Barry Manilow
To start off with, I should point out that I may have to change a few names in order to protect the innocent from the guilty. I don't want to put too fine a point on it but I must tread lightly. Hopefully there is not a room somewhere with a gang of proverbial monkeys typing combinations of website addresses looking for subversive blogs. Not that I aim to be subversive. I just want to describe my life here, though I guess there will have to be some degree of self-censorship. I have not included my name anywhere on the blog.
I feel bad choosing this as the subject for my first blog but I suppose it would be hard to ignore the events in London of last week. I lived in London for four years before coming out here, so it has been on my mind a lot.
As I am sure most educated, informed people are aware, the majority of Muslims abhor terrorism in all its forms and Libyans are no different, despite the rather sinister image the country is still trying to shake off. Without exception all the Libyans who have spoken to me about the bombing have expressed genuine shock and sympathy. A few have qualified it by adding, "but the same thing happens in Baghdad and Palestine every day." I have been tempted to reply, "Yes, I suppose there are a lot of Arab terrorists indiscriminately blowing up people in those places as well." I haven't because I know that it would have been unfair, though I was slightly annoyed that they should want to start a debate about politics after I had just told them that I was a bit worried aboiut my brother, who works in Central London. In any event, no-one I know in London has been hurt, though everyone claims to have "just missed it" by two hours or five miles or so. Still, I suppose it's easy for me to be blase. I have never been even that close to being ripped apart by a bomb.
A friend of mine told me that her boss punched the air in delight on September 11 and there is no doubt that the idea that the Americans had it coming to them is quite common currency here. However, after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the senseless nature of terrorism, I think that appetite for taking the war back to the Americans has dissipated on the so-called 'Arab street'. In Iraq it has been other Muslims on the receiving end of the bombs and as a friend of mine, Osama, said to me, "I am as much of a target as you are. I wear jeans. I listen to rap music."
In Libya at least, the authorities seem to have kept a tight lid on any Islamic insurgency.
Esam, who seems to be moving in the direction of fundamentalism (he stopped watching television two months ago), told me that he doesn't go to the same mosque every day to avoid being a target for the authorities on the look-out for extremists. At first it seemed incredible to me that religious persecution against Muslims could exist in Libya, but it is a very really fear for anyone whose beard is too long. "They don't drop by your house and explain where they are taking you and let you pick up some things. They just take you and you're gone," Esam said.
Of course, while some Arabs may have expressed some satisfaction on September 11, there is also a popular theory that it was "the Jews" who bombed the World Trade Centre. What would, in Europe at least, normally qualify as wacko conspiracy theories formulated by nutcases on the margins of society can sometimes form the basis of mainstream thinking here, at least where the Jews are concerned. One person actually tried to explain to me how the Jews were responsible for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. There was a lot about force fields and magnets and nuclear scientists and other such things and his English wasn't very good so I wasn't able to grasp the finer points of his argument. I decided to be charitable and point out that Barry Manilow, who sang the song 'The Bermuda Triangle' was actually Jewish and so there might be something to his theory. He accepted my point gratefully. Another time someone said something innocuous in the office, like "What is the capital of Israel?" and a Libyan replied, "We do not accept that that place, the one that you mentioned, exists." And indeed they don't. All the pages relating to Israel in the atlases have been ripped out and it has been blacked out with a marker pen on the maps of the world.
There is some real hatred towards the west though and sadly it is not that hard to understand. I was once in the office of Haj Mohammed, a normally gentle, good-natured sort of man, who was sort of a glorified photocopying boy, since retired. He was on his laptop looking at a website featuring images of Iraqis being tortured by American soldiers. No words, just pictures, dozens of them. Besides the familiar ones, including the ones faked by The Daily Mirror, there was one of an old woman wearing a hijab having her clothes torn off. "One day we will get together and come and kill you all," he said to me, with tears in his eyes. He never mentioned it again and the next time I saw him he was back to his usual, affable self, joking about jamming the photocopier so that he wouldn't have to do any work.
In Saudi the insurgents were getting a lot of bad press because they were breaking into compounds, much like the one I live on, and just killing anyone they came across. Inevitably, some Muslims got shot as well, which lost them support even amongst their grassroot supporters. So the next time they went on a similar raid, they asked their victims two questions: 'Are you a Muslim?' and 'Can you speak Arabic?' If you gave the wrong answer you got shot. While I am still struggling with my Arabic, I have mustered up enough to understand and answer those two questions.
