Perspectives can change

​Perspectives can change

by Bridget Hilbe, Spiritual Springs Community, Richmond, Texas
 
Last week, after reading Tammy’s refection in Sacred Touchstones, I pondered when I have ever experienced being the stranger that was welcomed in. Then I remembered a trip Dave and I made to Morocco to visit friends who were living in Casablanca. I don’t think I would have ever considered visiting this part of the world if our friends, Eric and Carolina, had not moved there. This trip turned out to be one of the most enlightening and memorable of our lives.

While visiting Marrakech, I was struck by the devotion of the Muslim people in answering the call to prayer five times a day. While shopping in the busy marketplace called Jemaa el-Fnaa, I was struck by the immediate reaction of shop owners to close their booths when the call to prayer was sounded from every minaret throughout the city. Dave said it sounded like the buzz of a NASCAR race; I thought it sounded like I was in a beehive. At that moment all business stopped, as the devoted worshipers answered the Imam’s call to pray. Immediately, all Muslim men went directly to the nearest mosque. I remember reflecting that that would never happen here. Can you imagine a call to prayer being sounded in New York or Los Angeles and everything coming to stop so prayer could happen?

At that time, and I still feel this today, this kind of outward devotion to faith does not exist in our society as a whole. I also found the Moroccan people to be some of the sweetest, most devoted, and welcoming people I have ever met. I am so often saddened by the stereotypes and hatred expressed in this country toward people of other faiths, especially Muslims. Perspectives can change if we challenge ourselves to be the stranger who is welcomed in.
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Image above: Maroc_Marrakech_Jemaa-el-Fna_Luc_Viatour.JPG: Lviatour derivative work: Massimo Telò, CC BY-SA 2.5, via Wikimedia Commons