The Burning of the Quran...

Islam is not the Enemy

So an obscure preacher somewhere in the outback of America came up with this smart plan to burn the Quran... and the whole world is in uproar... and what exactly would this have to do with the Expat...?

Before I get on the soapbox... I need to ask... why in the world would a God-Conscious Preacher want to be so intolerant and offend so many people, creating so many more enemies for America...? Does the world not have enough hatred, intolerance, and fear towards different people...?

What in the world is this preacher hoping to achieve...?

A Friendly Warning...

Does he not understand the Christian scripture, thou shall reap what thou has sowed...?

Since the introduction of the first commercial flight, and a few years later, the advent of the Internet, the world has changed irrevocably... I am sure, that soon the world will realise the idea of nation states is outdated, and that borders are artificial lines drawn by politicians. In fact, the concept of nations are now so diluted, you get more Black English citizens than you get Caucasian (read White) ones!

I know I am making a roundabout point, but I started off trying to make you understand what the relevance of the burning of the most sacred scripture would have to do with us Expats... first, it will do the American expats no favours here in the Gulf.. in fact, such an act could just make it more untenable for locals to want to employ Americans...

Then, the second point, is that we can no longer hide behind the convenient excuse that it is an American... we need to accept that it is a citizen of the world... we should react as if it is one of us setting off on this trip that is as preposterous as it is outrageous... that even his own countrymen and women have called it stupid, irresponsible, ill conceived and witless...!

The upside is, the Quran has endured unchanged over more than 1400 years. Not even the brutality of the Crusades could dent the wholeness of the scripture... Muslims should understand that their God has declared himself The Protector of this scripture and it will be preserved for all eternity... so a hillbilly somewhere on the outskirts of American civilisation would certainly pose no threat to the endurance of the holy scripture.

 

What is surprising though is that America has no laws against hate speech...!!! you cant make a joke on an aeroplane about a bomb, but you can offend a quarter of the world's population and it be considered free speech...?

For American Expats all over the world, it would be in their own interest to vocalise their objections against such stupidity, so that their host communities can appreciate that it is small lunatic fringe that think this o be a smart plan... ad they should condemn the action for what it is... insensitive, attention seeking, unchristian, and unnecessary.

Peace...in the region...

Strange..., that the first word you will hear when you meet and greet a local in the GCC, is 'Peace' (salaam)... yet the region is forever seeming to be on the brink of peace... The region seem to be plagued by strife, and even in the times of peace, it seems that we are not too far away from a powder keg waiting to be set alight.

As we see the US  troops finally making an exit of that war torn country, Iraq, we dare not even hope of a lasting peace. We are all witness to the fact that the American invasion, under the pretense of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) has created more havoc, more chaos, more tragedy, more destruction, more destabilisation, than any country could hope to experience throughout its existence.

This post is not intended to discuss the merits of the war in Iraq, but rather to point out that we cannot even hope for peace.

Even if we pretend that all is well in Iraq, that the political vultures will manage to conjure up some sort of political system, even if we pretend that the Muslims/Iraqis will stop killing each other, even if we pretend that the country will not split between the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shias, even if we pretend that they will manage to switch on the power, that the toilets will work again, that people will have jobs again, and on and on and on...

... and all goes well in Iraq... we cannot dare to hope for Peace.

It seems after Iraq, the Israelis and hawks in America still have the desire to go after Iran next.

Heaven knows what will happen then. If Iraq was an uncomfortable war fought on the fringes of the region, Iran will certainly be a war fought in the region.

War with Iran will essentially destabilise the entire GCC. That, my loyal audience, will be the end of a blissful expat life for most (if not all) of us located in the GCC.

The tragedy is... no one seem to be asking the Americans what they achieved with the war in Iraq... whether it was all worth it... No one seems to be holding the Americans and the Brits responsible or accountable. No UN resolutions, no war crimes tribunal, no international outcry, no CNN, SKY, BBC, MSNBC, FOX, Jazeerah, analysis or news programs.

Notwithstanding what your politics might be, if you are a expat in the Middle East, another war in the region (with Iran) will be catastrophic for all of us.

Yet, there are loud voices in Israel and the USA to reload the weapons, and aim it towards Iran.

To all my fellow expats in the region, perhaps it is time to send a collective prayer to the Almighty and ask for sanity to prevail in the world... so that our little expat existence can continue to be for a while longer...