Or was it the other way around?
I read an article from Jon Kelly on religion and the 2008 presidential election called "In God we trust". Posts like this combined with the news and YouTube, were the main sources of American lifestyle information for me on the other side of the Atlantic. Believe me; it gives a pretty horrifying image on what goes on in the brains of Americans.
It wasn't till I personally met travelling Americans, while travelling myself; I realized how my views were based on individual acts of individual people. This was just so you know I'm not anti-American or anything. The majority of people I have met, while I've lived in this wonderful country, are very smart and have big dreams to fill. But, A big BUT, There are the others. The others we as
Europeans (and even some Americans) do not understand. Just like many Americans don't understand the Muslim communities.Europeans are not nearly as religious as you here in the US (By we, I mean the majority of us). We do not have God TV, so many religious radio channels, celebrity preachers and so on. It’s more personal and more under the radar type of thing. It does not mean we don’t believe in anything. Just that no one, who would even say "God bless [insert country's name here]", would make it far in any elections. Actually in my opinion when mentioning God in politics reflects that the candidate will put their own religion as a priority, when dealing with others.
So our separation of state and church is strong, but we do still teach religion in all schools. The difference is, we only teach “what others believe”, not “what you should believe”. Religions are intact in all of our cultures so deeply, that we cannot ignore them, but we still shouldn't decide based on religion, whether we like a person or not.
Bors, Matt. Muslim In America. July, 2008. www.mattbors.com
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