From this point, I will begin to quote my journal from the trip. When I quote my journal, it will be in italics, giving me the ability to elaborate beyond my writings (in normal script).

December 1, 1:28am

An interesting thing happend to me on the flight from Bangkok to Pakistan. After an hour of the flight, I met a guy on the plane named Hassan. I was the minority on this flight and everyone noticed! I had pulled out my immigration form for Pakistan to begin filling it out. Hassan noticed and asked if he could see the document that I was working on. He noticed that I was American and wondered if it was my first time to Pakistan. I told him that it was and we proceeded to have a 2-hour conversation about life, faith, politics, and family. It was amazing! We ended by exchanging email addresses. Here’s the funny part–as soon as we landed in his country, he pretended that we hadn’t even spoken to one another. It was as though he didn’t even know me. Nonetheless, I plan on emailing him when I get home to see if we can build on the friendship that we began on that flight.

Hassan said something to me that I’ll never forget and that I would hear again and again as I was in Pakistan. He said, “On this plane, it makes no difference what your faith is and what mine is. We can be friends anyway.”

It was then that I made the most valuable discovery of the trip: I am polluted with the American Narrative.

With 9/11, the War in Iraq, the war on terrorism, the hunt for Osama bin Laden, the price of gasoline, the Al Queda playing cards, the political cartoons, movies depicting Arabs as angry and anti-American etc. etc. etc. (the list goes on and on) the narrative of America has become, “Muslims are the enemy.”

Now I didn’t think that I had ever bought into that reality. I follow Christ right? I have no enemies. How deceived I was and we all are in this country.

Let me ask you a question and I want you to answer honestly to yourself. When you are sitting on an airplane and you see an Arab man get on, do you take special notice?

I would make the bold statement that you are lying if you say, “no”.

I never considered Muslims my enemey, however the American narrative (I began to understand to my horror) had woven its way into the way that I thought about these people. My conversation with Hassan proved the opposite to be true. Whatever the reasons that he responded the way that he did when we landed, I’ll never know. What I do know is that I had a deeper, more meaningful conversation with him than I had had with anyone on a plane in the longest time (if ever).

One thing that you need to understand about me is that I am not into the 4 Spiritual laws (at all) or forcing a spiritual conversation on an airplane. Many “Christians” salivate when they think about airplane conversations (conversions). As if for some reason they think that the person sitting next to them trying to read is dying to get into a “religious” conversation with them. I also don’t want to discount many important moments that some people have experienced on airplanes. Some reading this might have come to say yes to Jesus in just such a moment. All I am saying is that this is not my style. Airplane time for me is highly introverted. It is 2-4 uninterrupted hours that I have in silence to read, write, or think (unless a “Christian” tries to convert me–believe me, this has happened before!).

All this to say, I don’t get on an airplane to prey on whoever is next to me. If God opens a door to get to know the person, great! If not–great!

That is why my conversation with Hassan was such an eye-opener. Not only did we get to know each other, I learned about the worldview of Muslims and discovered that they are kind, tender, hospitable people–perhaps more so than most Americans. Did I mention that he had volunteered to help us secure taxis and a hotel if we needed help in the terminal?

Maybe some of the misconceptions that he had about Christians and Americans were altered in those two hours as well. Who knows–God does I guess.

By the way, if you are reading this blog and don’t consider yourself a “Christian” that is okay. You might even want to read my post, “The difference between church people and followers of Jesus” October 2005. Know that in Pakistan and any other Muslim nation, you are considered “Christian” simply because you are from the west.