Pennyplant, for months after 9/11 I bought as many of my groceries as possible in little Arab-owned grocery shops near where I worked and lived. I made special trips to some of them just to buy nazook, or coffee. There were about 6 of these shops that I visited faithfully.
I did this because I knew that there would be hate crimes, there would be evil acting out against people who had nothing to do with the 9/11 criminals, simply because they were the same color, the same faith, from the same part of the world, and within reach. So evil begets evil.
I decided to commit 'love speech' as my own personal counterterrorism program. To show support to these people, who were my countrymen and countrywomen too, and whose businesses might have been suffering because of a thing they had nothing to do with, and were just as frightened and hurt by as the rest of us.
I found out that three of the shops were owned by Arab Christian families.
In every shop I was friendly, courteous to the shopkeepers, and looked them in the eyes with love as I bought and paid for my items. I didn't say a word about 9/11. I don't think I had to.
Other Christians I knew kept candlelight vigils outside local mosques overnight for weeks, risking themselves, to protect them from vandals. I couldn't do that, my schedule didn't allow for it, but I did what I could.
Thank you for telling about your own experience - I'm sure Dr. Rumi knew of his namesake.
