# Why do most muslim men sport beard? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 19, 2010, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733 "2010-06-19T00:18:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2010, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/21 "2010-06-20T15:34:28Z")
It certainly sounds to me like the OP is claiming that most Moslem men have beards. If you know these terms from linguistics and philosophy, he’s presupposing that most Moslem men have beards rather than asserting that they do: > **[Presupposition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presupposition)** > > In the branch of linguistics known as pragmatics, a presupposition (or PSP) is an implicit assumption about the world or background belief relating to an utterance whose truth is taken for granted in discourse. Examples of presuppositions include: > A presupposition must be mutually known or assumed by the speaker and addressee for the utterance to be considered appropriate in context. It will generally remain a necessary assumption whether the utterance is placed in the form of an assertion, deni... ---
**Author:** ![Panurge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@Panurge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Panurge)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 9:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/22 "2010-06-21T09:04:41Z")
> [@AK84](#): > > Can’t speak for Indonesia, but in the second most populous country; Pakistan, it is most common to have a mustache, then be totally clean shaved, then a beard. Anecdotal: It’s completely the same in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Iran, and Morocco. I have never been in a primarily Muslim country (or one with a sizeable minority like India) where full beards are the rule for Muslim men. The closest thing I’ve seen to any heterogenous group where a clear majority of the male population sport beards are the Sikhs. ---
**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:** [June 21, 2010, 1:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/23 "2010-06-21T13:01:52Z")
Well Sikhs are required to never trim their beards or hair. ---
**Author:** ![jjimm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba8739/32.png) [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2010, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/24 "2010-06-21T13:23:08Z")
> [@Panurge](#): > > Anecdotal: It’s completely the same in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Iran, and Morocco. I have never been in a primarily Muslim country (or one with a sizeable minority like India) where full beards are the rule for Muslim men. Add Malaysia to that group too. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/25 "2010-07-16T09:22:05Z")
Why do Southern men sport mullet? ---
**Author:** ![handsomeharry](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9c0ed/32.png) [@handsomeharry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/handsomeharry)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/26 "2010-07-16T17:29:55Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Why do Southern men sport mullet? Why not? Don’t mention it! 😃 hh ---
**Author:** ![Shawn1767](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ee7513/32.png) [@Shawn1767](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shawn1767)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/27 "2010-07-16T17:36:29Z")
Why do most Southern men sport a mullet? Coz it’s in the Bible: [![](http://samplerewards.com/images/Company00209/editor/Smiling%20Jesus%20300%20pix.jpg) ](http://samplerewards.com/images/Company00209/editor/Smiling%20Jesus%20300%20pix.jpg) 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2010, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/28 "2010-07-16T17:40:10Z")
> [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](#): > > Why do Southern men sport mullet? Is this a [sport mullet](http://www.healthandbeauty.net.au/images/andre-agassi-mullet1.jpg)? ---
**Author:** ![Peanuthead](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peanuthead/32/360_2.png) [@Peanuthead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peanuthead)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/29 "2010-07-17T06:52:09Z")
I just gotta laugh at the thought of millions of Indonesian men trying to grow beards. Eskimos would have better luck. ---
**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:** [July 17, 2010, 7:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/30 "2010-07-17T07:52:34Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > It certainly sounds to me like the OP is claiming that most Moslem men have beards. If you know these terms from linguistics and philosophy, he’s presupposing that most Moslem men have beards rather than asserting that they do: > > [Presupposition - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presupposition) \ ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Midnight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/977dab/32.png) [@Captain\_Midnight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Midnight)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 2:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/31 "2010-07-17T14:34:25Z")
God I would hate having a beard! Thank Allah I’m not Muslim. ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/32 "2010-07-17T15:24:13Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Aren’t there a lot of majority-Moslem countries where beards aren’t common at all? Most Moslems don’t live in the Middle East. A larger proportion live in countries like Indonesia, where (I believe) beards aren’t typical at all. Isn’t the (almost) compulsary wearing of beards mostly confined to a small section of the Middle East? Exactly. Beards come and go with fashion. They’re not in fashion in Indonesia so men don’t usually wear them. Jesus, look at the history of beards in North America. In 1800 they were quite unusual; within a few generations they were as common as hell (look at Civil War photos) and then they went out of fashion again, and then sort of came back for awhile, and then you had goatees, and on and on. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/33 "2010-07-17T16:31:37Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > I just don’t believe the claim that most Moslem men have beards. Take a look at where most Moslem men live: > > [Islam by country - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_Muslim_population) > > Until someone gives us some facts about the proportion of Moslem men in, say, Indonesia who have beards, the anecdotal evidence quoted so far doesn’t prove much of anything. **Wendell Wagner** , would it kill you to be more careful when you type? You apparently mean “Muslim” instead of “Moslem”. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/9fc348/32.png) [@The\_Flying\_Dutchman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Flying_Dutchman)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2010, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733/34 "2010-07-17T18:39:26Z")
> [@Panurge](#): > > Anecdotal: It’s completely the same in Indonesia, India, Bangladesh, Iran, and Morocco. I have never been in a primarily Muslim country (or one with a sizeable minority like India) where full beards are the rule for Muslim men. > > The closest thing I’ve seen to any heterogenous group where a clear majority of the male population sport beards are the Sikhs. And that is [changing](http://www.sikhtimes.com/news_102306a.html). > [@](#): > > When Outlook began examining this trend, Sikh organisations engaged in saving the turban estimated that about 80 per cent of the Sikh youth in rural Punjab have cut their hair and discarded their headgear. An exaggeration, one thought. But president of the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (S.G.P.C.), the highest decision-making body for the Sikhs, Avtar Singh Makkar, confirms this trend. He told Outlook: ‘Yes, it’s true that in many places about 80 per cent of Sikh youth have indeed cut their hair. Sadly the ‘dastaar bandhi samaagam’ (a turban-tying ceremony for young boys), too, has become rare in villages because very few boys of 13 or 14 years of age have long hair.’ > > Does this mean that the day is not far when a Sikh village in Punjab won’t have a single turbaned male to show? This is not just in the realm of possibility but an inescapable reality according to a dismayed and rather helpless Sikh leadership. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-do-most-muslim-men-sport-beard/543733.md?page=1)