Forgive me, for I am an Arab
I can clearly remember that day, my last trip leaving the US flying Detroit – London Heathrow, British Airways August 2003. I knew I had excess weight, and I was just about to let out a sigh of relief when the lady at the check-in counter politely said to me with a fake smile “You have been chosen for our random security checkup, Sir. Please go along with the security guard behind you.”.
I turn around and there is this huge African American security officer that asked me to follow him along to a table like object in the middle of the Check-in counter, “Open your bag please” he said, and kept running through my stuff. I stood there in silence, selected at random.. yah.. like my unshaven beard and dark skin has nothing to do with this.. so he takes out this little white cloth attached to a plastic rod and moves it along the inside of my hand bag. I wasn’t sure whether I should ask what he was doing, but I did. “It’s a new way to check for explosives.” I couldn’t care less.
He takes out my prayer mat and asks me, why are you carrying a “prayer rug” with you on the airplane? Are you planning to pray on board?.. Now seriously, how am I supposed to reply him, “Oh, no Mr.Officer I barely every pray actually. But my mom packed my stuff for me last time I came to the US and I just didn’t bother to take it out? “No, I said. I just ran out of space in my other bag” He smiled, and said I could pack up and leave.
Little did I know that this is the first of 5 other “RANDOM” checkups I had to go through the last of which just before I enter the plane, I had to answer all sorts of questions regarding my prayer rug..
So why am I sharing this here, well.. I have been going around the internet looking for poems by Ahmed Mattar, I came across this:
قال الصبي للحمار: يا غبي
قال الحمار للصبي:
) يا عربي (!
I have always been a fan of Ahmed Mattar’s work, he always awakens this “Arab Patriotism” that is inside me, the one shaped by our government school curriculums and TV Programs I was raised around.
كانت كلماته دائماً توقظ فيني تلك المبادىء التي لقمنا إياها في طفولتنا، كيف ان “فلسطين أرض أجدادي” و أنها “لا بد أن ترجع”، وهذه الحمية التي زُرعت فينا كأطفال.
تربيت، بعيداً عن الطائفية، بعيداً عن الدين، بعيداً عن هذا التخلف، التعصب، الجاهلية التي نعيشها اليوم.
I didn’t know how the different the real world is.. I didn’t know I’ll be ashamed to be an Arab.. Don’t get me wrong, I love the culture… the food and hmm.. that’s about it really.. The mentalities, the people and the governments are what I have issues with..
Be it the youtube comments of curses and swearwords, our political divides, terrorism, censorship, human trafficking, honor killings. No matter wherever you look, there is a complication after another, a problem after another.
All of which are keeping us behind, nations are moving forward while our forums, TV Channels are still discussion Sunni-Shia conflicts, our scholars are still coming up with those custom made fatwas to cater for all our “needs” in a full halal environment., our MP’s are still having fist fights because of racist comments or public mockery, and the list could go on and on…
لا زالت مدارسنا تلقن مبادىء و أحكام الحيض و الغسل و النفاس، لازلنا نقبع في مستنقع الطبقية، لازلنا نحاول ان نخرج من الجاهلية التي تعشش في رؤوسنا، ولازلنا نبحث عن الخلل..
الخلل، كل الخلل.. هو أننا عرب..
عربو.. عربو.. بعد جبدي العربو…
There is nothing wrong with being Arab. Now being Muslim is another story. A Muslim, by definition, accepts the hate and violence in the Quran against non-Muslims. A Muslim says “Praise be upon him” after the name of a man that attacked us 26 times, killed, plundered, raped captives, tortured, enslaved men women and children and yes, even beat Aisha (well, that is what Islam’s own traditions say!).
Being Muslim means that you are part of an ideology that bombs weddings, blows up mosques, murders you sisters, kills people on the streets, mutilates girls, throws acid in women’s faces and preaches hate agaist others seven days a week. Being Muslim means you are part of a group of people responsible for a great deal of the violence in the world. Oh yes, Muslims are known to have crashed airplanes.
Being Muslim means that you pretend this is not true.
Once again there is nothing wrong with being Arab. A person is born Arab. Being Muslim, on the other hand, is a choice. It means that you have a predisposition to violence. Who knows, you may decide at any moment to follow the words of Quran 9:111. It is, after all, Allah’s command and you as a Muslims doubtless accept that Muslims are put on earth to kill and be killed. I assume you are shaking your head in agreement because those are the words of Allah and you are a Muslim.
Being Muslim also means that you must never question Islam and what it does to people and society.
Mr. Moodz, I have been hard on you but it needs to be done. If Muslims would be a little more critical of their religion, things would be a lot better for all of us.
Kactuz
Kactuz, you’re an ignorant prick!
Sorry Kactuz, “I have been hard on you but it needs to be done.”
