A little light reading...

I was taught there are three types of cultural exchanges in the world:

1) Home culture to Home culture

• The most common for most of us. Chatting with people like you who live in the same area and speak the same language.

2) Similar culture to Similar culture

• Maybe different backgrounds or ethnicities but both of you are living in the same region. Think of it as your average 1st generation Mexican American that has lived in the US for 5 years or so having a conversation with a non-Mexican American. They both have the cultural rules of life in America down. However, there maybe some language barriers and they probably have different traditions and habits.

3)Foreign culture to Foreign culture

• This is what most people think of when you say cross-cultural encounter. A white European that speaks English and French spending time with a Chinese person that speaks German, Chinese, and a little English. There is some talking and a lot of hand gestures. Neither side has any idea how the other views them from their cultural point of view.
  

Okay so with this background outta the way, let's look at the challenge of this website. How do we as American's understand and engage the members of the world that live among us in the US.

One way is to read about their culture and how they see us and life in America. Armed with this info, we can go where they are and hangout over tea or coffee. We can seek to understand people and find the things we do have in common. We can embrace the challenge of a similar culture to similar culture friendship. In doing so, we can follow the example the Jesus gave us.

For those that want to give this a try I have the following info:
A great link page on the US Embassy in Cairo website about Muslims in America. While not all Muslims in America are immigrants, many are. There are many interesting links there to inform the average non-Muslim about what is going on in the Muslim Americans' lives as they live here. I have only checked out one site on the link page, Azizah Magazine, but it was interesting reading to me. I think it is like Woman's Day magazine, but for Muslim women in America.

Secondly, Harvard University has a good website detailing the various culture and religious centers sprinkled around the US. You can always contact one of these. My experience is that most people that are part of a different culture or religious group usually stick together in a foreign country or dissimilar culture. We feel safe and happy around people like us. I know I did this when I lived outside the US. As expats, we tend to have the same hangouts, churches, and fellowship habits.

I should probably clarify one thing. I don't single Muslim Americans out as all a bunch of "foreigners" rather, I am focusing on the Somalis or other people groups that are not native born Americans and are also Muslim. I can't imagine what their experience must be like in America, but I will try. I will close with one story a friend told me:

The power went out in on a winter evening in my home town. My friend thought of her Somali neighbors and went to check on them. They had opened their front door and were shining the car headlights in the house. My friend gave them candles and a flashlight and told them to shut the door and keep the heat in the house because they didn't know when the power would come back on. To the native born Americans this is common sense, but to immigrants this was a brand new experience.