Conversation Meeting #2

Because of me and Adel's busy schedules, we were not able to meet until October the 12th.  I met with him once again at the TCU bookstore and our conversation seemed to deepen much more in our second meeting. This was probably due to the fact that in our first meeting we communicated all of the basic information about each other and were now more comfortable sharing views and beliefs with one another.
We discussed religion and how he approaches discussing the touchy subject with others that he meets at TCU. He was raised and has always been a devout Muslim and wondered how much information I knew about his religion and the Quran. I told he that I had a general knowledge of it, having taken and enjoyed World Religion my freshman year at TCU. We discussed how we all can learn from each other and that are different beliefs and practices actually had huge connections and were based around the belief that there is one all-powerful God. We further discussed how the conflict between the Western and Muslim cultures since 911 has effected how people treat him in America. He explained that no where in the Quran does it state that people should kill others in an act for God and that the terrorist that people associate with the Muslim religions are extremists. I agreed with him, giving the example that if someone that was not Christian heard that someone murdered an abortion doctor for God that they would be considered an extremist and a bad example of a true Christian.
Along with the discussion about religion, we once again got on the subject of drinking. I told him I felt that there was no harm having a drink or two at dinner and that I was raised with alcohol around the house. I told him that because my parents made me feel comfortable drinking around them and showed me the appropriate way to drink, I have never had a issues with drinking and have never been in trouble for it. He explained that in his religion he feels that alcohol alters your true state of being and that a man should honor God by staying true to himself and not engaging in things that can disrupt your state of mind. After talking about this subject, I agree that drinking is very stressed in the American culture, especially in college. It is interesting to see how Americans have has a long history of stressing alcohol consumption, especially in the 1920s during the . Its amazing to compare this to the traditional Muslim culture who has never had an issue or history of alcohol in their society and shows how extremely different our cultures really are.