The religion

3- The religion


Religion is always the victim of ignorance. Misinterpretation of religious teachings within ignorant societies leads to wrongful application of their teachings.

No matter what religion a Middle Eastern male is from, his behaviors, expectations and dominance stays the same.Simply because the society is mostly governed by customs and not by religious implementation.
Apart from worship and family laws that differ from one religion to the other, people of the Middle East lived according to customs.
Ex: Honor crimes were practiced amongst all sectors, no matter what religion they follow.

Middle Eastern societies are formed mainly by Muslims population; Christians and Jews lived within the societies and their customs are in many Middle Eastern countries similar to those of the Muslim sector.


I will be speaking mainly about Islam since it is the dominant religion in the area, and it influenced the lives of other religious sectors of the society.

Islam to begin with, is a peaceful religion. Its follower’s cohabited the area with the rest of the population peacefully, Christians and Jews felt safe and their communities flourished, adapted and adopted the Muslim’s life style.

Religions in General gave male the responsibilities of providing and protecting his family. Humans misunderstanding Gods words, used their interpretation to the male advantage.
In Islam, Male and Female are equal before God in duties and responsibilities, so why when punishments and rewards are equal, society treated men differently, why did it accept certain behaviors from its male component and condemned them from the female. This is where the misunderstanding of religious teachings is manifested.

Islam gave women freedom, gave them independence and total control of their finances.
It gave them right to work, to knowledge and to education.
It gave the women right to chose, accept or denounce a suitor.
It gave the woman right to end an unhappy, distressful marriage without consequences.
To put it simply, Islam gave the woman complete control over her life. respect, education, marriage, Finance and divorce, the women have it all under God's law.

Unfortunately, in ignorant societies those rights were abolished under the name of religion. Men abused their rights, they abused God’s teachings
For instance, many argue about polygamy in Islam.
Polygamy in history was a norm. Men married multiple ladies in order to have many sons. When Islam came it limited that arrangement to maximum of four and only under very severe circumstances. Such as the first wife blessing, fair treatment to all, and loving them equally and one can never love two people equally. Islam did not forbid multiple marriages at once, but made sure it is regulated and is hard to achieve. Male on the other hand chose to disregard the teaching and only accommodated the part of being able to marry four women.
Inheritance law by instance is meant to keep the family ties strong, to make the brother responsible for his sisters’ well being, to keep family closely knotted.

Religious teaching whether well understood and implemented or wrongly interpreted played a major role in shaping the Middle Eastern Male. Along with traditions and customs, the three different yet same religion followers of the area were shaped into very special distinctive characters.