Day 27: The Golan Heights and a Response to Muhammad’s Letter
Richard Hosford wrote:
>Hello Y’all,
> Muhammad, one of the students from yesterday’s dialogue, wrote
>this e-mail to us. He only had a couple of our addresses so he asked
>if it could be sent along. It’s pretty interesting. A less happy and
>sugar-coated version of his beliefs than what was said at the
>university.
>Enjoy,
> Rich
>
>
>———- Forwarded message ———-
>From: أبو طلحة <xxxx@gmail.com>
>Date: 2009/5/27
>Subject: FW: hi
>To: xxxx@gmail.com
>From: أبو طلحة [mailto:xxxx@gmail.com]
>Sent: Wednesday, May 27, 2009 3:55 PM
>To: xxxx@gmail.com’
>Subject: hi
>Hi or ( salamoalicom ) in Arabic
>
>How are you all
>Let me introduce myself again my name is Muhammad Shourbage
>
>I was in the meeting today, it was really inspiring to me and my
>friends and I hope it was the same for you
>
>However, I was told before I went to the meeting today that I should
>be very friendly and I hope I was.
>
>Because I wanted to be very friendly and there was no enough time, so
>I could not say my idea very clear
>
>Before I start I would say that I am not talking as individual ( as
>Muhammad Shourbage ) I am talking as Syrian or Arabic or Muslim people
>
>Today I asked a question about Israel, the question was:
>
>( we all know that American government gives unlimited support to
>Israel, so are you ( as American people ) the same ? )
>
>And I noticed that some ( or I can say most) of you said no and, one
>of you talked about ( the very rich lobbies ) which put a lot of
>pressure on the government to do that .
>
>So I want to ask a question
>
>Your elected government is controlled by who???
>
>Is it controlled by these ( very rich lobbies ) ? or by the people ?
>
>So there are two possibilities :
>
>If it was controlled by these lobbies then ( and I am very sorry to
>say that ) you are not free as much as you think, and you can say
>whatever you want, but you cannot do whatever you want!!!
>
>If you did not believe in ( holocaust ), would you say that in public
>? I think ( and I hope it is a stereotype ) you do not say it in
>public
>
>You were talking about the dictatorship here and you said we are not
>free enough to say whatever we want, and I say yes that totally true,
>but you are not free as much as you think.
>
>You are free in a side, we are free in another
>
>But in general all of us can not cross the red lines in our society.
>
>The difference between us and you is
>
>We are not free and we know that but you are not free as well but you
>did not notice!!!
>
>Your freedom is limited, and our freedom is more limited than you .
>
>We( and I have heard it many times here in Syria ) think ( and I hope
>it is a stereotype ) U.S.A is totally controlled by these lobbies
>The second possibility is:
>
>If the government was controlled by the people
>
>then the people agree(or at least more than 50 percent ) with the
>unlimited support to Israel, so we have the right to heat you
>
>because you( as American people ) support our enemy and the supporter
>of our enemy should be our enemy too.
>
>Ok you will say the government is telling us lies
>
>So I want to ask
>
>Is it our fault if you are so fool ( sorry for the word ) to believe
>what the government tells you ????
>We ( as Arab and Muslim people ) did not benefit from you at all, and
>all what we have got from you (till now ) is war (in Iraq in
>Palestine in afagenstan ) , bloodshed and disasters
>
>We were very happy when you elected a new administration, but we have
>not seen any changes yet, I hope we will.
>
> That is my opinion and we hope there is any third possibility
>Again I am not talking as individual, I am talking as Arabic or Muslim people.
>
>I (as individual ) think you ( as American people ) have the chance to
>make the world a better place, but unfortunately you are missing it.
>
>For me I love you all and I wish you great future
>
>And I wish you will be journalists of truth and humanity.
>For other issues we can discuss them later by email ( if you want )
>
>I hope I could view my point and I am sorry if I hurt you ( I just
>wanted to talk frankly ) and sorry for my broken language.
