Calligraphy by Everitte Barbee
There are some parts of the world
Where writing begins at the upper right edge
For those who know how to write.
Endless loops and dots make their way steadily across the page
In a language completely alien to most of the Upper-Left-Writing world.
Salaam alaykum
shukran
and la afham
are not written from left to right in those familiar Roman characters.
.siht ekil erom kool yeht ,daetsnI
La afham: I don’t understand.
I don’t understand
Why are we so threatened by a world
Which writes right to left
Or why Arabs and Indians
Muslims, Hindus, and Sikhs
Are all lumped together
And stopped at checkpoints by airport “security.”
I don’t understand
Why Islam is now synonymous with terrorism
And why terrorism is synonymous with Arab men.
Muslims grapple with their religion
As Christians, Jews, and even atheists grapple with theirs.
They are not robots bent on destruction.
I know that there are Muslims who are terrorists
But I also know about the Crusades
The Inquisition
The Ku Klux Klan
The Army of God
and The Lord’s Resistance Army.
Most Christians wouldn’t claim these groups as being truly Christian.
Neither would most Muslims claim Al Qaeda
The Taliban
Hezbollah
or Hamas
As being truly Muslim.
The arguments could go on and on
But intellectual debate is a waste
As I watch the body count rise
As fear and hatred launch the missiles
And infants die in their mothers’ lifeless arms.
So much beautiful Arabic calligraphic art. I’m not so good at Arabic, but its sister language, Hebrew, I’m fairly good at (couldn’t call myself a rabbi if I wasn’t, now, could I? Oy!). How about Japanese? Many newspapers in that language still write right to left, up and down!! And my favorite languages, the pictogram ones!
Now on terrorists… The word has been abused by the powers that be, never allowing themselves to be put in this grouping, though they may terrorize whole populations. Instead, the label is applied to whole ethnic, religious or political groups. Darn it, the original American revolutionaries were terrorists, as far as the English were concerned. And don’t even get me started about Jesus… In general, substituting “freedom fighters” or “activists” or even “rebels” for “terrorists” and seeing if the label makes sense is a good test of the efficacy of the terrorist label.
I thought about Japanese and Chinese because of course it’s not just Arabic that’s right-to-left; however, as I was writing the piece it kind of evolved into its final form about the Middle East and discrimination.
I agree with you on the terrorist thing. The definition of “terrorist” is so broad that it’s all but impossible to sort out what people really mean by it. It’s a very subjective idea. Good point about American revolutionaries being terrorists: they used guerrilla warfare!
Yeah, some people think the word “abuse” can have very subjective interpretations also. I really like your poem about different ways of writing in the world and accepting others. This is a really neat site. I will have to share something someday.