Since i was a Muslim for all my life up until two and a half months ago, and since i only left the faith in secret, my life is that of an ordinary Sunni Muslim Algerian young man. so what exactly is that life like ? If i had to sum it all in one word i would say: a collective life. the sense that we are all living a shared life is part of the experience of living in Algeria, or any other Arab country for that matter, family, relatives and neighbors all have a say in varying degrees about others lives, we talk, walk, dress, pray, study, marry, read, move and watch under direct or indirect pressure from the collective standpoint of others. It's a life philosophy of belonging to the collective identity. So what is exactly the heart of that identity ? Sunni Muslim faith, Arab and Berber (Amazigh) decent, Arabic language with heavy French influence. take that and add a love for hierarchy, authority, the fatherly figure, homogeneity, and a strong sense of Honor and loyalty, those are aspects that characterize agreement, while in disagreement the prevailing sense is that of mutual subjectivity; you care for my subjective views,i care for yours. If that was negatively described as a situation, then that is not the full picture. A strong sense of belonging could be, for many, a warm shelter of brotherhood, a source of comfort stemming from the fact that they are sharing many aspects of their lives with many others like them. whether good or bad, it forms a proof that they are not alone in their experiences and that is an incentive for cooperation; people expect help and are expected to help. From an outsider's perspective, the national affection for conformity means that so much of what they learn from a sample of the local people gives them a pretty good picture of what the general population, it's culture and preferred lifestyles are like.