Sober Saturday

I have been thinking about how to write this post for a while now. I wasn't sure if I should even post anything at all, but the more I thought about it, the more I felt I needed to express my thoughts on the matter. I know that for many, the middle east seems like a scary place. When you turn on the news or read the news paper what you're most likely to hear about the middle east are stories of violence, unrest, and lack of freedom. Those things are scary anywhere, really. I know that they're the reason that my family fears for my safety while I am here. Then I read this article on the Huffington Post this morning. It perfectly summed up my thoughts and feelings toward living in the middle east and being amongst people of different religions from my own.


The news recently of the deaths of innocent people in relation to extreme religious groups is incredibly saddening. Although I didn't know them, my heart aches for their families and friends. Reading articles and comments online lately has opened my eyes to how incredibly small minded some people can be and how quickly we can forget to extend the same courtesy and understanding to others that we would expect for ourselves. It can be so easy to assert and accept blanket generalizations about people, especially if you don't have the occasion to interact with and get to know those people to determine the validity of those generalizations. As the author in the article I read wrote, "These people who did these horrible things to the Jordanian pilot and the Japanese journalist and so many others, these people don't represent Islam any more than a "Christian" protester who chooses to picket an abortion clinic or a funeral can be said to represent my religion.

These brutes, with their vicious and twisted misunderstanding of God, represent no real religion, no real faith. They know nothing of God."

I never understood why people fight about God and what His word says. To me, fighting and judging others goes directly against what any God would want. From my limited knowledge of The Bible, I've learned that what God really wants from us is to love Him and each other, so that is what I try to do in my daily life. I'm not always the best at it but at the very least try to be respectful and understanding of others. It really costs nothing but a little bit of mindfulness and patience.

I've been around a lot of people in my life, but not many have had the genuine kindness and sincerity that I have experienced in interacting with people since I moved here. I think the difference is that there is less of a self-centeredness here. There seems to be a real desire and openness toward learning more about other people, as well as a willingness to share more about one's own culture. It's quite refreshing, actually. Almost every time I meet someone new I find that I come away having learned something I could not have expected to learn prior to meeting them. Today I was out shopping and I nice muslim woman asked my name. When I told her, she asked if I knew what it meant. I said "sure, I think it means magic maiden or something like that", and she said "no, no, my dear, in islam it is the name of the seventh gate to heaven". Imagine that :)