Ayoon Wa Azan (I write about life)

I write today about the terror attacks in Boston. But I want to write about life, not death. On April 4, 1995, I was attending a meeting of the Board of Advisors of the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies at Georgetown University, where I once studied. We were reviewing educational projects and student matters, when a secretary came into the room and asked for the permission to turn on the television. She did, and we soon found ourselves following developing news on the bombing in downtown Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people, including 19 children. The chairman of the board was my friend Nemir Kirdar, head of the investment bank Investcorp. Two-thirds of the building where the annual meeting is held was built under the supervision of our brother Nemir, while one-third was funded by Hasib Sabbagh, Rest in Peace. The building also houses a center for dialogue between Christianity and Islam. Arabs like me in the board felt embarrassed by the scenes of carnage and destruction, in fear that the perpetrators were Arab terrorists. I began – as usual – praying that the terrorists be not Arab or Muslim. God answered my prayers, and the perpetrator turned out to be American terrorist Timothy McVeigh, who was executed on June 11, 2001. Before that, specifically on December 21, 1988 – nearly a month after Al-Hayat resumed publication – a secretary also came into the room and put the television on. I was surprised to see that Pan Am flight number 103 had crashed over Lockerbie in Scotland, killing 270 people, including 11 who were on the ground (the terrorist attacks of 7/7 in 2005 in London left me no chance to pray about who’s involved, as they were carried out by suicide bombers, killing 52 people in addition to the four suicide bombers.) With Lockerbie as well, I sat in my office praying for the terrorists not to be Arabs. This time, God did not answer my prayers: Libyan nationals were behind the attack. In 2003, Muammar Gaddafi admitted Libya’s responsibility, but denied any personal knowledge, and paid indemnities to the families of the victims. I remembered Lockerbie, Oklahoma City, and London as I followed news of the terrorist attack during the Boston Marathon. I slept to the news of the attack on Sunday, April 14, and woke to the news of the attack on Monday. I spent the entire week following the news through the international media, all while praying that the terrorists be not Arab or Muslim. I am still praying, as a man got arrested for sending letters to Barack Obama and a Senator with the toxic ricin substance, which is reminiscent of similar acts that accompanied the terrorist attacks of 2001. I write on Friday afternoon, and the photos I have seen of the suspects in Boston’s bombing could be of Arabs. However, the Boston police suggested they are two brothers originally from Chechnya. One of them has died while the other was still on the run when the article was being written. All I say is: God have mercy on us. The enemies of Arabs and Muslims in the U.S. media decided immediately that al-Qaeda was behind the terror attack in Boston. Al-Qaeda is indeed a terrorist organization, and is capable of a crime like killing an innocent child or a young woman athlete. Some people compared the Boston bombing to the terror attacks on September 11, 2001 in New York, but the comparison is problematic since around 3,000 people were killed in these attacks, compared to three in Boston. As I followed the developing story about the terror attacks and I prayed, I was making my own comparisons, different from the one above. What happened in Boston was a heinous crime, and I hope that all the terrorists be caught and punished by crucifixion, and not just hanging or the electric chair. However, the number of casualties was three, but despite this, the U.S. and even international media overlooked all other news to focus on the developments in Boston. Indeed, they are people who respect life and defend the right of every human to live freely without fear. In our countries, by contrast, people are killed and assassinated on a daily basis in Iraq, and war crimes are taking place in Syria. We saw how many casualties the revolution in Libya claimed, and before that, there was unrest in Sudan, Yemen, and most recently, southern Algeria. Dozens and perhaps hundreds of Arabs and Muslims are killed every day. Only their relatives mourn them, as though death is a tax that must be paid to the government or the terrorists. But in the West, even when three people die, they stand up firmly for life, because it is a right. The views expressed by the author do not necessarily represent or reflect the editorial policy of Arabstoday.