Dear Friends,
All my neighbors are Muslims. The compound where I live with 40
rickshaw drivers and two families consists of two long tin sheds, a
hand-operated water pump and one toilet.
News of the catastrophe on Sept. 11, 2001, reached us within
hours. For several weeks most Bangladeshis could think only sympathetically of
the victims. However, when the victimized nation began to retaliate, the
perception of my acquaintances was that now the Afghan poor persons, who had
already suffered too much, had become the newest targets of vengeance. My
neighbors saw, and see, no justification for killing anyone besides the
evildoers.
On a Friday after bombs began to fall on Afghanistan, I went to
the pond to bathe. Nearby an officer of the mosque, with microphone in hand,
was calling the faithful to community prayer. He was also giving them the
lowdown on Americans, exhorting Muslims to remember: “America is a
Christian country. They have refused to accept Islam and, therefore, they kill
Muslims.” I asked myself: Should I go over there, cite facts and use logic
to explain another side of the story? Prudence answered me: No crowd coming out
of the mosque after prayer is hoping to hear your views. Finish your bath and
go home.
Bangladeshis like to use amplifiers, stationary or mounted on
rickshaws, to popularize their causes. On the main street of the town it
puzzles no one to behold an excited critic excoriate “the killers of
innocent Muslims” while not far away a hawker offers printed forms for
sale which, when filled out and posted to Washington, may make the applicants
eligible “to live in the United States of America.”
On a visit to Barisal town I met with Kamrul, a successful
teacher and tutorial school owner whom I had befriended 25 years ago. Kamrul
has always been most cordial toward me. Yet as we shared rice and curry in his
home he could not repress the urge to rebuke what he perceives as American
arrogance. “Why is it that the U.S. government will not show us the
alleged proof of bin Laden’s guilt?”
Educated Muslims condemn the Sept. 11 attacks. Intellectually
they deplore the killing of blameless persons. But on the gut level, it seems
to me, many of them admire the man and the organization that finally captured
American attention. Their Islamic community throughout the world harbors
grievances. America’s resolute siding with Israel against Palestine and
sanctions against Iraq, which they view as depriving children of food and
medicine, are two of them. Thus, they do not bemoan actions that humiliate
America. Humiliating the superpowers is what they like about Sept. 11, and not
the stark bloodiness of that day -- as if one could ignore the gore while
relishing the dashed invulnerability of the world’s mightiest nation.
Two doctor friends, who have been helpful to me and the sick
poor whom I serve, gave me counsel. Tarek was pessimistic about both the world
and local situations since Sept. 11 and wanted me to be extra careful. Hanif
had knowledge of Bangladeshi students of religion who had received training in
Afghanistan, and he advised me frankly: “Take a three-months leave in the
U.S.A. until things cool off here.” They know how easy it would be for
someone to erase a lone foreigner and how little would be done about it
afterwards.
Days before receiving their advice, I was bicycling through
villages west of Feni town, I was was taunted and sneered at. At a village
doctor’s office I was received more coolly that on a previous affable
visit. “Americans are killing ordinary people, people without fault,”
he sternly reminded me. In another village, one in which I had never been, a
youth led me through a crowd that had gathered to inspect me. “Where is he
from?” someone asked knowingly. My guide lied without hesitation: “He
is Japanese,” to protect me.
Occasionally I meet someone who is so intrigued by my purpose to
live as Jesus did that he accompanies me in order to explain to his fellow
Muslims, thereby helping them to understand and trust me. It happened again a
few months ago in Elahiganjo village. A welder named Bahar joined me on his
bicycle to search for persons in need of surgical attention. In every home or
bazaar Bahar broke the ice for me. After explaining to them that I live with
poor people and stay in Bangladesh to be useful to persons in need, he answered
people’s queries about me, sometimes accurately. The essential points,
however, he never missed: service and simplicity.
Someone wrote from America to tell me he thinks I am “soft
on Islam.” What is it, I ask myself, that inspires benevolent thoughts in
a Christian missioner toward the Muslims of Bangladesh? The manifest goodness
of so many persons fuels my respect for them. For the most part they are
tolerant, hospitable and attuned to the Compassionate One. Even if I had never
read a book about Islam, I would have noticed these characteristics in Bengali
Muslims. In fact, in my view, reading others’ descriptions of Islam is not
the preferred way to learn about Muslims. Why not simply meet Muslims? The
reason I respect Islam and admire many Muslims is because I have gotten to know
them during more than a quarter of a century and they are good.
Another letter from America reached me early this year seeking
understanding of Muslims. “In your experience are Muslims eager to
cooperate with other religious groups or do you get the feeling they want to
eliminate all but Islamic believers?” I replied: Neither of the above. The
Muslims I know are not eager to engage in interreligious dialogue or to
cooperate with non-Muslim believers. Muslims think their religion is totally
adequate. They also suspect that Christians may try to use togetherness with
Muslims as the first step in a process of converting Muslims. So, they think:
Why expose ourselves? We don’t need phony togetherness. On the other hand,
I do not get the impression that many Muslims want to eliminate Christians. The
sort of person who belittles and blasts Christians, using microphone and
amplifier to stir hatred in the hearts of fellow Muslims, might wish for the
elimination of Christians. But their number is small. (And does anyone doubt
there are Christians who wish Islam were eliminated?) The prophet of Islam
instructed Muslims to look after the safety of believers in other faiths
wherever Muslims are in the majority. In the spirit of that teaching,
Bangladeshi Muslims permit Christian missioners to live in their midst and
witness to Jesus in deeds and words. I consider that it has never been truer
than now to say: “How good it is for us to be here.”
Fraternally,
Bob
