Firstly, it is very cool to see this guy quoting Bukhari. The internet is a wondeful place.
I have commented her before, but I am very jealous of your travels to Yemen. I have talked to co-workers for a while and I am not sure the time is right.
And you have to be sitting in the back of a Land Cruiser! (For the uninitiated the most popular car in the Gulf, far and large, is the Toyota Land Cruiser, in all of its carnations, and the Nissan Patrol in a distant second).
Hey, thanks! In Yemen, the car of choice far and away was the Toyota pickup truck. They were absolutely everywhere. Second place goes to cheapo Chinese minivans. Of course everyone aspires to a Land Cruiser, like you say.
Ah, yes. Well, I mis-spoke. It depends which one you mean, however. There is the Toyota Hilux (Americans think Libya and Afghanistan when they see pictures of it, because people alwyas mount machine guns on them; I wanted one when first arriving in a certain neighboring country and was unable to find any used ones, as rumor has it said country was supporting Libyan rebels and was buying them in large quantities to ship there).
The other one, which is not good for your plus one, because that is all you can fit, is the Land Cruiser LX pickup truck, also referred to as the Abou Houdh (ابو حوض), the "one with the basin/bathtub" for rough translation. This is super popular everywhere, but specifically amongst Bedouins and the working classes. Why the Bedouins? As you probably saw this thing has pickup and is famed for its ability to go up large sand dunes in reverse (Youtube can show you).
If you like the Land Cruiser LX pick up, there is always the "capsoola", the capsule. Same car, but in a two-door Jeep Wrangler form-factor. This is one of my favorites. It is popular elsewhere because it really flies over sand dunes.
Granted this is not Green Arabia knowledge, but I thought it might be fun for some.
I may or may not have heard how people buy these cars in GCC countries and drive them through Oman and onward to sell in the black market for crazy prices in Yemen. This is one of many fun things I have heard about the black market in Yemen.
Since you generate a lot of interest with this stuff on HN (but you write better), maybe I will start writing this stuff.
Those Land Cruiser LX Pickup trucks are expensive, even by American standards - and so bare bones for what you get - but you are right, they can handle anything!
> And you have to be sitting in the back of a Land Cruiser! (For the uninitiated the most popular car in the Gulf, far and large, is the Toyota Land Cruiser, in all of its carnations, and the Nissan Patrol in a distant second).
That's because it takes significantly more effort to break the wheel's axle than with most German or French cars (never mind GM cars).
Tell me about it. But the preference for Toyota is confusing. The weight differential makes the car front heavy. So often less experienced people plant LCs face first off a dune if not landing properly.
Nissan Patrols, however, are very evenly weighted. I hear they landed very consistently all the time, at least more than the LC. So I have never really gotten it. I guess it just boils down to preference.
>It was a dark day when Islam met the loudspeaker. All travelers to the Middle East discover that this normally self-assured religion gets insecure in the small hours of night and feels it has to rehearse its foundational beliefs, in public, at 190 dB.
-Hey, wake up. God is great.
Hnnnnghh. What’s happening? Where am I?
-Hasten to prayer! Hasten to success!
Islam, is that you?
-I bear witness that there is no god but God.
Jesus Christ, Islam, it’s four o’clock in the morning!
As with the author's other essay on his visit to Yemen, this was an enjoyable one. But this line isn't wholly true:
"I don’t have the heart to tell him that there’s no future for him anywhere I’m from, either. In the US, being from Yemen is practically synonymous with being a terrorist. The world expects people like him to stay put and suffer in place."
Trying to visit the US on a visa with a Yemeni passport is indeed difficult, and so is trying to emigrate there. But it's not impossible: there is a sizable population of Yemenis who have settled in the US and been very glad for how much better their lives are. San Francisco and Oakland both contain large Yemeni populations.
The US has been systematically confiscating passports from naturalized Yemeni citizens who go home to visit, leaving them stranded. So I stand by my hyperbole:
What he should have told him is: "Get to the US by any means possible--by hook or by crook. You don't have the luxury of waiting for a job. Once you're in, life will be very difficult at first but if you work hard, don't feel sorry for yourself and stay out of trouble, in a few years your life will be much better. If that sounds too scary or dangerous, stay here."