If pricks like you realized how little education and knowledge they have on some subjects, they’d be less willing to take the pen and voice hurtful, offensive ideas, the cause of so much trouble on this planet!
You don’t go about voicing opinions about nuclear sciences or mathematics online, because you never attended any classes on these matters. Why would you go about making assumptions and affirmations about Islam when you never attended any class on that specific religion?! But still you do! How arrogant of you!
WHO ARE YOU TO TELL ME WHAT GOD SAYS IN THE QURAN ?! WHAT AUTHORITY OR KNOWLEDGE DO YOU HAVE?!
Just shut up!
Again, sorry Kactuz, “I have been hard on you but it needs to be done.”
Thank you for saving me the pains of replying this Mark.
الخلل، كل الخلل.. هو أننا عرب..
How can the problem be that “We are Arabs”? We are Arabs, so, how is that, THE problem? If that is indeed the problem, then there is no fixing.
For a starter, what does being Arab mean? Is it the race? the language? both? either? How can language or race be blamed for problems? Don’t you think there is a very hasty generalization there?
“We” are not all the same. We are also not all Muslims. Or all “backwards” either.
You say we’re handpicked by security officers, which I cannot disagree with. You say we get sub-par treatment merely for being Arab. Again, I hate discrimination too. But isn’t your post above kind of excuses, almost endorses, the idea that “Arabs” deserve “special” treatment because they are, in short, the problem?
@Wifey:
Let’s get things straight here before I go on with this, I did not mean what I said in a racist context and it certainly doesn’t apply to everyone but it’s a rather general opinion I believe I have the right to take being an Arab myself and exposed to the hypocrisies we enforce upon ourselves.
Now.. more elaboration, when I say the problem is with us being Arabs, I mean the community, the traditions, the جاهلية the بداوة that still lives within us, the تعصب and the list goes on. What do you think breeds those religious extremists, what breeds the hate? The sectarian divides that is growing by day? We still fight regarding country border issues, our local forums, blogs and online contribution consists of swearwords, curses and all sort of racist comments.. I seriously don’t want to go on with this..
And a fix you say?
الأَعْرَابُ أَشَدُّ كُفْرًا وَنِفَاقًا وَأَجْدَرُ أَلاَّ يَعْلَمُواْ حُدُودَ مَا أَنزَلَ اللَّهُ عَلَى رَسُولِهِ وَاللَّهُ عَلِيمٌ حَكِيمٌ – التوبة 97
What fix! There is no magical solution for us to fix how backwarded we are, unless it comes from within it will simply not happen.
If you really think “there is no fix” and that we are “destined” to the way we are because we are “Arabs” then why bother?
Culture, beliefs, ignorance, all of these adjectives you referred to has nothing to do with “Arabness”. You ask what breeds extermism and hate, and I can confidently answer that it sure is not “Being Arab”.
I am implying that there are magical “fixes”, but I honestly think the change comes from within, for you, me and everybody.
Don’t get me wrong I’m not calling for us to live in denial of failures, I sure am for recognizes where things went wrong and what exactly went wrong, but I see little point in saying that our whole being is doomed because it happens to be.
You point out to the sympotoms of the problems we have, racism, extermism, intolerance, etc. I agree there, I just disagree on your “causation” part. It is not because “we are Arabs”.
Don’t you think our attitude towards ourselves is one of the main reason for our failure? How can we ever change if we deeply believe that we “cannot” change and that it’s all “hopeless” and “there is nothing we can do about it”? That thinking is what tied us back to where we are and dragged us to square one.
I’ll skip the Quran verse part, that wasn’t the context of the discussion.
Let me start with the verse from the Quran then..
From الميزان في تفسير القرآن I quote:
If anything, if god notes that الأعراب أشد كفراً ونفاقاً for the reasons noted above, I believe we have enough grounds to support my opinion that my statement is not racist but factual. However, I should stress the fact that this is merely my own personal opinion that I have formed because of the reasons I have noted in my post above.
That said, I have three other points I need to answer before sealing this post once and for all:
1. Fixes:
I truly believe that any nation that needs to move forward needs to come up with that will from within and that my dear we lack. Even the “democracy” that we brag and swank about was forced upon us, our educational system, all the pillars we need for us to stand up as a nation are simply not there. Reasons I don’t want to repeat.
2. Attitude:
Forgive me, I personally can not..
Well well, let’s see now.
First, my argument is a secular one. I am in no way engaging in any religious debate of what Islam thinks of “Arabs”, be it positive or negative. You have a Quranic verse that, according to your claim, supports your argument, because it happens to agree with it.
Even supposing that is the case, that would be a different argument, the Islamic views of the Arabs.
Again, I never claimed we are heading nations in progress, or that we do not have material problems, which is what your reply above consisted of.
I’m just against blaming them on “Being Arab”.
to blame someone for his thoughts,behaviour it is wrong and unpolite but to blame someone for his beeing .. thats a disaster