I remember last year's debates that took place in Hungary as I was there for a course of several weeks. To be frank it was more of an investigation done by a Belgium man about Islam, Terrorism and Saudi Arabia. yes I know how much of a beautiful triad to be arguing about for five weeks :\ . to be honest I was enjoying it and that gentleman was a curious clever person making me look to other faces of reality and making the breaks in each day more than just a time for getting a bite to stop your hunger.
it was that day when he asked me a new question about the causes of the Sunni-Shiite conflict. *SIGH* I replayed then took a breath and a few minutes to try summarizing it but couldn't. I started talking and explaining the beginning by the killing of othman ibn affan the third leader of the young islamic state followed by the fight for power between the two strong men of that time ali and moaweya passing by the years later and the death of hussain the grandson of the prophet and the son of ali and the bequeathing of yazeed the son of moaweya ... he suddenly stopped me asking me if the bombings in iraq are justified and based on such stories ?? well, if you add a lot of self interests and thirst for power in the last 1000 years then yes, can you believe it? I answered.
what made me remember that argument is that tension I see each time in the faces of people in my college located in Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia which is known to be the political HQ for Sunni islam not only that but a more strict one. the tension is brought by many things mostly political as recently the bahraini protests. because in a shiite dominant country Iran "you've said it the shiite HQ" must be involved !! as if their demands of a better life is a cover for an "Islamic revolution" there "personally I'm not interested at all actually i was happy to hear a DJ demand in the protesters gathering, it was a real relief."
this conflict makes us weak from the inside and gave a golden chance for occupiers to keep iraqis divided and more away of each other, not only that but made that gap that extremists from both sides used in a terrible way.
trying to understand the reasons behind such ideas is not that hard. some religious politically guided assholes are behind each recent conflict. raising children under a speech praising sects not land, pointing the difference not the common and turning the credibility of the preachers and history events into a non questionable dogmas plus a long history of lacking trust in each other.
all of these are making this phobia spread in a wider range between the young and the worst part is they don't even need to know history to make a point of it .. it's inherited nowadays !
no one decided what he was born as and history does not belong to anyone, logic has no role in this as some will try to convince us with "or themselves maybe" .. i believe he has the freedom to believe in it or not to believe in anything at all as this is his pure business and if bahrainis choose the spaghetti and meat ball god as a supreme leader I'll be happy as long as they get and apply a constitution giving them all their rights making them a major part in building their land.
in the old days I've been filled with such stupid thoughts but now for sure I know and will try my best not to put my future children in a such environment. it's enough that I lived in this ambivalent sphere which both parts are guilty in making it. enough is enough.
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
Friday, February 11, 2011
a sms to heaven
hello dad it's your son talking
they did it, Egypt is free now and I'm optimistic now.
please tell this news to the martyrs of the new arabian revolutions there.
miss you
good bye
they did it, Egypt is free now and I'm optimistic now.
please tell this news to the martyrs of the new arabian revolutions there.
miss you
good bye
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Tunisia : the tale of a new era
I was born in 1987 in Riyadh the capital of Saudi Arabia , being a middle eastern guy makes me more familiar with political disasters but on other hands being a post-colonial newborn makes me not aware totally of what my parents went through, not capable to fully understand the reasons of that time that contributed to this modern middle east.
my dear father -may he rest in peace- was proud of being an arab and always told me that all failures in the region were just black pages in our history "he also told me about a lot of red bloody ones" and the arab masses will wake up someday to choose their own leaders to save their countries from enemies of the outside and the inside too and start a new era of dignity.
Away from the famous arab radio in my old man's days "arab voice = saout olarab" there were no more sources of the arab-israeli wars information , the voice of jamal abdulnasser had that sedative effect during listening followed by that stimulant effect making the people scream and go protesting "not here :\" to support the notorious arab leader of that time, the one that said no to colonial forces and nationalized the Suez canal leading to another war, the one that also filled the dungeons with political opponents.
a lot of arab leaders came after that with most of them being dictators ruling with the guns & ideologies "religion, nationalism you name it" and all using the people in the name of saving the lands from either the damn imperialists \ or the infidels .
people knew the simple equation saying that the more the leader screams against the enemy the more he is a traitor to his beliefs and the more he is gaining trust inside the enemies closed offices.
as years pass most of the arab world leaders were reaching their positions by either bequeathing or a military uprising, but there was that sort of an exception that my dad was proud to tell me trying to plant that hope inside me , it was the tale of abdulrahman sewar addahab the Sudanese general who overthrew a dictator to promise his citizines with a fair elections "without him as a candidate' and did it but of course the happy ending is missing in sudan and you can see it in the news.
