A Life's Journey

Stereotypes

2009-02-27T12:13:00.003+03:00

People usually have always clear ideas about other people and are able to judge others before they judge themselves. This might be just a typical human habit and some opinions might even be somewhat substantiated by personal experiences. Although not all people are the same, however, we usually tend to generalize behaviours and characteristics and quickly draw general conclusions from one or a few to the whole lot.

Having lived in the Persian Gulf (or the Arabian Gulf as the Arabs call it since Jamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt) for quite a while now, I've heard a lot about Arab opinions on Europeans. Although, as a European, I might not agree with all of them, I'm still content with the way they judge European work and professional ethics, which refelct a mostly very positive picture. On the other hand, the Arab Gulf States' image is very different with regard to work and professional ethics. Again, I have met some people who might fit the picture that is summarized in this cartoon, but I also have met those, who work hard alongside the many foreign workers that keep flocking the rich Golf region.

Criticism is not something people can take easily here and they certainly wouldn't like to be labelled as slave keepers, but to be honest, with regard to the hundred of thousands of cheap labour workers, this cartoon is not an unfair portrayal. May be it's true, what they say about money, which is accused of spoiling man's character. For many people I met, this is equally a fair judgement.

Asia's Switzerland

2009-02-06T17:30:00.005+03:00

This picture looks very much like a beautiful valley from Switzerland, but it is not. This is a picture from the Swat Valley in Pakistan. It sure remindes the viewer of ski slopes and winter fun. But you wouldn't want to go there if you love skiing and fun, because this is where the Taliban, whose name we might mainly associate with Afghanistan, have been bombing girls' schools (report). According to their ruling girls are not allowed to go to school and to make sure they don't, they destroy the schools and threaten to kill the girls who defy their rulings. These people don't care if the whole world condemns them. According to their view they have a correct understanding of the holy scriptures, that are in Arabic, a language they don't speak; and despite the fact, that their equally strict brothers in Saudi Arabia do allow their girls to go to school and university.

But logic doesn't seem a valid argument for the Taliban, whose name by the way means 'students.' The forceful removal of their movement seems as ineffective as logic argumentations, as they seem to regain power not only in Afghanistan. There is no quick solution to this problem and the only chance is to keep educating people to the last valley, so that one day knowledge and reason will hopefully enlighten the inhabitants of those underdeveloped areas so they can rid themselves of people who claim they know better.

The Disobedient Wife

2009-01-16T22:20:00.003+03:00

This is a reflection experiment.

When there is a conflict like the one between Palestinians and Israel, it is difficult to have an objective look at the problem, without being emotionally drawn to one side or the other due to whatever factors you may think of.

So, let’s make a reflection experiment, that doesn’t claim to be scientifically correct, but it might be helpful to take a different look at a very complicated and emotionally loaded conflict.

Imagine this. As traditional practice has it in the Middle East, there is a woman and a man arranged to be married by her guardian and his family. Although a free choice approach is nowadays more desired by many of the young people in the region, it is still the custom, and in general people accept it as such. Hence, the groom has agreed to marry this pretty girl for a number of reasons, not only to please his family, and you happen to belong to one of the groom’s best friends since some special events in the past have closely connected you to his family. Unfortunately, the bride is not happy with this turn of fate for her life at all, but has little choice, because her guardian has taken this irrevocable decision and her family is poor, so they haven’t got the means to do anything about it.

After the wedding the woman cries and cries but to no avail, so she begins to rebel against her husband and he thinks it is best to show her who is in control in their marriage from the start, because he is quite content with the arrangement despite the refusal of his wife to submit to him. With time she becomes more rebellious and insists on a divorce, but this is out of question. Her guardian wouldn’t allow it and neither would her husband or his family, who insist that their son should have the upper hand. As time passes the wife tries to increasingly revolt against her husband in order to make his life as miserable as possible and he reacts with physical punishment as she doesn’t want to accept his rules and superiority as a husband. His wife’s behaviour also stresses him out as he had such big hopes for his future, like any young man has when he gets married. But instead the wife makes his life difficult and wouldn’t accept his authority that he thought would automatically happen after they got to know each other better.

As the years pass, the woman refuses to be a good wife to him, because she feels imprisoned and very oppressed in her marriage. She cannot accept the restrictions her husband has placed on her and she feels her life to be a nightmare. His frustration with the situation makes him hit her more and more, bruising her body and face, but she recovers somehow every time and still refuses to keep still. During the years his reaction to her disobedience has turned into constant physical abuse. As a friend of the husband you arranged marriage counselling many times, but the unhappy couple find it difficult to agree on anything, because the husband keeps insisting on his superior authority as a husband, showing off his bruises that his wife was able to inflict on him while he disciplined her. On the other hand, she keeps on reminding him that she had never wanted to marry him and accuses him of serious physical abuse from which she tries to defend herself.

As mentioned before, because of certain circumstances, a divorce is impossible, so the couple is stuck together, and the man becomes madder and more abusive as the wife becomes more disobedient. The violence increases. The wife is even being admitted to hospital many times with serious injuries. You want to try to help your friend, but he doesn’t see any other solution but breaking his wife’s will. You look on as he keeps beating her up with his fists or belt, even stabbing her, locking her in a cupboard, or not feeding her while she keeps kicking and shouting at him, as she is obviously not as strong as him. Meanwhile her guardian and his family keep negotiating, trying to find a solution to the couple’s problems, but neither side is prepared to accept the other side’s arguments, so they keep quarrelling while the marriage misery goes on.

What would you, the best friend, do? Would you keep on watching, supporting your friend’s actions as a loyal ally? Or would you separate them within their marriage and suggest psychotherapy for your friend and some rehabilitation treatment for his wife’s maltreated body? I think no one in their right mind would blame the wife for her marriage misery, even though she might have done things that were unfair to her husband (whom you know as a nice guy)and you feel sorry for them both. Likewise, the justification from the husband to treat her so harshly because she keeps being so difficult is completely unacceptable and lacks the justice she deserves.

As a true friend you must have come to the conclusion that you cannot help the husband and his family by loyally supporting his behaviour. But if you want to prevent one killing the other, you must step in to change that behaviour. For this change to happen you need to tackle the causes of their problems instead of treating only the symptoms. Any expert would tell you that delicate and painful psychotherapy is definitely the only chance for such a difficult relationship - not more violence and hardline positions. Wouldn’t you agree?

We Will Not Go Down

2009-01-15T08:22:00.004+03:00

Two thirds of the over one thousand casualties in Gaza are children according to BBC Radio this morning. In the program an expert expressed his astonishment about the fact that such a war strategy is still being used in the 21st century, namely that civilians are locked in the region of war action without a chance to escape.

Furthermore, AlJazeera.Net English reported last night that three of the prominent Palestinian football players are among the victims. It was also mentioned that the football stadium had been badly damaged. Day after day the infrastructure in Gaza is being bombed to pieces. It will take years to rebuild all of that, if there will be enough money to do that. Meanwhile Gaza is bombed from a self-run refugee camp to a miserable ghetto in which the Palestinians will keep suffering even if the fighting stops.

The American songwriter and musician, Michael Heart, upon seeing the pictures from Gaza on TV wrote this song, which says more than a million words. It's hard to see how the Israeli government hasn't already lost this fight although winning the battle. There are opinions being voiced linking the decision of attacking Gaza to the objective of increasing the involved politicians' chances in the upcoming Israeli elections.

So, where were the diplomatic masters and experts in the run-up to this disaster? The UN for one (which had been established by the international community in order to prevent war attrocities after the last world war) has failed yet again, despite their many organizations involved. It looks as if the Palestinians have to rely on themselves while the world discusses who is to be blamed. Maybe the words of Mahatma Gandhi offer some comfort to them: "Strength does not come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will." (Source)

Don't say "We didn't know"

2009-01-14T15:52:00.002+03:00

As the death toll in Gaza is close to 1000 people, it is worrying what a little research about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict reveals. Back in September 2007 Gideon Levy, an Israeli journalist, wrote for the Haaretz newspaper about the crimes committed by the Israeli army in Gaza in an article called "No one is guilty in Israel."

It is very disturbing to discover for how long people have been aware of what is going on and that this war on Gaza is still happening. The uncritical support for Israel's bombardment of Gaza by Western governments with their luke-warm regrets about its humanitarian crisis will not help solve Israel's problems. Many people know that, but too few dare to speak out.

The Unheard Voices

2009-01-13T18:09:00.003+03:00

There is no other subject but Gaza that I can think of these days in which the Israeli onslaught continues and the death toll in Gaza is steadily marching towards the 1000 mark. Although I knew that there were a number of Israelis who were against the brutal oppression of Palestinans by the state of Israel, I never knew their names or had read in full what they had to say, until today after I heard the latest news from Israel.

The BBC reported this morning that two Arab parties in Israel were banned from taking part in the upcoming elections because of voicing their opposition to the Israeli offensive against Gaza. The Israeli spokesman didn't think that this was part of democratic principles but a direct support of Palestinian terrorists and his argumentation left me baffled. However, searching the internet on these issues I quickly came across some Israeli writers who accuse their government of "insane brutality" (Michel Warschawski) or finding their society in a state of "coma" (Uri Avnery) or in "moral collapse" (Gideon Levy).

What is shocking to read is that their worrying articles were written long before the current war on Gaza and their awareness that not many Israelis want to hear what they have to say. And I am sure that they wouldn't want to read what Ms. Kathleen Christison, a former CIA analyst, wrote back in July 2006 either (Dossier). She accuses those who continue to support and make excuses for Israel of having "lost their moral compass." The question is, who can stop this madness?

The Truth Is Not Unknown

2009-01-12T20:57:00.003+03:00

The clean-slate explanations of the Israeli spokesman on Al-Jazeera TV are sickening. The Israeli journalist Uri Avnery expressed Israel's intentions for Gaza very clearly more than a year ago, saying that "THE ISRAELI strategic aim in Gaza is not to put an end to the Qassams (rockets). It would still be the same if not a single Qassam fell on Israel. The real aim is to break the Palestinians, which means breaking Hamas". (in "Help A Cease Fire!")

As a former Irgun fighter and Knesset member, this man knows what he is talking about! The question is, how many more innocent civilians will have to die before the Western Governments are willing to pressure Israel to stop her criminal actions in Gaza?

Tragedy

2009-01-10T14:42:00.005+03:00

The only subject that comes these days into our minds and occupies our hearts over here is Gaza and it will probably stay there for some time to come. The deathtoll has risen to 800 humans by the 15th day of Israel's onslaught on Gaza. Thus, the tragedy is beyond humanitarian reason. While the western media doesn't seem to expect from their viewers to see the results of Israel's bombardments the world needs to look at the catastrophic outcomes from such an irresponsible policy. After 15 days the rocket attacks from Hamas have not stopped and they won't in the future, therefore Israel's military tactic has failed and the loss of human lives has been degraded to a regrettable minor fact.

When will the more powerful side understand that 60 years of oppression and unworthy living conditions for the people who have lost their homes and land does not bear the justice needed for improving security issues on both sides? Leaving all Israeli rhetoric aside, the devastating history of the Palestinian people and their struggle for their own homeland have left deep wounds that have just been opened again. The facts have been ignored or covered up for too long (search here) and it seems as if the latest conflict might be the straw that will brake the camels back causing damage beyond repair.

Incomprehensible

2009-01-08T10:36:00.004+03:00

With more than 600 deaths and nearly 3000 injured, hundreds displaced and thousands without electricity, the pictures that reach us every day from Gaza are getting worse by the minute.

There is no justification for this carnage by any international standard or law. Israel will soon harvest what she is sowing now, as the well-known Indian jurist and philosopher Gandhi said: “I object to violence because when it appears to do good, the good is only temporary; the evil it does is permanent.”

ASHOORA

2009-01-07T13:53:00.004+03:00

Today is Ashoora, the tenth day of Muharram, the first month in the Islamic calendar, when Shia Muslims in Iraq and elsewhere are commemorating the martyrdom of the Prophet's grandson, Imam Hussain, son of Ali Ibn Talib and Fatima. Millions of Iraqis and many other nationals have been marching towards Karbala in Iraq, where the shrine of Imam Hussain is located.

The followers of Imam Hussain and the Prophet's Household defy year after year the many terror threats and risks that their journey bears. The Western observer might be bewildered by the demonstration of such passion and devotion, which can only be understood if one studies the history of what happened there almost 1400 years ago.

The story of Imam Hussain is certainly amazing and very emotional at the same time, but it carries so many messages, which serve as an explaination for the zealous compassion and affection of the Imam's followers.

Never Forget

2009-01-05T16:14:00.005+03:00

After every man-made catastrophe and massacre, the World always shouts that it will never forget, but our memories usually resemble a coarse sieve. While another war on Gaza is raging, the outside world is discussing the question of responsibility for this catastrophe and humanitarian disaster. Remarkably though, the government of Israel is constantly pointing its finger at Hamas and the ever growing threat of Palestinian terrorists. But the same people prefer to forget their own history.

No one likes to remember the massacre of Deir Yassin, for example, that happened on 9th April, 1948, in which soldiers of the radical zionist underground groups Irgun (led by Menachem Begin at the time) and LEHI "carried out the slaughter in a cold and premeditated fashion...The attackers ‘lined men, women and children up against the walls and shot them,’...The ruthlessness of the attack on Deir Yassin shocked Jewish and world opinion alike, drove fear and panic into the Arab population, and led to the flight of unarmed civilians from their homes all over the country.” Israeli author, Simha Flapan, “The Birth of Israel.”

Those not interested in history might be surprised to know that Mr. Begin became Israel's Prime Minister in 1977 and received the Peace Nobel Price along with the President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, in 1978. The very same man later claimed that the massacre of Deir Yassin "did not only have its justification - without the 'victory' of Deir Yassin there would not have been a state of Israel" (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menachem_Begin)

I am completely baffled about the double standards according to which Western governments and the media judge Israelis and Palestinians in this respect. These days the Palestinians have certainly not forgotten the victims of Deir Yassin and never will. No one who believes in equal human rights and justice should do that either.

