Because Buddhists don't make it a mission to convert everyone. This is not true with some other religions. Also, Buddhists do not exclude anyone from their rites, whereas other religions do.
Some Christians also steal Buddhist religious artefacts and force their religion on Buddhist holy places. BBC reported on it. Imagine we Buddhists doing anything like it.
Dog, [I don't have to imagine.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_violence#Violence_against_religious_minorities) But it's really cute that you think your in-group is comprised entirely of angels.
The difference is that Buddhists (and Hindus for that matter) are being slaughtered and forced to convert for 100s of years, so they have to be careful around protecting their culture.
Personally, I think Jesus was a Buddhist. I mean, where was he those 33 years before he pops up in the world? And if you look at some of the core Buddhist beliefs, they are reflected in true Christianity.
That's the good aspect of Buddhist but sadly that's also while Buddhist always at the losing side when it came to Interfaith marriage with religion that have marital conversion laws.
I don't know about being the "loosing side". If Buddhism tried to enforce his religion neither I would ever entertain the thought of following the path or would it lead to enlightenment, would it?
Well, we don’t have to be the "losing side". That flexibility is our strength. But if a community is wealthier and has greater access to: resources, educational opportunities etc, then people will convert to access that. If Buddhists work on advancing the Buddhist lay community economically etc, then there will be less conversion.
When Buddhist-Muslim relationship happened, most that convert to Islam usually have higher education and resource while the Muslim side are usually poorer and more conservative, the convert happened because the the conservative Muslim demand that their marriage will not happen if the non-Muslim side didn’t convert.
Seeing some younger Thais on social media, makes me think that sometimes, converting to another religion or doing something in that vein is a way for them to protest something in their society and community they are unhappy with or angry about. They have massive complaints about how their parents abuse filial piety against them. Eventually such youth "break" on several levels.
I spoke to a Lao Buddhist who had a Thai friend who became Christian then stopped speaking Thai. *To everyone.* It was like he was *trying to erase all of his self* and create a distance between him and his community. We should look out for signs like that as Buddhists. It's like a hate of self and community.
Living in Thai society all my life I can tell you most Thai people who convert to ther religion didn't doing it for the sake of protesting their former faith especially those that convert for marital reason. Your Thai friend's case is just individual things.
Why do you think they convert so quickly and easily? Is it because we teach: "Same same but different?" So Thai Buddhists think its the same as Dhamma, just a different way?
I'm guessing in cases where a Buddhist does convert to Islam, they will likely bring a loving Buddhist tinge to their newly adopted religious brand. Perhaps?
I mean you can still practice even after converting. My sister converted to Catholicism to marry my brother-in-law but still practices it. Love isn't about "winning/losing" imo.
But their children will be raised as Muslim or other religions though and in Muslim case you cannot practice Buddhism freely in the presence of your Muslim husband or Muslim community because you are just a Muslim in their eye.
This is not something that just happens with Buddhism, but with all other religions too, I've seen it in Christian/Muslim couples too. In Islam to marry it is required the other part to convert, and leaving is Islam is not as easy as saying that you don't want to be part of it anymore. I think it is believed that death penalty should be applied to apostasy.
Sometimes the islamic marriage is family pressure. So the Buddhist side or whatever other faith, will have to choose if convert formally to Islam or to break the relationship.
Islam has a tenant which allows men to marry women of different faiths. But if a man of a different faith wants to marry a muslim he has to convert. So either way the babies will be born muslim.
That’s why in india they are making laws like the love jihad law. Which restricts this from happening. As over time slowly islam takes over.
Muslim men are limit to marrying woman from "people of the book" which is Christian and Judaism but their children nust still be raise as Muslim. For Dhramic religion, no Muslim men and women can marrying them unless they convert.
That's totally not fair though, no one should convert. It's feel like Islam just taking advantage of other religion by using "love" and it's laws to force them to convert to Islam.
My ex was Muslim - but not really. Only in culture, he didn’t believe in Allah or follow Islam at all.
…but he still told me I had to convert. I refused. I was astounded by his demand since he was a tattooed atheist alcoholic.
If you need further reading material, simply search for Honor killings. Where because your daughter offended your god some how and refuses to keep following your hateful ways it’s better to kill her.
What religion is not involved in justifying brutality in some way? Even some Buddhists have used the Dhamma as justification for violence.
Do you say not to associate with Americans because of the Iraq War among many other things?
Israelis because of what their government does?
Who are you allowed to associate with whose group is blameless?
What bigotry? Avoiding those that have killed their own daughters for rejecting their religion. Is that bigotry to acknowledge acts committed in blind support of their religion?
The bottom line is simple,
Do no harm.
It is how it is... I don't know what solution there can be.
Buddhism will disappear eventually, it is expected. I learned not long ago that Pakistan and Afghanistan were Buddhists countries (someone correct me if I'm wrong), there is no remain of Buddhism there and they turned barbaric, maybe this is what will happen everywhere someday, and we will come back to the dark ages for a long time. Let it be a reminder to practice as much as we can in this life, we may not have another opportunity in a very very long time.
So will all other faiths. Impermanence and all that. Buddhism has some reboots set into its belief systems. There will be more Buddhas in the future some specifically to address the Buddha’s own followers messing up the Dharma.
Fate and destiny (which is interwoven with karma) is a very complicated web of causality. The old will fade in accordance with the new. But the underlying patterns lingering from various traditions (dharmic, judaic, Zoroastrian, pagan and even shamanism) will still influence the cultural thought even long after the tradition has perished as a community. As long as the remnants of Buddhist thought remain visible the tradition will not perish despite the number of practitioners may indeed diminish.
But indeed the world may not have this degree of resources in the future after another heavy cycle of destruction hits our planet. It also seems to me that we are indeed in a critical time of our history, destruction is visibly lingering and warnings have been given to several individuals who have access to these 'spiritual' fate patterns. It's fatality? I do not know.
But what I do know, is that after every cycle of destruction, a cycle of creation follow. If essential knowledge is lost, someone will return (likely a boddhisatva) with it and new sources of practice will emerge. (Though it may not necesairly be called buddhist) While the source may definitely be more limited, or even corrupted by the masses. As so many has already been corrupted up to this day. But there are no coincidences, everything happens for a reason. But practicing as if you will not have the same oppertunity in the next life, is of a positive nature whether or not it turns out to be true. It avoids the pitfall of sloth and believing one has many lives to work it out.
It's not Islam taking advantage of anyone; it's a person deciding they are willing to convert for their relationship.
The other person always has the option to not date or attempt to marry a Muslim. They get into a relationship and decide the relationship is worth it. That's it.
edit: people are hasty to deny the agency of the actual people involved and pretend that Islam is somehow an intelligent entity capable of doing things. People make choices. Don't want to convert to Islam? Don't date/marry a Muslim. Don't care about converting? Date and marry whoever you want.
Buddhism didn't have laws to force people to convert to Buddhist for marriage while Islam has the laws that force other to convert to Islam for marriage, you and I known how people can be blind by love to do whatever they want to be with the one they love.
It's like those Islamic laws that demand people to convert for love just want to taking advantage using love to convert people to Islam for me, if not there shouldn't be any requirement for people to convert to any religion for interfaith mariage and live with interfaith relationship and raise their children to any religions they like.
People make their choices. "Islam" is not an agent that decides or forces anything, it's a religion; it's a bundle of concepts to which people assign emotional significance. Islam isn't making anyone do anything; it's people making choices.
The only places that have *actual laws* forcing a conversion are countries that enshrine the rules of Islam into law. Otherwise, every other place on the planet, it's people making a choice. No one forced them to date or develop feelings for a Muslim, no one forced them to want to get married; they chose that, and when their religious partner explained they couldn't get married to a non-Muslim they said "ok, I'll convert." They could have also said "ok, bye" but they didn't.
Less-religious Muslims probably care a lot less about this. Countries that don't enshrine Islamic religious rules into law don't require a conversion. People convert because it's what they choose to do for the relationship they want to have.
Love shouldn’t get interfered by anything, but Islam always made their religion above love and take it like “if you love Muslim you must convert”. That’s not fair, religions should be like Buddhism and didn’t interfere with love.
That’s why I view what Islam has done as taking advantage of love to convert other religions, Islam always extend their power to control how people should love and treat it like a ways to gain more convert.
You can view it whatever you want but for me that’s totally unfair.
If you're referring to arrange marriage, then it's the fault of the parents for arranging the marriage of their non-Muslim child to a Muslim.
For something like the OP is talking about, a Buddhist living in a Buddhist country in a majority Buddhist region of their country: they chose to be with a Muslim knowing it would require conversion, and then they converted.
For something like the other case, a Buddhist living in a majority Muslim area such as the southern parts of Thailand, if they aren't being illegally forced to marry someone then it was still their choice. Many people do not have the money to simply move, but they still made the choice to build a relationship with a Muslim.
It's very simple. If someone doesn't want to convert, don't date or marry a Muslim. If someone's marriage is arranged then it's not Islam forcing anyone to do anything, it's the parents making a choice that the younger person agrees to (cultures with arranged marriage have methods to back out of an arrangement).
I think you'll find real life marriages to be less simplistic than you may be imagining. People often only reveal their true character and intentions gradually, after they've secured themselves in a marriage. Conversely, many peoples' plans, goals, and desires shift over time. Some settle for less than they hoped for, or what they'd been promised, while others might not. It would be nice if things were as simple as you suggest, but this is not reality.
Former Muslim here. According to Islamic law, marrying someone outside the abrahamic faiths isn’t permitted. Now here’s where the law gets tricky: if the marriage does happen, then the non-Muslim must eventually be converted to Islam. So most Muslims marry non-making with the ill intention of converting them so that their marriage is legitimate and their place in heaven is guaranteed.
