Syria

i am intrigued by your story and want to know more!

My close family is a collection of Christian, Muslims and Jews so it is interesting when we all get together. I am still yet to travel further east than Iran

Jacob. I envy you your trip to Iran. I never made it there but have many good Iranian friends and bought wonderful Iranian crafts.

I will write more about my time in the Middle East. Will try to keep the politics out of it. However it is strange that even suggesting you can do this becomes a political statement. It is as if even accepting the humanity of arabs is seen somehow suspect.

I admire this, I am Syrian myself and work in the media…so you can imagine what it’s like. But you are right and I wish everyone was as open-minded and truthful as you.

I have written a few articles about this, but in a more modern capacity. You can find them on
http://www.bbc.co.uk/threecounties/content/articles/2005/07/09/tamer_asfahani_090705_feature.shtml

There are more on there too.

I am touched by your words..

amazing story and yes I do love the donkey shot!!!

hi

Thank you for the story, Pilgrim. I think people are beautiful everywhere, no matter what their belief may be. I think many people equate Arabs with radical Muslim extremeist terrorism, which is not the truth. I am a Christian myself and I how could I hate anyone, when I know God loves every single person on earth whether they accept or reject Him.

All too true and of course being destroyed day by day by the circle of an irresponsible press, hawks interests and the fundamentalists who pick up on the attacks and use them as fuel for their hatred which in turn breeds more hatred. Dinner is always a better way to solve a dispute and señor Bush would be well advised to sit down and have lunch with some Iranians before he suceeeds in doing what the Hawks want, another war this time with Iran. Crazy crazy world and it always has been but we think we have learnt something only to see that the evil keep pushing their agenda so its up to us to push back, litlle by little and day by day especially in our own hearts and minds where the posion can so easily seep in.

A great back to the roots story, I like the way you portray people as they are, and it doesn’t matter from which country, basically people are good but led to beliefs and behavior that can alter their behavior. A touching and informative story. A splendid addition to the Art of the Middle East group. that can shed light on people lives and roots.

This is a nice human story. I know what you mean about the media perpetuating all those myths about Arabs. Living in England we hear a lot about Arabs and suicide bombs, but classing all Arabs alike is similar to those people who compared all Irish people to the IRA terrorists.

At Christmas, one of the newspapers here carried a story about how we must stop celebrating Christmas because it offends Asian people. Our local Asian shopkeepers assured me that when they came to the UK they knew we celebrated Christmas and they accept that as part of our culture.

In the same vein, a councillor from a nearby town proposed that the Borough should stop issuing black plastic bin liners (trash can liners) because it was offensive to Africans. It is so often well-meaning Caucasian people who are stirring up controversy and leaving the Asian and African people to face the backlash of their stupidity.

YES! I live in the US Deep South. These days racism here has a new and complicated genre to it. I wrote an article for The Village Voice a year or so ago on The New Racism In The New South.

What never ceases to amaze me is the very few steps forward we’ve taken in the past century.

Great mind boggling piece, thanks!

WOW! Great comments everyone! All I have to say is I agree with everything I have read here and I couldn’t say it better if I tried so DITTO to all. Great story and view.

this is very interesting about your faith pilgrim, i am a quarter jewish, my father is a half jew, i only found this out in more recent years, but my great grandmother was married in The Great Tabernacle in Sydney….and i have had much joy and wonder discovering my heritage, i named my children Benjamin Joseph and Sarah, biblical names, only to find out later in my family tree there were many such names…...my grandmother was a New Zealand jew, bearing the surname of Myers, descended from fisherman, who moved to that region. My great grandfather was Sir Alexander Myers and his brother Sir Michael Myers I am so proud to say was Sir Michael Myers, GCMG, KC, PC, (7 September 1873 – 8 April 1950) was the sixth Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of New Zealand …...not that I’m name dropping…..just that I’m sooo proud to be part jewish and part all sorts of other things….....all of us I’m sure have a a lot more in our heritage than we realise, and tolerance and love toward all races is to be encouraged…..Jesus embraced all, especially the children :D

ps i am a christian who found out she was a jew…..could life get any better than that!! :D

wonderful and fascinating story ~ i enjoyed reading it so much learning about your adventures and heritage. The photographs are beautiful

Lovely story, straight from the heart. Just feel i would like to show you all this quote .

There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophy.
Our own heart is our temple, the philosophy is kindness.
The Dalai Lama.

Thanks so much for sharing what the world needs to hear: that we CAN live in peace if we only remember that we are all simply human beings with the same needs for food, air, water, shelter, kindness, fun, creativity and especially love. I do so enjoy reading your thoughts, Pilgrim – they are very reassuring and inspirational! Keep up the good work! Thanks, too, for your kind response to my last comment – I’m glad it lightened your heart! :) memac (aka ‘Sunny Days Originals’)

This is a beautiful story & grows more powerful through the sharing. I grew up Catholic, am still Christian & for many years was partners with a Christain Iraqi – it gave me a whole new perspective on the Middle East – sadly, he was the one with racist feelings for non-christian Arabs :-(

Very inspiring story. Getting down to the human level with people is the only way to realize that we are all one. I hope I live to see the day when this becomes a reality.

What a beautiful story of hope, faith, and love!!!xx

Thanks for ‘touching base’, Pilgrim – it’s good to hear from you again, especially as it gave me a chance to re-read this story of your ‘faith journey’; I think I needed to revisit the ‘tolerance’ aspect of my own faith journey. Karin Taylor also made a powerful observation: Jesus embraced all, especially the children – would that we all could see each other that way!
Blessings!
“Have a Sunny Day!” :) memac (aka Elaine Macdougall “Sunny Days Originals”)

The Donkey is a beautiful punctuation for a fascinating story. I very much enjoy reading about your spiritual evolution, it is eloquent and soulful.

Aloha nui loa,

Sharon

Someone once said, focus on the journey, never the destination. It’s that journey I enjoy in this piece.

Very interesting, and enlightening, I enjoyed your story.