Rising above our differences

Ten years ago I was in a taxi on my way home from school when the report on the attack on New York was blaring over the radio.  When I reached home, I was hooked to CNN the whole evening watching the destruction. The most vivid picture was the sight of a couple holding hands jumping from one of the top floors of the building.  Two years after we were treated to a full-scale show of the war on Iraq and the years after other repercussions added to what has been termed terrorist activities, which always involved Muslim countries. Other forms of anti-Muslim reactions emerged even in countries that had a history of liberalism. Interestingly, there had been movements and changes in leadership in Middle East countries held for a long time by dictators. But one thing positive came out of this mind-boggling phenomenon. People are starting to learn about Islam and the Muslims even out of curiosity.  Others are doing further researches on Islam, political leadership and the like.

Even before the Sept. 11 event, when I was handling Asian History in UP High (we used to have Asian History in fourth year from 1979 until 1989), my approach was regional.  In one year, the students would  have studied Asia through its four regions—West, South, North and Southeast Asia in that order. It was easy in the high school because we had one year to study Asia. It was more difficult in the college level where we had only one semester to compress the four-region module. In the high school, we had as our culminating activity a week-long Asian Festival in 1984 to 1989 with a theme corresponding to the issue of the day. For the college, on day one, the students in a class would choose the region they like after I gave them a glimpse of the content of the course and the reporting and projects of the course were facilitated by their grouping. The course always started with the West Asia region with focus on Islamic civilization, followed by South Asia with focus on Hinduism and Buddhism, then East Asia focusing on Confucianism and Taoism, and concluding with Southeast Asia with the major traditions of the three regions interacting with the indigenous cultures of Southeast Asia. When studying a region, my course started off with the geography and the world view of that region and the rest would be the inputs of the different assigned groups. The order was intended to give time to study Islamic history and civilization and to put the study of Asia in the context of world history. In the process, the students would  understand the different cultures, appreciate the differences and most of all learn to respect our differences. While it was difficult to have an  Asian Festival for the college classes, it was in their projects that a contribution was made where I asked each group to prepare a cultural kit in the study of the region that could be used by the succeeding Asian History classes and even by teachers using the current technology. What was enjoyable was reading the answers to my exams comprising 30 percent objective and 70 percent essay.

In the local scene, Philippine History classes should also give special attention to the role of Islam and the Islamic influence in our culture especially when studying pre-colonial Philippines and the contemporary events in our history. Since there are many Muslim students enrolled in our colleges and universities, there should be more dialogues and interactions—multicultural and interfaith. It is more productive with the young. History teachers need to brush up on both content and strategy to make history as a subject alive the way it should be. History groups should rewrite the history of the Philippines or correct it in their teaching to remove the biases against the Muslims in the Philippines. Media reporting should be cautious about name-calling when Muslims are involved. Hotels and restaurants should also be culture-sensitive.

In commemorating Sept. 11, exactly a decade after, we ask ourselves what have we done to correct the evil, to heal the wounds. Sept. 11 is also about dealing with differences in religious beliefs, culture, ideology, lifestyle. It is not enough to know these differences. We need to rise above these differences. We may not totally agree with each other but at least there is respect for certain traditions that are meant to perpetuate the good of one’s preference. To rise above these differences would mean less indulgence on the self and more consideration for others.