A serious question for Muslims?

Question

How do you think of yourself? A citizen of UK, Australia, US, whatever, who happens to be a Muslim..OR...A Muslim, member of the Umma, who happens to reside in UK, Aust., US?

My question was one of emphasis. Which is more important to your sense of identity. I often hear that Muslims have no loyalty to the countries in which they live, only to the umma, so I thought I'd go to the source instead of just going by what I read.

Answer 1

From some of the replies, it is obvious the muslim community holds loyalty to the host country as secondary to loyalty to their religion.
It does not seem to matter if they are born in Europe or America, religion come first.
As their 'brothers' reside mainly outside these two continents, we can assume so too does their true loyalty.
In Ireland, where I come from, Catholics say they take their religion from Rome, but their loyalty is to their country. I trust this sheds a little light on the above statement.

Answer 2

Interesting thought. What happens if say Britain declares war on the US (not before time you might say :-) ). You could find a UKmoslem fighting a US moslem. Would they all require separate identification so they didn't fight each other or would they accept that their country comes first?

If their religion comes first, they should be court martialled and shot at dawn (after the regulation bottle of whisky!).

Loyalty requires that the primary emphasis is on the country that paid for your upbringing and protected you through your childhood. NOT on some mythical godlet who delights in genocide and mayhem.


BtW, what's this Umma? Is it something to do with Pink Floyd's UmmaGumma by any chance :-) ?
In other words, why can't the moslems remember that they don't live an Arab countries now and speak the language we all understand. It's something the Jews are guilty of as well and the reason seems to be simply to prevent non moslems/Jews from understanding what's being talked about so the moslems can then turn around and tell the kaffir to study islam. Perhaps they're unaware that most of us have far more important things to do.

Answer 3

You know when apply for a job, at the end of the form there's the section called Ethnicity monitoring (or something like that.) I never fill in that part as I can not easily explain my identity with the ticking of boxes. I am a Muslim, I am also British, so I usually refer to myself as a British Muslim when I need to refer to both my citizenship and religion. I am also of Pakistani decent, with some English blood running through my veins. So what label is applicable? We now live in the global village where people need only sit on a plane for a fer hours to travel across the globe. The fact is that there is now a multitude of creeds everywhere. Some people need to get used to that. As they say 'there will always be an England,' but not as we know it.

My loyalty will always lie with those who are just and honourable. If I had no loyalty for the UK why would I bother trying to make this a better place for all of us?

Answer 4

I am an American born Muslim proud of being both an American and a follower of Islam. If there are some Muslims that say this nonsense, then they should be ashamed because the things America and other Western countries have won't be found in Arab and Muslim countries. Muslims that live in America that say they do not appreciate their land should be embarassed and very rude to say. But, those Muslims that say they like their country, they are true Muslims. Muslims should be both loyal to their religion, Umma and the country they live in regardless if it is Muslim or Non-Muslim

Answer 5

Nationality and Religion are 2 different things. Ok, someone may confuce Race with Religion/Community. But obviously, Nationality can never be confused with Religion, Community, Race or any other thing.

You can say, mostly Muslims consider themselves as Muslim Citizens of USA, UK, Australia, etc.

Answer 6

I'm a Muslim and a citizen of the grate United Arab Emirates

Answer 7

The real question would be based on Norman Tebbit's question.
i.e. Would you pass 'The Cricket' test ?
My guess is that they could not or would not pass this simple test.

Witness the Pakistani reactions to that Pakistan born cricketer who was playing for England in one of the test matches.
They were shouting 'traitor'.

Answer 8

I can answer that I read the article. They are muslim first and formost. Then they say I live in the USA or UK
It went on to say "that is where I live not what I am."

Answer 9

I am Muslim before anything else. Before American, before Indian heritage, before sunni or whatever things you want to give.

We all identify us that way. That doesn't mean we don't have pride in our respective country (I'm a proud Muslim American), but it doesn mean we recognize 1.5 billion people as our brothers and sisters.

Answer 10

Nice way all the muslims stepped around the question! I assume this means they are muslim first and british, american, canadian, australian last behind most other things. Perhaps its time some of them who feel this way went home