If
I were an Arab...
If I were an
Arab, I would feel cringing
shame today.
I would feel
anger that my people,
acting in the name of
my God, cannot comprehend
that murder is evil.
I would feel disgust
that my culture is inexorably,
universally identified
with the worst of crimes.
I would feel
humiliated today, if
I were an Arab, because
a fellow Arab has sinned
the most grievous sin,
and it offends no moral
standard, for the world
expects it from my people.
If I were an
Arab, I would understand
how the "good"
Germans were paralyzed,
unable to speak, to
act, to object. Courage
is not a basic human
nature, for we cower
to survive.
I would realize
that if we have learned
anything from history,
it is that we have learned
nothing from history.
I would swallow
hard on the truth stuck
in my craw, the painful
truth that the evildoers
are not merely a tiny
fringe, for by now,
mass murder by my brothers
is so common, it is
accepted, even justified.
I would be choking
on the truth that strangers
fear me, loath me. Though
I could be a doctor
and not a terrorist,
that I am an Arab marks
me as suspicious, dishonored
as Cain.
If I were an
Arab I would be wondering
today why I do not hear
Arabic voices of reason,
of compassion, of protest,
of dissent, of judgment,
of wisdom. I would wonder
why there is no peace
movement among my masses,
a group I could join
to safely speak for
righteousness.
What we have
come to be would bewilder
me, considering what
we have come from: the
glory of our ancestry,
our magnificent contributions
to intellect and enlightenment,
the luminous Arabs who
enhanced humanity in
mathematics, medicine,
astronomy, architecture,
technology, virtually
every science and art
of ancient times.
And what have
we done lately?
Why do we stagnate
a thousand years behind
modern civilization?
My God, if I
was an Arab today! I
would be uncontrollably
outraged that my "holy"
men abuse my cherished
Koran for wicked purposes,
perverting through malicious
interpretation its sacred
substance to justify
the worst of wrongs.
I would wonder
what I could do, what
possible powers lie
in one individual Arab
who cannot remain quiet
in the face of this
infamy; I would look
around for guidance,
for solidarity, for
others like me, and
I would find them hiding,
silent, trembling.
If I were an
Arab, I would wish to
be anything else, unable
as I am to stand alongside
my fellow man with pride.
No -- I would wish my
misguided countrymen
to be anything else,
so that I could be proud
of my distant Arab heritage.
If I were an
Arab today, I would
wonder what it is like
to be a Jew. What kind
of people is this that
can be stricken time
and time again, yet
not rise up in vengeance?
What sort of culture
is this that controls
its basest instincts,
that protects the innocents
among its enemy, that
lets me live among them
peacefully, in time
of war? Do they not
hate me? Do they not
even obey the tenets
of their own Bible,
that enjoins them to
avenge an eye for an
eye?
Is it human nature
to remain slack when
struck?
How much we can
learn from this decent
people that will not
repay evil with evil!
I would weep
for the victims, as
a member of the human
race, and seethe at
the perpetrators, as
an Arab. As an Arab,
I would look upon those
dead innocents and desperately
want to find the correct
words to assuage their
loved ones, but knowing
there are no such words,
certainly not from me,
an Arab. It would wrench
me that my sympathy
is unwelcome.
I would agonize
for the maimed, the
burned, the crippled,
the blinded, the limbless,
the widowed, the orphaned,
the childless. It would
be unconscionable to
me that they had been
merely faces in the
crowd until someone
stepped up and said
those most murderous
of words, "God
is great."
And I would wonder
if God thinks Arabs
are great.
