2 ms·

That's cultural rather than religious. Probably the religion's tradition derives from the customs of the near east and eastern mediterranian.

• acdha 10y ago
  “That's cultural rather than religious” is a rather sweeping claim to simply assert without support. The interplay between religions and culture is incredibly complex and deserves more than a facile dismissal.
  • gkya 10y ago
    I've made no dismissal, just a comment. The interplay between religions and culture is that the religions don't come from gods, but they are formed in the cultures within which they emerge. They are not a collection of some madman's dreams and aphorisms, but a fruit of their communities, they are doctrinizations of the customs and beliefs that form their culture. Christianity and islam are the only examples of truly international and intercultural religions, up until christianity every people had their religion. But even then, christianity and islam are not monolithic things, every culture they touched formed their own subreligions. The islam of an aegean anatolian is different from the islam of a yemenite arab, the christianity of an armenian is dissimilar to that of an irlandese. Culture forms religion, and if albanians weren't already inclined to be welcoming and guest-loving, their religion (i.e. their version of islam) would reflect that. We look at islam and christianity as if they were big monolithic things, but every people live them their way.