MY VISIT TO IRAN

Probably by just mentioning the name Iran your thoughts will immediately goes to the nuclear deal and the revolution and other recent events, and that is wrong because this country is 2500 years old from the first Persian civilization led by Cyrus the great. My first visit to Iran was a few years back in January and i had no idea what to face there, so i landed in the Capital Tehran and it was snowing like hell which reminded of my beloved city in the USA Boston where i studied. For a man coming from the desert the weather cannot be better so much different, went to the hotel which was very nice,

Tehran is a typical middle eastern city with huge buildings and crowded, and you do not want to drive there , my goodness what a mess i mean a red traffic light does not mean anything for a few drivers. their food is what you have to try especially if you like kebab, they have tens of different kebabs may favorite was kebab sultani which was great and they are experts with yogurt drink they add mint to it slightly sour but if cold it is fantastic.this is the image.

I noticed that they have a good industry almost all of their electrical appliances like fridges, tv's is made in Iran including computers, also clothing's, cars and other things, my only problem was the language i do not speak Persian and few speaks English there although Tehran is much better than the rest of the country.

 My next stop was Qum i had no problem there at all almost everybody speaks Arabic over there, they must have over a million Iraqis there whom were deported at the Saddam Hussein era. their market is magic i mean the carpets bazaar, you have to see it to believe it, the designs , the colors the beauty is eye boggling, made from wool or silk the ones made of silk you hang on the wall and if you look at it from different angles it gives you different colors, you have the feeling you want to buy the whole market.

Also in Qum is the shrine of MASOUMA the sister of the 8th Imam of the Shiites , the architecture is old and beautiful and lots of gold in the building structure it is just majestic.This is the image

The next stop was Mashhad an hour flight from Tehran, now this is a city you should visit,it is the dream of millions because it has the shrine of the 8th Imam and the old market is just wonderful. this city is equipped nicely for tourists with hotels , restaurants and a big shopping places. i always prefer the old market which also have carpets and saffron because saffron comes from the Khorasen region which Mashhad is one of the cities, and that saffron is the best in the world by the way. what really encourages the tourists is that the prices are very reasonable especially if we know the Tooman or Riyal the Iranian currency is cheap if compared with the US dollar.

Finally you have to visit the shrine of Imam Mousa Bin Jafar it is magnificent and cannot be described by words, gold all over the place and glass designs from the inside, i have traveled a lot but i have never seen anything like it, and this is its image

  

A POEM BY A LEGEND

ANTARH IBN SHADAD IS AN ARABIC LEGEND WHOM LIVED IN THE ARABIC PENINSULA BORN 525 AD AND DIED 628 AD. ONE OF THE MIGHTIEST HEROES AND POETS, HIS FATHER WAS THE A TRIBE LEADER FROM BANI ABBS AND HIS MOTHER WAS AN ETHIOPIAN SLAVE, HE WAS MADLY IN LOVE WITH HIS COUSIN ABBLAH WHOM HE WROTE SO MANY POEMS ABOUT, HE BECAME FREE AFTER SAVING HIS TRIBE FROM ANOTHER THAT TRIED TO OCCUPY THEIR LAND, HE FINALLY MARRIED HER AFTER A LONG HARDSHIPS TO PERSUADE HER FATHER, HE DIED FIGHTING FOR HIS TRIBE. HIS POEMS WHERE HUNG ON THE KABBAH AND WRITTEN IN GOLD WATER AS THE ARABS DID FOR THE GREAT POETS. THIS IS ONE OF HIS SHORT POEMS ' OH DOVE YOU INFLAMED MY SORROW', HE WROTE THIS POEMS AFTER HIS LOVE LEFT WITH HER FAMILY, SO HE SAT UNDER A TREE AND HEARD THIS DOVE SINGING.

OH DOVE YOU INFLAMED MY SORROW, AND FILLED ME WITH PAIN

IF YOU ARE WEEPING FOR YOUR LOVE THAT LEFT, THEN WE CRY FOR THE SAME CAUSE

INCREASE YOUR WAILING AND MAKE ME HAPPY WITH SADNESS UNTIL YOU SEE WONDERS OUT FLOWING FROM MY EYES

STOP AND SEE WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME,DO NOT BE HASTY BUT BE CAREFUL FROM MY FLAMING BERTH

(1)NOW FLY OVER THE LAND OF HIJAZ . MAY BE YOU WILL SEE A CARAVAN NEAR ALIJ OR BEFORE NOAMAN.