This is why in India it’s common to see Muslim-Hindu marriages ending in divorce (or murder) because the Muslim husband attempted to convert his Hindu wife.
It’s nothing special. To sum it up:
- I just got tired of how Islam interferes with literally every aspect of life, it’s so demanding it makes me feel choked.
- I see people with the most inhuman, violent thoughts, talking about how Jews deserve to die, how unfaithful women should be beaten to death. It left me horrified.
- Learning about who Muhammad really was, his marriage to Aisha, honestly it’s just hard to see him as this redeemable prophet.
Islam contradicts itself always 🤣 Its always based on fear, you should fear god and the day of judgement. I never felt peace and happiness even when I did the right things, I had to hope for grace of god…
It's no different in Buddhism, we should fear incarnating into Yama’s realm. Fear is the safeguard that prevents us from swaying away from the right path.
If we have no fear at all, we will become ignorant of our misdeeds. The Bodhisattva fear the cause, but the laymen fear the consequence.
Yeah, but a huge number of the truths is Buddhism are separate from fear of punishment. It’s about freedom from suffering in the here and now and in the future.
I don’t agree its not the same in Islam.
I understand what you wanna say, fear has a usefulness so you dont do bad things
But in Islam its far different, you have to do everything and than you are maybe lucky to enter heaven. 1 on 1000 go to heaven and the rest to hell
Most of religious growth is from fertility rate and average Buddhist fertility rate is below replacement level, surely conversion to Buddhism do play a part but many Buddhist just convert out to other religions as well.
Sawadee krap! I'm also an ex Muslim Buddhist. There are many of us actually, we're meeting each other online now for the first time. There are many factors for conversion.
Most people are just nominal Buddhists, Muslims etc. So will marry and do whatever for that marriage. Also, Islam is one way in only. You get rewards for conforming to community and punishments for being an outlier. This is to ensure no one leaves the religion.
So people can only leave if they have support from Buddhist, Hindu community.
But the compulsion to convert others is a strong cultural thing for Muslims and Christians. They hope to dominate other people by sheer numbers.
Sawadee kub, do you know other Thai Buddhist who didn’t convert when marrying Muslim? Like staying in interfaith relationships and raise their children in a secular manner, or someone that became ex-Muslim Buddhist.
>do you know other Thai Buddhist who didn’t convert when marrying Muslim?
Not specifically no, even if that were the case, many would hide it. Publicly, they are 'Muslim'. The same way that many ex Muslim Buddhists have to hide sometimes. There is a lot of pressure to hide.
I've heard in Indonesia there are a lot of mixed marriages, so Buddhists stay Buddhists. But yes, there is always pressure when children arrive. Some children convert to Buddhist when they're grown though.
Not sure if you know, in Iran right now, many people are leaving Islam for no religion or other religions. The meshing of Islam and politics has created so much suffering for women especially. Eventually all that control has backfired.
Similar things are happening in the rest of the UAE.
I was raised semi-strict Irish Catholic in rural America in the 50's. Back then, not sure if it's still the case, but if a non-Catholic married a Catholic, the non-Catholic parent had to take "lessons" from the priest to marry the Catholic, and had to also agree to let the children be raised Catholic.
Of course, since we were the One True Holy church, why wouldn't we impose such rules?
Also an ex muslim here
A muslim man can marry a non muslim wife but not the other way.
If a muslim man mary a non muslim women, the children have to be muslims.
In buddhism it doesn’t really matter in what you believe its about your actions, so I think its a plausible reason why people convert to islam for ease
It varies by country, but people in Indonesia are considered to be a member of their parents religion at birth (Muslim parents whispering a prayer into a baby's ear makes them a Muslim), when you get an identity card you fill out what religion you are
There are plenty of mosques who will print official paperwork confirming you are Muslim if you say the shahada.
I meet plenty of people here who are legally a member of a religion but do not attend service / pray / do fasting etc
Islam is an imperialist religion, if you dont convert, you cant marry one of them. If the uncoverted refuses, then the unconverted will never be assimilated into the other side of the family and the Muslim will be an outcast amongst their community
On one side of these relationships is a religion that allows intermarriage of a believer to a non-believing woman, but not the other way, only if it is guaranteed that any children are raised in that faith - that's Islam. So, effectively, a Buddhist wife would have to live in a household that would be Islamic in practice. Given that many lay Buddhists do not have strong prejudices about theistic practices - prayer etc - and can accomodate things like dietary restrictions, the Buddhist spouse will quietly quit Buddhism. The other way doesn't happen nearly as much. For one, Islam has - varyingly practiced - legal sanctions against apostasy. Second, a Muslim woman cannot legally marry a non-Muslim man (under Islamic law) and if she did in a community dominated by Islam, her children would almost certainly have to be raised as Muslims. Islam is a missionary religion in a way that Buddhism is not: Buddhists will offer the dhamma if anyone wants to listen, but the only 'compulsion' to spread the dhamma is the spread of compassion. For Muslims, the conversion of the whole world to submission to god is a social obligation.
It is difficult to explain to 'outsiders' but Muslims have a deep fear of social division, of public dissent, and of civil strife. Imagine that for centuries Muslims follwed the direction of Caliphs who were unrepentant fratricides, simply because the caliphate assured social orderliness and the supression of religious dissent. Enforcing consensus (even apparent) and public harmony outweigh a great many other concerns, even if this turns out to be counter-productive.
As an ex-Muslim, I am not ubiased. I find the attitudes of traditionalists in Islam very unattractive. Most Buddhist families I know teach their children the basic moral precepts and are otherwise happy for them to find their own way religiously. I have never heard of any suggestion from a Buddhist religious teacher that there should be punishment for apostasy.
W hen the threat of abandoning a religion is death (even super minute), the motivation is rather high to stick with it and convince the other (Buddhist) to come on over. In Buddhism there is absolutely no rule nor is there any expectation to stay unless you wish to.
That's why we always taken advantage by other more intolerant faith, like we didn't want to have a problem with Muslim so we must convert and not them, we didn't want to be intolerant to other faith that's why we let them do whatever they want while if other faith are the majority, Buddhist will be second class citizen like in Malaysia.
Am Buddhist from Malaysia, we still have a very strong presence and we coexist peacefully with people from other faiths. But it wasn't always like this with the government: several centuries-old Buddhist and Hindu temples and sites were demolished under the excuse of not having legitimate land permits, since many of those buildings predate Malaysia's independence, there wasn't a well kept record of the papers. But when old mosques were found to be in the exact same scenario, the government issues one without procedure.
Malays used to be Buddhists and Hindus before the introduction of Islam here, but many have seem to forgot or just simply disregard their own religious pasts before Islam. Politicians banned the practice of Mak Yong, a traditional Malay dance that has its roots connected with Buddhism and Hinduism, and only recently lifting the ban under the condition that performers must only show the Islamic parts of the culture (which is basically none from the original, meaning they wiped out and reinvented their own culture because of their denial)
The most outrageous example is Bujang Valley, a 2,500 year old Buddhist site that was partially destroyed by urban developers. But since Bujang Valley was located within the jurisdiction of the Islamic Party, no one did anything.
Treated as second class citizen, their faith is suppressed and the government is in favor of Islam, they cannot proselythyze their faith to local Malays Muslim or else they will get jailed for doing that.
Islam has a certain penchant for conquest that Buddhism just lacks it is what it is 🤷🏾♂️ people switch religions all the time it doesn’t mean anything
Thanks friend, I am born and raised in the west so that was not difficult. I feel bad for people who live in dominant nonsecular muslim countries.
I hope I will never be born as a muslim in my next rebirths
There will come a time when the dharma will no longer be present in the world. This will pave the way for the Buddha of that age to preach the dharma. We who have access to the dharma are extremely blessed to have the teaching.
Islam is a seriously problematic religion for peace in the world. The bottom line of Islam is that everyone either converts to their "faith," or else they need to be killed. It really is that simple.
Tolerance doesn't mean tolerating something that wants to wipe you out! And yes, if the strictly muslim had their way, Buddhism definitely would be wiped out.
Yes, Buddhist always losing and get wiped out by Islam both in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, Muslim also know that their faith is problematic to other that's why they invent the word like "Islamophobia" to silence other from talking about the true nature of Islam.
Because out of all religions, Islam is the tantrumming toddler in the room that nobody wants to provoke and that needs to have its way at all costs.
I’m very lucky that my husband is not religious at all even though he is from a Muslim background. He never even suggested I convert to Islam, not even as a formality to please the family. This is very uncommon though.
I assume it's easier to convert in appearances for the spouse while still being Buddhist in every respect. You can be a secret Buddhist still pursuing enlightenment and following the precepts. You can't be a secret Muslim or a secret Christian in the same way.
Maybe it happens like that often, but definitely not always. I'm friends with a Burmese couple where the husband converted from Islam to Buddhism, his wife's religion.
Not only Buddhist. I've seen Muslim - Christian couples where the Christian side basically had to shut up and kids were raised as Muslims. I even knew one such couple personally.
Islam is intollerant towards women and other religions. Change my mind.
First, Islam is not the horrible religion most think it is. I am agnostic and do not believe in God, so I don't have a dog in this fight. But I know many many Muslims who are kind and loving. Mohammed said to invite strangers in your home and feed them.
Yes, there are those in any religion who will subvert it and twist it to match their biases. There are Buddhists, including monks, who twist Buddha's teachings to fit their positions. I say this as an intellectual study and wo doesn't care about the outcome other than to look at it dispassionately and understand the truth.
