Free Michel Kilo Now - Enough Already

I admit that I have been very busy lately and therefore I have not initially really followed the coverage of the speech and its aftermath in depth. The first reaction that came to mind was the Pope has spoken wrong words at a wrong time and he was not the right person to do it. Also judging how the media, religious and state authorities in Muslim countries and across the globe was on high alert hours after the speech and ready to defend the faith I started to expect the worse…

Another high level controversy, just like the Danish cartoons or worth in a very bad time, ready to be exploited big time by all kind of religious and authoritarian opportunists. These people lined up with their communiqués and speeches, ready to use the events in an international auction where the louder, most provocative and offensive words win, where violence is a must and blood and fire is needed to erase the humiliation and attacks that people sensed rightly or wrongly.

The problems I had from the pope’s direction were the followings:

1) This Pope is relatively new, inexperienced and has not established himself yet with any credentials. He was elected to preserve the legacy of John Paul the 2nd who has won the hearts and minds of so many people including a lot of Muslims and was cheered on when he visited the Arab and Muslim countries. John Paul was a great caller for Peace and dialogue, and he was a major anti war figure against the Iraq war and other Bush policies. The Vatican was considered on the Arabs side in so many issues including the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. Anyway the Pope had to continue on the line of his predecessor, which is hard to do, but had no business setting new policies and directions and sounding so offensive to Muslims and doing in that style.

2) The pope comes from Germany who is known to follow logic and reason more than emotions and has no real experience dealing with Muslims…had the pope being Asian, African or Latin American, meaning coming from the developed world, he would have probably avoided the controversy or approached the message in a totally better way,

3) The message came out at the worst possible time, with Bush justifying his wars by emphasizing the Islamo-Facist and the crusade angles. He sounded like he is an ally of Bush or the hawkish evangelical crowd of the US. It also came at a time where the Islamic and Arab masses feel so much injustice because of the Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine wars. It is bad times when the global war on terror is becoming synonym with war on Islam. Where the Iranians are trying to establish themselves as the new leaders of the Muslim world. Where the corrupt and oppressive regimes of the entire Arab world most specifically in Egypt and Syria single out the Islamists are their main rivals which means anything is allowed with them. But these Islamic forces are allowed to vent their angers at the world as long as the regimes are safe and not part of the target.

4) This message was not a basis for an inter-religion dialogue as it is now portrayed. It sounded like the Pope just like Bush is challenging calling for the reform of Islam which is not acceptable. Every religion should mind its own affairs and not interfere or impose on other religions.

5) My main concern was the aftermath which seemed to increase the gap between the different cultures and cause more understanding and frustration, which affects Arabs and Muslims living abroad as well as Christian communities in the Middle East.

Before I go on to the other side because I blame both sides, I want to say that although I am a Catholic Christian, I grew up in a mostly Islamic society, where Islam is a big influence and I am a great admirer of Islamic culture, values and history. I used to read so much about the early days of Islam and memorize the names of all the heroes and battles. I memorized the names of all the Caliphates from Abu Bakr to Al Motassem Billah, the last relevant one. I read all of Girgi Zeydan novels which cover most of the Islamic eras with some romantic spice. I was also an avid reader of Christian and Jewish (Pre-Christianity) history, and I was able to mix and accept everything together.

I was taught that the Arab Christians of Syria (Levant) and Iraq, the Copts of Egypt welcomed the Arabic conquests and were the main factor in the defeats of the ailing Persians and Byzantines empires. Islam was successful in spreading so quickly because of the decline and infighting between the empires that it replaced, the quality of message that was spread and the good values that people brought with them.

No one was forced to convert, Caliphate Omar Bin Khattab refused to pray in the Resurrection church in Jerusalem so it does not become a mosque. Christians played an important role in the new Umayyad empire, and the society was build on fair and equal values, someone said “Why enslave people when their mothers delivered them free”. I was taught that the Islamic states or different empires allowed diversity and all cultures to flourish and that some important cultural figures were non Muslim. Anyway, to many arab historians, the Islamic empires acted like a bridge between the glorious pasts of the Ancient civilizations of the orient, Greeks, Roman, Persians, Indian, Arabs and Chinese as well as other cultures toward the European renaissance that carried the torch afterwards.

