American Muslim

"Of Muslims and Jews" Part II

Asalaam Alaikum (peace be with you),

I had an interesting and shocking experience last week in Atlanta that I have to share with everyone because it further illustrates our urgent need to create more awareness among different religious peoples.

Last week, on the first day of Hanukkah, I was invited for a dinner with a Jewish family and some friends. It was a really enjoyable event and the potato latkas were superb. I even received a present (thanks Melissa). However, the event was somewhat clouded by an experience earlier in the day when in my short Muslim life, I encountered someone so hostile to Islam that it frightened me to the core.

I had been out shopping and gathering supplies with my friend Sara, who converted to Judaism a couple of years ago. We made a stop at her Israeli friend's house. I told Sara that I needed to pray asr (the late afternoon prayer) and that I would probably have to prayer at this guy's house. I asked her if it would be a problem and she said she wasn't sure. Let me also say that when I need to pray, I will take care of my mandatory obligation to Allah (SWT) anywhere. I have prayed in parking lots, malls, train stations, highway rest areas, restaurant basements, cars, parks, airports and on planes. And of course at a great many peoples' houses - Muslims, Jews, Christians and even Hindus (though this was always done surreptitiously).

So, we go to this guy's house and when I asked him if I could pray in his bedroom, he looked shocked and asked, "Muslim?" I nodded and he said yeah, I could pray in his room. I found the correct direction - Northeast - slipped on my thobe (long cotton robe) and prayed the four rakah (cycles) for asr. When I came back to the kitchen, the silence was deafening. The Israeli guy was making donuts and Sara just looked at me and basically mouthed the words, "He's mad." I guess he just wasn't mad, he was fucking furious. I was shocked and tried to clear the tension by talking about music or something, but he was heaving none of it. I stayed for about 10 more minutes and then headed to the car to wait for the screaming match she was probably going to have with him.

When she got to the car, she said that he just wasn't mad, he was outraged. I knew the guy was Israeli and had been in the military, but he had an absolute hatred of Muslims and/or Arabs. It might have been alright if I just had showed up and made small talk in Hebrew, which I still remember from college, but apparently he told her I had violated his home. According to the more conservative wing of Judaism, if a Jew puts up a mezuzah on their door or in their house, the house becomes a temple. And according to this Israeli bigot, I had violated the sanctity of his home, his temple, by praying.

This didn't make any sense at the time and it still doesn't. Who was I praying to? Allah or the One God. The same God that all Jews, Christians and Muslims believe in, the Most Beneficient, the Most Merciful, the Most Powerful. What's the difference if I pray in Arabic or Hebrew? And my friend Sara had the same opinion so she did some research and emailed a question to chabad.org, where a rabbi emailed her and said that there was no problem with a Muslim praying in a Jew's house since the Muslim was praying to God. And this isn't a liberal opinion but from a Hasidic rabbi, the most conservative branch of Judaism [From the chabad.org "Ask a Rabbi" - "Dear Sara, There is no problem with offering your Muslim friend a place to pray in your house. (S)he may pray in Arabic rather than in Hebrew, but she's still talking to G-d—and that's a great thing."]

I suppose there will be many other experiences like this in my life, but as I have told Sara and other people, Islam has been a great thing in my life because in my practice of the religion, I have become more tolerant of all faiths. I find myself closer to and engaging in conversations with many more Christians, Jews, Hindus and other faiths then before because at least these folks have faith. We may disagree on the method of practice, sometimes violently, but the truth remains that there is only One God and we have a responsibility to pray to Him and be thankful for His blessings.

This experience has also really made me realize that more people need to engage in intercultural and interreligious meetings and dinners to understand other cultures. Muslims need to understand Jewish dietary restrictions and vice-versas. I am thinking about organizaing unity dinners in Atlanta to bring various faiths together where we can share in the food, the baraka of Allah (SWT) and hopefully help each other understand how to ameliorate the public's lack of knowledge. May Allah (SWT) help all of us with this effort.

I have been really happy to find out in the last month that there is already an initiative on this front in the form of the Jewish-Muslim Coalition Building Initiative (JMCBI) in Chicago. It formed after Sept. 11th and has become really cutting edge in organizing not just dinners, but even things like religious text study groups led by a rabbi and imam to understand Judaic and Islamic texts and interpretations from both perspectives. Alhamdulillah! Check our their website and Facebook group .

I started this blog to not only share my thoughts about Islam and the American Muslim experience, but to also provide a platform for open debate about these issues. My responsibility rests not just with blogging, but with also getting some of these programs off the ground. If you live in Atlanta and would like to help me start "Unity Dinners," leave a comment or email me.

Jazak Allah Khair (May Allah reward your good deeds).