Be honest with yourself for a moment. What comes to mind when you think about Muslims? Not just Muslims, but Muslims in the Middle East?
Preconceptions are a great taboo in our culture. We would all like to believe we don’t have any preconceptions or prejudice, but I think if we are honest with ourselves we would recognize what rubbish that is.
Before I continue, I want to make clear that I am speaking about Muslims in the Middle East. I have numerous friends who are Muslim in America, a few from Bangladesh. My preconceptions of Muslims living in the Middle East never applied to them.
In the Blog entry I wrote prior to leaving, I stated:
"I really don't know much about [Muslims] besides what few Muslim friends I've made in America and what I see on the news which we all know are not an accurate representation of Muslims worldwide."
Right there, I state that I know I can’t use what I learned on the news to form an accurate understanding of a foreign culture. However, after my visit to Egypt, I realized that I had preconceptions anyway.
And they were smashed.
What I didn’t write about in my previous blog entry was how I didn’t expect to be changed. I was open to change, but I doubted it would occur. I thought I would return from Egypt with the same heart and opinions towards Muslim culture that I left with.
Before I left, I thought Middle Eastern Muslim culture was the ultimate antithesis to Western culture. I assumed there would be no way I could relate to such a foreign mentality and belief system.
Not only was my heart and mind changed during my time in Egypt, so was my desire. It scared me how one short week in the Middle East had such an impact on me.
In the same blog entry mentioned above, I asked this question:
"Is there something God wants to do in me during this trip that is connected to the location?"
The answer, was yes, and I’ll tell you why in the blog entries next week. |
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