Celebrating A Little Different

Most folks consider Rwanda a Christian nation but it doesn’t stop them from celebrating others holidays. Friday marks the end of Ramadan called Eid. Its a nice monthish long fasting during sunlight hours to get a little closer to God. I think its quite nice and will participate next year. Eid is a national holiday for all of Rwanda. All Rwandese holidays are announced the night before on the radio in Kinyarwandan. Even if it’s Women’s Day or Heroes Day, which have a specific date set out every year, nobody knows if you have the day off until it’s announced on the radio the night before. For some reason I was somehow convinced that Thursday was going to be Eid and that we would have it off. This prompted a late night out and couple extra hours of sleep. It turns out that I missed the moon and announcement. When I got moving this morning, I realized I missed the first 3 periods and Eid would be on Friday. I jumped the gun on the usually celebrated feast and party and missed out on the fasting (I’m such a heathen). This celebration stretches a lot farther than the 3-5% Muslims in the country. I think it shows a great deal of acceptance of other religions and the ability of 2 differing religions to coexist.

It seems to be the opposite case in America. I hear about this pastor in Florida who is going to burn Korans on 9/11. How Christ-like. Too be honest I’m not sure how this guy got so much publicity. It’s a shame when America’s leaders have to waste their time and put out statements suggesting that this is a bad idea and will endanger American lives to be disrespectful and burn others holy books. Not only this incident but I have also been reading about a mosque being constructed near the World Trade Center’s site. There has been outrage over its construction but I don’t understand why. Why has there been such a surge in Islamofascism. Let’s try to put this in perspective here. Those responsible for the 9/11 attacks represent about .03% of Muslims. Also, since then, our little Christian nation America has managed to torture or kidnap and send to known pro torture countries hundreds of thousands of people, most of them being Muslim and most of them not charged with anything other than a hunch or suspicion. There are bad apples on all sides, so why can’t we acknowledge that and work to ask them why, call them exceptions and bring them to justice.

You might be thinking, hmm well if Rwanda had an attack like 9/11 then they would probably hate all Muslims too and throw everyone in a big group. Two months ago there were several bombs that went off in the Kampala, close neighbor to Kigali where many Rwandese knew people killed in that attack. This was done by the radical Muslim group al-shabab but people here are able to make the distinction. Well my neighbor is Muslim and I have no problems with him or her so maybe not all people of Allah are bad. Maybe we could treat those who have respected us with respect and ask better of those who do not and promise respect regardless of how they treat us. Hate and fear are powerful weapons. Let us live bigger than hate and fear and make a push for hope and love to triumph.