Consciousness-raising

...aware of that they are other religions:

I think it was at the age of 6 or 7 in school. We had a weekly religious instrucion. I found these lessons always interesting. We sometimes went to the church with our teacher. He taught us much about the Catholic faith, about the customs and feasts of this religion.
I know it sounds stupid, but as a child I really thought that there is only one faith.

One day a new girl called Alma joined our class. She belonged to the Muslim faith. Than a few days later, we again had religious instruction but Alma was not there, she had a free period. I went to the professor and asked him why Alma can not be in class with all the other children. He told me that their parents do not want that and that she is not the same faith as we are. I was confused about this answer.

So the next day I asked Alma what her religion is. I told her as we pray and she explained that she would not pray like that and that her family used other practices. The next day my teacher gave me photos of the Muslim people that pray and he even showed us a video on Islam. From that moment I knew that there are other religions.


At first I was confused and irritated by this knowledge. But several conversations with my teacher and my parents gave me clear. Today I have become much more open and accept that there exist other religions etc. We must be aware that not all people are equal, but accept them anyway...

http://www.google.at/imgres?um=1&hl=de&sa=N&biw=1080&bih=511&tbm=isch&tbnid=1FtC-QeU7Od80M:&imgrefurl=http://henrydevenport.blogspot.com/2010/08/es-waren-gefuhle-einer-beinah.html&docid=13gQ4JBL04mFWM&imgurl=https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSK5zXl5IjnyFHF99zxzkhmcs1zcz6ldX7oPPaXayDPL2ChankVMfi3yLMrhdIXGBX32VgvemvLpCMTbefm1R44yuZo36CXWSej-PNWL20fXc5u61PMjRPcjMJvXhOU4jzjB2CwENkxuY/s1600/Glaube2.jpg&w=460&h=584&ei=9_UCUPGpKsnetAa117H-DQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=110&vpy=122&dur=33&hovh=253&hovw=199&tx=105&ty=154&sig=118185260450209931595&page=1&tbnh=144&tbnw=113&start=0&ndsp=10&ved=1t:429,r:0,s:0,i:71