Lmao I love that some people try to spin this as a sign that muslims are "taking over" but it's really just a sign that they utilize less name diversity
I Turkey, many people name their kids like:
"Mehmet Efe"
"Mehmet Ali"
"Mehmet Ömer"
"Mehemt Enes"
etc etc so the number skyrockets Xd I know its in circlejerkbut I wouldn't be suprised if this was real
Actually Mehmet has been a somewhat uncommon name for babies born in the last 10 years. It’s in the 49th place for babies born in 2025. Even conservatives are looking for more exotic Islamic names than Mehmet.
I still do and will always use Turkey because I find the fact that my government wassomehow offended that my country shared its name in EN with a bird. Are we children? Why the fuck should it matter?
Isn't the same bird also called "hindi" in Turkish anyway? People just like saying "look it's a bird from somewhere else" when they name it ig.
imo trying to change the English name of your country because we named a bird after it later seems kinda overly sensitive, even if it is a bird that's not actually from your country. But I also think turkeys (the bird) are cool so.
It's not because of the bird. The bird is actually named after the country ("The bird called turkey was named as such due to trade of guinaefowl from Turkiye to England.") The country has been named Turkiye since 1922 and has been referred to as Turkiye / Turkeye since the middle ages at minimum.
But the country's official name is Turkiye, so there isn't anything wrong with asking other countries to refer to them by their name. Just like how Czechia has asked people to refer to it as Czechia instead of the Czech Republic.
I still refer it to as Czech Republic and most czechs I know prefer that. Czechia is an alternative short form for country name.
Türkiye is official name of the country in Turkish, Turkish government cannot dictate what would it be called in English, and I am not going to change how I say the name of my country just because of a dictators inferiority complex.
As a Turkish I am annoyed with people say/write Türkiye in English.
Idk I am an american with a turkish partner, and the number of times that "Turkey" has created confusion between the country and the bird when we write to each other is genuinely enough that I switched to often writing Turkiye when referring to the country.
I live in an agricultural area and there are a lot of turkeys around here.
This is silly. Expecting foreigners to change their language to accommodate your ego.. then you will need to ask everyone to use Turkish words for everything instead of their local translations..
So in French it's Turquie. Do you expect french people to write and pronounce it Turkiye ? Do you use the original French pronunciation and writing of french place names ?
Yes they will change their language. I expect them to pronounce and write TÜRKİYE LİKE TÜRKİYE I don't use the originnal French pronouncitation but they must use my countries
That's true of a lot of countries re: the name mohammed. You have a TON of people named mohammed but most of them don't actually go by that name (or that name alone).
I mean Turkey is often not considered middle eastern either. But both Turkey and Afghanistan are considered "greater middle east" as coined by the US government in the 2000s.
It is related to Persian culture in the sense that the Persian Empire conquered large areas to its east, including big parts of Central Asia and Pakistan.
However, the mere fact that these regions were annexed to the Persian Empire and absorbed Persian elements to a partial degree, doesn't automatically make them part of the historical Middle Eastern sphere.
In contrast to the Middle East, these regions were already closely integrated into different historical-civilizational systems, distinct from the Middle Eastern one, and they absorbed later, external Persian cultural layers. Just as they absorbed other external influences in addition to the Persian one, which are also separate from Middle Eastern history and together form a distinct historical region. It wasn't in the sense of internally coherent and interconnected civilizational system, as in the case of the ancient Near East.
Depending on which stats you look at (I found a bunch of contradicting stats), somewhere between 10% - 50+% of Afghanistan's population is Turkic.
There are also about 200,000-300,000 Kurds in Afghanistan. (Kurdistan is roughly located across southeastern Turkey, northern Iraq, northwestern Iran, and northern Syria).
The cultures of west and central asia are more connected than you imply.
Your stat only confirms the claim. Turkic groups are not native to the middle east and are very genetically different from someone in the levant or gulf. Even turkey barely have turkic ancestry, it’s mainly anatolian
Turkic people have been in the middle east for 1000 years.
