[Sephiroth]

Originally Posted by Hugh

Have you discussed this matter with any of your Muslim friends or neighbours, to see what they think about it?

As it happens, yes.

In every case, they were taken aback in varying degrees that I'd broached the subject with them. I approached it from the Madrasas aspect and the high take-up of Islam among the children and whether they thought there would ever be a point where there would be more Muslims than ethnic British. My friends were ambivalent on that point, perhaps sensing somewhere that they wouldn't want to conversation to go. Some turned the question on its head and asked me what I thought; so I told them. I got answers ranging from a sort of "nah", through possibly not to another question: would I fear if that happened? I told them, obviously yes and I was stunned, sort of, when they asked my why? Incompatible cultures, I replied. Some of them then tested me on why I thought the cultures to be incompatible; when I cited parts of the Koran translation that I have, I was challenged as whether or not the translation had been provided by a Scholar, the only people validated to do that because of their deep understanding of the meaning behind the Arabic written in the original scripture. I couldn't answer that, but essentially they (the some who got this far into the discussion) were testing me to see how deep they would need to go. One offered me English language books on the subject of Islam versus Christianity. When I asked whether for Christianity I could substitute Judaism, I got what I judged to be a reluctant yes.

My take-away from this is the British Muslims won't commit to the validity of my fears because they've kept their answers vague. Apart from one close friend, nobody could indicate that my fears were wild fancy; of course none said that I should be practising my facing east.

How about you?