ignorance

"citizenship?"
"US"
"Where were you born?"
"Afghanistan"
"ID's ..."
"Have you been back to Afghanistan?"
"No."
"Do you have another passport?"
"No."
"Have you been to Middle East?"
"No."
"What were you doing in Canada?"
"Attended a wedding."
"Where?"
"Toronto"
"Did you visit any mosques?"
"I'm not a Muslim."
"That was not my question."
"No, I have not visited any Mosques."

This was the question and answer during the crossing of the Windsor-Detroit border into US yesterday.

I could not believe a day would come where visiting a place of worship would be used to filter people out in United States.

After we got home, I had to explain my 7 years old daughter, why the custom officer asked about visitng a mosque. She was very curious.

My explanation included the topic of Al-Qaida, Bin-Laden, Taliban, 9/11, current conflict in Afghanistan, war in Iraq and recent terrorist activities. I gave my little story the title of "ignorance".

These were some of her questions after my explanation:
- Why would someone kill others just because they think or believe differently?
- How can someone kill himself and others and believe that they are going to Heaven?
- How can fighting bring peace?
- How can hatred remove hatred? Didn't Martin Luther King say Love removes hatred?