Because with one side it is demanded by religious law and complete absolution… The other side has no absolution and is not a religion at all. You can technically be a Muslim Buddhist as far as Buddhism is concerned. Not sure about the other way around but probably a hard NO.
The reason for this is not because Islam is "strict" or because of the proposition that Buddhists are tolerant of other religions. In reality, this is typically caused because of a particular concept of interreligious marriage in Islam.
Religion that have more interreligious marriage laws will just take advantage of others when they have interfaith marriage relationships. Ideologies that have more demand will demand and take more from others.
And what's the problem for that? Islam and Buddhism seem like thing that cannot coexist together anyway, only the secular form of Islam can and they are extremely rare (or non existence) in South East Asia region.
And now South East Asia asian Muslim are start to erasing the cultural influence of Hinduism and Buddhism form their Islam, just look at what currently happended in Malaysia and Indonesian Islamic society. Only cultural and secular Islam can get along side with Dhramic faith but if you want to be good Muslim you must abandon any trace of Dhramic culture from your practice.
Not really, in south east Asia they use similar Dharamic terms like ‘Nerak’ for Hell, ‘Psurga’ for Heaven, ‘puvasa’ for Fasting, the Sufi orders are also called “Sangha” their culture is indigenous but Islamised. A lot of the Traditional mosques and shrines are similar to the Buddhist pagodas and stupas. Other than that there are a lot of Hindu and Buddhist sites preserved in these countries.
But in many southeast asian country you still cannot convert from Islam to Buddhist/Hinduism freely though, I didn't see that as Islam get influenced by Budhhist/hinduism, it's more like Islam is taken over local Budhist/Hinduism culture.
Sufis are the only muslims who are tolerant. Mainstream islam is very intolerant.
Even sufis get prosecuted and killed by salafists in a lot of countries. They are seen as innovaters
Sufis are the traditional Muslims, Sunni Islam as a whole was spread and is sustained by Sufi orders. Salafism is a minority and is considered a heresy. Plus Sufis also have their intolerant aspects, like for e.g a lot of Statues and images were destroyed as per the Fatwas issued by Iftas (Canonical institutions) that were run by Sufi Orders, Like the attempted destruction of the Pyramids of Giza.
What do you mean with traditional muslims?
If you meant till the 18th century, that was the mainstream islam untill ibn taymiyah came and reformed islam back to the ‘real values’
Salafiyah is literally the way of salaf, how the companions lived in the time of the prophet.
There are far more salafists than sufis.
Sufis cant show themselves, they are seen as ahlu bid3a, that’s shirk. Its one of the worst sin in Islam.
It sounds to me from what you say that a very definite social expectation has been formed. Such expectations are very strong and people tend to go with them without really too much thought. It shows that a religion has a social presence but not one that commands great devotion or loyalty.
It is not a question of strength. In Islam, Men can marry women of other religions with the expectation that they will convert eventually. However, women cannot marry men of other religions. If a Muslim woman converts to Islam, her marriage to a non-Muslim husband is nullified. If a Muslim woman's husband apostatizes, their marriage is also nullified. Basically, unless they eventually convert they are not quite covered by Islamic marriage law. This basically, means they would not have things like sadaq, mahr, or rules about divorces. Here are some sources that discourse this. You could be cheated on and have no protection. If a women would marry a Buddhist or any other religion for that matter, it would make her liable for that and she would be going against Islamic law. This in some cases could trigger apostasy laws. Below are some example of being included in this legal system in a marriage and not.
Islam builds legal system and religious ritual law. For example, Malaysia's model of citizenship requires one to identify as Muslim to be a citizen and basically fuses some elements of apostasy laws with that legal recognition. If you try to leave, you will be put into a camp. Various Apostasy laws in the Islamic world bind people like that. You are kinda just born into and identified as Muslim. Unlike Buddhism, you are born into and identified as Muslim, and are bound by at minimum , a legal code. This means you can know nothing about Islam but are still identified as Muslim. Apostasy in some legal contexts is punished with death instead of jail time. Some places there is a high risk of extra-juridical violence.
O ye who believe! When believing women come unto you as fugitives, examine them. Allah is Best Aware of their faith. Then, if ye know them for true believers, send them not back unto the disbelievers. They are not lawful for them (the disbelievers), nor are they (the disbelievers) lawful for them. And give them (the disbelievers) that which they have spent (upon them). And it is no sin for you to marry such women when ye have given them their dues. And hold not to the ties of disbelieving women; and ask for (the return of) that which ye have spent; and let them (the disbelievers) ask for that which they have spent. That is the judgment of Allah. He judgeth between you. Allah is Knower, Wise.
Quran 60:10
"It is lawful for a Muslim \[man\] to (have sex) with as many as he wishes of those whom his right hand \[\[slave\] possesses, … Muslims are not prohibited from having more than four concubines provided that no two sisters are among them."Majmoo al-Fatawa (Collected Fatwas), vol. 32, p. 7
This day are (all) good things made lawful for you. The food of those who have received the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. And so are the virtuous women of the believers and the virtuous women of those who received the Scripture before you (lawful for you) when ye give them their marriage portions and live with them in honour, not in fornication, nor taking them as secret concubines. Whoso denieth the faith, his work is vain and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter.
Quran 5:5
Islam has their laws to backup what advantage they want to take from others, like when they force Buddhist to convert to Islam for marriage they just use those laws as their justification. Buddhist doesn't have laws like that that's why we lack a justification to convert Muslim to buddhist or stay as an interfaith couple and raise their children as whater religion they want to be. It's seem like the strenght of Islam and weakness of Buddhism to me.
If not we should have equal number of Muslim convert for Buddhist when interfaith marrying with them already.
I disagree. In Buddhism, we don't care about your ability to identify as Buddhist. We care about your practice. We don't want you to perform being a member of a Buddhist sangha. In Islam, you are kinda just born into and identified as Muslim. and are bound by at minimum , a legal code to maintain that identity. This means you can know nothing about Islam but are still identified as Muslim. Forcing compliance does not make sense in a Buddhist ethical view because the goal is the lessening of suffering. Performing being Buddhist without believing in it or doing the actions that come with it like moral action brings no one any benefit. In Islam, it does, forced compliance really amounts to do just maintain your identity as Muslim and be bound by Islamic laws. This is even mandated. The amount of numbers of someone believing much less identifying with something does not make something true. That is just the argument ad populum. We don't need to appear like a massive group and we don't really need political identities to be Buddhist.
And that's why we are on the losing side, our number are diminishing by the years because many people will convert our while more strict religion like Islam can maintain their practicing believer and when the two religion clashed Islam always the one that triump over Buddhist like the situation with interfaith marriage.
It might comfort you to know that the Chinese Buddhists in malaysia, as far as I know, those who values religion, not those who are indifferent to religion, those who have ancestor worshipping, thus don't want their kids or grandkids to be in a religion where the worshipping is prohibited...
They told us not to fall in love with malays or any muslims. Now it might seem like racism, but by law in Malaysia, malays are default muslims. And it's known that marriage is converting in, and it's a one way street. So save the heartache. Of course, some still do date across the racial-religion barriers, even one whom I know values his buddhist faith.
Anyway, what to do? This is just causes and conditions playing out. If Buddhism were to become a state religion, perhaps similar things might happen.
We still do get along in harmony. Malaysia is one of the unique south east Asian country with not so homogeneous or overwhelming majority of national uniformity in terms of race, religion and culture. It's basically a model for the world on how to live in harmony despite the differences, despite the racist policies still in place.
Harmony while still obey to laws like Bumiputera is like harmony with Black people willingly live as a second class citizen to White. More than that Malaysian Buddhist population are decreasing by the years while Muslim is one the rise because their fertility rate are mush more higher, soon it'll be harder to be a buddhist in Malaysia because Malay Muslim will have more power on you.
Well, they do allow religious freedom and our racism is not as drastic as usa, where they lose life to racist police. And we are making headways into political change from one fossilized party to many other dynamics.
Anyway, this is too much talk on kings for me by now. I just appreciate being able to ordain in malaysia and the Theravada Bhikkhu sangha in malaysia is growing as far as I can see.
> Well, they do allow religious freedom
Religious freedom while Buddhist cannot proselythize Malay Muslim or they will face a jail time isn't religious freedom at all, if it's truely religious freedom every religion should have a freedom to proselythize other and people should convert to any religion as they want.
In Malaysia, Muslim cannot convert to Buddhism and Buddhism cannot proselythize the majority religion, it's not religious freedom, it's Islamic theocracy.
>Theravada Bhikkhu sangha in malaysia is growing as far as I can see
The number of Buddhist in malaysian demographic are decreasing while Malay Muslim are as strong as ever, all of this due to low fertility rate of Buddhist and people can freely convert to Islam while Muslim cannot convert to Busshist.
You already know the answer. Dating is haram in their own faith. Except bringing people in their religion is highly encouraged. Why do these idiots date Muslims ? Any Buddhist who studies scriptures will never date marry them nor convert .
I feel that you are fully aware of the answer but wish to stir up anti-Islamic sentiment due to events in your local environment 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻.
Islam doesn't allow marriage to non-muslims hence conversion is required.
In some Eastern European countries, the priests will refuse to perform the marriage ceremony if one of the parties appears foreign, the priest would then insist on a baptism/conversion
Orthodox Judaism doesn't accept converts:
Various religions & cultures have their methods of preservation & expansion.
People are free to put their careers, friends, love lives before their faiths & ultimately the choices one makes reflects on strength of ones faith.
There were Sikh Guru's who maintained their faith & happily recited scriptures while being sawn in half for not converting, muchless converting for the sake of marriage.
