November 15, 2024

We have especially chosen to visit countries with a large Muslim population: Morocco 99%, Tunisia 98%, Egypt 90%. I am respectful of other faiths (read my blog of March 28, 2024) but do recognize that there are differences especially in relationship to how different faiths treat women.

We, as Americans, are born in a country where our Declaration of Independence declares that: “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” And the Bible is perfectly clear when it says: “God shows no partiality”.

Yet, this is not true of all nations.

In Muslim countries the following is true:

A specifically female religious custom is the Zār, a ceremony for helping women placate spirits who are believed to have possessed them.

Muslim women are prohibited from marrying Christian men. Muslim female heirs receive half the amount of a male heir’s inheritance.

Only in the last 20 years were Egyptian women given the right to apply for a passport and travel without the husband’s consent.

Muslim countries remain highly regulated. The Muslim Ministry of Justice is influential in ordering “fatwas” (opinions) that represent a collection of opinions on what Muslims “ought to think”. As many as 5,000 fatwas are issued a week.

Our son-in-law, Ben is an outstanding artist. Here is an example of a painting he did when his son Benjamin was turning one year old.

 Ben is the Artistic Director for Wycliff and has created a young girl character “Kate” who travels with her toucan “Mac” exploring the world. (translated in different languages) Such characters empower young girls to see themselves as capable and worthy of love. Such publications would be helpful in allowing young Muslim women to feel equal.

This is a much different approach than the controversial practice widely called “bulldozer justice”, in which the homes of Muslims are razed as retribution. The demolitions are especially common in states controlled by the Hindu-nationalist party of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Muslims are set back by a whole generation due to these demolitions. Such religious prejudice only fuels the fires of injustice.

Let me share with you why this issue is important to me. In 2023, I was in Tangiers and took a picture of Muslem men chanting their afternoon prayers in the all-male mosque. As I turned the corner, I saw a woman who was not allowed to enter the mosque sitting up against the wall of the mosque reciting the same prayers. I felt that was so wrong. I still do.

I realize that change takes time. Sometimes even multiple generations. Most of our fathers smoked cigarettes. Far fewer of my generation still smoke and it is much less common to see our children smoke. Yet it was 1966, when the label “Cigarettes Are Hazardous to your Health” first appeared! Unfortunately, those same lobbyists left the tobacco industry and applied their insidious tactics to the food industry promoting processed foods to the detriment of the American people. This in spite of the fact that Congress passed a law mandating that food products have a list of ingredients on the label in 1938! Talk about being slow to change. (Read my good friend, Rich Holman’s book Killing You Softly: How Sugar is Killing Us for a complete expose on the subject-available on Amazon)

Most of you know by now that I am a Christian and that my faith is very important to me. Yet prejudice of any kind serves as mankind’s early warning system of great evil. Prejudice may begin with one people, but it never ends with just one people.

The more people of all faiths understand prejudice the more people will come to oppose it.

Thanks for traveling with us.