How unfortunate in our hyper-PC world that telling someone to work hard and stay out of trouble is somehow bad or offensive.
The point is--if he wants to escape his situation in Yemen it's going to take some risk and it won't be easy. If he's not willing to work for it, why should I feel sorry for him?
It is offensive to tell someone to work hard and stay out of trouble when:
a) they work harder than you do
b) they face daily hardships greater than you ever have to face
c) trouble comes at random
It's easy to tell people to uproot their lives, and live as fugitives, on a nerd message board. It's nice to believe that we got where we are because of our superior drive, rather than random good luck.
I see. So the correct answer in your PC world is to silently feel some sort of existential guilt at having a better life than them. Sorry, I don't share that worldview.
While a) and b) may be true ("b" more so than "a"), "c" is only true in certain circumstances. Would you assert that everyone in prison is there due to bad luck? A necessary precondition for a new immigrant to the US to ultimately prosper is to avoid criminal activity (despite the very difficult situations they might find themselves in). It's quite sad that people take offense to this.
You sound like someone who has never examined closely why they have the life they do, and are now steadily determined to persist on that trajectory.
Nobody expressed or instructed you to feel guilt -- your mind immediately jumped to that because the idea that someone works harder than you and yet has less is deeply threatening, as it specifically points to how precariously and arbitrarily you're positioned in life. By painting yourself as the subject of a guilting, you can avoid confronting the real subject and change to a discussion about morality -- something nobody is asking for, but which allows you to dismiss the idea without considering it.
What was suggested was that perhaps you should consider undertaking humility and circumspection.
I yearn to explore the middle east in a peaceful, productive way .. so much culture, so much for me - a white, privileged, western man - to enjoy and understand. So many mysteries, so much history, so many very, very significant things which mean so much to the species.
But yet, so many walls to climb. I would not, for a moment, hesitate to wake at 4am and join the locals, I would not - for a moment - be dissuaded from removing my shoes and joining those ancient prayers. But there is so much prejudice in the world, and I could not say for sure that I would give it all up for the chance.
If only we could find a way to have our cultures co-exist. I yearn for it. But then again, I have yet to feel the same for Europe, where I live. What a trap we live.
I'm not sure what you mean by this. There are lots of places you can go (including the local corner store) to experience whatever Middle Eastern culture you want, and they co-exist with us just fine.
Be careful about joining the ancient prayers, though, unless you know how to perform them, and have converted to Islam. Otherwise you'll really offend people.
>Be careful about joining the ancient prayers, though, unless you know how to perform them, and have converted to Islam. Otherwise you'll really offend people.
Disagree with this, they'll likely be overjoyed that someone foreign shows positive interest in their religion.
Islam isn't a monolith. It's also not a country. You should observe your locale, inquire politely, and behave respectfully, as is true with interacting with any culture you're unfamiliar with.
Your comment is downvoted, and people are posting comments like "ok, try", "this is offensive". Doesn't sound like a hackernews thread :)
There are some things you have to do before going to a mosque: unlike churches, you can't get in a mosque "just to visit" (except if they have open-hours for non-worshippers/tourists, which is unlikely for a mosque in the middle of Yemen). You have to be in a state of purity (http://www.onislam.net/english/reading-islam/understanding-i... Also, joining the prayer if you're not muslim can be troublesome, but by all means if you just get in the mosque and maybe observe people praying, I'm not sure you'll get in any trouble.
Theoretically, even a rude behavior in a mosque shouldn't cause you any big problem (a man once urinated inside the prophet's mosque, and the prophet stopped some believers that wanted to punish him and just covered the part where that man urinated).
Muslims are really friendly with non-muslims that are geniunly interested (even in mosques where there are some rules to respect)
This is a really wonderful comment. What I was trying to get at is that you can't just show up and pray along with the group, like you can do in some Christian churches. There's no way to stand in the back and follow along.
