Just curious - how many muslims are on mumsnet?

[Galvanise]

Hello/Salaam,

I know mumsnet has a wide and diverse population and I tend to recognise some MN usernames as regulars. Just intrigued to know how big/small a community it may be.

Of course, I respect that there may be those who do not wish to even identify themselves for various reasons - which is fine too.

I am not asking for 'religiousness' levels or any vital stats! Nor is this a muslim-only thread or an 'no non-muslims' thread.
If you really wish to tell me that you are not a muslim, that is fine too :)

:)

lol Fuzzy I second you on that! I guess we are pretty bonafied extremists.

Well I just wrote a massive post on idolatry and music, and I lost it and don't have the energy to write it out again!!

So all I've got to add is lamb nehari is yummy and a fave in this house!

That's part of what my lost post said, I don't see how not wanting pictures, figurines etc and not listening to music can be called extreme. It's a personal decision and has no effect on anyone anyway so I don't see the issue.

firefly you seem to be missing the point that these "extreme" points of views are going against the culture of the Muslim countries, as cote etc have pointed out.

Nailak said " but some people put tape over teddy bears eyes as they believe that there shouldnt be representations of living things, which includes teddy bears, dolls, on clothes etc so they cover the eyes as toys and stuff are allowed, just not ones that are too realistic according to them."

While no-one on this thread might tape over teddy bear's eyes, surely you can see how to people unfamiliar with Islam coming across the above for the first time might regard it as a bit surprising/extreme. At the least a bit odd. I wasn't aware of it before this thread.

However, if that's what people want to do and it's not hurting anyone, then its up them. As long as I and anyone else who doesn't want to do these things doesn't have to.

Okay so .. it seems to me that some people here consider themselves to be not "extreme" Muslims simply because they have not thought about killing people for their beliefs?

Well that is not my idea of what "extreme" Muslim means at all.

But fair enough. Its all semantics, right? To me, shunning music, segregation along sexual lines (which by the way isn't that great for avoiding sin or whatever it is its meant to achieve, because I don't know how many of you are aware that in some Middle Eastern countries which are strict on segregation - I'm thinking of Saudi Arabia as a prime example - it is a hotbed of homosexuality... so men, when faced with sexual segregation, begin to shag each other.. its not just Saudi Arabia... Afganistan is another country I'm aware of which has such an issue), taping or gouging teddy bears eyes (I didn't mean anyone on this thread in particular who does it, but if you know a friend or a friend of a friend who does it, and you see nothing wrong with it??? Hmm), .. that to me is extreme.

I have to say here that if you can find all the justification you need for these bizarre practices from your holy books, then I'm afraid all the other Muslims whom I consider not "extreme" will be fighting a losing battle here, because they cannot call out these practices as wrong either... so who is right and who is wrong? If your holy books actually justify these practices (which I consider "extreme") as correct, then I really just have to hold my hands up and say, you know what, I will never understand what the appeal of this religion is.. but it obviously rocks your boat. Fair enough. I'm outta here.

juule I can honestly say I've never met a real life muslim who tapes their childrens teddy bears eyes. I think Nailak was being tongue in cheek.....does anyone even have a child who would allow the tape to remain? I had problems keeping my naturist child to stay in her clothes never mind running around taping all the toys eyes over repeatedly.

However, I have loads of cookery books and I bought the Anjum Anand one (I adore bengali food), and the cover is of Anjum Anand looking all domestic goddessy, one day I went looking for the book and found it with the eyes taped over with blue insulation tape....when I wondered how that happened ex went all mouth foamy and said it's eyeeeeees harrraaaaaammmmm (or something in that vein) .......dude is an ex and that tape was the first thing I removed after all traces of him!

For the avoidance of doubt, ex was only ever devout when it suited his agenda and then his devotion was not of any religion I've ever come across.

Fuzzy I too have a naturist child. She's two and the looks I get when she strips at the in laws when there's visitors is quite something. It must be the half white in her that she gets from me .

