One thing many religious people have in common is that they don’t know the tenets of their own religion.  As a Christian minister, I know this among my fellow Christians.  I continue to be amazed how thin the understanding of some many is.  Others from different religions have noticed the same.  Here is a quote from a Muslim teacher which just appeared in The New York Times:

In turn, young Muslims are identifying more strongly with their religion, Mr. Khorchide said, citing the growing number of young women wearing head scarves “as an act of solidarity with their sisters in faith,” or the young men he met while doing research for his master’s degree in Vienna.

“They would say, ‘Islam is really important for me,’ but they had just dealt drugs,” he recalled. “They had a Quran in their backpack and said, ‘With the Quran, I am strong.’ But if you asked whether they had read it or knew what it contained, they said no.”

“I call this a hollow religiosity,” he added, like “the thin and fragile peel” of a fruit.

The rest is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/10/world/europe/teaching-islams-forgotten-side-in-a-changing-germany.html?ref=world

HT: Alan Jacobs