In my experience, the biggest challenge you face in visiting a mosque is that people will make a sincere effort to convert you to Islam. They do this out of generosity and kindness, but it leads to some intense conversations. It is best to be ready with some good deflecting answers, unless you are considering becoming a Muslim.
I was very surprised to find myself invited to enter nearly every mosque I visited in Yemen. The only exception was the Great Mosque in Sana'a, which is closed to nonbelievers. My guess is this is because Sana'a sees a relatively large number of tourists compared to the rest of Yemen.
It would be hard to overemphasize the positive, welcoming, generous attitude of Muslims towards anyone with a sincere interest in their religion.
No, you probably won't offend anyone. I used to live in a small town in southern Alberta (Canada) and we had this guy come and pray there. After a while I learned he wasn't Muslim.. and people were mad that I asked if he was Muslim (don't remember why I did... I think I asked when did you convert).
Anyway, if you go up to any mosque and find a person you can ask, hey is it okay if I check this place out? Can I join in the prayer? Unless you meet an old uncle from the old country, they'll probably welcome it.
The mosque I go to now, in Edmonton, we have this guy that comes for the potluck. One day, the prayer is starting and I tell him, let's go pray (we were cleaning up) at which point he tells me he's not Muslim! Anyway, no biggie, he continued cleaning up while we prayed :)
I do not find it hard to believe that I'd offend Yemeni Muslims by making a haphazard attempt to pray alongside them at a mosque, because I can imagine what would happen if someone walked in off the street at my parish, got in line for a Communion wafer, and messed up that ceremony in a way that made it obvious they weren't Catholic.
Well that might be a bias based on the Catholic interpretation of scripture? For instance, in the church I was raised in you literally could not offend someone by attempting to take communion and being obviously not of their church. It was part of their creed. And I've had the pleasure of praying in a mosque when it was outright declared before hand that I was not Muslim.
Now that said, I'd buy you could easily offend someones religious sensabilities by praying an incorrect way, but you can also easily offend someone by not praying at all...
What are you some sort of hippy Unitarian? I hate to break it to you, but the real religions have rules. Catholics will just politely ask you to take the proper sacraments. Probably the same for most Muslims. I can imagine getting dumped in the desert if you accidentally attended one of the conclaved Mormon rituals.
The problem with a lot of liberal sentiment is that it can only ever work if you assume all religions are the same thing with slightly different colors and the same prayer said in a different language.
If something, like, oh, say islam's apostate laws, existed, it would be plain to everyone that you can't have freedom of religion and islam (not limited, of course, to that one religion). Only one of those can exist.
Of course that doesn't mean you can't just deny any of this exists, especially because there are liberal muslims (less than 1%, sure, but of course it doesn't look like that in San Francisco. But even in San Fran you won't have any trouble finding people who'll use violence against apostates either).
There's actually a lot of debate around apostasy laws, and a decent argument that the apostasy law actually refers to leaving Islam and committing treason against the Islamic state, not just leaving Islam. It's not as clear cut as you make out.
And then they beat them up if it's the first one doing that that day, or kill them if not. Or riot and destroy the entire town, burning down any house from anyone who doesn't have the exact right tint on his skin ?
No ?
Then, sorry to say, it's not comparable to what happens in the middle east at all.
This is of course fine for white people visiting from overseas that don't look like they should know what they're doing.
There are some types of non-muslims (open apostates) that would be putting themselves in real physical danger by entering your average mosque in Islamabad and praying. We have a local ex-muslims meetup in London and stories of threats + actual physical violence from family and "community" are more common than not.
It also goes without saying that if there's no women's section and you have a vagina, you're shit out of luck.
Knowing how to pray is important, or at least knowing the gestures,etiquette and positions, in a way that won't disrupt the prayers (because Muslims praying in congregation do use visual cues from those around them to reinforce their expectations of subsequent movements, and confusion can be contagious and annoying). Beyond that, very few Muslims would openly question you about your beliefs.
I think you're going to be a little disappointed. Most of the Arab world isn't super different from lower class Mexican towns. Not a whole lot of culture going on, really. Just a lot of unemployed dudes hanging around doing not much.