I feel bad choosing this as the subject for my first blog but I suppose it would be hard to ignore the events in London of last week. I lived in London for four years before coming out here, so it has been on my mind a lot.
As I am sure most educated, informed people are aware, the majority of Muslims abhor terrorism in all its forms and Libyans are no different, despite the rather sinister image the country is still trying to shake off. Without exception all the Libyans who have spoken to me about the bombing have expressed genuine shock and sympathy. A few have qualified it by adding, "but the same thing happens in Baghdad and Palestine every day." I have been tempted to reply, "Yes, I suppose there are a lot of Arab terrorists indiscriminately blowing up people in those places as well." I haven't because I know that it would have been unfair, though I was slightly annoyed that they should want to start a debate about politics after I had just told them that I was a bit worried aboiut my brother, who works in Central London. In any event, no-one I know in London has been hurt, though everyone claims to have "just missed it" by two hours or five miles or so. Still, I suppose it's easy for me to be blase. I have never been even that close to being ripped apart by a bomb.
A friend of mine told me that her boss punched the air in delight on September 11 and there is no doubt that the idea that the Americans had it coming to them is quite common currency here. However, after the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and the senseless nature of terrorism, I think that appetite for taking the war back to the Americans has dissipated on the so-called 'Arab street'. In Iraq it has been other Muslims on the receiving end of the bombs and as a friend of mine, Osama, said to me, "I am as much of a target as you are. I wear jeans. I listen to rap music."
In Libya at least, the authorities seem to have kept a tight lid on any Islamic insurgency.
Esam, who seems to be moving in the direction of fundamentalism (he stopped watching television two months ago), told me that he doesn't go to the same mosque every day to avoid being a target for the authorities on the look-out for extremists. At first it seemed incredible to me that religious persecution against Muslims could exist in Libya, but it is a very really fear for anyone whose beard is too long. "They don't drop by your house and explain where they are taking you and let you pick up some things. They just take you and you're gone," Esam said.
Of course, while some Arabs may have expressed some satisfaction on September 11, there is also a popular theory that it was "the Jews" who bombed the World Trade Centre. What would, in Europe at least, normally qualify as wacko conspiracy theories formulated by nutcases on the margins of society can sometimes form the basis of mainstream thinking here, at least where the Jews are concerned. One person actually tried to explain to me how the Jews were responsible for the disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle. There was a lot about force fields and magnets and nuclear scientists and other such things and his English wasn't very good so I wasn't able to grasp the finer points of his argument. I decided to be charitable and point out that Barry Manilow, who sang the song 'The Bermuda Triangle' was actually Jewish and so there might be something to his theory. He accepted my point gratefully. Another time someone said something innocuous in the office, like "What is the capital of Israel?" and a Libyan replied, "We do not accept that that place, the one that you mentioned, exists." And indeed they don't. All the pages relating to Israel in the atlases have been ripped out and it has been blacked out with a marker pen on the maps of the world.
There is some real hatred towards the west though and sadly it is not that hard to understand. I was once in the office of Haj Mohammed, a normally gentle, good-natured sort of man, who was sort of a glorified photocopying boy, since retired. He was on his laptop looking at a website featuring images of Iraqis being tortured by American soldiers. No words, just pictures, dozens of them. Besides the familiar ones, including the ones faked by The Daily Mirror, there was one of an old woman wearing a hijab having her clothes torn off. "One day we will get together and come and kill you all," he said to me, with tears in his eyes. He never mentioned it again and the next time I saw him he was back to his usual, affable self, joking about jamming the photocopier so that he wouldn't have to do any work.
In Saudi the insurgents were getting a lot of bad press because they were breaking into compounds, much like the one I live on, and just killing anyone they came across. Inevitably, some Muslims got shot as well, which lost them support even amongst their grassroot supporters. So the next time they went on a similar raid, they asked their victims two questions: 'Are you a Muslim?' and 'Can you speak Arabic?' If you gave the wrong answer you got shot. While I am still struggling with my Arabic, I have mustered up enough to understand and answer those two questions.
Comments
I'm reasonably sure that in the eyes of the "competent authorities" (cracks me up) you'd be an easy target - you know... arab friends, lived in Iran, lived in Libya, etc.
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