TIPS FOR DEALING AND SOCIALIZING WITH ARABS, MUSLIMS AND FOREIGNERS.

The Arabs called her “KAWKAB AL CHARK”, meaning the star of the Orient. So it is time to realize that the Orient is not Japan or an exotic region in far Asia but, the countries of the Middle and Near East. Nowadays, many Pakistanis, Saudis, Arab Gulf citizens and stretched Islamic countries beyond the fertile crescent of the Middle/Near East consider their countries are part of the Orient, part of the Middle East, for one single reason: THEIR TIE AND BOND WITH ISLAM AND THE ISLAMIC COUNTRIES OF THE AREA. This is very funny, because Pakistan which is beyond India has nothing to do ecologically and geographically with countries of the Near/Middle East. Pakistan is very very far away from the Near/Middle East.

The first time, many American folks heard about Lebanon, was around 1947-1948 when members of the Arab League, King Abdallah of Jordan, Princes of the family of Bin Saoud, Prime Minister of Syria, El Khoury (The very first and only Christian Syrian Prime Minister), the circle of the Syrian President Chawki Al Kuwatly, The Hachimites in Jordan (Al Ourdon in Arabic) and fragments of the Lebanese military attacked the newly formed State of Israel. The second time was, when President Eisenhower sent the marines to the shores of Lebanon upon the urgent request of the Christian (Maronite) president of Lebanon, Camille Chamoun who was fighting for his skin and for the supremacy and lives of the Christian minority in Lebanon who where in power (back then.) The third time was around 1975, when the Palestinians invaded Lebanon and established their camps in dirty Muslim areas of Beyrouth with the help of Lebanese Muslims arch-enemies of the Christian Lebanese and more precisely the Maronites (Oriental-Near Eastern Catholics). At that time in history, Christian Lebanese were decimated and slaughtered by the Palestinians and their cities were reduced to rubbles and ashes. Hold your horses, Christian extremists and more particularly Christians Phalanges or Phalangists lead by Cheik Pierre Al Gemayel’s son “Bachir”, head of the Christian Party of the Phalangists called in Arabic “Akl Khataeb” were as brutal, bloody, vengeful and sanguinary as the Muslims themselves!!

The fourth time was, when Henry Kissinger (following the visit of his Eminence Cardinal Bertolli, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Vatican who tried to negotiate a truce between the fighting parties in Lebanon and to deal with Syria’s military Occupation of Lebanon and its huge military command post in the region of the valley of Al Bekaa) tried to convince the Christians to give up the fight!!! True?,may be not.

But this is what I heard from many influential Lebanese politicians, foreign diplomats and bloody killers in the streets of Sabra, Verdum, Achrafiyeh, Mazraa, Mousaytbeh, Al Manara, Wadi Abou Jmil, Al Burj in Beyrouth. I heard even more damaging testimonies and stuff such as (According to the Christian Maronites and senior Christian military commanders of the regular Lebanese Army in Yarze) the quasi-resolution, proposals and semi-official negotiations and plan of evacuation proposed by the American government via Dr. Henry Kissinger rotated around convincing the Christians in Lebanon, to end up the fight and leave Lebanon. For Kissinger assured them that all the Christians who would leave Lebanon, will be welcomed to live and work in Canada and in the United States. If this is true, well, folks, this is very damaging to the image of our government and extremely embarrassing to all of us. I have some reservations and doubts about those rumors, for I know for sure that Dr. Kissinger is an honorable man and a peace lover. I am just truthfully reporting what I heard from authoritative sources. The fifth, sixth, seven and millionth times, we heard about Lebanon, were and still are, when we talk and hear about terrorists, terrorism, bombings, massacring children, kidnapping and blowing up airplanes, fundamental Islamic groups, Hiz Bull’Ah, attacks on Israel, etc., ad infinitum. Today, unfortunately, this is the picture we have about Lebanon and about the Lebanese; a bunch of guerillas, murderers and terrorists!! But the truth is quite different. Lebanon has more churches and monasteries than any other country in the Middle and Near East. For centuries, Lebanon was the refuge and the shelter for the persecuted Christians in Armenia, Anatolia, Asia Minor, Turkey, Syria, Egypt and other Islamic countries in the region.

It is unconceivable and unfair to call all Lebanese bloody killers. How about those Christian Lebanese, their monks, their nuns, their ascetic hermits, their saints and their martyrs? Did we forget about them? The truth about the Lebanese people was distorted. Many of the Muslim Lebanese who live in Beyrouth, Tripoli, Deir Al Kamar, Antara, Bekaa, Nabatiyeh, Basta and many other Muslim areas are as peaceful as the most peaceful people in the world. Many of them fought the barbaric Muslim empire of Turkey and died as martyrs. The most generous, forgiving and loving people I met in my life, in the 46 countries I have visited, were Muslim Lebanese.

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