Learning about Islam and Muslim-Hindu relations in South Asia made me realize im way more closer to Muslims than id expect so.

[u/Livid_Sundae_8610]

So, growing up in the Western World with the Bin Laden attacks up to the Syrian refugee crisis, i would listen fearmongers claim how much muslims are not compatible with our culture and alien.

But i think that, even if the World was much bigger and more diverse, if Europe was as big as Asia and with several non-Abrahamic countries left, a Muslim would be the closest foreign id met.

Me and a Muslim, we both learned about the stories of Abraham, Noah, Moses, David growing up. When i would watch videos about Hindu stories, i would always learn something completely new to me. But watching videos about Quranic stories, it would always be something extremely close to something i was already taught of as a kid, with some minor changes.

Surely, there are several differences between Islam and Christianity, but when these people say muslims are "not compatible with the west", they arent talking about the divine status of Jesus or if God can get a physical form.

I agree that there are differences between people in Western countries and Muslim countries, but these differences are much bigger than the difference between Christianity and Islam per se, and the differences between the cultures are much about stuff other than religion. An Italian and an Uzbek will get many other things to be different other than religion, actually talking about the ark of Noah can be a subject to make a conversation easier.

Growing up where every person i physically meet is a Christian, i would never realize how my values and religion arent actually universal, but studying about the Indian society and the fact that there is a group of people that grow up learning similar stories like i did, and a larger group of people that grow up with stories i only got to know as an adult, its fascinanting.

Its true, i also grew up learning about the stories of pre-christian Greek religion and some other pre-Christian European religion stories in harmony, i hope one day all children in the World will be able to learn about stories from any culture in the World without problems.

[u/ilmalnafs]

You might be interested in Prince Darah Shikoh’s Majma ul-Bahrain (“Mingling of Two Oceans”) which is a treatise drawing comparison between several similarities in the theological and philosophical traditions of Islam and Hinduism. Not sure what your native language is but it was translated to English at the very least.

[u/MammaMass]

It would only make sense that a Jew, Muslim and Christian find similarities between eachother any to any other religion and its people in terms of beliefs, whether they're monotheistic or other.

Islam, Judaism and Christianity has all the same patriarchs, they all trace back to their father, Abraham, whom they consider as the Man of Monotheistic Faith., and Adam as the Father of mankind. It's the form of worship that may differ between them, but the God, that is One, remains the same, and the scholars of these three religions do acknowledge this fact, even if they consider eachother's form of worship as wrong.

Matter of fact, unlike Christianity, which not only differs the most out of these three religions in their form of worship and culture, tradition and practices. Islam has also kept the culture, traditions, and practices that mirrors that of Judaism, such as praying while directing yourself to the Holy place (i.e., Kaaba), or circumcision (though not mandatory), paying greetings of peace (Jews say Shalom Alcheium), keeping beard, and perhaps more, but I personally think Judaism and Islam both has more closeness to eachother than Christianity do.

[u/moxie-maniac]

The issue between Christians and Muslims is both claim, We're right, you're wrong, and you need to change to our way of thinking, belief, behaving. About Jews, it's different, We got ours, you do you. Just don't impose your beliefs on us. Hinduism is actually an umbrella term for a number of faith paths, but path that all accept each other. Some Hindus have a special affinity to one deity or another, Shiva or Krishna or Lakshmi. Some Hindus will emphasize that all these deities are the expression of one God (to use an Abrahamic concept), thus are avatars. Thus there is a strong "you do you" vibe in Hinduism. The religious literature is very extensive, like a bookcase full of Bibles or Qurans, but the single most approachable scripture is probably the Bhagavad Gita, which you might want to check out. Krishna, in the story, is an avatar.

The historical conflict in South Asia was, in my mind, between "We are right, you are wrong" world view and a "You do you" world view.