If Islam Ruled the World
Posted by Kaleidoscope on October 18, 2006
Written by: Qatar Cat Copyright © 2006
We were sitting and talking one lazy afternoon in my house. My friend – pretty local girl, miles of lashes and heavy black shiny locks, lovely smile showing off her pearly whites, thick black kohl accentuating her already deep, beautiful brown eyes. Blue jeans, pink shirt, fancy beaded Moroccan flats. Abaya and headscarf thrown casually on the other sofa. Let’s call her Miriam.
‘Why are you so negative towards Islam, Cat?’ asks Miriam, absent-mindedly flipping through my husband’s FHM magazine. ‘You just don’t know how nice it is’.
‘Me? Negative?’ I am somewhat unprepared for this question. ‘No way. I am not negative at all. And I am pretty sure it’s very nice. Maybe I am a bit sceptical… It’s just – well, you know me, I am not a believer. I am just as skeptical towards Christianity, only it’s a bit closer to home, so I am kind of used to it. But the whole idea of believing in God – I guess you have to be brought up with it. My parents are both atheists, you know.’
‘Really? But that’s horrible! How can you not believe? How can THEY not believe? Your parents?’ A look of genuine surprise in her exotic eyes, fingers still turning pages.
‘I don’t know, it happens. Where I come from, some people are really religious. Some are not at all. I guess I fall into the latter.’
‘But… wouldn’t it be nice if everyone believed in God?’ she asks, almost pleading, almost naïve.
‘I don’t know, Miriam. I think it would be better if people were more tolerant to the beliefs of others.’
‘Yes of course… everyone should be tolerant. Islam is the religion of tolerance, you know.’
I didn’t have an answer to that, and so I rose to get some more water from the kitchen. I am a terrible host, and my house is totally devoid of any kind of treats to offer our rare guests. Miriam got hold of the remote and started zapping the channels, magazine still on her lap.
‘Tell me why you think Christianity is better than Islam’ she demands, transfixed on the presenter of some afternoon talk show.
‘I don’t think anything like that, silly.’ I put a glass of water in front of her and try to pull FHM from her hands. Impossible.
‘Let me! I don’t have anything like that at home! This is so funny!’
‘Yes I know it’s funny, I also suspect it’s totally haram (forbidden), so good Muslim girls shouldn’t!’
Miriam retaliates by smacking me on my thigh with the magazine. ‘Oh shut up, Cat.’ Giggles. ‘Stop being so damn sarcastic. Better look at this one’s ass.’
Few minutes and lots of giggling later we are done comparing models and she says: ‘Don’t you mind your husband looking at all these girls?’
‘Nope.’
‘Why?’
‘Why should I?’
‘Well, he has you, doesn’t he?’
‘Yes he does, but I am not a model.’
‘So what? He should adore you as you are.’
‘I am sure he does.’
‘And yet he looks at these girls? Why?’
‘They are very pretty. I like looking at them too. And obviously, so do you!’
Miriam slams the magazine shut, ‘I don’t!’
‘Well give it back then!’
‘No! I am not done yet!’ She opens the magazine again and changes the channel on the telly. ‘Look, look, Shakira! I love Shakira!’ MTV channel… just in time for the video. I love this Colombian chick too, especially her last song. So I watch the video and Miriam jumps up trying to copy Shakira’s moves. To my utter envy she actually manages pretty well. ‘See? Like that!’
To me, Miriam looks thousand times better than any model in FHM. And there, I have it! ‘You know why I don’t mind my husband having those magazines? These girls, they are not real. They are just paper and paint.’
‘Yeah yeah whatever. They are gorgeous! And so is Shakira!’ The dancing continues until the end of the video clip. She is so uninhibited, really, Miriam. I don’t think I would be able to just jump up like that in front of her and shake my stuff. I guess years of serious girl partying do make an impact.
She falls on the sofa next to me and grabs the water. ‘Still, I think it would be great if all people were Muslims.’
‘Why, Miriam?’
‘There would be no wars anymore.’
She has a really good point, I have to give her that. I think most conflicts are religion based. Yet, I am not convinced.
‘Miriam, can you imagine how much I will have to give up if everyone just converted to Islam?’
‘Like what? You would gain so much more!’
And she went on telling me about all the nice things that Islam would give people. Mostly it had to do with families being closer, women being more protected, and of course everyone eventually going to heaven. While she was at it, I made a small mental list of things that will be no more should proper Islam rule the world. Just off the top of my head:
- FHM magazines
- Shakira videos
- bacon sandwiches
- figure skating championships
- all other professional sports with female athletes
- women’s tennis (I love tennis, so it gets its own category)
- portraits and statues
- Christmas
- wine and wine bars
- prom dances
- beauty pageants
- dating
- Hollywood movies
- Gothic cathedrals and beautiful mass music
- seaside open air night clubs in Athens
- knock-out piña coladas
- Copacabana babes in bikinis
I could have gone on thinking and counting, but I chose not to. Instead, I told Miriam about some of the things that I would surely miss.She looks at me incredulously and laughs: ‘Yes, it’s hard to imagine you without your tennis.’ She finally puts the magazine down and looks at her diamond-studded watch. ‘Habibti, I have to get dressed. My sister will be here soon to pick me up.’ She stands up and wraps up in her abaya and headscarf. How come she looks gorgeous in this stuff? When I tried them on (of course I did, lol, I am a girl, we try things) I looked like a refugee nun from Albania. Miriam, on the other hand, looks like royalty. Her mobile starts wailing with some ear-splitting Arabic tune. That must be her sister, already in the compound coming to pick her up and go to some relatives’ house. Miriam kisses my cheeks and whispers in my ear as her sister stops her car in front of the house: ‘Don’t tell her about the magazine.’
