Ramadan Readings

I agree with the claim put forth by Tariq Ramadan in his article "What the West Can Learn From Islam" when he says, "We all possess multiple identities, and we must...put forward the values we share" (169).  Even though this claim is rather basic and general, I think it is an essential point to Romadan's argument concerning ethnic cooperation.  I will use myself as an example.  I'm an American, but I'm also Swiss-German and Hungarian and Roman Catholic.  I have several different identities that all make up a significant piece of who I am as a person.  Sure, I do have some traditions from each that I strictly adhere to, but the mixing of these traditions is also an important aspect of my life.  Also, the similarities between the traditions and cultures are more numerous than one could imagine.  I think this is the point Ramadan is trying to prove.  Westerners have blended and mixed many of their traditions while still retaining some individual authenticity.  From what it sounds, Muslims have a fairly difficult time doing this.  They strictly maintain their traditional customs and do not mix well with new ideals.  This is definitely an area that Ramadan thinks Muslims need to work on (and I might also agree with this point as well).  However, Ramadan does say that Westerners should ease off a little on the satire because the Islamic culture does not appreciate it.  They have a hard time understanding the joke in many of their seeming controversial statements.  But getting back to the main claim that I agree with, the central idea of multiple identities is important to western culture and should be incorporated more in Muslim and Islamic culture.  With the blending of these traditions, we can seem more similarities between the cultures than we could have ever imagined.  Perhaps (and it's more of an "I know") there exists basic similarities that could unite and tie the different western and Islamic cultures together and form a firm relationship between the two halves of the same coin.  I most certainly agree that there are separate identities that have similarities that have the potential to unite us all.