On Religious Prejudice: There Is Always Hope

Photo by Marco Abrar -- Baha'iPictures.com
"Yesterday, I was standing at one of the public gates with a local guard who is a Christian and a elderly man approached the gate and kneeled down and read a few lines from a book he was holding open in his hand. He wore raged clothes and had a long unkept beard.The man then got up and addressed the local guard in English he rebuked him for working for Baha'is and he preached about Jesus being the only truth and that Baha'is were bad people. The guard calmly told the man that he respected the Baha'is because they respected him to witch the man got mad and told him that he was an idol worshiper and so on...

"The guard then told the man he was a Palestinian Christian and not a Baha'i this only angered the man more and he started talking about Israel and politics and saying that Muslims and Palestinians are all bad and that Muhammad was a liar and a killer...

"He argued with the local guard for sometime and the guard was getting also angry.He then addressed me and when he found out I was a Baha'i told me that I should change my ways before it's to late. I told him: 'may God place the right path before both of us and my he give us the wisdom to see it and the strength to walk it...'

"I told him that he was doing the right thing in trying to bring people to God I asked him to pray for me and I would pray for him and perhaps God will deal with both of us with mercy. He looked at me for a while seemingly at a loss for words he then asked me not to pray for him to which I agreed he then asked my name which I gave and he walked away.Later after the gates were closed my team leader came to meet me and told me that an old man had given him a message for me he had told him to tell me that he was sorry for his behavior that he was wrong to confront us like he did...

"Fear drives some people to blindly hate without taking the time to listen, but maybe through agreeing with him rather than arguing I touch this scared old man who probably has lived through more sadness than I will ever know... "

Payou, "There Is Hope, There Is Always Hope"