If only we knew

2009-01-04T07:24:00.002+03:00

The current operation against Gaza and the ground offensive started by Israel yesterday leaves so many people at dispair, yet again. The media fights a war on its own over this conflict for many years and has created a jungle of information based on biased reporting that has manipulated even the most educated people. What is worse is that some information has been distorted badly adding to increasing anti-Palestinian propaganda. In order to establish peace and security for all people in this region, the facts must be correct and people should know the truth.

Back in February and March 2001 an Amercian freelance journalist called Alison Weir traveled independently throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. She found a situation largely the reverse of what was being reported by the American media. Upon further examination of this issue for which she read dozens of books on the topic, she found that the U.S. press portrayal was significantly at odds with information being reported by media throughout the rest of the world. One of the results of her work is this website http://www.ifamericansknew.com/ which hopefully helps to clarify some vital issues in the ongoing Israeli/Palestinian conflict, so that everyone can make up their own informed opinion.

New Year - Time for Mourning

2008-12-31T07:18:00.002+03:00

In many cultures the occasion of New Year is a time for celebrations and festive activities, such as in Western or Chinese traditions. However, the Islamic New Year is not accompanied by fun parties or fireworks, although marked by a public holiday in many Islamic countries. On the contrary, you will find streets, mosques, and community centres in certain areas of the Muslim population that are decorated with black banners and drawings of mourning people. That’s the time of Muharram, the first month of the Islamic calendar, with a very important date on its tenth day, Ashoora. For Shia Muslims and the followers of Prophet Mohammed’s Progeny this is a very special time of the year.

When the month of Muharram draws near there is this unique feeling of impatient anticipation for the commemoration of Ashoora that has been observed for hundreds of years with ever increasing zeal and love for Imam Hussain, his family and companions. For the outsider this zeal and love might seem very strange. In fact, before I knew anything about Imam Hussain and Ashoora, I too was bewildered but also intrigued by what I saw and heard in the streets, mosques, and religious centres. And even though I didn’t understand very much from what was being said in the vivid lamentation of the common sermons and the rhythmic lyrics of the night processions, I became fascinated by the whole spectacle and the genuine emotions so openly displayed by people. What was the reason for these outbreaks of compassion in grown up men and women? Then I wondered why I hadn’t heard about Imam Hussain and Karbala before? In actual fact, throughout 20 years that I grew up and lived in Europe from the mid sixties till the mid eighties I had never even heard the name of Imam Hussain anywhere, leave alone what happened to this important historical figure in Karbala.

After getting to know the story of Karbala and Imam Hussain in more detail, hearing its gruesome facts, and shocking descriptions of what exactly had happened to Imam Hussain, his family and companions, I couldn’t help but feeling a deep sense of sympathy and I began to ponder about its meaning and the impact it has on us today. People surely wouldn’t commemorate this occasion year after year with such enormous efforts and zealous emotions only to remember a historic battle in which the grandson of Prophet Mohammed had died. In order to remember this fact of history a simple memory service would be sufficient for this purpose. But during the Ashoora activities the followers of the Progeny of Prophet Mohammed, the Shia of Ahlul Bait, seem to relive the pain and sorrows of this battle, as if it happened only yesterday. Therefore, it began to dawn on me that there was much more to it than meets the eye of the observer of the Ashoora traditions.

For many people the battle of Ashoora is merely an unequal fight between a mighty army and a small group of the Prophet’s Family that happened in the background during the spread of Islam. However, considering the characteristics of Yazid’s army, the way they treated their Prophet’s family (while Prophet Mohammed had asked the Muslims for nothing but to love his family), so their behaviour should give considerable doubt of whether they were the right people to spread the Islamic message and whether it was their sword that helped to spread Islam. In fact, this very thought is underlined by a comment from a famous non-Muslim, namely Mahatma Gandhi, who said: “My faith is that the progress of Islam does not depend on the use of the sword by its believers, but (it) is the result of the supreme sacrifice of Husain, the great saint.” It is true that many history books accredit the spread of Islam to the sword, but of what is known about Yazid’s personality, who was of course the official leader of the Muslim nation at the time, it is at least questionable if such a character was interested in spreading the pure values of Islam or if he was more interested in spreading his own power. Consequently, it is only logical to ask if such a leader was in the best interest of Islam in general.

However, anyone who studies the story of Ashoora a little closer will be able to see beyond the mere facts of battle accounts and military victories. Because the sword can only win a superficial victory, but it can never win over the loyalty of the defeated. Indeed, Imam Hussain had not been interested in winning the battle or the highest number of people to support him but in winning their hearts so that they remember the true values of Islam. And this is what he achieved with his martyrdom. The proof of that is evident in the impressive processions during the Ashoora commemorations and the electrifying atmosphere during the ninth and tenth night of Muharram in Karbala every year. Everybody can witness this for himself on TV since the fall of the former president of Iraq. The viewer cannot but be impressed by this unique display of people’s devotion for someone who made such a strong statement with his death that toppled only a few years later the tyrannic and oppressive regime of Yazid.

UNHAPPY NEW YEAR

2008-12-29T13:48:00.004+03:00

Today is the Islamic New Year (that is calculated according to the moon calendar). But no one in the Islamic world has any reason to celebrate, no one has hopes for a happy new year, because it has already had an extremely unhappy start as Palestinians are dying in their hundreds in Gaza. When watching those horrific scenes of a catastrophe that is too awful for words, then every half-way intelligent human being should ask himself if this is a legitimate method of achieving security and peace for Israel? What is more, who would be so naive to believe that if the traumatized surviving Palestinians for generations to come wouldn't take revenge one day for the death of so many innocent civilians including women and children, if there were able to do so? The satisfaction with the military "success," as the Israeli government might view this operation, might be short-lived.

I don't know why, but suddenly the terrible attack on Pearl Harbour in December 1941 came to my mind, despite its totally different circumstances and historically incorrect comparison. Nevertheless, I thought about the satisfaction the Japanese military must have felt after this great military strike in their eyes. Hardly four years later, however, the "pay-back" they received caused so much worse suffering.

Unfortunately, anyone speaking of a Palestinian - Israeli peace process now sounds as if he was mocking its people. As usual, the much wiser and skilled artists of diplomacy will be left to pick up the pieces afterwards, but I am worried that this time there won't be any pieces left to pick up.

For which sin has she been killed?

2008-12-26T11:25:00.002+03:00

SWAT is the name some people in management might associate with the Swift Worksite Assessment & Translation evaluation method. However, not many people probably have heard of the name SWAT Valley. It lies in the troubled nothwest region of Pakistan and has come under strong Taliban influence. Parents in the SWAT Valley have been warned by the Taliban not to send their daughters to school or otherwise they would kill any girl that goes to school as well as blowing up the whole school. It is said that the threat was broadcasted by an illegally run radio station in the region and announced by a Taliban commander. Not only does this sad development show that the Taliban are back, or more probably that they have never left anyway, but that outside forces have little control and power in this matter. No one can bring democracy to such a country. It is the people who have to change their own society, but this is a very slow process. Knowledge and the courage to question old customs are certainly important in this process.

If the Taliban claim that they want to implement strict Islamic rules then we should ask them the same question written in the Holy Quran, which they say they are protecting, for in Verse 81 we can read ... and when the female child that was buried alive is made to ask (8) for what crime she had been killed (9) and when the pages (of men's deeds) are unfolded (10) ... [Then] each soul shall know what it has put forward (14). I somehow doubt that the Taliban are really aware of what they are putting forward for their own souls by killing school girls.

Merry Christmas

2008-12-24T20:45:00.001+03:00

It was Christmas last year when I visited my sick mother in Germany in order to be with her for a few days upon her release from hospital. I picked her up from the rehabilitation clinic in a small town in eastern Germany. The receptionist, who knew that I had come all the way from the Persian Gulf, asked me, if I was staying till the new year, but I answered that I had to get back right away after Christmas Day, because my children were waiting for me as they had to go to school. The confused receptionist was surprised that they had such short Christmas holidays. But she was even more confused when I informed her that we did not have Christmas holidays and no Christmas for that matter in a Muslim country, at least not in the government sector (There are a few private schools though who have Christmas holidays instead of the usual spring holidays at the end of winter). That was too much for the poor receptionist, so she asked, hardly interested anymore, what we would celebrate instead of Christmas. My reply only elicited a pitying smile from her - Ramadhan - unimaginable.

At that moment I realized how little the world's inhabitants know from each other, I was sadened by the ignorance of people beyond their little world, despite satellite TV and geography lessons at school. The world celebrates Christmas according to the widespread Western opinion, but in actual fact there are millions of Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddists and so many others who don't.

But what is much sadder is how little people actually know about their own culture and traditions, especially about their origins. Jesus was born, that is a fact, but the date is not and this is not even disputed by the Catholic Church, because in the year 353 it was Pope Liberius who fixed the birth of Jesus on the 25th of December. At that time Christianity was declared the state religion in Rome and the clerus converted all festival days of several peagan cults into Christian festivities, because people had kept celebrating the midwinter light festival and the births of other gods on or around that day. This way they did not have to be persuaded to change their customs, as we all know that old habits die hard.

Whoever is interested in the version that Muslims believe in, for which the source is the Holy Quran itself, might want to check out the story of Mary, Mother of Jesus, according to the quranic revelations, which has been turned into a well produced film (with English subtitles or synchronization) called "The Blessed Saint Mary," directed by Shahriar Bohrani. It's definitly a nice Christmas movie. There is a trailor as well as the whole film in series on You Tube. In this sense, Merry Christmas.

Famous Shoes

2008-12-19T17:17:00.001+03:00

I think the last time that a pair of shoes got such publicity was in the fairytale of Cinderella. But the shoe attack on President Bush made the Iraqi journalist Muntazer al-Zaidi almost as famous as Cinderella over night – and popular, at least in the Middle East.

Maybe there are a few or more people in the West who also smile about this zealous action, especially as Mr. Bush was not harmed and was able to retain his sense of humour about the whole story. Actually, I was quite impressed by his ability to duck so swiftly in the face of the approaching flying shoes one after the other.

As for Mr. Al-Zaidi, he has become some kind of Arabic hero following his emotional outbreak. For the people in the Middle East, and I am sure in the rest of the Islamic world, he has expressed what so many people have been thinking for so long ... Mr. Bush deserves some good old bashing for what he has done, or at least for the responsibility he carries for the things that happened during his administration, like starting a war on false information and consequently plunging a whole nation into chaos, or the infamous human rights violations in Guantanamo Bay or Abu Ghuraib, to name a few.

However, apart from the obvious legal consequences that Mr. Al-Zaidi will have to face and the admiration he receives from his fellow countrymen and religious brothers, his attack had most probably no effect on his target. Mr. Bush will still insist in the righteousness of his decisions and actions taken in the aftermath of 9/11. But most of all he won’t have to carry any consequences nor worry about the many people who curse him for what happened to them because of his presidency. When talking to the ordinary people in the Gulf I get to hear the same comment on President Bush and his staff all the time, for they are convinced that a just punishment is waiting for them on the Day of Judgement. People’s faith at that moment seems stronger than their anger as they are convinced that a pretty horrible chastisement will be waiting for these people. Who would want to be in the shoes of Mr. Bush then?

Find Out Despite Biased Reporting

2008-12-13T18:18:00.007+03:00

Since the arrival of satellite television we are able to view a wide range of news channels such as the BBC or German, French and Italian satellite TV stations, as well as many Arabic channels including Al Jazeera, Al Arabia, MBC, in addition to specific groups running their own broadcast channels such as Al Manar or NBC.

If you are lucky to speak more than one language, it will probably strike you that the reporting on some news channels can be extremely biased. However biased the reporting, it doesn't have to have a very bad effect if the viewer is able to watch a wide range of international channels to receive information from different angles. Unbalanced reporting is like unbalanced food, it is not good for us. What strikes me the most is that on some Western news channels no one seems to be interested in how the people of a conflict region think of their own situation and how they feel about what is happening to them. The reporting is so abstract and undermined with an opinion from one side of the conflict, that the pictures often don't match the information given. One example is the terrible humanitarian crisis in Gaza that has been going on for weeks.

If we want to avoid making up our mind based on potential biased reporting, we should not depend on one national source of information. No reporting can be totally unbiased, even if it attempts to be so, because reporters are influenced by their national specific education, training, culture, traditions, attitudes and convictions. But in times of the Internet and satellite technology people are able to receive a broad range of information on any subject and they should use it in order to obtain an informed opinion.

Unfortunately, the reputation of some particular Arabic TV channels is based on prejudiced information without any founded knowledge. But should someone prejudice the objectivity and dispassion of the Arabic press before even having collected more information about it? By now there are many Arabic satellite channels with Websites (in English and many other languages) where one can take a look at different views from another perspective. Even if Western viewers might probably find reason for criticism and disagreement, I can still promise that s/he will benefit from some interesting information and fascinating knowledge that might at least encourage some to question a few obsolete but widely held opinions about Arabs or Muslims. One important piece of information for many Western viewers may be that Al-Jazeera is not an extremist Arab or Muslim satellite channel, but that most of its English version's presenters and reporters have previously worked for the BBC.

My personal hope is to improve the understanding between the two worlds by looking at events from the other side's perspective. Western channels are at least widely viewed in the Middle East, which is more than one can say about Western viewers' habits. The knowledge about other people and their lives, customs, hopes, problems, worries and fears is the first step towards a mutual understanding (connecting between knowledge and reason), which is, of course, a fundamental basis for peace.

Despite the existing knowledge about Muslims living in the West and an initial multi-cultural euphoria in Europe, it is vital to get to know the people from other cultures and religions beyond their delicious cooking and colourful fashion. Factual criticism must be allowed but tolerance for different ways of living and views should not be sacrificed in this process. This is the only way to counter wrong perceptions and prejudice of strange cultures in order to make the first steps towards a genuine understanding between nations. Maybe one day we will be able to achieve what the famous German writer and poet Friedrich Schiller (in "About Poverty and Dignity" 1793) had already recognized long ago: "An enemy merely beaten can rise again, but the one reconciled has truly been vanquished."

