Aug. 23, 2010 issue
Muslim hospitality
By Melvin Schmidt Hyattsville, Md.“Opposition to Mosques Grows” (from Christian Science Monitor News Service) dramatically describes a tremendous problem and opportunity. If we are serious about practicing what the Bible teaches, we will welcome the strangers rather than alienating them in the name of maintaining some imagined standard of purity or safety.
A life-changing expression of welcoming came to Charlotte and me when we went to Indonesia to serve with Mennonite Central Committee in 1960. Indonesia was in the throes of virulent anti-Americanism. We were welcomed most warmly by the Kartasasmitas, a devout Muslim family. Charlotte lived in their home while awaiting our wedding. Didi and his wife had gone out of their way to give me a home away from home while I worked on Charlotte’s visa for 16 months. Their love and care for us were given with no hesitation in spite of the fact that Didi had been fired from being the head of the Indonesian Navy and was under house arrest and constant surveillance.
It was no small risk for the Kartasasmitas to take us in while their nation had such paranoid reactions toward Western influences. Once I asked Didi what motivated him. He replied, “Muslim faith teaches hospitality.”
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