Outside of my investments, I also work a normal day job, and we have a main break room, and then a smaller room at the very back of the building that the majority of employees never visit. A few do, but it's pretty quiet there, and I've been spending my lunchtimes in it.
Now I take breaks at the same time every day, but today a woman that I hadn't seen before came in. She looked like she was of middle eastern descent, dressed in what I believe was a religious style of clothing, Islamic if I were to guess, but I'm just not familiar enough with the styles to say that for sure. It was a long dress with a modest head covering.
She proceeded to an isolated corner of the room so to avoid being in anyone's way, rolled out a small carpet, took off her shoes, then got down on her knees and started praying. At first clasping her hands together with her eyes closed, and then placing her forehead to the floor.
That wasn't the part that astonished me. I have seen prayer before, but...
In between these motions, I could see her face from where I was at, and she looked sad, stressed, and anxious. I'm not allowed to take photos inside of my office building, or I would have recorded her. I realized very quickly what was happening. She was praying for her family's safety. Possibly in her home country, or possibly in this one. She was praying because she was afraid of them or herself being the target of retaliation for the attack that happened last night in London.
She was terrified of us. But she is one of us.
It was that moment I realized that we are not the only ones under the threat of terrorism. ISIS lives among the peaceful Islamic community, and the truly faithful aren't trying to be violent. They just want to be faithful to their God. But in America, all Muslims are being lumped together indifferently. Christians swear vengeance, Atheists denounce religions, but the overwhelming number of Muslims just want to feel safe at night. I felt incredible sadness swelling inside of myself in empathy for what she was going through.
So I took the first step towards fixing the damage that we have done. I walked over to where she was, placed a knee down next to her, I reached out my right hand, took hers in it, then I clasped my other hand over hers, smiled gently, and told her "Don't worry, everything is going to be ok". The relief in her face told me that she had been praying for someone to say that to her.
America is a violent country. Let's be honest about that for a change.
I realize of course that this attack happened in a different country, but I can only speak about what I encounter here. Every day I see hateful, violent remarks by Americans. It's what Americans have always done though; We have been fighting since the day the pilgrims arrived. We killed the native Americans, we fought and forced out the Mexicans, and now we are killing the middle east because we have become so large and needy that we have to get their resources to continue to maintain the quality of life we have.
We have also become a culture of indifference. By doing this, we are creating a growing tension between our culture and theirs, and we continue to make it worse by declaring that America must make itself great, and that we must maintain military control over the whole world. ISIS is an enemy borne from our own hatred. They are abusing their own people, but we empowered their rage and gave their members fuel to want to fight.
We are not the only victims of terrorism. The peaceful people that can't escape those countries are trapped under the thumb of people who just don't see what choice they have. When we drop bombs, we are killing the good people too, and every time they attack, we only talk about how much stronger our counter-attack will be. Violence only creates violence. If we really want it to stop, then we need to be open to helping the people who want peace.
I hope to see her again. And I hope to be able to say that I don't hate her, and I don't blame her for what other people have done in anger. I can only be responsible for how I act as an individual, and I believe that being kind is it's own reward.
If you see a Muslim today, take a moment to see how afraid they are of what we could do to hurt them.
And if you can, maybe do what I did. Reach out your hand and let them know that you're not their enemy, and are ready to talk about what we can do together to create peace for all of us. Being in a position of power means that we have that much more responsibility to share what we have. The world is running short on resources, and if we don't take an active role in showing kindness and cooperation to build things together, then I see no reason to be shocked when other countries show us an act of hostility.
