Jersey star .. interesting observation ...
What we have to consider is how do the Muslims around the world with their diffirent levels of conservatism stand with each other .... e.g. Muslims in Turkey drink beer & whisky compared to Muslims in Saudi Arabia ....
and just how "dedicated" would these individuals be once out of their countries?
Hi FGL, you'd actually be surprised how cohesive the majority of the Muslim world outside of Singapore is. When I say muslim world here I'm not really referring to the governments of Muslim countries since we know many are where they are because of American and British foreign policy in the past 100 years. What I'm actually referring to the is the sentiment of the general population of Muslims in most Muslim countries.
Just across the border there actually is an Islamic University that is sponsored by the OIC, and Muslim students the world over flock to this university and they bring with them not just their culture and food but also their feelings and opinions of others in their country as well. I had extensive interaction with many such fellow muslims thanks in part to my research I was conducting and that university's students was the perfect sample for my thesis.
Anyway, I've met so many muslims from all over the muslim world Saudi, Yemen, Somalia, Nigeria to even China and I'm not talking about Xian province but Beijing, Hainan etc. The general sentiment predominantly abound is that the solidarity is there, stronger than it has ever been in the past 100 years thanks in part to Bush's war on Afghanistan and Iraq and the 1.2 million deaths from Iraq alone. Initially the tone of muslims when dealing with accusations and antagonism from the west is to try to explain or appease or what some might call being apologetic but as the years passed, you could sense that the tone/vibe changing to what I described in my earlier post.
With regards to your question about how they would be once outside of their country? Well there are black sheep of course from every country but as a whole those who indulge all these things when they are out of their country is a minuscule fraction of of those who observe their religion. The thing is when you see an entire street of Arabs partying and indulging in the haram you can't fail to think that they are all like that but anyone would fail to notice that for every one of the hundred or so you see out there, you don't see the thousands who avoid such places.
Let me give you an example, Singapore recently tried to attract Arab students to study in Singapore. This was in the news a couple of months back. Personally I think this would fail and the only Arabs you see coming here are those who want to drink alcohol, who want to fornicate and all the other vices in other words the small minority. The thing here is if this is the only Arabs that you see here in Singapore, drinking our wine, screwing our women, you'd probably think they are all like that too.
In truth, most Arabs would probably blacklist Singapore for one main reason and that is they cannot pray as easily here as they can in Malaysia. In Malaysia, every shopping centre, office building etc would have a small prayer room so Muslims can practise their religion here as easily there but here, there is not and the only places they can pray is at the Masjid and these are not exactly everywhere. When it comes to prayer the Arabs do not miss it like Muslims here do. You know in Tan Tock Seng hospital there is a prayer room on the top floor wards which are only meant for the Arab patients who go to Johns Hopkins. Can you imagine the hospital allowing a prayer room only for them and not for local muslims in the other wards? It is because they see their daily prayers as the single most important thing and so long as they can't practise their religion here as easily, they're not going to come here and the only ones who do come here are those who do not pray and these aren't exactly the good ones.
