From: momotaro@cwis.unomaha.edu (Bryan Stack)
Subject: Re: Swedes turned into Moslems
Organization: University of Nebraska at Omaha
Distribution: soc
Date: Fri, 2 Oct 1992 13:11:48 GMT

etxmow@garboc34.ericsson.se (Mats Winberg) writes:

>      This weekend I was taking the underground into the city to do some
>      shopping. When I came up to the platform at the suburb station
>      where I usually take the underground, there were already a few
>      persons there. Among other a young islamic woman with a little
>      child in a baby carriage. She had her head covered in some sort of
>      head cloth and very loose clothing so you couldn't see the shape
>      of her figure. She had that kind of thickset appearance so common
>      among immigrant women. I thought that it is ironic that it's not
>      the most beautiful women in Sweden that hide themselves from men's
>      eyes, but rather the ugliest. But then I was really astonished to
>      hear her talk perfect Swedish. It was an older woman nearby who
>      asked her about something and when she replied I realized that she
>      was in fact a native Swede.

>      I started wondering how it can be that a native Swedish woman
>      convert to Islam. Love, of course, but isn't it typical that it is
>      always the woman who adjust to the man and not vice versa. Even
>      when the man is the member of a minority culture. I was disturbed
>      over her being a Swede and also a Moslem, and even more disturbed
>      over the fact that I was disturbed. How come that you're disturbed
>      I said  to myself, you're for religious freedom and also positive
>      to immigration. The answer I guess, is that I always associated
>      Swedes (and Scandinavians) with tolerance, pragmatism and a
>      certain kind of non-religousness. Fundamentalism, Christian or
>      Islamic is just not part of our national heritage and to see a
>      Swede conform to mores that IMHO are not in line with what I would
>      call a free life is depressing. Perhaps some people can't live
>      with the uncertainess of freedom, but must escape into an absolute
>      belief, religous or political.

>      Mats Winberg
>      Stockholm, Sweden

Religion and fundamentalism are not exact equivalents.  A person may
become personally converted to a set of beliefs with an attendant way of
life without any inclination to impose either beliefs or lifestyle on
others.  Even the convert's offering to share information about their
faith need not be taken as a fundamentalist attempt at repressing everyone
into uniformity.  I speak from the curious point of view of one who is
now highly skeptical of all religions, and a subscriber to none, after
having lived in Denmark for two years as a missionary for the Mormon
church.  At the time I very much believed in the teachings of the Mormon
church, so much so that I was willing to intrude on the "personal space"
of strangers in a country where I was a foreigner, but I never wanted or
tried to impose my choices on others.  I operated from the assumption
that, given adequate information, reasonable, intelligent people would
come to the same conclusions and make the same choices as reasonable,
intelligent I had.  Ironically, since then I have come to believe other
things.  What am I getting at here?  People exercise their freedom in
ways that seem to work at the time.  Maybe you and I are escaping from
reality by not practicing religion . . . Bryan

>>>====================>
   Bryan Stack 
   Omaha, Nebraska, USA
   momotaro@cwis.unomaha.edu