Who Is My Teacher?
In October of 2017, a favorite blogger of mine and a friend of Mercy by the Sea, Omid Safi, wrote a blog on the On Being website, entitled How Can We Live Beautifully in an Age of Vitriol. I have been re-reading this lately as the vitriol in our country disappoints and demoralizes those of us who believe in conversation and an honest exchange of ideas.
Omid, Director of the Islamic Studies Center at Duke University, turned to his Muslim faith when struggling with the question of living in the age of venom and hatefulness. His blog focused on an incident in the Libyan resistance to Italian fascism between 1911 and 1931. I quote: