Wilso, you are to be congratulated for being aware of the danger of hatred. It can be addictive, especially when you feel a loss of control as people are being killed for insane reasons--hatred is such a strong emotion that it, irrationally and mistakenly, gives one a feeling of power.
It might be somewhat difficult to find a group of Muslims that you couldd become friends with. I remember an old saying from the 60's, "Take an Indian to lunch." It was a perfect description of the rather glib way many people acted while trying to do away with their bigotry.
Rather, perhaps you could read as much as possible about the Islamic religion and culture. There is a blog I have read that broke my heart. It is written by a young woman in Baghdad. I will enclose an excerpt and the link. Hopefully, it will give you some insight into the daily life of a Muslim in her own country as the fanatics start to take over.
In the excerpt, she has been talking about starting the practice of wearing a jihab--something she hadn't done before the war...
Quote:There are no laws that say we have to wear a hijab (yet), but there are the men in head-to-toe black and the turbans, the extremists and fanatics who were liberated by the occupation, and at some point, you tire of the defiance. You no longer want to be seen. I feel like the black or white scarf I fling haphazardly on my head as I walk out the door makes me invisible to a certain degree- it's easier to blend in with the masses shrouded in black. If you're a female, you don't want the attention- you don't want it from Iraqi police, you don't want it from the black-clad militia man, you don't want it from the American soldier. You don't want to be noticed or seen.
http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com
As others have said, they are just people, loving their children and families, trying to live as well as possible in a world gone insane because of people very much like the Ku Klux Klan or some of the white supremicist groups here in the US.
