After inquiring, I was instructed by my program director to lie about my religion--you know, be good like the last one and not make an issue out of it. Apparently it's not a problem if I don't make it one.
I strongly prefer to avoid actually lying about my religion for various reasons, most of which people find either obvious or inconceivable.
When they asked me my religion that first night, I feigned confusion even though I actually understood the Arabic. This became somewhat problematic once they started asking me in English. Half a dozen people were trying out different phrasings of the question on me at once, so the confusion wasn't entirely fictional. At some point I stammered that I wasn't a Christian or Muslim but that my family believed in God--in English, so who knows what they thought. Abdullah picked up on my discomfort and said "It's not important", moving the conversation along as I was still formulating a response. I wonder what he thought.
I told them that I studied Islam at my university in America. (I had asked my Arabic teacher how to convey the religious studies-theology distinction in Arabic--I'm not converting, and I hate leading people on. It's actually easier in Arabic than English: I'm studying "about religion", as opposed to studying "religion".) The Bedouin approved heartily of my course of study.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Maybe this is supposed to be obvious, but...why did they want you to avoid revealing your religion to the Bedouin?
Post a Comment