>Best regards
>
>Bye or in Arabic ( salamoalicom )
>
>Muhammad Rushdie Shourbage
>
>26/5/2009
>p.s : this message is sent to four of you because I do not have the
>emails of the others so it would be better if you forward it to the
>others.
Hi Muhammad:
Thank you for sending us your e-mail—it is very helpful to us and I know we all appreciate hearing your frank opinion. I think that the truth lies somewhere in the middle of your two ideas, and it is an interesting point that you think we are not as free as we think we are.
From my point of view, politics is much less about your nationality or what type of government you have, and much more about money. Whoever has the money (generally) also has the power. This is true not only in our American society, but also in the World in general—the rich countries often have more power than the poor countries.
That said, I personally believe that America’s foreign policy in the Middle East has been largely based off of oil trade and other business deals that maintain the wealth of the few in power both in the U.S. and abroad. This is not an excuse for the American people not speaking up, but my second point is that what Americans lack is a genuine representation of the world outside America.
When it comes down to it, money controls government and inevitably the media as well. The mainstream media most Americans view is skewed in favor of Israel to suit our government’s desires to influence the American public’s support. There are many reasons for this, but one big reason is that the media industry depends on advertisement as a major source of revenue, and many newspapers and other media outlets receive pressure from the executives of their client companies to support the same point of view. Many business executives in the U.S. are doing well financially, and want to maintain the status quo that our government has created, so they may put pressure on the media to support the government as well.
As Americans, it is our duty to make sure we are well-informed of everything our country is doing, and to seek alternative means to accomplish our goals through peace rather than War. This is the point of our group’s journey here. Many of us, myself included, have been educated well enough to know that there are always at least two sides to any story. Both sides must always be explored to gain an accurate knowledge of world events and to produce a thoughtful opinion on what should be done to combat injustice.
Unfortunately, not all Americans are as lucky as we are. Northeastern’s tuition including room and board is I think over $40,000/year, and many Americans simply are not able to afford this type of education that allows us to travel outside the country and meet with informed people who can give us an alternative point of view. While this may seem bleak, I do agree with you that our generation has a unique opportunity to change the way our two countries interact.
Meeting with you and your colleagues was a great privilege, and our group has experienced things here in Syria that most Americans will never get the chance to participate in. Today we visited the Golan Heights, and I still can’t believe that we were able to see for ourselves what we have only read about in history books. Seeing the bombed out buildings and minefield separating Syria and its Israeli-occupied lands was an incredible experience that I will share with my friends and family when I return home to the U.S.
I hope that the rest of my fellow students will join me in realizing the gravity of the opinions we have heard here, and take responsibility for spreading knowledge of all we have learned. I cannot promise you that things will change quickly, but I know that for me at least this trip has changed my life and the way I view the world. I intend to do whatever I can in the future to help combat ignorance and the injustices it perpetuates.
Thank so much again for sharing your knowledge with us! I hope that our responses help you understand our points of view as well.
Sincerely,
Gabriela Swider
Well done!
Very interesting dialogue. I had to restrain myself from a knee jerk reaction to Muhammad’s viewpoint of Israel. I’m an outsider looking at the issue from an obviously biased perspective being of Jewish descent. I admit that I am not the most informed in Israeli-Syrian relations, but I just wish to understand what is the real cause of conflict between the two countries? I understand that the current animosity has been borne through decades of war and occupation, but what led to the wars and occupation? What was the initial spark of the hatred? The forced relocation of the Palestinians by the British and subsequent creation of a new Israel or simply a history and tradition of conflict amongst Muslims and Jews? I don’t know but I would like to.
Gabriela, Everything big starts with something small, such as your exchange of emails. Just think how things might be different if we all had the opportunity to share such dialogues with each other. Maybe we’d all have a better understanding. You’re right, your group has a unique opportunity that many of us will never have. Thanks for representing us so well. James’ Mom
Gabriela, this is a very interesting and well written entry on your part. I commend you on your insightfullness, and wish you the best on the rest of your epic journey!