{"id":5308,"date":"2020-05-24T12:59:46","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T12:59:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/voiceofsalam.com\/?p=24107"},"modified":"2020-05-24T12:59:46","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T12:59:46","slug":"baklava-beats-bigotry-my-muslim-friend","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2020\/05\/24\/baklava-beats-bigotry-my-muslim-friend\/","title":{"rendered":"Baklava beats bigotry: My Muslim friend"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Simon Hardy Butler<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Bigotry and baklava.<\/span> They don\u2019t go together.<\/p>\n

One is sour, bitter. The other: sweet.<\/p>\n

I prefer baklava<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Why am I writing about this? Well, it reminds me of a\u00a0recent incident at work when I was about to start a hectic day.<\/p>\n

A colleague whom I shall call “Lara” left on the kitchen\u2019s communal table a selection of baklava and other filo-wrapped Middle Eastern pastries she had baked at home earlier.<\/p>\n

I tried some; of course, they were wonderful \u2026 honey-soaked but not too sticky, sugary yet not overpowering. I thanked her and told her what a terrific chef she was. She was very modest and gracious in response.<\/p>\n

Joking, I asked her if she had any more. I went back to my chair in good humour. The desserts had made me very happy.<\/p>\n

The next day, after entering the office and approaching my chair, I saw a covered aluminium foil take-out container on my desk. Coming closer, I noticed my name was written on the top.<\/p>\n

I opened it and was delighted to find more baklava. It was obvious who did this. And it was obvious I was going to thank her even more profusely than before.<\/p>\n

Which I did. Again, she was modest, gracious. I, however, couldn\u2019t help but lavish praise.<\/p>\n

\"shutterstock_784574839\"
Balava<\/a> (a.k.a baklawa) is a popular sweet across Turkey and the Middle East.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

This wasn\u2019t the type of thing that happened to me often; frankly, such generosity hardly ever came near my work station during my entire career. That\u2019s too bad, because the sweets were the best things to happen to me that morning.<\/p>\n

I haven\u2019t forgotten them, nor have I forgotten Lara\u2019s munificence.<\/p>\n

Skip ahead a month or two. It\u2019s a hot day. I pass by Lara in the hallway, and she remarks on the difficulty of fasting at this time.<\/p>\n

I knew she was talking about Ramadan. She was leaning toward not fasting due to the possibility of complications resulting from the heat. I agreed with her and sympathised. I went back to my desk.<\/p>\n

Then it occurred to me that I was missing something. After I realised what it was, I returned to Lara\u2019s work station.<\/p>\n

“Happy holiday,” I said to her.<\/p>\n

Lara is Muslim<\/span><\/strong>. She is one of the nicest, most benevolent people in the office.<\/p>\n

She is Muslim. She\u2019s a terrific cook and pastry chef.<\/p>\n

She is Muslim. She took the time to bring me more of the baklava I so enjoyed to our job and put it on my desk \u2014 schlepping it from her home so I could partake of it.<\/p>\n

She is Muslim. And you know what? Anyone who hates Muslims in general and suggests they leave our country and rails against them on social media and bloviates about\u00a0taqiyya<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0is a freakin\u2019 idiot.<\/p>\n

\"portrait-photo-of-a-woman-wearing-black-hijab-2564529\"
Islamophobia is a real issue affecting the Muslim community.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Denigrating an entire population is ridiculous. No one is the same person. I, as a Jew, am disgusted when racist, antisemitic<\/a><\/span><\/strong> imbeciles on either side of the political spectrum rant about Jews and their supposed eee-vile behaviour.<\/p>\n

Why can\u2019t we all feel the way about Muslims? Why is this somehow legitimate in public forums?<\/p>\n

The truth is, it\u2019s not. Islamophobia<\/span><\/a><\/strong> is not some made-up affliction; it\u2019s real, and it\u2019s insidious. You just can\u2019t lump human beings together as a group and make generalisations about them as a whole.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re not cattle. They\u2019re people<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Muslims are people. Jews are people. Many of us are good. Some of us are bad.<\/p>\n

You see what I\u2019m saying? Men and women aren\u2019t monolithic. We\u2019re all individuals. We\u2019re all separate units.<\/p>\n

To speak ill of communities collectively is bigoted and uninformed. We don\u2019t want to be that. We want to be like that baklava: light, sweet, maybe a little flaky. Oh, and don\u2019t forget the nuts. There are always plenty of those<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lara gave me more baklava even though I didn\u2019t ask for it, and I will value that experience as I value a bar of gold. Perhaps even more. For she knew the power of pastry and how happy\u00a0it can make people.<\/p>\n

If only more folks shared the same vision. If only more folks had the same thought process.<\/p>\n

We might be in a different world. We might be in a better one. Because baklava always trumps bigotry<\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

And friendship will always \u2014 I say, always, without reservations \u2014 trump hate.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

About the author<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

\"Simon\"Simon Hardy Butler is a New York-based writer and editor whose writings have appeared in publications such as Zagat, Adweek, Algemeiner and The Jewish Advocate. His blog may be found at\u00a0cinemablogishkeit.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Credits<\/span><\/strong><\/h4>\n

This blog was first published by The Times of Israel<\/a><\/strong><\/span> (16th June, 2017).<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"20%<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on Voice of Salam<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Simon Hardy Butler shares a heart-warming experience across religious divides in a climate of increasing Islamophobia\/anti-Muslim hate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":486,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1419,1410,1420,1402,1331,1391],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/486"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5308"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5309,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5308\/revisions\/5309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}