HAVING A CRYING LADY WITH TEARS OF LONGING FOR FAR AWAY HOME AND NEIGHBORS

I BEG YOU OH DOVE , IF YOU SEE THEM OBITUARY ME

AND TELL THEM THAT I HAVE LEFT HIM FALLEN , HIS TEARS HAVE FINISHED AND HE IS CRYING BLOOD NOW.

(1) HIJAZ IS THE OLD NAME OF SAUDI ARABIA NOW
ALIJ IS A PLACE NORTH OF THE PENINSULA
NOAMAN IS PLACE SOUTH WEST OF THE PENINSULA


  

THE HISTORY OF ARAB- AMERICAN RELATIONS

I gathered information from Arabic and American sources to summarize this important history, you can always refer to prof, Thomas A. Byson west Georgia college, whom wrote a  book entitled          " United States, Middle East diplomatic relations 1784-1978."

After the American independence in 1776, the young republic found itself having two major  difficulties, first was international recognition because of the British pressure world wide, and second the sea trade routs were dominated by the Europeans. It all started to look better in 1777 only one year after independence, when Sultan Mohammad bin Abdullah the third, Sultan of Morocco recognized the United States and was the first in the world to do so. In 1778 Morocco and the United States had signed the friendship treaty which was the first to be signed by the United States (still valid to date).
George Washington wrote a letter to the Sultan thanking him( called him emperor instead of sultan) and telling him that he is an ally for the years to come, and the Sultan replied to him with 2 Arabic horses as a gift handed to the American chancellor in Tangiers Mr James Laibe.

In 1784 the congress appointed Benjamin Franklin , Thomas Jefferson and John Adams as a special committee to establish commercial relations with the North African Emirates ( Algeria,Tunisia and Tripoli). Things did not go well as with Morocco ,( it was then when Thomas Jefferson thought of building the U.S navy to secure the trade routes to North Africa) but they finally succeeded  to make relations with Algeria in 1795. Tunisia 1797 and Tripoli 1806, in fact the United States declared the first war against Tripoli in 1801.
The fifth Arabic country the Americans signed a treaty of friendship and commerce was the Sultanate of Oman in 1833 and the Sultan Sayed bin Saeed sent the first ambassador to the United States in April 1840 on board the sail ship Sultana and the ambassador name was Ahmed bin Noaman, whom was the first ever Arabic ambassador in the United States.

This is a brief history of the ups and downs in the relations between the two nations,history that might not be known by a lot of people, but our friendship goes more back in time than any other nation in the history of the United States of America.   

Memories from visiting Saddam's Iraq part 4

As we were standing in front of the museum hesitating to enter, i heard somebody calling my name, hey Nael is that you my friend, i had a stare at him then realized it is Thaer my friend from school years back whose father was working in Kuwait for a few years before they went back home to Iraq. He changed a bit he looks darker and aged twice the years since i last saw him. Come walk with me he said holding a plastic bag in his hands,OK i said what is this bag for? well i want to buy some tomato he said i laughed i thought the place you are buying from should give you one!! suddenly we stopped and a long queue was ahead of us, this will take some time he said, i was astonished you are queuing for tomato i said, he just nodded , Iraq the land of Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent, my goodness Thaer your soil is black exploding with fertility i said with surprise, he replied well my mum wants to make a salad and my other brothers went queuing for cucumbers and lettuce, well i wish you luck shall we meet tonight i said? yes he replied there is a good restaurant called restaurant the restaurant it is famous, OK i said but what a strange name , and left him amazed and as we were walking near the place selling tomato i noticed a university degree hanging on the outside of the shop, a Bachelor of science, so i was reading it and the tomato sales person said angrily yes it is mine and i am not the only one, so i kept walking thinking what a waste.

  
So at night we all dressed up and went out the hotel and as soon as i lifted my arm calling a taxi , the same car stopped again with this guy smiling hello friends it looks like we bump into each other more often, , i just raised my arm i was not calling a taxi i said angrily and walked away, he drove his car right beside us and still smiling nobody except me will pick you up he said,so come on, so we had no choice.
So we met in that restaurant and the first thing my friend told us do not talk to the waiter otherwise you have to pay in dollars, OK i said ,now tell me why are you darker,did you go to the beach or something, he laughed and said no, i just participated in the popular labor  project, it is for all students to help in building new cities, oh so you made some money i said, what money he replied it is participation,so you could have said no i asked , he laughed again and said then they will not give me the end of year certificate. i turned to my cousin who's look was full of disgust , did you hear that? my cousin replied with a low tone ' i want to go home '
  

RELIGIONS COEXISTENCE

It is always a sensitive issue when talking about religions especially the monotheist ones, and this sensitivity i wish to talk about, why are we so sensitive? why is it always that we have to attack other religions to defend ours?did we bother to read their holly books ,did we understand it, if yes according to which scholar? so many questions that drove me to write this article, and probably we should start by defining RELIGION.

