Friday, May 2, 2003
ArabNews: Strangers in Their Own Homeland (Via Best of the Web)
Very interesting little piece at Arab News. Some students who were forced to interupt their studies post-9/11 and return to Saudi Arabia find their home's culture a bit wanting.
“Not once have I been mistreated or racially harassed or abused in any way,” he recalled. “They were very kind and accepting toward me. If the equivalent of what happened in New York on Sept. 11 had happened here, I don’t believe that our people would have shown the same self-restraint and patience toward the Western expatriates living here that the American people have shown toward the Arabs and Muslims living there.”
One young man, who wanted to be called Yousuf, complained of an inability to relate to Saudi people.
“Here, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know,” he said. “People have no respect for creativity, no respect for original thought.”
Yousuf studied in the US for years and was hoping to gain some work experience there before returning to Saudi Arabia and working for his family. All that changed after Sept. 11.
“Everything here is segregated — men from women, rich from poor, and foreigners from locals. This is a land of segregation. The majority of people try to justify this, but I feel that we should focus on integration, not segregation.”
Yousuf said there was a contradiction in the behavior of many Saudis. “When people are outside the country, they go wild. When they are inside, they go to the other extreme.”
“I am very angry at my people,” he added. “They have this terrible habit of blaming the world for their own faults.”[...]
