Do you feel Islam is more so a religion (comparable to modern christianity), or a lifestyle philosophy? One thing I notice amongst people of the Islamic faith is a broad range of thought forms ( in a sense to say, more intellectual freedom to discern for self) than christianity where I personally feel that a lot of things are decided for you before you "practice" the religion for yourself.
The concept of religion has certainly changed over time, so I'll try to be clear in my answer, and I hope Wooly will chime in on this one.
Islam is not a religion in the sense that you go the mosque every Friday for prayer and that's it. It's not something that one should consider occasionally, but rather all the time.
In this regard it is certainly a way of life. Islam is not a guide to only the spirituality aspect of ones life, but rather every part. It has a unique ability in that in can and has caused huge changes in a populations attitude, actions, morality, and what an average day looks like.
if you would decide or not ever decide to be a muslim, would a muslim family accept it?
An American Muslim family would on average accept it, just as a Christian or Jewish family would. Many would struggle with the decision, but overall over time I can't foresee any difference between how an average Muslim family would react or any other religious group.
I have a couple of questions:
How do you feel about Malcolm X and Afrocentric Muslims in general?
How do you feel about several people in history claiming to be the Madhi?
Malcolm X has done great things for society in general. I don't know too much about the Nation of Islam and their practices so I won't comment on that. Malcolm X has done great things, like I said but the idea that "by any means necessary" is not necessarily an Islamic value at all.
The ends do not justify the means if one is speaking from a truly Islamic perspective. Murder in the name of righteousness is still murder. MLK Jr.'s perspective on the movement was much more in tune with Islamic principles than Malcolm X's.
The Mehdi is very interesting stuff, and to date there have been plenty of people claiming to be him. One of which was quite convincing in the mid-70s, which actually led to quite a big conflict and ended up with a lot of Muslims losing their lives.
But the thing about the Mehdi is that his coming is a major sign of the apocalypse, and as such there are other signs that should immediately follow. To date, obviously, these signs have not followed, proving that those previous instances were all false. Very interesting stuff though.
