Source: Arab News
Dr. Abdul Karim Germanus is a well-known Orientalist of Hungary and is a scholar of world repute. He visited India between the wars. Later he came to Jamia Millia Islamia University in Delhi. It was here that he embraced Islam. Germanus is a linguist and an authority on Turkish language and literature and it was through oriental studies that he came to Islam. At present Germanus is working as professor and head of the department of Oriental and Islamic Studies at the Budapest University, Hungary.
During a summer vacation I was lucky to travel to Bosnia, the nearest Oriental country adjacent to ours. It was night, and in the dimly lit streets I soon discovered a humble cafe in which on low straw stools a couple of Bosnians enjoyed their kayf (café). They wore the traditional bulging trousers kept straight at the waist by a broad belt bristling with daggers. Their headgear and the unfamiliar costume lent them an air of truculence. It was with a throbbing heart that I entered the Kahwekhame and timidly sat down in a distant corner. The, Bosnians looked with curious eyes upon me and I suddenly remembered all the bloodcurdling biased stories read in fanatical books about Muslim intolerance. I noticed that they were whispering among themselves and their topic was my unexpected presence. My childish imagination flared up in horror; they surely intended to draw their daggers on the intruding ‘infidel.’ I wished I could safely get out of this threatening environment, but I dared not budge.
Categories: Europe, Europe and Australia, Hungary, Indonesia, Muslim Comverts
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