A handful of people gathered outside of the restaurant Sunday to demand an explanation from the owner. He came out and apologized several times.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to apologize to the entire Muslim community,\u201d he said in a video captured by newspaper Le Parisien. \u201cI freaked out; I\u2019m scared of everything that\u2019s happening these days.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
While his actions were detestable, his admission is the whole point: he succumbed to fear. I applaud him for his candor and his apology. <\/p>\n
Which brings me to another point: looking at the video, it would be easy for someone to use the video and argue that the French people are racist. He could point to that video, and the recent bans on so-called “Burkinis,” and argue that French people hate Muslims. <\/p>\n
Such an argument would be wrong. <\/p>\n
When my wife and I visited Paris last summer, we were only shown the utmost respect, hospitality, kindness, and generosity by the French people. I immediately fell in love, both with the people and the culture. After I came back, I embarked on learning the French language (j’aime bien parler fran\u00e7ais!). Videos such as the one I saw do not dissuade me from my experience. I know the truth is not the video I saw. <\/p>\n
The same is true with Muslims. Yes, there are savage criminals who kill in the name of Islam. But they are not the truth; they do not represent the whole; they do not tell the story of those women in France who were refused service because of their faith. <\/p>\n
The French are not racist, I know that to be true. You should also know that the meme, “All Muslims are terrorists and all terrorists are Muslims” is not true as well. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In the Name of God: the Extremely and Eternally Loving and Caring Last week, two Muslim women wearing headscarves in France were refused service by a restaurateur, claiming that “All Muslims are terrorists”: A French restaurateur appeared to be refusing to serve women wearing the hijab on Saturday night in a video that has been…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[580,507,11,142,765,269],"class_list":["post-1000","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-a-common-word","tag-france","tag-hijab","tag-islam","tag-muslim","tag-racism","tag-video"],"yoast_head":"\n
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Hassaballa","description":"Hesham A. Hassaballa is a Chicago doctor and writer. He has written extensively on a freelance basis, being published in newspapers across the country and around the world. He has been a Beliefnet columnist since 2001, and has written for the Religion News Service. He is also a columnist for Patheos. His articles have been distributed worldwide by Agence Global, and he was also a guest blogger for The Chicago Tribune and has blogged on ChicagoNow\" . In addition, Dr. Hassaballa has appeared as a guest on WTTW (Channel 11) in Chicago, CNN, Fox News, BBC, and National Public Radio. Dr. Hassaballa is co-author of The Beliefnet Guide to Islam (Doubleday), and his essay, \u201cWhy I Love the Ten Commandments,\u201d was published in the award-winning book Taking Back Islam (Rodale). His latest book, Noble Brother, is the story of the Prophet Muhammad told entirely in poetry, and it is now published in its second edition. 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