I am amused by the continue debate about greeting someone with 'Assalamualaikum' and the right for someone to respond with 'Walaikumsalam'.

We had the opportunity to work with a Middle East company in some projects and we dealt with Arabs from the company. Some of them are Muslim and many of them are Christians. They have been greeting each other with 'Assalamualaikum' and the reply was always 'Walaikumsalam'.

I once asked them what was the meaning of the phrases and whether it was right for non-Muslims to use the greetings. They replied by explaining that the meaning of the phrases meant 'Peace be onto you' and there is no reason why it could not be used by non-Muslims.

Apparently, this has been the popular greeting in Arab culture and it does not carry any religious connotations.

I cannot understand why we would want to distort the culture of others and claims that it belongs to only certain group of people. Are we more Arab than the Arabs people themselves and able to interpret their culture differently?

Stop the naive and narrow perception, please.