Sean Kavanagh: Christian and Islamic teachings require charity and empathy

To The Daily Sun,

It’s hard to change the minds of fundamentalist religious bigots. So rather than embark on that fool’s errand, I’ll provide Steve Earl some data that might offer him some perspective, or at least some grist for his mean-spirited mill.

Earle believes Muslims are incompatible with Western democracy? Tell that to the 25 million European Muslims or the 3.5 million Muslims living peacefully in America. Far from being taught to hate Christians “from cradle to grave,” Islam is actually very similar to what Christians and Jews are taught: faith, prayer, fasting and charity. Of course, it’s easy to point to the bad stuff, but I certainly wouldn’t call out all Christians just because their book promotes stoning, bigamy and slavery. By the way, after 9/11, there were many mosques that condemned the terrorists and held vigils for the victims.

Let me introduce Mohammad and Heba Alloh, and their five children, Eman, Annas, Jabar, Sedra and Bara. Refugees from Syria who fled the Russian-backed civil war and were brought to the U.S. by the State Department. I met them when they lived in a slum apartment in Lowell, Massachusetts, where they were subject to anti-Arab slurs on the street. To prove that Americans were better than that, they came to live with our family until we were able to find them appropriate housing. Mohammad works as a cabinet maker and the children are thriving in school. Their eldest girl just graduated from high school and is now attending college.

My Catholic family taught me to help the underprivileged. I assume many Baptists also live out Jesus’ teachings in their everyday life. I know for a fact that the Jesus I learned about would condemn the Islamophobic rants the readers of this paper have been subjected to.

Sean Kavanagh

Center Harbor