I met with Nasser again today at the bookstore coffee shop (this time we actually got coffee). The coffee led to some discussion about cultural differences such as the typical hours of waking, dining, and sleeping. Saudi Arabia, according to Nasser, has many similarities with the culture of South America; meals are consumed closer to 9:00pm and typical lights out time is midnight. In America, it is considered rude to call a home past 9:00pm because daily life is winding down by that point and some people, especially with kids, are beginning to turn in for the night.It is a good thing I live in America because my circadian rhythm follows America's daily routine much closer; I would pick a bedtime of 9:30pm over a bedtime of 12-1am any day of the week.
Later he made the bold, but true, statement that Americans are arrogant, or maybe more accurately put, that we like to be different. We were specifically talking about running distances and then the weather, each time running into problems as I always mentioned measurements in the English system and he would mention measurements in the metric system. Why the heck do we use the English system anyway? It makes no sense. 12 inches in a foot, 3 feet in a yard... Everything in the metric system is a multiple of ten. Being a science major, everything I do in science is in terms of a metric measurement, yet things such as distances and speed limits I only understand in terms of miles and mph. Switching would be so much more convenient in the end, but the process of switching systems seems like too much of an imposition.
Then we got to my favorite part: religion! I don't know how we always end up there, but we both love talking about the similarities, the differences, and the general beliefs of each other's religions. We talked about Israel; Nasser knows the history of how it became a country and the various claims to the land. We both agree that it is a land claimed by Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, and that it should be for Christians, Muslims, and Jews. We talked about the Koran and the Bible. I am ashamed to say that I got showed up: I have never read through the whole Bible; Nasser has not only read through the Koran 20-30 times, but he has also read the whole Bible and the Torah and has 10-20% of the Koran memorized. Nasser was amazed that I had not read the Bible, and I explained that Christianity does not place as much of an emphasis on the ritualistic practices such as prayer and reading like Islam does. And that made me wonder if it is because of American culture. America emphasizes freedom of religion, but I believe we have shifted more to a mindset of freedom from religion. We are so concerned with being politically correct that we don't mention religions or talk about beliefs for fear of offending people. Instead, we remain ingnorant, and I believe that is what leads to stereotypes and racism.
We then talked about the similarities between our religions, mainly in what stories are contained in our holy books. Both the Bible and the Koran contain the following stories: Noah and the flood, Moses and the crossing of the Red Sea, Jonah and the whale, Abraham, King David, Soloman, and even Jesus, and those are the just the stories I could think of quickly off the top of my head. When two religions share so much of the same history, stories, and believe in the same God, how can there be so much hatred and violence between believers of the two? Lastly, we talked about judgement day, Heaven and Hell, and our respective religion's beliefs of the two.
I have never before had such freedom to openly discuss and question the beliefs of Islam or any religion, but it is so enlightening. This is one situation where ignorance is not bliss, but, instead, causes the hatred that plagues our nations and world today. Why can't everyone be a little more open minded and open hearted?
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