Stranded Children

2008-11-24T09:11:00.009+03:00

Living in the Persian Gulf among oil-rich neighbours, seeing its wealth being invested in luxurious shopping malls, stunning leisure resorts, huge villas, and modern universities one would automatically expect its society to have developed at the same pace as its modern 21st Century look. However, this is quite illogical for any too rapidly changing society with a different history as that from the West, as certain issues may show.

One of these issues is that of “stranded” children. Actually, these poor little persons do not “really” exist, although they were born to this part of the world. They are the children of mostly poor labourers who conceived a child out of wedlock while they were working for little money without being able to enjoy the prosperity of the country they are living in. They come here for many years on end and don’t have the means nor the possibility and sometimes also not the intention to live in a legal relationship. Thus, their children will not receive any kind of legal papers. They don’t even have a birth certificate because their parents are too frightened to be discovered out of fear to be imprisoned and then deported. If this happens the result would be a dilemma as they would have (and sometimes even want) to leave their children behind. Without a birth certificate or legal papers these children would not be allowed to travel with their parents. While their parents return to their home country and often get married without revealing their illegitimate child to their new spouse, these children are left to the mercy of some friends back in the Gulf and the authorities.

In Islam these children are not to blame nor do they carry any sin, of course, but reality is that they carry all the burden of their parents’ actions and ignorance. The authorities may try their best to deal with this issue, but it takes a long time to change the law accordingly, because many people have difficulties in overcoming the traditional assumption that what is not to be cannot be. According to their religious views illegitimate children are the result of an immoral relationship so this is an issue which is often ignored, rather than dealt with in an urgent manner.

Certainly, there are laws and regulations for punishing such parents according to Islamic or state law that is based on religious views, but these children remain stranded and often abandoned by their own parents. When reading their sad stories one imagines a different, less prosperous place than their rich Gulf birth country. But then again, as sad as their stories may sound, they might have a better chance being taken in by someone over here, than going back to the home of their poverty stricken parents, where they might not be welcomed. For their sake let’s hope that this is not only another disadvantageous effect of global migration but also a twist of fate. Who knows?

The Soap Opera Lesson

2008-11-19T20:11:00.007+03:00

When you come to live in a new country and you would like to find out about its society, culture and customs then watch soap operas on TV; even if you don't understand the language, like Arabic for example. That shouldn't really bother you, because all that matters is the way people communicate with each other regardless of what they are saying.

Soap operas are just ideal for this purpose. In fact, in soap operas you will be able to witness how people interact with each other in a specific culture. So when you watch Arabic soap operas, from the Gulf for instance, the first thing you will quickly notice is the volume level in which people over here talk to each other. No, they are not arguing, as you might think, but just having a normal conversation. So don't worry when your Arabic colleague raises his voice above the European acceptable courtesy level, he is probably just asking where you put the report he is looking for.

Another notable characteristic is the vivid gesticulation during a lively discussion. Throwing their hands and arms all through the air while having a conversation does not mean that the speaker is practicing his latest martial arts moves on you, but he is underlining his argumentation. This is a persuasive speaking technique that takes a little getting used to though, but as long as you learn to duck at the right moment you will be fine.

Oh yes, there is, of course, a storyline to the soap, but the distinctive mimic and body language that usually replace the missing acting skills tells it all.

The Deadly Trap

2008-11-03T09:42:00.002+03:00

In Europe we are taught from pre-school days onwards where to cross the street savely. One of the "save spots" are the well known Zebra crossings, that also taught me the name of an exotic animal before some of the more common, local species.

However, should you ever come to the Persian Gulf and happen to be a pedestrian, then be warned. Well, of course, like in any other wealthy country, there are plenty of zebra crossings in this part of the world, and as part of international traffic regulations the same rules apply to the crossing of these road stripes as in Europe. At least theoretically. But here lies the very fine, but extremely crucial difference that turn zebra crossings on our streets into deadly traps .

Contrary to our European traffic participants who are certain of the fact that a zebra crossing is a point where a pedestrian is able to cross a street savely, which also means, of course, that cars will stop for this person to do so, in this part of the world you will risk your life if you trust international traffic regulations. Although car drivers have been instructed about these rules, they nevertheless seem to consider pedestrians on zebra crossings as traffic obstruction! Unfortunately, this is not a one time witness account. Once you are on the zebra crossing and a car comes along, you better run for your life in any direction that will save you. Not only will they not stop for you, but they might also hoot, shout and yell at you for being in their way in the middle of the street, i.e. their territory. So be careful! You might be hunted down like a zebra by a lion. It's just like a real safari, just that in this case you are the prey.

Women Issues

2008-10-29T10:07:00.003+03:00

There are endless discussions about women in Islam, their rights, their duties, their problems, comparisons between Muslim women and Western women, about freedom and human rights regarding women, especially Muslim women. Much has been said and written. More women are fighting for their rights and yet more are suffering. And although many Muslims claim that a Muslim woman has all the necessary rights and freedom in Islam, so many Muslim women still suffer from abuse and lack of respect. There are a million and more sad or worrying or appalling or unbelievable or infuriating stories about Muslim women, who were burnt, stoned, raped, forced into marriage, stripped of their basic human rights, treated badly or disrespectfully, denied education, or just prevented from choosing for themselves.

And although we all know hat Islam and the traditions of Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) teach us differently, the causes for Muslim women problems still lie in the many twisted so-called Islamic cultural practices. Change is slow and hindered by many obstacles. It's ironic that so many of our Western convert-sisters are the pioneers for change in the situation of Muslim women. And it's equally ironic that we Muslim convert-ladies find more tolerance and acceptance in traditional Islamic societies to change things than our Asian or African sisters. It's a long way, but, as we all know, a journey of a tousand miles starts with the first step. So, just keep on walking.

My Dream

2008-10-21T18:05:00.004+03:00

It has always been my dream to become a writer. Well, in a sense, I am one, at least a blogger and, occasionally I also write for online newspapers. But my real dream was to publish a book. Back in April 2007 I wrote about the story I wanted to write and published a synopsis of the story on this blog.

A year later I started to look for a publisher in Germany, because I wrote the story originally in German. But I have translated it into English a little later, as I had to find out, that it is very difficult to get my book published in Germany. The first reason being it's a short novel, pretty short, but much too long for a short story. But I haven't given up hope. The time will come, when it's right.

You might ask what the story is about. If you don't want to read the full summary from April 2007 on this blog, I can tell you that its title is "I don't want to die, Brother!" and that I had the idea for this story when I was watching a British man being interviewed by a BBC reporter after the terror attacks in London back in the summer of 2005. The man had been on the bus that was blown up by the suicide bomber and this man had noticed an Asian man he thought looked suspicious. So this British man became anxious and just got off the bus. A little later the people on that bus were all dead. Now, what if it was no longer possible to get off the transportation a person is travelling on, like a full speeding train? And what if the person who noticed someone this suspicious was a Muslim him or herself? Would s/he feel responsible for what was going to happen, because s/he had noticed it in advance and because s/he was a Muslim too? Whould s/he be able to do something about it? Was there a way to prevent a suicide terrorist to carry out his mission?

Thus, I wrote the story of Fatima, a convert to Islam, who notices another Muslim man on the train to her work in Central London, whom she soon suspects, on the basis of her own religion and background knowledge, to be a suicide bomber. What will she do? Stay paralysed with fear and die, or cause panic and die just the same, or think and try to do the impossible?... When I'll have found a publisher, I'll let you know.

Misleading Journalism

2008-05-05T09:15:00.003+03:00

Last month there was a report on German TV from a very prominent journalist lady, who is supposed to be an experienced and well-informed war reporter on Iraq and other countries of the Middle East. However, the report she had compiled for Stern TV came as a shock to me. In it, Ms. Antonia Rados, reported about the drilling of young children in Iran to become religious fanatics.

She showed two children, a boy and a girl, aged 8 and 6 respectively, who were already famous in Iran for being religious preachers. Ms. Rados explained that the young boy was moving his large audience in a mosque to tears, heating their mood by glorifying the suicide bombers in his speech. What a shock! However, I was not shocked about the young preacher, but about the journalist's reporting! She was lying deliberately. The young boy did not glorify any suicide killer, BUT one of the most important Islamic personalities in history, Imam Hussain son of Ali son of Abi Talib, the grandson of the Prophet of Islam. He died on the tenth day (of Muharram), just as the boy told his audience in a so-called matam or religious centre and not in a mosque, and his eyes burst out and his head was cut off. Yes, that happened, and that was whom the audience were crying for and what his followers have done since Imam Hussain's martyrdom almost 1400 years ago. Neither did the boy preach anything radical about the Quran, nor did the little girl recite the Quran in her speeches, who was also shown in the report.

No matter what we think about little children acting like adults, be they dressed up as preachers for religious events or made up as contestants for a beauty pageant, no professional journalist should distort the facts in her report, to paint a false picture. Some blogger writings as reaction to her report were naturally devastating after this kind of distortion.

In the same way, a totally unprofessional or even unethical way of reporting shows the difference a simple headline can make for one and the same picture of the winner of a beauty pageant for little girls: "Little Miss Beautiful" or "How Little Girls Are Drilled To Sell Their Bodies". Western media has, unfortunately, proven again to be more unprofessional than I thought possible.

Hadj

2007-12-13T18:09:00.000+03:00

It's Hadj time again. Millions of pilgrims are travelling to Saudi Arabia to perform roughly 5 days of rituals in and close to Mecca. A very special occasion, a life time experience, for which some people depending on the number of pilgrims allowed for their country have to wait many, many years. Then again, the Muslims from the Gulf are luckier. Some perform the Hadj every year or many years in a row, because they do not need a visa in order to go to Hadj.

I also went some years ago for Hadj. And although I already had performed the Umra, a simple visit to Mecca with only a few rituals to follow, it was a very big event for me too. Unforgetable, leaving a great impact on my life. But what makes people yearn to go again and again despite certain health risks and physical strains involved? And what do all these rituals mean?

Well, it is obvious that this cannot be explained in a few words or even paragraphs, but there is a book I read before I went to Hadj and it put a meaning into every step I had to take. The book is written by the late Dr. Ali Shariati (Doctorate of Sociology & Islamic History, Sorbonne University, France, and Professor of Mashad University, Iran). The book is simlpy called "Pilgrimage" and can be read online in English under Books, Hajj (Pilgrimage) here: http://shariati.com/

Although it is quite detailed, it is worth reading for everyone who wants to know what Muslims go through during Hadj or understand for him or herself what he or she is doing there.

Ramadan Reflections

2007-10-09T11:54:00.000+03:00

إِنَّهُ لاَ يُحِبُّ الْمُسْرِفِينَ
"certainly He (Allâh) likes not Al-Musrifûn (those who waste by extravagance)" 7:31

Fasting in Ramadan

As Muslims we fast in Ramadan to remember the poor

But we expect to break our fast like the rich

In Ramadan as Muslims we should remember those in need

But when we go shopping our needs have no limits

In Ramadan as Muslims we ought to reflect about our lives and that of others

But most of us are too busy cooking delicious dishes for the breaking-fast meal

In Ramadan as Muslims we hope to be rewarded for fasting during the day

But the rewards earned during the day are often thrown into the rubbish with the wasted food at night

What does Ramadan Kareem (“Ramadan is generous”) mean to you?

Is it possible that we expect much more than we need?

I don't want to die yet, brother!

2007-04-18T12:44:00.002+03:00

... is the title of the fiction story I have started to write. And this is a summary:

That was it? She had never thought her life would end like this. If it had to be a dramatic end, she would have imagined it to be a long illness. Tragic and sad. Or maybe to meet with an accident by car. Not a plane crash though. But not like that. Not like that at all! She felt despair, anger and horror. The horrific fear that millions of other people probably had when leaving their houses nowadays, caused by the thought of losing one’s life in a terror attack. It could happen to anyone. But it was happening to her, of all people, and of course the people with her on this train. Why on earth? After all what she had sacrificed for God, she Fatima, was to be killed by one of her brothers in faith. What irony!

Fatima had chosen her own Islamic name when she converted to Islam more than 15 years ago. It had been her independent and free decision. She liked that the very name of this religion, Islam, was derived from the word '"salam", peace. And she had been told that from that day on all Muslims were her brothers and sisters. It had been a day of new hope and confidence for Fatima, long before the dark shadows of 9/11.

Now she was sitting on the train to London. Fatima was on her way to work like almost every day and she had noticed the young Muslim brother sitting opposite her. She couldn't say what exactly had drawn her attention to him, but it only took a few moments till she had realized that he would blow himself up any minute and kill the many people travelling with him. Fatima’s thoughts were speeding frantically while her body was paralyzed with shock. No, oh no, for God’s sake, she didn't want to be martyred by this “brother”. This idea seemed to be worse than her fear. Fatima thought of her child and her husband. Was there nothing, absolutely nothing she could do?

She didn't dare to move, but from what she was able to tell there were no other Muslims except this young man and herself, wearing the obvious headscarf. It meant that, if of all people possible, she would be the only one having something in common with this man who was about to become a suicide terrorist. Whether Fatima liked it or not, she shared something very important in her life with this man on his suicide mission, her belief in the religion of Islam and the total submission to the One God. Fatima knew that if her time to die had come, it would happen anyway. But something inside urged her to do something. Her thought was dangerous. No, mad! But she had to try or she and her fellow passengers would die very soon. So what was she waiting for?

The Holy Shrine

2006-10-27T23:50:00.000+03:00

Nadjaf in Iraq is the historical site of a regular impressive religious pageant with spiritual and political background ...

… because there is the shrine of Imam Ali, the fourth caliph in the line of successors of the Prophet Mohammed and on the obit of the Imam in Ramadan, just like recently, more than two million pilgrims come to the city even from abroad despite the real danger of terror attacks. Thus the question arises for whom and why would these people risk their lives?

