It was a sunny day in Central Park in New York, when a ferocious dog attacked a girl. A man rescued her from the dog, using a pen as a weapon, killing the dog in the process. Meanwhile, a photojournalist who passed by took pictures of what happened, then approached the man and thanked him for risking his life to rescue the girl from the savage dog. He asked him to take his picture, telling him that his image and a caption about his heroic action will appear on the front page of the paper, and the headline will be: “New York hero risks life and rescues little girl from savage dog.”
The man smiled and said, “But I am not from New York”. The journalist said no problem, we will change the headline to be “American risks life to rescue girl from rabid dog”. The man said, “But I am not an American. I am from Pakistan.” The photojournalist said the headline will then be “Muslim from Pakistan attacks American dog and kills it with sharp object”.
This is the way Muslims have become, not only in America, but rather around the world, as their image is linked with terrorism, and even their good deeds mean nothing. At the end of June, in Dearborn Heights in Michigan, a woman fainted while driving her car. When a shop owner and a mechanic noticed the car was moving slowly and ran a red light, they ran to it and succeeded in stopping the car.
The two broke one of the back windows and saved the woman from death. An eyewitness told TV that he saw how the woman was unconscious and white foam was coming out of her mouth, and how “Tariq Al-Gharabally, who was repairing a car nearby, rushed to her along with the shop owner to help the woman”, and Tariq said he would do the same to rescue any person. The regretful thing is that what this Kuwaiti citizen did went by without receiving the attention of many within the craziness that our societies are going through domestically and abroad!
A priest stood at the end of Sunday prayers and asked his parishioners: What is the percentage of those who forgive the sins of their enemies? The hands of 80 percent of those who were present were raised, so he repeated the question with a stronger tone, so all hands were raised, except for one old lady. The priest looked at her and asked: Are not you ready to forgive your enemies? She answered with a smile on her face: I do not have enemies.
The priest was astonished, and said this is extraordinary! How old are you? She said 98 years. The priest said this is wonderful – 98 years and you do not have enemies. Why don’t you come forward and tell us the secret. How can a woman this old not have enemies, so the lady walked slowly towards the podium, and all were holding their breath waiting to hear what she would say. When she reached the podium, she looked around and said: I lived longer – they all died! – Translated by Kuwait Times from Al-Qabas
By Ahmad Al-Sarraf