Religion is: the belief and worship of GOD almighty ( i will use it as the Creator , G-D and ALLAH) it is a particular system of acts and obedience to faith and worship.

This is a brief definition but good enough for the purpose of this article, and it is best to start with the similarities and semi-similar text in all 3 religions, they all believe that this world was created in 6 days, Adam and Eve story, Abraham story with little difference, Jesus story with a little difference , Mosses story, the Exodus, and the 12 tribes of Israel. i have selected those stories because they are all written with details or referred to in the prophets speeches.
First , regardless which religion you belong to, we all believe in this supreme power called GOD,G-D or ALLAH, and all of our obedience and faith goes to him .So the name he revealed himself in each holy books is of his choosing and we should obey and accept it. Secondly Abraham was neither a Jew,Christian nor a Muslim yet we all believe in him as the father of all the prophets and he was called upon and chosen by GOD to lead his people and convey the massage of GOD , he was a faithful servant whom GOD loved for his righteousness.Third the story of Mosses with every detail up to the Exodus is mentioned in the holly books almost word for word and in the Koran ALLAH says to Mosses ' And I have produced you for myself ' to show the greatness of Mosses.

So why we cannot leave at that point? why would 14 million Jews challenge the faith of 2.2 billion Christians and 1.6 billion Muslims over the existence Jesus Son of Mary, or why would the Christians challenge the faith of Muslims over the authenticity of the Koran , or why would the Muslims challenge the faith of Christians over the crucifying of Jesus? They all defend their points through their holy books, but why do i need to defend my faith against others that believe in one creator, Abraham and Mosses?
History tells us that the Jews were expelled from 109 places from 250 AD onward out of which 107 were Christian countries, so can we really blame Christianity, ignorance in the Christian faith from them leaders or is it a political decision? obviously it is the latter 2 are the real cause, since Christianity is all about peace, love and tolerance, yet one could argue that in the middle ages the church had all the control !!! True, but the church then were following the leaders ambitions and they would bend the faith to the satisfaction of the kings to keep their control over the masses and their positions in the state.
The same happened during the Islamic history when 3 out of 4 Caliphates were assassinated, and the rise of the Amawey state which used scholars to defend the positions of the leaders ambitions approving the likes of allowing the killing of the prophet's grandson whom tried to return the Islamic faith to what it was in the days of the prophet, so do we blame the religion? certainly not since it was about power and influence.
Also can we justify all the crimes that is happening in Palestine to Judaism? definitely not since we see Jews condemning the acts of the Israeli government .

We should learn from history, and the religion should be a guide for the seekers for the truth and people can read and research and follow ones heart and belief , and if one wants to know more about religion one should check different scholars and you will find the huge difference in interpretations of the holy books verses, and finally do not follow men you think are righteous to lead you to religion as Imam ALI said:  Whom enters the religion because of men, the same men will make him exit it.

Coexistence should be a target for all the believers because it will generate peace and harmony.

Memories of visiting Saddam's Iraq part 3

Finally that night we reached Baghdad, and it was as if we are entering a new country, the difference between Baghdad and the southern states is so evident in comparison ,while the southern states roads were full of pits and the garbage was every where ,Baghdad was so beautiful with wide roads huge bridges and the sight of the river was simply breath taking. So we got off the bus terminal and grabbed a taxi to hotel Gilgamesh named after the Assyrian king and poet, the hotel was very nice and comfortable so things are getting better and better,i rested my cousin whom was really in severe pain by now and went looking for a pharmacy which was near by. I want a medicine for stomach ache i said, he looked at me for a while after listening to my accent , did you drink any thing on the way Kuwaiti? i said yes , then he started laughing and said the problem is that you have stomachs made out of plastic while ours is made of stainless steel, i smiled thinking what do they teach these guys in pharmaceutical college. OK he said do you want domestic or imported medicine, i told him are you serious of course imported! Here he said , and i remember it was made in East Germany , that will be 20 Dinars , waw that is cheap i thought 20 Iraqi Dinars may be equal to less than 10 cents , AH he said but you are not an Iraqi citizen so you pay 30 U.S dollars or 10 Kuwaiti dinars, say what!! he replied what do you think, this is how we get even you have to pay in hard currency.

