"America will do whatever it can to keep chaos alive in the world...or where else will it sell its weapons......??"
"Terrorism is just a symptom...till they address the root cause, which is education, lack of work opportunities...people will senselessly continue to kill.."
" Don't say mosques and madarsas are terror hubs...it's a blasphemy against all Muslims...when people start taking weapons inside mosques...they become nothing but terror hubs...and those people who kill innocents and violate peace in the world ... are not even considered Muslims."
These profound statements came from none other than my office cab driver! The conversation started pretty randomly...my colleague and I had been wondering which of the two..between Sunnis and Shias...were the more agressive sort? My driver, being a devout Muslim, soon joined in.
You can get your dose of knowledge from anywhere during the day I realized...I probably learned more in that one and a half hour ride than I had done in office that day!
So we discussed the whole gamut of questions...terrorism...America...Taliban...the fact that all Muslim terrorist groups were at some time (usually the initiation period) funded by the US...Chechnya...Taliban..Al Qaida...the man had an opinion on everything! Mostly logically sound ones!
We even came to Muslim traditions..." 4 wives...and no more allowed...you are allowed ATMOST 4 wives," he said self-righteously...Whatever happened to commitment to one person we asked..."Like you guys are committed to one person all your life," he snorted....Valid point!
He did however explain the full commandment...you are allowed more than one...ONLY if the current wife allows it...in the last 400 years, none of his ancestors had had more than 1 wife!
Another point of dissent was "Talaq Talaq Talaq"...How can you justify that we asked...there have got to be some constitutional rights given to the poor woman...and how can just saying "Talaq" 3 times end things?
He explained all about "Meher"...the amount the father of the bride decides on...and which is to be provided to the bride as promised by the groom's family...Accorsing to him there were provisions for all these things defined...by their religion and the Muslim Personal Law Board...as for the triple Talaq..."Once you decide to separate only..what's the point of all the courtroom drama..,"...he said with a wry smile...Point taken sir !
So on and so forth the banter continued...I was never anti-Muslims...but now I saw them in a whole new light...
Been keeping my eyes and ears open ever since...our driver was more awesome than a lot of people I've met before! Long live our country! :)
