Islam says to have respect for your parents period. Different cultures have different meanings and different limits of respect.
Now in Arabic culture it is disrespect to call your father directly by his name, but in American culture its ok. If an American Muslim in American culture calls his father by his name, would it be against Islamic code of ethics?
It would be embarrasing for an american teenager to be calling father daddy or papa. I would probably have been banished from the house if I had addressed my father by his name (I still cannot do that). We solved it by my calling him abbaji, and no one here knows the difference. I have had to explain a few times that abbaji is not his name. And I do consider myself an american, and so american culture is not as narrow or limited as you might imagine. There are people and cultures from all over the world that are part of the american culture. If you mean the culture that is broadcast by TV, well it really does not exist and is definately not american. I do not know where and how in USA, a young waitress, or a high school teacher, or unemployed people can live in the style they show on TV.
You mean Bart Simpson...right? :p
well....he aint real.
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*Originally posted by google: *
You mean Bart Simpson...right? :p
well....he aint real.
[/QUOTE]
Well look at the characters in "Friends". Couple of Waitress and look at their apartments. Last time I was in New York, and my friend was a manager in a big Company and his apartment was no more than 1/4 the size they show on that TV show. And people tell me the neighborhood the characters are supposed to be living is one of the most expensive areas of NY. People living in NY can say more. Any of the shows for teenagers are totally unrealistic. People working at hamburger joints going to 3 bedroom houses!!! Then Bart simpson... one income family, two kids, husband in a low level job at a power plant and they live in a 4 bedroom house!!! Which part of USA is that?
I guess, you took me wrong OldLahori. I didn't mean to criticize American Culture nor support it as a model for Muslims. This is not what I intended in this topic "Religion and Culture".
You do not call your parents by their names. But I have seen many American families in which children call their parents even grandparents by their names, and there is no intention of disrespect. Neither the elder takes it as an offense. Yes, I did assume a White American family, say recently converted into Islam, when putting up this question. I also assumed that that family's present living surrounding is the same American surrounding/culture (i.e. only embraced Islam not with added Arabic culture).
The point is the negotiated meaning existing in the relationship. If respect is preserved in the relationship even with calling with original names, Islam, IMU, has no problem with that (of course after, taking out the extreme cases at both ends). The point is try to discern religion as a set of basic principles, as a philosophy, as a meaning that can attain different appearances in different cultures in different peoples preserving its soul (soul principles, philosophy) without having to conflict and eradicate the local cultures it gets into.
I completely agree with you. It is when people reduce Islam to total literalism and start emphasizing ritual way above the concepts behind it, that creates a lot of unnecessary problems. I did not take any offence at your question. I just wanted to point out that "American" is one heck of a complex concept these days.
I think I understand that you had the view of a "middle class white anglo saxon family with 2.5 kids" as americans, and I was merely trying to point out that really does not exist. Americans these days is chinese, japanese, mexican, cuban, elsavaladorean, chilean, pakistani, indian, scottish, irish, spanish, french, german, ethiopian, south african, ugandian, etc. etc. heritage who are living in neighbor hoods, intermarrying, and mixing it up generally. There was an article in Times about the most mixed neighborhood in USA, somewhere in Sacramento where every single household was of inter-racial marriage!
Keep in mind just 50 years ago people used to identify themselves which part of europe their ancestors came from as a primary identity. Those are lumped togather now as "whites" now.
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*Originally posted by OldLahori: *
I just wanted to point out that "American" is one heck of a complex concept these days.
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I only wanted to make a point regarding interplay of religion (Islam) and culture through that isolated example. I agree with your above point.