Saturday, March 10, 2007

Ommet el 7ommos

It's very strange to me when people in the Arab world refer to themselves (or others) as part of "Al Omma el 3arabeyya", or "Al Omma el Islameyya."
Since when where we ONE? When did we unite?
Just watch the news... Look at my previous post. We're struggling to be united, so why do we talk like we are?
And this is not new, it's been this way ever since i can remember... This is all I heard while growing up: "Us Arabs have to become one... Us Arabs need to help each other... Us Arabs can't defeat Israel if we don't unite..."
Well, us Arabs SUCK.
We don't get it, THERE IS NO US. (That goes for "us Muslims" too)
There's no such thing as Al Omma el 3arabeyya, or Al Omma el Islameyya for that matter. We should just stop referring to it like it exists... and work on CREATING IT for a change. The only way to achieve unity is if we accept our diversity. And we are very far from that.

It also can't exist until we have true LEADERS for this unity. It's true we have deep cultural & traditional divides, but so do people in every country. Why is it that we are always FIGHTING either each other, or someone else? We fight cause our leaders want us to. We fight for them. We fight for their greed.
Basically: We are incapable of properly evaluating those who are in power, or even choosing those who should replace them. We either:
1) Rally behind corrupt questionable politicians with blood on their hands, clapping & cheering for them, posting there pictures on our walls like they are heroes. We treat them like they are "above" us, instead of treating them like oridinary people who are suppose to provide a service, people who are SUPPPOSED to SERVE & PROTECT us. They tought us to fear them, and we do.
2) Or we go with a more "mystical" kind of fear. The one from the all mighty. We choose to follow religious-political figures. We deify them, and we hang on their every word, and in return all they do is give us a fatwa every now and then to keep things moving in the direction THEY want...

All this is if we're lucky enough to live in a country that give you a choice between the 2.

So you see, there is no room for "3orobeh" or "kawmeyyeh" here... This is all we have. That's our political situation.

So what do we have left? Religion? grrreat!
Depending on religion to unite us is like depending on Michael Jackson to baby sit your kids... Sure "Never Land" looks like a lot of fun, and you might get alot of feel good freebies, but somehow someone always gets screwed in the end.
No, seriously... How many sects of Islam (or Christianity) are there? Do we even know? Islam is an idea... a belief... a philosophy... It's PERSONAL. Spirituality is not meant to be used in that way... No 2 Muslims, Christians, Jews are exactly the same...
So why burden ourselves with such labels? Why hinder your spirituality so you can feel like you "belong" to something? I never get this NEED that people have to associate themselves with people they don't even know on such a deep level???
Here's a suggestion: If you really want to feel like you are part of something start looking at the simple things that unite us. Like our love of Hommos & 3abd El7aleem :)

I'm not saying we don't have alot more in common, we do, BUT our sense of you "unity" and nationalism as Arabs is just an illusion... It will always be comprised due to our racism, fanaticism, sexism and intolerance.

So, the next time you want to refer to yourself as "anything", think about this:
If you want to feel like you belong to a certain group, guess what, YOU DO. You're human. We ARE all one. That should be enough. There is no need for a subgroup.

1 comment :

FaiLaSooF said...

eve,
you can't be more right! This illusion called "Arabism" should end. We have suffered endlessly becuase of it, and it's about time we wake up and see the ugly truth.

No other cause was badly abused more than the so-called Arab cause. And by the way, we are not all Arabs! There are Armenians, Kurds, and so many other ethnities that are essentials parts of our very own existance, and it is totally unfair to call our nation just an Arab one.

Same thing goes to religion, I can't see how a Lebanese muslim can be related to a Sudanese Muslim more than he can be to a Lebanese Armenian, or how a Lebanese Christian can relate to a French more than he can relate to a Lebanese muslim!!??? This is is just stupid!

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