Next morning my cousin was feeling much better after that socialist medicine, so we decided to walk , you can smell history in every corner , here were the Babylonians , Assyrians, Akkadians ,Persians and Arabs ,it was exciting and behold there were this nice book shop and i thought yes time for books, so we entered looking for a book about these civilizations but to our surprise most of the books were under the title of Saddam. like speeches of the leader president, thoughts of Saddam Hussein etc..so i asked for a history books, yes he said i have a few and these are popular, Saddam son of Babel, another was, Akkad, socialism and Saddam, i heard of brain wash but this was brain wash with a hard scrub,so i left empty handed and disappointed . Hey lets go to the history museum my cousin suggested,surly they cannot manipulate that,unless they would exchange Sargon the Great head statue with Saddam's and write Sargon reborn ,nah can  they?So we grabbed a taxi and the driver was the same guy whom took us last night from the bus terminal,you my friends again what a coincidence the driver said, this is more than a coincidence i thought and immediately told my cousin to keep his mouth shut and let me do the talking, obviously he was a secret police.As we reached the museum our earlier thought was very close because there was this great poster with Saddam standing next to the statue of Sargon with a sentence in the bottom which amazed me and reads " THIS CUB IS FROM THIS LION"

Memories from visiting Saddam's Iraq part 2

We left that horrible restaurant and had an hour before the bus moves to Baghdad, so we thought we will go for a walk and the first thing you would notice the ridiculous number of Saddam's posters and between every 2 posters there is a Saddam statue, so my cousin amazed with the sight said what is this he thinks he is GOD, i replied i do not have to remind you to shut your mouth any more i will hit you on the head the next time, i cannot control my tongue it just pops out words he said. So we sat by the river and this old man was smiling so we said hi he replied which Arabs are you from ,we said Kuwait he said welcome then are you happy here? just before my cousin would open his mouth i said said yes we are so happy, but could you explain this sir ,  above us was a huge sign written on it ' ONE ARABIC NATION WITH AN IMMORTAL MASSAGE '  what is that massage? the old man wiped the smile from his face and shouted you ignorant non-progressive people and left, leaving me telling my cousin what did i say? never mind he said and pointed to another sign which said ' WHOM DO NOT WORK SHOULD NOT EAT ' now this is funny he said as we laughed and headed back to the bus.
As we were getting close to Baghdad you can see the beautiful lights from the distance, my cousin started having a pulse of stomach ace like every 5 minutes he would hold his stomach with pain, i knew right away that it is because of those black things swimming in the water we drank in that horrible restaurant , nothing i could do but to wait till we reach Baghdad. The bus suddenly stopped and the driver said OK everybody out, we did not dare ask why, but soon found out that there were military police checking ID's for military run away's, (Iraq had compulsory military a minimum of 3 years service and no maximum)  .the military police immediately pointed at my cousin , you come here,he said so i walked along with him since i had the passports, and to our  surprise the military police had a shaving machine in his hand, and told my cousin to sit down on a wooden chair in front of him , i figured out what the police man was trying to do but my cousin had no clue, i shouted we are Kuwaitis he then stopped the machine had a look at our passports and said go back to the bus,My cousin still did not figure out what was happening, so we sat in the bus then i told him that long hair is forbidden for boys in Iraq and he was ready to shave your hair off, his eyes widely opened with surprise, then looked towards the lights and said are ever going to reach Baghdad  

