| STORY OPTIONS |
 |
| READ STORY IN |
|
|
| PRINT |
|
| SAVE TO YOUR SAVED STORIES |
|
| SEND THIS STORY TO A FRIEND |
|
| ADD YOUR STORY |
| TAKE ACTION |
|
|
| • |
Make Your Own Book/Movie Club
A book/movie club is a great way to bring people together for substantive discussions on issues of women, conflict, and peace. Download our suggestions for great books and movies to use!
|
|
| • |
Donate to the Global Fund
Help the Global Fund for Women promote women's efforts to protect their communities from the tragedy of war.
|
|
|
| STATISTICS: |
|
| | • | In Pakistan, 40% view some religions as more violent, but while 51% choose Judaism as most violent, 31% designate Hinduism | | | • | In India, 52% thinks all religions are about the same in terms of violence; among the 39% see some as more violent than others, nearly 73% point to Islam, while 17% designate Hinduism. | |
|
|
|
|
|
Author’s note: Eid al-Fitr is a sacred Islamic holiday, marking the end of Ramadan, the month of fasting, and is typically spent feasting with family, friends, and neighbors, and distributing wealth and food to the poor.
It was a meal like many others, redolent of spiced meat, syrupy sweets, triple hugs, and gladness of heart.
I’m Pakistani-American and often miss the colorful festivities of Islamic holidays here in the US. When my husband and I first moved to San Francisco four years ago, we knew hardly anyone. We spent Eid al-Fitr with our Indian Hindu friends – two of the most caring people we’ve ever met, who in true commitment to old-fashioned Indian multiculturalism celebrate everyone’s religious holidays with knowledge and relish.
My friend is an Audrey Hepburn-like waif: all eyes, style, and merriment. In her middle school, she learned about Hinduism of course, but she also memorized the Muslim salat (prayer) and details of other national religions. That type of curriculum (limited even then) is largely gone now, a vestige of a more idealistic era in India, but it made me wide-eyed with wonder to hear tale of it.
I grew up in Pakistan and the US and learned about the dominant religions in both countries through school. I can't imagine either nation encouraging children to respectfully learn about minority beliefs in such detail without there being self-righteous protests and anger about “protecting our heritage” (read: history that makes the majority look good).
Later, when we mentioned the dinner to some Pakistani Muslim family and friends, there was scandalized consternation that we had spent a sacred holiday with non-Muslims – and Hindus on top of that. This was replaced in some cases with a “perhaps they’ll convert to Islam” attitude - as if the only reason to have relations with non-Muslims was to proselytize.
When our friends spoke to other Indians about commemorating Eid with Muslims, many of them recoiled also. In the worst but all too common cases of stereotyping and prejudice, Hindus are looked upon as unclean and malevolent by Pakistanis, while to Indians, Muslims are not only unclean but are also a potential “fifth column” whose loyalties are always questionable – even six decades after Partition.
I understand that Partition, three subsequent wars, and a millennium of Hindu-Muslim wrongs against each other have fueled this reaction on both sides. But it still shocks me when otherwise cultured, educated, and nice people on either side descend to these levels.
To be fair, prejudice toward minorities transcends religion, class, or nationality. It’s certainly something I’ve heard from Muslims toward non-Muslims, from Hindus against Muslims, and, in post 9/11 America, from the majority toward the minority Muslims here.
It is the arrogant sense of superiority of revelation, free-market system, or Constitution, the condescension toward people of other views or faiths, and the limiting of our caring and duties to our coreligionists or compatriots, unless it is done to “save” the souls (or political systems) of the Other.
Can there be only one path, political or spiritual, a one-size fits-all-souls or -countries? Can any one religion, people or book contain the vastness of God?
While we should each consciously choose and excel in a path that we believe to be true, is there not something to be learned from other paths? Can other traditions, peoples, nations not enrich and further our understanding of ourselves?
It's as if we, as humans, want to squeeze everyone else out from benefiting from our economic systems or from the infinite mercy and baraka (spiritual blessing) of God and to define, control, and limit it all to ourselves. The box of the blessed, the chosen, the economic or spiritual elite gets smaller and tighter everyday.
I live in a proudly pluralistic city and country. Through my marriage to a Muslim convert, half of my family is Muslim, half Christian. They span the full political, socioeconomic, religious and international spectrum of Bush Republicans to Blairite mayors to Muslim League parliamentarians; from non-practicing to practicing Sufi-Sunnis to Salafis to Albanian/Greek Orthodox; and from urban professionals to rural farmers.
These are the blurry edges and shifting perspectives I negotiate on a daily basis. It is not always comfortable, but I do not have the luxury of judgmental exclusion or smug certainty. What I have had to learn instead is humility and respect, the ability to admit that I do not have all the answers, and that in the end, Allahu alim (God knows best).
Breaking bread in each other’s homes remains one of the simplest ways to promote peace and prosperity in the world.
That long ago Eid, two Muslims broke bread with two Hindus in peace. In some parts of the world the rage and anger is still too fresh for these former enemies to sit down together, but here in the Bay Area we had the opportunity to eat together simply as humans who cared about one another.
Later that evening, our Indian friends pointed out the qibla (direction of Mecca for the Islamic prayer) readily when we asked.
And, as the dinner drew to its conclusion, we spoke of a term that we all understood and longed for – that of “Home.”
We lifted goblets - water on one side, wine on the other - and it was good. | |  | FLAG THIS STORY FOR REVIEW | |
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Kasmir one of the conflict zones of the world, is one of the most volatile regions of the world.last week only Muneer Ahmad Bhat was killed at Baramullah due to the Grenade Blast. Authorities claimed that he was a millitant which is not at...
|
|
|
|
|