Just wondering if anyone in that area has interactions with Islam, which has similar promises of numerous virgins after death - for men only, of course.

Well thank god that rule only applies to men!


Good grief! What the hell would I want with I don't know how many virgin men!??

I suppose it would be like attending a singles ward surrounded by all them virgin boys.

I googled Muslim Utah and this is ONE of the hits I got: http://www.utislamiccenter.org/

BYU has a fairly large Middle-Eastern student population. A lot of the rules -- no sex, no drinking, modesty, etc. -- appeal to the parents typically covering student tuition.

Matter of fact, the last car I sold, about 4 years ago, went to a Jordanian BYU student.

There are plenty.

Year's ago I worked right near a Mosque in West Valley. And worked with a guy who used to be Mormon but had converted to Islam.

Mormonism not crazy enough?

So true. I marvel at those who move from one brand of crazy to the next. To each their own I guess.

...since my initial reply was 86'd, here's a more "politically correct" reply.

..."I would have a slight concern that a certain portion of my neck and head areas would be in jeopardy, if I said anything negative or hostile regarding Islam or Mohammed in a public venue...I don't care if Salt Lake City is a welcoming or receptive environment."

There is a large (maybe 150 units) apartment complex in SLC on Highland near 3900 S that is jam-packed with Muslims.
The bus stop is supervised by a religously garbed man as the women and children come and go.
Only the males ever use the fun facilities on the complex' grounds such as the pool and play areas.
The females sit on the ground in small groups and babysit many little ones.
I'd guesstimate at least 300 Muslim in this complex alone.

It is called Islamic Center of Twin Falls and the address is 455 Addison Ave., Twin Falls, ID 83301, USA. There is a newspaper article on http://magicvalley.com/lifestyles/holy-house/article_6d971db8-4942-5b33-9813-a3f0b6ac1139.html .

This I know 'cause my Google tells me so.

It depends where you look, but some neighborhoods in SLC, West Valley City, and South Salt Lake are almost swarming with 'em. Many women wearing full abaya with hijab- once in a while with the complete gear including the niqab. I've seen men wearing galabiyyas (myself, I'd call it a nightshirt) and the sharwal kameez topped with a dapper kufi.
Since 9/11, there has been a major Muslim influx into the SLC area. Perhaps naive do-gooders here are behind it, not realizing that Islam is even nuttier than the Mormonism or Catholicism that motivates them, and dangerous to boot.

Many of these folks are refugees. The fact that they are settling here has nothing to do with Mormonism, Catholicism, or some weird metric by which we can judge one religion to be nuttier than another.

It is ridiculous that you think they are dangerous.

I don't think they themselves are dangerous. I do think Islam is, though, and importing large numbers of them may turn out to be a huge mistake for this country. Europe is finding that out the hard way. There are moderate muslims, but Islam is not moderate.

My dear spouse is technically Muslim, but abandoned the faith soon after arriving here in SLC. Not dangerous at all, but still kinda scary when angered :)

And comments like the ones on this thread dont have anything to do with Muslim hatred of the West?

Islam is actually a lot more like Protestantism, in that there is no central controlling structure - Lutherans, Methodists, Episcopalians, etc., each have their own doctrines while using the same book (Bible). There are many interpretations of it, from the extreme to the more liberal (just like Christianity). For example, the Queen of Jordan does not cover her head at all -- she seems to be a "modern woman" in every way, as are some American, Turkish and Lebanese Muslim women.

I'm friends with a Muslim leader there. The guy and his family are from Pakistan, originally. In fact, he is a Pashtun tribesman, and he and his brother own successful business in the valley. They are living the dream and are well-integrated into American life, and active in the Khadeeja Islamic Centre in SLC. I went to Friday prayers there only once, and it was like going to a nice Christian church, in that everyone noticed my new face and introduced themselves, telling me they hoped I'd stick around. Nice thing about Khadeeja is that it has a real diverse Islamic group from North Africa, Middle East, Bosnia, Albania, Turkey, South Asia, and Indonesia/Malaysia.