Memories from visiting Saddam's Iraq part 1

It was late August when my cousin and i decided to visit Iraq ruled at the time by Saddam Hussein, It was my idea since i have visited Iraq with my father but my cousin never been there. So we decided to make it as an adventure and use the public transport ( such a bad idea).From Kuwait we were off in an air-conditioned Mercedes bus up to the Iraqi boarders, were we saw this huge sign Unity..Freedom..Socialism, not knowing what it means my cousin asked what the hell is socialism, told him we will soon find out i guess. I entered  the passport control office and the people were so quiet and 2 officers staring at everybody and one of them shouted you come here i could barely walk from fear he had such a huge moustache and said Kuwaiti huh i thought this is it i am in trouble then i had to answer a 100 questions some of which were strange for us like : what do you think of imperialist USA never new what imperialist means but knew the second part sweating hard and my knees shivering, my answer was they make nice cars like Trans-Am, GTO he shouted enough and turned to his friend ' did you hear what the Kuwaiti just said? i was so scared i thought surely they will not execute me for this answer, can they? (i have heard some scary stories about these BAATHISTS) The officer then turned around and said you go now and when you reach Baghdad you pick up some of the president speech books and educate yourself, i said yes yes yes i will thank you thank you, i was so happy staying away from the rope. As i left that horrible office my cousin was outside smoking, he said you are late lets go. i told him when we leave Iraq it is your turn to stamp the passports(did not tell him what happened , he is in for a surprise lol).
We waited for an hour for the bus and could see it coming with all the dust behind it , then surprise!! the bus is made from wood on the outside, i remember we laughed so hard but as we got inside the smile was turned off, there is no air-condition and it was 125 deg. and the seats were a wooden too, my cousin was upset so i told him look this an adventure right? let us experience socialism, he looked at me with disgust and said i will sleep now wake me up when we reach, oh OK i replied.
Midway to Baghdad we stopped at a place called AL-OMARAH ,and it was lunch time i was starving, so as we were walking to the restaurant my cousin was mumbling how could you sleep on a wooden plank?this country... i immediately put my hands on his mouth and had to shout at him this is not Kuwait, then whispered there are secret police every where are you stupid? so he whispered back what kind of shit are we in? i replied the worst type if you know what i mean, so he said i will keep my mouth shut, i knew he could not he just cannot put the lid on it type of a person.
So we entered the doorless, air-conditionless restaurant  and of course my cousin went to the manager and complained i did not join him because i knew the answer will not be nice, so he came and sat down and the expression on his face made me laugh,so what did he tell you i asked? he said believe it or not he said,' tell your masters the imperialist Americans to fix one', what is this imperialist every so often used and who told him that we are the Americans slaves,, he said, i was trying to shut him up and surprised by the waiter who  is putting food on the table, so i asked the waiter we did not order yet, he looked at me with a half eye and said: look Kuwaiti this is the only meal eat it or starve, thanks a lot Mr waiter i said i will eat it( of course they new we are Kuwaitis from the accent and the pair of jeans which was forbidden there at the time) , and please do not forget Pepsi or 7-up he gave me that look again and said we do not have imperialist soda, i thought not again, then asked for water, he said OK as he picked an empty jug and went to the other side of the restaurant were the Euphrates is flowing by and he filled the jug from there, i stood up with surprise almost shouted at him then i remembered where i am and sat down looking at the water in the jug looking hazy with black tiny things what is it i was wondering ??, OMG those black things are moving and floating, my cousin mean while just poured him a glass and drank it so quickly, i kept looking at him thinking rest in peace dear cousin, so my cousin said with a smile  that was not bad, in fact it is good
in my opinion it was shit and thought how long that smile will stay on his face

RELIGION AND POLITICS JUST DO NOT MIX

If we would define politics as the way people living in groups making decisions and forming an agreement among themselves so that they can live together in the same country or tribe. So it is an art of the possible to govern the people of different backgrounds and beliefs while trying to keep them happy.On the other hand we could define religion as a set of beliefs stated by GOD  all mighty for the human to follow for their good in both life and after life, it also contains rules governing us in how to deal with other people from our own family to the state.

An observer will immediately jump to the conclusion that religion ruling is better since it is made by God and the proof of such a rule is evident in history, the kingdom of DAVID and SOLOMON peace be upon both of them and also the ISLAMIC empire. There are two questions that will follow this, first if they were so great why did they fade away? and second in today's trials of such states why do they look so inhumane and unfair to the minorities? there are a multiple answers to those questions  but the best would be,

1- the founders of these kingdoms were prophets of GOD all mighty, and according to our teaching they were supported by the Holy Ghost with wisdom,faith and courage they were infallible.( could be a slight difference between in belief between Jews Christians and Muslims,nevertheless they all agree that they were prophets)

2- Upon their deaths when one would have thought that all understood the message, human nature of seeking power and wealth prevailed and the kingdom was divided into Judah and Israel which made differences between them and made them vulnerable to outside enemies which came to their destruction in 586 BC on the hands of the Babylonians this is in the case of  the Jewish kingdom, and in the Islamic empire was all the same,the end of the caliphates announced  the beginning  of the Amawytes whom their first action was to kill the grandson of the prophet MOHAMMAD peace be upon him and put his head on a spear all the way from Karbala to Damascus some 600 miles later followed by the Abassayds whom killed every living soul belonging to the Amawy family.

3 - The  different interpretations of the holy books text led to different understanding of the word and that is why we have religious sects and these sects would not tolerate each other in some cases which led to wars and catastrophes.

In conclusion, in politics we can argue about the laws governing us and sometimes you would add annexes or modify them according to the new needs of technology , increasing population or incoming immigration or or ....but you cannot argue,modify or add an annex to the word of GOD  and if you would enforce your interpretation you would make a lot of unhappy people around you believing in different interpretation of the word  .
Some politicians nowadays in all over the world would use the word not in order to implement it but to steal the people's passion to religion and transfer it into votes,they are very dangerous because they will use any interpretation available that would serve their purpose or to create a new one by a popular clergy whom will set a complete explanation of the word in a very new way. Here we have to be very careful in that politics and religion do not mix.