October 1, 2007 – 12:26 pm
I recently watched a video of one of OJ Simpson’s alleged co-conspirators in a Las Vegas armed robbery holding a Bible and claiming that “I’m a Christian man.” His attorney immediately told him to shut up, which was very good advice. You can claim that his actions were just naive attempts at posturing; however, I see something much more interesting going on.
There’s an indelible link between our ideas of religion and our ideas of justice. More than loving your neighbor, more than forgiveness, more than culture and nationalism, the idea of justice is central to any persistent view of religious thought.
So OJ’s alleged partner in crime wasn’t actually stealing anything. In his mind he was righting a wrong, helping OJ get back his memorabilia that was stolen from him. That is justice, and that’s a religious concept, thus the Bible and his righteous proclamation. Read More »
September 25, 2007 – 12:21 pm
(This article was originally published in Jordan’s Living Well magazine)
“So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people, a silly people. Greedy, barbarous, and cruel…”
The first time I heard the above quote by Peter O’ Toole, playing T. E. Lawrence in the epic film by David Lean, I was outraged at the racist tone in this sweeping denunciation of my people – filmed on my turf, in Wadi Rum, no less. How arrogant, I fumed. You see, I always believed that any generalization of whatever nature is by definition prone to mistake, the larger the subjects under judgment, the less accurate the statement is likely to be.
Indeed, any sentence that begins with “ The Arabs are this…” or “The Africans are that…” is at the outset condemned to fallacy. To think in such terms, although very tempting as a simplification of complex phenomena, is nothing short of a foolish dive into the abyss of falsehood. Not only because these pronouncements of opinion are manifestly racist in nature, and we are not supposed to be racist in this epoch of political correctness, but more so because these opinions are most likely to be plain wrong. To lump a vast group of individuals, with different characters, upbringings, abilities, tastes, minds, environments, etc., and treat them as one unit by affording them uniform descriptions and predicting for them common destinies is an invitation for error. Racism is bad not just because it is immoral, but chiefly because it is based upon gross intellectual dishonesty. Read More »
August 13, 2007 – 11:57 am
(This article was first published in Jordan’s Living Well magazine)
Before I reveal to you my ambitious proposition to end human strife and achieve world peace, allow me first to share with you an unusual personal condition from which I’ve been silently, yet painfully, suffering for at least two years now. Today, I believe the time has come to speak out and seek counsel, and perhaps even find a cure. Although I know this is not a help-line for my ailments nor is it the right venue for such private complaints, I still feel the need to blurt it out in public. Maybe, just maybe, I would feel a little better somehow by talking about it. So please excuse my selfishness if you can, but here it is, my mysterious disorder: I cannot read, hear or watch the news anymore. Read More »
August 8, 2007 – 11:24 am
What ails the Arabs, we have all asked ourselves at one time or another? Quite a lot.
Actually, come to think of it, just about everything. Where shall I begin? A wise choice would be with a friendly warning. Lawyers call it a ‘disclaimer notice’, or an ‘exclusion of liability’ clause. In my case, it is a necessary adjustment of readers’ expectations. It is a reminder that I neither claim to have the time or space to do justice to this subject, nor do I have a clue about what sober new-year resolutions could possibly salvage our doomed Titanic. So why did I choose such a big title? To grab your attention, I guess (you’re reading this far, aren’t you?). And to write something for this issue, of course, because you have grown accustomed to my monthly rants. However, please bear in mind that you are unlikely to find any earth-shattering analysis below.