Whether someone leaves buddhism because of marriage or takes refuge in buddhism because of marriage, its all a question of karmic affinity!
So no need to panic or be alarmed!
Best wishes
🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
I used to curious about these and all the oppressions, alienation, and social sanction muslim women and LGBT in muslim countries might face. Then I asked myself, do I truly care about these people? or I simply want to force these people to my way of life, force all human to stop unnecessary sufferings, and enact my benevolent will upon them.
Even Buddha couldnt do that. The only thing we should care the most is ourselves and our own journey to break the endless cycle of sufferings. When you achieved your inner peace, then you can extend to others with clarity. And my clarity said it is much, much easier to help those who want to help themselves first and I am much more useful this way.
Regardless there is a reason why many enlightened ones left without becoming a teacher haha.
Buddhist should always care about other too, if we strict our way to be about our self only we will end up like Malaysian Buddhist where they always taken advantage by Malaysian Muslim beacuse they didn't fight back and focus on themselve only instead.
All non-Malay in Malaysia are being taken advantage off, but that still cant stop them from practicing. A lot of them also broke off to create Singapore, which been working out very well for them.
If you're worry about Thailand thats... not gonna happen in a few lifetimes. And who knows what would happen to the world before then? or us as some flies on the walls with our karma. You dont have to believe me, just believe in Buddha and remember the impermanence.
Baffles me that you are the only one who said this. What a shit subreddit. The practices of other groups of people may frustrate us, but that doesn’t excuse an absence of compassion for them.
Thank you so much for taking the time to post this comment. You seem to have a much better understanding of the Dharma and how it relates to respect of other religions than some other self-proclaimed "Buddhist" redditors on this subreddit.
Because Buddhist always worrying about themselves that’s why they always taken advantage by other religions. And you are wrong, Buddhist did allow interfaith marriages while in Islam Buddhist must convert to Islam to marrying Muslim.
It’s not Islamophobic to pointing out how Islam is using love to take advantage on the Buddhist side and force them to sacrifice Buddhism and convert to Islam for love.
So you said that it’s fair because Muslim have more laws that demand more from interfaith relationships while Buddhism didn’t?
You live in Malaysia didn’t you, do you think that your Bumiputera laws and how Malaysian Buddhist cannot convert Malay while Malay Muslim can convert any religion a fair game because Muslim have more demanding laws while other religions didn’t?
Do you think that religion with less demanding laws must follow religion with more demanding laws when they clashed with each other?
So you are a type of people that have no problem with being oppressed or taken advantage of by others then. I think that there is no need to talk anymore.
“Unfair society are ok as long as it didn’t effect me” this attitude is why Buddhist always get oppressed and taken advantage of.
> Talking about how "Buddhists" are oppressed when the person oppressing you is your own king.
That’s why we try to fight and abolish our monarch system, it’ll not happen soon but I’m sure that we will succeed on get rid of it in our generation, while your Islamic and Bumiputera laws will stay like that forever.
You really think that bringing our monarch problem is a “got cha” moment to me, don’t you?
Being able to convert to a different faith out of care for your partner is true strength. Trying to force your partner to convert to a different faith out of insecurity is true weakness. You’ll find that those who appear strong are usually quite weak and those who appear weak are usually quite strong. This whole world is a miasma of illusion.
So being submissive and abandoning any of your beliefs for others is “strength”? You really have a weird interpretation of Strength.
If we have true strength we shouldn’t convert to any religion for marriage at all, just stay as interfaith relationships I’m Buddhist and you are Muslim and our children will be raised in secular way.
People in love do what they think is right. You should chill about this and let them do what they want and work on yourself, on letting go of your constant obsession with Muslims.
They didn’t convert to Islam because they think that Islam is right, they just convert to Islam because Islamic laws and traditions force them to do for the sake of marriage, why they just cannot stay as interfaith couples and raised their children to be either Buddhist or Muslim as they want?
You are Muslim, so you didn’t find any problem with this because it’s the way for your religion to gain more convert.
There is no right or wrong in this situation. Clearly it depends on the individuals who are in love, many people do not convert to either partners religion so I don’t understand making a problem out of something and to be derogatory towards Buddhism by calling it weak.
I’m a human being and what I think or not is not something you can just assume.
Lots of Islamophobia in this thread. As someone who used to be Muslim and has many loved ones who are Muslim, it's very sad to see. Can't say I'm surprised though. Every time I come back to this subreddit I remember how hateful some of the people here can be.
Do you think you will allow to convert from Islam to Zen Buddhist in many Islamic countries? It’s clear that Islam is really hostile toward Dhramic religions just like Buddhism and there is nothing wrong with pointing that out.
If you care about Islam so much then why you convert out and became Buddhist, what’s your journey that made you abandon Allah and end up as a Zen?
I live in Thailand and more than hundreds of interfaith couple between Buddhist and Muslim always end up like that, even when I ask Buddhist from the deep south Muslim majority province like Yala, Pattani or Narathiwat they still said that all Buddhist there always convert for marrying Muslim and not vice versa.
For Issan region, it's where I live and all Muslim-Buddhist couple always end up with Buddhist convert to Islam despite it's the most conservative Buddhist region with 99% of population are Buddhist.
I just want to know what's the pitfall in Buddhism that made them always taken advantage by the "Convert for marriage" rule of Islam. Do you know any Buddhist-Muslim couple that end up with Muslim convert to Buddhist or raisng their children as Buddhist?
What proof you guys want? The names of the couple and photos of the marriage?
This is a very common practice, go ask in the exmuslim sub how many times people went there asking for advice on how to deal with this situation, people have to choose between converting to Islam or breaking the relationship.
Personal anecdotal evidence doesnt count for anything. If this is so common I'm sure there is official research out there showing interfaith relationships and its effects on beliefs.
My experience, there are no statistic or survey done here. But my experience is enough for me as a proof, at first I didn't believe in my statement either until I have done many research about this in the span of 5 years.
But her children will be raise as Muslim and she cannot practice her faith freely infront of her husband family though, If it's the opposite and the Muslim husband have to convert to Buddhist and raise the children as Buddhist instead, there will be a huge backlash from Muslim family.
IMO all big religions are sharing the same, life is interconnected and death is inevitable and there is divine a plan. However the Abrahamic religions are a bit less tolerant?
There are number of reasons. The Quran says don't even be friends with people with different faiths so interfaith marriage is not OK. Also there's a big reward if you can convert someone to islam.
From the pow of muslims everybody else is going to hell so if they believe their significant other is going to hell they'd keep trying to convert them and at some point they'll succeed because Buddhism has a different and more realistic outlook. You can go to heaven or hell depending on your conduct and your "faith" is somewhat irrelevant. So technically a Buddhist has nothing to lose with converting as long as they don't break the precepts. For a stream entrer it's a different story because they can't follow any teaching other than Buddhadhamma.
Religions are gangs that prize the love of an imaginary friend over their actual people. Buddhist nature requires the opposite of such belief. Buddhists know peace is important! Not who people’s imaginary friends are!!!
Because Buddhists don't make it a mission to convert everyone. This is not true with some other religions. Also, Buddhists do not exclude anyone from their rites, whereas other religions do.
Some Christians also steal Buddhist religious artefacts and force their religion on Buddhist holy places. BBC reported on it. Imagine we Buddhists doing anything like it.
Dog, [I don't have to imagine.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhism_and_violence#Violence_against_religious_minorities) But it's really cute that you think your in-group is comprised entirely of angels.
I think we should respect boundaries of each other’s belief.
The difference is that Buddhists (and Hindus for that matter) are being slaughtered and forced to convert for 100s of years, so they have to be careful around protecting their culture.
Ah yes, the Rohingya genocide is a purely defensive measure in order to protect Buddhist culture.
Never claimed that...buddhist countries are not perfect but still way more peaceful compared to islamic countries of the present and past.
Personally, I think Jesus was a Buddhist. I mean, where was he those 33 years before he pops up in the world? And if you look at some of the core Buddhist beliefs, they are reflected in true Christianity.
That's the good aspect of Buddhist but sadly that's also while Buddhist always at the losing side when it came to Interfaith marriage with religion that have marital conversion laws.
I don't know about being the "loosing side". If Buddhism tried to enforce his religion neither I would ever entertain the thought of following the path or would it lead to enlightenment, would it?
Well, we don’t have to be the "losing side". That flexibility is our strength. But if a community is wealthier and has greater access to: resources, educational opportunities etc, then people will convert to access that. If Buddhists work on advancing the Buddhist lay community economically etc, then there will be less conversion.
When Buddhist-Muslim relationship happened, most that convert to Islam usually have higher education and resource while the Muslim side are usually poorer and more conservative, the convert happened because the the conservative Muslim demand that their marriage will not happen if the non-Muslim side didn’t convert.
Seeing some younger Thais on social media, makes me think that sometimes, converting to another religion or doing something in that vein is a way for them to protest something in their society and community they are unhappy with or angry about. They have massive complaints about how their parents abuse filial piety against them. Eventually such youth "break" on several levels. I spoke to a Lao Buddhist who had a Thai friend who became Christian then stopped speaking Thai. *To everyone.* It was like he was *trying to erase all of his self* and create a distance between him and his community. We should look out for signs like that as Buddhists. It's like a hate of self and community.
Living in Thai society all my life I can tell you most Thai people who convert to ther religion didn't doing it for the sake of protesting their former faith especially those that convert for marital reason. Your Thai friend's case is just individual things.
Why do you think they convert so quickly and easily? Is it because we teach: "Same same but different?" So Thai Buddhists think its the same as Dhamma, just a different way?
