The great country of extremes

While I was at the UNFPA conference in New York, I met an old friend who was security checked for such a long time, he missed his flight. Read the full story here. To cut a long story short, in the end, he managed to get on another flight and beat the “Computer says NO” virus. This is one extreme.

Today I want to talk to you about the other extreme, a very pleasant surprise for me. I was invited by the Imam of a mosque in New Jersey to attend a debate on Islam. Naturally, I agreed, and was picked up from Manhattan and dropped off in a run-down area of New Jersey.

I was stunned to see 20 young American military officers in the mosque, four of which were women. I was pleasantly surprised with the length of the discussion (2 hours) and the fact that the military officers asked questions on human rights, democracy, radicalism, the hijab, jihad, polygamy in Islam. They watched the sunset prayer and the late evening prayer.

After the debate, we talked privately, swapped business cards and promised Facebook adds. Then, the most amazing thing happened! The imam told me they were stopping overnight at the mosque, to learn more. They were also present at the 5am morning prayer.

I couldn’t believe it and I kept on comparing with what happened to my friend, who was checked until he missed his flight. It seems that military officers are taken from Thursday to Sunday to various churches, synagogues, mosques to understand different cultures and religions.

In my view, this initiative is welcome. However, I believe it takes time to heal a scar and even more time to heal a fracture. The US is healing the 9/11 bone fracture. We need to help America heal it and not let them be afraid of another fracture. We should be wound healers, not inflamers. Our role is to stitch back the wound and soothe the burning inflammation.