Love the idea, of trusting strangers and openness to the unknown, Scott! Definitely something to take up again. It’s something more than empathy even, and an important attitude towards a life that is definitely going to be uncertain…
I do think that very often mistrust comes from misunderstanding, and discomfort with uncertainty… Need to think about this some more.

Interestingly, though, the Quran states explicitly that God created humans of different breeds and tribes in order for them to meet and get to know each other… In historical context, thats not so strange for Arabs a the time because they were traders and so many traveled and did mix with people of different breeds and tribes, I am guessing like India, China, Levant, Persia and North Africa all the way down to Ethiopia, even. There is also a saying (of the prophet’s maybe?) that there is no “advantage” for an Arab over a non-Arab except by the strength of their fear of God (as in, how God-fearing or faithful they are). Of course, the saying is in itself kind of arrogant in assuming that the default preference or privilege is for Arabs, but I guess one’s default worldview stems from one’s own culture, and everything else is automatically “other”.