There is a kind of tribalism in us all which can make us feel uneasy, even threatened at times by difference. But our prejudices often tell us more about ourselves than we would like to admit. When the Quran says "we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may get to know one another," the verse reads like a divine blessing in our lives but getting to know one another demands hard work, patience and most of all a generous heart.A sense of confidence and conviction in who you are is a good thing but we must always remain open to the elements of surprise and shock in our lives, those events which jolt us out of our complacency and encourage us to rethink the faith, the identities and values we thought defined us. I was recently speaking to a German theologian who told me that his daughter, a church-going protestant, was marrying a Hindu and that although he had found the concept of a mixed faith marriage difficult at the beginning he had accepted it for his daughter's happiness. I found his honesty moving but also slightly troubling. I thought if faced with a similar situation as a Muslim, how would I react. Perhaps not as generously as him and right now in my life I am wondering why not?