Due to the sad war that took place in Lebanon, we had the chance to see lots of different point of views coming from different backgrounds. I became fimiliar with the racists, and I actually knew what’s the main cause of their racism.
I’m not going to talk about racism between Arab & West or about Propaganda, not at all. Rather, I’m going to talk about the racists Arabs. I’m going to talk about the mentality behind the racist, and what all racists share.
Racism in the Arab world has a very old root, and the Arab world witnessed many unfortunate events among history, and is prone to witness an even worse events. That’s why I think It’s so important to understand how these racists think and how they promote their poisonous ideas inorder to stop them whenever possible. And I beleive that most of the terror attacks are due to this racism.
Muslim, Christian, or Jew ?
In the holy land of messengers and prophets of God, It’s so easy to provoke for terror and racism. At high school in Kuwait, most of the students were Muslims. I’d give a percentage of 85% Muslims and 15% Christians. We never talked about our religions, I can’t remember asking any student what’s his religion, It never mean anything to me. But however, outside the high school community, there was always this thing, you can feel the difference in the eyes of some people.
There are some people in the Arab world who have no job but differentiating between people as infidel and beleiver. I think that a small answer like “Who set you God to decide who’s infidel?” will shut them up, because most of them are ignorants, and they lack the solid background to get into any decent discussion. Few of those are well read, and they might argue a little bit, so you must have a religous background and patience to stop these. Problem is, some people here are very aggressive when you contradict their opinions, and they might argue with loud voice to stop you. I always kill these people with my patience and short answers, and I beleive that this is the only to deal with them. Of course, you should have a good background inorder to speak their langauge.
Sunni or Shi’a ?
This is the new delimma were facing recently in the Arab world. It’s the new poison that has been spreaded widely, and I personally think It’s the most dangerous. There’s a difference between the Sunnah & Shi’a in Islam, but however, both are Muslims and beleives in Muhammad, peace and blessing being upon him. Going back to my high school memories, I’d give a percentage of 50% Sunnah 50% Shi’a of the Muslims at school, and the same percentage goes for the Kuwaiti community.
Actually, this problem is small right now, but It’s getting serious sometimes, specially in places like SaudiArabia, and I was shocked when I read reactions of some Saudi bloggers to the war against Lebanon. They were against Lebanon !! Just because Hezbollah is Shi’a, and this is absurd!
If somebody asks me “Are you Sunnah or Shi’a ?” , then my answer will be “None of your business”. Why in the world would somebody care ?? What difference should this make ?? Aren’t we supposed to focus on other more important issues rather than fighting each others like idiots ??
I developed a common pattern to deal with them, and to answer their claims gently, and shut their mouths if necessary. Everyday is a new experience, and everyday I have something new to learn.
My family got back to Kuwait, and I have a long summer holiday, first semester starts at Sept./24th, which is probably the first day of Ramadan !
