I can settle this dick measuring argument easily. Would you want your daughter to date a Muslim?

As much or more than a thumper.

I'm probably one of the few people posting here that have been to the area....it is weird. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul is gorgeous, but strange. My wife was a good sport about covering her hair, but being tourists we put up with it. She can't go to Saudi Arabia without a male host...so she hasn't. Dubai is probably the closest city to sanity but even it isn't easy for a Westerner. There is a major problem with sexism in the religion - not even discussing dogs.

jmog;1523766 wrote:Wrong, we pretend oil isn't a factor when it is so obvious that it is.

We don't go there because we are "Christians" to kill the evil "Muslims". Its mostly about oil, partially about terrorists.

Manhattan Buckeye;1523903 wrote:I'm probably one of the few people posting here that have been to the area....it is weird. The Blue Mosque in Istanbul is gorgeous, but strange. My wife was a good sport about covering her hair, but being tourists we put up with it. She can't go to Saudi Arabia without a male host...so she hasn't. Dubai is probably the closest city to sanity but even it isn't easy for a Westerner. There is a major problem with sexism in the religion - not even discussing dogs.

Yeah, been to Dubai and Bahrain myself, and I have to agree that there are some major 'issues' even with the regular Muslims (non-extremist) it is not as forgiving/peace loving a culture as some on here is making it out to be.

Of course, in the middle ages neither was Christianity, highly sexist and definitely killed 1000s of people (mainly the Catholic religion).

"Yeah, been to Dubai and Bahrain myself,"

When have you been to Bahrain? Are you in the oil industry? I haven't been there but heard good things about it.

Manhattan Buckeye;1523917 wrote:"Yeah, been to Dubai and Bahrain myself,"

When have you been to Bahrain? Are you in the oil industry? I haven't been there but heard good things about it.

About 8 or 9 years ago, before the uprising they had.

No, I have worked closely with the oil industry at times, but I actually do work for nearly all major industries. Food, steel, alumimum, energy, building materials, paper, etc.

At the time I worked for an OEM that designed huge steel strip furnaces (7 stories tall, football field long, 200+ burners on it, etc). I was there trying to fix an emissions and corrosion problem on a silicon steel strip line.

Bahrain, at that time, was the most "westernized" Middle East country, as long as it wasn't Ramadan you could drink, party, etc. The American Navy base there also made it an "easy" visit with a number of "American" places to eat.

Matter of fact, when I was there, it had one of the last remaining Chi-Chi's restaurants in the world (zero exist in the US).

I am not sure how nice or stable it is now that they had an uprising a few years ago, but before that it was even more 'liberal' or 'westernized' than Dubai and UAE was.

Very cool..I would have liked to visit there, our friends here in Britain say good things about it.

We had an option to move to Dubai and decided to move to London - and now it appears we might have to move to Frankfurt next year.

Manhattan Buckeye;1523928 wrote:Very cool..I would have liked to visit there, our friends here in Britain say good things about it.

We had an option to move to Dubai and decided to move to London - and now it appears we might have to move to Frankfurt next year.

Been to Frankfurt, not a huge fan but was only there 1 day so I might not have the whole picture.

We aren't looking forward to it and it is huge deal in the MB household - but if we have to do it we have to do it. I'm taking German classes now.

if we had our preferences we would move back to Singapore.