It is really frustrating to be in the wrong receiving end of history, after such glorious pasts Arabs and Muslims have encountered all kind of declines, isolations, wars, defeats, invasions, colonization, oppression etc…So when people call for Jihad and the victory of Islam, they are yearning for that glorious past, they miss that part. The violent groups unfortunately are mainly influenced by the military side which mind you happened some 14-15 centuries ago when it was quite normal to fight in that way. The masses are blinding themselves to the fact that math and sciences, literature, philosophy, arts was a major factor of that glory. In fact, rare are the military powers which lasted long based solely on their military might.

That is what is frustrating about Islam in today’s world. I believe that the Muslim moderates have a duty to speak up against defaming Islam internally. My friend Ammar has written an amazing message on the subject, and with that article he is ready to enter new levels of world respect, Bravo Ammar, we moderates are proud of you. He wrote:

We do not review anything. We do not revise anything. All intellectual analysis in our parts has ceased to exist a thousand years ago it seems…The Islamic currents that exist today have no real intellectual component or analysis at its core…We cannot afford to be silent anymore. True, our protests have succeeded…but that is not because we manage to earn any understanding or appreciation for our point of view, but because we have found a way to terrify the world. We have become the barbarians of the modern world. People will fear us, but they will never respect us, or accept us as equals, or appreciate the legitimacy of many of our grievances, no matter how far and wide we spread our terror.

Unfortunately I got used to how Arabic and Islamic population behaves in similar occasions given how charged up the political atmosphere is. I am saddened to see national struggles slowly become Islamic struggles which are fueling fundamentalism and extremism. I am also every alarmed at how narrow minded some people are becoming and how they need to assert their Islam in any way possible regardless of how degrading it is to the faith and religion. How people behave like they won the lottery when somebody famous converts to Islam, or a celebrity woman hints at wearing the Hijab…how every small matter revolves around religion, how it is right to torture and oppress people in the name of Islam. Reem has written an excellent arabic post on that.

Where are the loud protests and actions when some extreme people tarnish the reputation of Islam? Did any condemn the recent attacks on Palestinian churches or Iraqi churches a while ago? These attacks are similar to the neo Nazis attacks in Europe. Since when Arabs didn’t accept the others??? Arabs are known for their generosity and fairness. Christians in the Middle East are an integral part of the society and its texture. Most of informed Muslims welcome this diversity and are proud of it. In fact Christian authorities in Syria were the first to condemn the pope’s perceived message.

I am glad that the Muslim authorities in Syria are showing more moderation and understanding of the situation than it was the case with the Danish cartoons. No need for Syria to be a pilot in riots and violence. I remember we used to pray for dialogue of religions in school. Religious figures never cease to play a constructive role in understanding and respecting each other. Shady and Philip have written great posts on the subject.

I wish Islamic masses become that energized to fight for better lives and better image. After all by definition God does not need any human to survive or exist. God should spread love not violence. God does not want to be embroiled in human wars. “Allah Akbar”, God is indeed great and I wish that these words are never used in any act of terror or violence. I also wish that the West plays fair and stop trying to dominate the world.

It is a weird coincidence but it seems like almost no one is leaving comments on this blog anymore despite the traffic!!! What does that mean? approval, non approval? are people too busy? do they not like the topics or the tone? are my posts too long or confusing? did I do or write something wrong? I need feedback so I can adjust and recognize the realities and improve or write better.

I am just an amator who happens to care so much about Syria and the region and see what is good and bad…I have no agenda and I don’t root for any party or any influence… I have serious doubts about how we can become better because of all these obstacles that we face. But other countries became better in relatively short times… Greece, Spain and Portugal were Syria’s peers on the economic level in the 70s and early 80s, where are they now? my dad left France in the 70s to go back and build a future in Syria!!! rare are the people wanting to go back these days! Romania was a big mess after the fall of dictatorship but is now ready to join the EU… Visiting Eastern Europe few years after their freedom was so surprising and encouraging that people can leave dark pasts behind and embrace a bright future. 

