My wife and I found a great Lebanese restaurant in Anaheim with really good, really cheap food. Since our discovery, weve been back at least once per week. The man who owns it is easily one of the kindest people Ive met. The food is already ludicrously cheap, but he refuses to let us tip him, and he gives us free desserts about half the time. He also greets us with a smile and seems genuinely happy to see us every time we walk through the door. The restaurant is in a part of town known as Little Arabia, and Lynds and I are obviously the only two non-Muslims there the vast majority of the time we go. Ive been paying attention, and although the owner is nice to everyone else, he accepts tips from his Muslim customers and doesnt give away free stuff to anyone else. I can only presume he treats us the way he does because hes of the Muslim school of thought (not unique to Muslims, obviously. This approach is found by practitioners of basically all religions) that the way to convert the infidels is to be especially nice to them, so theyll be interested in your motivations. I say presume because hes never mentioned religion to us, and certainly hasnt tried to shove anything down our throats (except baklava). Although I have absolutely no intention of converting to Islam, I would be lying if I said my experiences with this man havent affected the way I perceive the faith as a whole. Its one thing to know what moderate/progressive Muslims claim to believe, but its another thing entirely to see it in action. Again, this isnt to single out a particular religion. If this happened with a Christian or Buddhist or Hindu person, thats what would have framed it, but it just happened to be a Muslim. All I wanted to do was point out that if youre going to proclaim you follow a religion of peace and love (pointing a finger at basically all religions here), there is a right way and a wrong way to do it. In my opinion, this is the right way. (Since this is Facebook, I feel the need to put this disclaimer: This is a positive status, and I expect a positive discussion. Obviously there are bad apples in every bunch, and this is not a status about the truth of any religious claim - its about how to be a decent human being. Any comments bashing a particular religion or trying to bait someone into a religious debate will be deleted.)
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 20:26:15 +0000
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