Is there religious freedom in the middle east?

Question

Are you forced to worship allah, and do you want out of the muslim religion if you could? what would be the punishment, if any, if i visited your country and chose not to wear the clothes a female muslim must wear? and what would be the punishment if i prayed to God (christian) openly? and one more question, are you as a Female muslim, happy with the way your treated in your religion? thx!

Answer 1

You are Muslim or beheaded, simple as that. If you did not wear clothes a female Muslim would wear then depending on where you are you would probably be beaten. If you are a shiite and a sunni has a gun, you are dead, unless you kill him first.
I'm a male christian, and yes I know these things for a fact. My cousin is in Iraq.

Answer 2

There is no religious freedom in any of the countries of the middle east. If u r nto a muslim, u r not forced to worship allah. u r not forced to wear the gown, but wearing clothes showing your body can be an offence. you cannot pray to God opnenly. u can do so at home. Female muslims are not expected to express their thoughts at all. And, punishments can be severe. Be careful.

Answer 3

There has always been religious freedom in the middle east.
Actually many Jewish people lived there in peace when Europe started the religious prohibitions.
Not only religious people, but also many ethnicities tend to live in relative peace, even segregated by their own will.

Even Iran has a Jewish community.

As I know, you could not wear the "Muslim clothes", but actually some countries encourage this, even to non-Muslims, so in Rome do what Romans do.
You could pray to God, there are many churches of many Christian denominations, even some of the first denominations that were later banned by the catholic church.

Islam is not a unique entity, they have several denomination like Christianity. Even when the catholic church is pretty civilized this days, some churches in Africa, or weird churches around the world still practice hideous rituals.

Most of the things you see on TV about the middle east has more to do with the political leaders than the religion itself.

Answer 4

I lived over there and there is religious freedom as long as you are a Muslim. There is a mosque on every corner but no churches or temples. You can pray in private but I wouldn't want to be caught reading the Bible in public. I am speaking mainly of Kuwait. Saudi Arabia is even more strict.
As to the women wearing the Abbye (can't spell it so that is how sounds phonetically. They have all the latest A-list name stores and I asked a Muslim man one time why if they where the black or gray outer wear...it is simple. At home,in front of her husband she can wear modern clothes if she wishes. You can walk around Kuwait city and see women wearing just about any style of clothing...especially western women, but wearing shorts above the knee is definitely some where you don't want to go sartorially speaking.

There was religious freedom on the military bases of course, but that was about it.

Answer 5

No, NO , and NOO there is no freedom of religion in the Middle East for any religions.

The Muslims must abide by the rules of Islam, and if they don't they get punished. In Ramadan, whether you want to fast or not, in public you must appear as if you were. In private they can drink,eat and be merry all they want. In the time of prayer, they better be in the mosque, or home out of sight. If one is caught eating or even chewing gum during Ramadan, they are lashed 70 lashes, and put in prison for the end of the fasting month.
And the Christians they live and ruled by their religions, like or not that is how they live.
In Saudi Arabia, no one other than Muslims can practice their religion, in private or public, so all non Muslims had to do it in private, in hiding, for all other religions than Islam, because it actually is a crime to practice other because if they get caught, they will be imprisoned and lashed, and sometimes deported out of the country. Few years ago, six people were caught in Mecca, they were hanged for blasphmey. Their presence in that town was Blasphmey to them.
Muslims are not permitted to convert to other religions. If they do just what happened in Pakistan few months ago, that man was almost put to death for his change of faith.

Christians and Muslims in the Middle east call God Allah, the problem is between their belief in Jesus and Muhammad is the major point.
Muslims can NOT leave Islam. Punishment is death. They give the person a chance to go back to Islam, if they refuse, they kill him, or they make their life a living h e l l.
The clothing, depends on the country, not all of them force you to cover up.
Again, it depend on the country if you can pray in public or not.
IHappy! it use to be much better. lately it is getting worse and worse. More and more Christian chose to leave because they are not happy in their own country. Lebanon was 80% Christians down to 22%, they were either killed in the war or moved away. Jordan, down to less than 2 %, Egypt down to less than 8 %, some were forced to convert and many others just moved out. Saudi, 100% Muslims, because if you are not Muslims, you are not a citizen, etc.

Answer 6

in islam women are expected to dress modestly,if you are a visitor its your choice wear what ever you like its only adviced to dress like the common women because its protects you from the preying eyes of perverts.middle east is where islam first originated many centuries ago so most of the population is made of muslims however not all are converts of islam and also not all follow islam down to the last word.christian have churches to worship in and are treated the same as a muslim citizen.women in islam are treated respectively so much of the way women are treated isnt really concerned with religion but culture if you can seperate the two.in religion women have freedom of choice to,work ..........etc

Answer 7

In my country Lebanon ... It is estimated that about 40% are Christians, 30% are Shia Muslims, 25% are Sunni Muslims and 5% are Druze .
In Lebanon , you can choose whatever religion you want , wear whatever you want ... You are totally free ....
There are other country that are also tolerant (Jordan , Egypt ...) .
But in the rest of the middle east , there is no Religious Freedom .

Answer 8

The Middle East does have freedom of religion to some extent...although it is mostly Muslim. But...it has been an Islamic region for centuries. I'm sure you would be looked down upon for being Christian. Maybe pitied by some, hated by others. Killed by extremeists possible. Almost all Muslim women are happy with the treatment their religion gives them because that is their belief. They feel they are doing good and concentrate on the future.

Answer 9

Islam, Christianity and Judaism only.

Alex,
Lebanon is a Muslim country!! with 22% christian population.

yes women in the Mideast are happy with their religion.
there's no punishment if you wanna worship the God/Allah.
christian Arabs call him Allah in the Arabic Bible.
you dont need to cover your hair either. many Arab women dont cover their hair and believe it or not some wear bikinis too!! WOW!! surprise isn't.
NOT all Muslims in the middle east are conservative Muslims.
some are not even practicing Muslims,( drink, do drugs, have sex) but believe in god for some reason.
the middle east is not how you picture it. you wanna know about them try to search other stuff than stoning women in Iran OK?
the ONLY country where you MUST cover your hair and dress in a certain way is Saudi Arabia.
there's no churches in Saudi Arabia, you are not allowed to enter certain cities ( Maccah, Madinah ) as a christian.

the Wahhabi regime of Saudi Arabia DOES NOT represent Islam.
peace.

Answer 10

Hey Nikki, Did you know there was no freedom of religion in the United States of America until the "Freedom if Religion Act" was enacted here in 1967?

My Native American ancestors had a ceremony that really freaked out the Christian population and we were killed if found doing it. I guess the Ghost Dance seemed scarier to them than changing wine into blood, bread into flesh and eating it. (Go figure.) Just thought I would pass that on to you.