One of my heroes, Mahatma Gandhi once said that “God has no religion.” Regardless of what name you call God, our only real purpose here on earth is to achieve union with God. As children of Abraham, we have created our own problems by trying to claim God for ourselves. When in fact, the root cause of believing that God only serves you and your people is ignorance. As a yogi, we believe that this is simply ignorance of self. If we dig deep inside of ourselves, we would recognize the oneness that we all share; you and the Muslim or you and Jew or you and the Christian or you and the Hindu, are one.
When the mosque in Joplin, Missouri burned to the ground on August 6th, we burned down our temple of worship. When several Muslim graves were desecrated at the Evergreen Cemetery in Chicago last week, we disrespected our parents. When a man shot a pellet gun at a mosque earlier in August where 500 people, including women and children, were praying, we targeted the innocent. When a bomb detonated outside an Islamic school just a few days, we stopped believing that our children are the future. When a so-called country star said that our President is “a Muslim who hates America,” we all spit words of hatred. When uncooked bacon was scattered at a New York Ramadan celebration this past weekend, we all lost a bit of dignity. These crimes of hate did not happen over the course of much time; they have all happened in the past twenty days.
This nation must be very careful. We were reminded of what hate looks like in Oak Creek, Wisconsin just sixteen days ago. If we do not stand up together against the rise of Islamaphobia in our country and around the world, this trend sadly will continue. When we realize that our God loves all men (and women) of the good book equally, then our hatred for the other will dissipate. Until that moment, our hearts remain heavy for the victims of these horrific crimes.
