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My name is Shama. I’m an Arab, originally from Egypt. Some of my friends call me sometimes, the Muslim Santa. Ha-ha!
Maybe because they just think that I’m always there with a story to tell or a treat to give. To be honest, I thought about growing out my beard one day. ๐
Speaking of being an Arab, I want you to forgive me if I miss- say a word, mispronounce a word, or use wrong grammar in some sentences. Arabic is my mother tongue, and English is my second language. You know, put yourself in my shoes. Speaking in your second language before people’s eyes is never that easy…
Oh, you don’t feel it? Ok, are you ready? I will challenge you.
You say one Arabic word, and it’s just me. I’m not going to tell anyone. Ok? ๐
How about you say, Molokheya? Hard right? you can't make the "ุฎ" AKA "Kh" sound
Now, you feel what I feel. Now, you totally get it!
Two years ago, I woke up in the morning, and I saw a post from one of my friends on Facebook. I believe she was an American, and she was married to a Muslim guy. She posted saying something like:
” My kids are Muslims, but they are NOT Arabs!!!!!!” and a thousand exclamation marks and angry emojis...
I wasn’t sure what’s wrong with being an Arab? So, I googled it, and when I googled it, I came along with a video of Senator John Mccain. I believe he was giving a speech about President Obama before running for the presidency. A lady came to him, and she was almost shivering when she asked:
“Is he an Arab?”- She meant President Obama, And the senator calmed her down and said: “No, mam. He is a decent guy”.
And I feel like what in the world!!
What’s being an Arab have to do with decency?
Seconds later, I remembered my first year in Canada before migrating to the US.
Even though the Canadian folks are GREAT. They are smiley, they are sharers, they are eager to help and share information- except for that lady at the public park who ran away from me when I asked her what she usually use for birth control๐คญ- come on, I was a newcomer, I was familiarizing myself with people’s different styles. Seems like my first week there was not the best ever.
I’ll tell you why...
I was crossing the street with my kids. One kid in hand, and the other one was on the stroller. And you know, as a pedestrian, you can not cross the street diagonally. You know that, right?... well, I didn’t know it, and I did cross diagonally, and I got the big fat “F” word!
Then, I didn’t look back or say anything in return because I knew from the looks in the eyes that I did something really terrible! I felt terrible for myself and for all the non-decent people from non-decent countries just like myself๐!
I felt like, Oh God, now I ruined the image! ๐๐
Then, I kept the following weeks watching over the folks in the street while crossing, to check what was wrong in how I crossed the street.
A month later, the same situation happened again… but, this time it was a police car with a siren on and obviously a Canadian blond women officer inside it. She was coming so fast all the way from the very end of the street. For a moment, I felt like she wouldn’t stop, and she didn’t willy- nilly.๐
Quickly, I stepped a few steps back, and I let her go, and I was in total shock as she didn’t look back or say anything or apologized for the horror she caused me. I whispered to myself:” Oh my God, even police in decent countries don’t know the rules!”๐ณ
It took sometime to realize that the lady officer was on duty, and police cars don’t stop when in duty.
I was born and raised in Egypt. I lived there for a very long while, then I moved to Saudi Arabia, then to Canada, and the United States.
As I moved among different countries, I can tell there are so many clutural differences, so much to learn. And we are all learning!
In my books and blogs, I'm trying to reflect on immigrants' struggle and how it's been very hard for many of them -I won't say all- to fit in.
And you too, you need to unlearn some stuff.๐. Ironically, I can tell that people still find it hard sometimes to distinguish between the two terms Arabs and Muslims, and yes, there is a significant difference, There are American Muslims, Indian Muslims, Arab Muslims, Asian and Chinese Muslims, etc. but Arabs are like Asians, Africans, Europeans, being an Arab is not a faith. Still, it's ethnic, so there are Arab Christians, Arab Jews, and Arab atheists TA... DA!๐๐
A few years ago, I started working on my writing skills to launch my English blog a few years later, after my Arabic blog. I've been learning the ethics of creative writing and English literature from top universities.
While learning, I came across one of the courses that focuses on the greatness of the world literature. I was over the moon when I found that they included the famous Arabic Folklore "Alf Laila Wa Laila" or "The Thousand Arabian nights" novel and it was discussed in details in this course at this accredited and reputable university.
However, my happiness faded away when they referred to "Aladdin," the famous character in this Disneyland show when it was displayed, the song in this intro referred to Arabs and said, “… people with dark skins, hook noses, the barbaric folks who are ready to chop your head if they don't like your face, but hey, it's home! " this part was literally from the song lyrics.
The good news is that the Arab anti-defamation league protested at this time, and they succeeded in making Disney take that part off of the song, but of course, they failed to take it out of people's memory after watching the show.
I think now it's time for this image to change. It's time to see through one anothers’ hearts and realize the good in one another, the commonality in cultures, and emphasize the plethora of diverse cultures and implant the seeds of the good positive outcomes in our community relationships.
The Arab community is quite large, and the Arab culture is vibrant; as large as you can't ignore, and as vibrant as you can't skip.:)
We don’t have to add up to one anothers’ struggles. We don’t have to make one another feel like they have to battle with their identities.
We can’t make people battle because of WHO THEY ARE!
We can’t make people battle because of their skin color, curly hair, where they came from, their faith, their sexual orientation, or their mental abilities.
And this is not because we are decent or not decent. This is because this is humanity.
Didn’t the real Santa tell you so? I guess that’s a part of his job.๐๐
And the answer is yes, you can include everyone in the community, you can trust anyone no matter what the news says, you can have the folks who are different from you as friends. And you don’t have to be different... Just feel it, and you will totally get it!
My opinions represent me and are not affiliated with any organization I work or volunteer for.
