Palestine, Arabs, Malays

A commenter asked me what help I gave to that Palestinian student.  Years ago my wife and I set up a sort of fund for students at the UIA. We wanted to help students who needed financial assistance. It was not much - just a very low key, few thousand Ringgit a year distributed among a few needy students - usually for those students who were just beginning their studies at the UIA. 

(Both my wife and our second son are graduates of the UIA and I studied Arabic classes for three years at the UIA too - so we wanted to do something in return for the UIA.)

It was not very successful because the UIA did not really want our assistance.   We  had to call them repeatedly just to remind them about our endowment.  After providing assistance to a few students (for about two years)  the whole thing just died away. Maybe they have too much money. 

But there was the case of an Arab student -  a girl - who had landed here at the UIA with little or no financial means. An able officer from the UIA called me and asked if I would like to help her financially which we did. The girl telephoned me and said thank you and that was it. That was years ago. I hope she has completed her studies and moved on to become a useful member of human society.   

Two days ago I took this picture in Kuala Lumpur  :

This is an Arab woman begging for money on the street in KL. 

The sign says 'Family From Palestine'.  

I have also seen these women saying they are from Syria.

Where we live I recently saw an Arab man and his young child going from table to table at the mamak restaurant begging for money. 

It is very pitiful to see the Arabs in such a situation.

It is very pitiful to see anyone in such a situation.

37 years ago when I was living, working and studying in the US  I used to meet and observe plenty of Arabs. All sorts of Arabs - Palestinians, Saudis, Egyptians, Moroccans, Tunisians, Algerians, Libyans, Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, Iraqis, Kuwaitis and more.

I can still say and answer their kaifa hal (how are you) in the different arab dialects. Kaifa hal, kaifa halika, keef, ghaa-ha.   The answer alhamdulillah, am-neeh, kuwaiyis etc.

When I was a teenager at school I had read plenty about the Arabs. Later I read master story teller Leon Uris book The Haj (1984). 

I have also seen the movie Lawrence of Arabia more than once.

Believe me folks, the things that I observed first hand of the Arabs, what I have personally seen from travelling in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq and transits in the Gulf, what Leon Uris wrote in his fictional writing and what was portrayed by Peter O'Toole in the movie Lawrence of Arabia  are exactly what the Arabs are - until today.  No change.  These are a very messed up people.

The 1980s were the heights of the Arab oil moneys. In the US,  I met Arabs who would tell me to look for friends among the Arabs because they can "help your country Malaysia". 

Their arrogance was compounded by their ignorance. 

Jahil is the arabic word for ignorance.

Jahil can be an alternative name for the Arabs. 

And since then, just look at those Arab countries I have listed : Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Libya, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Kuwait   -    have all suffered or are still suffering violence, war, revolution, poverty, dictatorships, autocracy and more UNTIL today.  And their future looks like it will get worse.  

The Arabs remain a strongly tribal people. This does not mean they live in tribal villages. They live in apartments and houses just like we do. But their thinking is still very tribal. 

And this tribal thinking has been infused into their religious indoctrination as well.

It is this desert tribal culture that has now influenced a significant number of our local Malay population. 

And of course the whole thing is very far removed from the Quran. 

This is a point of interest and I hope the Malay folks will bear this in mind - there is not one thing they do in the name of religion that can be found exactly in the Quran. Not one thing.

Here is a quick list. 

'Assalamu alaikum'. It is not in the Quran. 

Allahu akbar. It is not in the Quran. 

Isnt this very, very strange? 

I hope that the Arabs will become just normal, every day human beings - like other people. 

There is no need to think of yourself as being super special, the chosen ones, as an exclusive tribe etc.  

There are really no such things.

Bangun pagi kena pi kencing juga.