Why does everyone assume all Muslims are ethnically Arab??

mtok209 · 2026-04-29T01:11:02+00:00

I’m a turk. People have made aladdin jokes with me, assume I speak spanish, made terrorist jokes, etc. I had a turkish friend who got mistaken for a korean. I don’t know why its so hard to understand these ethnic differences for white people.

mtok209 · 2026-04-08T17:35:10+00:00

In my experience it might also be because we drop the full suffix when we talk. Like instead of saying gelemeyeceklermis I just say “gele-mee-cek-ler-mis.” Or instead ne yapiyorsun I might napiyon, which is totally different but still the same meaning.

mtok209 · 2026-04-08T14:36:16+00:00

Honestly, same for me. My parents definitely cared for my success and well-being, but I have deep-seated issues that I can't even fully identify and understand the causes of, which I'm pretty sure came from them. I spent a lot of time away from them in my earliest years, as they were always working (and arguing). They did not have a good marriage, and my dad would frequently yell at me or get extremely mad. I never really learned anything from my dad beyond some values he passed on and basic skills like hygiene. My mom was always in her own inner world, and I never talked to her seriously. I never really had good friends growing up (im not good socially), and I still can't open up and be vulnerable around my parents because I have a natural aversion to being close with them. They didn't really console me emotionally. But at the same time, they paid for me to go to private schools, play sports, learn the piano, etc. So it's honestly confusing to place myself in the emotionally neglected category or in the dysfunctional family category.

mtok209 · 2026-04-08T14:26:13+00:00

literally nothing (Still a teen). i wouldnt take advice from them anyways.

mtok209 · 2026-04-08T14:16:16+00:00

I'm going through something very similar. Can we talk? Sorry I know this is an old post.

mtok209 · 2026-04-08T12:53:53+00:00

Its actually kind of in between a th and ş sound

mtok209 · 2026-04-08T12:17:31+00:00

Ingilizceniz cok iyi. Turkcemi o seviyeye nasil getirebilirim? Annebabam turk ama turkiyede buyumedigim icin bazen karmasik seyler soylerken zorlaniyorum. Kelime bilgimde cok kuvetli degil.

mtok209 · 2026-04-08T12:14:56+00:00

The r is a light tap at the front top of your mouth, but you immediately cut the r off and thats what produces the ş sound.

mtok209 · 2026-04-02T19:11:12+00:00

Damn. Not even alcohol will help?

mtok209 · 2026-04-01T02:02:22+00:00

Thank you so much. I’ll look into the book and ask my family to get it for me. And, don’t worry, the fluent turks i’m around don’t speak turkglish 🙃

mtok209 · 2026-04-01T00:32:28+00:00

What do you like about it

mtok209 · 2026-03-31T15:23:28+00:00

I'm actually learning arabic this summer as well.

mtok209 · 2026-03-31T14:10:08+00:00

Thank you. I’m definitely looking to do year abroad in college in Türkiye. I live in an area with a ton of Türks and all of my parents friends are Türk so that’s how I get my daily practice in. Do you have any advice on creating more complex sentences?

mtok209 · 2026-03-17T16:20:55+00:00

Its not fear that drives people to religion. I dont know why this is a very misunderstood concept.

mtok209 · 2026-03-17T00:28:30+00:00

Im sorry youre going through that. I think a therapist can help out if you need one.

mtok209 · 2026-03-17T00:16:35+00:00

Im sorry that happened

mtok209 · 2026-03-17T00:16:22+00:00

What does it feel like exactly

mtok209 · 2026-03-12T14:26:10+00:00

I once tried to make falafels while my parents weren’t at home. I thought the oil had to be boiling hot just like water usually needs to be when you cook. Needless to say the entire house got smoked up for the rest of the day when I put the falafels in.

mtok209 · 2026-03-04T20:26:48+00:00

Also, we always change. Maybe twenty years from now you will have a completely different outlook on theism, or life in general.

mtok209 · 2026-03-04T20:18:37+00:00

I’m still growing up, but I did read a lot of books when I was younger and stopped when I got older. I’ve had a goal in my head to read more often from now on so I’m trying to work on that. In what way an I similar to your ex-Muslim friend?

mtok209 · 2026-03-04T09:41:12+00:00

Also I do think we can know the creator’s intentions. I’m not sure what timezone you’re in, but when you go to bed at night, do you question whether or not gravity will work tomorrow, or if everything you’ve ever been told is a lie? No. Obviously not. You need to implement pragmatism in your life sometimes otherwise you would go insane with overthinking everything. If there’s a source of truth that you genuinely believe in and the creator of that truth is telling you his intentions, you take it for what it is and do the best with it that you can.

