Sorry, Donald, haven't seen any hatred here

One of the great joys of living in Kyrgyzstan is the fact that I am 10,000 miles away from the current U.S. Presidential campaign.  Oh how fantastic it is to be able to avoid Donald Trump and Marco Rubio talk about the size of their hands if I so choose.

However, Donald Trump said something in the last day or so that I found troubling…well actually almost everything he says is troubling, but this particular troubling item is something I feel I am qualified to comment on.  The great theologian Trump blustered, "I think Islam hates us. There's something, there's something there that's a tremendous hatred."

Kyrgyzstan is an Islamic nation.  I have not encountered even a hint of hatred towards Christianity and the West.  In fact, virtually every person here has treated me with kindness and decency.  No one has tried to evangelize me…can't say that about some of the people in Arkansas I met who were always checking, questioning, asking me where I went to church, probing to figure what kind of Christian I was, to see if I needed to be saved.  Tajikistan is a more conservative Islamic nation than Kyrgyzstan.  Again, everyone I encountered there knew where I was from…no hatred, no harsh words, nothing of the sort.

Oh, and by the way, my employer is a very large foundation headed by the leader of the Ismaili group of Shia Muslims.  Every Ismaili I have met has been kind to me and their ethos of helping educate and provide services to the world's poor could serve as a model for Christians.  The Ismailis provide education and care to all people regardless of their religion.  In fact, the university I work for, despite its Ismaili financing and sponsorship, will be completely secular when it opens. No public space will be provided on campus for prayer or religious observance; students and staff must observe their faith in private or off campus--and no religious studies or classes will be allowed.   It's a school James Madison would approve of and is actually more in accordance with the philosophy of our Founding Fathers than much of the religious dogma that is currently being spread across the American airwaves.  I find it incredibly strange that the Islamic institution I work for has a philosophy of secularism and religious tolerance more closely aligned to that of the U.S. Founding Fathers than the majority of the Christian institutions I have encountered in the U.S.

So who truly is it, Mr. Trump, who is filled with malice and is inspiring hatred wherever he goes?   Yes, there are practitioners of hatred in the Islamic world, just as there are in the Christian world (refer to Holy Wars, Christian Inquisitions, the KKK, in case you have forgotten).  But remember, the vast majority of the Islamic world is not hate-filled and actually believes in kindness and charity and tolerance…words you seldom hear in certain Presidential campaigns.