This entry was posted on October 18, 2006 at 6:01 pm and is filed under Qatar Cat (Qatar). Tagged: fiction, non-fiction, Short Fiction, social. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
judy Abbott said
i can live without your list…
but if the whole world became muslem, i’ll miss the diversity..
i’ll miss the sins, temptations, analysis people.. and i will miss our social judges LOL
and there will no more posts like this
samaha said
If the whole world were Muslim we’d turn against each other. As it is we can’t stand each other.
Human nature is what causes conflict, not religion. We can take religion out of the mix and we’d still have wars.
tbrandon said
Samaha is correct. Wars are never really about religion, they are about power. If the whole world was muslim, then you would not have less wars – you may even have more wars.
You may think that is a funny remark, but think about it. Is it more or less difficult to fight with someone you know vs someone you don’t know?
Leaders of countries and leaders of religions with very few exceptions have a goal of consolidating power. While many religious leaders complain vociferoously about materialism, most of them live at levels far above the average person.
I can give you numerous examples of wars by and between muslim countries. To believe that these wars would not have occurred if the whole world was muslim is naive at best.
Even if you had an altruistic religious leader, eventually the leadership would change and people would fight for who was to be the next leader. The concept of power is far more of an aphrodisiac.
If I were God, which I am not, I would want people to voluntarily come to me out of their own choice, not becasue a mullah, a priect or my parents told me I should. THink about it, can you really trust someone who you force to love you?
The best way to live, for the whole world, is to have total freedom of religion, separate from government. At the end of your life, which is relatively short, you will find out if you were right or wrong.
People should be allowed to make their own choices, especially women, and I seriously doubt whther the protection of a husband or family that restricts everything you do and everything you own is something anyone should look forward to.
tantalize said
Cute story. If Islam ruled the world, it wouldn’t last very long. Just look at how Sunni and Shia Muslims have been slaughtering themselves for who knows how long. If they had more power, the overall religion would have less immunity. It’d be true chaos.
Qatar Cat said
You know, since I wrote that, I did realise that people always have something to argue about. Be it religion or anything else, argument is in our nature. I wouldn’t want anything to rule the world. That would be a lot like QTel monopoly in Qatar if you know what I mean. A concentration of power in one place was never good. Never, ever, there are no historical examples of successful absolute power. It always ends rather badly.
yus_kodinhi said
Qatar Cat closing eyes to drink milk!
He didnt know, there are millions living with true religion and enjoying life. why cat brought some stuff as so highly essential in life? Western moving towards to Islam, why dont think why they used to choose a true religion? check criminal rate against women in US. yup easy to classify slaughtering in Iraq na! who made such situation, divide and rule? and why only Iraq, why dont quote Ireland and Britton conflict? Irish-protestant xtians and British-catholic xtians. ignoring years of clash between these two sect? why u just like blind bat..?
Qatar Cat said
Yus_kodinhi,
I am sorry, what exactly are you trying to say? Other than calling me a blind bat, that is?
*Chuckles*.
Sever said
Cat, that’s sooooooooooo nice story.
Kisses for your cheeks.
She is a sweet silly girl your Miriam.
This story broght me to the time when I was changing channels, looking at Arab dictors & singers.
Still can’t forget how much I was surprised.
Trying to be like western people, imitate them, their dictors were like ****.
No more, no less.
After looking at this it becomes clear – why they think so bad of us.
I have a lot of thoughts about their TV.
Strange thing, very strange.
& also it remindes me of that silly situation.
Teasing me about my being non-muslim girl.
“Look, muslim girls are better”.
Hahah, it finishes with the noise of 2 closed doors.
This talk in the story… it’s interesting, I have a lot of things to say as usual.
But you know, talking to true Muslims… it’s in vain.
& I prefer simply to close my doors.
Oh, & Muslim girls… I know such sweet lovely alngels among them, that I can’t even try to say anything what is out of their fairy-tale about Islam: “how nice it will be when all people will be Muslims”.
cixousianpanic said
hmmmm… interesting
i’m not gonna comment on the religious aspects, but what i want to say is that you’re friend had no right to try and ‘convince’ you into changing your religious beliefs or try to show you the faults that exist in whatever dogma you follow… unless of course you were doing the same to her…
does it really matter what religion a person belongs to or what their political beliefs are? We’re all human beings and our identities are too vast and precious to be identified under a single banner. Any religion ruling the entire world is a bad idea..
cixousianpanic said
your* [typo]
Mystique said
QC,
Lovely post.
