Still Learning Tolerance at the Six Month Mark

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Real happiness is linked to pledging oneself to a great purpose. One who lives this way is strong, strong enough to be happy under any circumstances.
“The Buddha in Your Mirror”

Last Thursday I celebrated six months since leaving Boise with phone calls from both a parent and a friend back home. This Monday, however, marks six months that I have actually been in Morocco. The flux time in Philadelphia doesn’t get any kind of anniversary.
The time has flown by and I can tell it is only going to keep speeding up. Happily, I haven’t dealt with too much homesickness yet. I think this is in part because I have been making a conscious effort to make Kelaa my home. I came here thinking of this as my new home, a town I will live in for two years (insh’allah) and will hopefully return to throughout my life. The friends I make here I think of as people I will keep in touch with as I have kept up contact with the friends I made as an exchange student in France.
In half a year I think I can say that I have accomplished a lot. My Arabic is the most obvious difference. But I think most importantly I have learned a lot about tolerance. I always thought of myself as a fairly tolerant person, but living in an Islamic country has required new levels of tolerance.
I have never before been exposed to so much talk about religion. Growing up in Boise, the only religion people really talked about was the Mormons and they didn’t make much of an effort to convert me. Here Islam is such an intregal part of the culture it is hard to even say anything without mentioning Allah. When you ask how somebody is doing, there is no phrase for « I’m fine », they just say « hamdullah » (thanks to Allah.) To tell somebody they have done a good job or to say congratulations also translates to something like « blessings of Allah on you » (tbark allah alik.) Any reference to the future must be accompanied by the phrase « insh’allah » (Allah willing.) Almost all polite phrases reference Allah and I sincerely doubt I have heard a conversation in which he is not mentioned.
Islam not only permeates the language, but also many topics of conversation. I have been asked countless times if I pray. The word for pray here also means « embrace Islam ». I try to tell them that I pray differently, but am never sure if they understand what I mean or if I might be saying that I embrace Islam differently.
I get very tired of talking about Islam all the time but, as my friend Maryam reminded me, when people tell me how wonderful Islam is they really think they are being nice. Morocco is a religious monarchy and Islam is so important that it is almost inconceivable that a person would live here without being Muslim. When people ask me if I pray (which is the same as asking if I am Muslim) they always seem so surprised by the answer. Often they tell me about Westerners they know, especially Americans, who are Muslim. It’s as if they are reassuring me that it is okay for me to come out of the closet and announce my conversion to Islam. Their gestures range from merely talking about Islam to the CD store owner who gave me a free copy of the Koran in MP3 - of course it is in the original old standard Arabic of which I understand next to nothing.
What makes this all the more delicate for me is that Islam is the national religion. The Christian and Jewish minorities are tolerated, but it is illegal for them to proselytize. (I have heard rumors of a few Moroccan Buddhists in large cities but I bet they are very secretive). Peace Corps has to be very careful not to be seen as an organization that has anything to do with religion. A triumph for us was when the imam of the big mosque in Rabat was discussing the problems of people coming to Morocco to convert Moroccans to Christianity. He specifically excluded Peace Corps from the list of organizations he was concerned about. Several PC staff members were in the audience, which is how the message was communicated to the volunteers. This means that as I listen to Moroccans educate me about their religion and culture I have to be very careful what I say. If my words are misunderstood, and with the differences of language and culture there are always misunderstandings, they could be interpreted as me trying to convert a Moroccan. It is perfectly okay for them to try all day, every day, to convert me, but it is actually illegal for me to do the same. So until I feel more comfortable with my Arabic I am still stuck in the role of listening to long lectures about Islam from just about everybody I meet.
I thought this would lessen over time, but it has actually been increasing. As people get to know me better and hear my Arabic improve, they seem to feel more comfortable discussing religion with me. I want to tell them that I have heard it all before - many, many times. Sometimes I do, but that never brings the desired change of subject. My best strategy so far has been to listen, but not become too engaged in the conversation and hope that they will naturally change the subject on their own. It is the days that I relax, instead of tensing up when the conversation turns to religion, that I can sit back and enjoy all the things that Moroccans can teach me about the world they (and now I) live in. I know there is more to learn about Islam, and when I muster up the courage to settle in for a long lecture, I inevitable learn something new.
In six months I have learned more about the cultures here (cultures plural because Morocco is very culturally, if not religiously, diverse) than I would have though possible. It is sometime hard to distinguish between Moroccan culture and Islamic culture and I often find myself asking people if a certain custom is only in Morocco, or also in all Islamic countries. Thanks to satellite television, many people know a lot about other Arab countries and can answer than question. Egyptian, Lebanese, Tunisian, Saudi and other satellite stations are very popular here. Al Jazeera is also popular of course, and despite what I have heard about it in Western media, I like watching it when it’s on at friends’ houses. Last time I had tea with my landlord we watched an Al Jazeera report on the immigration problems between Mexico and the US. Our conversation quickly turned to the issues between Morocco and Spain, but I was impressed with the international coverage of Al Jazeera. I’m sure there are other programs I wouldn’t like as much, but I can only speak for what I saw.

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Photos

Sweet Spuds
I made this poster of Idaho with postcards and photos from Boise. It's up in the Dar Chebab and I translated the subtitles into French and Arabic so everybody can learn about "bledi".