[HPFGU-OTChatter] All muslims not death eaters (from main list)

[Aberforth's Goat]

Hella wrote,

> I was very heartened to see the posts over on the main lists that
> were sympathetic to Arab Americans and Muslims. [....]

Hella,

It's an honor to have you here. Please stay!

I was a seven-year-old boy in Hungary during the Iranian hostage crisis.
(That was during the late Carter years, for you youngsters ... ;-) Oddly
enough, one of my best friends was a boy named Mechdad, the son of an
Iranian diplomat family. I can still remember evenings I spent at his house,
playing with our Lego sets while our parents spoke in hushed voices. We had
no idea what the problem was, but our parents were friends and had the guts
to stick it out.

I was an eleven-year-old boy in England during the Reagan years - lived
outside of London and was put in the first form of the local comprehensive.
Since I had lived with "America's enemies" in Hungary - and never
experienced anything but kindness from them - I thought living with
"America's allies" in the UK would be the treat of my life. It was only
years later that I began to understand why some boys from the 5th and 6th
form punched me in the stomach - or why the PE teacher screamed "get the
Yank!" whenever I'd run with the rugby ball - or why one of the teachers
read us a poem entitled "What if Sam drops the bomb?"

I was a teenager living on the southern coast of Sicily when US bombers
struck Libya. My father (a little older now, a little less idealistic) told
me to steer clear of my Tunisian friends for a while. I understood why, but
I didn't.

Last Wednesday, Sue and I went to our first ever parent - teacher evening at
Natascha's kindergarten outside of Zrich. There weren't many men there, but
one other father had come to translate for his wife. He has short and
stocky; thick black hair, even thicker accent; lavish mustache, gold chain -
the perfect look for your basic Arab Hijacker profile. His daughter is named
Rosa - small, dark, shy with huge, soft brown eyes. I looked at out two
daughters and grew thoughtful. Will they be friends? And what about him?
What does he feel this evening? Where does he come from? What does he think
about me? What does he think I think about him? I tried to think of
something to say to make friends, but nothing came to mind. I went home
still wondering.

Whatever we look like, whatever we believe, wherever we come from, we humans
are creatures of squalor and splendor, friendship and murder, honor and
shame. We might as well make the best of it.

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray)
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, so that may not have been
bravery...."