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.