Only a Muslim would

Six of my Muslim brothers and one of my Muslim sisters attended the Prayers for Peace in the Middle East service held at the Lutheran Church of the Atonement in Barrington on Sunday, April 15, 2007, where the Muslims outnumbered the Christians for the first time, in that venue.

After the afternoon prayers at the mosque I spoke briefly describing the Prayers for Peace service, and left informatory fliers on the tables in the community area. Khadir Kahn was gracious and spoke positively of the service he had attended with me in February. Two of my Muslim brothers were kind enough to offer enlightenment. "We pray for peace in all the world, five times a day," they both said. The point was well made, and one I shall mention this to those involved with Prayers for Peace Service.

My parents and I arrived early to Atonement. Mary Anderson was delighted and excited that some Muslim would attend and she and Rashid had exchanged e-mails. I waited in the Narthex, eyes riveted on the parking lot eager to greet my friends to make sure they took the short path, the straight path, to the sanctuary.

Mahmoud, the principal of Sunday School at the Mosque, his son, and his son's friend were the first to arrive and my heart leapt for joy. Whispering, Mahmoud asked if there was a small, quiet place where they could pray for a short time before entering the sanctuary. I pointed to the Eastern wall. They quickly calculated the direction of Mecca, and then submitted themselves in prayer -- kneeling, and bowing to the ground before Allah who hears the prayers of the faithful, in all His Holy Houses.

These are VERY devout Muslims. As I watched them in prayer, listening to Helen Ailabouni playing the piano and singing, I was overwhelmed by the presence of the One True God. Tears of understanding rolled down from my eyes, washing my face with joy, relief, insight, understanding. In this Holy House, the Lord is Present. Be still. Listen. Observe. The Presence of the Divine is all around you. There is no god but God, Whom is present in this holy house.

All praise to you, Allah, for opening my eyes and my ears to Your Presence, Your Grace, Your Transcendence. Your Blessings continue to flow down upon me, like sweet, soft, gentle forgiving rains. I submit to Your Will, Allah.

After the service, Suliyman spoke to me saying, "Now I understand what my teacher (who had converted from Christianity to Islam) meant when he talked about how Muslims should incorporate music into our worship. It was beautiful."

I mentioned that one of my first thoughts about converting was how much I missed singing. But, over time, as my ears become more attuned to Arabic, and listening to the Iman reciting from the Qu'ran has become like sweet life-affirming moving music to my ears.

Ann Bayse (like Count Basie) was introduced, and spoke of her visit to Jerusalem. She's a journalist and writes for the ELCA. She has also published a book. She took over 100 pages of notes, madly writing down all she could. Upon returning, and reviewing her notes, she found four recurrent themes of the voices from Jerusalem:

Power & Control

The Wall

Narratives

Hope

She bore her witness to us, heart-sick at the plight of the Palestinian peoples, and the world's indifference to their plight. She spoke of the overwhelming and oppressive impact of the wall, of the endless delays at some check points. Frequently, she heard the situation described metaphorically as a board game, each side wondering what the other's next move would be in response to the last move. She told us of the debate among supporters of the Palestinian cause about use of the word "apartheid" to describe the situation on the ground, and how former President Jimmy Carter had been severely criticized for using "apartheid" to descibe the plight of the Palestinians. One man thought that a "softer" word (than apratheid) should be used. But a Jew staunchly opposed to the bulldozing of Palestinian homes to clear land for new settlements adamantly defended calling the actions of the Likud apartheid.

Nothing brings out the shrieks of anti-semite (or traitor in a different context) more quickly than calling a thing by its true name. They shriek like jackals when the light of day shines upon their nefrarious schemes to lie by using pleasing sounding language euphemistically to hide the true nature of the misery being caused by their policies.

When discussing the wall, Ann spoke of her adverse physical reaction to it - it pervades the land scape. Everywhere people come into confrontation with the wall, there is a subdued, strangled thoughts descend. The wall is evil personified.

To my eyes, to my ears, The Wall is present Jewish "final solution" to the Palestinian rights question. Build it through towns and villages, across farmer's fields, separating the farmer from his land, establish check points that make it impossible for people to know how long it will take to travel from point A to point B to point C, etc. Make miserable the daily lives of Palestinians, stop mothers giving birth at check points, making it impossible for them to get to a hospital for medical help, harrass, beat and break the legs of a Palestinian presidential aspirant, separate children from their mothers, husbands from their wives, all in the name of "security" and "fighting terrorism". Drive the Palestinians to despair, to death - killing them with indifference to their hardships, make leaving Israel the most attractive option, renege on promises - raise up hopes and then cut the legs off from under hope.

When Ann's own son was nine, he told his mother, "Wars, they are always about Castles and Kings" -- land and power. From the eyes to the mouths of children come the most fundamental of truths.

Narratives: Much talk from both sides of the two state solution devolves to board game metaphors ... "waiting for the next move", "countering Likud's play", etc. Such talk emanates from Game Theory a branch of mathematics that arose from analysis poker. Game theory looks at the sample space of possible outcomes as a ZERO SUM GAME with winners and losers. The more one player wins, the more his opponents loses.

But how applicable to life is Game Theory? Is life a zero sum game? Or in life, can we take actions that both lift up our fellow beings, and lift up ourselves?

Is life a zero sum game? It can be - but does life HAVE to be this way? St Francis of Assisi's Prayer shows us how an authentic life, lived to make better the lot of those less fortunate than yourself, offers double blessings"

It is in giving

That we receive

It is in pardoning

That we are pardoned

And it is in dying

That we are born

To eternal life.

Only a Muslim, having been beaten at the check points, having his legs broken, having suffered at the hands of the check point keepers, such suffering specifically directed at this Muslim because he was a Palestinian Presidential candidate (albeit the one who garnered the least number of votes in the election),

Only a Muslim, given this frame of reference, could make this statement (as reported by both Dr. Said Ailabouni and Ann Bayse):

I cannot hate them (his oppressors). It is not how God made me.

Only a Muslim child, perhaps with the additional benefit of attending a school whose ciriculum is based on conflict resolution, could make a statement like this:

I feel sorry for the Jews. One day, they will wake up to what they have done, and this will be very difficult for them to live with.

Both of these conversations have been reported (over the years) at the Prayers for Peace service, at Atonement Lutheran Church.

Only a Muslim could hold in his heart such compassion for those who revile, despise, and hold the power of life and death over the Palestinians, only a Muslim, steeped in the Holy Word of God, revealed to The Prophet (pbuh) and LIVING ISLAM, only a Muslim could formulate such attitudes; to turn their other cheeks from the slaps and beatings of outrageous fortune, and in so doing, one day, Insha Allah, they will live in peace, side by side with their former tormentors.

Such examples are in inspiration to this former Christian, so quick to anger, whose tongue is so sharp, and whose wisdom in such matters is so limited. Only a Muslim could show me the way to living a better life, a life of submission to the will of the One True God.