One of the staff was kind enough to offer me a lift from the medical centre I was attached to down to the B&B where I stayed in. It wasn’t too far a distance between the two but far enough to walk back and forth. I’d say around 3-5 miles maybe and the roads were crooked, very narrow with generally no space for pedestrians. Every step along the road with the vroom of the cars right behind the ears made me feel very frightful as if I was about to be knocked down at anytime at all.
We chatted on a bit while she drove me over to the place, which took around 3 minutes drive.
[Real name has not been used]
Emy: So did you have a great weekend, Sarah?
Me : Ya, it was good, and it was Eid yesterday.
Emy: It was wh-at?
Me: Eid. It’s like Christmas for Muslims.
Emy: Oh I see. So what did you do, did you pray all day or have a big dinner?
Me : Ya we had a short prayer in the morning and then we had open houses so we visited our friends’ houses all day.
Emy: So tell me what do you eat, you’re a vegetarian are you?
Me: No, we can eat everything but like the meat, the beef and chicken, they have to be slaughtered in Islamic way.
Emy: Where would you get that then?
Me: Oh we do have halal foodstores in
Emy: Where do they get that? Do they import them?
Me: Well I suppose they got them from
Emy: So are you a strict Muslim?
Me: Yes I am.
Emy: I see, so you can eat everything, you can eat pork,…
Me: Oh no, ya we can eat everything but not pork.
Emy: And why is that, what is it with pork that you have problem with?
Me: It’s stated in the Quran, our holy book that we can’t eat pork.
Emy: Hmm, that’s rather strange, pork is really good you know. You’re missing out Sarah!
And I just gave out a wee bit laugh presuming she was joking. That ended very soon as we got to my place already then. Only if I could respond to her by saying ‘My life is not about eating’ or ‘That’s what religions are for, for us to be obedient’. But that’d be a bit cold I’d say. Maybe I should’ve had the courage though, also with the tact of course.
“So direct your face [i.e. self] toward the religion, inclining to truth. [Adhere to] the fitrah [the natural inborn inclination of man to worship his Creator prior to the corruption of his nature by external influences] of Allah upon which He has created [all] people. No change should there be in the creation of Allah. That is the correct religion, but most of the people do not know”
[ar-Rum, 30:30]
Fergus View
Corofin, Co. Clare
