I Hate All Arabs

[sweet_gal]

I Hate All Arabs

 

Reflections of Old

 

Have you ever walked into a convenience store and wanted to shoot the guy behind the counter? That's a trifle harsh, but an arresting way to begin an article nevertheless. It was one of those stunningly cold January evenings, when it got so frigid it felt someone had left ice cubes in my shoes and forgot to tell me. But the weather deterred neither myself nor the thousands of others who'd gathered for a Palestine peace march. When we’d yelled till our voices had withered to nothing – to remain so for a while – and then we wandered the frozen wasteland (Shala, Soraya and I), until finally some nice Pakistani driver offered us a (free) ride all the way uptown (he was dropping me off at my apartment and then taking the sisters to meet their other sister. I think). But once out, I didn't go into my apartmenr right away.

 

Instead, I went to a nearby convenience store: there was nothing my throat needed more than a cup of steaming chai. I entered wearing my kaffiyeh, bunched up around my neck, partly to show solidarity with Palestinians and just as much to protect me from the bitter cold (For those who don't know, the kaffiyeh is the checkered, red and white or black and white, Arab scarf). Anyone who wears a kaffiyeh in public these days is usually assumed to be: 1) an Arab, 2) a Muslim, or 3) a terrorist. Good thing for me, I thought, that the owner of this convenience store was Muslim – the Quran stickers on his cash register gave it away. After I placed my order for chai, he smiled awkwardly and asked, “Are you Arab?â€

 

No, I replied. There was only one meaningful question he could ask thereafter, so I answered it for him: My parents are from Pakistan.

 

That's good. He smiled, and I smiled too, until he clarified: I hate all Arabs. They never do anything for Islam. Soon it was only he who was smiling, and me stifling the urge to gently lift the lid off my scalding cup of tea and douse him with it. But this did not seem the Muslim thing to do. As tired I was, I was in no mood for an argument. Stumbling up to my apartment, I didn’t reflect on his words until I'd kicked off my shoes and tossed off my coat.

 

For anyone who's been blessed to hear a bunch of Muslims engage in any sort of discussion, certain trends emerge and hold over long periods (basically, my lifetime). With some reflection, I was able to ascertain that the convenience store owner's sentence regarding Arabs and their perceived failure vis-Ã -vis Islam revealed everything that is wrong with the Ummah. Well, maybe not every single thing, but enough to fill up an essay. Again, his claim, if you are too lazy to scan backwards a paragraph: I hate all Arabs. They never do anything for Islam.

 

Let’s analyze it bit by bit.

 

1. “I hate…â€

 

There's half your problem. Why are Muslims so negative? The Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, was faced with hurdles, challenges and accusations we will never have to face. Yet he said: I have not come to condemn humanity, but rather, as a mercy to it. In his day, there were a lot of obtuse people. Though some of these people tried to kill him, and tortured and beat his followers – all of which would put the average person in a rather sour mood – he did not lash out at them in hatred. Meanwhile, my brother at the convenience store was talking about his fellow believers. And he hated them.

 

Let's say a fellow Muslim throws his Islam aside as so much baggage. Should you hate him? I'd think, rather, that we should show concern for this person by actively trying to help him and always remembering him in our prayers. But it is a sad and true fact that it is a thousand times easier to hate than it is to help. Muslims talk about unity, but unless we have an attitude that encourages unity, we will never see it. Certainly, generalizing about 270 million people in such negative terms is not going to get us closer together anytime soon.

 

2. “I hate all Arabs.â€

 

Let me be flatly honest. There are some Arabs who loathe Pakistanis. I can recall more than one person in Saudi Arabia who, on discovering that I was of Pakistani origin, looked at me as if I’d just vomited on him. I can also tell you, as a Pakistani, I am often quite baffled and distressed to see that while Pakistanis often rally against wars on the Arab world, very few such rallies do (or even can) take place when threats come against Pakistan. Does that indicate some deeper bias or indifference, unbecoming of decent humans? But I can also tell you, as someone of Pakistani origin, that there are many from my corner of the world that hold demeaning stereotypes of Arabs and others. No one people have a monopoly on ignorance and hate.

