{"id":3168,"date":"2015-12-26T07:47:55","date_gmt":"2015-12-26T12:47:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=3168"},"modified":"2015-12-13T16:01:41","modified_gmt":"2015-12-13T21:01:41","slug":"dealing-with-the-islamic-image-today-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-the-islamic-image-today-part-i.html","title":{"rendered":"Dealing with the Islamic image today, part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

The global trend of Islamophobia is not very pretty. I don\u2019t want to wear it. I don\u2019t want it in my house. I don\u2019t want it in my consciousness, but hints of it float around in my head and I need to deal with it.<\/p>\n

I decided that one way to deal with it was to get to know better those who study and practice Islam, the Muslims.<\/p>\n

I have Muslim neighbors. They aren\u2019t neighbors in the sense that I can speak to them over the fence. To reach these neighbors, a good fifteen-minute car drive is required, but after hearing so many crude remarks about those people with the \u201chead gear,\u201d I knew the drive would prove valuable.<\/p>\n

It did.<\/p>\n

The head gear is a scarf, a Hijab. A man’s hat is a Kufi.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve had a past encounter with people who study and practice Islam. A few years ago, I visited Marrakech, Morocco. It was a week-long visit. Five times a day, prayers were amplified over loudspeakers. The Muslim people were intermixed with other ethnicities. Everyone was helpful, although their behaviors seemed intense.<\/p>\n

Today, it was time to get to know this culture, not as a tourist, but as a human being living<\/a> on the same planet with them.<\/p>\n

Where am I coming from? I\u2019m a Christian. It\u2019s the religion my parents knew and shared with me.<\/p>\n

Granted, as an adult, I familiarized myself with the Koran, an English version, and the Prophet Mohammad. The Koran wasn\u2019t that interesting to me. The language took twists and turns that I didn\u2019t take the time to follow. It taught me that the language I used to explain my religion probably isn\u2019t that interesting to others either, and doesn\u2019t make a lot of sense to someone trained to think along a different word pattern.<\/p>\n

Three things I realized<\/a>:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Languages are relative. They hold no absolute meaning.<\/li>\n
  2. Thought patterns vary, but that doesn\u2019t mean they all patterns are destructive.<\/li>\n
  3. I can\u2019t just think I know someone or something. I have to understand.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    The global trend of Islamophobia is not very pretty. I don\u2019t want to wear it. I don\u2019t want it in my house. I don\u2019t want it in my consciousness, but hints of it float around in my head and I need to deal with it. I decided that one way to deal with it was…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[1746,1744,1745],"class_list":["post-3168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community_world","tag-fighting-religions","tag-stopping-terorism","tag-who-are-muslims"],"yoast_head":"\nDealing with the Islamic image today, part I - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2015\/12\/dealing-with-the-islamic-image-today-part-i.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dealing with the Islamic image today, part I - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The global trend of Islamophobia is not very pretty. I don\u2019t want to wear it. I don\u2019t want it in my house. I don\u2019t want it in my consciousness, but hints of it float around in my head and I need to deal with it. 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