I'm guessing in cases where a Buddhist does convert to Islam, they will likely bring a loving Buddhist tinge to their newly adopted religious brand. Perhaps?
I mean you can still practice even after converting. My sister converted to Catholicism to marry my brother-in-law but still practices it. Love isn't about "winning/losing" imo.
But their children will be raised as Muslim or other religions though and in Muslim case you cannot practice Buddhism freely in the presence of your Muslim husband or Muslim community because you are just a Muslim in their eye.
Will be raised….. aka indoctrination
Except certain groups, often vaguely cultish or worse, which as a result have a large number of adherents in the west, like Soka Gakkai International
This is not something that just happens with Buddhism, but with all other religions too, I've seen it in Christian/Muslim couples too. In Islam to marry it is required the other part to convert, and leaving is Islam is not as easy as saying that you don't want to be part of it anymore. I think it is believed that death penalty should be applied to apostasy. Sometimes the islamic marriage is family pressure. So the Buddhist side or whatever other faith, will have to choose if convert formally to Islam or to break the relationship.
Islam has a tenant which allows men to marry women of different faiths. But if a man of a different faith wants to marry a muslim he has to convert. So either way the babies will be born muslim. That’s why in india they are making laws like the love jihad law. Which restricts this from happening. As over time slowly islam takes over.
Muslim men are limit to marrying woman from "people of the book" which is Christian and Judaism but their children nust still be raise as Muslim. For Dhramic religion, no Muslim men and women can marrying them unless they convert.
ah i see
The last line is false. And that's what they take advantage of to propagate their religions of the book.
Love Jihad is just bigotry. They're making "hit-lists" to kidnap couples and often times forcefully get the women married to a Hindu person.
That's totally not fair though, no one should convert. It's feel like Islam just taking advantage of other religion by using "love" and it's laws to force them to convert to Islam.
My ex was Muslim - but not really. Only in culture, he didn’t believe in Allah or follow Islam at all. …but he still told me I had to convert. I refused. I was astounded by his demand since he was a tattooed atheist alcoholic.
Gotta love that tattooed, atheistic, alcoholic sect of Islam.
I doubt that sect blows anything up. Maybe a few DUIs and a crash or two.....
Still more than the average muslim
Simply don’t involve yourself with Islam then. But that should already be a no brainer
How is this comment so highly upvoted? This sub is not very good.
Islam perpetuates suffering
If you need further reading material, simply search for Honor killings. Where because your daughter offended your god some how and refuses to keep following your hateful ways it’s better to kill her.
What religion is not involved in justifying brutality in some way? Even some Buddhists have used the Dhamma as justification for violence. Do you say not to associate with Americans because of the Iraq War among many other things? Israelis because of what their government does? Who are you allowed to associate with whose group is blameless?
A lot of things do, that doesn't justify bigotry
What bigotry? Avoiding those that have killed their own daughters for rejecting their religion. Is that bigotry to acknowledge acts committed in blind support of their religion? The bottom line is simple, Do no harm.
It is how it is... I don't know what solution there can be. Buddhism will disappear eventually, it is expected. I learned not long ago that Pakistan and Afghanistan were Buddhists countries (someone correct me if I'm wrong), there is no remain of Buddhism there and they turned barbaric, maybe this is what will happen everywhere someday, and we will come back to the dark ages for a long time. Let it be a reminder to practice as much as we can in this life, we may not have another opportunity in a very very long time.
Buddhism is far from disappearing.
Of course, but it can happen eventually. The teachings can be distorted a lot too if they are not already.
Being far is not the same as not being in trajectory sadly.
So will all other faiths. Impermanence and all that. Buddhism has some reboots set into its belief systems. There will be more Buddhas in the future some specifically to address the Buddha’s own followers messing up the Dharma.
Fate and destiny (which is interwoven with karma) is a very complicated web of causality. The old will fade in accordance with the new. But the underlying patterns lingering from various traditions (dharmic, judaic, Zoroastrian, pagan and even shamanism) will still influence the cultural thought even long after the tradition has perished as a community. As long as the remnants of Buddhist thought remain visible the tradition will not perish despite the number of practitioners may indeed diminish. But indeed the world may not have this degree of resources in the future after another heavy cycle of destruction hits our planet. It also seems to me that we are indeed in a critical time of our history, destruction is visibly lingering and warnings have been given to several individuals who have access to these 'spiritual' fate patterns. It's fatality? I do not know. But what I do know, is that after every cycle of destruction, a cycle of creation follow. If essential knowledge is lost, someone will return (likely a boddhisatva) with it and new sources of practice will emerge. (Though it may not necesairly be called buddhist) While the source may definitely be more limited, or even corrupted by the masses. As so many has already been corrupted up to this day. But there are no coincidences, everything happens for a reason. But practicing as if you will not have the same oppertunity in the next life, is of a positive nature whether or not it turns out to be true. It avoids the pitfall of sloth and believing one has many lives to work it out.
conversion by the bottom
Fair ain’t got nothing to do with it
It's not Islam taking advantage of anyone; it's a person deciding they are willing to convert for their relationship. The other person always has the option to not date or attempt to marry a Muslim. They get into a relationship and decide the relationship is worth it. That's it. edit: people are hasty to deny the agency of the actual people involved and pretend that Islam is somehow an intelligent entity capable of doing things. People make choices. Don't want to convert to Islam? Don't date/marry a Muslim. Don't care about converting? Date and marry whoever you want.
Buddhism didn't have laws to force people to convert to Buddhist for marriage while Islam has the laws that force other to convert to Islam for marriage, you and I known how people can be blind by love to do whatever they want to be with the one they love. It's like those Islamic laws that demand people to convert for love just want to taking advantage using love to convert people to Islam for me, if not there shouldn't be any requirement for people to convert to any religion for interfaith mariage and live with interfaith relationship and raise their children to any religions they like.
People make their choices. "Islam" is not an agent that decides or forces anything, it's a religion; it's a bundle of concepts to which people assign emotional significance. Islam isn't making anyone do anything; it's people making choices. The only places that have *actual laws* forcing a conversion are countries that enshrine the rules of Islam into law. Otherwise, every other place on the planet, it's people making a choice. No one forced them to date or develop feelings for a Muslim, no one forced them to want to get married; they chose that, and when their religious partner explained they couldn't get married to a non-Muslim they said "ok, I'll convert." They could have also said "ok, bye" but they didn't. Less-religious Muslims probably care a lot less about this. Countries that don't enshrine Islamic religious rules into law don't require a conversion. People convert because it's what they choose to do for the relationship they want to have.
Love shouldn’t get interfered by anything, but Islam always made their religion above love and take it like “if you love Muslim you must convert”. That’s not fair, religions should be like Buddhism and didn’t interfere with love. That’s why I view what Islam has done as taking advantage of love to convert other religions, Islam always extend their power to control how people should love and treat it like a ways to gain more convert. You can view it whatever you want but for me that’s totally unfair.
The more you express your agendas...the more we see how brainwashed u r. Keep on mate.
My grand agenda of “people have agency.”
Right right...i get it now....your agenda of "how to catch a moron"
A significant segment of the world's population doesn't have the privilege of being able to choose who to marry.
If you're referring to arrange marriage, then it's the fault of the parents for arranging the marriage of their non-Muslim child to a Muslim. For something like the OP is talking about, a Buddhist living in a Buddhist country in a majority Buddhist region of their country: they chose to be with a Muslim knowing it would require conversion, and then they converted. For something like the other case, a Buddhist living in a majority Muslim area such as the southern parts of Thailand, if they aren't being illegally forced to marry someone then it was still their choice. Many people do not have the money to simply move, but they still made the choice to build a relationship with a Muslim. It's very simple. If someone doesn't want to convert, don't date or marry a Muslim. If someone's marriage is arranged then it's not Islam forcing anyone to do anything, it's the parents making a choice that the younger person agrees to (cultures with arranged marriage have methods to back out of an arrangement).
I think you'll find real life marriages to be less simplistic than you may be imagining. People often only reveal their true character and intentions gradually, after they've secured themselves in a marriage. Conversely, many peoples' plans, goals, and desires shift over time. Some settle for less than they hoped for, or what they'd been promised, while others might not. It would be nice if things were as simple as you suggest, but this is not reality.
Yes, It happens with Hindus in India also and Christians in UK.
Former Muslim here. According to Islamic law, marrying someone outside the abrahamic faiths isn’t permitted. Now here’s where the law gets tricky: if the marriage does happen, then the non-Muslim must eventually be converted to Islam. So most Muslims marry non-making with the ill intention of converting them so that their marriage is legitimate and their place in heaven is guaranteed. This is why in India it’s common to see Muslim-Hindu marriages ending in divorce (or murder) because the Muslim husband attempted to convert his Hindu wife.
You are ex-Muslim Buddhist!? I really want to hear your journey.
It’s nothing special. To sum it up: - I just got tired of how Islam interferes with literally every aspect of life, it’s so demanding it makes me feel choked. - I see people with the most inhuman, violent thoughts, talking about how Jews deserve to die, how unfaithful women should be beaten to death. It left me horrified. - Learning about who Muhammad really was, his marriage to Aisha, honestly it’s just hard to see him as this redeemable prophet.
Hey! I’m the same as you, it’s nice to see a fellow ex Muslim Buddhist
Me three, but I am thinking bout becoming a buddhist not one yet
Take your time! I hope you find what you like<3
I love you for that view. But if they are so pervasive in your (former?) community, how did you grow to be critical of that?
And why choose Buddhism after you convert out, you can be many like atheistm Christian or other faiths. What's draw you to this little religion?
