I can’t believe my eyes

Muslim Helps Jew Attacked on Subway

(from cnn.com)

Not so surprised that it happened, yet I will admit I was tickled. Growing up in a tight-knit Jewish community, bar mitzvahs, matzah and the JCC were household words. It was still a time where we bound together from the commonalities of being minorities, from our strong commitment to education, and from the fact that our alphabets began in such similar ways. It was a time before I had ever heard the word “Palestine,” it was a time where I would stare with wide eyes at my best friend’s coffee table book, “Israel” at the rolling hills, olive trees that jumped out from the glossy pages. It was a time I spun around singing menorah songs, and humming “I had a little dreidel.” My Jewish best friend would come over and watch my family pray maghrib, and my mom would make her “shakr roti.” (Her favorite). She would smile and thank Allah for the food with us. She would say Amen, I would say Ameen. She fasted the days of Ramadan with me, her mom making us iftar. We thought we were sisters, and later I realized that far more connected us then blood - it was a tradition, a culture, a Prophet, a Book.

I don’t know when religion became awkward, when we parted ways gradually, unassumingly, without drama. The Jewish Community Center became her life, and she went to Israel for a year. I went through a roller coaster period of activism, protesting the great evils. I haven’t spoken to her for ten years, and I desperately try to find her as times got stranger. As towers fell, and bombs were raining, I wanted the comfort of our friendship, and our innocence.

Why this article led me to these thoughts, and that friendship, I don’t know. I just know there was a time where the Jewish community felt like my own, where I went to their swim classes, and the recitation of the parashah rang in my ears post-shabbat. And I wonder, how we got from there to here. From that feeling of unity, to utter shock when a Muslim simply breaks up a fight, to protect a Jew.

I wish I could say my shock only came from the fact that something remotely positive about Muslims was in the news. But I would lie if I denied the small part of me that was surprised at more than just that.

P.S. By the way, here I am. A moderate Muslim. Talking about loving Jews, talking about the beauty of a good act, talking about peace. All the people on the blogroll to the right are doing the same. Don’t try to tell me I don’t exist.

 

 

 

 

 

~ by azmaaish on December 13, 2007.