Racism with or without Religion

Curious as I am, I asked an Egyptian on Skype today whether he is a sunni or shia Muslim. I wondered which group most Egyptians belong to.

I didn't get an answer to that. I got this question;

"Do you like Muslims? Or no?"

I explained that there are Muslims who are nice and Muslims who are not nice. Just as there are Christians who are nice and Christians who are not nice. The questions continued with whether all Norwegians are good and I was told "never".

Now this is a nice guy. We don't understand each other half of the time but he says he's trying. It wasn't a "you all hate Muslims and think we're all evil" kind of reply, it was just a simple question he asked me. But it did make me think a little.

Has the Muslim become the new Black Man? Is asking questions about Islam the same as asking about the colour of your skin? Has racism evolved into religionism?

You can't talk about race, or colour or culture as I might do as I don't consider race a useful term, without being perceived as a racist. I never thought of it as a bad thing to think about somebody's skin colour, simply because that's what it is - the colour of your skin. You can be black or brown or yellow, a delicious chocolate bronze, or pinkish white like me in winter. But then there's "black/brown - different culture / Africa /African-American". If your skin has a different colour, does that mean you are different from me?

I'm all for stopping racism in any way possible. I find the whole idea of racism in itself as ridiculous as Hitler's ideas were. But that doesn't make the problem less real. I've just started to question how careful we really need to be, if I treat a black person different because they're black (I don't know what the politically correct term is these days so I'll just use black), and act real respectful because they might have a different culture even if they grew up next door from me, wouldn't that be racism in a way? Acting in a way that is based on your colour or race?


The reason I'm even digging out the topic is that it's the same with Islam these days. When race became a no-no, did we need another way to separate 'them' from 'us' and religion just seemed the obvious choice?

If you as much as mention it the other person gets defensive. I guess as a Muslim today you hear so much bad you get used to defending yourself and your religion. Explaining that you're not bad just because some psychos go around blowing themselves up. That must get quite annoying after a while. But does that mean we need to tip toe around Muslims and Islam as we might do around race related issues? Of course nobody would do that today when it's all out there and in our face every day. What about in 40 year? Will religion be something we keep quiet about so we won't offend anyone?

When did religion stop being something you're proud of and turn into something you have to defend? Is it like this with all religions these days? There are so many of us who don't have a religion. We start thinking and realize we have too few answers to make up our minds. But many have found their answers. Or never asked the questions. And they have their religion. I've defended my own views countless times, be it in discussions with Christians or Muslims.

A while ago I had a discussion with a guy who didn't believe in religion. But he believed in God and was almost - but not quite - a Christian. He said he was open minded and thought everyone should believe in what they wanted. After half an hour it became painfully clear he wasn't too serious about that. His last line before we ended the conversation stands out in my mind as how most people think these days: Islam isn't the only problem, of course not, it's some people who make it bad. They believe in God too, they are allowed to do that, to believe in what they want. They are people people like we are.

But then again...

"At least I don't commit suicide and kill people.
I'm not a Muslim."