On Sat, Jul 28, 2012 at 3:34 AM, ss <[email protected]> wrote: > On Friday 27 Jul 2012 5:23:53 am Shoba Narayan wrote: >> What will Indian culture (or any culture) be like without religion? > I am not sure that I should reply to this because it typically launches me off > on one of my rambles. > Religion is never culture.
I think religion is always cultural ... i remember traveling in tanzania years ago and the southern region bordering mozambique has the yao people who practice their brand of islam (they dont eat pork, they pray five times a day facing mecca etc. ) and have various animistic beliefs (which would be considerd unislamic ) and they call themselves muslims. Unsually the same Yao people are also there in Mozambique they have the same beliefs (dont eat pork, pray five times a day) but dont call themselves muslim ... (presumably becuase historically they faced persecution as muslims ..... )... a similar example are perhaps the Druze in the middle east ... >The exception in my view is Arab culture. Islam was > designed to fit Arab culture closely - at least that is what I have heard > Arabs > claim and I can find no reason to disagree.