Imam Ali Ibn Abu Talib, the cousin and son-in-law of Prophet Mohammed, is according to Shiite believe the rightful successor of the Prophet. Despite (in accordance with Shiite conception) clear instructions of the Prophet, however, his companions elected Abu Bakr, the Prophet's close friend and father-in-law, as his successor. The followers or "Shia" of Imam Ali were since then considered a splitting-off, thus the unity of the Muslims had already broken up at least emotionally with the Prophet's death; a critical development that has fatal consequences to this day for Muslims, both theoretically and practically.

The question regarding the rightful successors of the Prophet is still a point of serious dispute between the sects and influences strongly their political and theological interpretations of Islam. The majority worldwide are Sunnis, while the Shiites who were often persecuted and fought against throughout history have the majority only in very few Islamic countries, such as Iran, Iraq and Bahrain. This old conflict between Sunnis and Shiites about the Prophet's rightful successors is also a reason for the fighting and bloodshed between Muslim brothers, like in Iraq these days, because some Sunnis consider the Shiites to be infidels just as the American and European "enemies" of Islam. Therefore this theological question remains important and of concern for many Muslims, who nowadays discuss it on different television programs and in various conferences with fierce and impetuous disputes.

Moreover, the holy shrines of a number of important religious personalities of Islam are situated in Iraq, mainly that of Imam Ali and Imam Hussain, the son of Ali and his wife Fatima Az-Zahra, the daughter of the Prophet. The family members of the Prophet who are revered by all Muslims did not die their honoured martyr-death while fighting the unbelievers, but they were killed by their own Muslim brothers, who wanted to get rid of them in an inner political struggle in order to secure their own power. This is why millions of Shiite pilgrims visit the shrines of the Imams for their obits in order to commemorate the martyrdom in their fight for justice, truth and against oppression.

At night when the processions take place the illumined shrines covered in gold and crystal tower out of the darkness showy and lofty shining like a treasure. The pilgrims often bear great strains in order to take part in these processions. On the eve of the 21st of Ramadan the streets are packed with pilgrims in commemoration of Imam Ali, many dressed in black, the colour of mourning. The pilgrim masses mourn in different groups by singing choral tones or melodies about sorrow but also about actual historical subjects, the so-called "Azza", during which many beat with their bare hands vigorously on their chests or heads; a strange but impressive and noisy pageant for the ignorant observer.

The emotion-filled and zealous rallies in support of "Ahlul Bayt", the Prophet's family, that are demonstrated there on every orbit of the Prophet or one of the leading 11 Imams excel the previous event, especially since the end of Saddam's dictatorship. What is more, the Shiites do not simply and quietly perform some commemoration rituals, but show during these occasions their determination and spiritual affiliation for the Prophet's family unfamiliar to others, which infuriates many Sunnis, who are angry about the display of such opposing vigour against their ascendancy.

The history of the followers of the Imams is marked by a struggle of defence against the despotic rulers of their times fighting oppression and tyranny, which has left deep wounds in the relationship between the sects. Their zeal and dedication which the Shiites so openly demonstrate during their processions is obtained from this very history and those very wounds. The importance of such traditions that the Shiites show off so impressively during their processions and "Azza" traditions should not be underestimated, because they constantly question therewith the veracity and legitimacy of the Sunni Islamic governments, by relentlessly reminding their followers of the circumstances and political backgrounds of the martyrs' death of the beloved family members of the Prophet and their faithful companions.

The sects' dispute is (since almost 1400 years) unfortunately also the reason for sometimes fierce fighting and terrible human loss on both sides, especially for the Shiites who are in the minority, as for instance the massacres of the Shiite population by the former Iraqi dictatorship or the numerous suicide attacks in Iraq nowadays in areas with a high Shiite population density that are mostly committed by Sunni extremists..

Although Shiite leaders (including Sayed Hassan Nasrallah and Sayed Fadlalla in Lebanon, Sayed Sistani in Iraq or Sayed Ali Khamanai in Iran) constantly caution their followers not to allow the provocations from some Sunni fanatics to be the reason for a new civil war, but insist on the unity of all Muslims, the situation remains very dangerous. Another Sunni school of thought, that equally strives to return to the original and pure form of Islam, is called Wahhabism from Saudi Arabia (originated through their founder Mohammed Ibn Abdel Wahab, about 1703 till 1791). Osama bin Laden & Co also belongs to this sect. They are not friends of the Shiites, to say the least, but they consider the Shiites to be apostates and thus infidels, why they are strictly observed and controlled under Sunni governments (as in Saudi Arabia or by the Taliban in former Afghanistan). Hence, it came as a surprise that for the first time a few leading Wahabis commented positively on the strategic victory of the Shiite Hezbollah in the recent war with Israel.

The differences, however, seem impossible to be settled or even to find a compromise. This conflict does not only have a negative impact on the Muslim community on different levels but it also weakens it. The continuous conflict between the sects, nevertheless, benefits especially those who are interested to disturb the political structures between Muslims and to destabilize their power in order to enlarge their own influence in Islamic countries. This is also a subject during the processions at night in front of the Imams' shrines; an impressive pageant not only with spiritual but especially with a political background – a kind of oath of allegiance to the Prophet and the Imams, inclusive of a pledge by the pilgrim in form of a possible martyr's death in case of a terror attack.

Guerillas or Socio-Political Organization – the role of Hezbollah in Lebanon

2006-10-16T17:26:00.000+03:00

While the US Administration and the West view Hezbollah as a terrorist organization, it means something totally different to the Lebanese Shiite Muslims and the Arabs nowadays.

During the civil war in Lebanon in the nineteen eighties the establishment of Hezbollah was a necessity for the Lebanese Shiite Muslims to defend themselves from the Israeli invaders. But their role was not limited to mere liberation fighters. They set up a social services and information network starting from organizing health services for their people, caring for their windows and orphans, schooling and education as well as spiritual support in times of hardship and fear. They even established their own satellite channel with a wide range of programs including news in different languages, documentaries, Arabic soap series, children programs and special feature programs on religious occasions.

In 2000 when the Israeli army pulled out of South Lebanon Hezbollah had given their people a sense of integrity and security, new hope and assurance that they were cared for, not forgotten and helpless people, they had returned their dignity. They had and still have, of course, help from friends, just like Israel receives continuous help and support from her friends in the Western world. It is Hezbollah's success that poses a threat to Israel and in the minds of many people in the West, who would rather want to get rid of Hezbollah. Hence, for Israel Hezbollah is a dangerous element obstructing peace in the region.

A new war started when Hezbollah seized two of Israel's soldiers and killed eight others during an operation that was originally planned to trait these captives with many Lebanese and Palestinians who had been captured by Israel during their continuous incursions into Lebanon in the past and actions against the Palestinian uprising. The reaction of Israel shocked the world. Opinions differed and support for both sides could be found. But what was unprecedented and probably unexpected was the support Hezbollah, a pure Shiite organization, gained from all over the Arab and Muslim world.

Famous and liberal Arab actors spoke their support on TV for Hezbollah's leader Sayed Hassan Nasrallah, calling the resistance not only an Islamic but "humanitarian uprising" that had restored the honor and pride of the Arabs and Muslims. The Lebanese mostly Shiite civilians, who suffered so terribly under the relentless bombardment of Israel's military airpower, would woe their unshaken support for Hezbollah. All over the Arab world people demonstrated with Hezbollah flags and carried the picture of its leader. On people's cars and in shops or homes in the Middle East these pictures are still increasingly displayed. It seems that Hezbollah is actually much more than a resistance group or militia in their people's hearts and it definitely proved itself to be very different from the picture that the West would like to portray, namely a bunch of daring terrorists. But whatever the view on Hezbollah, what is their secret, if there is any, for their success?

From the Shiite perspective it is actually no secret at all. They openly declare it every day on their TV channel Al Manar, which Israel had tried to destroy right from the beginning of the recent war. Rather than trying to destroy the voice of Hezbollah, the attentive observer would recognize the very vital source of insight it offers. The speeches of Sayed Nasrallah are inspiring for his followers in which he indicates the fundamental philosophy of their struggle, but that is not always recognized by non-Shiite viewers. Closing one of his speeches, Sayed Nasrallah ended with a quote; a quote from Lady Zainab, the granddaughter of the Prophet Mohammed, the sister of the revered martyr Imam Hussain. Although the Western press has mentioned occasionally the fact that Shiism has a special connection to this martyrdom, it does not understand the significance of this historic event for Shiite Muslims in particular and Islam in general.

The quote of Lady Zainab as recited by Sayed Nasrallah is the fuel for the Shiite cause. It makes Shiites view their dead and martyrs not as loss in the battle of resistance but as encouragement towards a final outcome. As a result they are not scared of losing their soldiers and even civilians. But although deeply saddened, they understand this struggle to be the continuing revolution of Imam Hussain against tyrants and aggressors. Imam Hussain had refused to pay allegiance to Yazid, the powerful ruler at the time, who was an oppressive and arrogant leader to the Islamic Umma, the Muslim people. Yazid had sent his troops to confront Imam Hussain who was on his way from Mekka to Kufa on a stop with his caravan in Kerbala. Because Imam Hussain refused to submit to a ruthless and hypocritical leader, history recalls the cruel massacre of his male household and close companions on the day of 'Ashoura'. Afterwards the female members and only one very sick male survivor, the Imam's son Ali, were taken captive and delivered to Yazid along with the severed heads of Imam Hussain and those of his close companions to be humiliated even further in front of Yazid's court in Damascus.

So what did Lady Zainab say after she had witnessed the massacre of her male family members and close companions who were only a few against an army of hundreds? Challenging Imam Hussain's sister Zainab, Yazid asked her what she would say after she had seen what he was able to do to her family. But Lady Zainab was not devastated as Yazid must have expected. Her speeches have been remembered since, her unbroken dignity and faith became the pillars of resistance against injustice and aggression: "You did what you wished, but remember that you have cut your own skin. … On that occasion (on the Day of Judgment) you will be burdened with the sins of the misdeed committed by you … Feel not elated with our defeat, for you will have to pay the penalty of it on the day when you will be rewarded for your misdeeds. God is not unjust to anyone. We trust in Him. He is our place of refuge. In Him we seek sanctity and with Him rest our hopes! …, nor can you wipe out the ignominy you have earned for yourself by your abominable and vile performance. Your decisions are poor and your days are numbered. … - God's curse be on tyrants and transgressors" (source: http://www.aljaafaria.com/md1art03.htm).

With these words, well-known by all Shiites, Sayed Hassan Nasrallah closed his speech, truly effective and highly motivating for his people; and as a warning for the dominant Israeli military power, for Yazid, being the head of the superpower of his time, disappeared three years afterwards and was never seen again. The resistance of Imam Hussain and his family ending in martyrdom, however, is to this day commemorated every year by millions of Shiites as a symbol of their freedom, dignity and rejection of aggression with zealous emotions and the call "every land is Kerbala and every day is Ashoura". Even famous non-Muslim personalities of modern history have recognized the significance of 'Ashoura', like Mahatma Ghandi who commented that he had "learned from Hussain how to be defeated and yet achieve victory".

The outcome of the latest war, despite the great price paid by Lebanese civilians and also Israelis, is a stronger Hezbollah with an increased support from Arabs and Muslims all over the world and a discredited Israeli government. Cynical voices might even speculate that Israel has done Hezbollah a great favor, rather than clip it. Hezbollah has more than ever become a firm part of Lebanon's politics on which lay great hopes and expectations from many Lebanese people and Muslims. Hezbollah has achieved a higher position than its status quo ante in the Arab and Muslim world thanks to an ignorant and rash Israeli "act of self-defense". However, it seems that it is not only their improving guerilla tactics and organizational skills that are able to challenge military superiority. The question is what role does their strong faith and spiritual background play in their success?

Judaism, Christianity and Islam believe in Monotheism and divine signs and warnings have been part of all religions and histories. But despite secularism and alternative beliefs or ideologies nowadays, time and again people remember these handed down signs and warnings, which cause even people of modern times to bethink these and consider the spiritual approach more serious than contemporary scientists, experts or politicians would like to admit. The increasing interest in religion in Europe and North America shows this trend to become somewhat more influential in the interpretation of worldly affairs. As for their becoming reality we have to wait and see. For the moment, however, the signs seem to be in favor of Hezbollah who declared their victory with a public celebration of hundreds of thousands of Lebanese from all sects and sectors, and a special appearance from their leader Sayed Nasrallah, whom Israel has vowed to keep on hunting, but who has become recognized in his role by many others.

Bomb-Greetings from Children in Israel

2006-09-28T09:58:00.000+03:00

The pictures of Israeli children writing "greetings" on the bombs destined for Lebanon were widely distributed in the Internet and newspapers of the Arab world and received with shock and anger there. The Western mass media on the other hand kept a very low profile on this matter which reflects the general reaction of the West to Israel's way of handling this latest crisis – not without worrying consequences.

Shortly after the publication of the photos of Israeli children writing "greetings" on bombs to be fired into Lebanon I watched a newsmagazine on German satellite TV in which a German lady was waiting to be evacuated from Lebanon during the recent war between Israel and Hezbollah. At the end of her interview she was crying and said that she liked to say something else, if she was allowed. Her wish was granted. She wanted to say that she was very disappointed about the biased reporting of the Western media and then she began to weep about the fate of the people trapped in the South and the many children, who were being bombed without having shelters and had not been given enough time to escape the area. After a few sentences she was not able to continue.

I watched with tears in my eyes and remembered the disgusting pictures I had seen the very same morning for the first time in a German online magazine, photos of smiling young Israeli girls writing "greetings" on the bombs that the Israeli army was to fire into Lebanon. The recipients of these "greetings" I saw too later on Arabic TV and in their newspapers. Pictures that were only rarely published if at all by the Western media, for which the viewers, one has to admit, needed a very strong stomach.

