c. 1997 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of”Turn Toward the Wind”and publisher of Religion News Service.)

UNDATED _ To my 13-year-old son, the fact that some of his buddies are not eating lunch in the cafeteria for the next month is no big deal.”It’s Ramadan,”he says with a shrug.

Growing up in an area such as Washington, D.C., where there are a high percentage of families from around the world, means that my children have always had friends from different cultures and religions. So the fact that some of Chase’s friends will not be eating during daylight hours for the Muslim holy month is no big deal to him.

Yet for many Americans, the Islamic holiday that begins Friday (Jan. 10) and continues through Feb. 8, seems foreign in every sense. In some parts of this country, it is rare to meet a practicing Muslim. Most Americans have little understanding of the size or increasing influence of this fast growing segment of the population.

Scholars estimate that there are between 3 million and 5 million Muslims living in the United States today. That means there are more followers of the Prophet Muhammad in this country than there are Presbyterians or Episcopalians.

And while the number of mainline Protestants is declining, the number of Muslims is growing nationally and internationally at a remarkable rate. Worldwide, there are approximately 1 billion Muslims, representing nearly 20 percent of the total population.

Followers of Islam are a diverse group of people, which is why Americans of Christian or Jewish backgrounds are often confused as to who they are.

The boys who are my son’s friends act much like the other kids in junior high school. They play basketball, go to movies and play video games. Because their families are not strict Muslims, the boys participate in many coed group activities.

One of the striking differences, though, is that the Muslim boys have moral codes from which they do not waiver. They don’t even joke about drinking or drugs. As a parent, I am pleased that my son has friends in his group who will not easily succumb to unhealthy peer pressure. The strength of their convictions helps my Christian son feel comfortable with his own family’s standards.

In fact, one of the reasons that Muslims in other countries are often negative toward Americans is that they view our culture as decadent and materialistic. They see Western values as spiritually bankrupt and our supposedly Judeo-Christian beliefs as primarily secular versions of our true heritage.

But that is not to say that Muslims view others as”lost.”Muslims believe that Jesus was a great prophet and they see themselves as part of the same Abrahamic tradition as Christians and Jews, who according to Islamic belief are all”people of the book”and worship the same God.

This seemingly tolerant spirit contrasts with attitudes in countries that are under strict Islamic rule _ called sharia law. In these Muslim countries, there is no separation of church and state, and spreading Islam is often part of the political fabric of the nation.

To Americans, this can seem heavy-handed and dictatorial. But it is theologically consistent in a religion that follows a prophet who was both a political and spiritual leader.

America, however, is now the most religiously diverse country in the world. Increasingly, workplaces, neighborhoods and schools will include growing numbers of people who practice religions that seem”foreign”to some. But as their numbers grow, those religions are becoming as American the faiths that founded this land.”Pluralism is not diversity alone, but the energetic engagement with that diversity,”Diana L. Eck, a Harvard University religion professor, wrote recently in Harvard magazine.

Eck’s message seems natural to my son, who wondered aloud recently if his Muslim friends’ fasting is similar to Christian fasting. But to those of us who grew up with people very similar to ourselves, it will take a little effort to learn about different practices and to accept the concept that Ramadan is truly an American holiday, too.

MJP END BOURKE