As a muslim girl living in England, I personally believe banning Muslims would be a catastrophe.
First of all, it would look bad around the world: western countries like to boast on about how liberal they are and how they support equality, religious freedom and rights for all human beings. Wouldn't then banning a whole religious group totally shun those ideas?
If the UK, or any other country for that matters, furthers a law in banning all Muslims, then my respect for said country would be lost completely.
As many people mentioned before, penalising all Muslims on the actions of few would be a very stupid and unfair move.
I remember when I was in secondary school, I had the unfortunate luck of being placed in the worst class of my school, and we had that reputation because this little group of barely 5 classmates would be complete racuous rebels and ruin the whole day. And the other 17 members in the class (me included) could do nothing about it.
Consequently, we were always not allowed to take part in trips, events, etc... thinking the WHOLE class was bad.
The people from outside don't know the whole story.
Humans have always liked judging others for the worst, so seeing just ONE person doing something bad always causes people to say "Ah, look! Him and his people are all the same!"
There have been many other counts of terrorism made by Christians, but we certainly don't mention them. Hypocrete much?
Muslims are not fanatics. I like to call Muslims simply religious.
And why do people always mention how women are 'forced' into wearing hijabs, 'forced' into marriages, 'forced' to no not work, ...
We are NOT forced. We simply are following our religion and culture, and just like for western cultures it's normal for some girls to wear miniskirts, our type of normal is wearing hijabs and covering ourselves.
Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and the Quran clearly state that women are highly valued and respected. The Quran states that wearing hijab and covering your body is to protect your value and body, not to degrade you.
Islamic countries have one of the lowest rates of rape, molestations and other sexual harassments. That should tell a lot by itself.
Also, very few people know that men as well are supposed to wear hijab. You should know that the term hijab refers to wearing and acting modestly, and for both genders, not only to the female headscarf.
It is supposed to stop you from having brazen and vulgar thoughts about a person of the opposite gender, which you shouldn't have until marriage.
So while women wear headscarfs, also men are supposed to always cover from their naval to their knees, and BOTH genders should wear loose fitted clothes to not show their body shape.
About marriages, there is no such thing as forced marriages, and many people confuse arranged marriages with forced ones.
Yes, we have arranged marriages, where our parents will simply tell us what man would be good for you to marry.
We can decline and say no at any time, but usually we go with it because we respect our parents very much. They're more experienced, and if my father and mother would say that a suitor would be perfect for me, I would trust them.
After you accept a suitor, you then progress to meeting with him to get to know him. This process can take as long as you both want. If you don't like him (his personality sucks, he's not too handsome for your liking XD, etc...) then you can stop at any time.
Then, if you both like each other, you proceed into engaging and marrying.
When we marry, we keep our last name, and we keep whatever we owned before marrying (land, houses, money, etc...)
People think Muslims live in a Neanderthalian society regarding women's rights?
Well, think again:In the western world, the earliest women had the right to have their own possessions when married was in the 1860s.
In our religion, women had this right since Islam was created, so more than 1300 years earlier than that.
"Whatever men earn, they have a share of that and whatever women earn, they have a share in that." [Noble Quran 4:32]
That, my dear people, is our meaning of arranged marriage.
Women CAN work, nowhere in the Quran it says that women can't. Actually, many women are encouraged to work because there will always be a need of female teachers, doctors, nurses, etc... as it's preferable for you not to mingle with the same gender.
Also, one thing Islamic countries made very clear before any other culture/religion, was the right of the woman being equal to men, and so, they will receive equal pay (and I know there's been issues about gender equal pay in western countries).
Women have been equal to men since the making of time. Before any other religion, women were free to participate in politics, something that western countries have shunned upon until quite very modern times.
I quote "During the rein of 'Umar, women participated in law making.
'Umar made a proposal of a certain regulation concerning marriage.
A woman in the mosque stood up and said, "'Umar, you can't do that."
'Umar did not tell her, "Shut up, you are a woman, you have nothing to do with politics, etc." He asked, "Why?"
She made her argument on the basis of Quran.
In front of everybody, he stood up and said, "The woman is right and 'Umar is wrong," and he withdrew his proposal.
That was the spirit in the early days of Islam.
In the most authentic collection of Hadith, Hadith Bukhari, a section is devoted to the participation of women, not only in public affairs, but in the battlefield, too, and not only as logistical support.
Women carried arms, and when there was great danger to the Muslims, they volunteered to participate even in the battlefield."
This happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago. What better culture allowed women such freedom and rights?
People think women cannot work because a lot of them are not employed. That is true, but they're not unemployed because they're forced to be.
Family life is VERY important and sacred for muslims, with the belief that children are a gift of Allah and the more you have, more happiness and blessings are upon you.
Pregnant women and mothers are greatly valued, as said by the prophet himself, where Prophet Muhammad (peace and blessings be upon him) said, "Paradise is at the feet of mothers."
Once a man came to him and asked, "O, Messenger, who among mankind is worthy of my kindness and love?"
The Prophet answered, "Your mother."
"Who next?"
"Your mother."
"Who next?"
"Your mother."
Only after the third time he said, "And your father."
Muslim believe in a tight family, therefore children should always have their mother to be nortured and be guided in the early years of their lives.
So while the mother is busy with the children, to the father is left the job to bring home the bread.
I'm sorry if you westerners are offended by the majority of women preferring to stay with her children and family at home instead of stressing her life out working 12 hours a day under a boss that shouts at you for the smallest mistake.
If you hear a bad thing about Muslims, than please think of that as an independent case.
In Islam all human beings are equal, and everyone is respected the same.
About polygamy, Islam is actually the only religion that had restrictions about how many wives a man can have from the beginning.
Every other religion (Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, etc) had nothing against it, and so in the past men had freely many wives.
Only after a long time from when those religions were made laws were put against polygamy.
And I repeat, Islam had restrictions against it from the beginning. It says it's acceptable only in extreme circumstances (for example, if a war happens and many married men were killed, their wives and children would be left alone) and if the man can treat each of his wives equally.
Polygamy is more rare than some westerners think, and I still have to meet a man that has more than one wife.
Islam absolutely does not degrade women. If you actually research about it, Christianity and some other religions were (and sometimes still are) even worse than Islam in degrading women.
Some types of Christians (Quakers, some Catholic groups, some Orthodox) actually degrade women worse than Islam has ever done.
The Quran has been known to be one of the most insightful and true sacred books out there. It has been edited to the absolute minimum since it has been written, while other books (the Bible especially) has been known to have been edited heavily through time to accomodate their wants.
And to those people that think the ban on pork is stupid, you should know that pork was banned on the Torah and Bible (Leviticus) originally as well.
In my community, ISIS, the Talibans, and any other terroristic groups are strongly not accepted and we clearly shun them from Islam because they're going against the teachings of Allah and Muhammad (pbuh).
They say they're Muslim?Well, they're NOT.
It's not hard to say something.
They could also have said "We're Buddhists", "We're Christians" or any other religion that exists.
That doesn't mean the rest of that religious group follows.