Islam- the religion of peace.(BS big time) The goal of Islam is world domination under the rule of a caliph. I don't believe what they say because they do not honor their word with non Muslims. So I take all that they say with a grain of salt.

Like Christians haven't gone through a similar period.

I met an Iranian in Utah, but he sort of beat around the bush about his Islam roots.. He told me he wanted to be a Zoroastrian. Zoroastrianism was the earlier religion of Iran before Muslims took over. BTW, Christianity is rife with Zoroastrian influence because the Persians dominated Palestine for a very long time. The idea of Satan comes from that.

Well, except for the one that shot up Trolley Square.

I used to have Bosnian neighbors. They were very nice.

Way back when (I was in SLC), I knew a guy and his brother from Iran who were Muslim. We all worked at the same place. I'll call the guy Hassan and his brother Hassan's brother because that was not their real names.
Anyway, I had a neighbor who was from Iran but not Muslim, (she converted to the CULT.)

I thought it might be fun to give him and his brother a birthday cake (since their birthdays were only 3 days apart). I got the Iranian neighbor to write "Happy Birthday, Best Wishes" or Something like that in Farsi. Then I took it to Albertson's bakery and had them write it on the cake. They copied it exactly.

When I took it to work and gave it to them at the little party we had for them (small company), Hassan looks at it and jumps up and down and says "You learned my language! Wow, how did you do that?"

I said "I didn't learn your language. I had someone else write it and paid someone else to write it on the cake." He was surprised that I knew anyone else from Iran.

It was sort of funny. The point of all of this is that he was surprised that I knew anyone else from Iran. At that time, I doubt there were many Islam in Utah, but I think there are more now.

Wrong place. Sorry.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2015 01:41AM by Tristan.

Ugh did it again. Sorry.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 01/17/2015 01:42AM by Tristan.

I have been NeXT to Americans in Europe. They are usually nice. I have not seen any of them carrying drones around, but you never know, do you?

There's a big mosque in West Valley. I was going to go to the field trip for my World Religions class in college but couldn't make it.

Saudi Arabia is not representative of all of Islam anyway. It is much more.conservative.

I agree with a few points but the wife and I will not be going to Syria or Iran to find out just how liberal they are. Like Mormonism away from Utah and Southeast Idaho you tend to find a little more liberal mindset.

Muslim youth living in America aren't a good example of the restrictions found in Islam. If you saw how women are treated in most Islamic countries you wouldn't think that they were more liberal than Mormons.

I keep seeing such contradictory reports about Islam... people know wonderful Muslims in their neighborhoods, and then we see the murders in Paris and even Sydney. and in their own lands:

*Man sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for setting up the Saudi Arabian Liberals website*

"Raif Badawi is brought before the crowd and whipped relentlessly 50 times with a long, hard cane. The blogger, who was sentenced to 10 years in prison and 1000 lashes for setting up the Saudi Arabian Liberals website, was publicly flogged last week after Friday prayers when he was lashed 50 times outside al-Jafali mosque in Jeddah. Shackled throughout the lashing, Raif had to listen to the crowd shouting, “Allah-hu Akbar! Allah-hu Akbar! He will endure the horrific punishment all over again - as he will every Friday for the next five months in addition to being locked up for the next ten years.”"


http://www.news.com.au/world/middle-east/raif-badawi-to-be-publicly-flogged-every-week-for-months-after-insulting-islam/story-fnh81ifq-1227185842850

It seem contradictory, but yeah, Muslims who live in an Islamic country do tend to be very peaceful. They are very conservative though and live in a world that is different than ours. American Muslims, especially teenagers, have a lot more in common with American values than they do with say, for example, Afghani Muslim values.

It is a cultural thing. They don't value individualism, free speech, or minority rights the same way we do. They don't associate those things with peace or goodness. They don't see punishments like lashing as something out of the ordinary (or unpeaceful) for pushing the limits of speech or for using social media to bring western values into the country.

I personally don't agree with it, and I don't think that it makes them great people, but it is highly cultural and highly ingrained and I don't think it makes them bad people necessarily.