:salam2:
i can't really say much about what's happening in the middle east as far as islam is concerned; since i have never been there before. i have seen things happening in the muslim community in my area which consists of many from the middle east. there are a lot of them that have fallen a bit in regards to their faith. i think it's more or less the younger generation though. very often their parents come from their respective countries and they tell their children not to do this or not to do that, but they aren't telling thier children why they shouldn't do these things. or very often too, the parents are telling their kids; go to the masjid, read the quran, make salat; but they never see their parents doing those things.
if you come from a muslim country, you are kind of protected from unislamic influences in the sense that everyone else there is also a muslim. people can keep each other in check. but here in america, where everyone isn't muslim it's hard to keep to the halal when you are surrounded by so much of the haraam. in reality many of these people were only muslim in name, they weren't living life as a muslim but were living the life of a Moroccan, Egyptian etc. culture was more dear to them than islam.
as far as western reverts. we are very serious about our deen. maybe it's because all of this is new to us. we see islam as something that has saved our lives. some born muslims see islam as something that they have always had, never really appreciating the religion. and of course there are born muslims that are serious with their deen that are trying to get the fallen muslims back up, which is great because they're living examples for their children.
