I wouldn't say that the bushy bearded guy trying to convert me to Islam curbed my curiousity. If anything, he piqued it. He wasn't the first or the last asian 'extremist' I've met in Qatar. [An extremist to me is anyone who can justify killing people in the name of (any) religion].
The most curious thing about the experience was that although the 9/11 bombers were predominantly Khaleejis, Gulf Arabs now are only too keen to distance themselves from that crazy behavior. Yet it seems to have increased in Asia, particularly India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and amongst Asian expats across the world.
So since then I've more or less made it a rule to disregard anyone trying to overtly convert me to their religion as a crack pot, since I'm yet to meet anyone to disprove my rule.
And in any case this is Qatar, an Islamic country. So surely it only follows that if someone living in Qatar wants to know about Islam, they should just ask a Qatari friend? Muslims are all around us in this country, so where is the need to fight the traffic to visit Fanar?
And by the same token, why is it so hard to meet Muslim sisters? Practically the only women in this country are the wives of the locals, so they are almost all Muslim. If you want to meet a Muslim sister, then why don't you just walk out your front door??
I wouldn't say that the bushy bearded guy trying to convert me to Islam curbed my curiousity. If anything, he piqued it. He wasn't the first or the last asian 'extremist' I've met in Qatar. [An extremist to me is anyone who can justify killing people in the name of (any) religion].
The most curious thing about the experience was that although the 9/11 bombers were predominantly Khaleejis, Gulf Arabs now are only too keen to distance themselves from that crazy behavior. Yet it seems to have increased in Asia, particularly India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, and amongst Asian expats across the world.
So since then I've more or less made it a rule to disregard anyone trying to overtly convert me to their religion as a crack pot, since I'm yet to meet anyone to disprove my rule.
And in any case this is Qatar, an Islamic country. So surely it only follows that if someone living in Qatar wants to know about Islam, they should just ask a Qatari friend? Muslims are all around us in this country, so where is the need to fight the traffic to visit Fanar?
And by the same token, why is it so hard to meet Muslim sisters? Practically the only women in this country are the wives of the locals, so they are almost all Muslim. If you want to meet a Muslim sister, then why don't you just walk out your front door??