Faisal El Azzouzi

I am writing this guest commentary to share what I have learned during my time spent in the United States. As one can tell from my name, I am from the Middle East and I am Muslim. I came to this country for the main purpose of getting a world-class education. I am amazed by the way of life here and I appreciate the freedoms and diversity this country enjoys. I have made a lot of friends from different backgrounds and nationalities and have deeply realized that no matter where we are from, what religion we follow or what color our skin is, we are all exactly the same. This is the revolutionary notion that America is built on.

However, it is not my choice to be born in the Middle East, and it is no one's choice or achievement to be born American. I believe, and I am sure that a lot of people share my opinion, that there is a reason why God created humans with different colors of skin and languages, and that the reason is for us to worship the Almighty, to learn and interact with one another, and to celebrate our diversity. I call for Americans and Muslims to try hard to understand each other. Einstein, the most intelligent man in recent history, said the only way for peace is to understand. I know that, as a Middle Easterner and Muslim, I have my own biased angle of looking at things, as do Americans, but we need to share our viewpoints in order to understand each other.

I realize that there are many Americans who think Islam is a violent religion that was spread on the edge of swords, and so I would like to respond to all those who have these misperceptions. First of all, in Arabic, the word "Muslim" means "the one who surrenders to the will of God and the one who is peaceful." The root of this word is "salam" (in Hebrew it is "shalom"), which means "peace." The media, and many of the people here and in other Western countries, have a very bad image and stereotype of this wonderful word, maybe the best word any dictionary can contain. I would like to look at history to further deconstruct any misperceptions of Islam.

I would like to look at history to further deconstruct any misperceptions of Islam.

Islam spread from Spain all the way to China in a very short time, and formed the largest empire in history. In the 10th century, Islam was the main religion, and the Islamic Empire covered more than half of the civilized world; the empire stretched over three continents from the Pyrenees and Siberia in West and North Europe to the farthest end of Asia, up to China and New Guinea in the East, and from Morocco in North Africa to Africa's southern tip, covering two-thirds of the African continent. It is one of the most striking facts of human history that the spread of Islam over such a vast area took place within three centuries. Most striking of all is the fact that it was spread without violence.

In addition, only 12 percent of Muslims are Arabs. Indonesia, for example, is the largest Muslim country with a Muslim population of 200 million. If Islam was really spread by war, we would see the effects now. We would see people having negative feelings towards their Arab "invaders" and "oppressors." Look at the Africans who suffered from the French and the British colonizers, or the Latin Americans with the Spanish control. The anger of the native people is apparent. But one doesn't see any negative feelings toward Arabs in Muslim countries.

There are those who also say that Muslims oppressed Christians and Jews.

I can only respond by saying that the fact that there are Arab Christians and Arab Jews now proves that Islam protected them and honored them. Non-Muslims were even holding government positions in Spain, for example. This Islamic tolerance prospered because one of the most important pillars of the Islamic faith is the belief in all the prophets. Thus, Muslims believe in the prophets Moses, David and Daniel ÷ as well as in the Torah. The Muslims believe also in Jesus, the Bible and the Virgin Mary. In short, Islam includes Jewish and Christian beliefs.

After Sept. 11, many Americans witnessed Muslims celebrating in the streets over American deaths. I recognize that there has been anger directed at America, but the anger was not in any way motivated by religion. It was motivated by the oppressive policies of the American and Muslim governments.

One should make a distinction between a religion and the anger of the people, and look at the historic circumstances and current events. A religion that was founded on tolerance and inclusion cannot be violent by nature.

I would like to remind everyone that religions were sent to unite people and to guide people. So it is now on us Jews, Christians, Muslims and people of other faiths to promote cultural and global understanding, forgiveness and reconciliation.

Faisal El Azzouzi is an electrical engineering junior.