Missed Understanding

Little wonder the poor man is so
furious, for with my rebuttal as an
ignorant woman I have thrown in
his face the obvious; he has wasted
the discreet effort of many years
of quietly assiduous reminders of all
we have in common, he and I. Just
neighbours perhaps it's true but in a
philosophical sense, he never failed
to remind me, much in common
through our shared heritage, he from
Bangladesh and I born in this country
of immigrant stock fleeing the
European charnel house of Hitler's
Holocaust. We are, he was so fond
of propounding, linked historically
through Abraham. Strange, thought
I, a Jew and a Muslim 'linked' through
that ancient Old Testament prophet
what had his legend to do with that
of Mohammad's? So I said nothing
allowing his unctuous persuasion
until that time when he mentioned
Medina after I had educated myself 
about Islam. Medina, he said where 
Jews and Muslims lived in harmony 
in ancient times believing in the very 
same god. I cited passages from the 
book I'd read by an esteemed Muslim 
scholar who hadn't shirked describing 
the mercilessly triumphant slaughter
and this man enraged, informed me
I was nothing but an ignorant woman
wasting his time for nothing, so awful!