[noduerme]

Coming from Judaism - our history was based on family and community as well. It's only recently in the US that the personal impulse has become more important than taking care of your family. The word for charity (tzadaka in Hebrew, I think the Arabic world is very similar), you know is not and should never be about showing pride or wealth. This is what our Christian friends actually wrote down in their bible... their prophet was some rabbi who pointed out that many other rabbis strut around pretending to look charitable, who are in fact selfish. Then they nailed him to a cross for saying that. This behaviour has not changed much in the last 2000 years, whether you're Muslim, Jewish or Christian.