10-03-2005, 05:54 PM
Quote:Bismillah
As Salam alaikum
I would agree that most Western women are not just sleeping with random strangers. I must add, though, that I do not know of one single woman of my peer group in my past or present who waited until marriage to have sex. I know of a girl who is still a virgin at 27 and is mocked by her friends behind her back for this fact. From my understanding, she is only a virgin because there has not been an opportunity not due to religious beliefs against premarital sex. From my peer group (notice that I keep using that frame of reference), anyone who is in any kind of somewhat serious relationship is having sex with that person. At my age, anyone who has been with a person for three or more months is most likely having sex with them. Many of my male friends would cheat on their girlfriends if they thought they could get away with it. Some did it even when they knew they would not get away with it.
It is difficult to deny one's sexuality when it is what is marketed. It is a manner by how Western people define themselves. Women want to look good in a bathing suit. So they can swim better? Men want ripped abs. So they can breathe better? A healthy level of bodyfat usually does not show really defined abs or super skinny legs, yet this is what is pursued. Usually in vain. Most of the people I know are unhappy with their body. This sounds like a lack of freedom to me, to have one's perception of self negatively affected by the media. Orgies are not happening in the streets but I do not know of anyone who is 100% satisfied with their physical appearance, no one. I include myself.
Just spouting.
As Salam alaikum wa rahmatullahi wa barakatu
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I want to say this is the most honest and clear cut assessment of western social interaction that I have heard on any Islamic site I have visited. And I agree with Dan that in my peer group this is clearly true as well. It is entirely true that western civilization is heavily marketed by capitalist enterprise using sex as a central theme in the promotion of products. It is clearly true that people absorb this message and early in life are very much captured by the messages promoted by this process. It is true that people often engage in sexual activity before marriage and it is true that health care issues surrounding sex are openly discussed and condoms are given out freely in schools and universities throughout the west.
Why? Because we are free to live our lives as we choose. And in that freedom you will find many a double edged sword. For instance one freedom that you have the RIGHT TO CHOOSE is the freedom to practice any religion that you wish. And in choosing your religion you have the right to practice it without intervention so long as your practice of it does not INFRINGE UPON THE RIGHTS OF OTHERS. That is what true FREEDOM is about.
When balancing the many difficult issues that arise in a truly free society one must accept that there is no perfect path to life. That of course is not what followers of Islam believe, but then that is true for Christians, and Jews, and Buddhist, and insert any other religion you like *HERE*.
When any one religion dominates a society it overrules the practices and customs of other religions and CONFLICT always ensues. Hence the nearly 3000 years of historical religous conflict mankind has suffered. In the last 300 years a state was formed which cast off these bonds. These United States came to understand that in accepting any one religion, conflict was inevitable. And so this country decided to level the playing field. And the very first rule it laid out was to prevent a government from adopting any one religion as its own.
Here is that rule:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
This single rule, this First Amendment, is the rule which allowed America to become what it is today. ALL THE GOOD AND ALL THE BAD are due to this rule. And what this rule does is to make each and every one of us EQUAL.
No one is above another. And that principle is at the heart of Western ideas, and our way of being.
There is no doubt that you have the right to choose your own private hell.
And there is no doubt that FREEDOM is a double edged sword which cuts both ways.
What matters however in the end is that no one can be subjected to a way of living that they reject simply because a majority believe in a version of GOD which would restrict thier rights as inviduals. On the other hand if they CHOOSE that path, that is thier right.
And that is the core of the problem. Islam offers a complete way of life, including how a country should be run, and how ALL its people should be treated. But America says, choose your own way, and harm no others as you do it.
And that one simple difference is why we have touched the stars in less than 300 years, and the Muslim world after 1500 years still struggles with its past, and takes from the advances made by modern western civilization.
Clearly there are risk in being free. But I would choose that freedom for everyone as opposed to the kinds of totaletarian societies which have dominated Islam controlled countries for 1500 years.
Dan, thankyou for your honesty.
And I wish you a healthy baby, ten fingers, ten toes, and a big smile.
Universist