Anyway, you can simply book a flight to Jordan, or easily get a visa to Qatar. It's not dangerous or anything. Go for it.
Have you read Road to Makkah by Muhammad Asad? It reads similar to your writing and I greatly enjoyed it. After reading your article, I think that book merits a reread for me.
I haven't read it but I've heard great things about it. I've read his translation of the Quran though...he was a gifted writer and scholar. What a luminary! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Asad
How so? Mohammed told his pal to wake everyone up for pre-dawn prayer, the guy fell asleep instead, and everybody (Mohammed included) overslept. They performed the prayer after dawn instead.
It is often argued that the Prophet's inadequate actions would form part of a teachable moment. So in this case, it shows the importance of making promises you can keep, having failsafe measures etc., that Bilal could have done.
What you implied in your post was that this was something that happened regularly; it was not. Furthermore, read the name of the chapter of the Hadith you cited, the goal of citing this Hadith is to denote prayer times.
By the way, don't be surprised at the existence of green in Arabia. There is an authentic Hadith (in Muslim's collection) that states that the Hour shall not come until Arabia returns into being rivers and meadows.
Lastly, the Companions of the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) are called that, not "pals".
"This little episode captures something I’ll see over and over again in Yemen. Faced with a problem, you find out who is in charge, escalate to the highest level of authority present, and communicate your sincerity by vigorous yelling. There is always a phalanx of sons (and presumably a similar, hidden number of daughters) who can be deployed as messengers, sent on errands, or otherwise made useful. Everything is done with a level of verbal vehemence that would involve grief counseling and possibly lawsuits back in the United States. People are able to operate at emotional temperatures that would melt down an American.
If you asked me what I had witnessed, I would say angry people with guns had nearly come to blows over handwashing."
I'm not from the USA but have spent some time there and this description for some reason reminded me of New York.
Having been in both places, let me tell you it's different. I managed to dent a rental car into a local's car in Southern Italy though. That, that was similar. Although the threats there were implicit, rather than spelled out.
The big difference being that in New York you don't find yourself surrounded by the 50-person family of anyone you have the slightest grievance with in 5 minutes flat.
In Italy you just get surrounded, and there may be vague references to that fact. In Egypt, the references won't be vague, but explicit and colourful.
They may well be similar, however without meaning to disrespect your greater experience here, it would be lazy for me to assume that someone telling me their Egypt story applies to things you have said about Yemen, purely on the basis of you swearing on your drug stash.
edit - I feel it is a little like someone saying that they understand an aspect of the Scottish from the time they had spent in Paris, with another tourist who happens to be slumming in Edinburgh supportively saying that they would bet their last can of Tennent's on the veracity of the comparison. The comparison may be true, however there is no way of judging that without a few slightly more reputable sources.
What a wonderful experience to read this article! Author has a gift for writing. I hope he travels more and writes more :). The only thing missing is all those photos he mentioned he had been taking. I really hate it when travel writers hog their photos and don't post them. It would really add another dimension for the reader if author can post more photos somewhere.
71 comments
[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 132 ms ] threadFirstly, it is very cool to see this guy quoting Bukhari. The internet is a wondeful place.
I have commented her before, but I am very jealous of your travels to Yemen. I have talked to co-workers for a while and I am not sure the time is right.
And you have to be sitting in the back of a Land Cruiser! (For the uninitiated the most popular car in the Gulf, far and large, is the Toyota Land Cruiser, in all of its carnations, and the Nissan Patrol in a distant second).
The other one, which is not good for your plus one, because that is all you can fit, is the Land Cruiser LX pickup truck, also referred to as the Abou Houdh (ابو حوض), the "one with the basin/bathtub" for rough translation. This is super popular everywhere, but specifically amongst Bedouins and the working classes. Why the Bedouins? As you probably saw this thing has pickup and is famed for its ability to go up large sand dunes in reverse (Youtube can show you).
If you like the Land Cruiser LX pick up, there is always the "capsoola", the capsule. Same car, but in a two-door Jeep Wrangler form-factor. This is one of my favorites. It is popular elsewhere because it really flies over sand dunes.
