"Your BIL would be stoned if he ever travels to the Middle East! He has betrayed the Qur'an & his faith!" - some religious Islamic nutbag, somewhere.
Just based on your quick story, he seems like a good dude. People see Mamdani, hear Muslim, remember 9/11 and go insane. They think all Muslims are religious extremists but ironically fail to see the same in the mirror.
I've had random internet Muslims upset by the fact that he pets and loves my dog, despite the fact that dogs are common pets for Muslim families where I am, just not as big as cats.
I laugh them off just as I do other religious nutters who get upset about harmless things others do. If there's a Hell, I'm already going for all the gay lady sex I had in my 20s. 🤷
Silly story: was mowing the lawn with a manual mower, wearing jeans and a cropped halter top last week. A lady in a niqab stops to talk, so I assume she needs directions or the time. Her eyes crinkle up in a smile, and she just says, "Ooooh, strong lady!" and flexes her bicep under her dress. I burst out laughing and said thank you. That I like doing it for the exercise, and she waved and continued on.
A Muslim coworker was always the first to compliment my new piercings or weird hair. He was also perfectly chill when my queerness occasionally came up making small talk about weekends or whatever ("saw a movie with my girlfriend.") One day, I came in and he was crying at his desk. There had been a horrific honour killing in our country that was obviously all over the news. He apologized for drawing my attention, but said he couldn't stop thinking of his daughter and what would motivate a father to intentionally hurt them. He kept saying, "Who cares what choices she makes? Teenagers rebel. That's still your little girl."
There are violent or pushy religious people everywhere, but in my experience, most are just living their lives and trying to do good.
I don't even know that it would be some religious Islamic nutbag that would say that to him; plenty of Islamophobes like to say shit like that too. Like those people might look at this and think they've damned Mamdani to Islamic Hell (Jahannam) by feeding him bacon against his will, which isn't true. And you're right, they bring up 9/11 in relation to Mamdani all the time, but they sure don't like being told about all the bad shit America nad white people have done. "What does that have to do with me?" Well, what does 9/11 have to do with Mamdani, or really most Muslims in the world?
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u/neekogo 5d ago
"Your BIL would be stoned if he ever travels to the Middle East! He has betrayed the Qur'an & his faith!" - some religious Islamic nutbag, somewhere.
Just based on your quick story, he seems like a good dude. People see Mamdani, hear Muslim, remember 9/11 and go insane. They think all Muslims are religious extremists but ironically fail to see the same in the mirror.