Smile At a Muslim
These are just a few words about reality,
as Muslims struggle each day with individuality.
What is a Muslim and from whence does he come?
Like you and me, he is born into the world. because of two someone's.
Many of us grew up knowing prejudice in life,
I was gangly, naive, ever given to strife.
Raised as a Christian I never knew what it meant,
As my Muslim friend, how people could vent.
My younger years were spent playing baseball you see,
They were a team of Puerto Ricans, not one Muslim to be.
My Polish heritage was always the butt of a joke,
It was infinitely small, compared to a Muslim's yoke.
My parent's generation was prejudiced in mind,
To Blacks, and Jews, Hindus, Muslims, Hispanics and people of all kind.
I, being naive, never even recognized the strife,
to which these peoples had been subjected to in life.
From experience I learned to treat each person individually,
slowly finding out that that was how they treated me.
Oh, I can say I've met both good and bad,
and the underlying theme is all so sad.
For it seems that we put labels to people like cans of beans,
stick them on a shelf, never tasting their means.
But once you open that can and taste the fare,
you may very well find yourself going back there.
We have our share of detractors in this world of our choice,
but Muslims are not the ones against whom we should give voice.
They are as decent, hard working, and loving as you or me.
They only want what is best for their family.
I pray to my Christian God for Muslims though they know it not,
because they are people that He has not forgot.
Words between man and God are private you see,
that is what connects man to his Deity.
But in every society there is always some remark made aloud,
about how this group or that group has no right to be allowed.
What, I wonder, gives them the right to speak that thought?
Unless it was the freedoms for which this country fought.
And I am sure that the Muslims fought with us too,
so they could have an American dream or two.
So, I think I'll stay in my own naive little way,
and keep those prejudices well at bay.
I won't care whether the next person is Red or Yellow, Black or White,
I won't care if he's Hindu or Christian, Jewish or Zen on sight.
Yes, I'll like the next Muslim I see,
I'm going to smile at them, and I bet they smile back at me!
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