There’s less love and more loathing here in the US and elsewhere. Fear, hate and xenophobia against Islam will suck out most of the oxygen in forthcoming presidential debates, TV talk shows and op-ed columns until America goes to the polls on Nov 8, 2016 to elect the 45th leader of the ‘free world’.

The presumptive leader of the Republican Party Donald Trump vows to ban Muslims from entering the United States should he win the White House. “We’ll send the Syrian refugees that Obama has allowed in our country back from where they came. We’ll bomb the sh**” out of ISIS. We’ll kill their families. We’ll enter mosques all across the US to investigate what is being preached,” is Trump’s stump speech. The more his swagger, the more love from his supporters.

Also read: Donald Trump calls for keeping Muslims out of US

We had a full moon on Christmas Eve. As we start the New Year, homes, shopping malls and stores decorated in jewel-toned shimmer with all the bells and whistles radiate hope for a new beginning. Love may have returned? But so has bias.

Hear all the 13 Republican presidential candidates except one (Senator Lindsay Graham, who has since abandoned his bid for the White House) wax eloquent with their meta-clichés on Islam being “different” from other religions.

Stopping short of saying that it propagates terror, this ignoramus bunch nonetheless loftily claim that its followers believe and practice terrorism. “Muslims are far more likely to be terrorists than anyone else. 

The fact is, not all Muslims are jihadists. But the reality is, all jihadists are Muslims,” preaches the apostolic Catholic Rick Santorom, warning that Islam is not just a religion; it is also a political governing structure. “It’s also Shariah law, it is also a civil government, it is also a form of government.”

Evil is everywhere, and anger and hatred are loud. The shouting drowns out the quiet; tragedy and disaster block the view of the good. Yet there are always signs of progress toward a better future. Look, or you may miss them — New York Times editorial on Christmas day

On the other side of the spectrum, knife-toting Palestinian youths stab to kill as many Jews as they can in Israel-occupied territories, especially Jerusalem. They are shot dead only to be followed by more Palestinians.

The killings of Jews and Muslims have kept the Christians away from celebrating Christmas in Bethlehem, Palestinian-controlled birthplace of Jesus Christ in the West Bank. Not long ago, the interfaith bonhomie between Muslims, Jews and Christians during Christmas saw thousands of tourists from around the world in Bethlehem.

Working their way through Church of the Nativity’s deep winding stairs leading to a grotto where a silver star marks the site of Christ’s birth, lips moving in prayer.

Past summer, I was in Bethlehem. Jasim, my Palestinian guide pointed to the stately square called the Manger Square where Christians gather to sing carols at Christmas time.

A beautiful mosque with white minarets stands as a sentinel to the Square. It is named after Caliph Umar. After conquering Jerusalem, historians tell us that Umar travelled to Bethlehem and issued a “law” guaranteeing respect for the Church of the Nativity. The Caliph is said to have prayed at this mosque.

The greatness of this man one of the most powerful and influential Muslim caliphs and a senior sahabi (companion) of the Holy Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), was his respect for the Christians and Jews alike in the true spirit of the Abrahamic religions.

Judaism, Christianity and Islam are closely related in their origins, beliefs, and revealed books. They are also closely related in their moral and ethical beliefs, as well as their views of the individual and social life. Fourteen centuries later, Jews, Christians and Muslims continue to feud.

At an evangelical Christian institution, a professor is “disciplined” for donning a headscarf in solidarity with Muslims: “I stand in religious solidarity with Muslims, like me they are people of the Book,” she says. “And as Pope Francis stated, we worship the same God.”

No! That’s not correct, backfire the college administration, arguing that there are “significant questions regarding the theological implications” of the professor’s remarks on the relationship between Christianity and Islam.

Trump’s anti-Islam narrative gluts across America, appealing not only to academicians but to a variety of unhappy working-class men; white supremacists and aging nationalists who rally around him in the hope that he will save America from Muslims, Mexicans, African-Americans and everyone else who hates President Obama and his family.

The most powerful man in the world in his last year of presidency somberly acknowledges that some of the scorn directed at him personally stems from the fact that he is the first African-American to hold the White House. Those who “suggest that somehow I’m different, I’m Muslim, I’m disloyal to the country, etc,” says Obama, is because “it’s specific to me, and who I am and my background.”

At a New Jersey supermarket, Heba Macksoud, 44, a director of social media outreach for a university, is shopping wearing her headscarf when she notices a couple of middle-age white men talking. “One in particular caught her eye with his beer belly, tattooed forearms and large golden cross,” reports the New York Times.

As she approaches him, she hears the word “Bible”. The man then says loudly: “not like the Quran those Muslims read.” He utters an obscenity to describe Macksoud and 1.6 billion Muslims. What happens next is an exemplar of love, tolerance and care. “I’m not done shopping, but I don’t feel safe here,” she tells the store’s assistant manager, Mark Egan. He promises to protect her and walk alongside as she shops.

The next day Macksoud posts the incident in her Facebook. It goes viral. “She had nearly 300 replies, some from other American Muslims on their experiences with bias and bigotry — being called a “raghead” or a “Christian killer,” being almost run over, being told to go home, as if home were not here,” writes NYT.

Sheryl Olitzky, wife of a rabbi and her friend, Atiya Aftab, who have founded a group called the ‘Sisterhood of Salaam Shalom’ hold an event to support Heba Macksoud and honour Mark Egan. The hero in this tale is the Christian store manger Egan!

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine January 3rd, 2015