The following anecdote is written by my friend Aamer Jamali<\/b>, via email a few weeks ago (prior to the Inauguration). I have his permission to reprint it here.<\/i><\/p>\n
Of all the things to remember about my Hajj trip (and there are right
\nnow, too many to recount) an especially illustrative anecdote stands
\nout in my mind, which may do more to establish a fundamental truth
\nabout our recent election than any number of pundits could.
In
\nMedina (the Prophet’s SA city), a group of us from the States were
\nvisiting a number of the Prophet’s SA original mosques. In Masjid
\nal-Fateh, a small masjid on a small hilltop, a group of us crowded in
\nto say our prayers. Seeing the group of us ascend the hill, two
\nmembers of the Moral Authority (Saudi religious police) followed us up,
\nand shortly after we began our prayers began to usher us out. Their
\nostensible reason? There was a much larger masjid nearby where we
\ncould pray more comfortably (not built by the Prophet SA). There was
\nno doubt that their outward ‘concern’ for our comfort was fueled by a
\nbitter dislike of Shiites (us) by Wahhabi Sunnis (them).
As
\nwe were filing out (after an impressive Arabic shouting match by our
\ngroup leader), one of the ladies made a comment that gave away the fact
\nwe were Americans. Immediately, the policeman stopped everyone to
\nloudly ask “You are from America?” Fearing that this lady had made a
\ncomment that would land us a night in jail or worse, we meekly answered
\n“yes”.
A heated whispering Arabic discussion took place between
\nthe two MA members. Followed by one of them addressing the lady
\n“Hussein Obama?” To which she enthusiastically replied “Barack Hussein
\nObama!” At this point, the most amazing thing happened. The two MA
\nmembers, Wahhabis through and through, took pains to turn our group
\naround, usher our Shiite group back INTO the masjid, and exhort us to
\ntake as long as we wanted to finish our prayers.
We have no
\nidea what kind of president Barack Obama will be. He has not even
\ntaken office yet. But it is becoming clear what the fact that we
\nelected him says about US, the American people. And no matter what he
\ndoes or doesn’t accomplish, nobody can take that away from us.<\/p>\n
Aamer H. Jamali, MD, FACC is a cardiologist in Los Angeles. <\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The following anecdote is written by my friend Aamer Jamali, via email a few weeks ago (prior to the Inauguration). I have his permission to reprint it here. Of all the things to remember about my Hajj trip (and there are right now, too many to recount) an especially illustrative anecdote stands out in my…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[40,38,26,56,182],"class_list":["post-206","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-pillars-of-faith","tag-hajj","tag-obama","tag-politics","tag-shia","tag-ummah"],"yoast_head":"\n