Tariq Nelson

Robert Jamieson was challenged to go to a Muslim country and he would find that all Muslims are evil and insane. He called the guy’s bluff and found that not all Muslims are evil. Are there problems in the Muslim world? Certainly, but to try to portray every single Muslim as an insane lunatic is not fair at all. The more Muslims reach out and be neighborly, the more we will disprove the image the bigots want to paint of Muslims

Before a man who said he was Muslim unleashed gunfire this year at a Seattle Jewish center, before the pope discussed the Prophet Muhammad in ways that incensed believers of Islam, before bloodshed between Shia and Sunni Muslims worsened in Iraq, I got out from behind my desk.

A P-I reader dared me.

“You need to go see how they live over there,” he huffed in a phone call at the beginning of the year.

By “they,” he meant believers of Islam. “Over there” was anywhere outside of America.

“They’re savages,” he said. “Don’t you get it?”

The journey took me to the Philippines and Malaysia — countries the U.S. government considers part of the “second front” in the war on terror, after the Middle East.

Both Southeast Asian countries are a study in contrasts. The Philippines have a Muslim minority and a Catholic majority; Malaysia has a Muslim majority with Buddhist, Christian and Hindu minorities.

What I saw during a trip made possible through the Asia Foundation, a non-profit think tank based in San Francisco, deepened my understanding of how ignorance and monolithic views about any religion contribute to faith-fueled tensions abroad — and back here at home.

Soon after landing in sweltering Manila, I visited a slum about 30 minutes from the heart of the Philippine capitol. The neighborhood — in an area called Barangay 188 — is home to impoverished Muslims and Christians consciously working to live together against a tense backdrop.

Muslim insurgents in the southern Philippines waged a campaign, at times violently, to gain freedom from what they see as oppression and discrimination in a Catholic-dominated society.

“Not all Muslims are bad. Not all Christians are good,” sighed a slight man named Lee, who offered a tour of the slum. His community once was considered so dangerous even taxi drivers steered clear.

But change slowly came about because residents opted to work through their differences to create a safer place to live. They realized the common ground they share — dreams of home ownership and cross-faith love, and a passion for basketball and badminton.

The neighborhood safety chief and the head of the local homeowners association are Muslim men married to Christian women.

“It’s not impossible for us to come together and get along,” Lee said, smiling as he watched a cat and dog play in a dusty alley. “Just like that.”

Days later, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, I sat at a table inside The Pure Life Society, which runs an orphanage. It also fosters interfaith dialogue in a country where Islam is dominant and the popular ice cream outlet is called Dairy King.

A man who works for the society handed out a list showing that more than a half dozen faiths have a version of the golden rule.

Islam states: “No one of you is a believer until you desire for your neighbor that which you desire for yourself.”

Judaism says: “What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor.”

Christianity offers: “Whatever you wish that others would do to you, do so to them.”

“You see,” the man said, “we all strive for the same thing.”

Then it dawned on me: Reasonable people of all faiths recognize the common humane values that thread beliefs.

This point of view is championed by moderates of most faiths, the voices that risk being drowned out when extremists sow discord or hijack religion.

But moderates have a role to play overseas; they can help by speaking up and isolating radical ones. They can show other people that true Islam advocates peace and respect of faiths — not suicide bombers.

Moderate thinkers — including Jews and Christians — everywhere have to call for tolerance, mutual respect and, when necessary, reform. If reasonable people do not take a stand, unreasonable ones will fill the vacuum, and then what?

We end up with Muslims standing guard outside Seattle’s Idriss mosque after the Jewish Federation shootings because they fear they will become the target of revenge by those who lump them with the gunman.

We get Jewish organizations flooded with hate mail after a rabbi’s complaint about the lack of menorahs at Sea-Tac International Airport prompted officials to yank Christmas trees.

We get evangelical pastors like Kirkland’s Ken Hutcherson who blithely champions efforts to strip gays and lesbians of civil rights protections.

We end up planting seeds for conflict.

My month in the Muslim world didn’t bring me face to face with them – the “savages.”

[...]

I did come across scores of Muslims and people of other faiths, who extolled something that is such basic common sense, but so easily forgotten: That if we treat people as we would like to be treated, the world would be a hopeful place.

And that’s my wish for the coming New Year.