Differing Thoughts.

I was reading, The Economist - At a glance post, and they put up an usual graph as they do always, but this time around, the stats sorta caught my eyes. It goes about something like "Differing Thoughts", which mainly is pertinent to the Muslim community on how they feel. The stats was based on the developed countries, mostly the Europe and North American belt. No Asia. That is besides the point.

OF FIVE Western countries polled by the Pew Research Centre, Muslims in Britain were the most likely to identify themselves by religion rather than nationality. A massive 81% considered themselves Muslim first. This was higher than in Spain or America, two other countries in which terrorist attacks by Islamic extremists have been carried out. Indeed, in America, only 47% of Muslims thought of themselves in this way, marginally more than in France. Perhaps a shared background of revolution, a written constitution and promotion of national values explains the similarities between responses in France and America: 62% of Muslims in both countries thought life was better for women there than in Muslim countries. By contrast, a mere 46% of Spanish Muslims agreed.

If they had brought in India into the equation, I wonder how many of those Muslims would have thought of themselves as Indians first as compared to Muslim would have been an interesting find. I, for one, think most of the Muslims in India blatantly support the Muslim world rather than the place where they are surviving. I am not saying all are like this. The fact is the percentage of people who feel they are Indians first would be extremely less. I don't have to remind anyone about Kargil War. I was in Hyderabad then. And the fantastic thing that happened there in this Muslim community was that they living in India, were forming "human chain" voicing concerns for their "brothers" in Pakistan. I was like what is this community made of? They live in India, enjoy the riches and yet fall out when it comes to supporting them. If this was one, they want a Muslim Bank now which gives no zero percent interest to Muslims and keep in mind, the Muslims alone can transact in this bank. The RBI thrashed out this suggestion. And it was this community who said they will not respect the National Anthem no more coz there is no mention of their community. I was like .. Hello.. you had no place to go when you had you backs slapped. So shut up and be grateful that you are able to live in a place which is extremely calm to what your community has been doing to all countries around. And, if this was not enough, the make a big deal about Knighting Rushdie ! Reason, he wrote 'Santanic Verses'.

Anyway, the longer I talk, the more dirty facts I would put up on the blog which is not what I want. The point being how much people put nationality below the regional feeling. It is a shame come to think of it.