Hegemonic masculinity. Am I wrong?
Crescent moon, then minaret.
The first thing I thought was how many folks there would be in this thread lying about what thier first thought was.
A picture I saw of the Kaaba, with the square surrounding it crowded with people on hajj. They are in rings, walking around it, not just a milling mob.
Yeah… not one person has owned up to first thinking “women who dress like ninja”
I suppose. Call me Pollyanna but I accept people as being sincere until proven otherwise.
I am heartened at the responses. Terrorism is the expected answer and yet few posters have negative impressions as their first response.
Good. 1.6 billion people are Muslims. Its the fastest growing religion in the world. A few - a very few interpret the Quran and the Sunnah in harsh terms leading to violent acts against others. But most Moslems are gentle decent people.
I don’t celebrate the growth of a religion that is inherently political as well as homophobic and misogynistic. I see that as a bad thing.
In any such large demographic you are likely to find the majority to be decent and gentle but unfortunately those same decent and gentle people tend to hold beliefs that are abhorrent to the generally secular west. Would the majority act on those beliefs? no, of course not, but a minority is all it takes and that minority is likely to feel empowered to act as long as such beliefs remain accepted and unchallenged.
Mosque prayers, the call of the muezzin, robes and veils, geometric-calligraphic decorations. Those had a lot longer time to imprint in my mind.
The first thing I think is sort of mixed negative impression of “terrorism, controversy, protests”.
Again, I know that Islam =/= terrorism, but because of the media since 9/11, that’s my first impression. Like a few others have noted, I suspect a few of the posters here may be selectively ignoring their first impressions.
My second “non-terrorism” impression is a book I read several years ago called “No God but God” by Reza Aslan. It was an excellent read for someone like me who knew little about the religion. I think Aslan may have been a bit too glowing in his portrayal of Islam, but still his book was a nice counter to all the bad press that the religion tends to get.
I had a coworker who had a very negative attitude towards all things Islamic. After reading “No God but God”, I started to drop the word “inshallah” into our conversations, which would drive him nuts. Heh heh heh.
I had another coworker, an academic (!), who refused to read the book after I recommended it to him. He disliked Muslims so much that he wasn’t about to read about them, no siree.
Third (we are allowed three impressions, right?) come the Sufis, Idris Shah, and the book “The Exploits of the Incomparable Mulla Nasrudin”, which inshallah you will Google and hopefully read someday.
Conservatism
This. Especially during the Hajj.
Subjection and brutalization of women. Beatings and honor killings.
The TV show Little Mosque on the Praire
In particular this character Amaar, the rather modern Imam, and Baber the more conservative opinionated one.
My immediate mental response is “someone is trying to gotcha me or prove some point here by asking that question”.
Terrorism, of the explosion kind.
Hitler.
Oh wait, wrong thread. Okay then…
The first thing I think of is ‘Have I already got two religions, and am I going for Cultural?’
I suppose beards come a close second. Third comes alcohol prohibition, followed immediately by recollection of the many Khayyam quatrains exhorting the reader to get shitfaced.
Why would you think this?
Mosque.
Lots and lots of women dressed in head to toe fabric with only their eyes showing. I don’t know much about Islam in the birthplace of Islam, but where I live, that is the custom and there is a large population of that faith in my immediate area.
Perfectly fair comment but oh the irony.
That is exactly the perspective Middle Eastern Islamics have of the West, specifically the USA under George Bush. Ordinary Americans are good but they allow and support a minority military/industrial complex to send soldiers anywhere in the world there is oil.
Yes I know that is unfair but even Western critics say this.