| Six-year-old Hussein is sitting by his mother, who is commenting Hassan Nasrallah’s fiery speech. His nineteen-year-old brother Ali is on the front, laying an ambush for the Israeli soldiers. Their cousin Tariq is talking with a friend over coffee. Tariq is telling his friend about a secret website where he found very useful information on how to make bombs that could shatter as many as three big Merkavas at a time. The friend is listening with great care, although his mind now and then wanders back to the days when the Arabs used swords against rifles and then rifles against planes before they learned how to make bombs.
Far away from them, two young men are playing chess at a café in Manama, Bahrain. One of them is saying through his cigarette smoke, “Heard that, Hamad? Missiles are falling on Hayfa! Look! It’s on Aljazeera.” “Yes, I heard that,” replies the other, without raising his eyes. “My father is constantly reminding me that I’m lucky because I belong to the Aljazeera generation. In my time, he says, there was only Al-Arabi Magazine, which came and still comes from Kuwait. It was the Aljazeera of our time. But it came only once a month. Now, he says, you can watch Aljazeera and see the world live. You can see with your own eyes what Jews are like, you can hear what their politicians are saying. And you can see their cities being destroyed as the action takes place.” “That’s right, Hamad. We’re lucky we’re not out there. Imagine the whole Arab world were one and a single country. What would we have been like, eh? Would you and I have gone to university and found a job so easily and got married and had children? My brother -the politician, you know- said to me once, “ Arab Rule has always been centralized. The money always goes to the Capital and it’s up to the Sultan to re-disburse that money according to his wishes. Imagine the Capital were in Marrakesh, would the Sultan think of us we Bedouins in this remote part of the Arab world? Thank God we have our own government with its own resources and its own budget and its own policies. If they want unity, Arab unity, it’ll come when we’re all equal, when we don’t need each other to live.” “Your brother is right! And then, this America they’re fighting in Iraq, in Afghanistan and elsewhere, I’ve met a guy from there. He was a soldier in the 1990 war, you know, and then he converted to Islam. He’s got his own website. And he said to me Islam is the fastest growing religion in America. He gave me the impression that America might become one day the next Caliphdom!” “Even if it didn’t become Muslim, if only a greater number of Americans converted to Islam I’m sure American policies towards us would change accordingly.” “And then the Arabs and America would become allies!" “Insha Allah!” | |