I did actually say I was being tongue in cheek! It is something I have heard of but never seen!

The most I can say is that my mother in law used to turn over my mariam stoppard pregnancy book! i think as it had a woman with her bump out on cover.

firefly, that is it, I might not agree with a lot of stuff, like mawlid al nabi, saying wearing hijab is not from Islam, and taping up teddy bears eyes, but who am I to say someone else is wrong? In all religions there is a diversity in belief. I will present what I feel is right and let other people make their own decisions without deriding them, making them feel other and so on.

i think that is it crescent, we have been treating this thread as a place of safety and comfort where Muslims can discuss issues without having to defend the basics of Islam. On the previous page someone said "this is a discussion that Muslims should be having" and I find it ironic that we are all from different backgrounds and beliefs and were having that discussion before we felt attacked and that we had to change the subject.

Lost your baby sounds adorable. I really miss those years.....looking back thro rose tinted goggles.

It scandalised the straight laiced stuffy outlaws I must admit .

She was very funny when she did it, I used to sometimes catch myself thinking 'I swear I dressed her, I did, I must have, surely...oh god maybe I forgot, my poor baby'
The worst thing was she'd put the clothes right in the wash basket along with her nappy and everything (I used cloth nappies).

Those were the days.

crescent dont you do khatams? or instead you do dhikr?

Seeya later firefly anyway....jazakhallah Crescent for those blogs. Will have to have a look inshallah. Another subject that interests me is the claim that despite all the supposed authenticity in Hadith, for example sahih bukhari, that a lot of it is corrupt, contradicts other Hadith and Quran, and that some Hadith account were taken from children. I've been reading about this recently and will be completely honest when I say I don't really know what to believe. I have also read that our Nabi (saw) prohibited the writing of things he had said out of fear of corruption or innacuracy. It confuses me. Also, have any of you read the hadiths which state how Mohammed (saw) apparently said he would have ordered a woman to prostrate to her husband if it was not haram, and also how a woman will never fulfil the great rights her husband has over her even if she licked pus from a wound on his body. What does everyone think about this? I'm aware people who disregard Hadith are called 'quranists' and those who put importance of Hadith over Quran are called 'hadithists'. My mind is pretty boggled by all of this.

Was out all day yesterday and missed all the posts regarding music and pictures...I think it was me that mentioned it first, and I'm soooo sorry, especially as it has caused you to leave the thread firefly (although now you probably won't see this). I should know better than to mention things like this as I know they can be very alienating to people who don't feel they have any relevance to their lives.
We seemed to have moved on so don't want to bring it all back up, but would like to just say that my very best friend, also a convert, has a completely different attitude to me about these things. She has pictures up on the walls, the kids watch cartoons, etc etc. In the 9 years we've been friends (and we lived together for 2 of those) we've never had a single argument about religion. But we do benefit from each others different approach. I think he beauty of Islam is that it's wide enough to accomodate everybody.

fuzzywuzzy that's so cute about your baby...she even put her clothes in the wash basket!
My DS loves his bath so much that today he was trying to get in it before I'd taken his clothes off! He's now gone off to juma with his dad, they have a whole routine of bath, getting dressed in nice white clothes, putting perfume on (DS loves perfume) etc, it's really cute.

oh and peacefuloptimist I am also trying to lose weight but doing it through myfitnesspal, which is free. Am half a stone away from my pre-marriage weight (before I started cooking properly and actually enjoying eating!) but am finding it really hard to lose this last bit! Well done on your weight loss, I've never managed more than 2 pounds a week.

Mabrook crescent, May Allah grant you success.

Waynetta, Shahih hadith are only classified as such if the chain of narration consists of known trustworthy honest individuals all having known one another the main being a companion of the prophet (SAW).

I've never heard the pus one!

Wives have huge rights over their husbands, a husband in the mould of the prophet (saw) would be one who would inspire so much love that one would naturally hold him in the highest esteem.