Love Thy Enemy?

Growing up as a Coptic Christian in Egypt, I was always puzzled by Jesus’ appeal for us to love our enemies. I asked myself how I could possibly love people who constantly treated me as a second class citizen. I could not forgive them for the churches they burnt and for the children they orphaned during many racist attacks against my people. How can I forgive Arabs who came from far away and destroyed my Coptic culture? How can I forget what they did to my people from one generation to another? I asked myself: Is Jesus out of touch? How can He expect me to forgive these people? I hated Egypt so much and I decided to move to America. I first idealized the American people, but was gradually able to see how there is such an institutionalized racism in this country. After 9/11, I started to feel unwanted and many incidents of racism happened to me. One time a man looked at me during a traffic stop and said “you Arab why are here? Go back to the desert!” He could not even entertain the thought that I left my home country because of the very same people he feared and hated. I also received an anonymous email from a student poking fun of my brown skin and asking me to go back home to where I belong. When I ignored the poor prick, he emailed my boss and asked him to fire me for being anti-American. I think I pissed him/her off after speaking about my experience as a marginalized Egyptian in a country that is becoming so racist after Bush took over. I allowed him to get in touch with his privilege and caused him to feel guilty. Once again, I asked myself: How can I love these people? I honestly started to believe that Jesus is out of touch. How dare He ask me to forgive those idiots? I yielded to my anger and I started hating my enemies. I got in touch with feelings one day and looked at the mirror. I realized that they turned me into a hateful angry person. It even shows in my face. I hate to be like that and I won’t be like that. I guess Jesus is right. We should love our enemies because the alternative is to hate them. When we hate, we are dehumanized and we become obsessed with our fear and anger. If we do not love them, we are imprisoned by our hate and our hate permeates our lives to the extent that we may start hating ourselves. I am telling racist Muslims and racist whites, I will stop hating you. In my new posts, I will show this love. I will let you keep the hate and I won’t compete with you over it. You won it all!