A friend at work asked me this at the end of lunch on Friday. She's a Muslim girl who I've had the privilege of eating and talking with a few times over the last half year or so. We work in the same building. We disagree on a few things, but that doesn't limit our ability to be friends (in a cursory sense). For example, months ago, Israel came up, and she said she suspected she disagreed with me so strongly that we better not discuss it, so we skipped that topic. Just this last Friday she said she'd gone home to the Middle East over the Christmas holiday (since our company gives us a whole week off thanks to the union and old-school-Midwest influences). She said that, while there, she had met with an old friend and debated her heavily against the merits of homeschooling.
Her reasons were standard. She didn't use the word specifically, but I told her that her arguments are typically summed up in my experience by one word: socialization. I explained my wife and my reasons for homeschooling our kids (perhaps that'll make a good, separate, post sometime) and by the time I was done I had convinced her that the world is a very different place than when we grew up and homeschooling is a good idea. When I explained all of our reasons, she was so surprised how much she agreed with me that was when she asked "are you sure you're an American?" I took that as a great compliment, and she confirmed that was how she meant it. I guess she's only heard about the stupid things Americans say and do (and from her perspective, she probably has reason to associate American stupidity and Christian stupidity together) and I hate to admit, but there are a lot of stupid things we all do.
That goes both ways though. Most Americans think everyone in the Middle East is a friend of what we call terrorists (or worse, they may actually be a terrorist), but that's just an erroneous assumption. See this article from a Saudi journalist. We all have a lot of learning to do, and I hope in the moment we can remember to give each other grace.
Her reasons were standard. She didn't use the word specifically, but I told her that her arguments are typically summed up in my experience by one word: socialization. I explained my wife and my reasons for homeschooling our kids (perhaps that'll make a good, separate, post sometime) and by the time I was done I had convinced her that the world is a very different place than when we grew up and homeschooling is a good idea. When I explained all of our reasons, she was so surprised how much she agreed with me that was when she asked "are you sure you're an American?" I took that as a great compliment, and she confirmed that was how she meant it. I guess she's only heard about the stupid things Americans say and do (and from her perspective, she probably has reason to associate American stupidity and Christian stupidity together) and I hate to admit, but there are a lot of stupid things we all do.
That goes both ways though. Most Americans think everyone in the Middle East is a friend of what we call terrorists (or worse, they may actually be a terrorist), but that's just an erroneous assumption. See this article from a Saudi journalist. We all have a lot of learning to do, and I hope in the moment we can remember to give each other grace.