Toilet paper - yes, toilet paper! Read on.

I haven’t blogged in a while and it’s mostly because 1. Nothing provoked me enough to write about that wouldn’t offend and 2. I couldn’t be arsed. However, that moment finally came.

On a regular Monday afternoon …

Someone questioned prayer rooms in the workplace implying they could be better used as storage rooms. I replied that actually it’s quite normal to have prayer rooms in the workplace especially in countries with a considerable Muslim population.

This lead to a very brief but highly surprising  conversation. It went something like this. "Did you know people don’t use toilet paper in Muslim countries?" My instant reaction (in my I’m-not-really-religious-but-you-just-offended-me defensive tone) was that Muslims are in fact freakishly clean when it comes to “that area” and always use water AND toilet paper thank you very much. I added that if one were to visit any Muslim country, both facilities would be available starting at the airport.

To my what I thought was a compelling argument, the response was “Apparently the really fanatic fundamental Muslims don’t use toilet paper and keep a jug with them”, hand gesturing an invisible jug. (Meanwhile I am LAUGHING at the absurdness of this conversation in my head) They went on to add “It’s probably just in villages”.

In just a few seconds this usually perfectly lovely person had without realising demonstrated a completely inward and uninformed view of the world and reminded me that even the most brilliant and compassionate can be utterly ignorant.

On the other side of the world ... 

Some Muslims are having a conversation about how dirty "white people" are for using ONLY toilet paper in the bathroom.