It all started
because of some Danish cartoons that everybody felt were leading two cultures
into confrontation.
Many in the West
viewed Muslims as enemies of freedom, who are so narrow-minded that they are
ready to slaughter everybody who criticizes them, and whose best way of
expressing anger is to burn down embassies and distribute death
threats!
Many in Muslim
countries viewed Westerners as enemies of Islam, who take every opportunity to
insult Muslims and their beliefs and who continue to fight Islam, not only by
waging wars and creating misery everywhere, but also by drawing offensive
cartoons!
However, it takes no more than a mouse click for a Muslim to discover that not all Westerners are hateful
racists and for a Westerner to discover that not all Muslims are blind violent
mobs.
This mouse-click got
me in touch with open-minded people like Nico and eventually helped Helena come
up with the idea of starting a new blog: Bridge the Gap in Blogspace.
Moderate and open-minded people exist on both sides and
the craziness we are now witnessing makes it of utmost importance for them to
get in touch and start a healthy and civilized debate. There can be no better place for such a debate than the
web, and the flourishing blogging phenomenon provides a very unique opportunity
to let people learn about each other and discuss topics of common
concern.
The aim of this blog is to bring together people who
believe in understanding and peace. To let every person who believes in these
values realize that he/she has counterparts on the other side, and that his/her
counterparts are ready to listen, learn and talk.
This is a call to all bloggers around the world willing to teach about their cultures and curious to
learn about other cultures: Join us in!
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