Just a few days ago, the month-long fasting season of Ramadan ended for the Muslim world. Do you have any Muslim neighbors, co-workers or friends?
I'm well aware that the majority of my readers of white Evangelical Americans, perhaps making it all the more important for me to say this: we need to know our Muslim neighbors in order to understand them. Becky's and my life has been greatly enriched by the handful of Muslim friends we have, some of whom we met on our discovery trips to get familiar with the European refugee crisis a few years back, and some who live right here in Music City.
I was recently talking to a young Kurdish friend of ours about the practice of fasting during Ramadan. (In case you're unfamiliar with it, they are not to eat anything or even drink water between sunrise and sunset for the entire month. Then they generally have a big celebration at the end of the Ramadan season.) Most Kurds are Muslim, but not all are what you might call religious -- just as not all who call themselves Christians are church-going believers. Our friend decided to observe Ramadan this year for the first time in many years, and was sharing how difficult yet rewarding it was to build that spiritual and physical discipline into his life.
There's a book I strongly recommend to pretty much all my American readers: Who is My Enemy: Questions American Christians Must Face about Islam -- and Themselves by my friend Dr. Lee C. Camp. I've discovered that most people who make disparaging remarks or stereotypical comments about Muslims don't actually know any.
And now we have the latest flare-up in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Here again, I'm finding that so many of my American friends know very little about not only the struggle itself but about the actual people who inhabit that tiny piece of real estate known as the Holy Land.
One more recommendation: if you are looking for an informative, objective crash course on the modern state of Israel and the Palestinians, why not take just under an hour and watch Rick Steves' video, The Holy Land: Israelis and Palestinians today.
And next time Ramadan rolls around (the 9th month of the Muslim calendar, which is lunar), if you do know any practicing Muslims, why not wish them a Ramadan baraka (blessed Ramadan).