As the war dragged on international politicians, advisors and anyone concerned started to express their regret about the human loss of life and the devastation, but an official stand from the UN on mounting concerns over violations of public international laws by Israel was prevented by a veto from the USA which did not allow the Israeli government to be criticized by the international community for its actions. Why? Anyone causing such humanitarian catastrophes should be criticized, even the Israeli government. Whoever was declared responsible for initiating that war, according to the different sides, however, it is common sense that the weaker military has only two options either to defend itself or to surrender, but the stronger army is the one that can give way. Only Israel had the power to end the sufferings of the people in Lebanon right away at any time. In consideration of the many pictures of traumatized children, increasing refugee tracks and destructed city areas, not to mention the horrible images of terrible injuries and torn apart bodies, people in the West kept a very low profile on expressing their indignations in public about such mass punishment of civilians. "Never again" is probably only a shallow hope voiced after man made humanitarian catastrophes.

As photos often say more than words, people in the West should have the courage to view these pictures seldom or never shown in the Western media, but in "aljazeera.com", "english.aljazeera.net" or "gdn.com.bh" (e.g. Archive 14 July 2006). And as if the war has not already done enough harm there are many duds still crippling so many innocent Lebanese civilians to this day even though the fighting has ended. But these pictures will probably not be shown in the Western press anyway. Is shame or fear or, even worse, lack of interest the reason for turning a blind eye? Muslims and Arabs consequently accused the West of double standards and concluded that Muslim or Arab lives were considered less worthy despite all talk of human rights and humanitarian values.

Despite Western friendships with Israel, the governments of the Western states should have had the courage to criticize Israel for the methods used by her superior military power during four weeks of aggression and the Western public should have come out in noisy demonstrations other than the few silent vigils and the small protests organized by Muslims or Arab nationals in some Western cities. Where were the Western democratic masses demonstrating in support of the innocent civilians killed in their hundreds in Lebanon just as Western public voices had time and again demanded of Muslims and Arabs after the acts of terror in the USA, Spain and Great Britain? The worrying outcome of this latest war is that the world seems to become more polarized into two camps, the one supporting and the other one against the State of Israel diminishing the chances of security and peace for both sides; a situation Bin Laden & Co. was probably just waiting for.

The Threat of "Islamic" Terrorism

2006-09-27T10:33:00.000+03:00

A look at possible backgrounds

The most valuable experience I made during my studies in England, which I began in 1987 at London University, was that I got to know so many students from all over the world, from so many different cultures and religions. This was a very exciting and moving period of my life.

During my first meeting at an international students' meeting in London I saw a very nice looking couple smiling at me. We were all there to get to know other students and thus I asked them where they came from. They were from Israel. These students were the first Israelis and probably also the first people of the Jewish faith that I had met in my life. Their answer made me feel very helpless and I got these pinching feelings of guilt. Hence, my reply in return felt so uncomfortable, but the young couple was ever so friendly and I was relieved that they did not seem to have any problem with the fact that I came from Germany.

I met many nice people and came across so many points of views new to me which made me reflect about my own convictions. At the time of the first Palestinian 'Intifada' I became a witness of a discussion between students among whom were also some Palestinians. One of them said that it was totally sick if some Arabs liked the Germans specifically for their Nazi past. This was the reason that the people whom the Germans had sinned against thought since 1948 that it was justified to sin against his own people while the world was just watching. I felt very uncomfortable and somehow responsible even though I was born only in 1965.

At my student part-time job I made friends with a Moroccan girl. I asked her why her Arabic was not easily understood by the Arabs from the Middle East and why she seemed to prefer to speak in French. She replied that the French had forbidden the Arabic language in schools during their colonization of Morocco so that the generations since then spoke better French. I was shocked. What did the French prohibit in Arabic schools, the native people's own mother tongue? In my A-Level subjects History and French I had received very different impressions about my dear country neighbors. I neither recall having heard in any of our lessons about the "country of one million martyrs", a name given to Algeria after their liberation from the French occupation. If one country is able to do such things to another country, does it then not also practice a form of extremism and fanaticism we often accuse Muslims of, only that time committed by European nationals? Should we accept it because of its European origin and consider it to be better or justified?

Once a big crowd drew my attention in the famous Hyde Park Speaker's Corner that was listening to a Pakistani man, who (which I found out later) was married to a British lady and wanted to make people think about their own thinking – in a very nice manner. He picked a white blond haired man from the crowd and asked him where he came from. The man replied that he was Australian. The speaker did as if he was puzzled and commented that to his knowledge Australians had dark skin and curly brown hair. The Australian answered that those people were called 'aborigines' and they had just happened to be there earlier than them (i.e. the Australians). The speaker enthusiastically agreed with the Australian because he told us that this was actually the same case in Great Britain which now belonged to the Pakistanis and the British had just happened to be there earlier than them. All people had to laugh. Did they laugh about themselves or because they suddenly realized the absurdity of their convictions?

As I studied at the School of Oriental and African Studies I also had the opportunity to meet students from South Africa, some were white, some black, who had two different national languages. I only remember that I was surprised that the language mainly spoken by the white South Africans, of all names called 'Afrikaans', resembled Dutch very much. The history of Africa had never been thoroughly covered at school. I had heard of apartheid, but only after I had personally met black and white people from South Africa did I realize what terrible sufferings the colored nationals of that country had been subjected to.

Nowadays we are witnessing or some are experiencing new sufferings for which a number of circumstances are made responsible, which are mainly known to us as "Islamic or Islamist terrorism". At this point I would like to comment on such terrorists or terrorism which I do not accept to entitle 'Islamic', because this form of terrorism contradicts the principles of the name it tries to borrow and therefore does not deserve to be named after it, for the brutal murderers will receive some kind of justification through it. These people are blood thirsty fanatics that have as much in common with Islam as President Bush with the Merciful Samaritans, and who are above all interested in one thing – revenge, in a fight for power in the course of which the ordinary people pay the price far too high. We should not forget that these kind of people have existed back in time, who practice terror in the name of their religion even within their own faith, such as the Catholics and Protestants in Northern Ireland, who are not consequently called "Christian" terrorists. Their motives are political even if they hold their speeches in the name of their religion and even if they want to persuade the rest of the world to believe them by hiding under the cover of religion.

As European Muslim I am certainly concerned about this subject and try to inform myself as thoroughly as possible. In the articles of the Western press I often read that many things are mixed up too easily, such as the integration problems of Muslim immigrants, the hate speeches of psychopathic Muslim preachers and the adherence to old discriminating traditions for Muslim women (which are misleadingly claimed to be Islamic) and the power-political interests of Islamic countries like the discussion about Iran's atomic program. All these subjects are intermingled which only increases the fear of the people instead of encouraging a reasonable debate about the different subjects.

Living in the Middle East, I hear local people discuss these subjects from their point of view. During a talk show on an Arabic satellite channel one Arabic participant became very agitated over the fact that Muslims are considered to be the terrorists who were not responsible for the cruel crusades, neither for the atomic bomb on Hiroshima nor the napalm bombs on Vietnam and who also had not colonized countries in the Third World for their natural resources leading to an exploitation till this day. Leave alone the war with which the USA had decided to rid Iraq of Saddam Hussain that had led to more bloodshed and unspeakable sufferings. Obviously upset he asked if this was not considered terrorism.

From a Western point of view the perceived silence or non-reaction from Muslims to the present-day terrorism is interpreted as "support" for the terrorists from Islamic countries or Muslims. One could argue that more public protest from the Muslims would help to set a clear sign and that there are also some Muslims whose lack of public reaction is a kind of accepted compensation for the violence and discrimination the people of the Third and Developing World had to suffer under their Western colonialists or protectorates. This kind of thinking is certainly wrong, but we have to understand that it mainly originates from personal emotions and instinct and is therefore not based on Islamic principles or thoughts. On the contrary, Islamic clerics and the absolute majority of Muslims condemn such terror again and again very strongly in their mosques and community centers (that is not reported about very often in the Western media), because such terror is not only strictly forbidden in Islam but it also badly damages the reputation of Muslims.

However, I think as a result of many talks I had with people living in the Middle East that they are as afraid of Western powers as the people in the West are frightened of them. Both sides sense a great threat from the other side and naturally would want to protect themselves. Both sides have their reasons and fears that have been accumulated throughout the years and which need to be understood by the other side. Besides the personal responsibilities of the people for their bad living standards in the Third World it is impossible to apologize for the injustice that was inflicted on them by colonial powers or by the political and economical interference of Western states. This injustice can neither be rectified with development aid. The wounds are too deep and the consequences too devastating. Having been exploited, living in poverty and misery compared to the wealthy and privileged West makes people feel angry and powerless resulting in a longing for justice and recovery of their dignity.

In Islam, as in all religions, doing good deeds is one of the central virtues. In the Quran there is a verse (Sura 99, Verse 7 & 8) saying: "Then shall anyone who has done an atom's weight of good, see it! And anyone who has done an atom's weight of evil, shall see it." Doing bad deeds therefore shall one day fire back on the aggressor. My sister once told me many years ago as a student that her lecturer of operational pedagogic studies (who used to be the head of several Goethe Institutes) had voiced his opinion with regard to the subject 'justice' that we (in the West) would be very silly to believe that the Third World would not pay back what we had done to them once they had the means to do so. I sincerely hope that 9/11 was not the first pay day!

Wedding in an Islamic Country

2006-09-21T12:40:00.000+03:00

Weddings are popular everywhere in the world. However, arranged marriages as practiced in some cultures remain a point of discussion and concern. How about the practice of forced marriage in Arabia today?

For more than 16 years I have been living in Arabia, or more precisely in the Persian Gulf, which the Arabs prefer to call "Arabian Gulf". I also used to live for almost one year in Egypt where I studied in the British Center at the University of Alexandria. Destiny, as it sometimes happens, took me, a native European woman, abroad to a different and strange world beyond the European and Western borders.

Living among the people of Arabia I noticed that some of their less admirable traditions and customs have changed too. As long as I have lived here I have not heard about any unlucky girl being forced to marry someone she did not accept, unlike the practice of our Turkish citizens in Europe, a point of great concern especially in Germany. According to Islamic law forcing a woman to marry against her will is forbidden and no one should be able to drag a girl in front of a clergy to marry a man she does not agree with. As per Islamic law the clergy should ask the woman if she agrees to marry a man without coercion and out of her own free will! During my Islamic marriage-ceremony I was asked so many times if I really wanted this man out of my own desire, without compulsion or false pretext, not against my will, without fearing the anger of any person or family that I became impatient; in church you are asked once and that should do. However, the Islamic clergy should make sure beyond any doubt that the woman is not forced to marry a man. Well, kind of. Unfortunately, some of our Muslim brothers do not handle this issue as correctly as required, because their traditions and family interests seem to be holier in such cases. That is why the girls need to be "persuaded" so they "want" to marry the man who has been chosen for them.

Well, luckily I have made totally different experiences in my new residence country. Whether the future couple has met at university or work or was introduced by a match maker, the intention to marry begins with a preliminary proposal. The usual 'tactic' is that a female member of the applicant's family will ask another female member of the chosen girl's family, or nowadays the girl herself, if she is interested in a marriage with the guy who would like to propose officially. The girl's family will then ask around to find out as much information about the applicant as possible, his conduct and environment as well as people's opinions and any possible drawbacks. If the profile fits, the girl will agree to a visit from the applicant including his family. The two young people will then have the opportunity to talk face to face with each other (if this has not already happened at university or wherever they might have met before in public). Thanks to modern technology they might continue to communicate by telephone or via the Internet if they feel that they like each other.

If both interested parties have become attracted to each other during the time that they get to know each other under supervision, then the families would meet again in order to discuss the marriage contract and some wedding ceremony arrangements. In most cases, the daughter has already prepared her dad about what to demand for her marriage contract. I was personally present during some of these visits in which the men would loudly discuss the bride's conditions so that we could hear them despite of us sitting in a separate place of the house according to tradition. The women meanwhile would talk about other questions of interest such as family relations or if the bride intends to work after marriage.
Once the men have reached an agreement they would inform the women who would announce the happy outcome with a loud yodeling noise. Finally, they would serve the many delicacies that the guests could already smell during the negotiations but that had to wait until both sides would have come to a satisfactory agreement. It has, of course, already happened that no agreement was reached and the applicant family preferred to leave with empty stomachs, as the question of the bride's dowry (to be paid by the groom) or the conditions of the marriage contract sometimes divide the two sides. But most of the time these discussions have been predefined by the young couple with their family beforehand as they have fallen in love by then and the families only meet to decide the date of the official wedding contract signing. In this event a cleric will ask the bride many times if she really wants to marry that man, how much dowry she demands and what conditions she has. For example, she could demand a suitable indemnity in case her husband divorced her, or to register the family home in her name for her security, in case of him marrying a second wife. And because love is known to be blind the bride's family will make sure that such conditions are taken care of properly. With regard to the opportunities that such conditions may offer, women are becoming more inventive how to protect their interests and rights realizing that pretended modesty is of no advantage to them.

After the marriage-contract signing has been performed in a relatively simple party-kind procedure, there will first be an engagement party (and I have no idea why it is called that) for which the bride usually wears a colored dress. During the time after this party the young couple has the opportunity to get closer without the need of an overseer to be present when they are alone, because according to Islamic law they are already legally married. However, the bride will stay in her parents' home until she is ready to move in with her husband. Before they are finally declared as married there will be another "wedding party" with a white bride dress according to Western custom copied from the romantic Hollywood movies. After that the couple will receive well-wishers and many gifts in their own new home.

It also happens that the young people after falling madly in love with each other marry against the will of their families, who have no choice but to accept the new son or daughter-in-law either with or without their consent. Nowadays the families cannot prevent such marriages anymore as in the old times.

The girl who refuses an applicant may certainly do so by all means. In case of an applicant having difficulties to accept a refusal he might be rebuffed in a more "direct" way by the girl's male family members. My eldest daughter, who is still too young for marriage, already had to rebuff her first proposal. As mother of two European/Arabic-mix girls that are very popular for their fair complexion in this part of the world I have already mentally prepared myself for the applicants who might come to our door more often from now on and who will have to be rebuffed, because, luckily, my daughters have already declared that they do not intend to get married for the next hundred years. I think that is a wise decision and I hope they will not change their minds for the next 10 years. At least.

