I agree! But there's a reason why these muslims choose to wear the "tchador" or to pray five times a day. If it makes them feel better spiritually, and if they feel closer to God why not? As long as it's free will, everyone's free to do whatever they want. Nothing should happen by force or even by obligation.

Fallacy & not my point. Screwed priorities is.

The fact that being a good Muslim is defined today not by your achievements or your contributions to your community, but by some uselessly constraining rituals and counterproductive reactionist manifestations.

"In real life, this guy would actually be making a fool out of himself and disrespecting Islam. Defiant piousness doesn’t help your faith – unfounded ego masturbation aside. A good image of you as an ambassador of your religion does. But this is the least important of the concerns here."

That wasn't the point of the video. If you had looked at the setting in which he was praying in--an airport--you would have realized that his bravery is actually rare amongst many Muslims. In fact, actually heeding to the call of prayer is becoming a scarce habit amongst Muslims. So how is he "making a fool of himself or "disrespecting Islam?" Moreover, noticed how another brother joined him in prayer, almost reminding him of his duty. What should a Muslim say to that? Mashallah.

"Muslim focus on prayers as a religious obligation, when other obligations are not as emphasized if at all, is a proof of how fucked up your priorities are."

Muslim focus on prayers is immense only because of how frequently Muslims pray (or should pray). Does not the video "emphasize both": A well-dressed professional man rushing through the airport (possibly returning from an overseas job), takes time off to pray and at the end, educates others about his faith.

"The first command in the Quran was “educate yourself”, not “pray”."

Indeed, but why would such an educated person only stick to one command of the Qur'an? Why not explore other commands like prayer, fasting, feeding the hungry? Are you implying that these commands, which according to you would fall after the first command, have no place, value or significance like prayer? Willful rejection of these commands (or assigning levels of importance, which you do, yet accuse Muslims of doing when they pray instead of educating themselves) is actually intellectual dishonesty; the exact antithesis to the first command you, I assume, espouse wholeheartedly.

"...I know some 9th century holy troglodytes later reshuffled the priorities with the 5 pillars and other medieval "precisions" they're not divine commands for the 21st century though."

Please explain this asinine statement.

"Prayers and whether your daughter covers her hair will not make you prosperous. Education, hard work, and patient planning will."

I concede; however, Muslims believe God plays a role in their achievements, so you cannot simply push prayers aside altogether.

"Prayers and whether your daughter covers her hair will not protect you from the tyrants in your streets. Education, hard work, and patient planning will."

Your engaging in a non-sequitur logical fallacy. Just because one is educated, hard-working, and patient, does not mean that they will be protected, especially if, according to your scenario, there are "tyrants in your streets." This is absurd.

"Thank you for not insulting my intelligence by serving me the “both are equally important”, or “we should emphasize both”. "

I didn't say neither. Although, I did allude to "emphasizing both," but that is evident from the very video your criticizing.

WS

The problem is if religious observance is simply self-gain driven- where is the morality in that? It's the 'pray to God or else YOU will suffer' line that encourages this - so it is not surprising - but if one is only interested in worshipping God to save oneself -then that does not seem to be very moral but about saving one's hide.