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Edited on Sat Mar-29-08 02:57 AM by onager
At work here in Egypt: the subject of my (lack of) religion really just doesn't come up. My co-workers are mostly Muslim, but there are quite a few Coptic Xians and at least one Egyptian Catholic.
Once when I was first here, one of my co-workers got inquisitive about my religious beliefs. The others told him to knock it off, since I obviously didn't want to talk about it and it was embarassing me. I was grateful for that.
I told a few of my co-workers the truth. One of them shrugged and said: "That's cool. A lot of my friends are non-believers. But I think everybody believes in something." He's a fairly devout but pretty liberal Muslim. I guess. :shrug:
Funny Cultural Note: even the "liberal" Muslim men here seem to have a big problem with their wives working. One of them said straight out that he does not want his wife talking to strange men, and she obviously would have to do that in most jobs.
But one of the Xians is a proud father of a brand-new baby boy. His wife got maternity leave, which is just about over. He says she's going straight back to work ASAP because they need the money.
*****
At work in the USA: oh, that's different. Quite a few whiny Xians who paper their walls with urban legends about prayer in school etc.
I almost reported one guy to HR myself. His office wall bore this charming message: It's one nation under God or get your ass out.
Oddly enough, one of my fellow atheists at work is a conservative Republican. Great guy. I always enjoy talking to him. But he is NOT a far-right Neocon type. More a traditional Rockefeller Repub. Which, these days, means he's practically a Clinton Democrat.
We had some good arguments over the Newdow Pledge of Allegiance case. Like many DU'ers, he thought it was a was a waste of time and focused unnecessary attention on atheists. And I disagreed.
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