Local Hindus, Muslims embrace
[http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-asecramadiwali16111601nov16.story?coll=o[/ URL] rl%2Dnews%2Dheadlines
By Mark I. Pinsky | Sentinel Staff Writer
Posted November 16, 2001
Every day, Hindus and Muslims pass each other in the aisles of the Bombay Bazaar grocery store on South Orange Blossom Trail, nodding to one another as they shop for the familiar foods, spices and sweets of their homelands.
They eat at nearby tables at Memories of India restaurant on Turkey Lake Road, which is Hindu-owned, and Indian Delights on State Road 434 in Longwood, which is Muslim-owned. They buy CDs and rent videos from more than a dozen Indian music and film stores across Central Florida.
Even as strangers, these Hindus and Muslims recognize one another as sojourners, newcomers and freshly minted American citizens, all from the same part of the world and all trying to make their way in this country in trying times.
This year, by a coincidence of the calendar, major religious observations of Islam and Hinduism – each with about 1 billion adherents worldwide – occur almost simultaneously. Islam’s monthlong Ramadan fast and Hinduism’s joyous Diwali festival take place this week. Diwali began Wednesday, but many Central Florida Hindus will celebrate this weekend.
Yet in several countries and over several centuries, Muslims and Hindus have been traditional enemies. The Hindu majority in India chafed under the rule of Muslim Mogul emperors for more than 400 years.
The British partition of India and Pakistan in 1947 ignited horrific communal violence and uprooted hundreds of thousands of people, as Muslims living in India moved to Pakistan and Hindus left Pakistan. That population transfer bolstered the Muslim majority in Pakistan, which also borders the predominantly Muslim country of Afghanistan.
But Central Florida Hindus and Muslims say they interact easily here, to the point of partnerships in medical practices and business ventures. Many of the area’s estimated 30,000 Muslims and 4,000 Hindus originally come from nations of the Indian subcontinent. Hindus and Muslims from the region are similar in appearance and often grow up speaking the same languages, including Urdu and Marathi.
“We are basically the same ethnic group,” said Dr. Mohan Saoji of Casselberry, a leader of the Central Florida Hindu community. “We are closer here than we would be there.”
Governments in their homelands of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Afghanistan and Sri Lanka remain in conflict.
India and Pakistan have fought a series of conventional border wars, and a protracted guerrilla struggle in the state of Jammu and Kashmir continues today. In the months before Sept. 11, the Taliban regime in Afghanistan ordered all Hindus living in the capital of Kabul to wear yellow identifying badges, which many said recalled the yellow stars the Nazis required Jews to wear in Europe.
Opportunity to reach out
While still facing each other across battle lines half a world away, members of the two faiths locally say they are now making common pleas for understanding from their Christian and Jewish neighbors in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Despite the tragedy, community leaders say, the days and weeks following have provided an opportunity to reach out to one another.
“We tried to support them [local Muslims],” said Dr. Aravind Pillai of Sanford, chairman of the Hindu Society of Central Florida. “We knew they had the same anxiety.”
Muslims appreciated that effort.
“They were concerned about us,” said Nayyar Ansari, an Orlando businessman originally from Pakistan and a member of the Islamic Society of Orlando. “They keep calling and asking about us.”
After planning several interfaith gatherings that included Muslims and Hindus, the Rev. Fred Morris, executive director of the Florida Council of Churches, observed that, “If we could do this on a world level, we would have world peace in a week.”
And this outreach appears to extend beyond Central Florida.
“I have called my Muslim friends,” said Sangeeta Kshettry, of Austin, Texas, vice president of Sulekha.com (http://www.sulekha.com](http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-asecramadiwali16111601nov16.story?coll=o) ), an Indian community Web site. “I definitely reach out to them. Any reasonable, rational person would have done that. Culturally, there are so many similarities.”
Calls for tolerance
Since the Sept. 11 attacks, members of the two communities have found themselves facing similar challenges. As darker-skinned immigrants, and children of immigrants, they say they have endured antagonism and that they fear worse incidents of hostility in the future. The Muslim and the Hindu communities have held their own memorial services and made significant contributions to relief funds for the victims.
Leaders of each community have joined interfaith meetings called to voice unity and tolerance. At one such gathering in an Altamonte Springs hotel, Pillai and other Hindu leaders sought out a Muslim imam to personally offer their encouragement.
“We had a good talk,” Pillai said. "I said, ‘We should do this more often. We should get together.’ "
Many of those who attended were encouraged by the contacts between people of various faiths.
Morris, who helped plan the Altamonte gathering, is organizing a similar meeting for early next year, called the Interfaith Call to Prayer for Peace and Harmony.
“It is very exciting to be working closely with leaders of the Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Christian and other faiths,” he said. “Some of these groups have had a murderous relation of hatred for many, many years. But here we are working together in a spirit of love and harmony, seeking to proclaim to the whole community that we are united in our common love of God and of each other as members of the human family.”
While acknowledging that some of the old mistrust and prejudice may remain behind closed doors, members of Muslim and Hindu congregations say their basically good relations predate Sept. 11.
Common interests
Imam Tariq Rasheed, leader of the Islamic Center of Orlando, grew up in Lucknow, India, where his school friends and neighbors were Hindus. Some of those social relationships with Hindus continue today, based on common interests.
“Most of my friends are younger Hindu guys who are in computer fields,” Rasheed said.
A. Ghani Kasu another Orlando businessman and member of the mosque, who was born in Bombay, said he has more Hindu friends in the area than Muslims. He blamed problems between the two faiths elsewhere in the world on “ignorance and prejudice.”
Mark Pinsky can be reached at [email protected] or at 407-420-5589.
[This message has been edited by durango (edited November 16, 2001).]