Book Review: Three Cups of Tea

Millions of students in Afghanistan are still waiting for their new textbooks, promised and paid by US and foreign donors, the Associated Press recently announced. The news reminded me of the pioneer who introduced this human aid to impoverished Muslim areas: Greg Mortenson, author of Three Cups of Tea, One Man’s Mission to Promote Peace One School at a Time.

Three Cups of Tea inspires the kind face of human nature. It highlights the principle of paying it forward. Here, Greg Mortenson, an aspiring mountaineer trying to ascend K2, stumbled across the Islamic culture in one of the remotest areas on earth: Pakistan’s Karakoram Himalaya. The modest villagers who found him hanging to life while lost in the remote area nursed him till he regained strength and health. This kind act brought the villagers what they have dreamt of all of their lives: a school that Mortenson promised to build. Thus, Mortenson declared war on illiteracy with the most effective weapons: knowledge from books taught at schools. His good deed became a national project throughout Pakistan’s impoverished land. Across a Muslim community, he became a popular Christian who won people’s hearts and challenged the status quo with books and not with bombs.

For several years thereafter, he lived in Muslim lands and interacted with Muslims as one of them. Describing the first time he joined communal prayers with other Muslims, he wrote: “kneeling among one hundred strangers, watching them wash away not only impurities, but also, the aches and cares of their daily lives, he glimpsed the pleasure to be found in submission to a ritualized fellowship of prayer.” Mortenson’s memoir unveils many myths lumping Muslims. My favorite is his honest account of an incidence that brings out the many virtues in Islam, one like justice. In 2003, a Shariah court ruled in his favor against a Muslim Mullah. That Mullah, according to Mortenson’s book, was a corrupt individual who opposed Mortenson’s activities of building schools for Muslim girls. The Mullah demanded that Mortenson be banned from carrying out his projects, claiming that his activities were anti-Muslim. Yet, the Muslim court stood up for the American stranger after evaluating the case.

“Three Cups of Tea” is a folklore custom with a deep analogy according to Mortenson. Pakistani locals offer the first cup of tea to a stranger out of hospitality, and they offer the second one to a guest, but by the third cup of tea, the stranger becomes one of the family. A pretty neat custom, chivalry-like, that many more sophisticated and civilized people across the globe don’t have it.

If you read Three Cups of Tea, what did you like about it the most?

How to build a bridge: Obama's mission

Picking up from where I concluded my last post, President Obama's quote about dusting ourselves off is inspiring. As a lover of history, I understand that in order to comprehend our own present and plan our future, we need to have a total understanding of history. History repeats itself. The bridge of communication that President Obama is promoting is adherent to the dreams and hopes of Muslims across the globe, including yours truly.

When President Barack Obama landed in Ankara, Turkey on April 6, 2009, he came with a mission and a statement: "the importance of Turkey, not only to the United States, but to the world." Why Turkey? Because of its strategic position as a crossroad between East and West lying across two continents: Asia and Europe, its rich heritage, its blended ancient tradition with modernity, its membership in NATO, and its Muslim majority.

Turkey's rich heritage goes back many centuries when it rose in 1299 as the Ottoman empire that assumed the leadership of the Islamic world until World War I. It was able to rule over three continents during much of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries: its' territory expanded to Southeastern Europe, Asia and the Middle East, and North Africa. Ottoman leadership was called in the Arabic curricula that I studied back home,the "High Door," reflecting an authoritarian environment. As the empire started to weaken, it started to lose territories. On the eve of its downfall in 1923the empire became "Europe's Sick Man."

Modern Turkey rose when Kemal Ataturk established the republic of Turkey in 1923, but it wasn't until after World War II that Turkey enjoyed a multiparty democratic government. In 1952 Turkey joined NATO, and in the 1980's it applied for acceptance in the European Union, an ongoing debate. In 2005, Turkey and Spain initiated the "alliance of civilizations," a forum that looks into the roots of polarization between societies and cultures. American members of this alliance include Professor John Esposito and Rabbi Arthur Schneier.

Hence, when Saudi King Abdullah initiated an interfaith conference last year, he chose Spain for its historical significance as a lighthouse of Islamic history and religious toleration. Arabs have traditionally been famous for the wealth of literature they produced. Many of their poems and prose lament over the ruins of past civilizations and dear losses. I feel this weeping crave coming to me as I think back of the past of our Muslim civilization; its rise and fall. It seems to me that both King Abdullah and President Obama are aware of the significance of the two cities they had chosen and who knows, maybe a beacon of hope is glittering somewhere in the hazy horizon of our present.

So President Obama sees an ally in Turkey and has great hopes to turn it into a great opportunity to mend differences with the Muslim world and bring back America its popularity in the Muslim streets. But you may ask: what? America was ever popular in Muslim lands? Yes. Muslims and Arabs look up to what America stands for. They love the freedom, rights, civility, and order that makes up America. But they dislike wars and bombs dropped by American F-16s on the heads of innocent Muslims in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even though Muslims are no longer united under the leadership of the Ottoman empire, they still hold brotherly bonds amongst them. They sort of have their own "NATO" rules: an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us. That is why they dislike American politics, but not the American people by any means.

