We had an amazing opportunity today to meet with several Muslim men in the local mosque. A friend of mine had organized the meeting with the Imam but, unknown to us, he was sick this weekend. However, when we showed up unannounced and uninvited, the craziest thing happened – they invited us in and spoke to us of their religion for over 90 minutes. The men , both old and young, sat with us while we discussed the holiday of Ramadan.
I listened during the discussion, as they explained the pillars of Islam and how it is practiced. There were several questions from the group of us that attended. However the most important comment that was made by one of the elder men had to do with the violence and extremest topics. He made sure to state that Islamic Radicals are not followers of Allah. He also stated that the issues we see in the news have very little to do with religion. They are products of the global communities politics.
Most of what we see in the news is politically driven from one side or another. As I have mentioned before, the only way to understand people is to befriend them. Book knowledge and websites – this blog included, are incomplete. People are not to be merely read about, they are to be encountered.
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