On Tue, Apr 21, 2009 at 21:20, Kiran K Karthikeyan <kiran.karthike...@gmail.com> wrote: > Somewhere during the third year, one of them lost his mother. There was so > much guilt drilled into him that after he came back a few weeks later, he > completely quit drinking and smoking. Started doing namaz religiosly and > going to the prayer every Friday (we usually were sleeping after a heavy > lunch or used the long lunch break to take the rest of the day off and the > weekend started early). And he avoided hanging out with us, and moved with > the other Muslims more. > > I realize these are isolated incidents, and exceptions aren't the rule, but > then exceptions are a clue. The alternative to some of the more progressive > Muslims leading the change is that we wait till the free market economy and > capitalism hits them hard enough that they are more concerned with making > money and living the good life that religion takes a back seat in their > overall psyche (simplistic, but there has to be some motivators?).
I'm not sure, but your suggestion seems to be that "quit[ting] drinking and smoking", "doing namaz religiously", and going to a temple every Friday is anti-"progressive". Why? "He avoided hanging out with us" seems to have more of a chance of being deemed un-progressive, but then I'd have to get to know you and your buddies better to take a call on that. And when this day of capitalistic rule does come upon earth (is it a bit like the biblical apocalypse? or a bit more like ragnarok with the leftie gods in death throes?) what happens to all those liberals/progressives that believe "living the good life" isn't all that life is about? And what about those that want life with tinges of "the bad", "the spiritual", and other such devilish things?