 

I am a lot of things that I did not have a hand in deciding: I never asked to be named Haroon. It just happened that my parents chose it. In addition, I didn’t ask to be of Pakistani origin or American birth. Those were factors outside of my control. How, then, can anyone hate someone based on them? One of the most fascinating concepts in Islam is the idea of unity based on shared, chosen belief: All of us must make a decision to submit to the will of Allah. Even if we are born Muslim, that won’t do a thing for us, unless we personally make the effort – and that is how we will be judged. Islam rightly rejects the strangeness of exclusive identification based on things outside of a person’s hands.

 

But now I must say something directed specifically to those people who are Arabs or think they should be. Many Muslims who are not Arab are quite insecure about their identity – and this is a common enough problem to be worth mentioning. Many Pakistanis, Iranians, Turks and others that I met honestly believe that to become a better Muslim means detaching yourself from your history and culture and becoming an Arab. I’m not even joking here. Some people even resent Islam, or reject it, because they think it’s a form of Arab imperialism.

 

Islam urges us to identify ourselves based on the values we hold, and since Muslims take their values in the words of the Divine (the Qur’an) and the example of His messenger, peace be upon him, our identity is centered on a faith with Arab beginnings. But Islam does not ask us to remove or obliterate our positive differences. That is not only impossible, but also would be quite boring. Can you imagine? We’d end up looking like 21st century America (It’s getting harder and harder to take a vacation around here, because the same three restaurants and four chain stores are found everywhere from Hawaii to Maine). Surely we wouldn’t want to live in a world where everyone and everything is exactly alike. That’s human nature. We not only want some differences, but we also need them. But let’s not stop there.

 

3. “I hate all Arabs.â€

 

Too many Muslims have the nasty habit of making broad, sweeping generalizations. To make a broad, sweeping generalization out of this: Whatever we condemn or support, we do it with such lack of temperance that it’s little wonder we have trouble making things better. Consider, as an example, our “all-or-nothing†approach to social change. Muslims either want the Caliphate, right now, with all the benefits of life in America, or they want to sit home on their couches, watch the news and grumble about it to their friends. This births some rather odd propositions for how to revive our way of life: “Muslims should become one country.â€

 

Pray tell, how exactly are we going to do that? At New York University, no more than seventy-five out of over eight hundred Muslims came to Friday Prayer. And people are expecting the Ummah to work together on more difficult projects? Get an E-board member started on asking people to place their shoes neatly and orderly on the racks, and you begin to fathom the heights before us. Our faith teaches us that Islam comes slowly, that it is a constant struggle, and that there is no guarantee of fulfillment in our earthly life. There were Prophets like Noah, peace be upon him, who waited nine centuries for people to change. Often, they didn’t.

 

So think over it again: “I hate all Arabs.†I might have applauded him had he made that statement after having visited each and every Arab in the world. But of course he didn’t do that (though that didn’t stop him from pretending like he did). Which brings me to the fourth and final point, the problem illustrated by his second sentence, be it laziness, apathy or moral cowardice.

 

4. “They never do anything for Islam.â€

 

I’d love to know what this guy’s done for Islam lately. Some of us think that we are somehow intimately connected to God, more so than anyone else since the Prophet (peace be upon him), and therefore the standard by which all other Muslims should be judged. I am allowed to have faults and failings, but no one else. So bad has this attitude become that we don’t see each other as distinct persons, creations of God deserving mercy and dignity, but rather, as no more than automatons, who can be judged, condemned and dismissed over a casual chai-purchasing encounter. Sometimes we complain that some Western media cast all Muslims in a negative light. But the store owner did the exact same thing: He confused individual people with flags and the boundaries of nation-states.

 

The man at the store didn’t really mean that none of the Arab people did anything for Islam. He meant, rather, that he thought that the Arab countries didn’t do anything for Islam – and also, by extension, that the Arab people are robots who are to be identified with every single thing their governments do. Never mind that many Arabs are often active in agitating for positive social, religious and political improvement in their societies: If we were to take this man’s thinking to its logical conclusion, because I am a Pakistani-American, I am both General Pervez Musharraf and President George W. Bush. Hopefully you see the problem here.

