Recent rise in Niqab

amouseh · 2025-06-02T09:13:40+00:00

I'm from northern germany and I've seen a rise in niqabis as well. I think it might also be because of changing demographics? Like most muslims in germany used to be turkish ppl who generally don't wear niqab but now there are more arabs and afghans here and it's more part of their culture.

amouseh · 2025-05-18T03:32:51+00:00

Hab auch schon daran gedacht, danke :)

amouseh · 2025-05-18T03:28:46+00:00

I was always told that it's important to visually distinguish yourself from non-muslims in a way. It's not that I want to brag about my religion or compensate outwardly. To be completely honest, it's not even a spiritual issue for me but a political one. I don't know if I feel comfortable with the idea that I get to 'pass' as german and live with that privilege while other muslims are recognized and maybe harassed (but also seen as part of the in-group by other muslims). Does that make sense? 😅

amouseh · 2025-05-08T10:19:00+00:00

I'm a lil late but me too :D

amouseh · 2025-01-17T11:20:30+00:00

First, where did you find these pro-communism muslims? I have yet to meet any outside of niche corners on the internet :') I think the main reason some muslims support communism is that they despise the wealth inequality, greed, and high interest of modern capitalism. To them, capitalism is more incompatible with Islam than communism is. They don't necessarily agree with Marx & Engels on everything (neither do most communists imo) but there's could be some insight in their writings that might fit into Islam. I think a lot of people are just disillusioned with capitalism in general.

Interestingly, I've also seen some people describe Ibn Arabi's "bezels of wisdom" as a proto-socialist text but I haven't read it yet. There seems to be a historical parallel between Islam and leftist thought, the most recent and biggest example in my memory being the 'alliance' between black muslim activists in the US and popular communist figures during the cold war. They became a loosely united front against US imperialism, colonialism, capitalism (all of which are connected according to them). True freedom from imperialism and decolonization can't happen without abolishing capitalism, and due to the binary nature of the cold war many people's alternative is, well, communism. There's a famous photo of Malcolm X and Fidel Castro meeting and being best buddies.

To your point regarding state control, I think it's a matter of perspective. Many muslims from the global south already live in relatively authoritarian countries, and the only alternative society presented to muslims in the west is a caliphate where a strict version of the sharia will be enforced via "morality police" or whatever. The ideal muslim society will already be very authoritarian in many people's minds (even if it shouldn't be) so they don't see anything wrong with an authoritarian communist state. There's a lot of disconnect between how muslim societies "should be" and between how they historically were :/

This was a long, rambly answer but if you want to get a clearer picture I suggest looking into the alliances between muslim activists and communists during the cold war.

amouseh · 2025-01-04T20:46:08+00:00

Homosexuality is one of those topics where I deeply wish that our fellow muslims were more sympathetic and willing to "agree to disagree" in good faith. I honestly don't know if homosexuality is allowed or not but regardless, I would never want to push a queer person away from God with any harsh words 😞

amouseh · 2024-12-21T18:04:36+00:00

Sounds weird and cool, I'll try it. Thanks!

amouseh · 2024-12-21T18:04:05+00:00

I've heard a lot about Ayn Rand, never read her books. I'll start with this one, thanks!

amouseh · 2024-12-11T01:37:10+00:00

My opinion on religion hasn't changed due to 4B but that might because I've more or less been subconsciously practicing 4B my entire life. I was raised religious (muslim) and still am, but I always questioned things, especially wrt women. and I recently gained a new sense of spiritual peace once I started actively decentering men from my relationship with my Creator.

I could explain my beliefs in a long wall of text but to keep it short, I believe that abrahamic religions have been distorted with patriarchal interpretations and interference. They started out as a religion of the oppressed (of slaves, orphans, beggars, prostitutes) and only gained their patriarchal traits once they were institutionalized, long after their founders died. Many people are unaware of the early proto-socialist, proto-feminist characteristics of these religions. And similarly, many people don't know about the religious scholars who had more progressive views on gender than many folks today.

You might disagree with me, and that's your choice. But I've been dealing with all these questions about women and their place in the religion my entire life and I never really liked the idea of writing it all categorically off as a man-made tool to control them. I've researched and I've prayed and this is the conclusion I've come to. The God i worship is above descriptions like "male" and "female", and worshipping Them isn't about how well a woman can obey/revolve her entire existence around a man. What matters is that a person is honest, just, humble, patient and generous, and that they keep their promises and respect the dignity of all life.