Only the Middle East seems to be stuck in a big hole, or a centrifugal machine unable to get out of this mess without a major reboot. Syria is still stuck in the middle ages mentality thanks to its leadership and their lack of vision. We only make the round of bad news involving terrorism, resistance and wars. Resistance for what and what are we offered in return? Baath (rebirth) nation is now synonym with death nation.

It is becoming very alarming the forces of anti change and how overzealous they are in defending the status quo and how smart they are in coming up with radical arguments and plots to justify their fight. It is equally depressing the inability of moderates and liberals to impose themselves and fight back the labels of treason or false publicity. While the majority of masses are just happy to stay alive and mind its business… they made themselves irrelevant except when showing hatred for the West or proving how backward they are. They live but they have no control over their lifes or the quality of it. 

I noticed that a link that I left on a blog in Syria was deleted by the administrator… are Syrian authorities watching that tightly everything written on them! Why do people embrace the culture of fear! why can’t we all dare and say enough playing with our past, present and future!

I have dedicated and am still dedicating this blog to the Syrian prisoners detained unfairly in jail and I recently asked for some help, but no one seems to have responded. I am not going to do it on my own. I know that people have different priorities and interests and they don’t like to waste their time on losing matters… Should I stop??? all I am asking for is a sign of life! that our efforts are adding value to our future! That we make a difference! 

There is opposition everywhere in the west and in other countries… there is self criticism, multipe opinions and different point of views… only Syrian and arab opposition is a joke… prisoners are blamed for interfering in state affairs and they bring it on themselves… writers who ask for change are lunatics and traitors… may be our societies deserve what is happening to them! because we just choose to give our destiny to people who are taking us to hell and are getting glorified in the process.

Thanks for making this very easy… no need to write to a blind, retarded or coward nation… let the prisoners rot in hell, they deserve what happen to them… anyone else stay out of trouble and leave Syria alone. Nasralla can enjoy his victory! Assad too!Lebanon can go to hell, Iraq can go to Hell, Palestinians can go to hell, Jordanian and Egyptians can go to hell. People and Children who died in Yemen because of extreme carelessness and incompetant authorities are martyrs or so their president has declared. He controls their lives as well as their after lives. Other people in Egypt, Syria or other countries who die in tragic accidents are quickly forgotten and life goes on. Saudi and Gulf states enjoy your wealth, Iran enjoy your new empire, Bush enjoy your mess, Europe enjoy your tacid approval in keeping the area backward… Middle East enjoy your expats watching you go back to the dark ages. 

As for me, I give up, enough headaches and sorry to have bothered you all. Time to burn the bridges and stop breathing on the love of Syria and my people. Peace.

Montreal has so many quality Arabic restaurants and food shops, you have so many options to buy great Kabobs, not to mention the family cooking…Boston has just some but even the good places are not consistent in providing good Kabobs. Anyway, I decided this summer to make my own kabob…I got good compliments from my friends who saw the quality improving greatly overtime which made me more motivated. Lately I was getting advise on how to open a restaurant in Boston…just kidding but seriously people enjoyed it so much. Coming from Aleppo and its famous cuisine, and having Aleppo friends as critics gives a boost in quality.

Few days ago for the labor day weekend, I decided to throw an open Barbeque party in my place for the first time this summer…, earlier in the summer I took the Kabobs to friends places and used their grill. So on Sunday after making few phone calls to friends that were in charge of inviting people, I went to the super market and started preparing a big feast. I was taking the advantage of not having family women around me because I would not have been allowed to be in the kitchen for preparations, guys help in the Middle East come on the grill but the women prepare the mixing and spicing! So after a lot of hard work and realizing that my birthday was soon, I decided to celebrate it as well. I mean I never really had a good Birthday party in Boston over 10 years already! Time flies I guess.

So I told just few friends to ensure that a cake arrives with them and to have some decoration. It is a special number after all 33. I was privileged to be born in 1973, a special year in Syrian and Middle Eastern history. I was one month old when my dad in France was busy switching radio channels to catch the latest news on the October war…pretty ironic that 33 years later people are still following war news. Another reflection is that I already spent 17 years in North America, more than my age when I left Syria in 89 with my family.

