A Veiled Global View

The following are a few comments I have made concerning Salma Khaleq’s staff editorial, The Global View, which appeared in this past Tuesday’s edition of The Marquette Tribune ….

As I bombarded you with complaints about American foreign policy, Ambassador Ross' class or the lack of diversity at Marquette, you must have been wondering who I am.

Other then yet another vitriol spewing flaming liberal stemming from an already heavily recognizable left wing biased university newspaper? No, not really. Here’s a question though – how much damn diversity do you want on this campus? If anything the university celebrates or recognizes nearly every ethical group represented on campus with the exception of one – Caucasians.

If anything has spoken to you these past couple months, it's probably that I'm Arab, Muslim and for some reason really angry or frustrated, however you would like to put it. Believe me, I'm not the only one.

Well there is a statement of the obvious.

As for myself, I identify with the American society of which I've been been a part since the Gulf War and at the same time, I am a product of the Arab culture and traditions of my family. In the America we live in today, it's difficult to combine the two and remain rationally attached to one or the other, when neither is accepting of its counterpart.

Let us see here – you come to America, take full advantage of our educational institutions and our hospitality (which you have all right to), and yet you continue to associate yourself with the people who despise us, our way of life, the ideals of freedom and democracy we represent, and would enjoy nothing more then to see this country and its people obliterated from the face of this Earth? You would think Arab Muslims dancing in the streets at the sight of the planes crashing into the World Trade Center Towers on September 11th would have been reason enough for you to be ashamed of where you came from, but apparently the message didn’t stick, if it ever existed within you to begin with.

The more years I spend at Marquette searching for the evidence that may reclaim for me a bit of dignity for the Arab people — which I myself cannot reconcile inside my mind — the more disappointed I have become at reality. I guess that's the price paid by the political. The more time I work wholeheartedly to dismantle stereotypes of Arab society, the worse the accusations become of my loyalty to this pluralistic identity.

As long as they [Arabs] continue to persecute the Jewish people, engaging in a clear act of ethical cleansing disguised as justifiable retribution for injustices laid on them (even if those claims were true, which they are not, they are still no excuse for [attempted] extermination of the Jews), and desire nothing more then bring about death and destruction upon the United States and our allies, they [Arabs] will never retain their dignity as far as I am concerned.

the rubbles of Palestinian history

If by ‘rubbles’ you mean rubbish! Those who would care to dispel the myths surrounding the current Arab/Israeli conflict within the Middle East region can be properly educated by learning the truth of matter here, here, here, and here.

the apathy of American life

If that is the case, why are you still here? Are you not an adult? If you find American society or life in our country so shallow then why continue living here? The thing I do not understand about U.N. American Idiots is that they whine and moan about how horrible this country and what a narrow-minded society exists here and yet no one is pointing a gun at their head forcing them to stay, unlike most countries they seek to return to.

Yet, I still have hope that you've listened, even if reluctantly, and perhaps you have realized that we too have a voice to be heard. If you haven't heard the message yet, at least you've seen us calling.

Sure we have. The calls of fanatical Muslims were heard loud and clear on September 11th, 2001. Actually, to be accurate, it had been received years before that horrific event but a certain President known simply as “Slick Willy” refused to do a damn thing about in the eight years he held public office, more then he ever deserved. I understand that not all Muslims, especially those in living in American, condoned the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on that tragic day, but, as I said before, the images of Muslims in the Middle East dancing in the streets and cheering at the top of their lungs upon witnessing images of innocent American suffocating to death in the damaged buildings was evidence enough to show they were not that eager to condemn the individuals who enacted these attacks against us either.

I do not finding all that shocking, then, that she ended her article with a poem written by a misguided, yet still clearly talented, Palestinian poet.