By Rose Hamid – Special to the Observer
The murder of the three Muslim Chapel Hill students struck me to the core. Although I didn’t know them, my children did and that brought things way too close to home.
It was hard to act as if everything was normal, when to me the world had shifted off its axis. Is this to become the future for Muslims in America, to be continuously afraid of random acts of violence and hate crimes?
The actions of a minority of misguided so-called Muslims has tainted the faith of close to 2 billion Muslims around the world, including up to 12 million living in America. The media and politicos often use those actions to spew anti-Islamic rhetoric, which gives license to unstable people to speak to and about Muslims with hate, and perhaps to act with violence.
Throughout the day, I started receiving messages of support from my non-Muslim friends and I started seeing worldwide support for the victims and their families. I was reminded that the overwhelming majority of people are decent, peace-loving folks.
It seems that the abhorrent fringe is what makes the news, giving us the skewed view that the world is full of evil people looking to harm “the other.” So what are decent people to do?
Last week the Charlotte-based organization Muslim Women of the Carolinas announced the “Know Your Neighbor Initiative.” The purpose is to encourage Muslim women to contact their female neighbors, inviting them to tea or coffee and getting to know each other. Those who make a connection are asked to post a photo of themselves on the MWOC Facebook page using the hashtag #knowyourneighbor.
Islam requires kind treatment of one’s neighbors. Some of the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) are:
“He who spends the night satiated while knowing that his next door neighbor is hungry does not truly believe.”
“No man truly believes until he loves for his neighbor (or his brother) what he loves for himself.”
Some of the obligations a Muslim has to his/her neighbor are to initiate greetings, visit if they are sick, offer condolences if tragedy strikes, offer congratulations at times of joy.
When the initiative was announced some said they were apprehensive about reaching out. Some were afraid they wouldn’t have anything in common, some were afraid they would be required to spend time they simply don’t have on cultivating the relationship. Some were just plain afraid. The fear has increased dramatically after these murders and it crossed my mind to suspend the initiative until people felt safer.
I was reminded of the most frightening scene I read in Stephen King’s book, “Salem’s Lot,” many years ago. In a pivotal scene, a priest tries to repel a vampire by holding up his crucifix. The vampire gets him anyway because the priest had more fear of the vampire than he had faith in God. BAM!
So now we have to ask ourselves: Do WE have more fear of evil, than we have faith in God? I pray the answer will be clear.
Read more here: http://www.charlotteobserver.com/latest-news/article10435364.html#storylink=cpy