Why not try a religion a month!?

[Rum]

If one set of woo doesn't work for you why not try a few more!?

From the BBC@: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13989013

Can you try a religion for a month?
By Catrin Nye BBC Asian Network

People usually think of religion in terms of a lifetime of commitment, but could you learn anything from trying one out for a month?

The call to prayer sounds from Eyup Mosque in Istanbul and local Muslims gather on the marble square outside for prayer. Men on one side, women the other, they crowd on mats for the Friday ritual.

Among them this week though are a few faces looking less than confident about what comes next.

Barbra Taylor, from Hawaii, and Terry Goldsmith, from Bury, Greater Manchester, are two of them. They're not Muslim, but guests for nine days.

This is part of "Muslim for a Month" - a programme from social enterprise group The Blood Foundation where participants get to "test-drive" a religion.

"Coming away to do this process, some of my friends have questioned it and said 'are you crazy? Aren't you going to the enemy camp?'," Taylor says.

"They feel anyone who's even remotely affiliated with the Muslim faith is a terrorist. I just felt this programme is interesting to me, I had an interest in Turkey and also I felt there was a misunderstanding about perhaps the second largest religion in the world."

For Goldsmith it was his changing surroundings at home that inspired the trip.

"One of the things is that there are a large number of Muslim people in the area I live in," he explains.

"I don't really know much about the people and I'd like to learn something of the religion and the culture."

Participants pray, fast, have lectures from Muslim scholars and spend time with local Turkish families. Most are here for their first taste of Islam, but some for a deeper understanding of the Sufi culture of Turkey.

H Masud Taj is an architect from Canada, brought up Muslim in India. There were a number of questions about why he needed to become "Muslim for a Month".

"My first response was that I was bemused, frankly," he says. "I was bemused that something that we take as sacred as religion could become like a shopping mall - try this out for a month.

"It really seemed a very post-modern phenomenon, but, once here it really envelops you with its own world view so I think it's fascinating."

Barbra Taylor encountered concern from some friends when she took part

Like many of the participants Taj felt that Turkey was the place to hold this course. It may not have worked in other Muslim countries.

There were tougher moments for participants; some women found being separated from the males in the group somewhat jarring. The organisers say this is all part of the experience.

"I mean these are very hot points that often if they're not dealt with can be blown out of all proportion," says Ben Bowler, of the Blood Foundation.

"The difference is sticking with that and working through that and certainly there is an element of how woman are treated in a religious sense in Islam, which is different from what we would expect in our culture, but this is the point of a cultural exchange if it was exactly the same it wouldn't be interesting."

Taylor says she's taking home a different outlook, although she won't be pushing it with her friends back in America. The subject's still too sensitive she says.

"I've really learnt a lot this trip. We've been fully immersed - praying in a Mosque, the ladies coming to show us what to do, really it's been a real eye opener for me in a positive way."

But the organisers say it's been a tough ride. The title "Muslim for a Month" has put many people off, with some parts of the travel industry refusing to promote it because of the unease surrounding Islam in some quarters.

"Sufi for a month" is going to start running as an alternative and plans for "Sikh for a week" are underway.

[Azathoth]

The Eyup mosque sounds like it should be in Bradford not Istanbul.

[The Red Fox]

I guess it depends on whether you spend that time reading and thinking about the fundamental texts and tenants of a religion, or whether you're simply seeking a new community to fall back on. Generally speaking; white, western converts to Islam tend to ignore a great deal of the Koran, or are only pointed to the parts which justify the daily rituals and the basic pillars of faith. With the breakdown of Christianity in the western world this sense of religious community is missing, and those who seek religious communities end up turning to ones which seemingly show cohesion, solidarity and more importantly numbers.

Having had first hand experience of Islam (though I never ended up converting), I can tell you that any potential new recruits are by no means shown the full picture of what is involved in being a Muslim, or any of the ridiculous texts of the Koran, but merely the idealised picture that many Muslims seem to hold of their own religion. This is why the number of converts who actually stick with Islam after a year or more tend to be quite small, the bulk of them usually cotton on around this time to the absurdities of the Islamic way of life (if you can call it that, existence would be a better term) and have gotten around to reading the rest of the text they swore was the word of Allah. Those that stay are generally those that studiously examined the Koran and would be taken in by religious bullshit to begin with.

In short; this is a propaganda exercise designed to generate some revenue. It will do little to actually help people see Islam as the bullshit it actually is.

If any one wants to look at the other religions, the best way to do it is to read the key text - the Bible, Koran, Dianetics, The God Delusion ( j/k ) etc - cover to cover. Same one month time period, but without the salesmanship.

[JimC]

I can imagine true believers of all types being deeply offended by the very idea.

It puts them in the same category as a hair style...

Me likey!

[Rum]

Suppose the boss god at any given time is actually decided democratically? The more worshippers they have, in other words, the more influential they are. That would explain why we don't see much of Zeus and Apollo these days, but rather more of ..er. um..

[FBM]

I did Buddhism for a year, and I'd say a month per religion is much more reasonable. Maybe even just a weekend...

[Audley Strange]

Been there, seen it done it, I spent a long time between my mid 20's early thirties cultivating many bizarre belief systems and abandoning them. The results were fascinating.

[Xamonas Chegwé]

It would be quite funny to throw yourself into islam for a month, adopting the clothes, hairstyles and dietary habits, becoming increasingly radicalised and vociferous in denouncing the west and then, on the last day of the month, show up at the mosque, thank them all for the experience, slap on a yarmulka and ask if any of them fancy joining you for a month of judaism.

[Audley Strange]

It would be quite funny to throw yourself into islam for a month, adopting the clothes, hairstyles and dietary habits, becoming increasingly radicalised and vociferous in denouncing the west and then, on the last day of the month, show up at the mosque, thank them all for the experience, slap on a yarmulka and ask if any of them fancy joining you for a month of judaism.

Go for it! Let us know how you get on with that.