I recently met an Armenian woman. She wore the traditional hijab<\/em> and jellaba<\/em> \u2013 the head covering and long flowing coat typical for Middle Eastern women and often associated with Islam.\u00a0\u00a0 Her skin was dark tan and her deep brown eyes were lined with kohl. She looked strikingly similar to every other Muslim woman I had met while living in Morocco. But instead of following the teachings of Muhammad, she worshipped Jesus.
\nSelma is a Christian – yet dressed in the traditional Armenian attire encouraged by her Armenian Apostolic church . She educated me on the plight of Armenian Christians from Turkey. \u00a0Selma’s great-grandparents fled the country in the early 1900’s escaping a violent genocide under Ottoman rule, making Selma a fourth generation American.<\/p>\n

She shared how she is still persecuted here in America. She has been scorned, mocked, spit upon, and even been rejected service in restaurants and stores \u2013 and it is NOT because she\u2019s Armenian, it\u2019s because she LOOKS like a Muslim. And today, she wakes up in a country with a president who considers Muslims one of our biggest \u201cproblems\u201d, who’s refusing to accept Muslim refugees, and whose inflammatory speech does more to fuel fear toward Muslims than anything else.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a legal American citizen, with a prestigious career. She pays her taxes, lives peaceably in her neighborhood, and practices the same religion that the majority of people in America say they do: Christianity. And yet, because she looks like the people group that American\u2019s are growing to fear the most: Muslims, she is treated harshly \u2013 even discriminated against.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cI know it\u2019s just because no one can tell from the outside who I really am.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

At the inner-city junior high where I volunteer, we watched a film on the life of Corrie tenBoom. Corrie, and her entire Dutch family, were sent to Nazi concentration camps for hiding Jews in their attic during World War II. After viewing the film, I debriefed with three 8^{th<\/sup> grade girls and asked them, \u201cDo you think something similar – the systematic persecution and extermination of a people group – could happen today?\u201d<\/p>\n}

A Mexican girl in my group immediately replied, \u201cAbsolutely. My parents [who speak very little English] are so afraid of being deported to Mexico. We are not illegals. But how will they know? Since we are Mexicans and immigrants from Mexico are being blamed for many of the problems in this country, it only makes sense that we\u2019ll get blamed, too. \u00a0My parents say they already get a lot of dirty looks from white people. They think that someday we\u2019ll have to wear an \u2018M\u2019 on our clothes. You know, to like mark us as legal \u2013 so people won\u2019t be angry with us and try to deport us.\u201d<\/p>\n

I told her I didn\u2019t think she had to worry. After all, her family IS legal.<\/p>\n

She said, \u201cYeah, but how will \u2018they\u2019 know that?\u00a0\u00a0 No one can tell from the outside who I really am.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

I shared those concerns from my Mexican-American student at the dinner table that evening. And my Guatemalan-born daughter asked, \u201cWhat about me? Do you think I\u2019ll have to wear an ID-badge of some sort?\u201d<\/p>\n

I told her no way. She was adopted at birth. She\u2019s an American citizen. She is American in every way.<\/p>\n

But she replied, \u201cYeah, but how will \u2018they\u2019 know? No one can tell from the outside who I really am.\u201d<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

I couldn\u2019t answer her. She\u2019s Guatemalan \u2013 but could easily be Mexican. She\u2019s adopted \u2013 but unless she\u2019s walking beside her all-white family, you\u2019d never know it simply from appearances. I can protect her from being deported, certainly, because she IS legal. But the fear in her eyes betrayed her. She’s awakening to the fact that the \u201cthey\u201d she actually needs to fear isn\u2019t the government \u2013 it\u2019s those who are looking for a people-group to blame, someone to take umbrage with. And I can\u2019t protect her from that. She looks just like the people that \u201cthey\u201d say are the problem.
\n<\/p>\n

The Third Reich of 1930\u2019s Germany forced\u00a0Jews to wear the star of David badge to not just humiliate them, but to keep close watch over them and to facilitate in their deportation. It was an effective way to distinguish between people groups when judging by appearances didn\u2019t work.<\/p>\n

As the political, ethical, religious and racial divide in this country continually grows; and as more and more people feel their<\/em> freedoms, their<\/em> money, and their<\/em> security are actually threatened by a few distinct people groups; and being that my daughter looks JUST LIKE one of those people groups \u2013 I\u2019ve really had to wonder: Is she safe here? Do I need to have my daughter wear an external ID to show the public she is \u201cgood\u201d? Maybe a letter on her clothing \u2013 something like an \u201cL\u201d for legal, or \u201cA\u201d for adopted, or \u201cS\u201d for safe? How else will people know? How else do I help her feel safe?<\/p>\n

Then it hit me: \u00a0The only other reasonable solution is to mark ALL THE OTHERS – those from the people groups that we, as a country, have deemed \u201cthe problem\u201d.
\nThe absurdity of that thought \u2013 and its frightening similarities to 1930\u2019s Germany – is not lost on me.<\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

She\u2019s an Armenian Christian \u2013 but she looks like other Muslims and she has received death threats.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s a legal third-generation Mexican-American \u2013 but she and her family could easily be taken for illegal Mexicans. The condemning glares already judge them.<\/p>\n

She\u2019s my adopted daughter from Guatemala \u2013 but she could be any illegal\u2019s child. And she\u2019s afraid she\u2019ll be treated differently now.<\/p>\n

**********<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not the government that these women need to fear. Whether we agree or not with the sweeping statements that have been made regarding entire people groups identified as \u201ca problem\u201d \u2013 the truth is, if so desired, the government CAN and WILL deport certain people and also create ways to keep other people out.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m mortified that my country is doing these things. But that\u2019s not the REAL problem here. The problem is our ATTITUDE to those who are different from us. The problem is that we, the American public, are traveling a dangerous path towards ethnic cleansing. It begins with finger-pointing \u2013 \u201cTHOSE people over there \u2013 THEY are the problem!\u201d<\/p>\n

The finger-pointing inevitably turns into actions, \u201cWe must build a WALL!\u201d or \u201cWe must ban all Muslims from entering!\u201d or \u201cWe must make a public list of all crimes done by foreigners!\u201d But those actions will lead us to a false sense of security and so whenever something goes bad in the land, we will only be left to find more people to blame. We\u2019re adopting an \u201cUs\u201d vs. \u201cThem\u201d paradigm and creating a growing chasm between the two.<\/p>\n

And all that propaganda leads to fear.\u00a0\u00a0 As our president continues to stir the pot of blaming and shaming, he incites more fear. And hate inevitably follows fear. It\u2019s eerie how quickly and easily we resort to hating that which we fear.<\/p>\n

*********<\/p>\n

My daughter and my Mexican student and my Armenian friend do not need to fear their government, or their comb-over president, or being deported. What they legitimately need to fear – and it\u2019s already proving to be true \u2013 is simply the hate from other Americans.<\/p>\n

We have become our own worst enemy.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand.\u201d Mark 3:25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I recently met an Armenian woman. She wore the traditional hijab and jellaba \u2013 the head covering and long flowing coat typical for Middle Eastern women and often associated with Islam.\u00a0\u00a0 Her skin was dark tan and her deep brown eyes were lined with kohl. She looked strikingly similar to every other Muslim woman I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":600,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5,17,19,26,1],"tags":[64,78,94],"yoast_head":"\n