Archive for the ‘ General ’ Category

The Unasked Question of Terrorism: Fear and the Fear of Fear

This primitive brain...snaps us into the fight-or-flight reflex. That reflexive reaction to danger has great survival value when you’re trying to escape from a saber-toothed tiger or when you are trying to bring down a mastodon to feed your clan. But the primitive brain isn’t so helpful when you’re in the middle of a tense conflict with your spouse or negotiating with a high-strung teenager. Or dealing with terrorists . . .

Sharing a Flight With a Muslim After 9/11

Right after 9/11, I had to take a long flight. As I took my seat in the airplane, I found next to me a typical, young Muslim man. Right before the plane took off, he took out his pocket-sized Qur'an, and without looking left or right, began focusing on the words of the book and moving his head back and forth. With the movement of his lips, I knew he was reciting the Qur'an. . . .

Overcoming Fear and Prejudice

The world we are living in today is different from the world we were enjoying twenty years ago. I remember when I came to America in the mid-eighties as a graduate student from Sudan with my wife Hanan and two-month daughter Amel to finish my graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania Law School in Philadelphia. Back then, there was nothing to worry about other than the academics, living expenses, and family and social life on campus, along with a few issues relating to the Muslim community in the city. We really enjoyed it so much to be in America around that time . . .

Fearful People Do Not Act Well

As a general rule fearful people do not act well. At 12 years of age, Hamburg resident Peter Perls was inexplicably swept up in the wave of fear that gripped the German people and resulted in the genocidal fury of the Third Reich. It is impossible for us to even imagine the fear this young man faced when he was removed from his home on Weidenstieg Strasse and forced to board a train to Auschwitz . . .

Yemen and Stopping the spread of Al Qaeda

April 1983, a scared 20 year old landed, all alone, in Sana Yemen – two days late because he had been “detained” by the police in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, so the man who was supposed to meet him, wasn’t there. That person was me.  I was there to help rebuild some Yemeni villages which had . . .

Overcoming Hatred With Love

When people in the USA ask me if I was ever afraid living in the Middle East and North Africa, I knew what they were looking for in a response. We have many preconseived ideas of how the Arab world is because of our own experience with 9/11 and the subsequent new awareness of terror . . .

Let’s talk about Yemen

Yemen is everywhere right now. Headline crawlers at the bottom of the screen on nearly every channel mention Yemen at least once. With the recent Christmas Day attack on the Detroit-bound flight still fresh in everyone’s minds, Yemen has suddenly become a household word—right up there with Al-Qaeda and Hezbollah. A month ago, most Americans . . .

What people are saying about, “Tea with Hezbollah”

“Irreverent. Accurate. Insightful. And essential. Read it. Give it.”  – Thom Wolf, Professor of Global Studies, University Institute, New Delhi, India “Filled with huge amounts of fear and humor…remarkable…readers will be glad they have taken a sip of this untamed world with its irrational logic wherein truth is the only way out.” – Walter Brueggemann, . . .

Are You Afraid of Muslims?

Are you afraid of Muslims? Most are. For some good reasons too. The recent attempted bombing has made people nervous to fly again. Daily bombings in Iraq, Afghanistan or Pakistan. Ask yourself these question to determine your Fear Factor (be honest): When you see four Muslims walking toward you on a downtown street – maybe a man with a long beard and certain dress, or a woman with her head covered - what is your first emotion . . .