[CathBraun]

As-salamu alaykum.

As many of you have probably had experience with, there is a big problem among Muslims when it comes to separating cultural practices and norms of Muslim-majority countries from Islam. I will talk about some that I have experienced in this thread and hopefully others can add their own experiences.

Showing soles of feet - While the dislike of this appears to have a basis in a Hadith (see this thread), this issue is far overblown by people who are raised in cultures where showing the soles of feet is considered disrespectful. In my own experiences, I have seen Muslims nearly come to physical violence with one another over this; yet, these same Muslims will not become anywhere nearly as angry over music being played at gatherings or free mixing at weddings and other gatherings, all of which are far more grievous offenses from an Islamic standpoint.

Order of marriage among siblings - Many Muslim-majority countries have a cultural tradition that dictates that siblings should get married in order starting from the oldest to the youngest. It is so ingrained in many Muslims that many delay getting married or arranging marriages for their children on this basis. This, of course, does not have a basis in Islam to the best of my knowledge.

Weddings - Many cultures of Muslim-majority countries have very extravagant wedding traditions in place that often include the aforementioned free mixing and music along with dancing. To the best of my knowledge, extravagant weddings are disliked in Islam, and certainly the free mixing and music and dancing that accompanies the majority of weddings is completely forbidden.

Music - There seems to exist an attitude among Muslims that the music made in Muslim-majority countries is somehow permissible and not haraam, but only the music made in non-Muslim countries is haraam. Please note that I am not denying that music made in non-Muslim countries often contains far more Islamically-objectionable content than does music made in Muslim-majority countries; my point is that we fail to acknowledge that all modern music is haraam.

What are some of your examples? Also, how do we go about addressing such issues?

JazakAllah Khayran for all of your help.