An Interesting Conversation

After the debacle with the female language partner last week, I decided to go a safer route to acquire a new language partner.  When Jim (my roommate) came back to our apartment with his language partner (Yussef), we started talking and Yussef offered to bring one of his friends next time so that I would also have a language partner.  This seemed like a good idea to me, so I agreed, all the while thinking in the back of my head that this seemed like a blind date!


The next day, Yussef showed up with not one, but two of his friends, so Jim and I sat and talked with the three of them for about an hour.  Yussef's friend's names are Majd and Khaled.  They are all physics students/teachers; Yussef has already obtained his master's degree, Majd is a masters student, and Khaled is still studying for his bachelor's degree.  All three of them hope to pursue doctorate degrees in Physics in the U.S., so they are all eager to learn as much english as they can.  Yussef, Majd, and Khaled are all much better at english than Jim and I are at Arabic, but this is helpful because when we don't know a word, they can usually give us a translation.  We usually meet for about an hour, 3 times a week and we talk about subjects ranging from our families to American foreign policy to Tajweed (Quranic recitation - I'll post about this another time).  The three of them speak primarily in English, but switch to Arabic frequently, especially when they can't express what they want to in English.  Jim and I both struggle to speak as much Arabic as we can, but we often have to resort to speaking some English because we just don't have the vocabulary necessary to talk about many issues.


The conversation that the 5 of us had this morning was particularly striking for me.  When we began to talk about American foreign policy (i.e., America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and America's insistence on supporting Israel), Khaled expressed his impassioned opinion that he believed all war to be an evil thing.  He said that he, as a Muslim, thought that war was terrible because of the tremendous cost of human life.  He said that Islam, rightly interpreted, promotes peace, and that Muslims, Jews, and Christians had a long history of living together in peace in the Middle East.  When Jim and I agreed that the U.S. occupations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and its unwavering support of Israel were unjustifiably causing so much death and injustice, Khaled and Majd were pleased to know that there were some Americans that didn't hate and misunderstand Islam (we assured them that there were many others like us).  They expressed their frustration that so many Americans only see Islam as violent, and argued that American media gives unfair depictions of Muslims.  I wholeheartedly agree, and I told them this.


Then Khaled said something that will stick with me for quite a while.  He looked at us earnestly and asked us to make sure that we teach others the truth about Islam - that though some may act violently in it's name, Islam is a religion of peace.  This was a plea straight from the heart.  It was filled with the acute awareness that the religion in which he has been raised - that which he has grown to love - has been hijacked and systematically distorted by a tiny majority of Islamic extremists; a continuous cycle of poorly informed, non-critical media organizations; and a consistently domineering foreign policy of a country that speaks highly of "liberty and justice for all."  And the consequences, as revealed in the gravity of Khaled's speech and expression, have been disastrous.


For Khaled, Majd, and Yussef, the war in Iraq is right next door.  500,000 refugees have fled Iraq and taken up residence in Jordan.


For Khaled, Majd, and Yussef, America's unwavering support for Israel's illegal and immoral occupation of Palestine is ever-present.  Over 50% of Jordan's population is made up of Palestinian refugees who were either driven out in the initial wars surrounding Israeli independence, or are children or grandchildren of those that were.


With my limited Arabic skills, the most I could do was tell Khaled that I always tried to speak the truth about Islam and the Middle East to my family and friends.  What I couldn't say was that what he had just asked us to do, was precisely the burden that I believe I have been called to bear.  I'm still not quite sure what it will look like, but I know deep inside that I wasn't brought here by some divine fiat.  I was brought here so that I could no longer run away from the burden of cultural/political/religious reconciliation that has so often seemed so daunting.  I was brought here, I think, so that I could more easily chip away at this massive mountain of misunderstanding that has caused so much death and pain.