screened “the muslims i know” at an OASIS class today. the room was jam-packed with people who introduced themselves as christians, jews, atheists, and even “confused.” a lot of great questions. a jewish woman told me how her iranian neighbor called her after the paris attacks to tell her that she didn’t support them. “why would she think she needed to do that,” she asked, “we’re best friends.” it was a rhetorical question. i told her that is indeed the burden we must bear as muslims these days, especially those of us who live in the west. even tho we have nothing to do with free agents who sometimes claim to be muslim and have all kinds of political agendas and behave in all sorts of bizarre ways, we are supposed to identify with them, explain them, apologize for them. we didn’t elect them. there was no referendum on who we’d like to represent us, as a major world religion. but each and everyone of us is forced to speak for 1.6 billion people. it’s obscene. 14 years after 9/11, i am tired of explaining. i am tired of debating the humanity of muslims. frankly, the debate itself is offensive. another woman told me she felt heartened by the paris march: “finally, we can come together and say no more.” no more of only one kind of violence tho, i told her. “of course,” she said, “no one is going to push back against american violence.” there u go i said, u just articulated the hypocrisy of the march. all in all, it was a great audience – curious, open-minded, respectful. if only msm would cover such honest, heartfelt conversations rather than closed door tête-à-têtes with the duck dynasty.