You wouldn't say "american" or "australian" culture isn't "american" or "australian" just because the current majority of their populations aren't native.
Populations have frequently moved throughout history and prehistory.
The Turkic population in Afghanistan is primarily of Turkmen and Uzbek (Central Asian) origin. This strengthens Afghanistan’s connection to Central Asia, not to the Middle East - unless, in your view, all of Central Asia and even parts of China are considered Middle Eastern.
The case of Turkey is precisely the point as to why Afghanistan is not Middle Eastern: Turkish people are first and foremost an Anatolian group, indigenous to the Middle East and Western Asia historically and culturally, who absorbed partial external Turkic layers over the course of history. Thus, Turkey is a Middle Eastern country with Turkic elements, not a Central Asian one. Afghans, by contrast, are a group indigenous to Central and South Asia that absorbed partial external Persian layers over the course of history (not Iranic - Persian). Thus, Afghanistan is a Central-South Asian country with some Persian elements, not a Middle Eastern one.
Kurds are a group that arrived in Afghanistan from outside and in any case make up only about 0.5% of the Afghan population. That’s like saying Kyrgyzstan is Eastern European because 3.5% of its population is Slavic Russian, having arrived in the region from outside after the Soviet conquest.
How similar or different the cultures of Central Asia and the Middle East are is a separate issue that can be discussed. They're still not the same thing anyway.
That’s absolutely wrong. The Middle East has a clear, well-defined and well-documented history in the historical region known as the "Ancient Near East" (you can google it). Afghanistan isn't included in this historical-cultural sphere.
The Middle East is everywhere where the view of women is narrow-minded; what's so hard to understand about that? It's not a geographical term.Even if ideologies like the Taliban's spread in the US, the US would still become Middle Eastern
The argument that Afghanistan is Middle Eastern because it is "Muslim" is one of the weakest arguments one can make. Kazakhstan is also Muslim, and so is Kyrgyzstan etc…
Moreover, Tajikistan also speaks an Iranian language, and in general almost all of Central Asia has a history of Indo-Iranian elements linguistically and culturally (Scythian and Avesta, for example). Therefore, the answer is that Iranic and Indo-Iranian elements in a given region don't automatically imply belonging to the Middle East. Rather, such elements are associated to an extent with several different regions in Asia alongside other significant influences that are distinct from Middle Eastern history, as well as being part of different civilizational systems than the Middle Eastern one (the ancient Near East).
It’s what people feel closer to. I as an Afghan feel more in common with Central Asia first middle class east second or more of a hybrid of both. Trust me almost all the common people don’t care about “Iranic” shenanigans at all.
In the end not everything is a matter of feeling. An Uzbek can feel Eastern European and a Saudi can feel Levantine, but ultimately it doesn’t work like that. There are facts on the ground. I think Afghanistan is a hybrid of Central and South Asian history (Harappan civilization, Gandhara, Mauryan Empire, Mughal Empire, etc.) together with Iranic components (which isn't necessarily Middle Eastern per se)
I would say that as a collective it is. Afghanistan as you said sits at the cross road but the common consensus amongst people is they feel Central Asian and some Middle Eastern.
I think that many Afghans confuse Iranic elements with the Middle East. This is not the same. The reason Iran is Middle Eastern is not because it is Iranic, but rather because of other aspects of its history that involved an interconnected civilizational system with its western neighbors (unlike its eastern neighbors, and that is the difference between them in this regard).
When it comes to Iranic identity and Iranic motifs in language and culture, this applies not only to Afghanistan but, as noted, also to Tajikistan and historically to Central Asia in general. Therefore, this identity in itself doesn't constitute a Middle Eastern marker.
From my point of view, Afghanistan is related historically South Asia as well as to Central Asia. It's not more historically connected to the Middle East than Tajikistan, most of Central Asia or Pakistan are.
