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Muslim man shaves head
Stereotypes and individuals
When I say the word “Muslim” what do you think of?
Is it a terrorist? An engineer? I teacher? A misogynist? A family man? What comes to mind?
What if I told you about a Saudi Arabian man who, along with his sons, shaved his head?
Why did he do that?
Because his wife got cancer. She lost her hair due to chemo. He didn’t want her to feel alone. He didn’t want her to feel ugly. He didn’t want her to feel less loved.
So he shaved his head. And then his sons did as well.
This is a beautiful act.
Why don’t we hear more about such acts of devotion, of love, of kindness when we talk about Islam? Because there are more than a billion Muslims in the world, and only a tiny fraction are terrorists. There are many more that are engineers, scientists, teachers, husbands, wives, parents, children…
We can disagree with Islam philosophically.
I do, because I’m a Christian.
You may disagree with me philosophically, if you’re a Hindu, a Muslim, an atheist… it’s OK. We don’t have to agree to get along. It’s possible to be a good neighbor or a friend without agreeing on everything.
So, fine, let’s agree to disagree.
But when it comes to our basic humanity — can we at least agree on things like respect, kindness and tolerance? Is that really so hard?
