But here’s one for good measure. The Arab media gives more attention to Palestinian casualties in the Israeli occupied territories, and quickly (and rightfully so) condemns Israel’s indiscriminate murder of Palestinian civilians. Yet the same Arab media will not utter a word of condemnation when Iraq’s Shi’ites are murdered indiscriminately, and instead blames the U.S. occupation. When Israel murdered Shi’ites in Lebanon, Arab reaction was very subdued compared to loud condemnations when Palestinians are the victims. Are Iraqi Shi’ites less Arab or less Muslim than the Palestinians?

I am not a Shi’ite, but an Arab Christian who is critical of Arab hypocrisy. Such hypocrisy is also very strong among Muslims. During my trip to Palestine, I noticed that Nazareth’s Muslims make a point of building a big mosque right next to, and wherever, there is a church, and they try to make sure the minarets are higher than the church steeples.

Arab Muslims lump their fellow Arabs who happen to be Christian in the same category as Western Christians, and think that we are engaged in a mutual conspiracy against them with Western help. This is utterly ridiculous, as we share a common language, culture and history with Arab Muslims, listen to the same kind of music, eat the same kind of foods, relate to family members the same way Muslims do, and follow many other Arab traditions. We were never part of the Crusades, and we sided with the Muslims against what we saw as a foreign, Western, invasion and onslaught against our lands. The indigenous Christians of the Middle East (mainly Orthodox) fiercely resisted the West and the Latin-rite Christianity of Rome, which Western Christians tried to impose on Arab Orthodox Christians and Arab Muslims through their bloody Crusades. Yet ignorant Muslim imams throughout the Arab world warn Muslims to be careful dealing with “the Nasara” (Christians).

Where was the rest of the Arab world when Israel expelled Palestinians from their lands? Where was Saudi Arabia? Where were the Gulf countries? Only three Arab countries fought for Palestine, with Egypt paying the heaviest price (1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973).

When Egypt decided she had already lost enough of her citizens, and had only one shot getting the Sinai back from Zionists, the entire Arab world began hating Egypt and calling them traitors.

I must make it clear that I am no friend of Israel. They have made two of the world’s greatest religions, Christianity and Islam, captives to Zionism. At the same time, there is no effort on the part of Arabs to “clean house”.

There is still a long ways to go, and until Arabs get their “khara” together, Israel will be able to throw its weight around in our neighborhood.

Being only a recent Jordanian-passport holder, and married to a Palestinian-passport holder, together have seen the ugliest face of visas/airports/immgiration in the Arab world.

Just some examples of our collective travel experiences:
- 14 hours in the Dubai airport upon arrival (WITH A VALID VISA NEVERTHELESS)
- 12 hours in the Jordanian border entry (from Saudi) - even as a Jordanian passport holder
- 4+ hours in Cairo airport - multiple times
- Lost job opportunities because residence visas in gulf states could not be issued to certain nationalities
- Countless refused visas worldwide
- Not being able to travel to many Arab countries (including Lebanon for Duri - which he lived in for 8 years!)

The list goes on and on..

One thing we both agreed on however, was the fact that we would NEVER expose our children to this if we could. This was the reason having Sanad in the US was not even a debatable issue for us.. Or that applying for immigration to Canada was a sure thing..

It kills us that we have to resort to working to obtain foreign (western) passports for our family, but given what we have experienced, we do not even question the ‘morality’ or ‘ethics’ of the situation.

I could go on and on about this. Excuse my babbling..

It just makes me feel ASHAMED just to think about the whole Arab visa situation..

Maybe we would expect this from other countries, but you would kind of wish that Arabs would be more sympathetic to each other.

Who am I kidding?!?! Duri can now travel to Europe, US, Canada, Asia but cannot travel to many countries in the Arab world!!

Including JORDAN by the way!!! Last time he had a visa (by wasta) before going to Jordan and was asked to leave on the same flight he came in!!

Belad al 3orb Awtanee

I am sure that most of you know about the struggle of Manal and Nour, the mother and child being held in a Israeli prison.

The following is a poem I wrote about this issue please share it with everyone you know:

http://nuhgondek.blogspot.com/2007/03/poem-in-solidarity.html

Wa salaama,

nuh ibn

Oh well. My fulsome and rich comment will be even better when I rewrite it. In an email to you. Tomorrow.

Thank you for your delightful email(s), Eman, which safely reached our shores today. Will write you tomorrow. Now though, instead of further tempting fate and risking depixelation, time for a cognac and to bed.

Cheers,

J.