written by Baby Rucelle Cogal
I am April, and I would love to tell you a story about the friendship of two best friends that transcends religion and beliefs.
I knew Ali and Franz since they were all kids. We are all neighbors and I always knew that these two were really close. The first time I talked to them was during a birthday party in our subdivision.
“Hey, do you two want a barbecue?”
“Oh, thank you, but he cannot eat pork though.”, the dark-haired boy replied, pointing to his friend.
“Uhm, why?”
“Ah, I am Muslim.”, the other boy replied.
That was a really embarrassing memory because I am not aware that he’s Muslim. At that time, I wanted to hide myself somewhere because I don’t know if I had offended Ali. But thanks to that, I became friends with them, and I would often hang out and play with them after school.
Ali being Muslim have been the usual reason why he sometimes gets bullied and make fun of. But the good thing is that there is Franz with him as he was always the one who was ready to fight those other kids who teased Ali. You know how people always have this discrimination about Muslims being terrorists – and honestly, I think I did think like that too, at some point. But now that I’ve become close friends with one, I was able to correct that stereotyping and even felt kind of annoyed how “terrorists” is engraved with the word “Muslims”. I also hate it how some treat people with relation to Islam as someone weird or scary. We are all human, so why judge someone based on their beliefs, right?
As mentioned, Ali is a Muslim while Franz and I are both Christian. Still, it does not have any effects in our friendship, especially with those two boys. Rather it is interesting how both of them got along so well, despite having differences in beliefs and tradition. For how many years I’ve been friends with them, I really know how close they are. Our usual hang-out would consist of jamming together, random travels, watching movies and many more. Sometimes I would hang out with my girl friends while they both played basketball or rode bikes with other guys. But the best thing about having friends from a different religion is you get to know about their traditions. You somehow got to know about their rules in their religion and what are the main events they celebrate, and the same way for them too. One thing also about Ali and Franz is that you could see how they really respect each other’s views. Like how Franz would consider places where to eat or order, knowing that Ali is not allowed to eat pork, and how Ali would sometimes participate in our bible study. He will not literally join, but sometimes he would listen, and it is really a big thing to know that somehow, Ali also wants to know about Christianity as well as how we want to know more about Islam. Back then, I would assume that someone of a different religion didn’t care about mine, but that’s not the case – sometimes the best conversations happen with those who are profoundly different to us.
Having a Muslim friend and witnessing Ali and Franz’s friendship has taught me so much. It taught me to appreciate the diversity of religion and to avoid stereotyping, as no matter what we believed in, in reality we have more similarities than differences. Being friends with someone from a different religion has enabled me to see the world around me and my own faith in a fresh, new way. It helped me articulate more of what I believe and ultimately enabled me to be a better person.
There is more to people than what it seems. We are different, we are all unique, from our favorite color, our hobbies, our beliefs, our way of thinking, our opinion, and even our religion. But that does not mean these differences can hinder us from being friends with other people. That is why, why don’t we let people believe what they wanted to believe? It is everyone’s own right to put their faith in something they believe in. After all, at the end of the day, no matter what we believe in, as long as we respect others’ beliefs as well, everything will turn out well.
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