The American Muslim Millennials (Technology vs. Religion)

Millennials are the least religious human generation since the days of Adam and Eve. According to a Pew Research report in 2014, it seems that one of every three people on earth of this generation prefers not to affiliate with any faith. Only 10% of them are still looking for the universal truth. 

However, other sociologists think that this generation does not give up their spiritual feelings but tend to reject the Conventional approach (Robert Putnam and David Campbell). The study of 100 urban Millennials has shown that they are not “the spiritual consumers of their parents’ generation, rather they are seeking both a deep spiritual experience and a community experience, each of which provides them with meaning in their lives, and is meaningless without the other.” Hence, they are actively looking for certain level of creed under which they can not lead a meaningful life (The Embodied Spirituality of the Post-Boomer Generations).  

Who are the Millennials? Choose your own adventure.

• This generation might be considered a the "Generation of the Internet". They are in their early adulthood at the moment (18-34 years of age now in 2015). 
• Almost all of them do not remember well how was the life before the internet
• They do not acknowledge the "American Dream" anymore. They were all in their teen years when the Twin Towers went down. They lived through the greatest financial crisis in 2008 and they do not trust their parents' stories about the importance of having a system to live by.

Millennials believe in value-led governments, sustainable organizations, and quickly measurable results. They are more individualistic than generation X, Y or their parents. You can see them looking into their smart phones almost everywhere. Try to ride on the metro and look around for any face to smile to. Almost none !!! 

What kind of social life will exist 10 years from now? Can you greet your neighbours? 

It 2015, it is much easier to send a txt message to a younger fellow than calling her/him or meet face to face. Virtual interconnectivity offers more confort to our younger fellows and kids. They prefers sending a quick email without any greetings or formality than coming to shake a hand and show a confident smile. They might prefer to donate via paypal to a stranger than offering a meal to a next door neighbor.  

Kathleen Shaputis, a prominent American sociologist, prefers another title for this generation: The Boomerang generation or the Peter Pan generation because they want to delay growing up as much as they can. They like to live longer with their parents as well instead of jumping out as soon as possible as with Generation X and generation Y.

So? What does it mean?

It means a lot. How can we keep a strong communications channel with our future generations? How to harness the power of technology to keep close to them and motivate them to maintain a good level of engagement in order to keep the humane community experience alive in front of their eyes?

The Importance of interfaith Dialogue in North America

The United States of America was formed as a nation to be different from the predominantly European countries from which its founders came. One principle of the United States was to not have a state creed per se, but rather a plurality of creeds and freedom to choose whatever creed one chooses. Thanks to the freedom of creed in America, there are a number of creeds and philosophical practices throughout the U.S. There is solid interfaith dialogue in many bigger cities and metropolitan areas, but some areas can use better interrelations. Even for the areas with better inter faith relations, there is always room for improvement.

First, a breakdown of the creeds in America. Christianity, or Christian denominations, are the most prevalent faith in each and every state. (For example, in the South, Baptism is most popular; the Catholic church on the coasts; and Mormonism in Utah and surrounding regions). Things start to get more interesting when talking about the second most popular creed. Per the Washington Post, Islam is America's largest non-Christian-- or overall, second largest-- creed with it being the second biggest faith in 20 states. Judaism is the second largest creed in 15 states. Buddhism is the largest non-Christian creed in 13, primarily western, states.


West of Canada was built similarly. Quebec is an exception because it was an extension of the European Church state then it becomes a striking example of the French secularist state that rejected all aspects of religions (Except some). Yet, Quebec kept moving steadily towards a military secularist system in which the state started dictating what people can think of or believe in during the past few years. Although the majority of USA and Canada citizens are Christian in some form, other religious groups are growing. For example, in 2011, it was estimated that the amount of Muslims in the United States would double by 2030 (similar Canadian statistics are present).

It is ideal to have Muslims who attend mosques and members of these burgeoning faiths integrate in a predominantly Christian society. Many Christians would be surprised to see how much Islam has in common with traditional Christianity. Imagine having a nation built on inter faith principles. How natural and humane will that be?

Probably the best way to promote inter-faith is by simply being open-minded and discussing creeds without imposing it upon others. Don't fear sharing your own beliefs, and why you feel as you do. Meanwhile, while you can give your own interpretation of the writings of your domination, do not force them upon others. Everyone will understand a religious text differently, hence the many different sects within any given creed.

