Fifth Generation

As you know my daughter has just started school. Today was the day that we received her cafeteria pin number and lunch calendar. On it was alternative vegetarian and items were marked if they had pork in them. I found it a little dishonest though since most hot dogs have a little pork in them. The vegetarian meals were for the definitely for the Hindu students of which we have a lot of in my school district. (Poor kids only had yogurt and cheerios for lunch)

I think overall that is fine and helpful. However, my Jewish and Hindu friends years ago just had to bring their own lunch. The LDS students would just eat popcorn on “Popcorn and Coke” day and not make a big deal about it and quietly not read books that had profanity in them. (I was never that strict though;-) ) The Muslim students I used to tutor during Ramadan would bring a note to the teacher explaining why they were not eating lunch that day. No one bothered the students and in fact respected them without any being told that they had to.

I think most people can work out among themselves how to deal with diversity. After all, Tariq or Mohammed aren’t just the “Muslim Kids” but they are our students and friends. A lot of Tariqs and Mohammeds can privately live their religion without you changing your lifestyle to fit theirs. The same goes for Mormons. You can drink coffee in front of your Mormon friend without worrying about making that person uncomfortable. Most Mormons who live outside of Utah are used to being a minority. If an office or hotel only offers free complimentary coffee, that is ok. We will just bring our own drinks. We know we are the minority who would never touch the free coffee.

That is why I hate it when the government or a major corporation steps in and decides how we are supposed to work out our diversity. There is a hospital in the UK that won’t allow its workers to eat at their desk during Ramadan for fear of offending the Muslims. They are doing it to promote “cultural awareness”. However, do the Muslims even want that? Wouldn’t that cause worse problems? Maybe if someone wants to be more culturally aware, maybe that person can do that on their own. Maybe I am at a desk next to my co-worker Aziz. I know he is celebrating Ramadan. He is not only my co-worker but we have become friends. So maybe I can make my own personal decision to not eat at my desk. Maybe Aziz isn’t that devout and doesn’t care if I eat at my desk. He would even meet me at the local pub for drinks later as EVERY single Muslim I have ever met drinks alcohol which is forbidden in Islam.

This reminds me of the time I was at a birthday party with my very culturally aware supposedly Mormon Anglo friend who only dated Muslim men (she thought hijab was cool) and my Jordanian hijab wearing Muslim friend. Well, we were trying to decide what kind of pizza to order. The Jordanian friend asked me what my favorite pizza was. I honestly said sausage. The Islamophile friend got mad at me and almost yelled saying, “Muslims don’t eat pork!!!!” She made a big deal about it. The Jordanian blushed and was a little embarrassed. We ordered a veggie pizza and all was well. The next week I was at the Jordanian lady’s house and she and her sons were eating sausage pizza. I doubt that it was halal.

I had another pizza incident with a Jewish couple. There is a Jewish couple who are like family. The husband lived in Germany during the Hitler years came to the US as a refugee. They wanted to order us pizza. We said pepperoni. My mother was embarrassed and told them, cheese is fine. They told us then that their favorite pizza was Canadian bacon. She said that Mr.Herb couldn’t have pepperoni because of his heartburn. So, I had Canadian bacon for the first time at a Jewish persons house.

This is a normal conversation I had many times with Muslims:
Salim: Hey, Ambar, you want some vodka. (or beer)
Me: No, sorry, I can’t drink vodka because it is against my religion.
Salim: (gulps down a shot of vodka) Ha ha ha! Really? It is against my religion too!!

Yes, I had this conversation with Arabic Muslims too so please don’t tell me only Central Asians are like that. I have even had strict Muslims who pray five times a day offer me beer. That is why I think it is wrong to categorize people. I know an Aziz who is a born again Christian. He listens to “worship” music. I know a lot of Evangelical Indians who think Hinduism is weird. I know a Mormon who thinks hijab is cool and only eats halal food. You just can’t judge. People are individuals not a group.

That is why government and high executives should just let the workers and students work out their diversity among themselves. Once you start categorizing everyone then your good drinking buddy Aziz turns into the annoying Muslim guy whose religion is forced on you. Then the Muslims who feel the anger of their infidel friends start only hanging out with the other Muslims who also feel uncomfortable. The division widens. People start to form groups and then weirdos like Al Qaeda get formed wanting Sharia law in Belgium and kill Anglos just cause they hate infidels. Girls whose mothers never wore a burqa now proudly wear them because they think it is cool. They want to belong in a group. Government nanny says that they must belong to the Muslim group and that they are different from pork eating Christians. So they identify with a group rather being an individual.

I just happened to find a video on youtube making fun of this very thing!!