Religions all suck because they have been corrupted by man to subjugate and control common folk for literally thousands of years. Every religion can be corrupted this way. Freaking buddists are committing genocide in Myanmar as I write this. Buddists! One of the most chill religions on the planet!
As any religion, its all about interpretation and this is how I view it. At its core, Islam is all about accepting the oneness of God and that the Prophet was his last messenger. Its about praying 5 times a day. Not kneeling at your bedside and asking for mommy and daddy to be blessed kind of praying, but a real mindfulness exercise where you drop everything for 5 minutes 5 times a day and get over your ego to remember there are bigger things than you in this world than you. While your doing this you move your body in a way that could be considered light yoga. Before you pray 5x a day, youre supposed to wash your body in a certain way to maintain your hygiene, including washing your butthole with water every time you shit. Its about giving away at least 2.5% of your net worth for charity and trying to ensure that the most needy in your community have a home and food. Its about being an awesome, humble host whenever a guest visits. Its about keeping your mind, body and soul clean by trying to avoid to much materialism. If you’re a woman, its about trying to protect your modesty so your female form isnt exploited for the gains of others. But thats a choice! My mom RUNS my family and has my whole life. She had my dads balls in a little box probably for the last 30 years. She covers her head during prayer but thats it, thats her choice and my VERY religious dad is totally fine with that. Our whole extended family is like this, and is very Matriarchal and totally run by the women.
I know the first response of many of you will be to list the COUNTLESS atrocities committed in the name of Islam now and in the past. Or pull some hardcore Quaranic verses that are all very fire and brimstone. Ill be the first to agree theyre absolutely disgusting and wrong. But please consider that CULTURE has corrupted the RELIGION in many of these cases. Its all about a matter of interpretation, and if you focus on the dark parts of ANY religion you can find justification for all kinds of pain. Just keep in mind Islam is the youngest religion of the Big 3 (about 400 years younger than Christianity) so we still have some growing up to do. In general, the religion has not been as liberalized as most others during that time. The rest of the world has outpaced the Muslim world exponentially, and we have a long way to go until we catch up. Its up to my generation to do that. Hopefully in a generation Muslims can be viewed as yogi buttwashing philanthropists.