How Jesus taught me to love Muslims

This was my first ever conversation with a Muslim—

It started with her asking if she could sit down next to me to say her prayers? Naturally, I said "sure" as I glanced around at all the other empty benches and wondered why here, why me? She starts to pray silently for which I am glad because I had imagined something totally different would take place. I glanced over periodically to see if I could read the prayer coming from her lips. I could not. Then a funny thing happened—I looked over again and she was talking on her phone. 

My thought was, "Muslims are no different than Christians when it comes to interrupting a conversation with God to answer their phones (I hate that about us). My lowered opinion of her piety made me not want to say anything more to her, but my curiosity got the better of me. So I began:

How often do you pray a day? Five times for the ritual prayers and some in-between times for personal needs.

Is it still Ramadan? Yes, for 10 more days. It lasts a month.
And you only eat once a day? You must get hungry. I time my meals to after sunset and before sunrise, so I actually eat two meals with a little water. I thought to myself, "That's just like us Christians always trying to bend the rules."

Then I asked her about those 100 virgins that Muslim suicide bombers claim are awaiting them in heaven. 

Her response surprised me. There are no virgins. We believe that only "virtuous" people will be in heaven. The suicide bombers are being lied to because taking even one innocent life is condemned in the Koran. They won't be in heaven.

Do you think the London fire was set by Muslim extremists? I don't think so because Muslims lived there too. And because many were awake at 1 am in the morning doing their prayers when the fire started. Muslims were able to run door-to-door to alert people of the fire. They helped save many lives. The news media won't tell you that.

Our conversation was interrupted because she had to leave. I had so many more questions I wanted to ask. As she thanked me for letting her sit with me, I had one final question—
Why did you choose this seat? Because when we pray, we have to face east. and you were sitting in the perfect spot. Imagine that?
She then added, You're such a nice person. To which I responded with a smile, "I'm a Christian" (meaning my faith says I should show everyone Christ-like love).
"As-Salaam-Alaikum," I said as we grasped hands. She responded, "Wa-Alaikum-Salaam," conferring peace on each other. If only I had had a few more minutes with her. It's true what they say about Christians— often the only bible some people will ever read is us.