Granted this is not Green Arabia knowledge, but I thought it might be fun for some.
I may or may not have heard how people buy these cars in GCC countries and drive them through Oman and onward to sell in the black market for crazy prices in Yemen. This is one of many fun things I have heard about the black market in Yemen.
Since you generate a lot of interest with this stuff on HN (but you write better), maybe I will start writing this stuff.
(Seriously though, I have a weight problem, no way I am skinnier than you; thank the Gulf lifestyle.)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnWKz7Cthkk
That's because it takes significantly more effort to break the wheel's axle than with most German or French cars (never mind GM cars).
And of course, they're cheaper too.
Nissan Patrols, however, are very evenly weighted. I hear they landed very consistently all the time, at least more than the LC. So I have never really gotten it. I guess it just boils down to preference.
-Hey, wake up. God is great.
Hnnnnghh. What’s happening? Where am I?
-Hasten to prayer! Hasten to success!
Islam, is that you?
-I bear witness that there is no god but God.
Jesus Christ, Islam, it’s four o’clock in the morning!
"I don’t have the heart to tell him that there’s no future for him anywhere I’m from, either. In the US, being from Yemen is practically synonymous with being a terrorist. The world expects people like him to stay put and suffer in place."
Trying to visit the US on a visa with a Yemeni passport is indeed difficult, and so is trying to emigrate there. But it's not impossible: there is a sizable population of Yemenis who have settled in the US and been very glad for how much better their lives are. San Francisco and Oakland both contain large Yemeni populations.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/22/yemeni-american... http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_25030451/oakland-man-stuck-yem...
What a condescending piece of advice. It's tantamount to "abandon your entire family and live as a fugitive, or are you too chicken?"
The point is--if he wants to escape his situation in Yemen it's going to take some risk and it won't be easy. If he's not willing to work for it, why should I feel sorry for him?
a) they work harder than you do
b) they face daily hardships greater than you ever have to face
c) trouble comes at random
It's easy to tell people to uproot their lives, and live as fugitives, on a nerd message board. It's nice to believe that we got where we are because of our superior drive, rather than random good luck.
While a) and b) may be true ("b" more so than "a"), "c" is only true in certain circumstances. Would you assert that everyone in prison is there due to bad luck? A necessary precondition for a new immigrant to the US to ultimately prosper is to avoid criminal activity (despite the very difficult situations they might find themselves in). It's quite sad that people take offense to this.
Nobody expressed or instructed you to feel guilt -- your mind immediately jumped to that because the idea that someone works harder than you and yet has less is deeply threatening, as it specifically points to how precariously and arbitrarily you're positioned in life. By painting yourself as the subject of a guilting, you can avoid confronting the real subject and change to a discussion about morality -- something nobody is asking for, but which allows you to dismiss the idea without considering it.
What was suggested was that perhaps you should consider undertaking humility and circumspection.
I hope this helps you with your problems.
But yet, so many walls to climb. I would not, for a moment, hesitate to wake at 4am and join the locals, I would not - for a moment - be dissuaded from removing my shoes and joining those ancient prayers. But there is so much prejudice in the world, and I could not say for sure that I would give it all up for the chance.
If only we could find a way to have our cultures co-exist. I yearn for it. But then again, I have yet to feel the same for Europe, where I live. What a trap we live.
Be careful about joining the ancient prayers, though, unless you know how to perform them, and have converted to Islam. Otherwise you'll really offend people.
Disagree with this, they'll likely be overjoyed that someone foreign shows positive interest in their religion.
There are some things you have to do before going to a mosque: unlike churches, you can't get in a mosque "just to visit" (except if they have open-hours for non-worshippers/tourists, which is unlikely for a mosque in the middle of Yemen). You have to be in a state of purity (http://www.onislam.net/english/reading-islam/understanding-i... Also, joining the prayer if you're not muslim can be troublesome, but by all means if you just get in the mosque and maybe observe people praying, I'm not sure you'll get in any trouble. Theoretically, even a rude behavior in a mosque shouldn't cause you any big problem (a man once urinated inside the prophet's mosque, and the prophet stopped some believers that wanted to punish him and just covered the part where that man urinated).
