12 September 2008

religion

Last week someone asked me if it's true that Barack Obama is or once was a Muslim.
For. Real.

I wanted to splutter, but I answered "No," calmly because, well, because.

I suggested that she read Dreams from My Father.

I should have asked, Why does it matter?

And more importantly, Who is spreading these rumors and why is there so much hatred behind it?

But it isn't her fault, not hers specifically. She is trying to the the Right Thing, whatever she thinks that is. I probably disagree on what the Right Thing is.

Right now, we are in the month of Ramadan. There are two men who meet to break their fast every evening in my building's lobby. At the beginning of Ramadan, someone put up a sign in the elevator that said, in Arabic and English, "May you have a blessed Ramadan," and my heart swelled with joy.

I am more afraid of Christian hatred, Christian fundamentalism, than of Islam.

In Africa, at least in most places I've lived, at least in Rwanda and Liberia, Christianity and Islam live together. My Christian friends say, "Inshallah," at the end of conversations, and my Muslim friends invite me to Eid al-Fitr parties. In Rwanda, Islam is growing, because it is the religion of peace. It was the Christians, not the Muslims, who opened the doors of the churches to let in the killers during the genocide.

It is here, in the land of supposed diversity, of supposed peace, where we live in fear and hatred, where we spread what are intended to be vicious rumors, I heard that he's Muslim, as if being Muslim were equivalent to molesting children. In fact, I've seen people who have molested children welcomed in the Christian church with open arms, their actions covered up, while Muslims must be fixed, converted.

There is something wrong in a country where a claim - a false claim, but does that even matter? why would it matter if it were true? - about a person's religious beliefs has such weight. There is something wrong when labeling someone as a member of an ancient, venerable religion that gives purpose and hope to millions of people makes the target bad and unfit to lead us. There is something wrong, and the wrong is in us.

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