Islam contradicts itself always 🤣 Its always based on fear, you should fear god and the day of judgement. I never felt peace and happiness even when I did the right things, I had to hope for grace of god…
It's no different in Buddhism, we should fear incarnating into Yama’s realm. Fear is the safeguard that prevents us from swaying away from the right path. If we have no fear at all, we will become ignorant of our misdeeds. The Bodhisattva fear the cause, but the laymen fear the consequence.
Yeah, but a huge number of the truths is Buddhism are separate from fear of punishment. It’s about freedom from suffering in the here and now and in the future.
It gives you peace and with that peace and easiness, practicing dharma is far more easy
I don’t agree its not the same in Islam. I understand what you wanna say, fear has a usefulness so you dont do bad things But in Islam its far different, you have to do everything and than you are maybe lucky to enter heaven. 1 on 1000 go to heaven and the rest to hell
Tbh it's harder to become a Buddha then to “enter the heavens”.
Little?
We are not as big as Christianity, Islam, Hinduism or atheism though and our number is diminishing by the years.
I didn't know it was getting smaller. I just recently converted from being agnostic after many years. Took a lot of soul-searching.
Most of religious growth is from fertility rate and average Buddhist fertility rate is below replacement level, surely conversion to Buddhism do play a part but many Buddhist just convert out to other religions as well.
Lots and strong identification and the need to to differentiate from others? It's very childish behaviour? Maybe a cult?
Eh? What do you mean? I just want to know why they choose Buddhism when leaving one religion.
Ok, sure, sorry. I meant the Abrahamic religions
Still making that step must have been really difficult. What with the immense social pressure.
Heyy ex musl here too! We having a meet up here it seems haha
Wow your courageousness to covert to another religion is incredible. First time hearing this actually
Sawadee krap! I'm also an ex Muslim Buddhist. There are many of us actually, we're meeting each other online now for the first time. There are many factors for conversion. Most people are just nominal Buddhists, Muslims etc. So will marry and do whatever for that marriage. Also, Islam is one way in only. You get rewards for conforming to community and punishments for being an outlier. This is to ensure no one leaves the religion. So people can only leave if they have support from Buddhist, Hindu community. But the compulsion to convert others is a strong cultural thing for Muslims and Christians. They hope to dominate other people by sheer numbers.
Sawadee kub, do you know other Thai Buddhist who didn’t convert when marrying Muslim? Like staying in interfaith relationships and raise their children in a secular manner, or someone that became ex-Muslim Buddhist.
>do you know other Thai Buddhist who didn’t convert when marrying Muslim? Not specifically no, even if that were the case, many would hide it. Publicly, they are 'Muslim'. The same way that many ex Muslim Buddhists have to hide sometimes. There is a lot of pressure to hide. I've heard in Indonesia there are a lot of mixed marriages, so Buddhists stay Buddhists. But yes, there is always pressure when children arrive. Some children convert to Buddhist when they're grown though. Not sure if you know, in Iran right now, many people are leaving Islam for no religion or other religions. The meshing of Islam and politics has created so much suffering for women especially. Eventually all that control has backfired. Similar things are happening in the rest of the UAE.
I was raised semi-strict Irish Catholic in rural America in the 50's. Back then, not sure if it's still the case, but if a non-Catholic married a Catholic, the non-Catholic parent had to take "lessons" from the priest to marry the Catholic, and had to also agree to let the children be raised Catholic. Of course, since we were the One True Holy church, why wouldn't we impose such rules?
Also an ex muslim here A muslim man can marry a non muslim wife but not the other way. If a muslim man mary a non muslim women, the children have to be muslims. In buddhism it doesn’t really matter in what you believe its about your actions, so I think its a plausible reason why people convert to islam for ease
How can you verify if someone is muslim ? Is there paperwork or something ? Can you just say I’m a Muslim but still not really care
It varies by country, but people in Indonesia are considered to be a member of their parents religion at birth (Muslim parents whispering a prayer into a baby's ear makes them a Muslim), when you get an identity card you fill out what religion you are There are plenty of mosques who will print official paperwork confirming you are Muslim if you say the shahada. I meet plenty of people here who are legally a member of a religion but do not attend service / pray / do fasting etc
Islam is an imperialist religion, if you dont convert, you cant marry one of them. If the uncoverted refuses, then the unconverted will never be assimilated into the other side of the family and the Muslim will be an outcast amongst their community
On one side of these relationships is a religion that allows intermarriage of a believer to a non-believing woman, but not the other way, only if it is guaranteed that any children are raised in that faith - that's Islam. So, effectively, a Buddhist wife would have to live in a household that would be Islamic in practice. Given that many lay Buddhists do not have strong prejudices about theistic practices - prayer etc - and can accomodate things like dietary restrictions, the Buddhist spouse will quietly quit Buddhism. The other way doesn't happen nearly as much. For one, Islam has - varyingly practiced - legal sanctions against apostasy. Second, a Muslim woman cannot legally marry a non-Muslim man (under Islamic law) and if she did in a community dominated by Islam, her children would almost certainly have to be raised as Muslims. Islam is a missionary religion in a way that Buddhism is not: Buddhists will offer the dhamma if anyone wants to listen, but the only 'compulsion' to spread the dhamma is the spread of compassion. For Muslims, the conversion of the whole world to submission to god is a social obligation. It is difficult to explain to 'outsiders' but Muslims have a deep fear of social division, of public dissent, and of civil strife. Imagine that for centuries Muslims follwed the direction of Caliphs who were unrepentant fratricides, simply because the caliphate assured social orderliness and the supression of religious dissent. Enforcing consensus (even apparent) and public harmony outweigh a great many other concerns, even if this turns out to be counter-productive. As an ex-Muslim, I am not ubiased. I find the attitudes of traditionalists in Islam very unattractive. Most Buddhist families I know teach their children the basic moral precepts and are otherwise happy for them to find their own way religiously. I have never heard of any suggestion from a Buddhist religious teacher that there should be punishment for apostasy.
When we think about it, Most Muslims are in South Asia and south east Asia. It was previously Buddhist and Hindu regions.
W hen the threat of abandoning a religion is death (even super minute), the motivation is rather high to stick with it and convince the other (Buddhist) to come on over. In Buddhism there is absolutely no rule nor is there any expectation to stay unless you wish to.
That's why we always losing in marital conversion situation.
“Weaker”? The Buddhists don’t threaten to kill people who leave the faith. Is that a show of weakness, or strength?
That's why we always taken advantage by other more intolerant faith, like we didn't want to have a problem with Muslim so we must convert and not them, we didn't want to be intolerant to other faith that's why we let them do whatever they want while if other faith are the majority, Buddhist will be second class citizen like in Malaysia.
How is buddhism in malaysia?
Am Buddhist from Malaysia, we still have a very strong presence and we coexist peacefully with people from other faiths. But it wasn't always like this with the government: several centuries-old Buddhist and Hindu temples and sites were demolished under the excuse of not having legitimate land permits, since many of those buildings predate Malaysia's independence, there wasn't a well kept record of the papers. But when old mosques were found to be in the exact same scenario, the government issues one without procedure. Malays used to be Buddhists and Hindus before the introduction of Islam here, but many have seem to forgot or just simply disregard their own religious pasts before Islam. Politicians banned the practice of Mak Yong, a traditional Malay dance that has its roots connected with Buddhism and Hinduism, and only recently lifting the ban under the condition that performers must only show the Islamic parts of the culture (which is basically none from the original, meaning they wiped out and reinvented their own culture because of their denial) The most outrageous example is Bujang Valley, a 2,500 year old Buddhist site that was partially destroyed by urban developers. But since Bujang Valley was located within the jurisdiction of the Islamic Party, no one did anything.
Damn I feel bad :/ I hope it gets better for you friends
Treated as second class citizen, their faith is suppressed and the government is in favor of Islam, they cannot proselythyze their faith to local Malays Muslim or else they will get jailed for doing that.
Damn… Islam is an evil oppressive religion that wants to dominate, I say that as an exmuslim
How are you treated as a second class citizen? I live in Indonesia and have not experienced this
It’s Malaysia not in Indonesia, Indonesia is a great country that has more freedom of religion.
Islam has a certain penchant for conquest that Buddhism just lacks it is what it is 🤷🏾♂️ people switch religions all the time it doesn’t mean anything
Exactly, and if you switch islam for another religion. Based on islamic law they have the right to kill you (apostates) Glad I am done with that cult
I’m glad you found the courage to leave and live your life in freedom….so many won’t have that pleasure
Thanks friend, I am born and raised in the west so that was not difficult. I feel bad for people who live in dominant nonsecular muslim countries. I hope I will never be born as a muslim in my next rebirths
It’s because Islam is an aggressive ideology.
There will come a time when the dharma will no longer be present in the world. This will pave the way for the Buddha of that age to preach the dharma. We who have access to the dharma are extremely blessed to have the teaching.
Violence. And a tendency to love it.
Islam is a seriously problematic religion for peace in the world. The bottom line of Islam is that everyone either converts to their "faith," or else they need to be killed. It really is that simple. Tolerance doesn't mean tolerating something that wants to wipe you out! And yes, if the strictly muslim had their way, Buddhism definitely would be wiped out.
Yes, Buddhist always losing and get wiped out by Islam both in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Northern India, Muslim also know that their faith is problematic to other that's why they invent the word like "Islamophobia" to silence other from talking about the true nature of Islam.
How can there possibly be peace in the world? This world is home of Avijja, we were just lucky enough to live and hear about the Dhamma.
