To me, Muslims are a people who are veiled in mystery. Before I undertook my study, all I knew about Muslims was from hearsay and from the news. I was acquainted with a handful. No wait. I knew one. And he didn't really practice his faith. So when I began my research, I began it with much excitement (I really am a nerd-only nerds begin research excited I think) and with a lot of questions. The excitement was not in vain and the questions were answered. And when I had finished (not that I had learned everything I wanted to know but that I had learned everything I needed to know for the study), I was left with some rather deep insights. And since I'm certain that none of you will read my thesis, I could at least share my insights.
The first thing that struck me was that there was so much I didn't know. What I'd heard about Islam was mostly from second and third hand sources-a lot of them biased against Muslims, I might add. But what I read and found out from first hand sources (practicing Muslims or Muslim scholars) was really quite eye-opening. I realize now that many of my views concerning Islam were sadly misinformed; my preconceived notions were prejudiced. In the end, I realized that, even if I wanted to, I could never completely understand them and their faith, never completely immerse myself in a religion and a tradition that was foreign to me. I was, and will probably always be an outsider. But now I am an informed outsider. And this means that although I do not full understand, I can still appreciate. I can still respect. I would like to believe that I have gone from religious tolerance to religious appreciation. I don't just have to tolerate people of different beliefs; I can recognize the good I can learn from them too.
The second thing was something I always knew intellectually but never quite knew emotionally. And it is this: that there are good Muslims and bad Muslims. Just as there are good Christians and bad Christians. Good Jews and bad Jews. No single religion has a monopoly of good and evil. Muslim terrorists have given their fellow Muslims a bad rep these past few decades. And it sometimes feels as if the two words (Muslim and terrorist) are mutually exclusive. But this had not always been the case. There were many times in their long history when Muslims were the ones persecuted, when they were the targets of misguided terrorists. The point is not to blame the whole for the acts of the few. I certainly do not want to be judged by what a few destructive Catholics have done in the name of our faith. In fact, one of the most interesting things I found in my research was that Mohammed apparently admonished his followers to treat Christians and Jews especially well since we all believed in the same God and were "people of the book" (referring to the Bible, the Torah and the Quran, I suppose). That's not something that gets advertised very often.
The third thing is this, in studying other religions and their belief system, you cannot leave unchanged about your own. Unless, of course, religion is not that important to you in the first place. When you are a cradle Catholic, like I am, and are sent to Catholic schools (all the way to graduate school), and live in a predominantly Catholic country, you do not get many opportunities to study other religions, to question your own, to learn and re-learn what you've been taught. But part of my research meant not just going deeper into the heart of Islam but in going into the heart of Catholicism. There were surprisingly a lot of things we had in common and a few that we did not. But the differences were dogmatic and therefore essential. And for a moment, I realized that I had to re-choose my faith and make a re-commitment as an adult.
My scholarly and literary journey turned out to be more spiritual than I could have ever thought. And learning about someone else's religion made me stronger in my own. The veil over Muslims has been lifted now, not all the way, but just enough for me to see that there can be beauty behind it and goodness and faith.