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I visited a small Nubian community near Aswan, Egypt and met this family who had told us that they used to be Christian until the Turks came in and forced their grandparents to revert to Islam.

The extremist Muslims annoy me just as much as Christian extremists and Chabad Lubavitchers.

It's silly but there will always be conflict in the ME, always. There's no resolution.

No, Islam did not accept Christians and Jews. Jews are absolutely not tolerated in ME countries outside of Israel. I have to take my chai off whenever I'm in the ME and I tried to get into a synagogue this summer but wasn't able to get into it, regardless of my religiosity, because it was bombed six months ago.

Don't get me wrong, I have many wonderful Muslim friends, but extremist anything really ruins the experience.

Considering I was talking about the Turks a few generations ago forcing the Nubians to convert to Islam kinda suggests that they weren't tolerant when rising to power. Thankfully, Turkey is a secular country today, however, the government is fundamentalist. Turkey is 98% Muslim.

Islam forced people to convert, just as Christians forced people (particularly Spanish Jews [you bastards] to convert to Christianity) in the beginning of Westernisation.

Depending on what country you are in, you will get a different experience.

Most people cannot understand that Islam differs greatly. There's the Muslim religion and what the Q'ran teaches and then there's culture.

I find Egyptian men were grabby and rude towards me but Jordanian men were sweet and extremely helpful.

Go into Palestine and I bet there will be tension. I had a horrible experience crossing into another country the morning Israel bombed Gaza in December.

I'm not a Jew but I could pass as a stereotypical Sephardic Jew.

In anycase, you can't lump all of Islam together, it's extremely complex.

Islam refers to all of the Muslims in the world, it's a nation of people, but within this nation there are different sets of laws, customs, traditions and countries.

The Chabad Lubavitchers are a sect of Orthodox Jews, they're you're fundamentalists of the Jewish world.

I never claimed to be Jewish. I said I follow Judaism. I long for the day that I am a 100% halachally perscribed kosher Jew.

Nope. Unlike Christianity you do not need to be Jewish to be a person in good standing with God. You do not need to be Jewish to get into heaven, you simply don't need to be Jewish. Therefore, after a minimum of two years of study, a beth din and a mikveh, you are declared Jewish. However, finding a rabbi to convert you is extremely difficult.

I'm a Jew. I'm a Jew with all of my heart. I'm a daughter of Zion, of Israel.

But it doesn't work that way. Under Jewish law I am forbidden to call myself a Jew.

For the record Jihad is a last defense. So I'm told what the translation is. It didn't have to do anything with terrorists originally but i guess now Jihad refers to terrorists.

Jihad is fighting in the cause of Allah SWT and Allah SWT only.
In a nutshell, for into Jihad for anything other than the sake of Allah SWT will straight out nullify the Jihad of the Muslim. It's a glorious-less, low down, die hard commitment, fighting against the oppression of your deen. It will not pay your bills, get your kids through college, and if you are married, you might as well get use to the idea for your widow remarrying after you die.
Also Jihad is not suicide. You fight to see another day and if you are about to die, your enemies must kill you not your own hand. If they capture you, you still cant kill yourself.