Why can’t we be friends?

That’s the central lyric from a 40-year-old reggae pop song that’s playing in our head today, as fresh as ever, while we read The Associated Press account of a Pennsylvania politician treating himself to a big slice of humble pie.

Matthew Jansen, a school board member in the Spring Grove Area School District in York County, had criticized a church that posted a message wishing “a blessed Ramadan to our Muslim neighbors.”

Jansen telephoned the pastor and called the sign “despicable” and Islam a “godless” and “pagan” religion, according to the pastor. He posted a similar comment on Facebook.

Jansen, a GOP convention delegate and Trump supporter, probably did not expect the response he got: an invitation to attend a worship service on Friday evening at the Hadee Mosque in Harrisburg.

But he accepted the invitation. He also took part in a Ramadan meal afterward with the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community.

Ramadan is a monthlong holy season which Muslims celebrate with daily fasting — and sumptuous dinner parties after sundown.

It took some courage — and patience — for the Ahmadiyya congregation’s leaders to invite a critic to dinner. It took an equal measure of courage — and humility — for Jansen to accept.

During the meal, Jansen apologized for his earlier remarks, saying they were part of a knee-jerk reaction.

“I don’t mean to minimize the gravity of what I said, but essentially it’s just that, being feisty and trying to start a conversation and an argument, that’s just who I am,” he said, adding that his participation in the worship service was “informative and enlightening.”

Why don’t more of us strive to share in each other’s expressions of worship? Many of us, like Jansen, appear quick to criticize another’s religion without trying to understand it. We should be willing to suspend the notion that someone else’s faith might threaten our own; if it does, then our own beliefs might not be as strong as we want them to appear.

Jansen’s obvious discovery was that not all Muslims are fundamentalists, just as all Christians are not right-wing zealots. There are as many flavors of each religion as there are individuals practicing them. Religion is a personal thing.

Associating the peaceful, moderate Ahmadiyya sect with terrorists is like associating Timothy McVeigh with Billy Graham.

Jansen did a good thing when he visited an Islamic house of worship. More of us should make similar visits.

Only, don’t go unannounced. Call ahead and ask permission, or go with a friend. In today’s world it’s prudent not to stir alarm or suspicion by showing up unannounced.