I read a very interesting post on intolerance (https://musingsfromameanderingmind.wordpress.com/2014/12/31/intolerance-and-the-imitation-game/).
If I take myself as an example: I am an adult female, born into a Muslim family. I did not always conduct my life in perfect accordance to my faith, but have reached a point where I decided that I want to be a Muslim, and that I was going to make a bigger effort to be a better Muslim.
The author makes very valid statements on the level of intolerance prevalent in our world today. It seems to me that as we progress materially, we regress in terms of our humanity. And in this particular post, the sentence that resonated most with me was, "I'm human. And so is the rest of the world, but that doesn't mean we can't take a step back, put our shortsightedness, stupidity and cruelty in perspective and allow folks to live their lives without our values being imposed on them, or theirs imposed on us".
The whole piece, and the above quote in particular, for me, nails the major problem we face in the world today.
But from my standpoint, what the world has become intolerant of disturbs me.
But from my standpoint, what the world has become intolerant of disturbs me.
If I take myself as an example: I am an adult female, born into a Muslim family. I did not always conduct my life in perfect accordance to my faith, but have reached a point where I decided that I want to be a Muslim, and that I was going to make a bigger effort to be a better Muslim.
I do not date, because courtship is prohibited in my faith.
I dress very modestly and wear my headscarf.
I do not drink, do drugs, fornicate with strangers outside of marriage and I will never entertain even the thought of homosexuality.
Now, people are going to read this and probably want to pitch me off the nearest building, because it goes against societal norms (these days, at least).
They will probably fail to see that these are my choices. They probably won't ask me why I made those choices. And they probably won't see that while I live my life a certain way, I don't publicly persecute or ridicule people who have chosen a different lifestyle. I am not about to abuse someone because they have a girlfriend/boyfriend, dress provocatively or because they're gay. And I'm not going to force them to live the way that I live.
I cannot speak for all who share my kind of lifestyle, but I can speak for myself.
My life choices are for my own peace of mind, for the contentment of my heart, for my protection and for the protection of society from mistakes that I may make.
I am healthy. I am happy. I am safe and I haven't endangered anyone in the 32 years I've walked this earth...and I hope that this will make you a little more tolerant of me.
I dress very modestly and wear my headscarf.
I do not drink, do drugs, fornicate with strangers outside of marriage and I will never entertain even the thought of homosexuality.
Now, people are going to read this and probably want to pitch me off the nearest building, because it goes against societal norms (these days, at least).
They will probably fail to see that these are my choices. They probably won't ask me why I made those choices. And they probably won't see that while I live my life a certain way, I don't publicly persecute or ridicule people who have chosen a different lifestyle. I am not about to abuse someone because they have a girlfriend/boyfriend, dress provocatively or because they're gay. And I'm not going to force them to live the way that I live.
I cannot speak for all who share my kind of lifestyle, but I can speak for myself.
My life choices are for my own peace of mind, for the contentment of my heart, for my protection and for the protection of society from mistakes that I may make.
I am healthy. I am happy. I am safe and I haven't endangered anyone in the 32 years I've walked this earth...and I hope that this will make you a little more tolerant of me.
