Thursday, September 16, 2010 » I loved going to parks in Iraq. My favorite park, Parki Azadi (Freedom Park), had a section with amusement park rides, ones that flipped upside down without any safety regulations. I went to Azadi about every week, but only once did I go to the park with the statue.
I don’t know anything else about that park except that it had a statue of a woman and that it was a few blocks from the bazaar. My friend and fellow intern, Claire, and I went to the park with our Iraqi friend Ruxosh and her cousin whose name I never learned how to pronounce.
We sat in the grass discussing our favorites: our favorite singers, our favorite football (soccer) players, our favorite letter of the Kurdish alphabet. These questions interested me a little — though honestly, not a lot. What I really wanted to ask Ruxosh was about her Islamic faith.
Ninety-seven percent of Iraqis are Muslim. Up until this summer, I’ve known a grand total of one Muslim. I had read books on the faith, I’ve read parts of the Quran, but I’ve never really known any Muslims. I’ve never befriended Muslims. Until now.
I have Claire ask Ruxosh: What’s it like being a Muslim? She smiles and shakes her head, trying to convince us to ask her older brother Aso who knows more than she. We insist, but Ruxosh manages to avoid our persistence by asking if we’re hungry. She sends her cousin and me to the bazaar to buy cokes and sunflower seeds.
I walk with her cousin whose name I forget, well aware of the language barrier. Ruxosh knew conversational English; her cousin knows even less. We cross the street in silence. We pass by street vendors and baklava shops in silence. She breaks the silence.
“That,” she points to a young woman wearing a head covering, “is a hijab.” The woman was about my age with a floral print scarf around her head, a barrette keeping it in place.
“Do you ever wear one?” I ask. She scrunches her nose and shakes her head. I want to ask more, but I know I wouldn’t understand her even if she did.
I want to know more about the Muslim faith. I want to know why my Iraqi friend doesn’t wear hijab, but the woman we passed did. I want to know enough about the faith to make and keep Muslim friends — and I want to know enough to understand what’s going on in the news.
By now almost everyone knows about the Sept. 11 Quran burning (see page two, if you haven’t). Besides this story upsetting me out of respect for my Muslim friends — I wouldn’t want anyone hosting a Bible-burning — I’m even more upset about the overseas repercussions. I read this week that a total of 16 people have died in Kashmir and Afghanistan due to Pastor Terry Jones’ decision to create a Quran-burning fiesta.
So not only do we have people hating Muslims and burning the Quran, we have people dying becauseof that hatred.
We are blessed in America to have freedom of speech and the freedom to peaceably assemble, but that doesn’t mean we should always exercise that freedom. In Iraq and other parts of the Middle East, that right isn’t granted.
I mentioned earlier another park in Iraq, Freedom Park. Years ago the park was a military base ruled by Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator who hated the people living in that region of Iraq. After Hussein was deposed, thousands of dead bodies were discovered underneath this military base.
So the local Iraqis turned the base into a park, and called it Freedom Park to stick it to Hussein.
The local Iraqis got it. Freedom is precious. Freedom shouldn’t be abused.
I’m saddened by hatred Christians have shown to Muslims concerning the “Ground Zero Mosque” and the Quran burning. I grieve for those who have died because of Pastor Jones’s actions.
I encourage you — and I remind myself — to remain curious. Ask questions. Learn about Islam. Make friends, not assumptions.