Luckily, one of the few Muslim families here has a very open and highly educated family head.
He moved here 20 years ago and was born in a refugee camp in Gaza strip. He found where we live as he worked a merchant marine. To say he is well-traveled is an understatement.
Anyway, I learned about this holiday, which is spent "at the alter of G-d," meaning surrounded by the maternal side of the family. I thought that was beautiful. He went on to say, "G-d will bless you more by being nicer to the children and women (in the New Year)."
They also indulge in sweets, much like Jews during Rosh Hashanah eat apples dipped in honey.
But the real story of the night was what he said during the interview. Here is a sample of his quotes:
"Religions are meant to be about peace"
"We need to unite people"
"We are closer to each other than a part from each other"
"We have a lot of things in common -- people don't understand"
"I'm against it (violence) as much as you are against it"
"You know what I teach (my sons): there are rules to life. You have to love and you have to have joy and understand that every day is a blessing"
"All people are good people"
"It's in every culture -- bad and good ... It doesn't mean the religion is bad"
"We are all people. We want what's best for our kids, for our family, the best for our country"
"Real religion is based on love and peace"
"We don't want to judge people by one percent of people"
So what does he want for the New Year?
"Peace. Real peace. Just peace for all. You know, if you have peace you have everything ... imagine this country if we have peace now. It's the key"
Thought I'd share. He was a very intelligent man and I enjoyed talking with him. He was more than excited that someone from our paper came to speak to him (our editorial pages are often not sensitive to the fact not all Muslims want to harm America).
He also told me a great story: his mom and brother had been visiting him in September 2001. They left America on the 10th, arriving in Cairo on the 11th. After disembarking the plane, there were a few Egyptians celebrating the attacks. His 70-year-old mother smacked the candy out of one of the men's hands and yelled at him and the crowd: "What do you know about America? What do you know about their people? My son is an American. My grandchildren are American."