Different Countries Different Customs

2006-09-14T09:33:00.000+03:00

That you really get to know if you live abroad, such as "Caution, don't smile!"

When someone lives abroad s/he will find out about the customs and habits that are not mentioned in any travel guide. For example you better not say hello smiling when entering a shop in the traditional Arabic market, the 'Souq'. That was my first lesson, which I learned about my new residence country in the Persian Gulf after I had entered one of these small shops filled with all kinds of goods up to its ceiling and greeted the people inside with a polite smile as per my friendly European manners.

Both Asian shop assistants would serve me straight away and smiled funnily back at me. I didn't think of anything at that time, because they must have recognized my European origin despite wearing a headscarf and the Arabic Abaya, the traditional long overcoat. I asked for the things I was looking for and the shop assistants put the many different goods taken out of somewhere in this small and packed shop right in front of me. First I didn't notice anything because I was amazed how all these things could fit into such a tiny shop. All of a sudden I became aware that the two shop assistants would not keep the expected distance as prescribed by traditional behaviour rules between the two genders. I was confused, had I said or done something to encourage them? I only wanted to be polite and kind.

Luckily, at that moment a native lady entered the shop and the shop assistants turned around to serve the lady, not because they were being impolite towards me, but because the lady had loudly interrupted us (which suited me just fine at that time). Following I had the opportunity to witness a remarkable lesson on local behaviour manners between a customer and shop assistant that I haven't forgotten after all those years. The lady neither said 'hello' nor 'please' or 'thank you'. In a sharp voice without looking at any of the shop assistants she instructed her requirements like an army officer. She answered the questions of the shop assistants with a short 'yes' or 'no' in an order type tone of voice. After she received an answer for the price she kind of barked a snappish "and last", which actually means "and what is your last price?" The whole treatment seemed to be normal for the shop assistants because they showed themselves totally unimpressed and reacted in a kind and polite way as normal.

The lady finished her purchase and left the shop. The shop assistants returned back to me with that big grin on their faces again. I thought to myself I can what she could and thus I stopped smiling and put on a stern look. Right away the shop assistants kept a proper distance and then I was quickly served without making a strange pass at me. Voila, a little unusual for me, but it had worked, so I left the shop and sneered. Well then, 'different countries, different customs' I thought to myself, so let's wait and see what experience I should make next.

I did not have to wait for long. As newly wedded couple we had visitors the same evening at the house of my in-laws where we would stay until our own flat was ready. The guests I had not met before were welcomed extremely friendly and I was greeted as cordially from the ladies who were very curious to meet me, the European Muslim woman they said would also speak Arabic. I was glad that among so many noisy looks we were only among women as per local customs that I knew of before. After the guests had left, my husband came to me and asked if I did not want to open the gifts that the guests had brought for us. What gifts? Nobody had presented me with a gift. My husband's family had to giggle. Yes, they did! But the gifts were all hidden behind the door or the couch. I wondered about this strange Easter egg hiding game and then we pulled the gifts from behind the furniture.

It is custom that gifts are not presented to the person directly but they are brought in and then put quietly somewhere without attracting attention. Only after the guests have left you are allowed to uncover the gifts and share your joy or disappointment in the presence of your family who would put their oar in with a satisfactory remark or else a sneer. That is actually very convenient, no public opening of gifts in front of guests anticipating your reaction, nor the need to pretend false joy. You can thank someone for a really nice gift later either by phone or in person whenever the opportunity arises - no rush necessary. The gifts that you do not like can be given away which is not a resented but a very common practice. Contrariwise, it is extremely embarrassing to open gifts in front of the person who presented it, as my husband's aunt had to experience when she came with me to visit my own family. The poor woman was not able in the end to open her gift and was very grateful to her European host for her understanding, as she had visited the Persian Gulf before and knew about the gift presenting custom.

Many things have changed since Western customs have become known in this part of the world through the globalization process. Modern shopping malls are copies of their Western models and favorite American soap operas and talk shows have become part of the daily evening entertainment program. However, the small shops in the 'Souq' still exists and the hospitality customs in the villages too. May be I should write them all down one day before they are sucked away by modern development, which has embraced the Middle East during the past two decades at a dizzy speed.

The Fading Social State – Facing Reality

2006-09-13T16:26:00.000+03:00

As native European observer from abroad I am getting the impression that life has changed ...

... in Germany, as in the rest of Western Europe, with regard to our economy that no one sees as a wonder anymore but only wonders about. With the help of satellite television and annual family visits it seems to me that the same is true for the situation of our education that according to the PISA study revokes the reputation of having the highest educational standards in the world. People are beginning to question the image of our model social states that have previously created the impression in the rest of the world that milk and honey flow in our rivers with the result that Western Europe has become a favorite immigration continent. Values that are proclaimed in our national anthems such as unity, rights and freedom or equality and brotherliness no longer reflect the situation on our labour market, in politics or religious tolerance. Social descent and the increasing number of people living below the poverty line are hidden behind so-called promising social and labour scheme reforms.

Even as European emigrant I remain European which bestows some sort of responsibility on me for my native continent. But what does that look like? Well, first of all as emigrants we still have the right to vote in our native country's general elections. Our forefathers have long fought for this right and for women it might be even more precious. However, when living abroad it is difficult to choose and make up one's mind. Politicians usually hold impressive speeches during their election campaigns (which I occasionally watch on satellite TV) that they may or may not remember afterwards when they increase their parliamentary allowances as a precaution for worsening times that the others soon will have, for instance single-parents or the unemployed. New reforms, as promised, may change but not always improve things, although they were carefully developed by competent but probably not unemployed experts just like Mr. Hartz in Germany, who does not have to live on a few Euro a month, but who gave the labor and social reforms his name. How appropriate! Considering all election propaganda and promises dished up by the politicians during their campaign it appeared as if we were given the choice between Ali Baba and the 40 thieves or the Punch (the reader may decide for him-/herself who is who).

It seems once again that the rich become richer and the poor poorer in Europe. However, abroad far away from Europe and its internal problems I still profit from Western Europe's exemplary reputation for our strong economies, jurisdiction, constitutional and social states in which people receive unemployment and social benefits unlike in the rich but non-social states of Asia. For example, Islamic states rely on their Sharia law according to which the ones that have give a fifth of their accumulated wealth to the have-nots that is not regulated by governments and thus totally up to each individuals commitment to his/her religion.

The fact that the situation is not as florid as in the post second world war decades has not been quite accepted by the developing world. Although it is difficult to admit, but it can no longer be ignored that Western Europe is not as social as it used to be. Germany for example has lost its charismatic personalities in politics and is more and more governed by people who seem to use their political values and beliefs mainly for marketing purposes and who want to talk the population into believing new unsocial laws to be a necessity for the improvement of social affairs.

Who is responsible for this situation? The politicians? The citizens themselves? The immigrants? The extension of the European Union into Eastern Europe? Capitalism? People's strive for increasing consumption with which they manipulate their own brains? What is still significant and for whom? Is it high time to awake from the sleeping beauty dream of the prosperous years? No one can say for sure and probably it is a combination of many factors. But I have noticed something from the point of an outside observer; many people have exchanged their political interest with watching popular entertainment shows that have also had an influence on the presentation style and contents of news programs. Somehow there is not much time left beside job and daily life routine for more concern about national or international political issues and an interest in actively engaging oneself in political parties or organizations. Looking at our young and famous these days it seems that general knowledge has been replaced by a sound information background on popular soap operas, reality documentaries and the lifestyle of pop or movie stars and high society. And what about politics? Sometimes I get the impression that a group of people with political and economical power pretends to serve their nation, however not always very effectively nor efficiently because there are all too busy quarrelling about who has the better reform ideas and power to implement them. May be it will help the people, may be not, but that is not so important, because no one is prepared to take any responsibility for their broken promises and the things that went wrong.

The European citizens meanwhile are watching in despair and disbelieve that things are not improving despite all well-meant intentions. As I no longer live in Europe I do not want to interpret my impressions as judgment, but I also know after having lived half of my life in Europe, grew up and received my education there that the European civilization will not lose its social consciousness because of hard times or new challenges. May be we might become inspired again by bethinking our rich literature written by poets and writers once famous and admired in history.

There is a poem by a German poet and writer which we had to discuss in secondary school that keeps coming to my mind in this respect. I think it might be of interest again, especially in times of social deterioration and political dissatisfaction.

Günther Eich (1907 – 1972): BE SAND IN THE GEARINGS OF THE WORLD!

"No, don't sleep,

while the stewards of the world are busy!

Be suspicious of their power,

that they pretend they must acquire for you!

Keep vigil that your hearts are not empty,

when they rely on the emptiness of your hearts!

Do useless things; sing the songs,

which are not expected out of your mouth!

Be inconvenient; be sand not the oil in the gearings of the world!"

(from: Günther Eich/"Dreams")

In other words, don't be ignorant but be aware while others control your life.

An Encounter between the Middle East and the Amazon

2006-08-11T09:22:00.000+03:00

One day an Israeli tourist to the Amazon met a native Indian. Imagine a conversation between these two people from two very different worlds.

David decided to take the vacation of his lifetime, a trip that would take him far away on an adventure, far away from his troubled country that was yet again engaged in another war with her neighbours. He longed for some peace and that's why he was attracted by the name of his travel organizer 'Friends around the World Tours'. He left Tel Aviv for the United States from where he took a flight to Caracas. David had dreamt of this for so long, he was really going to see the Amazon.

The group traveling with David was received at the airport in Caracas and transferred to a hotel there. The next day they flew on to Puerto Ayacucho located on the Orinoco River along the border with Columbia. It was the last town before the deep jungle of the Venezuelan Amazon. The Indians from all around the area held a market of their baskets or carvings and many other handicrafts on the little square. David was delighted and excited.

After breakfast the next day the travel group drove west through savannah and black granite formations. The one hour drive led them to the Piapoco village of Puente Corozal to visit their Shaman, a kind of spiritual leading figure playing the role of a healer and priest. David was captivated by the native Indians and their way of life far away from Western civilizations, modern media industries and the Internet. They seemed relaxed and content and David had the impression that most of them had no idea of what was going on beyond their small world; a great chance to leave one's troubles behind for some time.

The following day the travel group took a two-hour drive to the Parguaza River, then a four-hour boat ride down the river along the lush green jungle to the Piaroa village of Santa Fe where they met more natives. David enjoyed every minute of his adventurous trip and he stopped thinking about his personal worries and problems, his people, the Middle East and politics.

The next day trip took the group for a one-hour drive from Puerto Ayacucho to visit a very traditional Penare Village and Shaman. The Penare held close to their traditional lifestyles, especially the women who dressed traditionally and spoke only the Indian tongue. David had become more accustomed to this new world with every minute and wanted to take a closer look around. He saw a small group of men sitting under a tree resting. They smiled and looked very friendly. Encouraged by their curious looks he strolled over and kneeled down to greet them. One man was sitting on an old tree trunk with his legs stretched and David thought that it looked as comfortable as sitting on his cushioned couch back home. To David's surprise the man on the tree trunk started to speak to him in English.

The Amazon Indian's name was Paco, which means 'free man', so David was told. He invited David to sit with him on the tree trunk. It had looked more comfortable though than it felt, David thought. "So, where do you come from?" Paco began to ask. "From Israel" David replied. Paco, who had no idea of the world map, asked "And where might that be?" He had already met quite a few tourists, funny people coming from countries with long and funny names, but he had not yet heard of Israel. It sounded interesting. David thought about a way to explain, so he said "That's in the Middle East. In Asia. At the Mediterranean Sea. On the other side of Europe." He didn't have the impression that Paco knew more then, so he quickly summarized, "on the other side of the world". But Paco only knotted his head slowly. He would do that often during their conversation as if he was thinking about what he had heard.

In order to find out more about this new visitor Paco asked "Is it a nice place?" "Oh, yes", David responded. "As green as the Amazon?" David laughed "No, no, but it has become a lot greener since my people arrived, well, I mean we have worked a lot on agriculture and cultivation." Paco looked surprised "Since your people arrived?" David had to explain. He tried to make it simple. "Well, you see our history is long, but to cut a long story short, after my people had been persecuted and killed in their millions in a country called Germany by the Nazis, many of us emigrated and settled in a land then called Palestine, which was to be divided between my people and the Arabs living there. Our part was called Israel. That was actually not too long ago, nearly 60 years. Since then people of my religion have come to Israel from all over the world to build a new state."

Paco looked stunned raising his eyebrows; his ancestors had been living in the Amazon for he didn't know how long, they had had their good times and bad times. The white man had come and they had had their problems but life had gone on. He was still living in the same village his ancestors had lived in and he could not imagine leaving this place for anything in the world. Having become more curious Paco asked his new friend "Are you getting on with your neighbours then, I mean the people who had already lived there when you arrived?" David made a grimace "Well, not too well, you see. When more of my people arrived to claim the land, the Arabs would start a war on us, so we actually had to fight them back and throw them out of their houses, so we could have some place to live." Paco let out a guffaw "Well you are lucky your people didn't come here. We would have welcomed you with an arrow in you foreheads." He stopped laughing and knotted his head again. David rolled his eyes; he couldn't believe that an Amazon Indian was interested in the complicated history of his country. But then again, Paco didn't seem to have anything else to do anyway.

After some silence Paco wondered "So, I guess your people won. Could you make peace with your new neighbours?" "Unfortunately not" David sighed, being painfully reminded of Israel's struggle for security, "We are still defending ourselves from the Palestinians and their terrorists". David thought to himself that he had traveled such a long distance to relax his mind and now he found himself in the middle of the Amazon of all places in the world talking about his country and the problems he wanted to leave behind for a while. "Why?" David heard Paco asking, "You didn't try to make a deal? You see, we still live in our villages and make money with the way of life we have been living for hundreds or thousands of years. In return, the white man brings his tourists to us, and builds his cities somewhere else. It took us some time, but we got sorted out." David whished it was that simple.

