On Difference, Compassion and the Right to Speak

Photo by elFranzo

I’m Muslim, did you know? You might have guessed, from how I look I suppose. I once was interviewed by a woman, who after I got the job, confided in me that she could almost always tell someone’s religion after speaking to them for five minutes. I wonder if she could tell also that I’d had a convent school upbringing. You see, labels are only so useful. We are more simple, and more complex than any label can foretell.

Being Muslim is only a small part of my identity, along w...