Can I get a Word In?

Yesterday, I was invited to a friend’s house to break Iftar. I have known this friend for over 10 years now ever since he interviewed me and subsequently, I was hired with an American multinational in Beirut. As he was the main sales person within the Consumer Division and I was the marketing person, we have had our fair share of conflicts within the scope of work. Our boss suffered greatly as he tried to facilitate our differences. Subsequently, I came to Dubai and he followed one year later and we have stayed in touch.

Mohamed is one of those guys whom I get annoyed with especially when we are debating a certain topic. I would always try to reason with him, as well as some of his other friends, but to no avail. He would get easily peeved, his tone of voice rising and rising, until it reaches the point whereby you either keep your silence or risk alienating your friendship altogether.

What is his red line? Well, it is whenever Arab politics are debated, especially the PLO and his beloved leader, Yasser Arafat. You see, Mohamed is a Palestinian refugee whose family are vehemently pro-Fatah supporters whom witnessed the Fedayeen movement within Lebanon during the 80s and 90s. Although he is the only one of his nuclear family to speak with a Lebanese (even Beiruti accent) due to him growing up amongst Lebanese friends in his formative years, he places himself as the voice/soul of the Palestinian people and their consciousness. To him, and this is my main criticism, there are only two viewpoints; the correct one (which is his) and the incorrect one (which is any other countervailing argument). Similar to George W. Bush’s mantra: You are with us or against us, it leaves no room for compromise or a basis for reaching a mutual solution.

My sister, during one of her visits to Dubai, at last made me understand where he is coming from which I never understood. It was a personal belief and nobody could make him see it differently. Blind faith in Yasser Arafat was Mohamed’s prerogative and his reason for being. My sister stated: If someone was to try and convince you that your religion, Islam, is incorrect, then how would your reaction be? At last, it dawned upon me.

Thus, these days, I stopped attempting to try and convince Mohamed of the wrong in his arguments. Rather, I just sit back and enjoy the show. Why get worked up and annoyed about something that I cannot influence. In addition, I see that my little sister (she is younger than me by 9 years) has matured from the little kid into a young adult woman and our relationship should be based upon mutual respect and not my imposition of right and wrong on her.

Are my actions correct? What do you think?

Practising Rather Than Preaching

I am ashamed by a simple email at work that was sent by "The admin. dept." Firstly, never trust emails that refer to a department rather than a person. Secondly, it did more harm than good. The email was informing all the employees of the company that in RESPECT for Ramadan no one is allowed to eat or drink on company premises, not even in the pantry area of our offices. Imagine the irony!

This simple email memo does Muslims a lot more harm than good and goes directly against the spirit of Ramadan. We expect non-Muslims to respect our religion by observing it!!! That is horrific and unacceptable. And we wonder why other nationals criticize Muslims as being fanatics and having spread the message via the sword.

As long as non-Muslims are discreet and considerate during Ramadan (e.g. closing the pantry door and quitely eating during lunch over there), then it shows that they respect the Muslim practice of fasting during Ramadan. Obviously someone who violates these rules should be given a private stern warning by The Admin Dept. However, to impose this stupid rule upon all employees makes non-Muslims frown upon the Muslim practice of Ramadan.

We have been led by demagouges for way too long. We should concentrate on practicing our religion in a private manner rather than paint our religions on our sleeves. That is more consistent with the spirit of our religion.