My Muslim Friend

My Muslim Friend June 24, 2015

There hasn’t been much for me to tell you about lately. Life continues on. I work on perfecting my diet to help with my fertility, I go to work, my husband and I play board games and take care of our pets. Life as usual.

I continue to enjoy my work at the grocery store. I meet a wide variety of people!

One blossoming relationship through work is a very unexpected one. When I first saw her I was nervous that she might be rude or unpleasant to me since we so clearly come from opposite traditions. She was wearing a full abaya (a loose gown going from shoulders to ankles) and a hijab. And here I was with my bindi and sindoor.

But she came up to my desk and smiled the biggest and most friendly smile I think I’ve ever seen. She was warm and kind from the moment I met her. We’ve greeted each other enthusiastically since that day and exchanged kindnesses. I dug up some coupons for her and she gave me a free item she got in a sale. I would love to continue to get to know her better. The warmth that she radiates speaks so well of her character.

There are actually several shoppers at my store who are Muslim and several who are Hindu. All of them have been very friendly and kind to me. My fear that a devoted Muslim might see an enemy in me with my rival faith has been completely unfounded.

Is this experience teaching me to be less judgmental? To stop assuming that I know what someone’s attitude will be before even speaking to them? Too often, I think, we draw broad conclusions about people based on their affiliations. We know how much variety there is in the Hindu experience so why does it surprise me to find variety in the Muslim experience?

The other thing this makes me think about is how it seems like in America there is a sense of connection between Hindus and Muslims. There’s a shared experience of being a minority here and my observation has been that it seems to create a camaraderie that wouldn’t otherwise be there. We recognize in each other a shared experience (and this I think is even more true for Hindus and Muslims whose ethnic background is from the same place).

I wonder if there is any way to take this behavior and expand upon it to heal some of the wounds between our communities. Maybe or maybe not but I’m heartened to see this friendliness between us.

by Clémence Delmas (I struggled to find an image because the search "smiling muslim woman" brings up nothing in wikipedia commons!)
by Clémence Delmas (I struggled to find an image because the search “smiling muslim woman” brings up nothing in wikipedia commons!)

 

 

 

 


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