GIve me some answers

In my 26 years of existence, I never felt like an outcast. Like I had to justify my stance as a human being, defined by religion nationality or culture. I had my beliefs and part of what gave me a sense of freedom was that nobody could hold that personally against me. Today, that belief was shaken, by no one else but my own people. I lived in India for 23 years but came to the U.S to study. Yesterday, I went out to Shakti Mandir, a local temple in the outskirts of Atlanta to partake of the festival of Navratri. The 9 days of dance and celebration which culminates in the festival where truth presides over evil- Diwali. But yesterday I experienced something evil in the place where God resided. And that is something that will haunt me forever.
I went not alone, but as a part of a group of 20, including Americans whom I hoped to introduce our beautiful traditions and cultures too, and then there was a friend who happened to be Muslim and we invited his wife and kids too so that they could see how much fun we have as Indians, a nation with so much unity where we all celebrated the same festivals as part of what our secular country stand for.
We finished paying for our entry and called on to our friend to do so for himself and his family. That’s where we probably made the mistake of calling out his name and when the guys whom were in charge heard this, they asked for his identification and then blatantly refused to let him in. Unlike us, who are on student visas, he is a US citizen and yet was openly discriminated for being a Muslim. I for one am NOT Hindu, but am an Indian and like others thought that I could be part of a festival that had Indian origins. And I was told upfront that it didn’t hold true for other religions-it was just with Muslims that they had a problem. But sadly our Muslim brethren are not considered Indian enough to be a part of this. It just got me thinking of how shallow we’ve become, that we cannot promote peace even when we have the best chances to. This is the 21st century where we should have matured enough to learn that the hurt and grudges we keep in our hearts will only mean more mistrust, more hatred and eventually more violence.
These were elderly men who have made it to the US and are possibly literate enough that they managed to make a life for themselves and their families. People whom are educated have such narrow minded philosophies that create the feeling of division that one religion doesn’t belong where the others are present. And they had the audacity to mention that they could enter the temple but were not allowed to come into the event since their private “laws” did not permit entrance to Muslims. And how happy would GOD be when he realizes what we’ve created- these monsters that get rich and make decisions that can break the very morals that we stand by. That one human can be differentiated from another by the religion he follows. They smirk at how little we can do, so much so that we begin to believe that there is nothing we as young adults can do to change this crazy situation where each of us need to defend our beginnings. Will they continue to have so much power that it destroys our faith in the system altogether. That’s when I decided that I had to start somewhere. To do what little I can and be a voice to let the world know that not all of us wish to be divided by race and color and religion.