A remarkable job has already been achieved by the more learned professionals who compiled the UNDP reports cataloguing the shortcomings of the Arabs. If this article will sound like a superficial exercise in self-flagellation, then probably this is exactly what it is. Therefore if you happened to be doing something more useful before landing on this page – such as plucking your eyebrows or picking your nose – I strongly urge you to please go ahead and continue whatever it is you were doing. I assure you that you are more likely to attain fulfillment there. Otherwise, you may humor me and read on. The choice is yours. Read More »
(This article was first published in Jordan’s Living Well magazine)
I’ve had it with the deceptions of the media. Perhaps my face doesn’t show it, but I am pissed-off angry. And here, for once, I’m not talking about the political side of things. I’m not talking about how docile news organizations in the West capitulated to their governments and, without a shred of resistance or an atom of intellectual integrity, accepted the barrage of blatant lies that linked Iraq to WMD’s and to Al-Qaida, thus facilitating the most unprovoked and unforgivable invasion in modern history. I’m not discussing how these misinformation organizations let their political leaders literally get away with murder of hundreds of thousands of people so that a few multinational corporations can add billions upon their trillions of ill-gotten wealth.
Let’s leave all that aside for now – along with the uncontainable mayhem coming out of the Pandora’s box that was irresponsibly opened in Iraq. In this episode of my road chronicles, I’m referring to other more mundane, yet equally irritating, aspects of the daily bombardment of lies and half-truths that I am subjected to every single day by an advertising industry gone berserk. Whether it’s when I’m out soaking up one billboard after the other, or sitting peacefully at home reading a magazine or watching TV, I am fed up with being taken for a ride. Read More »
February 22, 2007 – 11:29 am
I have never been a great fan of the collective “Arabs.” It assumes a level of homogeneity I as an “Arab” have not felt. Yet there are broad brushed tendencies that can safely be assumed when looking at our people. Our polarized worldview is one such proclivity which renders us immune to noting gradations and more inclined to be extremist in our views. A phenomenon, event or person must be entirely good or bad.
Words like always, never, all, terrible, excellent, good, bad, are staples of our everyday language when life mostly falls in that middle ground where outlooks, moral and otherwise, reflect the limitations of personal perspectives, at least in my opinion. A corollary of all of this is a culture of dissent characterized by the same tendency which ebbs and flows depending on the political environment. In the face of turmoil, stances are usually hardened, sentiments are heightened and the bounds of acceptable political discourse are automatically narrowed. Read More »
August 31, 2005 – 11:38 am
“It’s good to be alive this morning,” my friend Firas wrote on MSN Messenger. It was the morning of July 23, 2005. The world had just woken up to news of the massive bombs in Sharm Al-Sheikh, a car bomb in the heart of the buzzing night life of Beirut, and various stories related to the hunt for the failed bombers in London. A month later, the news of death and destruction continue unabated, with the latest being a series of rocket attacks in Aqaba that killed a young Jordanian soldier, not to mention the sad monotony of the daily reports on the massacres in Iraq. The mad terrorists are on a roll this
summer, and they seem to be chasing every breath of life on planet earth. Read More »
February 18, 2004 – 4:30 am
John Irving’s latest book “The Fourth Hand” is crap and he knows it! Irving must have realized that at some stage during the writing process because suddenly his two leading characters start exchanging accolades about another novel. It is as though Irving is saying “Damn it, if only this novel could be half as well written as that other book.” Read More »
April 27, 2003 – 11:51 am
As the dust begins to settle on the American/British victory in Baghdad, it falls upon all Arabs now to reflect seriously on the future. I cannot provide accurate percentages, but it would be fair to say that an overwhelming majority of Arabs were against this war, to say the least. A sense of outrage was palpable across Arab society. And I am not talking only of the underprivileged or the disenfranchised. The outrage, despair and humiliation, as hundreds of thousands of bombs pounded Iraq, were equally felt by palace and ghetto dwellers. Read More »
I am no historian, but those who are ought to be excited these days. They are witnessing a new phenomenon unparalleled in history. They will be the first to chronicle the absolute paralysis of 200 million otherwise hot-blooded people.
This is unlike the fall of Baghdad to the Moguls. This is no lamentable loss of Al Andalus. The peculiar situation of the Arabs today is that a whole nation has died en masse while it is still breathing – and having a jolly good time, for that matter.
Have we been there before? I don’t think so. The Arab Israeli wars usually lasted for a few hours or days. The siege of Beirut only lasted three months. But this is the longest and fiercest war of extermination to which the Palestinians have been subjected so far. Read More »
