Sacred storytelling

On Sunday November 11, 2011. we went for An enrichment activity in Ypsilanti, Michigan with AFS exchange students. This storytelling was about stereotypes of people about different religions, for example, as you hear the word "MUSLIM" a word pops up in your mind saying, "TERRORIST", for "Hindus" you just think of "Tribal people, worshiping cows and dancing along fire-- in short, crazy".
                                             Well, I am a Hindu myself and I do not agree with these thoughts at all. We are not like this. But the other people will never understand that even if I shout at the top of my voice. People from other religions make fun of you and bully you and the worst part is that,  you can't do anything about that. These feelings are much more painful than they seem.
                             I am a Hindu but I am from a Muslim country Pakistan. Despite the old conflicts between Hindus and Muslims, we are honored and respected in Pakistan. We are given every right we want to have. We worship, celebrate and do whatever we want and the government provides us security. There are always some people who will be narrow-minded and extremists. Though I haven't met any such adult yet in my country but when I was in my middle school, I was bullied by my Muslim classmates for being a Hindu, I cried, complaint and suffered a lot during that time. It was horrible. I tried my best to convince my classmates but since they were just middle school kids, they were literally, morally, mentally IMMATURE. But when I was in my high school, there was nothing like that. I was the only Hindu in my whole class of 60 people. My class mares were all Muslims but they were very nice. They respected my religion and wanted to know about it. They not only invited me to their religious events but also came to my religious festivals and loved it. I was glad to have such friends who were mature, respectful, tolerant and polite.I wonder what is the difference between my middle-school class mates and high school friends and the only thing I could think of was Education. High school friends were educated and the middle school mates were not so educated and immature.It actually begins in homes. These things are taught by their parents to them. Since they just follow what their parents say, if they are taught by educated parents they act sophisticated. If the'r parents are narrow-minded, the children also start thinking stupidly. Sad but true!
                         Talking about the stereotypes that I had for Americans were that, "They just lock us up thinking that we are TERRORISTS, without even any evidence they will imprison you, even if you are innocent. They are cruel and heartless people . See what they did to Iraq and etc.etc." This was no more into my mind when I arrived here and safely spent 4 months here. It was not like the way we hear about it. I was glad to find out that my stereotypes were actually all fake.
                          When I attended the Sacred storytelling conference, I saw that they were talking about the stereotypes about different religions and saying that these are all fake and meaningless. They talked about the ways to make the relationships better between different religions and respecting differences, valuing diversity and tolerance. It was so surprising to see that all those people who organized that event and participated in it were all Americans. This made the thing obvious to me that American do respect diversity and they are themselves working to make it better. They are teaching other Americans to be nice and wise. They are telling others to spread peace. It makes me believe that Every American is not a racist and extremist. There are some intelligent people, who care and think and want to make world a better place! This is what you learn during your exchange year,you experience diversity. You learn about the culture of the country and about the people you are living with and most important, you learn that all your stereotypes were nothing but fake!
--" I never realized that Americans ever think that they should over come their stereotypes and respect diversity and tolerance. Its great to be here. Great job", said by me (Sonam Chawla from Pakistan).
--"I learnt that we should respect each other. We should never bully anyone from any different religion and live with peace!", says Ayub Khan from India.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FCeH-svm4Nc&feature=youtu.be