Editorial October 13, 1997 Issue

"I was free born"

William E. Moody

San Diego is a long way from Kabul. And not only in miles. There's a tremendous cultural distance to cross as well between Afghanistan and California. Yet our cab driver was happily telling us how his family, along with many other Afghans, had begun immigrating several years ago to the United States. Their journey had started during the period of civil war that brought troops from the Soviet Union into the Afghan fighting. He told us how he had finally been able to join his family here in 1995. Now there was a community of over five thousand Afghan Muslims living in San Diego alone.

I asked him about his life in his new country. Today, he said, he had been fasting. This was the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. He would take no food or water each day until sunset. It was an important time of prayer and worship.

He explained that the freedom to practice his faith without fear of recrimination was what meant the most to him about living in the United States. He told us that it didn't matter if someone was a Protestant Christian or a Catholic, a Muslim, a Hindu, a Buddhist, a Hebrew—everyone was accepted, and people were free to worship God according to their own conscience. No one was persecuted here. People weren't fighting and killing each other about this. They were all free. He was free.

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