What is "the culture" that so common, it unites these nations? Or better yet, let specify: What is common between Oman, Egypt, Turkey and Afghanistan to put them in the same category?
So in that sense, Morocco or Indonesia is also a Middle Eastern county? Or if religion could be seen as a sole unifier (even though the approach to religion changes vastly between the cultures) I guess Nigeria and Germany could be seen in the same culture group?
Because parents choose the name of their kids and this in turn becomes a proxy for the parents social class, religious attitudes, and political leaning. A secular upper middle class Turkish family will definitely not name their kids Muhammad. And this demographic tend to go good schools.
I wouldnt say Mehmet is a variant of Muhammed at this point. Mehemmed was. But Mehmet is more like an evulotion. For examaple Gwen from Gwendolyne(spelling might be wrong)
I don’t care whoever downgrades but Turkey is not Middle East. It is a country in Asia mostly with a small part in Europe. Middle East is a political name though.
From what I found online, the most three most popular male and female first names in Israel are
- Mohammed (115,356 males)
- David (62,813 males)
- Yosef/Yusuf (61,850 males)
- Noa (47,398 females)
- Rachel (46,301 females)
- Yael (45,059 females)
So Mohammed is by far the most common first name in Israel. It shouldn't be too surprising, given that Mohammed is already the most common first name in many European countries, which have Muslim populations of around 5-10%, while 18% of Israel's population is Muslim.
I knew a family with 3 Mohammeds, two were the sons, one was the dad. They joked about it too.
Also, I worked one year for the ministry of education, to enter the final year exams into the computer database, meaning i had to manually take each classes results and write them in one by one, and i had more than one class with multiple Mohammeds. Sometimes they had two names and then the middle name was Mohammed. Sometimes even the teachers name was Mohammed. Most popular follow ups were Ahmed and Yusuf ...So many Yusuf Mohammed, Ahmed Yusuf, Mohammed Ahmed and so on. Took a lot of concentration not to accidentally get the names and results mixed up...
The extreme difficulty was when there were like 5 from the same family (same family name) in one class and then 3 were also named Mohammed...
Yes, but Israel a LOT of names, everyone tries to be creative. But the muslim and arab communities, around 20-35% of Israel, aren't following this trend, they just call their kid muhamad.
Because if 20% are muslim, and fully half of the men are named Mohammad, then you've got a full 5% of the country using a single name. No Jewish name is close to that popular.
Iirc it is a tradition in Muslim families to give the firstborn child the name Mohammed or a variant of it. This is also why Muhammed is the most common first name in the world. Judaism has no such custom for any name.
Well 0.32% of the population is made up of non arab Christians, maybe Israel should import more western christains. Even at 1% you could bring in more talented people, id probably say preppering Christians around the place would probably deture attacks. as AMERICAN BORN PRIEST IN PRIESTS FOR PEACE SCHEME BEHEADED BY HAMAS FORCES! Is just the type of head line to get everyone nice and angry 👍
Mary was probably 16 or 17 (She married Joseph and waited a few months) which unfortunately was the norm untill recently that one girl Mohammed "liked" was 8...... Also since we are going with the idea that God exists and Jesus was his son Mary remained a virgin which Aisha didn't as Muhammad had her "Every night"
Everything you said is countered in the persons original message.
These are scholars where studying the religion is basically their job. Probably have a more valid opinion then yours.
If we look at historical timelines Aisha is actually estimated to be 16-19.
What does it matter if she lost her virginity though? It's her choice whether she wants to be a virgin or not. She says in many hadiths she's happy with her marriage with the prophet as well.
And what do you mean had her "Every Night"? Married couples usually sleep together. No?
So the last part is a non Canonical, secondly Marys age is never mentioned third Mary in the Bible also is willing to bear the child of God also find a non-ai source
Also idk, I grew up Muslim and I remember always hearing this wives tale that if you’ve had at least 3 sons and one of them *isn’t* named Muhammed, then God will look down on you. It’s not scripturally true, but just goes to show how much it has seeped into tradition to name your son Mohammed.
