Disturbing Email...

I received a "forward" this evening that really offended me...and it nearly made me angry--not at the person from whom the email came, but at the content of the e-mail. It contained pictures of Muslims supposedly in London, and at the top of the e-mail it stated this:

"Why are these people still alive and why does their country's still exist????????"
(grammar and spelling NOT corrected)

It contained other phrases so filled with hatred and anger...and I am willing to bet whoever wrote this e-mail has not had contact or relationships with anyone of the Islamic faith.

NOT ALL MUSLIMS ARE EVIL, OR TERRORISTS!!!

I cannot understand why this is so difficult for people to understand.

It is a very small fraction that actually want to wage war against "the infidels"...it is a very small fraction who are violent and filled with hatred!

The Muslims/Arabs that I met and spent time with were far more kind, generous, serving than most Americans that I know. They were loving, they made us feel incredibly welcome, and they were so eager to learn about "why Americans hate" them. That broke my heart! Yet it was asked so many times...

I do not believe that Islam is true, but I do know that the people of the religion that I have met are decent, hard-working, servant-hearted people. And there's a lot that we could learn from them!

Yes, this post sounds angry, and maybe it is...but mostly, it is written out of frustration, because I spent a month with Muslim/Arab people, and I grew to have a deep love for them...and because I saw the hurt in the eyes of the Arab people in Tunisia when they asked why we hated them...and I know how hard it was to try to explain why so many Americans blindly despise them...

We are called to LOVE others...bestow kindness and mercy...yes, justice is important, but only when there is a need for it. We must remember that we have done horrible things around the world, and we didn't like being despised...so why do we do it to others?