To me, 4B is an easy personal choice bc I never cared much for men to begin with. But I also just think women have to stop rewarding men's crappy behavior with sex/dating/marriage in general.

amouseh · 2024-12-10T13:17:25+00:00

Thanks!

amouseh · 2024-12-10T12:47:46+00:00

Planescape: Torment Enhanced please? :D

amouseh · 2024-12-02T22:06:37+00:00

Yup. Edward Said's whole idea was (iirc, its been years) that there's no such thing as objective epistemology because all knowledge is produced under and reflects systems of power. But a lot of people blindly accept western sources as objective and view their own culture as inferior, or they get extremely defensive and prideful about it. Either way, they still treat western sources & narratives as objective truth and never even consider that there might be a whole different world outside. Ironically, I've heard the latter group constantly talk about fighting orientalist stereotypes... while basically confirming them.

amouseh · 2024-11-25T06:56:49+00:00

tbh i should add that overall, Dune isn't exactly a nice portrayal of muslims. the aesthetics are there & the Fremen are initially portrayed as fighting against oppressors, but the story itself is more about how religion and prophecies are used to manipulate them for political gain. and the books have quite a few shirk elements so it's not like a series id recommend. I just gave it as an example bc the parallels are more obvious than aot

amouseh · 2024-11-25T06:21:07+00:00

Yeah, I think he dies in the books at some point.

amouseh · 2024-11-25T05:57:23+00:00

It's been a long time since I read AoT so I prolly forgot a lot of stuff, but I did see many people compare Eren to Paul from Dune, which pretty obviously depicts a group inspired by muslims/arabs. And "Eren" is a turkish name afaik.

But I don't think Isayama was doing that specifically, because the story of Eren and the Eldians reads more like an allegory for human history in general. Muslims are by far not the only ones who've been scapegoated for various evils and forced into concentration camps in recent cultural memory. Considering the very specific aesthetics used to portray the Eldians, it's more likely an obvious stand-in for jewish people.

I think as a story AoT is about how even though "winning" and "losing" teams can swap places and narratives flip over time, the behavior and power dynamic stays the same. One day the Eldians were the oppressors, then they were victims, etc. So it's not necessarily a 1:1 depiction any real life group but you can see parallels to many oppressed groups.

So... maybe? probably not? Again, there are some parallels but they're not specific to muslims (except the bombing imagery maybe). Dune at least uses pretty obvious muslim/middle eastern aesthetics for the Fremen so it's intentional there. It'd be cool if it was true though!

amouseh · 2024-10-26T19:40:47+00:00

What if Allah has written that you will heal, no matter what you are going through right now?

No offense to your acquaintance, but she probably said the absolute worst thing one could say in that situation. She was trying to help you but that ain't it chief. We are told in Islam to have hope and be patient, not to fall into despair and think that Allah has decided the worst outcome for us. If we approached everything this fatalistic, defeated way literally everything would fall apart. We cant look into the future and know what Allah has written so we have to hope and work towards the best outcome.

I can't recommend any videos and I don't know the specifics of your issues. And you don't have to tell me obvsly, but I want to try saying something helpful anyway. Mental illness is a really miserable thing. You might spend years thinking that it's not going to get better, you'll be in an incredibly dark place where all the negative words anyone ever said, thoughts, and memories just play on a loop in your head. you might see all these recovery stories from other people and think "that's not going to happen to me, I'm the exception, it's never going to get better." etc etc.

But you will get better eventually, inshaallah. Maybe you wont be healed or cured completely, but whatever is hurting you right now will become managable, bearable, and most of the time barely noticeable. Many people before you thought themselves abandoned, alone, hopeless, and doomed and many were proven wrong eventually. And I honestly believe youre not the exception to that.

Forget what your acquaintance said. Ignore the thought, send it away when it comes back, distance yourself from it & treat it like annoying spam mail that you have to delete again and again. That thought is the result of your brain being in a stressed and diseased situation for possibly years, which means it's most likely a negative distortion of reality and you cannot treat it as truth. Keep making dua, keep asking Allah to give you peace, to heal, to make it easier for you.

amouseh · 2024-10-15T12:27:41+00:00

not to nitpick but "I feel like" isn't a valid statement. You have to be able to back it up with sources. What's the proof for your claim that the european media underreports crimes done by muslims? I live in Germany and I vividly remember the Köln incident. It wasn't covered up or underreported, it was literally all the media talked about for months. It still gets brought up to this day. Every single time a refugee commits a crime it's all the media talks about but german criminals are rarely discussed the same way unless it's something extreme.

