In an environment of polarizing politics and excessive media focus on divisive issues many great things that American communities accomplish appear to go unnoticed.
Yet, the welfare work that a Muslim organization has been doing in Montgomery county for a decade now, has made it clear that actions speak louder than words, and that acts of kindness are an effective foil to unbridled stereotyping of communities.
The Montgomery County Muslim Foundation, which has served the distressed without any discrimination through multiple programs like distribution of food and clothes and even connecting the jobless and homeless to experts and officials, recently started a novel way of bringing people together.
“The MCMF Senior Group has started Yoga exercise classes where senior residents of Montgomery County coming from different ethnic and faith groups come and take part, talk to each other and share their experiences,” Tufail Ahmad, a known community leader and founder of MCMF, says.
Often at the end of the class, participants from different backgrounds discuss issues facing communities in a much more unbiased environment, free from the confines of political leanings.
Image Credit: MCMF
“When we are physically relaxed, we tend to be less biased in our opinions. That is something that is common to all of us,” says Ahmad, a Pakistani-American, who built a successful business and carved out a network of welfare-driven individuals.
Yoga is a popular Indian way of exercising with mediation while many members of the organization are Pakistani-American, marking the introduction of the program as a meeting point of ideas for welfare of the communities.
After one recent session, a senior former county official noted how people learn through acts of common humanity that the hate-filled things they have been taught about other ethnic or religious communities are wrong and misleading.
When a participant asked him, why is there so much hate in the debates and discussions going on at various levels of the society, the official made an honest observation by saying people are simply taught many of the divisive things as they grow up, study and form perceptions.
But, he remarked that the work that the MCMF and other organizations like it are doing has changed perceptions about Muslims. Now people see for themselves that how all of us seek to serve humanity through common good, he explained.
But, Tufail Ahmad, who over the years has won acclaim for selfless service and the inspiring work the MCMF has done, is not complacent. He plans to host many such opportunities for people to come, speak their minds and share their ideas for common good of the people of Montgomery County.
