Lately I had a chat with someone who works in the same building than me. But in a different institute on a different floor, which is the reason why we never got properly introduced to each other. I passed by his office several times and always said “Hi”. And a couple of days ago, we started to chat with each other. The first question he asked me (as other people do as well) is “Are you from India?”. And then I said “No.” And then he asked me (what other people usually also do) “Are you from Brazil?”. And then I said “Nope”. And then he finally asked me “Where do you come from?”. And then I replied “I am from Switzerland”. But I have to admit that I don’t necessarily look very Swiss, which is why after about 3 minutes of questions and answers back and forth, I mentioned (to be polite) that I have some kind of Tunisian roots. Usually this little dialogue about origins stops here and we switch the subject. But in this case it didn’t.
He told me that he doesn’t like Tunisians because they are Muslims. He doesn’t like Egypt, Libya, and all other Muslim countries with the exception of Algeria, because two football players originating from his own country play there. He wondered why I didn’t wear a scarf. And then I took my coat off and put my bag on the floor and we started some very profound discussion about what it means to be Tunisian and what it means to be a Muslim in a more general sense. I told him that not all Muslims are fundamentalists. And that Islam per se does not promote Fundamentalism. No religion does.
News. Saudi Arabia. Central Africa. New York. Many things point towards a general Muslim melting pot. And not everybody questions what she or he hears and reads. It is important to speak to people and to show them that generalization doesn’t always hold true.
We’ll have a coffee, very soon.