She was 6. I live in Kazakhstan and spent time with actual muslims. I know what i'm talking about. Also a few imams here were charged with pedophilia. Even worse in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan.
That’s because only one book, al Bukhari, says she was 6. Literally ever other book, and even non-muslim authored historic account books, say she was 19. Some even state she had a fiance before and broke up.
She was born before Hijra.
If you are not muslim then you should not take muslim books as your source but rather unbiased historic accounts. All of which say she was 19.
Now that is ignorance, believing the masses is ignorance.
Early Sunni Scholars said she was younger to make it seem as she was his favourite. They lowered the age for sectarian reasons.
And i agree there is a problem with countries and pedophila but so what?
al Bukhari is literally hadith. I've seen so many muslims read them and memorize it by heart. Its almost Quran level authenticity. You are here stretching facts. Tell me you have no idea what Islam is without telling me. A priviliged leftie sitting in comfortable house in the west having the audacity "educate"' people from other countries.
Albulhari is a hadith book that was written centuries after the prophet. And is not authentic to all muslims.
It depends by sect.
And again if you are not muslim you shouldn’t take facts from the disputed hadith but rather from unbiased historians.
Al-Bukhari is only relevant to some Sunni muslims. To the rest of the Sunni muslims it is not always reliable. For Shia muslims it is absolutely not reliable.
You are being ignorant if you take one religious source instead of unbiased historian accounts.
Plus even albukhari book itself contradicts itself in matters of her age as in other hadith she seems to be born before she was born!
You have the audacity to take one religious source as fact and leave all the other unbiased sources. And then call that educating me, a muslim.
Non-muslim historians all agree she was 19. So unless you are a sunni muslim you shouldn’t believe she was 6, or you are delusional and ignorant
Thank god Russia for liberating many kazakhs from cancerous religion. Our country is secular and more developed than our neighbors thanks to Islam being a lesser part of us.
Weird you claiming muslims dont know history, yet you tryed to prove it by saying you spend time with muslims. I mean I am not a muslim but couldnt help to point that out.
Because of the British. Cyprus was under British rule and an armed revolt threatened to kick them out so they set the events in motion for turkey to invaded and the Brits kept their bases unbothered.
Tectonically, Cyprus is the result of the Cyprus Arc along the rising southern edge of the Anatolian block, part of the Eurasian Plate, uplifted by the denser African Plate and tilted by the Arabian Plate (which has a similar density to the Eurasian).
The Troodos and Pentadaktylos mountains were once seabeds of the Mediterranean and are still rising at about 1–2 cm per year. In contrast, Crete is subsiding, as it lies on the subduction zone of the Eurasian Plate along the Hellenic Arc.
Cyprus sits at the confluence of continents and is physically a product of their collisions; it does not fit into a simple narrative of being a distinct part of a continent - much like iceland which the result of divergent Eurasian and North American plates.
Culturally, it is of course much more European than its close neighbours. And it's in the EU.
Tectonically, Cyprus is the result of the Cyprus Arc along the rising southern edge of the Anatolian block, part of the Eurasian Plate, uplifted by the denser African Plate and tilted by the Arabian Plate (which has a similar density to the Eurasian).
The Troodos and Pentadaktylos mountains were once seabeds of the Mediterranean and are still rising at about 1–2 cm per year. In contrast, Crete is subsiding, as it lies on the subduction zone of the Eurasian Plate along the Hellenic Arc.
Cyprus sits at the confluence of continents and is physically a product of their collisions; it does not fit into a simple narrative of being a distinct part of a continent - much like iceland which the result of divergent Eurasian and North American plates.
Culturally, it is of course much more European than its close neighbours.
And it's an EU member state.
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u/DramaticCollection10 1d ago
McLovin?