Welcoming Muslims

I want to welcome Muslims to America. I wish to help them feel welcome, maybe meet with them and support programs that mingle Americans with Muslims so we have a better chance to understand each other.

But I am gay and worry they won’t accept me. I don’t wish to add another layer of struggle to this business of understanding each other, accepting each other in our midst. I am different from so many. Reviled, even. So the question remains, how can I help Muslims if their central tenets viscerally reject gay people? Or do they?

I’d like to learn more about this but meanwhile have told friends of my concerns. These are friends who are not afraid to approach Muslims and smile and converse with them; make them feel welcome and unafraid. They know me and trust me. They know my instincts, too. Yes, I know they trust that I fear becoming a problem with Muslims because I’m gay. So I stay away from working with them. Is this right or wrong? I may never know.

So I work with others who need help. 

On the other hand Muslims have been part of America for a very long time. It is only now when Middle Eastern issues have erupted so violently that there is fear stoked between religions for political purposes. The irony is America stoked the political fires with decades of petroleum involvement – engineering, exploration, drilling, refining, distribution and management. American technology and industrial strengths were brought to the Middle East and sold there. I had friends and colleagues who were a part of this movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s. Some of those colleagues were very well paid, provided free housing and social networks, and allowed two or three all expense trips home for years. They literally resided in two countries and lived very well.

All the time the Saudi oil industry was built by Americans for the global markets that would ease supply concerns and develop favored trading status between Saudi and American interests. The money flowed and so did the oil. Although an economic and cultural program on the surface, this was and is a political program, too. It cannot help but be.

And it worked in Saudi Arabia. In Egypt, Libya, Iran and Iraq as well. Until, that is, political realities became a very hot stew and geopolitical lines were literally drawn in the sand.

From there it was a short distance to cultural war and religious involvement. Of course those same regions had heated disagreements among Sharia and Sunni religious sects of Islam. Like the Baltic animosities and Eastern European hatreds of centuries long gone, religious wars were rekindled and now Islam is the bone of contention on more than two continents. Yes, global concerns now brew in Malaysia, Africa, North America and Europe – both Eastern and Western.

Religion has been this curious thing about mankind that, although designed and evolved for comfort and peace of its peoples, religion has sparked deadly protest and unrest for centuries. Has and still does. Virulently so.

And we see this happening in America as well. Only in a nation of so called educated and open minded people, it is more horrifying. Hate does that to people. Distrust, mistrust, hate – all are of the same cloth.

Reaching out for peace is what we did in America during the Civil Rights Movement. We grasped each other’s hands and arms and wept together in order to find common ground. It worked then. Perhaps it will work again?

Common ground between Muslim and non-Muslim? It is peace, of course. It is mutual respect. It is dignity and peaceful distance that allows each of us to worship and think and commune in ways that make the most sense to ourselves. We leave others to their ways; they leave us to our ways.

There is no need to kill or injure one another. There is no purpose served to build messages of hate directed at each other.

America is the home of the free and brave. It takes courage to accept those who are different from us. It takes courage to accept others we don’t know or trust to live among us. If our ways are good and free and accessible to all, doesn’t that tell you that others will adopt the same for themselves?

If that is true, then we have a tiny first step to offer to others. It is up to them to accept and work with that offering. If they respond well, we have a tiny second step.

I don’t believe what they believe. That does not make me an enemy to them or them an enemy of mine. I won’t hurt you. Please don’t hurt me. And now we have a tiny third step.

One step at a time. One foot at a time. Pretty soon we have traveled a distance however small. But it is the beginning leg of a longer journey we must all make if we are to live in harmony and peace.

Mutual respect and religious freedom. That is an American cornerstone. It is not only for us, but for all who come after us to join the journey long into the future.

December 5, 2016