Culture and/vs Religion?

            "In the past few years I've made so many accomplishments, I graduated, I became a lawyer, I got a job in a law firm, yet all she congratulated me about was losing weight!" She was appalled at what the old lady had to say but can you blame her? I would feel the same way... We as humans, well most of us anyways, in the population that I've been exposed to at least, focus mostly on everything that is negative about everything and everyone. Prophet Muhammad SAW said "Who ever is not kind to the younger ones and does not respect the elder ones is not from my nation." (Bihar-al-Anwar, v.2, p. 137) Even if you do not look at this from a religious stand point I'm sure all of us have heard this one, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it." It humors me that people come up with such comments for each other. I personally do not feel that there is one person to blame, but in fact a whole culture to blame. If we tell an elder how their comment was rude we will be viewed as disrespectful, however, if we continue to let people pass comments like such, they will never know that they are wrong. Religiously, we do have the right, in a respectful manner of course, to tell them. However, culturally there is a dilemma. Our cultures have drawn that line of what is normal and abnormal. 

             This brings us to the never ending struggle of culture vs. religion. We were asked in class what our cultural back ground is and several students began to list their ethnic backgrounds and ancestries. So someone asked the professor to specify what she meant. Her response was "tell me which ever one influences you the most, but keep in mind that religion can also be a culture." Many student who were Jewish made a point to add their religion to their cultural backgrounds, but knowing that there were Muslims in that class as well, I was shocked that no one had mentioned it. The truth of our society is that we do not let Islam influence us as much as it should, it is not engraved into our cultures. All of our cultures expose us to their version of it, or what works to their benefits. For example, we will be told to respect our elders but no one remembers that the younger ones are to be respected too. Respect is universal, we give it to animals too. Or in some cultures, parents will force their children to marry someone and say that Islam says to be obedient to your parents. However, Islam also forbids forced marriage and that marriage will not be accepted either. 

*I'm sorry if some of my posts are enraging or controversial. However, I would love to hear your feed back and get your constructive criticism on my writing so please do comment with your thoughts and if you have anything you would want me to write about please do leave a comment.