Now I have to say, the list you have created is nothing compared to what the reality would be if Islam ruled the world.
The title of the post alone is intriguing.
Cheers
AyyA said
LOL Q cat, that was so funny and smart:D
Theory: religion is not the cause of wars
Fact; the biggest percentage of wars in history were religious ones.
And don’t mind Miriam, she’s only been brainwashed since her infancy, just like others in her society. Haven’t you heard?
I am a Moslem, therefore I am perfect
Fhm Magazine Girls said
Dave
Interesting topic… I’m working in this industry myself and I don’t agree about this in 100%, but I added your page to my bookmarks and hope to see more interesting articles in the future
Gregorious said
“Theory: religion is not the cause of wars
Fact; the biggest percentage of wars in history were religious ones”
Theory is correct, humans are the cause of wars.
Fact is correct but not entirely, religion is in what wars have fought in the name of, obviously centuries ago when there were ‘crusades’ etc these wars were fought for power (which is the main reason for wars) and because some people saw other religions as a threat to their own religion.
Look at Constantine, he made his men change their sheilds and banners with a symbol of christianity before he moved in on Rome, Roma saw christianity as a threat and false religion.
Constantine made christianity spread across Europe, and it would no doubt not be the main religion if it were’nt for him!
One religion to rule all wouldn’t work as what was stated before, Sunni’s and Shia’s would fight and humans as a rule would need to have their thirst for blood quenched.
spiffy said
Thus it is wrong to say that “I am a Moslem, therefore I am perfect.” or even if the saying comes from a Christian, Buddhist, Jewish or other religions of the world. If you think your religion is much more superior that the other this is where the conflicts start. To know one another you must dig deep beyond the shell of the religions.
There are always conflict among their very own religions – Sunni and Syiah, Catholics and Methodist etc. Yes we shouldn’t see religion as a threat to another religion. I am a Moslem and I dont understand why. Why can’t they tolerate with each other and live in harmony?
There can be a lot of religions however there can never be one religion to rule the world. The world shouldn’t be rule by any religions but only by wise man.
And there can always be so many religions in the world and bear in mind we pray to only ONE God.
Just respect and tolerate each other.
bodicea said
Now, this is something good to read.
Well, on a lighter note, if there weren’t religion about, we’d have lesser things to bitch about.
boredom ensues.
trixie67 said
great story, cat. it’s not just about religion, it’s about having different types of friends. We each do things at each other’s houses we dont’ do at home, we see other lives in friend’s houses & then we feel safe to ask questions: questions you can’t ask strangers.
your friendship to miriam is indicative of friendships we all need to have, ones where we explore and question the world around us, until we discover we’re all human & we can all get along.
aussie cat
alexandra said
I am not at all prejudiced against Islam or any other belief or religion in this world. However this nasty mentality demonstrated by muslims that Islam and Islam alone is superior. Essentially, they believe they are superior, not realising that to be superior, u must have an inferior, and I, as well as anyone who reads this comment, is not an inferior. Regardless of what race or religion we maintain our beliefs through, when we remove the layers of opinionated religion, the values and lessons we learn are similar and the same. Religion, no matter how much history is recorded, religion today is a strong matter of opinion.
Yes the Muslims are proud to say that Islam is the fastes growing religion in the world. More peopel are converting, but ask your self this…who is converting? My friends let me give you an exampl…i am from Trinidad in the WI.
A few years ago, the Jamaat al Muslimeen planned a coup against the g’vnment here, consisting of the Imam himself as the leader,and 21 young men from the mosque. Research was done and all the young men from the coup attack were all muslim converts, and came from very troubled backgrounds, they were very rough and very fascinated with violence. About three years ago, as shown on the news around the world, two german men converted to islam, and then bombed a bank in southern berlin, a suicidal act,killing innocent people and even sadder…young children. My friends these are the people who are converting to islam,the people, who, if Islam were to become the largest, would rule the wrold with violence and shame.
We cannot let this happen. islam is a beautiful religion, with powerful prayers, as well as any other religion on this world, but unfortunately carries the untrue air of superiority and we msut fight this. DO NOT FIGHT ISLAM…FIGHT WHAT IT MAY BECOME.
I am fourteen years old, i am girl and i wrote this, with full responsibility for this message.
safely selfish said
This is real interesting; discussing religion in a personal and laid-back way.
Unfortunately, I don’t know enough about Islam to really get into it, but I don’t think there’d ever be one religion, whatever THAT religion may be.
The way I see it, we mold religion around our lifestyles and culture. I mean, all communities describe God by their surroundings, and according to your environment, you may be more inclined to see God as dwelling on majestic mountain peaks, or the mysterious depths of the seas, or Baobab trees and forests.
Whatever.
And, even further, comes in our willing to sacrifice. Some are extremists, others laid-back to a fault and the in-betweens. Diversity rules(^_^)!!