Hung around with a Muslim from Mosul, Iraq while getting a M.A. at the University of Denver in Librarianship and Information Management. He was reasonable about just about everything except Islam. There were other Arabs you could joke about religion at the University of Denver; with my friend Mahmood though, his outlook on religion was almost medieval. It permeated every aspect of his life from how many times he prayed each day, what he ate, what he watched on the television, what he read, etc. He would not even allow other men to be in the same room as his wife.
Kind of hard for many Americans to understand just how deep some Muslims beliefs are. Maybe, if you are a Member of the Amish faith you would get that kind of mindset.
I tried writing my friend from Mosul for a while but his letters became more and more hateful of the West after he moved back to Iraq in 1984.
Of course, I never would have joked about Mohammad with a man who had his whole family line named after Mohammad.
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