He tried to make it even shorter. "You see, Paco, the Arabs don't want us there, we can't live with them in peace, we have tried, but they blow themselves up to kill our people, so we have to move our army into their areas and refugee camps to defend our settlers and our country. But, we are strong and we have good friends in the world. So, don't worry". Paco didn't worry, but he still wondered. "Refugee camps and settlers, that sounds as if your people have not reached a fair deal with the people who were there before you". David got annoyed "Look, Paco, that land is our land, the 'Promised Land' by God, for 3000 years, you know 'God', the creator", David pointed to the sky to make himself clear. "My people originally came from there. Many of us then spread all over the world over the years. Then after the terrible Holocaust in which millions of Jews, I mean of my people, you know, were murdered during the Second World War, they founded a new state for us, Israel. That happened to be in 1948. And only a year later we became a recognized member of the United Nations, Ok?" Paco knotted his head again in silence. "So since then, you have been fighting on and off with your neighbours? Paco persisted. "Unfortunately, yes" David groaned. "And you still like it there?" Paco wanted to know. "Yes, of course, it's where I and my father were born" David affirmed.

"Where was your grandfather born then?" Paco was noisy, he had to admit, but he was interested in everything new and David happened to be new. "From Russia" David smiled. "Is Russia nice?" Paco smiled back. "Oh, yes, it is a very beautiful and very big and powerful country, with lots of woods and magnificent cities too" David added. "Is there war in Russia?" Paco questioned. "No, not in Russia itself" David replied shaking his head quickly as if he wanted to convey a good message. "Why don't you live in Russia where your grandfather comes from?" Paco was surprised. "Because I am Israeli" David wanted to stop the noisy questioning. Paco knotted his head again to think.

Paco waited for a little while. "I guess your government is still working on a deal with the others for peace?" Paco wanted to console his sad visitor. "Nope" David shook his head. "There is just another war raging between Israel and our neighbours" David uttered in a monotonic voice. "The Arabs and even the Persians want to get rid of us. But if they can't accept us they should leave. So we have to fight them". "They will think the same" Paco began to argue. "Their people were there before you and your father" Paco noticed. "That's not the point, Paco, you can't understand. What do you know, living here in the middle of the jungle?" David countered with an angry growing tone. The two men stared at each other's faces for a moment, then Paco replied. "I may not know your country and the trouble your people went through", Paco looked right into David's eyes and then slowly over to a group of women with children who sat chatting and laughing nearby, "but if someone came here", keeping his eyes firmly on the group of women and children, "and tried to remove me and my family from this place, no matter for what reason or because of whatever declaration, I'm sure, I too would defend my family and our home with my blood." Paco didn't ask David anymore questions; he thought he had talked enough with his visitor. He then turned again to his tribesmen, who had listened in silence to the language of the white man. They had not been keen on learning like Paco, who spoke the white man's language, but which never seemed to be enough to understand them anyway.

As for David, he and his group went back down the river by boat to the village of Trincheras from where they drove by car to Puerto Ordaz a few days later to catch the night flight back to Caracas, leaving behind a very different world with different people living such different lives. David couldn't help but envying the native Indians for their autonomy, integrity and most of all their peace. A peace they were able to have because of their respected rights and honor that no one should dare to take away from them to keep on living in peace.

About Prejudices and Other Errors

2006-07-29T22:09:00.000+03:00

More than 16 years ago I married into a real Arabic family and had to eliminate a pile of prejudices first.

Actually my husband was supposed to marry his first grade cousin, as it is still practiced a lot in the Middle East. This way the money stays in the family and the members know each other well to spare them from unpleasant surprises.

But family plans did not work out, because firstly, their son had to study abroad, in England, where many young men were sent to obtain a good qualification to become a much needed doctor, engineer, architect or accountant that this region lacks and because of which they still import so many foreign workers and specialists into the Middle East.

As it might be expected of someone studying abroad in a place where many international students gathered together, the son, on whom all family hopes were laid, met and fell in love with a European lady, me. Long story cut short, after a few years it became evident (meanwhile I had converted to Islam through my Arabic studies) that he wanted to marry me and to live in his home country in the Middle East. I said yes.

First of all he returned home alone to prepare his family, which ended in a family drama. The disappointed uncle whose daughter he would not marry got upset and no longer supported his nephew's studies. The mother broke out in tears; her mean sisters-in-law would make fun of the young man's mad choice; his father began chain-smoking, while the female family members tried to change his mind by offering to arrange a marriage with a beautiful local girl showing him daily pictures of willing ladies as per the traditional marriage mediation procedures. But all their efforts were in vain, even though they had done everything to argue him out of his foolish decision, knowing that women from the West were usually "easy" girls, not to be trusted as wives, and that the "Englies", as all foreigners from the West would be called (i.e. the English), were not very clean but stinky, because they did not use water after they had been to the toilet to wash the relevant body part with lots of water. They also had their doubts if a young woman from the West knew how to cook and she probably was not very talented in housekeeping either. Moreover they did not know anything about my descent. Family is important in the Middle East; if you get married, you marry the whole lot.

But despite all protests, my future husband would not change his mind. After the initial temper had calmed down and my fiancé's family elders had traveled all the way to Europe to 'examine' the bride a date for the wedding was set and I flew to my new home, a small island in the middle of Arabia. Only the closest family members were invited to our wedding, roughly 250 people, because of the embarrassment that the son of a traditional and well recognized family would marry a foreigner, even though a Muslim. I didn't mind the "small" number of guests, besides I did not understand a lot of the local dialect. I had spent a year in Egypt and the dialect I knew was not the same, but at least I spoke some Arabic.

After a few days the tension subsided as I had a lot of experience from my stay in Egypt in how to deal with people's fear and apprehension of strangers. I knew that I had to meet my new family with understanding and empathy. I also knew that in the opposite case people would react similar or worse if, let's say, my brother would want to marry a girl from a totally different culture who had never lived in Europe before. I understood why the family was worried. Thus, in the coming days I spent a lot of time with my new mother-in-law helping her in the kitchen and around the house in order to break down the emotional boundaries and to get to know each other. My mother-in-law, on the other hand, noticed with satisfaction that I knew how to take care of a household, which I owed to my experience as an au-pair girl in London. We finally got to know each other much better while picking rice, which proved to be an excellent language learning opportunity for me. I owe my fluency in colloquial Arabic to her.

Within a few days the ice was broken and my mother-in-law took me into her heart. To show me her affection she would throw a piece of meat from her side of the huge plate with rice and lamb at which we all sat on the floor eating with our hands, of course. The other family members stopped breathing to see how I would react to this old local custom that might be fairly unappetizing for a European. I thanked her with a smile and ate. There were many other incidents about which we often laugh today and which we fondly remember. I have since become one of the favourite family members and enjoy everyone's full respect.

By the way, the children of the two sisters-in-laws of my husband's mother, who had made mischievous and sneering comments before our marriage, got also married since; one of them has a daughter-in-law from the Far East and the other one a European son-in-law. Well, how does the proverb go? Do as you would be done.

The Head Scarf Controversy

2006-07-28T22:13:00.000+03:00

The controversy about the head scarf in some European countries has become a point of discussion in the Middle East. As a German Muslim wearing the head scarf I have to consider both sides.

When I converted to Islam almost 18 years ago in London, where I had started to study Arabic and Politics, I also decided to wear the head scarf in public. It was my free decision and I had my own personal reasons. For me it was a natural decision although I was well aware of the consequences and possible reactions of my non-Muslim friends and family. As I had expected they were quite surprised and some thought I had gone totally mad.

Only two years earlier I myself commented the answer of the first male Muslim I had personally met to his country of origin with the remark that he came from a region where women were suppressed. Right away he invited me to his home country in order to prove to me the opposite. Today I live in Arabia and know that reality in the Middle East is often very different to the prejudices we have in the West about these countries, their people and lives. Before I had ever met any people of the Middle East I thought I knew better. I had forgotten my first conscious encounter with Turkish Muslims when I was still a child. During a picnic with my elder sister on a very hot summer's day we saw a group of busily chatting female Muslim Turks wearing head scarves. I remarked that they must be dying of heat, but my sister replied differently than I had expected. To my surprise she said that according to an old saying everything that is good against the cold is also good against the heat. If there is any truth to that or not was not the point at the time, but I think my sister (intentionally or unintentionally) wanted to convey a message to me. I remember that I evaluated my quick comment and thought I should be more tolerant with others and not to be judgmental before I ever got to know these people.

Many years later during my studies in London I had close contact to Arabic and Persian Muslims who lived there, many of them were wearing the head scarf, but they were so different from the Turkish Muslims I had seen at home. As a world metropolis London offers total freedom of religion to people of all faiths and the head scarf was never a subject of controversy as long as I lived there. That was not a surprise as Hindu policemen may replace the traditional "bobby" helmet of the royal police force with a turban of the same color. I do not think this would be possible in Germany, where I come from!

Yet, I also experienced how difficult it could be for young Muslim girls to go to school with a head scarf, especially if they were the only one. One close Muslim friend whose daughter was the only girl wearing a head scarf at the time in her school asked for my advice, what she could do if her daughter came home crying after she had been teased by the other children because of her head scarf. This problem was to be expected, because children do not like to stand out of the crowd but they wish to blend in with their peers. The only advice I could give her at the time, as I knew that her religious convictions would not allow her daughter to go to school without the head scarf, that she should talk to her daughter and allow her to speak about her painful experience at school and her frustrations without the fear to be criticized from her strict parents or worse to doubt their love. The parents had to show compassion for their daughter's situation. I didn't have a better advice then, but my experience made me confront this subject already before I had a daughter on my own one day.

Many years later one event reminded me of this subject, but this time from a different angle. I was working as English teacher in a private school in the Middle East when a girl came into the teachers' room crying because she had forgotten her head scarf at home, which she only had started wearing recently. This time she was teased by the other children for not wearing a head scarf – opposite worlds but with a similar problem and similar insensitive reactions. My Danish Christian colleague of all teachers would help this poor girl without hesitation by taking off her neck scarf with the remark that the girl did not have to worry at all nor cry because something like that could happen to anyone and this didn't make her a bad person. She did not try to convince this girl of her own personal opinion that the head scarf was unnecessary, which would not have helped to console the girl at that moment anyway, but rather would have made matters worse. I was surprised about the understanding and empathy with which the teacher was able to help this girl, whose relieved smile I cannot forget. Especially children and young people should not be teased or discriminated against because of their appearance. They cannot and most of all are not yet allowed to decide for themselves and therefore become easily victimized. I wanted to avoid that for my own children. As German mother of (by now) two daughters I knew very well that I could never force my own girls to wear a head scarf and had never wanted to. This is why I had to grapple myself with this subject critically and find an acceptable solution for everyone involved.

Children need an environment in which they are able to practice their religion freely if it is practiced by their families intensively. They have to understand their religion and should be able to adopt it with their hearts and reason, if they wish to do so, without compulsion. Because sooner or later compulsion causes problems and we will achieve the opposite of what we originally wanted to accomplish. Scared off by compulsion many people neglect or even hate their religion even though they don't really know it that well. As for me, being a German Muslim woman and based on my own circumstances, it is a must that I may voluntarily follow the rules and rituals of a religion. However, for children who are born into a religion, unfortunately, this is mostly not possible. As one of my university colleagues remarked once, too many Muslims reduce religion to a set of dos and don'ts with which they often threaten to suffocate their own children instead of helping them to spiritually and mentally grow and develop through their religion. Sadly, many don't allow this interpretation of Islam in daily life for themselves.

Muslim parents who live in Europe must begin to understand what they might do to their children if they raise them in a foreign culture while rejecting that they identify themselves with the same culture they live in, in other words with what they see in their environment every single day at school, with their non-Muslim friends, on TV, or during festive seasons. For me personally there was no other alternative but to raise my daughters in an Islamic country, to send them to gender segregated government schools where they wouldn't be picked at because of their head scarves so that they could enjoy their childhood feeling normal without having to suffer the consequences of a culture or religion clash.

Children deserve to be loved and parents love their children because they think that their children resemble them and they recognize themselves in their children. Small children identify themselves with their parents and do everything in order to avoid disappointing their parents. Muslim girls that go to school in Germany or France, for example, are constantly given the feeling that they are wrong not only through the public fuzzy discussion about the head scarf but (what is worse) through a lot of inconsiderate behaviour and rejecting reactions by their fellow non-Muslim residents even through a quick disapproving look. At home, on the one hand, they are made to understand that they are wrong if they copy local behaviour patterns or likings that, on the other hand, the culture they live in would like them to accept. These children will not be able, despite all their efforts in their already strained situation between two cultures and religions, to satisfy the impossible expectations of being correct and respected from everyone.

I don't think the ideal solution is to segregate government schools according to religion or gender. However, we must admit that as long as the head scarf issue is met with such prejudice, and as long as the mistrust between the cultures involved grows, and as long as possible changes of society frighten so many people on both sides, and as long as children cannot be accepted as they look (which I admit is not always their choice), so long will these girls suffer and so long will we burden them with our immaturity. The children most likely cannot understand the connection between their traditions and religion; leave alone the political background of the flurry in Germany or France, two societies that are based on secularism in which equality and freedom for all should be guaranteed, for both the one who wants and the one who does not want to practice religion.

I have always discussed the head scarf issue with my daughters and the problems they might get when wearing it during our trips to Europe. But despite their given choice they never wanted to take it off because it is part of their identity and the society they live in. This is important because the head scarf is not automatically part of the identity of Muslim girls that live or were born in Western countries. In addition people often lack religious tolerance in secular states, because of the right of choice is considered fundamental. One solution might be better integration policies but they cannot be implemented from one side only. Muslims who live in Western countries need to inform others about their religion and accept to reflect about possible drawbacks in their behaviour patterns instead of wishing the "unbelievers" always to hell. One has to admit that the lack of sensitivity from the population of the immigration country, on the one hand, and the sensitivity of the Muslims with regard to their religion, on the other hand, do not make this task any easier. Naturally, Muslims do not want non-Muslims to interfere in their religion and vice versa Europeans do not want Islam to influence their secular state and laws. Who would not understand this? Nevertheless, if we want to improve the situation, both sides need to get to know each other better and stop feeling to be superior to the other. The head scarf has a long history and belongs also to Judaism and early Christianity. If Jewish girls/teachers or catholic nuns were wearing the head scarf in German or French schools, would they be equally discriminated against? I hope not.

