The Openness of Religion

I would really be really sticking my head in the sand (which is entirely possible) if I were to not write about the openness of religion in Egypt, or even the Middle East in general.

In addition to the small things like taxi cab drivers keeping their Qur'an on the dashboard or the many Coptic Christians who have a small cross tattooed onto their wrist, I've been able to talk to many people (Muslims and otherwise) about religion. One example that really surprised me occurred when I was making the 5 minute walk to one of my classes:

One of my Muslim classmates saw me heading toward class and came up to me to ask me if I had read, "The True Message of Jesus Christ," which I had picked up from al-Azhar mosque a few weeks ago. I haven't gotten through all of it yet and told her so. She then told me about how she used to date a Christian guy, and so she read the whole New Testament. While this created strain in the family, she remarked that she was moved to tears reading about Christ crucified. After reading it, she was left confused about what to believe, so she prayed to God--whether the God of the Bible or the Qur'an--to show her the right way to go, which, in the end for her, was the Qur'an.

By this time we were at our class and I had little time to respond, but I told her that we should talk more later, which I hope we do. What really struck me about the conversation was that she essentially told me her entire, as Christians call it, testimony. The only thing is, I don't even know her that well at all. I can't imagine being back in America and having the same conversation with someone who I hardly know.

Last night at a party I was able to talk to another Muslim who I do not know very well about reasons for the existence of God, angels, jinn (not to be confused with gin), the niqab, and the openness of religion in Egypt. It's been quite a remarkable experience.

Along the same lines, I'm going to be writing a paper for one of my classes about the divine attributes of God, as reflected in the doctrine of salvation, according to the Qur'an. I think I'll probably do a comparison to the Christian conception of God, but we'll see about that. Either way, I'm really looking forward to writing it. Hopefully I'll be able to share a copy of it with you at the end of the month.

Happy Friday!