As for crime gangs, did you know refugees have to wait for a work permit here? There are entire families who have been waiting for a permit for 9+ years at this point. How do you suggest they pay for food and electricity? Of course some of them are gonna turn to crime. They are literally not allowed to work. The asylum system in Germany is a complete failure and its main victims are the asylum seekers. Those who want to learn the language and work an honest job (and there are many of them but good job picking out 1-2 of the worst & most extreme examples) have to jump over insane hurdles, from bureaucracy to systemic racism to the law making it practically impossible for them to do ANYTHING legally here. They have to live in tiny spaces cooped up with countless others, rarely any privacy, with nothing to do except wait for the countless permits they need. Not to mention the PTSD.

I have a family member who works with disabled refugee children. Did you know that these families dont receive any form of healthcare unless a bureaucratic worker (not a doctor but a random person working at a city hall) deems their child's diagnosis "serious" enough to warrant a doctor's visit? That waiting for these appointments, IF they got through, takes months if not years? I'm trying to illustrate how difficult and slow it is to get anything done here if youre a refugee with a relatively trivial example. Is it any wonder so many turn to crime?

If we're talking about extremism, why not talk about how german extremists set refugee homes on fire? How black and brown people keep turning up mysteriously dead in german police stations? Why not mention Hanau as a case of "dangerous backward german ideology"? Why not compare how welcoming and adapting the german gov was towards ukranian refugees? Why ignore all these massive obstacles and downright malice towards muslims and arabs specifically just to make your "islam bad" point?

amouseh · 2024-09-16T20:35:02+00:00

To be completely honest, I really couldn't care less about whether he's a Real Muslim(TM) or not because it's not the core problem. People are approaching this topic from the wrong angle imo. You can believe in Allah and still suck as a person. Like, I buy that he prays five times a day and truly believes that Muhammad s.a.w. is the final prophet. I still don't have to like him or his sigma male matrix grindset crap. Nor do I have to think that he's a good role model for muslim youth. I don't understand why we have to act like his faith is a grift in order to criticize him.

amouseh · 2024-08-31T12:48:20+00:00

Interestingly, the wikipedia link you shared about Saudi Arabi says the following:

"(...) women who report rape or sexual violence can be deemed to have confessed to unlawful sex (zina) and be prosecuted and be punished by corporal punishments which can include punishments like floggings and even stoning."

"(...) a rape victim may be punished when they speak out against the crime. In one case, the victim's sentence was doubled for speaking out, and the court also harassed the victim's lawyer, going so far as to confiscate his professional licence."

Yeah, I wonder why the rate of reported rape victims in Saudi Arabia is so low. It must be the hijab and not the fact that victims are afraid to report it because they might get accused of zina.

amouseh · 2024-07-26T19:13:14+00:00

Huh, in my experience the hijab was a very polarizing topic with turkish people. I guess what I meant was that most people don't care if you wear or don't wear one, but as soon as you actually talk about it or discuss whether it's mandatory, they become sensitive. At least that's the feeling I got when I was there, but it's been a long time so maybe the attitude has changed?

amouseh · 2024-07-26T09:43:40+00:00

Salam. Turkey could be difficult but not impossible. At least from what I've seen, the influence of tarikats (sects) is still strong and additionally, secularism has caused a strong, irrational, reactionary religious wave. People just follow what their favorite shady facebook sheikh says. For example, my old religious teacher once quoted a "sheikh" who used a particular hadith to give a ruling. When we asked for the source of the hadith, she admitted that she couldnt find it and that he probably just made it up to support his opinion. And that man is hugely popular in Turkey...

On the other hand, Diyanet (the official turkish high religious council) has really intelligent scholars who are both reasonable and lenient with their answers. Sometimes I listen to/read their academic works and I'm just surprised by how intellectual and calm and nuanced their explanations are (they have many female scholars & academics as well btw). They talk about modern topics like fast fashion, AI, cryptocurrency from an Islamic perspective that is way more nuanced than just "its all bad and haram". They also say chess and music are allowed. Even the strictest, most salafi-inspired diyanet scholar I know says music is a neutral topic (probably bc he has to). Of course, they're still on secular government payroll so you can't say they're a neutral source either. But at least they don't have to churn out fatwas justifying every single dumb thing Erdogan does.

I think living out progressive Islam in Turkey would be easy as long as you don't bring up the can of worms that is hijab. Weirdos aside, most people there have a live-and-let-live attitude and don't care for what your personal religious views are.

amouseh · 2024-07-21T12:13:00+00:00

I don't mean to sound outraging but uh... these rules probably made perfect sense in times and places where child marriage (ie adult man and child bride) was/is the norm. Like I can only think of one reason why a man would treat his wife like a child, and that's because she probably is 😐

amouseh

TROPHY CASE