The first time I met a practicing Muslim was my senior year in college. I was on a study abroad trip to Ghana, West Africa, for my last semester.
Included in our group were three local students, all of whom happened to be Muslims. We ate together, studied together and worked together. Several of us grew quite close to two of the students in particular. We stayed up late talking and laughing, and when it came time to do our final project, we decided to form a group with them.
At the end of our course, we were to choose some aspect of development work to research and report back on to the larger group. Our team decided to look into the role of religion in development work. We wanted to find out more about how religion influenced such efforts for good or for ill and how charitable groups needed to be sensitive to local religious beliefs when trying to make improvements for their health and well-being.
In order to accomplish our research, we decided to come up with a list of questions and then go out and ask the same questions to an equal number of both Christian and Muslim local charities. What we found is that despite different theological approaches and different spiritual practices, there seemed to exist a similar belief in an aspect of God that called them to concern for their neighbor — a call to help those who were in need. I found this very encouraging and inspiring.
Until I had come to Ghana, I had to admit that I had not thought much about how this core conviction in the Christianity I believed in might also be shared with people of a completely different religion. While I grew up being very familiar with a lot of the charitable work done by Christian organizations around the globe, it had not occurred to me that a faith like Islam also had its own relief and development organizations.
My time in Ghana opened my eyes to how, despite deep differences, faith communities could draw upon their beliefs to find common ground with others in order to work for the common good. It also reminded me that you cannot judge a whole religion based on the actions of a certain group within that religion.
While much of the media since 9/11 has seemed to automatically equate Muslims with terrorists, when I hear about Muslims, I also cannot help but think about Satch, Jebuni, and Awal, with whom I studied, played, laughed and accomplished good work.
Yes, it is true that there are traditions and impulses within religions that can lead to extremism and violence. But there are also traditions and impulses that lead to love of neighbor and service to others.
I believe that people of faith can quickly find common ground when they choose to focus on these positive, life-giving aspects of their religions. They can even find common ground with people of no faith who are still seeking the good of humanity.
Once this kind of common ground is discovered then there is no telling what can be accomplished. There is so much more we can do together than we can do alone to truly make the world a better place for us all.
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