Dzheremi
Why hello there my friend, its been a while. Your last post seems a little pessimistic, like you’re feel a little down, you ok?
No longer loyal to Rome? We had a pretty deep conversation about authority and anyone has to agree Roman Catholicism has that, so why the change? (BTW I ask out of concern as apposed for any other reason
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Kathleen and Dzheremi thanks for the posts, if I understand you correctly you seem skeptical that Arabs and by extension Muslims are gracious hosts to non Muslims and that mutual understanding seems ultimately futile.
I would say Arabs and the rest of the Muslims are of the most hospitable in the whole World. For example when my wife was traveling the Sahara (she was non-Muslim at the time) and came into difficulty when her Land Rover broke down, went looking for aid. She came to a village and ask the people there for help fixing the car. They didn’t just do that, but invited her in and gave her everything they had and they were very poor. They would share great plates of cous-cous and the family would push the meat to her (i.e. the best bit), she was vegetarian at the time, but didn’t have the heart to refuse them
. She was profoundly touched. OK this is just one example, but it is not uncommon, perhaps the best amongst us, the hero Benedict, could shed light on the Iraqi’s? If find Iraqi’s really lovely people, in fact all Gulf Arabs… maybe except for some Saudi’s, but then they are Salafi. It is true that there is a special bond between Muslims, but that doesn’t mean Muslims are not loving to the rest of humanity. I love my people and the Brits are friendly enough, but its not the same as Arab hospitality. One funny thing I came across was a Patan (from Afghanistan) man told me that in their culture its an unwritten rule that if your enemy comes to your house fleeing his enemies, it is mandatory to fight with him and once his enemies are defeated then feed him and give him shelter for the night. Once he’s been treated like a King then in the morning you say go because we are still enemies and the next time I’ll see you I’ll kill you
Its not all roses of course, you’ll get exceptions to every rule, but generally I would say most Middle Eastern’s have kept that side of hospitality and generosity that perhaps we have lost here in the West. They are people too and so have the same sort of hang ups as non-Muslims towards them. They may perceive you as strange because they have never set foot in a Church or know any Christians etc Just in the same way you may never have been to a Mosque or know any Muslims. All they may know about Christians is that they have dodgy theology (relative to Islam) and that they descended unprovoked in hordes from the West killing indiscriminately and even eating their victims (re: the Crusades). You can’t love someone until you know them.
You think I’m a nice guy (thanks btw) but why is that? Because I understand both sides. We fear what we don’t understand. At the end of the day all people are an individual revelation a unique self disclosure of God. By understanding other peoples you are in fact understanding more about God. It maybe that they are unpleasant or heretical but then that makes one stronger in their own faith; you only know something through its opposites. Once you see an unbeliever doing something beautiful, something better than you then you are moved to tears, how can someone on falsehood be better than I? God’s love which is what is keeping the whole cosmos in motion pervades all, even the most bigoted fool. Should one look for the Divine in everyone they meet then they’ll see it and whilst darkness may also be there it doesn’t truly exist; it is only the absence of light. The Hand that made me, made you and for our shared Creator should we not show some solidarity? If He can tolerate our heresy, why shouldn’t we?
I may have rose tinted classes? You may have blue tinted glasses? I don’t know, but what I can say about religion in general and Ahul Sunnah wal Jamat (i.e. Islam) and Catholicism in particular is that in their tradition they promote mutual understanding. Muslims or Christians may go wrong now and then, but their religion - unlike post modernism - has the tools to highlight this wrong path that they’ve taken and direct them back to the straight and narrow… no the straight and broad.
I wish to finish on something beautiful:
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
to be understood, as to understand;
to be loved, as to love.
For 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.
Amen.
If you mean Muslims often misunderstand Christianity then yes I’d agree and this is precisely why I ventured into dialogue of mutual understanding. Often disagreements are based on a misunderstanding; I’m sure you’re as bored of complaints about the Pope being absolutely infallible (rather than just in faith and morals when speaking ex Cathedra) as I am about Sayyid Qutub’s ideas being said to be Islamic. If you mean some of our scripture does not represent Catholicism then I still agree. Like I said in an earlier post our scripture highlights what is problematic from amongst the Christians relative to Islam only, its not meant to highlight the finer points of Christian theology neither each individual idea from the plethora that have existed. Some groups have understood the ‘three persons of one substance’ as very much three individual persons i.e. three gods, or at least what we’d call three gods even though the group in question would view it as one. Its a matter of perspective.