It is Ramzan, the Indian observance of Ramadan. For those who don't know, this is a forty day period of fasting and religious observance on the part of the world's Muslims. They may eat before 5 am, and after a period of prayer that ends at 7 pm, but they may not have anything in between. No water, even. For the very faithful, they don't swallow their spit. India is already filled with spitting people, so it is hard to distinguish the faithful just by this. ;-)
I bring this up because my whole day was impacted by Islam, and I thought nothing of it. I'll explain....
First, I went with Tara to yoga. We ended up going to a later class than we thought, and when we got there, I was told it was a women-only class. I walked away, a bit disappointed. But it solidified my hunch that yoga is perhaps not for me. A few minutes later, they called me back and explained that this it was a women-only class because the Islamic attendees to the yoga studio had requested a daily class without men. But, they explained to me, they just remembered that it was Ramzan and none of the Muslims women would be there. So I could come. I left despite this and went to lift weights - over to the gym through the driving of Akbar - our driver who is a Muslim. I called him to zip over and pick me up so that I could go to the gym. His ringtone during Ramzan is the voice of the muezzin - the Islamic call to prayer.
Later in the day, I was coming back from a meeting around 6 pm, and I noticed that there were shoes all over the lobby of the front hall of my floor. Then I noticed that one side had male shoes and the other side had female shoes. I put it together - the Muslim programmers were going through the final prayer at the end of the day - after which they could eat. Mind you, this was in a Bank building here in Hyderabad. In the US, there is a fertile spiritual life within the Bank, overwhelmingly Christian, but you have to dig a bit to see it and take part in it. But in India, the boundary between vocation and religion is porous. Same with politics and religion in India....
It's just different here.
I am staying late these days because Akbar goes to masjid at 6, and cannot pick me up until about 7:15. I have made this accommodation out of respect for his belief. Akbar and I compared notes on our faiths, so we know where each other stands. But as long as he follows Islam, I will shift my schedule instead of demand that he stay out his prayer to drive me home an hour earlier.
Why do I mention this?
I mention it primarily because I came to India with a deep suspicion of Islam. As an American and Christian, I had ample grounds to see Islam as a threat to humanity and a generally negative community. To be honest, many of those opinions are intact in my mind. The data shows it - Islam tends to breed brutality like no other faith. I have done my homework to be prepared to state this. This statement is not made from a perspective of ignorance.
With that said, people of good heart for many years have been quick to point out during past spirited discussions on the subject - "There are millions of good Muslims." And I guess I am saying that I now know this to be absolutely true. People with whom I work, people that I buy mangoes from, people with whom I share smiles, the great guy from whom I learn Hindi, and the young man to whom I entrust my children's safety in a car - all Muslims. I have seen Muslim women joke with my wife as they applied mahendi to her hands and feet. I have cracked up heartily with my Islamic Hindi teacher. I have given money to pay for my Islamic driver's Islamic mother's medical bills.
Nothing in here is a philosophical or theological concession - I put my entire trust in the cross. I think Ravi Zacharias, one of my favorite apologists and an Indian, said it best, "Pluralism is a social reality, not a philosophical conclusion."
In the pluralistic setting of India, I am pleased to say that I have learned that there is a very large zone of peace that can be achieved between people of different faiths. Despite its occasional tendency to have sectarian violence, often ghastly, India is a nation of a billion devout people from every faith under the sun and they occupy a land in relatively peaceful way. The world could learn something from how India works.
I certainly have.
