[quote="Grant"]Lion,
I am a kaafir, for crying out loud! There are a good number of others on this forum, and I have never said otherwise.
While we are on the subject, the current state of religious affairs among Somalis is absolutely beyond me.
I saw 3 bourkas my entire time in the country. It was a class thing. The women wore them to visit each other, but never to the market. I never saw a hijab. Women covered the tops of their hair with scarves, and the ends stuck out. After they had sex with their husbands, women washed their hair and let it dry in the sun in some of the biggest afros I have ever seen. In Jilib, you could see them regularly, on main street.
I knew Somali Christians, Somali Bahais and was aware of two Christian missions, a Christian Leprosarium and a Bahai mission. My Somali friends were about half believiing and non believing. I know for a fact that none prayed five times a day and I don't believe any was all that practicing. Jilib had a small mosque and a tiny duqsi, but only a very small percentage of the population was directly involved.
At the same time, I never heard of an athiest.
The war and forty years has clearly brought about some changes. I am surprised rather than complaining, but you are not the folks I once knew.
Michael,
I am a dyed in the wool democrat, small "d". Denying a man the right to speak is against everything I believe most strongly in. I say it is equivalent.
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Galol may be an abrasive SOB, but he is still a Somali and the last time I checked this was still called Somalinet, not Islamnet. I would hope that we could all agree to a set of rules that would allow him to be included.[/quote]
Grant.
Burqa is an Arab cultural thing, not a true Islamic thing. Nowhere in the Q'uran does it mention Burqa. Or even hijaab for that matter. It merely states women's hair (this ISN'T an exact quote, BTW) should be covered. Those hieous black burqa's are an Arab invention. But I have a question, out of curiosity. How did you know that the women just had sex with their husbands ??
Lion is also right, in that what I know of present day Somalia differs greatly from your account.
I too, am a Liberal, and though I may not agree with what you say, I will defend to the death your right to say it. Except in the case of blaspheme. Which is what dude's avatar is. As for Galol, his threads are more designed to engineer and incite inflamed debate, as opposed to blaspheme. It's his dripping-with-sarcasm technique that pisses people off. But I for one enjoy reading his threads, sarcasm aside, and wouldn't wanna see him banned.