A Glass Of Water
I called my Mom the other day.....for those who don't know, my Mom lives in Sweden a bit outside Stockholm. She told me about a situation that had recently transpired in the neighborhood.
My Mom noticed a couple of police cars outside a neighbor's house and about 8 plastic bags full of stuff close by. She asked one of the neighbors what was going on but the neighbor didn't know. Then my Mom saw the boy, a boy standing by the plastic bags and he was looking upset. So she walked up to him and asked what was going on. She knew that the boy lived there, part of a Muslim family, father, mother and three children that moved in not too long ago. The boy, actually 18 but my Mom thought he was a few years younger, started CRYING really hard when my Mom asked him how he was doing. My Mom is rather sensitive so she too started crying. The boy asked her for A GLASS OF WATER, because he was very thirsty. Ramadan has started and his father would not allow him to drink or eat during the sun being up, that is what dedicated Muslims practice during Ramadan. My Mom brought him water and he drank it and told her that he does not get along with his father, that he wants to live like the Swedish people, that he does not want to be a practicing Muslim, that he does not want to faint in school from being hungry and thirsty. Even I want to cry just writing about this. The young man goes to school, he told my Mom he wants to study and that he has good grades and wants to become a social worker.
And those plastic bags outside the house? That was his stuff that he took with him. He was leaving his family to go and stay with a friend, the police came to help him. I am not sure who called the police.
My Mom says that since Ramadan started the youngest child (a boy) is not outside playing soccer anymore, the blinds to the house are completely drawn shut all the time. The Mom of the family never spends time outside and her husband is much older than her. There is a teenage girl living there as well.
I am extremely opposed to people pushing their religious beliefs onto their children, whether it is withholding food and beverages from them during the month long Ramadan or forcing them to sit in church for several hours weekly. Once a person is grown, mature and can make their own decisons they can decide whether practicing a religion is something they want to be part of.
I feel bad for the other two kids in that family and the Mom, I am sure they are living a very oppressed life.
Not easy when two cultures collide, many children of Muslim families protest and run away or distance themselves from their families once they come to Sweden. When I lived there I knew of a teenage girl that ran away because her family were about to marry her off to some older man in a Turkish village. She did not want that, so she ran away. I would had done the same.
I think that a week at Burning Man yearly during childhood would teach children way more about life, humanity and getting along with others and helping others than any religion forced upon them during childhood.
I should add here that I feel strongly against any religion that forces children to practices that are in my opinion unhealthy, whether it's Islam, Christianity, Church of the Latter-day Saints, whatever other religion or the cult known as The Duggars.
My Mom noticed a couple of police cars outside a neighbor's house and about 8 plastic bags full of stuff close by. She asked one of the neighbors what was going on but the neighbor didn't know. Then my Mom saw the boy, a boy standing by the plastic bags and he was looking upset. So she walked up to him and asked what was going on. She knew that the boy lived there, part of a Muslim family, father, mother and three children that moved in not too long ago. The boy, actually 18 but my Mom thought he was a few years younger, started CRYING really hard when my Mom asked him how he was doing. My Mom is rather sensitive so she too started crying. The boy asked her for A GLASS OF WATER, because he was very thirsty. Ramadan has started and his father would not allow him to drink or eat during the sun being up, that is what dedicated Muslims practice during Ramadan. My Mom brought him water and he drank it and told her that he does not get along with his father, that he wants to live like the Swedish people, that he does not want to be a practicing Muslim, that he does not want to faint in school from being hungry and thirsty. Even I want to cry just writing about this. The young man goes to school, he told my Mom he wants to study and that he has good grades and wants to become a social worker.
And those plastic bags outside the house? That was his stuff that he took with him. He was leaving his family to go and stay with a friend, the police came to help him. I am not sure who called the police.
My Mom says that since Ramadan started the youngest child (a boy) is not outside playing soccer anymore, the blinds to the house are completely drawn shut all the time. The Mom of the family never spends time outside and her husband is much older than her. There is a teenage girl living there as well.
I am extremely opposed to people pushing their religious beliefs onto their children, whether it is withholding food and beverages from them during the month long Ramadan or forcing them to sit in church for several hours weekly. Once a person is grown, mature and can make their own decisons they can decide whether practicing a religion is something they want to be part of.
I feel bad for the other two kids in that family and the Mom, I am sure they are living a very oppressed life.
Not easy when two cultures collide, many children of Muslim families protest and run away or distance themselves from their families once they come to Sweden. When I lived there I knew of a teenage girl that ran away because her family were about to marry her off to some older man in a Turkish village. She did not want that, so she ran away. I would had done the same.
I think that a week at Burning Man yearly during childhood would teach children way more about life, humanity and getting along with others and helping others than any religion forced upon them during childhood.
I should add here that I feel strongly against any religion that forces children to practices that are in my opinion unhealthy, whether it's Islam, Christianity, Church of the Latter-day Saints, whatever other religion or the cult known as The Duggars.