A few nights after I got here, I was a bit bored. Since I had nothing better to do, I attended the I-Muslim meeting for residents to learn about the Muslim faith.
Personally, I knew nothing - except they believed in Mohammed and jihad. The moderator, of Egyptian descent but born and raised in Mississippi, explained the five pillars of their beliefs. An interesting faith, and sad, that they are so firmly steeped in the belief that there can be no other prophets, which contradicts in my opinion from what was shared about their God.
I believe their purpose was to dispel the misconceptions that they are a “jihadist” people, with extreme beliefs and behaviors. A point that the moderator and others wanted to emphasize was that culture came before religious belief, and that the extremists (treatment of women, lack of education, etc.) is the reason for the disparity among the different Muslim communities. Their example was that the women in attendance and from the areas they all came from, women are encouraged to be educated and excel. They honored their women, and considered them more spiritual than men. So much so, they were not required to attend prayers on Friday nights, because they said the men needed it more!!!
All in all, it was a good experience for me in learning from those of the Muslim faith. Afterwards, two of the young women came up to me, curious about me and the questions I asked. They assured me that Muslim women were just as interested in fashion and style. You only had to look at the clothes they wore under their outer clothing. Talk about chatter-boxes!
Something that I have learned while being here, people respond to kindness or a smile. One of the Muslim ‘brothers’ made a comment, in which I agree with, look for the things in common rather than the differences.
That is a recipe for living harmoniously with others.
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