Since it's Sunday, I thought I would relate a neat small story about a woman who I met at the NC State Fair yesterday.
First off, I am not particularly religious. I am the typical pro-choice, pro-union, anti death penalty liberal who just doesn't understand why we all can't get along both spiritually and in material terms. I am also a Girl Scout Leader, which is why I was in the "Old Village" section of the fair looking at crafts, when I happened along a table spread out with some really beautifully tatted pieces, (that's lace, for the uninitiated).
Behind the table stood this little old lady in a old dress that looked like it came from Victorian times.
Next to some cards she had made, which were a combination of lace and watercolor, very beautiful, she had a card with her name on it, which was "Amina". I said to her, "Oh, that's a beautiful name. One of my daughter's class-mates has that name.
""Amina" means "trustworthy" in Arabic", The old lady promptly told me. She told me how she married a man from Egypt 50 years ago, and she told me his name. She then went on to elaborate that in Arabic there are 99 ways to praise God and most names were a form of praise to God. How beautiful, that so many people would have that kind of feeling incorporated into their name.
I believe that the these radical Muslims causing so much grief are probably just that, that they are a caricature of a nasty radical fringe of a religion that is at its core a good thing, just as the nutso right wing Christians of our country.