Christianity, on the one hand, has a much richer set of interpretations that are somehow distant from the original text. Islam is a great example of a creed that has a limited set of interpretations that are all based on the original preserved text (verbatim). A lot of efforts has been done in USA and Canada to offer the original text of Islam without much interpretations. After all, people need to know the original text that Allah (GOD) has revealed without the human understanding of the sacred text.

Remember that just like different creeds or sects have their own interpretations of scripture, so do specific individuals. Be aware of different methods in which you can apply inter-faith dialogue; a popular one is called SR, or scriptural reasoning.

Ultimately, inter-faith relations are imperative to have because they more concretely make you faithful, and they allow you to reconcile the differences between different creeds. You will likely find that the fundamental texts of your creed aren't that different from those of the other neighbors, colleagues, acquaintances or friends.

Many in this day and age will get married to a person of another creed. In fact, Fox News found in July 2010 through a representative sample of 2,500 individuals that 42% of marriages in the United States are of an inter faith variety. Interestingly enough, Jews are most likely to marry out of faith, while Mormons are least likely. Muslims are in between. Couples in inter-faith marriages are apparently less happy than those in same-faith marriages, which is evidenced by a higher divorce rate. Inter-faith marriages are much more common amongst older people, and many spouses will actually convert to their partner's creed over a period of time. Perhaps most promising in terms of inter faith relations, marrying a person of a different creed will cause you to feel more positively about that creed over time. Based on my personal experience, I have seen hundreds of Muslims in Montreal marrying to non Muslim ladies. I have witnessed marriages between Muslim ladies as well and non Muslim fellows but a small minority due to restrictions of marriage to non Muslims.

It should also be mentioned that inter-faith measures incorporate all philosophies, not just religions. So, if one has a spiritual or humanistic philosophy that doesn't traditionally fall into the definition of a religion, their beliefs should still be recognized and respected in interfaith dialogue. Examples of secular philosophies include practices such as humanism.

Inter-faith dialogue has been around for many centuries, but it still has plenty of room to grow. All religions have fanatics who believe that those of other faiths should be terminated (physically or socially) because they don't hold the same faith is evidence of such. Don't think that the problem of poor inter-faith relations is due to any one creed, however; all of us need to improve.

I have learned in Montreal that it is worth it to put the time and efforts to actually become familiar with other religious and philosophical texts, and seek to meet people who have a different value system or a different belief. Our minds and tolerance will grow exponentially.

Being open to learning and exchanging will add value to one's belief system and enhance our understanding of the purpose of life, what will come after life, how humans need to treat each other, where to seek knowledge, how to seek knowledge, and how to lead a civilized talk with our human fellows.

The more open you are, the better in terms of interfaith relations. After all, what's the worst thing that can happen from engaging in inter faith dialogue and research? You don't agree with what you're presented? The pros far outweigh the cons.

Be open and good luck!

   

The Novice: How I became a Buddhist Monk, Why I quit and What I learned

I am always interested to read about religions and compare one to another for the sake of enlightenment and moral enrichment.

I have seen people in the West going into Buddhism, Islam, Atheism, Catholicism... and people leaving their original religions as well and looking into the no-religion, no-belief, or the radical move into something totally contradicting with their own past.

This book talk about the rich experience of Stephen's, the frustrated Catholic in dreary England, from his own teenager self into the eventual happiness in India as a Monk. This "relentless truth seeker" has looked deep into Buddhism, meditation, enlightenment, and Monk's philosophy. However, at the end, all of these could not satisfy his need for the truth and decided to go back.

Back into what? This is not clear from his book but I bet that he would be continuing looking for the real truth somewhere else in order to avoid being raked through the embers of his past as a Catholic first and his past as a Monk when he devoted his entire [mature] self for the study and practice of this new religion and culture that looks appealing from the first sight.

However, after some analysis, Shettini found out that although he was teaching, learning, and worshiping, he could not go out of his frustration and sadness. It was all prescriptive for him.

Finally, he left us with a lot of lessons in his text and I bet that any reader would be impressed with his focus and direction to the conclusion he made.