I was still busy putting the last touches to present the food, many people were helping in other ways when guests started showing up…so many different nationalities and so many females started showing up much to the delight of the males…we were still not done, but my friends started entertaining the guests, one Syrian friend was joking to make the girl interested: do you see how hard he is working in making good food! and how the women are comfortable and they don’t have to do anything! All Syrian men are like that!!! then another friend who loves to stay in his late twenties age, told me seeing the big 33 balloons : I can’t believe you are older then me now…I cracked up because he could not make me younger like he usually does when we go out.

Another Syrian friend was flirting with a Spanish journalist visiting Boston but the Lebanese guy in charge of the grills, comes and shout please, please run to your house (across the street) and get me coal for the Shisha, only to drag the girl downstairs and start introducing himself. It sounded so funny when the pissed-off Syrian told me the story…it was pure comedy. The Lebanese neighbor in addition to his Sangria making skills and running the grills and flirting with the girl, made few friends with the all American Barbeque run by the neighbors who shared the same patio with us. They became such good friends that they were learning Arabic expressions and playing “Beirut Pong” instead of the usual “Beer Pong”. It was the Kabob and shisha diplomacy at work, after all people enjoy the Arabic food and company once they know it. Some American girls who showed up were dying to get the secret of the Kabobs as I was putting them on skewers, and they were thrilled after they tried it that I got few bonus kisses when I asked.

The only problem that it was being eaten as soon as taken off the grill that I did not get a taste of it…it was all cleaned up…all I got was compliments and a kabob bite off my girlfriend, and to clean up the big mess. For us making guests happy is the most important thing and that was a success.

One Big surprise was when people sang Happy Birthday as I was blowing off the candle, then they started singing in Arabic!!! Everyone was taught the songs in Arabic even the famous Aleppo Birthday song “Kibber Ja7chna Sinne” “Our Donkey grew by one year”…they asked me to make a wish and speech, but I am not good talking in these occasions and it was not time for politics. A Smile was enough for me…The last birthday that I celebrated in Aleppo was in 94, my last visit there. Hopefully soon, I’ll be celebrating one September there in a free and a different Syria with no political prisoners and a much better image, policy and leadership. I am now one year away from being legal to rule the country! Haha, 34 is the new age! can’t wait!!! So much Syrian talent and capital is sitting outside, waiting to contribute if allowed! What a waste! Something needs to happen and soon…all this talk about divisions is not true at all as I witness in all gatherings and lately in my party, you can’t distinguish or know who is who unless you ask… Give Syria and Syrians a chance.

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I am going to resume writing about political prisoners in Syria soon, I got some extra documents. Even I heard that Kofi Annan was supplied with documents about the political prisoners by Amnesty International before his visit to Syria. I don’t know if he was able to talk about it and we know how they always talk to please the guests only to change course if it is not what they want. So to avoid the issue dying we the Syrian blogs need to organize some actions and publish all a unique post demanding the freedom of political prisoners by Nov 16, date of Assad power grab, otherwise there will be consequences. We need to put some pressure to achieve some results…I am appealing to Abu Kareem/Rime/Ammar/Philip/Alex to write a post in English/French/Arabic that we’ll get published on all the blogs and in all newspapers willing to do it. There was never a peaceful campaign to get anything from the Assads so let’s try to organize one, just like we tried to stop the Lebanese war.

I apologize for my visitors that I have not been able to provide any input recently despite the continuous important events and a lot of ideas in my head about so many Syrian, Middle Eastern and global issues. The problem is that I have spent very little time surfing the internet during the last week, so I am not even reading news or other blogs or know what is going on beside some TV and radio news. I have been busy with work, enjoying the end of the summer and personal matters.

Usually I am on vacation this time of the year, August/September, last year I enjoyed California, the year before I was touring Europe…this summer, I wanted so badly to go to Lebanon, my cousin’s wedding was scheduled on the 20th of August, and so many family members were going to come from everywhere to reunite and celebrate the occasion at the same time. So it would have been a great opportunity to see everyone and enjoy what Lebanon was offering. The problem back in June was to find a good flight, be able to take the maximum time off work and convince my brother to come with me despite the hefty price for the tickets. I spent one month there in July 2001 and I had a blast, this year was even more promising and I wanted to explore opportunities to setup an IT company there since it seemed possible and it would be an opening to the Arab market.

