|
I wasn't aware of this forum until Kitchen Witch's post on Burka's.
I recieved a disturbing email a while back, I won't burden you with its contents, but the title was "Jesus or Allah" It was one of those (slightly)subtle emails that promotes misunderstanding and racism between cultures as well the the Christian and Islamic religions.
Most of the people who know me-- know not to send me stuff like that. I hit reply all, and told the sender that it was inaccurate and promoted misunderstanding, as well as insulted the service of my daughter who served a year in Afghanistan and saw first hand how the Muslim people there suffered under the Taliban. She came back changed forever. I also sent the sender a link I had found--Islam on-line that seemed to have good information.
I know very little about Islam, but I have linked to "The Noble Qu'ran" on-line and read a bit from time to time. I have a few Muslim friends, mostly from African contries.
One of these friends is from Gambia. Although Americanized, he has a hard time explaining his culture much less his religion,(especially his marriage ceremony) so one night, with his blessing and with him looking over my shoulder I looked it up. One of the interesting things I found about his culture was that greeting one another is a very important courtesy. We are both nurses, and things get so busy that half a shift can be through before we say Hi, or how are you. Once he knew that I knew it was important, we both go out of our way to greet one another. Sometimes in such simple ways knowledge builds bridges between people and cultures. So I'm glad this forum is here, to help me clear up misconceptions of my own, gain some knowledge, and hopefully take it out to build my small bridges.
|