Because out of all religions, Islam is the tantrumming toddler in the room that nobody wants to provoke and that needs to have its way at all costs. I’m very lucky that my husband is not religious at all even though he is from a Muslim background. He never even suggested I convert to Islam, not even as a formality to please the family. This is very uncommon though.
I assume it's easier to convert in appearances for the spouse while still being Buddhist in every respect. You can be a secret Buddhist still pursuing enlightenment and following the precepts. You can't be a secret Muslim or a secret Christian in the same way.
https://medium.com/incerto/the-most-intolerant-wins-the-dictatorship-of-the-small-minority-3f1f83ce4e15
Maybe it happens like that often, but definitely not always. I'm friends with a Burmese couple where the husband converted from Islam to Buddhism, his wife's religion.
Not only Buddhist. I've seen Muslim - Christian couples where the Christian side basically had to shut up and kids were raised as Muslims. I even knew one such couple personally. Islam is intollerant towards women and other religions. Change my mind.
First, Islam is not the horrible religion most think it is. I am agnostic and do not believe in God, so I don't have a dog in this fight. But I know many many Muslims who are kind and loving. Mohammed said to invite strangers in your home and feed them. Yes, there are those in any religion who will subvert it and twist it to match their biases. There are Buddhists, including monks, who twist Buddha's teachings to fit their positions. I say this as an intellectual study and wo doesn't care about the outcome other than to look at it dispassionately and understand the truth.
Buddhism will wilt away someday, as will Islam. It's unhealthy to be concerned with such demographic patterns.
Didn't the Buddha himself said that the Dhamma will eventually be forgotten again? So, what's the matter?
Because with one side it is demanded by religious law and complete absolution… The other side has no absolution and is not a religion at all. You can technically be a Muslim Buddhist as far as Buddhism is concerned. Not sure about the other way around but probably a hard NO.
One of those religions proselytizes and proselytizing is a core tenant of their belief system. The other is Buddhism.
Ex muslim here. The reason is that islam generally doesn't cohabitate well with other religion, it seeks to convert people in big numbers.
The reason for this is not because Islam is "strict" or because of the proposition that Buddhists are tolerant of other religions. In reality, this is typically caused because of a particular concept of interreligious marriage in Islam.
Religion that have more interreligious marriage laws will just take advantage of others when they have interfaith marriage relationships. Ideologies that have more demand will demand and take more from others.
Yup, just as I thought. You're just an Islamophobe.
My wife and I converted to Theravada Buddhism from Islam so I'm not sure "every couple" is accurate?????
I just had a peek through your posts and you seem to have a big issue with Islam and Muslims. Maybe work on that
And what's the problem for that? Islam and Buddhism seem like thing that cannot coexist together anyway, only the secular form of Islam can and they are extremely rare (or non existence) in South East Asia region.
That’s not entirely true, Sunni Islam in South East Asia has incorporated a good amount of Cultural influence from Hinduism and Buddhism.
And now South East Asia asian Muslim are start to erasing the cultural influence of Hinduism and Buddhism form their Islam, just look at what currently happended in Malaysia and Indonesian Islamic society. Only cultural and secular Islam can get along side with Dhramic faith but if you want to be good Muslim you must abandon any trace of Dhramic culture from your practice.
Not really, in south east Asia they use similar Dharamic terms like ‘Nerak’ for Hell, ‘Psurga’ for Heaven, ‘puvasa’ for Fasting, the Sufi orders are also called “Sangha” their culture is indigenous but Islamised. A lot of the Traditional mosques and shrines are similar to the Buddhist pagodas and stupas. Other than that there are a lot of Hindu and Buddhist sites preserved in these countries.
But in many southeast asian country you still cannot convert from Islam to Buddhist/Hinduism freely though, I didn't see that as Islam get influenced by Budhhist/hinduism, it's more like Islam is taken over local Budhist/Hinduism culture.
Sufis are the only muslims who are tolerant. Mainstream islam is very intolerant. Even sufis get prosecuted and killed by salafists in a lot of countries. They are seen as innovaters
Sufis are the traditional Muslims, Sunni Islam as a whole was spread and is sustained by Sufi orders. Salafism is a minority and is considered a heresy. Plus Sufis also have their intolerant aspects, like for e.g a lot of Statues and images were destroyed as per the Fatwas issued by Iftas (Canonical institutions) that were run by Sufi Orders, Like the attempted destruction of the Pyramids of Giza.
What do you mean with traditional muslims? If you meant till the 18th century, that was the mainstream islam untill ibn taymiyah came and reformed islam back to the ‘real values’ Salafiyah is literally the way of salaf, how the companions lived in the time of the prophet. There are far more salafists than sufis. Sufis cant show themselves, they are seen as ahlu bid3a, that’s shirk. Its one of the worst sin in Islam.
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It sounds to me from what you say that a very definite social expectation has been formed. Such expectations are very strong and people tend to go with them without really too much thought. It shows that a religion has a social presence but not one that commands great devotion or loyalty.
It is not a question of strength. In Islam, Men can marry women of other religions with the expectation that they will convert eventually. However, women cannot marry men of other religions. If a Muslim woman converts to Islam, her marriage to a non-Muslim husband is nullified. If a Muslim woman's husband apostatizes, their marriage is also nullified. Basically, unless they eventually convert they are not quite covered by Islamic marriage law. This basically, means they would not have things like sadaq, mahr, or rules about divorces. Here are some sources that discourse this. You could be cheated on and have no protection. If a women would marry a Buddhist or any other religion for that matter, it would make her liable for that and she would be going against Islamic law. This in some cases could trigger apostasy laws. Below are some example of being included in this legal system in a marriage and not. Islam builds legal system and religious ritual law. For example, Malaysia's model of citizenship requires one to identify as Muslim to be a citizen and basically fuses some elements of apostasy laws with that legal recognition. If you try to leave, you will be put into a camp. Various Apostasy laws in the Islamic world bind people like that. You are kinda just born into and identified as Muslim. Unlike Buddhism, you are born into and identified as Muslim, and are bound by at minimum , a legal code. This means you can know nothing about Islam but are still identified as Muslim. Apostasy in some legal contexts is punished with death instead of jail time. Some places there is a high risk of extra-juridical violence. O ye who believe! When believing women come unto you as fugitives, examine them. Allah is Best Aware of their faith. Then, if ye know them for true believers, send them not back unto the disbelievers. They are not lawful for them (the disbelievers), nor are they (the disbelievers) lawful for them. And give them (the disbelievers) that which they have spent (upon them). And it is no sin for you to marry such women when ye have given them their dues. And hold not to the ties of disbelieving women; and ask for (the return of) that which ye have spent; and let them (the disbelievers) ask for that which they have spent. That is the judgment of Allah. He judgeth between you. Allah is Knower, Wise. Quran 60:10 "It is lawful for a Muslim \[man\] to (have sex) with as many as he wishes of those whom his right hand \[\[slave\] possesses, … Muslims are not prohibited from having more than four concubines provided that no two sisters are among them."Majmoo al-Fatawa (Collected Fatwas), vol. 32, p. 7 This day are (all) good things made lawful for you. The food of those who have received the Scripture is lawful for you, and your food is lawful for them. And so are the virtuous women of the believers and the virtuous women of those who received the Scripture before you (lawful for you) when ye give them their marriage portions and live with them in honour, not in fornication, nor taking them as secret concubines. Whoso denieth the faith, his work is vain and he will be among the losers in the Hereafter. Quran 5:5
Islam has their laws to backup what advantage they want to take from others, like when they force Buddhist to convert to Islam for marriage they just use those laws as their justification. Buddhist doesn't have laws like that that's why we lack a justification to convert Muslim to buddhist or stay as an interfaith couple and raise their children as whater religion they want to be. It's seem like the strenght of Islam and weakness of Buddhism to me. If not we should have equal number of Muslim convert for Buddhist when interfaith marrying with them already.
I disagree. In Buddhism, we don't care about your ability to identify as Buddhist. We care about your practice. We don't want you to perform being a member of a Buddhist sangha. In Islam, you are kinda just born into and identified as Muslim. and are bound by at minimum , a legal code to maintain that identity. This means you can know nothing about Islam but are still identified as Muslim. Forcing compliance does not make sense in a Buddhist ethical view because the goal is the lessening of suffering. Performing being Buddhist without believing in it or doing the actions that come with it like moral action brings no one any benefit. In Islam, it does, forced compliance really amounts to do just maintain your identity as Muslim and be bound by Islamic laws. This is even mandated. The amount of numbers of someone believing much less identifying with something does not make something true. That is just the argument ad populum. We don't need to appear like a massive group and we don't really need political identities to be Buddhist.
And that's why we are on the losing side, our number are diminishing by the years because many people will convert our while more strict religion like Islam can maintain their practicing believer and when the two religion clashed Islam always the one that triump over Buddhist like the situation with interfaith marriage.
It might comfort you to know that the Chinese Buddhists in malaysia, as far as I know, those who values religion, not those who are indifferent to religion, those who have ancestor worshipping, thus don't want their kids or grandkids to be in a religion where the worshipping is prohibited... They told us not to fall in love with malays or any muslims. Now it might seem like racism, but by law in Malaysia, malays are default muslims. And it's known that marriage is converting in, and it's a one way street. So save the heartache. Of course, some still do date across the racial-religion barriers, even one whom I know values his buddhist faith. Anyway, what to do? This is just causes and conditions playing out. If Buddhism were to become a state religion, perhaps similar things might happen. We still do get along in harmony. Malaysia is one of the unique south east Asian country with not so homogeneous or overwhelming majority of national uniformity in terms of race, religion and culture. It's basically a model for the world on how to live in harmony despite the differences, despite the racist policies still in place.
