Religion doesn’t lie, people do.

Well, have you ever met a person from a different religion who claims theirs is better than yours? If not, I am sure you have read articles about one religion being more mischievous than the others or some nonsense of the sort.

“Religion doesn’t lie, people do.” — Joan Ambu

I have met all types of people in my life and regardless of what my beliefs are as well as my religion, I have always respected theirs. I am not one to judge a person and when I do, I never condemn a group for the shortcomings of one. I grew up with a lot of Muslim friends and, other than scheduled prayers and a few forbidden food, we were just kids doing what kids enjoy doing.

I met a Muslim woman a couple of years ago whose daughter befriend mine at school. This woman made me question what I thought I knew about her religion. To win my trust, she began by letting me know that Muslims don’t lie and I responded with ‘no religion lies’. She brought her younger daughters to my house and as expected they were amazed, excited, went in every room and had fun with my daughter. The third time we went to their house I realized something was off and made it the last. My kids were always confined in the living room, were denied access to any other parts of the house and her girls were not allowed to share toys with mine (I heard this woman telling two of her daughters to go put their dolls away). When the bathroom was in use and my kids needed to use it, they were denied access to the guest bathroom because it was reserved for important people. Now you would think it was a clean house and that maybe this woman wanted to maintain order; it was however, the opposite.

This woman didn’t share much about herself, but she was an hypocrite who was quick to speak ill of others. She had a few grudges she needed to let out, and I understood even though it wasn’t a nice way to go about it. When, however, she said Mexicans are lazy and fat you know, that was the last straw. This is not by any means a slim and/or fit woman. Her husband and one of her sons are probably the fattest men I have seen so far and a few of her daughters are rapidly getting there. For her to utter those words, knowing that my children are of Mexican descent, was disrespectful and rude. I couldn’t waste a second around someone like that.
Weeks went by and her girls wanted to come and play at my house, but their mother said no, that we should be the ones to go over there. One of the girls innocently repeated what her mother said to my daughter, who calmly replied, ‘no, thank you.’ This woman is not a bad person, she simply lacks knowledge, respect and acceptance.

Just a couple of years ago, there was a family of four who lived across from us; they kept to themselves, seemed nice and we were told by their landlord who is a good friend of ours that they are good people and Christians.

A month prior to moving out the masks fell off and their true nature were revealed. I met three of the fours and I was chocked when I realized that all were Machiavellian. They were dishonest, self-aware, extremely self-centered, manipulative, sneaky, ungrateful and would tell out of this world lies to achieve their goals. They blamed everyone else for their misfortune and did not understand why nothing worked out for them. Such people would drive you crazy. I stopped sympathizing and empathizing with them.

“Sometimes it’s not the people who change; it’s the mask that falls off.” — Haruki Murakami

I have friends of different religion than mine who are a little off every now and then. That’s okay as long as we do not become full of ourselves and start belittling others. Judging her based on her repeated actions, you can see how one can quickly come to the conclusion that Muslims are not fun to be around. Her actions do not speak for the other Muslims and we should not put everyone in the same basket. The same goes for Christians and other religions.

As people, as individuals, we should strive to do better and to be our best selves around each other.

“Condemn the offender, not the Religion.” ― Joan Ambu