Justice or reality-satire?

2006-07-28T17:49:00.000+03:00

Overthrowing Saddam Hussein was one of the major reasons for starting the war against Iraq. On Arabic TV channels one is able to witness live the court case of Iraq's former dictator; if one has the guts.

Even though the news of increasing violence and terror in Iraq seem to have brushed aside the attention of one of the major causes this war was started in the first place, the court case of the former Iraqi president and dictator is broadcasted live since its beginning on several Arabic TV channels. Saddam Hussein is sitting together with his closest associates of his former government, of whom some are his direct relatives, in front of the judge on the defense chairs with a wooden hip-high railing around them. Their defense lawyers are placed at the side of the court room and come from different Arabic countries. One lawyer for instance, comes from Bahrain, my place of living since 1991. The judge is a white-haired man who looks quite grumpy at times. That is because his court room often resembles a theater play of reality-satire, in which the people personally responsible for the past horrors in Iraq have become the main actors in this sinister play that they seem to present to the audience.

As interested viewer of an historic court case we had to witness some time ago how one of the accused sat unwashed and still in his creased pyjama like a stubborn child on the floor facing the judge with his back, placing his elbows on his knees and his hands brushing through his untidy hair. The reason for this scene was that the defendant was brought from his prison cell to the court room against his will. (I thought that Michael Jackson who ones appeared at court in his pyjama trousers and slippers already seemed quite bizarre.)

If one has the patience to observe the reoccurring fits of rage of the accused, who constantly and intentionally interrupt the judge with their rude insults, then one will become witness of a cynical performance by the defendants, who listen emotionless and with a contemptuous look in their faces to the testimonies of their former victims who suffered so indescribably during their reign of Iraq. What is more, these witnesses have to hear insults that are sworn at them by the accused during their ordeal of recalling their torture and sufferings.

For their protection the witnesses sit behind thick curtains speaking into a microphone that changes their voices electronically beyond recognition. They accept this ordeal in order to bear witness against their former rulers, a testimony of cruel persecution, unimaginable torture and extreme human rights violations. The evidence they are giving is, regrettably, not unheard of, but for the first time for most of us we are hearing it from the victims themselves. Unfortunately, even though understandable, the victims remain anonymous and the electronically changed voices bestow an anxious unreality on these scenes.

Saddam and his gang are obviously unmoved by these testimonies but they are able to repeatedly interrupt the court or even cause impertinent chaos while the viewer would like to explode with anger feeling the blood boiling in our veins. The last judge has resigned some time ago because he could not become in control of his court room. Saddam was and still is a cunning fox, who up to this day considers himself to be the rightful and most of all just president of Iraq. His distorted view will not be changed by the shocking victims' testimonies and their evidence. The accused know themselves too well how they reigned over Iraq and with what methods they terrorized their population. For them the purpose sanctifies the methods.

It is well-known that Saddam now and then killed opponents with his own hands and did not even spare two of his sons-in-law. He also demonstrated to his sons some convincing and practical methods of becoming strong rulers with a box of mice. When his sons were still young he had a box full of mice thrown out in front of them and ordered his sons to catch them again, alone. Although they tried their utmost out of fear to be punished in case of failure and as they knew they could not disappoint their strict father, they were not able to catch these mice again. Saddam, however, would show them how. He took the box full of mice and shook it vigorously before releasing the mice. This time his sons were able to catch all those mice without much effort. The father closed his demonstration with the remark that in order to control the people and to be a successful, strong ruler they would have to do the same with their subjects. So much with regard to the government know-how tips of a dictator.

It is hard to believe with respect to the testimonies heard so far and my history knowledge of the Middle East that this court case will be of much use to the Iraqi people, especially with regard to the escalating violence and terror in Iraq. The new Iraqi president, Dschalal Talabani, has already announced that he will not sign the death penalty for Saddam, knowing very well that he would sign his own at the same time. Sadly, justice probably will not and cannot be done to the victims, but I fear that these victims and Iraq will not find any peace as long as Saddam is still alive. What is more, just like after the break down of the Nazi regime in Germany, many responsible helpers and supporters of the former dictator will escape by leaving their scenes of action in order to continue their lives somewhere else where they are able to hide their infamous past.

Nowadays, I change the channel when Saddam's court case is shown on TV and wish that he would have had a similar fate like the Romanian dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu.

My Arabic Children

2006-07-26T21:06:00.000+03:00

As German mother of three half-Arabic children it is one of my major tasks to build a bridge between the cultures - a balancing act.

When I met my husband in Watford College, England, 20 years ago I would have laughed if someone had told me then that one day I will marry a non-European foreigner. However, love is without control and my love led me to an unexpected destiny.

As a typically correct and A-level educated young German I sought counseling on the legal issues before marriage from an advisory bureau in Hamburg. They sent me a detailed brochure about the laws with regard to marriage between a German and an Arab. As precaution, the consultant had written a note at the beginning of the brochure, advising me to better check if my future husband did not already have one or more wives waiting for him in his home country. I guess, the consultant had meant well, sure due to experience, but my fiancee did not have another wife in his harem. I was and still am the only one.

Meanwhile more than 16 years have passed, my husband and I are still happily married and our whole pride is our three children, two girls and one boy. All three speak fluently Arabic, German and English, which I admit to owe in great part to the technical invention of satellite TV. Our religion is Islam and we are striving to open both cultures to our children, often proving to be a balancing act, which is time and again due to the lack of tolerance from people in both cultures. Nevertheless, we are flying to Germany every year to visit grandpa and grandma and my family regularly comes to visit us here in Bahrain. Keeping contact is most important and thus the two cultures are approaching each other quite a bit, not only because the love between children, parents and grandparents, but also because of the intensive process of getting to know each other, which extremely supports mutual understanding and sympathy.

My family often clarifies old prejudice such as the suppression of women in Islam and Islamic fanatics when the discussion arises in Germany. We cannot and do not want to deny that such circumstances exist, but they are not the general truth. We also like to joke about the usual cliches of both cultures and Grandpa is all smiles when his grandchildren taunt him with a wrinkled nose about his pork sausages, he still enjoys eating them and we don't mind him. The children have learned very early to deal with the differences in culture and religion and also not to insist on commenting and judging everything. Hence, my family and friends in Germany forego alcoholic drinks during shared meals without any problem, while we spoil them with our Arabic cookery. Mutual approach is the motto for us. Our headscarves have never been a subject of argument, we all know and like each other as we are, with or without a head scarf that does not matter at all. Equally we take care that any lady visitor not wearing the head scarf in Bahrain is treated with respect and courtesy, we do not tolerate any discrimination.

Due to the fact that I come from a different culture I cannot smooth talk the existing disadvantages of neither their father's culture nor mine, and I cannot deny any real shortcomings. We often discuss the problem subject such as religious extremism and racism. It is easy in a family whose members come from the same culture and religion to criticize or malign another one. This is not possible in our family without running down the people we love. Despite our children's young age (14, 11 and 6) they have learned many things about religion and traditions from both the Arabic and German sides. The mere knowledge reduces the fear of cultural or religious differences, because the fear of value and identity loss is often based on one's own uncertainness and fear of the unknown. Knowledge is power and in this case it replaces the swooning feeling of ignorance, which troubles the people in both parts of the world and because of which the people from different cultures often reject each other.

However, it is not as easy as it seems or one would wish, because there is at least one major obstacle to the rapprochement and understanding between the two cultures, namely their drawbacks, which is on the one hand the confusion of traditions and customs with religious morals, and on the other hand the estrangement and rejection of religious values (may be an important subject for another article). Nevertheless, I believe where there is a will there is a way. There are reasoandund backgrounds for every behaviour that need to be known and viewed from different perspectives in order to explain and understand it, which is not the same as uncritically accepting. May be, people from bi-cultural backgrounds (like my children) are one day able to help building a bridge between the cultures and to dismantle prejudice and fear. They may do so not by changing the cultures and religions from scratch, but by creating understanding and tolerance through their natural cultural bridging.

Unacceptable Criticism

2006-07-26T16:44:00.000+03:00

A study about German mothers who quit their job to have more time for their children showed that most mothers were using this time for their own recreation instead. This caused a German tabloid paper to label them as "lazy mothers", which resulted in a heated public discussion about motherhood and the lack of either mother care or respect for women's personal needs. As for people in the Arabian Gulf, they would probably never have such a discussion in the first place.

Many things have changed since I moved to Bahrain more than 16 years ago. The culture shock that I had initially expected as a typical German was relatively mild, because Bahrain turned out to be quite a wealthy and well developed country. Furthermore, soaring economic developments (with its highlight of the arrival of Formula 1 have made the assimilation to Western standards firmly established in this small kingdom island.

The living standard of the middle class is quite remarkable. The number of family homes that are much bigger and more luxurious here than in Germany, for instance, has risen dramatically. Usually, the inhabiting marriage partners drive each their own car. While the number of working women and mothers is on the increase, the number of children per family is reducing with each generation. The average number of children per family used to be six to eight children two generations ago, but young mothers these days would like to have three or four children at maximum, some are even content with only two, although children these days are a lot less work intensive for mothers, at least in this region. How come?

The relative low population rate in this part of the world makes it necessary to hire workers from abroad. Most of these foreign workers come from the Third World, because their salary expectations are very low compared to the local labor market and they are easily recruited due to the lack of complicated labor laws. Among those foreign workers are also cheap housemaids who only demand a fraction of the salary that a local worker would work for. Consequently, almost every household starting from the lower middle class is able to afford a housemaid and/or nanny, who will take care of the house and children.

As a result, more women are able to find a job and at the same time have children, if they choose to do so. More than in Western societies, children are almost exclusively the job of the woman. Further, maternity leave in the Gulf region is only 45 days, which means that already 6 weeks after childbirth working mothers usually go back to their job, many leaving their baby in the care of their housemaids. Even if a woman chooses to stay at home as housewife, most households still have a housemaid as the houses here are very big and difficult to manage on one's own. Besides, why should a woman struggle to cope alone with such a big house if her husband can afford to provide her with a housemaid and/or nanny?

It has to be mentioned at this point that these "nannies" are hardly trained but mostly unskilled young foreign women with little or no English or Arabic language knowledge from a poor African or Asian country. Their only "qualification" might be having children on their own. Further, the local working conditions of these domestic workers often resemble those of slaves in the old times that enable Arabic working mothers or housewives with well-earning husbands to enjoy more leisure time without having to look after their children themselves. Higher living standards combined with changed views on the necessary effort investment of mothers in times of wealth and increased personal demands are important here, which perhaps have led the Arabic society to accept such child care situations as inevitable side effects of modernization and development.

The human species is a habitual being and thus most women have become so accustomed to their housemaid and nanny services that they cannot imagine a life without the comforts they enjoy through their domestic servants' work. Mothers and their children depend on themselves only during the dreaded time between departed housemaids that have finished their working contract and the arrival of the new servant girl, which may well be the cause of a variety of serious domestic crisis in some families. The children, of course, are also very used to these housemaids, so that they often have become spoiled, because the housemaid is the one who tidies up their room and toys, cleans up any of their mess and takes care of all sorts of other unacceptable or even labor rights violating services.

It happens that some children do not see their mothers very often whether they go out for work or not. As a former teacher in a private school I often witnessed the results of such lack of contact time between mother and child. In one of my English lessons I wanted to elicit the word "mother" from my first grade students with the following questions: Who takes care of you at home by helping you to prepare your school bag, or washing your clothes, or cooking your lunch? The answer was quite clear, it was the housemaid not the mother who would do all those jobs alone. One of my students, however, informed me that his mother who was a housewife could not do all of these jobs because she had to sleep till noon and go shopping in the afternoon. Well, so much for my intention to use what I considered the traditional mother role in my language lesson.

Nevertheless, this experience made me think. Is it only the woman who neglects her role as mother because of her convenient substitute in a wealthy and modern society? Does not also the lack of commitment from the father, withdrawing himself from the daily energy-consuming and exhausting childcare, contribute to this situation? On the one hand, childcare seems to be everywhere the expected priority of women. On the other hand, traditional expectations and task distributions are not easily adjustable to the development of a modern society. This is also true for modern Arabia despite traditions or conventional mother role expectations. Nannies are not employed to watch TV all day and they are part of the status symbol in wealthy Arabia. Therefore, it might be high time to redefine the mother's as well as the father's role and their new relating tasks. Luxury and wealth come at a price, which often has to be paid by the children, who should consider themselves lucky if they see their parents for an hour or two a day.

However, such tabloid headlines as seen in Germany of so called "lazy mothers" are absolutely unthinkable in this part of the world. Even though if the childcare situation in modern Arabia may one day result in a public discussion for the sake of the children and not least for society as a whole (if not for some poor domestic workers), such harsh open criticism seems not acceptable in this part of the world. Reflecting about how the German Press (rightly or wrongly) dealt with the "mother-subject" in such a provocative and argumentative writing style, I often get the impression that self-criticism is not yet considered part of modern development in Arabia.

Creativity is a Gift from God

2006-07-25T20:55:00.000+03:00

Well, at least this is what is says in Julia Cameron's book "The Artist's Way". So, I want to express my creativity in writing about life in the Middle East, about different issues and stories, giving the passer by an insight into a world s/he might not know and, may be, never will, seeing beyond familiar horizons and view points in order to build a bridge of understanding between cultures and people.

When I came to the small island kingdom of Bahrain in the Persian Gulf more than 16 years ago I wanted to become a writer. So many years have passed and so much has happened, and I think it's high time to finally start writing after all. Welcome to Stories from the Middle East.