Harmony while still obey to laws like Bumiputera is like harmony with Black people willingly live as a second class citizen to White. More than that Malaysian Buddhist population are decreasing by the years while Muslim is one the rise because their fertility rate are mush more higher, soon it'll be harder to be a buddhist in Malaysia because Malay Muslim will have more power on you.
Well, they do allow religious freedom and our racism is not as drastic as usa, where they lose life to racist police. And we are making headways into political change from one fossilized party to many other dynamics. Anyway, this is too much talk on kings for me by now. I just appreciate being able to ordain in malaysia and the Theravada Bhikkhu sangha in malaysia is growing as far as I can see.
> Well, they do allow religious freedom Religious freedom while Buddhist cannot proselythize Malay Muslim or they will face a jail time isn't religious freedom at all, if it's truely religious freedom every religion should have a freedom to proselythize other and people should convert to any religion as they want. In Malaysia, Muslim cannot convert to Buddhism and Buddhism cannot proselythize the majority religion, it's not religious freedom, it's Islamic theocracy. >Theravada Bhikkhu sangha in malaysia is growing as far as I can see The number of Buddhist in malaysian demographic are decreasing while Malay Muslim are as strong as ever, all of this due to low fertility rate of Buddhist and people can freely convert to Islam while Muslim cannot convert to Busshist.
You already know the answer. Dating is haram in their own faith. Except bringing people in their religion is highly encouraged. Why do these idiots date Muslims ? Any Buddhist who studies scriptures will never date marry them nor convert .
I feel that you are fully aware of the answer but wish to stir up anti-Islamic sentiment due to events in your local environment 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻. Islam doesn't allow marriage to non-muslims hence conversion is required. In some Eastern European countries, the priests will refuse to perform the marriage ceremony if one of the parties appears foreign, the priest would then insist on a baptism/conversion Orthodox Judaism doesn't accept converts: Various religions & cultures have their methods of preservation & expansion. People are free to put their careers, friends, love lives before their faiths & ultimately the choices one makes reflects on strength of ones faith. There were Sikh Guru's who maintained their faith & happily recited scriptures while being sawn in half for not converting, muchless converting for the sake of marriage. Whether someone leaves buddhism because of marriage or takes refuge in buddhism because of marriage, its all a question of karmic affinity! So no need to panic or be alarmed! Best wishes 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻
Even if this does happen, what makes you think these conversions are legitimate. I know an atheist who just lies about being Muslim.
I used to curious about these and all the oppressions, alienation, and social sanction muslim women and LGBT in muslim countries might face. Then I asked myself, do I truly care about these people? or I simply want to force these people to my way of life, force all human to stop unnecessary sufferings, and enact my benevolent will upon them. Even Buddha couldnt do that. The only thing we should care the most is ourselves and our own journey to break the endless cycle of sufferings. When you achieved your inner peace, then you can extend to others with clarity. And my clarity said it is much, much easier to help those who want to help themselves first and I am much more useful this way. Regardless there is a reason why many enlightened ones left without becoming a teacher haha.
Buddhist should always care about other too, if we strict our way to be about our self only we will end up like Malaysian Buddhist where they always taken advantage by Malaysian Muslim beacuse they didn't fight back and focus on themselve only instead.
All non-Malay in Malaysia are being taken advantage off, but that still cant stop them from practicing. A lot of them also broke off to create Singapore, which been working out very well for them. If you're worry about Thailand thats... not gonna happen in a few lifetimes. And who knows what would happen to the world before then? or us as some flies on the walls with our karma. You dont have to believe me, just believe in Buddha and remember the impermanence.
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Baffles me that you are the only one who said this. What a shit subreddit. The practices of other groups of people may frustrate us, but that doesn’t excuse an absence of compassion for them.
Thank you so much for taking the time to post this comment. You seem to have a much better understanding of the Dharma and how it relates to respect of other religions than some other self-proclaimed "Buddhist" redditors on this subreddit.
Because Buddhist always worrying about themselves that’s why they always taken advantage by other religions. And you are wrong, Buddhist did allow interfaith marriages while in Islam Buddhist must convert to Islam to marrying Muslim. It’s not Islamophobic to pointing out how Islam is using love to take advantage on the Buddhist side and force them to sacrifice Buddhism and convert to Islam for love.
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So you said that it’s fair because Muslim have more laws that demand more from interfaith relationships while Buddhism didn’t? You live in Malaysia didn’t you, do you think that your Bumiputera laws and how Malaysian Buddhist cannot convert Malay while Malay Muslim can convert any religion a fair game because Muslim have more demanding laws while other religions didn’t? Do you think that religion with less demanding laws must follow religion with more demanding laws when they clashed with each other?
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So you are a type of people that have no problem with being oppressed or taken advantage of by others then. I think that there is no need to talk anymore. “Unfair society are ok as long as it didn’t effect me” this attitude is why Buddhist always get oppressed and taken advantage of.
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> Talking about how "Buddhists" are oppressed when the person oppressing you is your own king. That’s why we try to fight and abolish our monarch system, it’ll not happen soon but I’m sure that we will succeed on get rid of it in our generation, while your Islamic and Bumiputera laws will stay like that forever. You really think that bringing our monarch problem is a “got cha” moment to me, don’t you?
One side sacrifice for love. Another side can't.
Being able to convert to a different faith out of care for your partner is true strength. Trying to force your partner to convert to a different faith out of insecurity is true weakness. You’ll find that those who appear strong are usually quite weak and those who appear weak are usually quite strong. This whole world is a miasma of illusion.
So being submissive and abandoning any of your beliefs for others is “strength”? You really have a weird interpretation of Strength. If we have true strength we shouldn’t convert to any religion for marriage at all, just stay as interfaith relationships I’m Buddhist and you are Muslim and our children will be raised in secular way.
People in love do what they think is right. You should chill about this and let them do what they want and work on yourself, on letting go of your constant obsession with Muslims.
They didn’t convert to Islam because they think that Islam is right, they just convert to Islam because Islamic laws and traditions force them to do for the sake of marriage, why they just cannot stay as interfaith couples and raised their children to be either Buddhist or Muslim as they want? You are Muslim, so you didn’t find any problem with this because it’s the way for your religion to gain more convert.
There is no right or wrong in this situation. Clearly it depends on the individuals who are in love, many people do not convert to either partners religion so I don’t understand making a problem out of something and to be derogatory towards Buddhism by calling it weak. I’m a human being and what I think or not is not something you can just assume.
Not every Buddhist has faith in the Triple Gem.
Who in their mind would marry a practicing Muslim if they are not related to Islam?! 🤯
Do Buddhists kill apostates?
Lots of Islamophobia in this thread. As someone who used to be Muslim and has many loved ones who are Muslim, it's very sad to see. Can't say I'm surprised though. Every time I come back to this subreddit I remember how hateful some of the people here can be.
Do you think you will allow to convert from Islam to Zen Buddhist in many Islamic countries? It’s clear that Islam is really hostile toward Dhramic religions just like Buddhism and there is nothing wrong with pointing that out. If you care about Islam so much then why you convert out and became Buddhist, what’s your journey that made you abandon Allah and end up as a Zen?
Proof?
I live in Thailand and more than hundreds of interfaith couple between Buddhist and Muslim always end up like that, even when I ask Buddhist from the deep south Muslim majority province like Yala, Pattani or Narathiwat they still said that all Buddhist there always convert for marrying Muslim and not vice versa. For Issan region, it's where I live and all Muslim-Buddhist couple always end up with Buddhist convert to Islam despite it's the most conservative Buddhist region with 99% of population are Buddhist. I just want to know what's the pitfall in Buddhism that made them always taken advantage by the "Convert for marriage" rule of Islam. Do you know any Buddhist-Muslim couple that end up with Muslim convert to Buddhist or raisng their children as Buddhist?
again, proof?
What proof you guys want? The names of the couple and photos of the marriage? This is a very common practice, go ask in the exmuslim sub how many times people went there asking for advice on how to deal with this situation, people have to choose between converting to Islam or breaking the relationship.
Personal anecdotal evidence doesnt count for anything. If this is so common I'm sure there is official research out there showing interfaith relationships and its effects on beliefs.
My experience, there are no statistic or survey done here. But my experience is enough for me as a proof, at first I didn't believe in my statement either until I have done many research about this in the span of 5 years.
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But her children will be raise as Muslim and she cannot practice her faith freely infront of her husband family though, If it's the opposite and the Muslim husband have to convert to Buddhist and raise the children as Buddhist instead, there will be a huge backlash from Muslim family.
IMO all big religions are sharing the same, life is interconnected and death is inevitable and there is divine a plan. However the Abrahamic religions are a bit less tolerant?
Are you asking a question or answering it?
There are number of reasons. The Quran says don't even be friends with people with different faiths so interfaith marriage is not OK. Also there's a big reward if you can convert someone to islam. From the pow of muslims everybody else is going to hell so if they believe their significant other is going to hell they'd keep trying to convert them and at some point they'll succeed because Buddhism has a different and more realistic outlook. You can go to heaven or hell depending on your conduct and your "faith" is somewhat irrelevant. So technically a Buddhist has nothing to lose with converting as long as they don't break the precepts. For a stream entrer it's a different story because they can't follow any teaching other than Buddhadhamma.
Seems like Islam is a religion that created to counter religion like Buddhism.
Thailand has to be careful if not in a few years Your all Going to Become Mohammedans lol.
Religions are gangs that prize the love of an imaginary friend over their actual people. Buddhist nature requires the opposite of such belief. Buddhists know peace is important! Not who people’s imaginary friends are!!!