I have relatives and friends whose parents or grandparents came to the U.S. after the Lebanese Civil War.
They are Arab, but devoutly Catholic. It's... very interesting and telling to me that religious tolerance is not really a thing in the Middle East.
I believe how you understand & relate to God/the Universe is between you and God. It's your business. Not mine. Not the government.
As I've mentioned before, history is not my strong point. So, I'm reading up on Lebanon a bit. ☕
^^^(And that's how we get Irish-Lebanese people, in case you were wondering. They're fun, FYI.)
... But they came here originally because the civil war was about fighting Israel or not. The "not" group lost. (HUGE oversimplification but I think that's the gist of it.)
But... religious tolerance *could've* been a thing in the Middle East, were it not for extremists. It totally could have been. It was possible.
@janallmac religious tolerance 'could've' been (is) a thing, everywhere, were it not for extremists. Most of us are comfortable with people worshipping or not, as they see fit
@janallmac mine too. I wish all families were like that, the world wouild be a better place.
I can think of so many examples where families mixed & married with newcomers.
It seems from my perspective that extremists in Middle East (i.e. Hamas, Hezbollah) have been fighting with groups who are basically immigrants for a really long time and at this point, everybody's losing. But mostly the extremists. 🤞
It reminds me of the groups who hate immigrants here, but much more extreme and too complicated for me to sort out. #war
@janallmac If our worst became large enough force to take over government then patrol our streets with machine guns and rocket launchers it would be same. @killingfloorman
@AnnetteTRemain @killingfloorman
^^That is absolutely one of my concerns.
We are not so different here.
Anti-immigrant rhetoric and groups who would make our government a theocracy are the U.S. version of Middle Eastern extremists. It's not that bad, yet, but it is on the same continuum.
@janallmac Watch videos on Iran. Lebanon could easily turn into Iran. Both were very westernized countries. And our extreme far right actually likes the extremists in middle east just wrong religion and race. If they could so same with white christian here they would. @killingfloorman
@AnnetteTRemain @killingfloorman
Oh, I know a bit about Iran (a bit. I've met Iranians who left due to the religious extremism.) I know it was a lot more secular.
And look what they do to women, too!
Just like the extremists here would do.
People laugh at me when I say we could be like that, but we could be like that.
@janallmac It could happen to any country including ours. We have the people who would do it. @killingfloorman
@killingfloorman Yeah. My own family is mixed Catholic/Protestant/Strange Mix of Paganish Confusion and people hardly ever threaten to kill each other.