Talking to my teacher today, I got another view on the trash situation that I mentioned earlier. Most Muslim scholars apparently say that cleanliness is next to Godliness. I have noticed that most people here are fairly well groomed and don’t usually smell. My teacher added that people should also (according to how he understands Islam) not litter and throw trash all over the place. To him, it is a disgrace. This reinforces my idea that the Islam here isn’t overly nuanced. Not throwing trash around isn’t exactly a deep concept, but still, not a whole lot of thought seems to go into it. They keep themselves neat and clean, but most of them do not seem to think to apply that standard to the environment around them. There is also apparently a TV spot encouraging kids not to litter. Not sure how effective that will be considering the number of children that get to watch TV and the example that is being set by the adults…
Isaac