I feel that being here in the Middle East means I should comment on the attacks today. Praise be to God that I am in neither Libya nor Egypt, but that does not mean that I am not affected by it here. On the contrary, when I found out that Ambassador Stevens and three other Americans were brutally murdered, I almost broke down in tears. I'm not sure if it was the loss of life, the utter exhaustion from this week, or being in this region that made me so upset, but everything became very real for me today.
We all heard about the attacks before most of you were awake today, but we heard only slight details. It wasn't until this afternoon that we learned the ambassador was killed, or really that more than one death had occurred at all. The reaction to these attacks has been most profound for the Americans, obviously, but everyone I have talked to here - Egyptian, Yemeni, Qatari, etc. - has been just as upset and confused. The South African I talked with was livid, denouncing the radical Islamists and just frustrated at all the violence. The Arabs were upset and felt bad for our country, but they almost seemed unfazed at the actual event. The Yemeni guy I talked to showed me pictures of the body of one of the bodyguards in the attempted assassination of his defense minister a few days ago. The graphic, crispy body of this innocent man was blasted all over Facebook in Yemen; nothing was censored. Something I did not realize until this morning was how protected we are in America. As someone put it, our news is sanitized. We get so upset at North Korea and China and Russia for not allowing free speech and censorship of media, but we do it, too, and we don't even realize it. You don't find pictures of burning bodies or slaughtered kids in Syria or bomb victims on Facebook in America. For better or for worse that's just how it is. These college students are used to seeing pictures like this. It honestly makes me less surprised that revolutions and riots happen so frequently here. If I saw that on my FB in the morning and had to see children dying in the streets, I would do something about it, too. Somehow the government is not doing its job.
Amidst all this violence, Doha is an island of peace. The Qataris, Syrians, Egyptians, Pakistanis, Americans, British...all of us get along with each other. There are obviously political differences that get people all in a tizzy, but my point is I don't see violence here. I don't even see crime. People here are respectful of religion and political thought insofar as they will not rise up against you because of what you believe. I have found several Christians to hang out with and fellowship with here. On the flip side, I have met hundreds of Arab Muslims who are just as interested in American culture and my faith as I am in theirs. There are so many things I take for granted and think others should just know, but then in turn I feel they think the same about me when I have questions. They are eager to teach me their dialect of Arabic (which btw is causing me migraines) and what the true doctrine of Islam is. They refuse to label themselves with the radicals and do not mention them when talking about the different beliefs within Islam. I've come to find the evening/sunset call to prayer as one of the most beautiful things I've ever heard.
It's funny/sad that people freak out when they hear I'm in the Middle East because they lump the entire region together as an unstable environment for anyone to live in. If people would just do their part and go further than watching CNN or Fox or whichever media you prefer, they would see that the Middle East is as much a melting pot as our United States.
No comments:
Post a Comment