Why do tens of millions of Muslims immigrate to non-Muslim countries, while virtually no non-Muslims immigrate to a Muslim country? And would it be accurate to say that: 1. No Muslim country treats non-Muslims and their religions anywhere nearly as decently as any Western non-Muslim country (including Israel) treats Muslims? 2. In every Muslim country, non-Muslims are either systematically persecuted at worst or treated as inferiors at best?
'cause Sharia (Islamic Law) sucks big time... basically its back to 7th century lifestyle... but not all predominantly Muslim countries are Sharia-based Islamic states... Morocco, Tunisia, Indonesia... and the Emirates (UAE) for instance offer a totally different landscape, both to locals and to foreigners... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharia#Contemporary_practice_of_Sharia_law http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Islamic_republic fyi also http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69081&highlight=dubai
yeah, no probs in Indonesia. People there don't really care what you do. Out in the provinces there is the occaisional slaughter of Christian villages, but its mainly local bad blood. In Jakarta, you'd never even know its a primarily Muslim country. Nightclubs, drinking, slutty girls everywhere... Fun place.
This assertion is factually incorrect. Saudi Arabia's population as of 2005 is estimated to be about 26.4 million, including about 5.6 million resident foreigners. Essentially all of those foreigners are not muslims. Percentage-wise this is much higher than the muslim popupation in the US or Europe. This is despite the lack of religious freedom in Saudi. The Saudi government states that all citizens must be Muslim, and there is very little religious freedom. The majority of the population adhere to strict form of a cult within Islam most commonly known as Salafi or Wahhabism. However, there are religious minorities such as Christians and Hindus who are working as temporary workers, none of these minorities are allowed to have their churches or temples or pray in public. The U.S. State departments suggest that there are 500,000 to 1 million people who adhere to the Catholic (Christian) faith. Imagine how many nonmuslims would live in Saudi if they opened up religious freedom.
Most foreigners in Saudi Arabia are either domestic workers (Filipino), or oil industry workers. It has little to do with religion one way or the other. Its money.
The foreigners living in Saudi Arabia are there for economic reasons. They are mostly from poor countries like Pakistan, Bangladesh, Egypt, India, and the Philippines. Stating that "essentially all of those foreigners are not Muslims" is inaccurate, as the workers from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Egypt are Muslims. The largest groups of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia that are not Muslim are from the Philippines (Catholic) and India (Hindus), and they number around 900,000 for each group. Take away the available jobs in Saudi Arabia and I doubt very much that foreigners would want to live there.
Well you can flip that logic around. Virtually all foreigners in SA are there milking the oil economy. So without OIL how many non-Muslims would live in SA? How about ZERO.
When I was in Saudi Arabia, I got a good look at the resident foreign workers. They were for the most part, very desperate people who were only there for the work and $$. From what I saw, they were treated poorly. They were there for the $$ and nothing else, and I am sure that religious freedom or lack of, has nothing to do with their decision to be there.
Fine, I don't dispute that. For once hapaboy decided to talk about real issues and he was way off the mark. Just shows his ignorance.
This in essence reinforces the question made by hapa. Why do Muslims leave a country that strictly adheres to their religious beliefs for one that does not? There is an obvious reason why many non-muslims choose not to move to Saudi Arabia for the exact reason that you state above. Your assertion is factually incorrect as well. At least 4.5 to 5 million of those foreigners are Yemenites, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Egyptians, and Palestinians. So the percentage of non muslims is actually lower than you are trying to imply.