religion - part II

I was asked to substitute a 5th grade religion class one day as I sat down for my break.  They needed a teacher to cover the class and sitting in the teacher's room, I suddenly was the most suitable person to go cover.  "what do i teach them??" I asked, and the response I got was "I don't know, you're Muslim"
So I headed down and the entire classroom was a hectic chaos and they all seemed to quiet down for a bit wondering what I was doing there when I walked in.  I started the class slowly, first asking them what they were learning, and as I was asking them I was stopped by a student who suddenly shouted out "Are you Muslim or Christian??" and when I told them I was Muslim, I kid you not, there were gasps. and then a brief silence, and THEN students shouting out random things like "SAY SURAH FATIHA!!"  or "do you hate Israel??" and then transitioning into a melody of "say Surah Fatiha, say Surah Fatiha, say Surah Fatiha" or they'd point to their books, and ask "can you read this?? READ THIS!"

The sound of the bell ringing to mark the end of that class period was magic and bliss to my ears.  I came out, again appalled at how even at that age, there is a NEED for everyone to know which box every individual around them belongs to, a religious box is absolutely necessary. And I clearly do not fit into that box.

The most intense and emotional of these experiences actually happened less than 48 hours ago.  I'm still shaken by it.  Fadi's death has naturally made me think about faith, my relationship with God, and the fragility and value of life.  My mind was flooded with these thoughts and going to the service at the Church to see Fadi's mom and pay our respects to her and Fadi, I couldn't control my tears (even though I'm not a person to really cry, it's almost unheard of to have seen me cry if you don't belong to my immediate family).  We were greeted by Fadi's uncles on our way in and on our way out they were the ones showing us out.

Small conversation with them turned into something else.  One of Fadi's uncles started on a tangent of how astonishing it is if you really dig up the history of Islam and Muslims, and he kept on repeating "you will be astonished as to what you find.  you will be astonished".  Still wiping away tears, I was intrigued and puzzled as to where in the world this was going.  his tone turned more and more sour and he made the remark "Muslims claim that they worship 1 god.  But that is not true.  They worship 2 gods".  23 years of being Muslim, this was flashing news to me, so I asked him "which 2 gods do they worship?"  He looked at me and he said "They worship "Allah" and they worship the man Mohammad".  I hadn't said anything to his strange, crude, and disrespectful remarks, but to that statement I couldn't keep quiet.  Being inside of a church, at a service for someone that had passed away, I wasn't in the emotional state to even have the energy to feel outraged.  I simply told him "That's not true, Mohammad is a Prophet, not a god'. he looked at me for a brief second puzzled by why I would say that, and Maggie intervened to say "She's Muslim".  and there it was.  Both of the uncles who were there subtly making remarks about how stupid Islam was, immediately ganged up on me.  For a brief period of time both of them were asking awful things simultaneously, one asking "Who WAS Mohammed? why do you love him? Why is a he prophet?" and the other one asking "Why do you call him Mohammed? do you know what that means? that means the most praised, why do you praise Mohammed? why is HE the most praised and not Lord?"

I was in shock.  I just could not believe it.  But it didn't stop, they kept on going and going, saying awful things, each of which felt like a stab at the heart.  "Why do you read the Quran in Arabic? Do you understand Arabic?" to "do you know that Arabic translated into anything else doesnt mean the same thing anymore? Do you know that 90 percent of everything written in the Quran was stolen from us and the book of the Jews?"

there were many things that I could have said (for instance asking about the authenticity of the Bible, or asking the simple question of if the title of "most praised" bothers him, how does believing that God had a "son" not bother him), but all i could think was "I am here for your dead nephew, is this really the right time and place to be telling me how awful you think my religion is"
The cherry on top, was one of the uncles looking me in the eye to tell me "if you really want to know the truth, you must know Jesus Christ"
Being mindful that this was a service, that i was in a church, and that I couldnt take them anymore AND knowing that they wouldn't stop, I literally (and it was probably rude) walked away from them saying "I am here for your nephew Fadi, and I really need to go".

Suddenly there was an onpour of tears that came gushing out feeling so stripped and isolated from any spiritual comfort.  M needed to go inside the bigger church and I followed her inside, now crying inside of the church.  On our way out, Fadi's uncle was driving out.  He reversed his car seeing me, rolled down his window, and apologized.  I told him that it was fine, and that he was forgiven.  My roommate, being in such an awfully sticky position, replied, "well at least he apologized".
at least he apologized?? no he probably apologized because he's sorry that I haven't been saved by Jesus Christ.

I am just utterly shocked that truly, truly  people are blind and incapable of seeing each other as human beings sometimes.  I know that Fadi's uncles are loonies and nutcases, just like the thousands of crazy loonies and nutcases that exist in Islam or any other religion.  I don't see this encounter as something I would hold against Christianity, it would be foolish and dumb of me to think that way.  And I am not naive enough to think that that kind of insensitivity, hatred, and blindness doesnt exist  in the minds of people of my own faith.  What disturbs me most is to really see, feel and face the extent of hatred that exists, solely religious hatred.

When I walk in Jerusalem, and I see orthodox Jewish men and women dressed head to toe, fully garbed, I think to myself, how are you ANY different from really conservative Muslims? Seriously, you're just wearing a different style of clothes.  But the mental cage of thinking that you are the rightly chosen rightly guided all else are hell bound, is exactly the same. Seriously, crazy religious people, they just have different religions, but they are all the same people, almost like a reflection of each other.

Nothing like a nutcase to get you thinking.

The following images is to make you laugh if you think it's as funny as I think it is.  People are really silly if they see more differences than similarities.  These slight, sliiiiiiight differences somehow make it absolutely ok to hate one another, and fight like animals, killing each other over stupid things.  Honestly sometimes I wonder, as humans we pride ourselves in having the size of the brain that we have, our mind, and our conscience, and that we are above primitive animals.
Yet, if you think about it, there's no breed of primitive animals that brutally kill their own kind, their own species, unless needed for absolute survival.  But we humans, albeit having a conscience not only participate in brutality that animals would never think of doing to their own species, but more often than not we sit silently to condone it.

Here's the kick...this violence is at its worst with very little hope for ever attaining co-existence and peace in a piece of land called the "Holy Land"

                                    display 1.1 : muslim woman wearing a headscarf

         

                                     display 1.2 : a jewish woman wearing a headscarf

Display 2.1 : Orthodox Jewish men

Display 2.2 : Muslim Man

Display "important to notice".1 - Christian child praying

Display "important to notice".2 - muslim children praying

Display "important to notice".3  : jewish child praying

It's not that I think about only these 3 religions at conflict and that I feel only these 3 are the most important.  But in the context of where I am right now and what I'm seeing, these 3 are at it (although the Christians are more neutral than anything else, comparatively, in the whole scheme of things here)