Back to my passion for history, I am glad to see world leaders like the Saudi king and our president going back to history and aspiring for some insights. I need to polish my memory in this regard, but for now, President Obama is confident about his visit to Turkey. He hopes it will shape the strategies to "bridge the divide between the Muslim world" and the West. To this I say Amen..

Dusting off our Differences

How do we mend our differences? How can we ensure that we coexist despite our ideological, cultural, social and religious differences? How do we practice tolerance when our hearts and minds feel the gap between cultures?

I would start by finding common grounds first: there is a lot more in common between Muslims and non Muslims than we realize. First, God created us all and sustains us all. We all believe in God and pray to Him. We are united by humanity. Citizenship also unites us. We all live in America, and no, not all Muslims hate America and want to destroy it. Only the fanatics, who are a minute minority but unfortunately get all media attention, do. Muslims are overwhelmingly peaceful and loving. Those who choose America as their homeland want to raise their offspring in a coexistent atmosphere.

But then, you might wonder, we are still different. Of course we are, because God created us different in color, race, culture, abilities, skills, languages... In the Quran, Allah (Arabic translation for God; even Arab Christians call him Allah) says: "...If Allah had so willed, He would have made you a single people, but (His plan is) to test you in what He hath given you: so strive as in a race in all virtues..." (5:48) So different we are, but divided we should not be.

Once we establish common grounds, resolving our differences starts with the purification of our hearts. A heart is a wonderful gift that transcends through the human character. But when filled with hatred and bigotry, that also transcends into our behavior and attitudes. Therefore, we need to aspire to cleanse our hearts from all negative feelings. Call it anger management, call it finding peace and healing, or call it neurological programing as long as you get the picture. Even Muslims are required to cleanse their hearts as Prophet Mohammad (peace upon him) preached us: "Do not have enmity against each other." (Bukhari)

Then we need to understand that if the other has a different ideology he is not necessarily an enemy. Muslims in America suffer from this attitude as America looks at them as enemies of the state simply because they worship differently. If I wear head covering and abstain from consuming alcohol, then I no longer can fit with the American lifestyle. In other words, I can't be American; I am different. Says who? What happened to freedom of speech, religion, and expression?

Finally, you might purify your heart and decide to tolerate the other, but the other actually won't tolerate you. In that case, you keep your smile on your face and find them plenty of excuses for being rude. That bearded man who just came into the store without saying hi might be deaf or might be simply having a bad day. Muslims are allowed to have mood swings, right? I believe this is a universally accepted situation. And by the way, I am also addressing Muslims too: please don't start thinking this clerk is a bigot just because he did not salute you. He might have just been dumped by his wife.


"Starting today, we must pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work of remaking America." (President Barack Hussein Obama: Inaugural address, January 21, 2009)

Tolerance: A Compromise and not a Concession

Let me take you through a leap from Madrid to Texas, where a local newspaper, Star Telegram, had published one of my letters to the editor.

Here is part of what I wrote:

“Spain had a history of more than 800 years of Islamic rule ending in 1492. The Islamic civilization of Andalusia led Europe out of the Dark Ages with lighted and paved streets, public libraries with tons of volumes, hospitals and universities. That civilization granted tolerance among neighboring Muslims, Christians and Jews most of the time. The Jews enjoyed unprecedented rights under Muslin rule, leading to the Golden Age of Judaism where a great philosopher, like Maimonides, re-adopted classical philosophy.”

A couple of readers left me comments on the newspaper’s website. Basically, they agreed to the historical facts that Muslims had a great civilization. However, they criticized the present status-quo of repression inside our Arab and Muslim countries, where, those American readers said, tolerance did not exist.

At least my readership agrees with me on some common grounds. They did not change history and deny that Islam brought a life-changing civilization. They would probably be surprised to find out that there are a lot more in common between us than they realize. This blog exists partly to put those common things under the spotlight, and then build a bridge of communication.

Tolerance is a subject of debate surrounding Islam and Muslims. So what is tolerance anyways?

Tolerance in Islam, a basic principle and a religious moral duty, is the respect of the rights of other people who differ with our own beliefs or practices. It is not overindulgence in the others’ beliefs or concession of our principles in front of the other. It does not mean accepting aggression while keeping a big comfy smile on the face. It is simply a comfort zone of acceptable compromising to beliefs and practices that are not our own, as long as the essence of our religion is not at stake.

In practice, Muslims have a present crisis in tolerating one another as well as non-Muslims. Ignorance and overreactions to differences are the reasons and conflict and division are the results. But that is not an excuse to deny the authentic teachings of Islam that promote equality, unity, tolerance, and peace. It just means we all need to work harder to correct people’s attitudes (with peace and love) so that the whole world can coexist peacefully.

The dialog must keep flowing.

Viva Espana!

I have never been to Spain before and I surely miss on a great opportunity.

In the eighth century, Muslims ruled this part of the world for almost six hundred years. The Muslim caliphate brought Spain as well as the rest of Europe (and consequently the world) out of the Dark Ages.

Under Muslim Spain, Christians, Jews and Muslims lived side by side with toleration and peacefully coexisted. Jews further enjoyed their Golden Age of Judaism in Andalusia ( Muslim Spain) and reported enjoying rights no other Jews anywhere else enjoyed at the time.

No wonder the Saudi King Abdullah chose Spain, a historical sanctuary of freedom, for an interfaith conference.

Read on to find out more about July 2008 Interfaith Conference in Madrid.