Thank you for sharing: What you know about Muslims
part 2
I am from Southern California, Episcopalian. Growing up the LA Times would do a big feature on Ramadan every year, and I found it really fascinating and also slightly confusing. Protestants don’t really do lunar festivals so I found the dating unclear and grew up with the sneaking suspicion that there was Ramadan two or even three times a year but nobody would admit it. I don’t know why I thought people would do this. It might have been related to the sensation of “Christmas comes earlier and earlier every year”
The most shocking thing to me about Islam, which you so beautifully highlighted (made me tear up), is how many Muslims there are! I grew up in Baltimore and, infamously in Catholic school 5th grade, wondered out loud who country clubs let in if both Blacks and Catholics were banned? All this to say, I was sheltered enough to believe those were the only people to exist. When we eventually moved to central Pennsylvania, I found out there were Protestants. Still not so sure about them. JK! It took me to college (and actually studying abroad in Australia?) to realize there were a number of Jewish people. As a Philly resident for the past 15 years, I finally figured out there are Muslims. You'll be happy to hear my 1.5 and 3.5 year old both celebrate Ramadan at their "school" (fancy liberal daycare).