I was moved to comment regarding a June 7 letter to the editor in the Seattle Times, President Obama’s speech including the idea that the U.S. is also a Muslim nation. We are also a Christian nation and a Jewish nation and a Hindu nation. We are a nation of every religion, race and orientation. The ingrained belief that the U.S. is still “only a Christian nation” is so 16th century as well as being so un-Christian in its exclusiveness.
I hope that everyone will have the good fortune to meet a Muslim neighbor as I did a few years ago. This relationship has enriched my life in so many ways. We are so in sync regarding non-discriminating against anyone for any reason. I have learned that this is one of the strongest tenets of the Muslim religious practice.
This dear neighbor, Farida Hakim, has been a real support for the people in her community and in our neighborhood. She has educated us about the glorious diversity of our community, the real goodness of true Muslim people. She has helped support community organic gardening, taught computer classes and water color classes at our local community center and has been a stalwart friend to me and our neighborhood.
As I found out, Farida and I share more similarities than differences and the differences are fascinating to reveal to each other. She is one of our really involved active citizens and I am so thankful for her inspiration.
When I watched the series on PBS, The Story of India, I came away with such a better understanding of what a disservice our history books have done to all non-Christian peoples in this country. America may have considered itself originally a Christian nation, based on its population at the time, but the desire of our forefathers was religious freedom and separation of church and state. Religion has nothing to do with being a citizen of the United States, nor should it.
After all the hate expressed by an ignorant population, fed by a rabid media, that lumps all Muslims with the fanatics of any nation, is just too close to what we did to the Japanese and Germans before we interned them during WWII.
To acknowledge that we are a Muslim nation is as true a statement as that we are a Jewish or Christian, or non-religious nation at this time. We are all those things. I take pride in a president courageous and knowledgeable enough to acknowledge the common heritage of U.S. people with all the peoples of the world.
Get out and meet you neighbors and join the people of your neighborhood in appreciating the beauty of this diversity of community. As my 66 birthday approaches, I celebrate the fact that as a “child of the ’60s” revolution, my desires for peace and equality for all are actually being voiced. To have met and made a lifetime friend of this woman, who is an exemplary Muslim, and a woman of peace, as most Muslims and all people are, has been one of the greatest gifts of my life.
Our president’s acknowledgement of our American Muslims in his speech simply made me proud. As I now take joy in our mutual greetings, when I meet or call Farida, Assalamu alaikum (peace or peace be unto you) and she or I reply, Wa alaikum assalam, returning the greeting of peace, I get a thrill that I have actually learned a new way of greeting that includes the word peace. We tried that in the ’60s and didn’t seem to be able to maintain it. Now I actually understand the origin of that greeting! Peace brothers and sisters.
Kristen (Benson) Beasley resides in the Eastgate neighborhood of Bellevue, as she says, “the most diverse city in the state of Washington.
