The Islam in daily life

There is no getting around the fact that in the Arab world Islam has a huge impact on daily life. It is important that you understand this if you are going to be doing business in the Muslim world. Knowing how Islam affects daily life will help you to avoid making cultural mistakes.

The most obvious way that Islam affects daily life in Arab countries is that many of the thing that are taken for granted in the West are not available. The big one here would be alcohol but this is far from the only thing that is off limits. For example pork is not eaten in the Muslim world and so is generally not available. For most Muslims these prohibitions are not really a big deal since they have never been allowed them anyway but for foreign visitors it can seem a bit strange.

The other obvious way that Islam affects daily life is the requirement to pray five times a day. In most Arab countries everybody will stop what they are doing at the prescribed time in order to pray. Clearly this is not something that you would see happen in the west but it is quite common in the Muslim world. Stores will close and business will literally just shut down for prayer.

Another big impact of Islam in daily life is the way that gender roles are defined. In the west men and women are generally treated as equals, this is clearly not the case in the Muslim world. In general women receive much less education and if they have jobs at all they are strictly limited in what kind of work they are allowed to do. In some countries women are not allowed to go out in public without a male family member to escort them and if they do they must cover their face. How strictly these rules are enforced will vary from one country to another.

On difference that Islam creates in daily life that can be a real issue for people who are trying to do business in the Muslim world is the way that they interact with each other. Muslims will never publicly criticize somebody and this includes contradicting them or disagreeing with them in public. This has gotten many Western business men into trouble. In a worst case scenario you could end up publicly criticizing somebody and cause them to lose face. If this happens you will have a serious problem and you will likely find that your business deal falls through. More common is that in order to avoid public disagreement the people you are dealing with will seem to agree to something which they don't actually agree. This can lead you to think that you have a deal even when you don't.