. Many of the 9/11 hijackers drank alcohol. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![AK84](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/85e7bf/32.png) [@AK84](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AK84)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/51 "2017-09-04T09:02:37Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > We do? Yeah. In Pakistan if I think fireworks on a holiday it’s either New Years or [Independence Day.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(Pakistan)). So nice to be told what your culture is by an outsider. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/52 "2017-09-04T12:55:17Z")
> [@Daddypants](#): > > My neighbors are muslim, nicest people in the world. I didn’t hear any partying last night. Maybe they’re reform. > > Sent from my SPH-L720T using Tapatalk We do not ‘party’ for Eid El Adha… from the Maghrebine perspective. The day is consumed by the sheep dressing and the gifts. > [@Colibri](#): > > I don’t know how general it is but [they do in Dubai.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dl1WpYKxxAI) It is isn’t general at all. I can assure you from an African perspective the idea is completely bizarre. The idea someone would state flatly ‘muslims do it’ is equally bizarre. What Dubai does is … purely the marketing and the gaudiness. Never ever take anything in Dubai as an example of a standing Muslim practice, it is almost always the pure marketing inventions of Dubai (often by the expatatriats who run all the marketing). > [@CairoCarol](#): > > And as **Ramira** notes, there is nothing especially Muslim about fireworks, either. Granted, they are quite popular here in Muslim-majority Indonesia, where they are used as part of any holiday celebration, whether it is a religious celebration such as Idul Fitri (the way “Eid Al Fitr,” which is also just a transliteration from Arabic, is transliterated from Arabic in the national language), the conspicuously non-Islamic holiday known in English as “Christmas,” or the entirely secular celebration of the New Year. > " This is some kind of Indonesian thing perhaps then as the idea is bizarre to me. > [@BigT](#): > > I still don’t even know if they’re really Muslim. It’s just a hypothesis. . it is a stupid idiotic hypothesis. > [@Paul\_in\_Qatar](#): > > Sometimes. Not this year, not around here. Or maybe I slept through it. > > (Is it asking too much to bring back the Ramadan cannon?) And never out in the West. The idea itself is bizarre to me. – we use in the west the siren, never a cannon for the Eid El Fitr. > [@AK84](#): > > Yeah. In Pakistan if I think fireworks on a holiday it’s either New Years or [Independence Day.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Independence_Day_(Pakistan)). So nice to be told what your culture is by an outsider. Indeed it is either a national independence day or the international (1 january) new year or something like that. not ever have I seen a fireworks for Eid El Fitr or Eid El Edha. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/53 "2017-09-04T14:27:34Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > it is a stupid idiotic hypothesis. Actually, given the information available to **BigT** , I think it was a reasonable hypothesis. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/54 "2017-09-04T15:01:46Z")
No it was not. It is not a general muslim thing to set off the fireworks for Eid El Edha and it is a bizarre idea to make the association. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/55 "2017-09-04T15:16:17Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > No it was not. It is not a general muslim thing to set off the fireworks for Eid El Edha and it is a bizarre idea to make the association. But Eid El Edha fireworks makes at least as much sense as any other reason for fireworks. While not a “general Muslim thing” it is something that _some_ Muslims apparently do. ---
**Author:** ![CairoCarol](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cairocarol/32/3825_2.png) [@CairoCarol](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CairoCarol)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/56 "2017-09-04T15:41:48Z")
> [@Ramira](#): > > This is some kind of Indonesian thing perhaps then as the idea is bizarre to me. You know, now that you mention it … while fireworks are popular in Indonesia and I don’t think twice about hearing/seeing them at any holiday time, on reflection they _aren’t_ a regular feature of Idul Adha. They are hugely popular at Idul Fitri, though. ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/57 "2017-09-04T16:34:29Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > But Eid El Edha fireworks makes at least as much sense as any other reason for fireworks. While not a “general Muslim thing” it is something that _some_ Muslims apparently do. Dubai is no good reason for someone to conclude ‘muslims do fireworks for eid el adha’ ---
**Author:** ![Ramira](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ramira/32/344_2.png) [@Ramira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ramira)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/58 "2017-09-04T16:41:06Z")
> [@CairoCarol](#): > > You know, now that you mention it … while fireworks are popular in Indonesia and I don’t think twice about hearing/seeing them at any holiday time, on reflection they _aren’t_ a regular feature of Idul Adha. They are hugely popular at Idul Fitri, though. That makes some sense for Eid el fitr although it is not done in my world. ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/59 "2017-09-04T17:53:03Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > It was only at like 1:00 AM when I was just surfing the net before bed that I noticed someone wishing people “Eid Mubarak” and looked up what holiday they might be referring to. > > I still don’t even know if they’re really Muslim. It’s just a hypothesis. > [@Ramira](#): > > it is a stupid idiotic hypothesis. Ramira, have a look at abductive reasoning. I am sorry that you are so hostile, for it stands in the way of learning. ---
**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\ **Post date:** [September 4, 2017, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388/60 "2017-09-04T17:53:56Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > Actually, given the information available to **BigT** , I think it was a reasonable hypothesis. > [@Ramira](#): > > No it was not. It is not a general muslim thing to set off the fireworks for Eid El Edha and it is a bizarre idea to make the association. They could just as easily have been celebrating Vietnamese Independence Day. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-may-have-muslim-neighbors/795388.md?page=4)