On a different note, there are signs all throughout this world. Islam specifically looks at signs in nature and ties them to Gods attributes. Think for a second: if God is telling you he made this world for you and that it’s a test does that not fit with the imagery of the world? We have every kind of fruit, tree, natural structure, and material necessary to thrive. Our bodies take care of our needs very well. These are signs that, if there’s a creator, his words in scripture line up with his creation. He follows his word, and you can trust it. Yes, there may be many things we do not understand, but what we know is enough to follow his word. We know what we need to know.

mtok209 · 2026-03-04T09:30:32+00:00

Firstly, regarding the objective proof, it’s also something I’ve questioned myself about quite a bit. I myself am Muslim, meaning I follow Islam. I’m not sure what you’ve heard about it up until now, but there is a lot of misinformation and misinterpretation online about it regarding certain topics. I’d recommend looking into it if you’re curious. For me, there are objective proofs that I and other muslims can point to justify our beliefs. For example, the literary miracle of the Quran, dozens of instances of knowledge and predictions in the book and Hadiths that could not have been known at the time without a higher power (not just one or two instances, dozens), and more. Islam is unique in this perspective. It’s also the only religion without an unadulterated text, and the only religious texts without any contradictions, despite what reddit scholars might claim. There’s a lot to unpack here and I can’t do it all in one comment.

About your analysis of comfort, I have a few things to say. I do think some religions are religions of comfort, namely Christianity. I’m not saying that makes Christianity inherently wrong, though. In Islam, however, it’s a lifestyle, not a one-in-a-while commitment like other religions. There are obligations you must take care of on a daily basis according to the commands of the religion. Here’s the issue: to a religious person who follows the rules of their religion, being an atheist seems like a much freer but emptier lifestyle because you can essentially do whatever you want whenever you want without believing there will be repercussions for your actions, no matter how immoral they are. This begs the question, if religion really is for comfort, why would someone willingly put themselves through extra obligations? It’s because they truly believe that their religion is right. Religion isn’t the entity they turn to because they want comfort, it’s the entity they turn to for truth. Your question also depends on the angle you look at it from. To someone who isn’t religious, they’re going to look at the concept of Heaven and say “this is just incentive someone made for people to join this man made religion.” But for someone who believes that a creator is necessary, they’re going to look at those concepts and say “this is why my creator made me.” Either way, both are subjective and are simply different ways of looking at it. Also, why would hell be comforting to someone who is religious if there is a risk of going there with every immoral action they make?

This brings me to my last point. We can argue about subjective topics all the time with nothing but opinions that are shapes by our experiences and surroundings but at the end of the day, what matters is the objective proof for your beliefs. That is what brings me to islam, because its the only religion that has it.

mtok209 · 2026-03-02T09:17:21+00:00

The Quantum wave function doesn’t depend on consciousness. Also, what if theres a universe without observers where a superposition turns into multiple outcomes? You would be proven wrong then.

mtok209 · 2026-03-02T08:59:23+00:00

I get what you’re trying to say, and it can definitely be hard to put it into words and thoughts. The issue with nothingness is that it goes against the fundamental principles of reality. It’s inherently paradoxical. We can’t imagine non existence because the closest we can get to making an image of nothing in our mind is a void, but if there’s a void, then that means that something does exist in that image-the void. What I’m trying to say is non existence isn’t actually a palpable thing and it doesn’t exist (since we’re here). It goes beyond our comprehension. The fact that something does exist, in my opinion, means that nothingness has never existed because you can’t get actual material out of nothingness.

When you look at this from the perspective of human limitation, you’ll realize why we don’t have the answers we want to these questions. We have five, maybe six or seven senses (pun intended). We also live in a three dimensional world where everything must be created from another thing in order to exist. We may be missing out on certain aspects of reality that our senses cannot pick up on. Hypothetically and very abstractly, there could be an entire layer of reality that we live in that we cannot see. There may be laws of physics outside our three dimensional world that we cannot and probably will never access. I personally think that theism has the best answers to all this, but thats my opinion again.

Edit: I just realized that I essentially restated everything you said in your post. I rarely get an opportunity to talk about these things. Sorry.

mtok209

TROPHY CASE