 

Let’s go back to it again. “They never do anything for Islam.†Notice he didn’t say: “I don’t do anything for Islam.†When the going gets tough, accuse someone else. Perhaps that man was a great and pious Muslim, and I wasn’t able to see that, but the lottery tickets and the beer cases in his store did suggest shortcomings. All of us have them. Not one of us is perfect. So why – I mean, really, why? – do we insist on putting the blame on someone else? Muslims are perfectly ready to opine for hours on end, through ten cups of tea and perhaps even one more, about how there’s a grand conspiracy against Islam and we must unite to fight it, but so many will rarely do anything productive. If you really believed that someone was out to ruin you, you wouldn’t sit there drinking tea and chit-chatting about it over biscuits. Which means you don’t really believe that there’s someone out to ruin you.

 

Here then is my idea. Post it up in your mosque. If you’re an Imam, maybe you could mention it in a sermon, preferably also in a language the people speak. Or just talk about it with friends and family. It has a catchy ring to it, too: “Four Things for Fixing Things.â€

 

1. Nothing valuable is built on hate – including, and especially, Islam.

2. Let’s not divide ourselves over things we have no control over. Humanity is vast and varied – and that’s not going to change. Ever. So move on, please.

3. Life is not all-or-nothing, not even for the Muslims. We work with what God gives us, be it a little or a lot.

4. Let’s not blame others for what we would not do ourselves. Put the burden on yourself first and don't be so ready to toss it upon someone else.

 

There’s enough common sense there, I hope.

 

I'd like Muslims to take responsibility while cognizant of that. How much more can a man take, when all he wanted in the first place was a cup of tea? He made me go upstairs, in anger, and write this whole article when I was so tired. You could say, it’s all his fault

[Xoogsade]

This was nice short literary composition even though the title misled me at first. It was worth reading and Enough for the night.

[7_steps_2_Heaven]

too much to read dude....

[Nur]

Sweet gal

 

I enjoyed reading your essay, very pleasant and thoughtful, I particularly liked your analytic critique of below the surface and what is apparent, don't tell me that you are a Muhajir MQM girl?

 

 

Sheikh Ibnul Taymiya, the great scholar of Islam in his book, " Iqtidaa siraadul Mustaqeem, mukhaalafatul asxaabul jaxiim" said something to the effect that Arab bashing is tantamount to hypocracy, as Arabs are intimately related to the Arabic language, the Arabic language being the language of the Quraan, thus, Arab hate is a concealed hate of Islam for some so called Muslims. I wonder if there is a statistic of the percentage of Arab haters who pray regularly, I bet they are below 15%

 

You rarely hear the Arab bashers say " I hate Jews" because that statement would constitute the dreaded anti-semetism crime with all its previllages or the milder " I hate Americans" simply because, it is too strong a word to say about a nation he/she shares many ideals with, like his 7 Eleven corner store, so that leaves Arabs as a target of all Muslims frustrations, as if Arabs owe us something they did not deliver and therefore we should hate them for doing Nothing for Islam. " Yeah, they could share their oil wealth with us for starters" is one of the arguments I heard, but, do we share our Pakistani pistachios, or Somali coconuts with the Arabs? besides, what have we, the Non Arabs done for Arab causes that alleviated their plight? sadly we are all like sheep in disarray, finger pointing is the weapon of the weak, the helpless are accustomed to accuse each other, but blame ends with us all, collectively, Arabs included.

 

To balance the statement out, let us remember that Arabs have given us Islam, through and Arab prophet , and Arabic Quraan, and Arabic Hadeeth, Arabic scholars in all disciplines of knowledge, Religion, Language arts, sciences, mathematics, astronomy, trade and the list goes on.

 

Modern Arabs, have opened Islamic centers all over the globe, millions of non Arab Muslims are earning a living in the oil rich Arab country to support their families back home, albeit with sensitivities and accusations of injustice, and because of their efforts, and the efforts of non Arabs alike, Islam is flourishing in the west and the east. Thanks to the Arabs, Islam is the fastest growing faith and it is redefining the spiritual domain of the world.

 

 

Nur

[Sophist]

Iqtidaa'du Siraatul Mustaqiim is good book accesible book. Love Ibnu Taymiyah! Great all rounder Muslim Man.