Getting to Know our Muslim Neighbors
by Getting to Know Ourselves
The San Francisco Chronicle ran an excellent article today the 23rd of May 2007 called, “Troubling views on suicide bombings”, where they quoted the Pew Research Center with a new poll conducted against the American Muslim community.
The poll questioned 1,050 American Muslims on a number of sociological and political views with the number one fact that Americans found most noteworthy being that 78% of United States Muslims oppose suicide bombings against civilian targets. There were many other facts of interest in the polling research, but I became enamored with why we Americans pointed to suicide bombings as the most important information derived by this study.
As I have confessed previously, I know so little about Muslim ideology. While I am not a theologian, I have great faith in a Devine Being. Many religions call him/her by various names, but no matter what he/she is named, I feel we share only one creator. Religion has been a powerful construct for thousands of years and over time as the world becomes a much smaller place, we find ourselves increasingly familiar with all the different religions cultures. Some are extremely similar in nature while others seem to be drastically different. However, I can imagine that all are based on the same principles: Love, Honor and Respect!
It is true that I have not read any other holy book outside of the Christian Bible, so intricate details of Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Muslim and the many other organized religious offerings escape my intellect. Yet within my soul I understand that all religion is suppose to bring about a higher state of being. We the followers look to our religious leaders to teach us about faith and give examples of how to live devotedly. While each religion has its own means of doing this, if we are truly to believe in a higher being, or even the Atheist who does not believe in such a omnipotent creature; can’t we all find one place for common ground? Should that cohesion be that to absolutely live a devoted life is to Love, Honor and Respect everyone and everything around us.
Don’t jump on the defensive and don’t start quoting scriptures from all of the books that we cleave too in such instances we feel our religion is being challenged, because I am not; but really think about your religion or the fact that you choose not to believe in one and consider the precept that doesn’t it make since that all religious beliefs are based on one common premise: Love, Honor and Respect?
Open your mind and think about the stories you read in your book or even just the basic construct of your religion. Boil all of the stories down so that you can paraphrase not just the meanings behind each story, but the true meaning behind the book itself. Bring religion down to its basic principle and tell me what you find - -can all of the world’s religions come back to one common belief?
If you honestly agree with my assertion, then doesn’t it hold true that the world would be a better place if we stopped fighting over our differences and started to practice what all of the world’s religions have in common: LOVE everyone around us, HONOR the people, places and things that we touch in daily life and RESPECT everything for what it gives us, including our differences!
Take today for example and think about all of the things that happened that were good. Think of how the person or people who enabled those good things happening to you, did so using the principles by Loving you, by Honoring you and by Respecting you. Now, take the worst thing that has happened to you today or over the past week, or even the past month; and tell me now how you could change the circumstances by practicing the same principles: Love, Honor & Respect.
Live each day asking yourself how you can Love the person next to you, Honor everything and everyone one, even the person who gave you the wrong lunch and Respect the person who opposes your beliefs with every fiber in their being? When each of us can do this daily without thinking about it - - the world will truly be a better place for all.
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