Open-Minded II

This is a follow-up on the previous post. I asked the "open-minded" question because I've been hearing about people dubbed "open-minded" for reasons that I think are as far away from open-mindedness as can be.

A while ago, a friend of mine got asked by an american guy why she wasn't wearing a Hijab. She answered "I come from an 'open-minded' family and my parents never talked to me about it." What the hell does wearing a scarf or not have to do with being open minded!

I also hear not-so-religious people being called "open minded." Can't you be religious and at the same time open minded? I'm not talking about religious fanaticism or politics. I'm talking about simple Kuwaitis who practice religion moderately (multazmeen). Can't you wear a scarf and still be open minded? You sure can!

I heard private school studnets being generalized as "open minded;" students called "open minded" because they study abroad; girls dressing up provacatively being called "open minded." If someone makes a judgement based on such shallow matters, then they couldn't be more closed-minded in my opinion.

The moral is: generalization is no good. You can't pick a segment of the population and say they're open-minded.

Now to answer my question, well ... I can't say it any better than what you guys said. The best definition, I thought, was Sloth's (min gaddich:P): "listen and learn." No matter how much disagreement you have with a certain situation or person, just watch, listen, and learn for yourself. I also liked Rasheed's "everything's relative."

Shurouq asked: "is there absolute open-mindedness?" Well, I think there isn't anything absolute. I think it's in in human nature to have some contradictions. It's like Mobi's قصمصم. You can be open-minded and objective, but at the same time be blindedly biased towards something. Nevertheless, let's hear everybody's answer.