Muslims are really friendly with non-muslims that are geniunly interested (even in mosques where there are some rules to respect)
In my experience, the biggest challenge you face in visiting a mosque is that people will make a sincere effort to convert you to Islam. They do this out of generosity and kindness, but it leads to some intense conversations. It is best to be ready with some good deflecting answers, unless you are considering becoming a Muslim.
I was very surprised to find myself invited to enter nearly every mosque I visited in Yemen. The only exception was the Great Mosque in Sana'a, which is closed to nonbelievers. My guess is this is because Sana'a sees a relatively large number of tourists compared to the rest of Yemen.
It would be hard to overemphasize the positive, welcoming, generous attitude of Muslims towards anyone with a sincere interest in their religion.
Anyway, if you go up to any mosque and find a person you can ask, hey is it okay if I check this place out? Can I join in the prayer? Unless you meet an old uncle from the old country, they'll probably welcome it.
The mosque I go to now, in Edmonton, we have this guy that comes for the potluck. One day, the prayer is starting and I tell him, let's go pray (we were cleaning up) at which point he tells me he's not Muslim! Anyway, no biggie, he continued cleaning up while we prayed :)
Now that said, I'd buy you could easily offend someones religious sensabilities by praying an incorrect way, but you can also easily offend someone by not praying at all...
If something, like, oh, say islam's apostate laws, existed, it would be plain to everyone that you can't have freedom of religion and islam (not limited, of course, to that one religion). Only one of those can exist.
Of course that doesn't mean you can't just deny any of this exists, especially because there are liberal muslims (less than 1%, sure, but of course it doesn't look like that in San Francisco. But even in San Fran you won't have any trouble finding people who'll use violence against apostates either).
No ?
Then, sorry to say, it's not comparable to what happens in the middle east at all.
And God forbid it's a woman were to try that.
There are some types of non-muslims (open apostates) that would be putting themselves in real physical danger by entering your average mosque in Islamabad and praying. We have a local ex-muslims meetup in London and stories of threats + actual physical violence from family and "community" are more common than not.
It also goes without saying that if there's no women's section and you have a vagina, you're shit out of luck.
Anyway, you can simply book a flight to Jordan, or easily get a visa to Qatar. It's not dangerous or anything. Go for it.
I suppose author expected people not to follow thru with the source; http://www.quranexplorer.com/Hadith/English/Hadith/bukhari/0...
But the source is quite the contrary to what you claimed.
Or am I misinterpreting this?
Not sure if that's one of the traditional opinions in this case, but seems plausible. See here: http://ilookilisten.wordpress.com/2011/10/13/when-a-prayer-g...
---
Also, there is no mention that the Prophet himself had not woken up for the pre-dawn prayers. But that could be a stretch.
By the way, don't be surprised at the existence of green in Arabia. There is an authentic Hadith (in Muslim's collection) that states that the Hour shall not come until Arabia returns into being rivers and meadows.
Lastly, the Companions of the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) are called that, not "pals".
Edit: user nuhar linked to the Hadith I was recalling: http://sunnah.com/muslim/12/76
If you asked me what I had witnessed, I would say angry people with guns had nearly come to blows over handwashing."
I'm not from the USA but have spent some time there and this description for some reason reminded me of New York.
The big difference being that in New York you don't find yourself surrounded by the 50-person family of anyone you have the slightest grievance with in 5 minutes flat.
In Italy you just get surrounded, and there may be vague references to that fact. In Egypt, the references won't be vague, but explicit and colourful.
I was not aware that Yemen and Egypt were so interchangeable. Perhaps they are not. Have you been to Yemen?
edit - I feel it is a little like someone saying that they understand an aspect of the Scottish from the time they had spent in Paris, with another tourist who happens to be slumming in Edinburgh supportively saying that they would bet their last can of Tennent's on the veracity of the comparison. The comparison may be true, however there is no way of judging that without a few slightly more reputable sources.