A group of Bengali men came my to door. I wasn't expecting anyone to knock but I was ready for the worst because there's been a rash of robberies in my block over the past 3 weeks. I was expecting trouble and when I saw the large group of bearded Bengali men, maybe 6 or 7 of them and a young guy, I was surprised. Everyone knows the robberies are being done by a group of white addicts in the building so these people weren't the culprits.
One guy asked whether there were any Muslims on my floor. I said there were no Bengali people but I didn't know whether my neighbours were Muslim or not. I wasn't being funny. I just haven't discussed religion with most of them, so I don't know. You can't necessarily tell...
When I shut the door, I assumed they were looking for people to join some kind of a religious group. Don't ask me why I came to that, of all, conclusions... excpet my own racist assumptions. But K pulled me up, saying that, they may have been from a Muslim charity and were looking out for people in the building to make sure they were alright, now that the weather is freezing. I jumped to a vaguely sinister suspicion, but it could have been anything. It's true. I know that 6 or 7 white men knocking at my door would also arouse my suspicion but I understand why these guys would doorknock en masse. There are some scary white racists living in the building so for safety, if you were doing outreach, you'd have to do it in numbers.