My sister went already there with her family in June and was giving me great updates about what is going on, made my appetite even better. My mom was supposed to go there July 18, the same day that my brother in law was returning. So imagine my shock and anger that the war erupted full scale like a devastating volcano, just few days before my family was traveling as they bombed the airport and the main roads. All these vacation dreams got shattered with all the vacationers leaving on boats like refugees or crossing the Syrian border in huge numbers like goats.

My sister really got lucky because they were in Syria at the time; they were going back to Lebanon a day later! The only worry for them was to find a plane ticket back to Canada. But I was very mad at this war for national reasons and because of my love and special relation with Lebanon, and what Lebanon represents for the Levant. As well as being worried for my relatives and loved ones, it was so sad especially the first few days when I was sleepless trying to get any news I can. People and ex-patriots were in the beginning of a wonderful summer only to find themselves deep in a nightmare that they did not deserve or expected. As war dragged on and no end was in sight, the only worry was to cut the losses and stop this bloody regional earthquake.

Anyway, you can’t imagine my happiness that it did stop finally (even though ceasefire was very fragile initially), with no real damages or life losses to anyone that I knew, but it was very emotional and exhausting that it killed my summer. It showed the ugliness and the dark side of the human being glorifying or enjoying war and justifying anything anyway. Some comments I got on this blog were “Why don’t you help and approve in killing half of Lebanon to exterminate terrorism just like Germany got knocked out in WW2″. Just like you have dark people, you have ugly regimes and politicians, Americans and Israeli regimes unmasked themselves in their disdain and non approval for anything successful coming from the Arab world. Iran through HA and Syria showed a hunger to dominate the region at any price and make everyone else a Traitor in the process. The Syrian regime showed its true nature of glorifying itself on the misery of people in the region.

The American media was at its worse along with the western politicians who did not even try to hide their obvious double standards and how they use justice to serve their interest. It is all about spinning things to remain in power. Then the London plane bombing fiasco showed up to put the icing on the cake for such a summer…luckily its dying down…but Sept 11 is coming soon and W Bush consider it a special occasion…How can he ignore the 5 years anniversary of the event that made him a world president and allowed him to launch 2 invasions in addition to launching his imperialist Global War on Terror. Terror alerts coming up, lovely speeches about the Islamic fascists, anything to scare the people and make them rally around him and the republicans. Throw in a little reward like manipulating the gas prices to go lower (50 cents/gallon in 2-3 weeks) and you win an election…people have a short memory and nothing makes them happier than Bush talking garbage to justify his country failed policies. How many times did he change the reasons for going to Iraq or how to exit the mess? I lost track.

My Lebanese cousin will get married later this month but unfortunately a much smaller wedding waits with some of his siblings and most of his cousins not being able to attend. Depending on flights, he’ll try to go to Turkey for Honeymoon, just where a wave a bombing started…how lucky is he? War and blood in his ways…can’t they spare Turkey whoever is doing it!!! I suspect it could be the Islamists, mad at having parts of Turkey very liberal and a good example for the rest of the Middle East. I was reading few days before the bombings on alarabiya.net how some people clashed with a girl wearing a bikini there!!!!!!!! You can imagine the rage of people who love to cover the women all the way and control her actions and soul as well.

I’ll still go to Lebanon next summer hopefully and my dreams won’t die, they just got slowed down. Lifting the blockade today is a very good step in turning a new page.

However, I really feel very bad for the real victims of this war from all sides, it was just a demo of human stupidity, and it is a very thin hair separating War from Peace. People in power need to realize that turning the war on and off is not like pushing buttons, you can start a war but it is very difficult to turn it off, it might go out of control. Give Peace a Chance and stop turning the region from bad to worse.

What a Summer, started well with an exciting world cup that ended with a bad game, then War then propaganda…hopefully the fall will be calmer…I am planning to go somewhere exotic in November, somewhere where there is a nice coast and beaches, mountains, great nature, good people and food just like Lebanon but very far from it. Hopefully war won’t be in the way anymore. I’ll share my experience afterward!