about one week ago another exception did happen in the last place any man around here will ever dream of ... Tunisia the oasis of secularism as the western governments and media always pictured it. the people were the ones that started and finished this revolution and amazingly for the first time in the arab world the army refused to obey the tyrant's "bin ali" orders to stop it with bullets on the contrary the army filled the streets of Tunisia to gain balance in the streets and fired their bullets against the private guards of bin ali that were spreading terror between citizens. it was a lot of adrenaline for a simple guy like me to handle .... IT WAS A DAMN MIRACLE . jaw dropping to the point i wake up each day to see the news to be sure that no army general woke up with a crazy idea to rule the country and till now fortunately i'm wrong and hope to be that for ever.
ladies and gentlemen the youth or arab world who became so pessimistic due to all the corruption, torture, human right restrictions, ignorance and a bull shit filled media entered now a new era were they have an example of a country that grasped it's freedom and will not allow anybody to try taking it away. now they know the power of the new media and know more about the hypocrisy of arab\western media and regimes. they know how a lot of political, religious, social figures are a bunch of liars.
now they know more ... Tunisia didn't only gain it's freedom it gave us all the gift of mind liberation .
I wrote the post above after the tunisian revolution but didn't publish it as I thought of it as a bad post , I remember at that time I went to my dad's grave as usual and after praying for him I started talking to him about what happened, I'm not that emotional guy and I definitely can't hear or whisper dead people :P but I developed this stupid habit of talking to him in my blue mood days. I was thrilled at that time.
a few days ago I went there again and the moment I was with him I smiled saying "man you won't believe how the world changed, the Egyptians are doing it now" .
we are free from our mind chains, no one will stop us now.
a Tunisian poet once said "If the people ever wanted to live -freely- then destiny will obey their demand"
the poem is one of my favorite "in Arabic of course" but the cynical part of the story is that it is one of the most known in Arab world as most of schools force little children to memorize it not knowing that it will be the slogan of this revolutionary time.
my dear father -may he rest in peace- was proud of being an arab and always told me that all failures in the region were just black pages in our history "he also told me about a lot of red bloody ones" and the arab masses will wake up someday to choose their own leaders to save their countries from enemies of the outside and the inside too and start a new era of dignity.
Away from the famous arab radio in my old man's days "arab voice = saout olarab" there were no more sources of the arab-israeli wars information , the voice of jamal abdulnasser had that sedative effect during listening followed by that stimulant effect making the people scream and go protesting "not here :\" to support the notorious arab leader of that time, the one that said no to colonial forces and nationalized the Suez canal leading to another war, the one that also filled the dungeons with political opponents.
a lot of arab leaders came after that with most of them being dictators ruling with the guns & ideologies "religion, nationalism you name it" and all using the people in the name of saving the lands from either the damn imperialists \ or the infidels .
people knew the simple equation saying that the more the leader screams against the enemy the more he is a traitor to his beliefs and the more he is gaining trust inside the enemies closed offices.
as years pass most of the arab world leaders were reaching their positions by either bequeathing or a military uprising, but there was that sort of an exception that my dad was proud to tell me trying to plant that hope inside me , it was the tale of abdulrahman sewar addahab the Sudanese general who overthrew a dictator to promise his citizines with a fair elections "without him as a candidate' and did it but of course the happy ending is missing in sudan and you can see it in the news.
about one week ago another exception did happen in the last place any man around here will ever dream of ... Tunisia the oasis of secularism as the western governments and media always pictured it. the people were the ones that started and finished this revolution and amazingly for the first time in the arab world the army refused to obey the tyrant's "bin ali" orders to stop it with bullets on the contrary the army filled the streets of Tunisia to gain balance in the streets and fired their bullets against the private guards of bin ali that were spreading terror between citizens. it was a lot of adrenaline for a simple guy like me to handle .... IT WAS A DAMN MIRACLE . jaw dropping to the point i wake up each day to see the news to be sure that no army general woke up with a crazy idea to rule the country and till now fortunately i'm wrong and hope to be that for ever.
ladies and gentlemen the youth or arab world who became so pessimistic due to all the corruption, torture, human right restrictions, ignorance and a bull shit filled media entered now a new era were they have an example of a country that grasped it's freedom and will not allow anybody to try taking it away. now they know the power of the new media and know more about the hypocrisy of arab\western media and regimes. they know how a lot of political, religious, social figures are a bunch of liars.
now they know more ... Tunisia didn't only gain it's freedom it gave us all the gift of mind liberation .
===================================================================
I wrote the post above after the tunisian revolution but didn't publish it as I thought of it as a bad post , I remember at that time I went to my dad's grave as usual and after praying for him I started talking to him about what happened, I'm not that emotional guy and I definitely can't hear or whisper dead people :P but I developed this stupid habit of talking to him in my blue mood days. I was thrilled at that time.
a few days ago I went there again and the moment I was with him I smiled saying "man you won't believe how the world changed, the Egyptians are doing it now" .
we are free from our mind chains, no one will stop us now.
===================================================================
the poem is one of my favorite "in Arabic of course" but the cynical part of the story is that it is one of the most known in Arab world as most of schools force little children to memorize it not knowing that it will be the slogan of this revolutionary time.
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