I’m a white conservative evangelical Christian who grew up in Nebraska and Colorado. I own a couple of guns, and I hunt and fish. Yep, I drive a pickup truck and listen to country western music. In my small-town Nebraskan childhood I never met a single black or brown-skinned person. Everyone was white. All ranchers and farmers. All drove trucks with gun racks and an NRA sticker on the back. No lie, my first bumper sticker on my first car said “God created men, Winchester made them equal.” I’m serious!
Stop for a second and think about me. This guy you’ve never met named Carl. Crazy Carl. Who do you think I am? If you met me would we be friends? Would I like you?
Now let me tell you a couple more things about me. I spent three months in a tent in the middle of Yemen in 1983 as a 21 year old because there was a terrible earthquake and I wanted to help. I didn’t speak a word of Arabic and was sick most of the time with hepatitis, but somehow I fell in love with the Arab world.
I took my wife and two baby girls (17 and 4 months old), and moved to Beirut, Lebanon in 1992 – just a year and a half after the devastating 16 years of civil war were over. We mostly lived with no water or electricity – like everyone else. I taught English at a local high school to pay the bills. We didn’t know a single person. Had no family. Had no money. Had no friends.
Until the Lebanese rescued us. They befriended us. They brought us food. Watched our kids so my wife and I could go on a date. We thought of ourselves as “Missionaries.” People on a mission. Bringing good news to the poor. But it was they who served us! God turned the tables and we were the poor in need of service. God used the very people we thought we were sent to save, to save us. Our kids went to the nearby Lebanese school. Spoke Arabic. Learned French. All our kid’s friends were Muslim – because we lived on the West side of town.
When we moved back “home” to Colorado – a place our kids had never lived – they were in shock. They heard for the first time that some here don’t trust or like Muslims. They were horrified. “They are our best friends. Muhammad and Ali and Zeinab and Noor. How can you not like our friends,” they said. But our kids didn’t understand. That since most Americans have never actually been friends with a Muslim, they are suspicious. And suspicion breeds fear that leads even to hatred.
They judge what they don’t know. And it’s true the other way as well. In the small outlying villages of the Beka’a Valley of Lebanon or the Central mountains of Yemen, or the far reaches of the Omani sands – there also lies prejudice. Because they don’t know. They’ve never had a backyard barbecue at an American home. They haven’t tasted Midwestern hospitality. How could they know?
So this is our job – to know. We will not judge the other because we will be the ones who know. We will know each other. My friends and I will choose to not eat with our Muslim friends during the days of Ramadan – and then will join them for the Iftar that night. And our American Muslim friends will taste our (beef) brats on the grill and our homemade ice tea. And we will be one. And dispel the myths that rage between us.
It is NOT enough to simply read the books and tell the stories. We must smell, taste and feel the differences between our peoples and then, only then, will be become what America is supposed to stand for.
If you are a Muslim immigrant to America – here’s my challenge to you! Do not wait for your neighbors to welcome you. They are insecure and may be a bit nervous. You go to them and welcome them. This is YOUR country. Do not wait for us.
Those of us who drive trucks, work at steel meals, drink Bud Light and listen to that twangy country music – we’re good folk and we’ll do the right thing if you give us a chance. We’d never admit it, but we’re just a little scared! Help us. Just like the Lebanese rescued this lost Missionary. Maybe God sent YOU to rescue us!
What an incredible story- It is our common human-ness that can save us, if we let it. Thanks for sharing.
Great story my dear friend. This is just the kind of message many people like me have been waiting to read. Written with a good spirit and genuine intentions! We all are human beings first…then come our introductions… Keep it up Carl!
Carl, my friend I am really thankful to you for sharing your heart here today. This is the first time that I have visited this blog. I am one of those that grew up evangelical Christian (or almost Evangelical but for sure mainstream Christian). I grew up in a sundown town in the fifties in a mid-western town of 1100 people. My name was Martha. We had stores and a grain elevator on one side of the street with the railroad running through town. I never knew a Catholic, a Jew or a black person until I went to college in 1971. When I got to college I started to explore religion. I had a lot of knowledge but not nearly enough to defend some aspects of my Christian faith when I met a few Muslims during Ramadan. We argued a little bit about the prophets. I soon realized that I needed more than prayers on Sunday and I became Muslim in March of 1972. I began to pray five times a day. In 1978 I made the pilgrimage to Mecca. I never regretted becoming Muslim, I never looked back and thankfully Allah helped me raise a Muslim family in the Midwest. As an American, I am deeply saddened by what is going on in America today. It is something really different. It is certainly a test for all of us. It is certainly a time that will be written in history. If I met you, I would like you, Carl and you would like me. I am a Muslim American now because I saw what you saw in Islam. I feel today that Islam saved me. I have read the Quran many times. There is a newer modern and contemporary English translation (The Gracious Quran advertised on Bridges TV) available today for Muslims and others who might like to get an understanding from the text (which is easier because it is in modern English). Without the goal of converting you, I suggest you look at it and share this information with others. As Americans, you Carl and I share a goal of helping others to understand that Muslims are just people. I would love to meet your children because I am sure I could notice that they don’t hate me. Last week I was screamed at and told to go back to my country by a woman who did not understand. She swore at me at the top of her lungs, repeating herself —”You m-fn–a-hole b. Get the H out of MY COUNTRY….she called me a-hole and B—several times. I was shaking. I wanted her to see more than my scarf and my modest dress. I am a wise old 50 something American, a professor and I tried to talk to her but there was hate in her eyes, I don’t think I would see hate in yours, or your children’s. Thanks Carl, for being a great American !!!
(and you are absolutely correct–Americans are really good folks, and when a given a chance do the right thing, I know it and you know it. Somehow we need to halt the negative public curriculum reaching and teaching across America—a lie about Islam, The Quran, the Prophet Muhammad and about Muslims. Somehow we have to give each other the chance at understanding and put fear aside.) I ask God to guide these words, and pray that in NO WAY was anything I wrote offensive. I love my country!
Hi Seema
Great response. I agree with you totally. I have also read the Qur’an several times and know it well.
I will write another blog soon about how I don’t see myself as religious but as a follower of Jesus and what that means….
Ramadan Mubarak
carl
This post is good.