Recently, Cal Poly celebrated the Arab Awareness Week with movies, a speaker and a culture night. We were also invited to change the status quo of the Middle East in a workshop on Saturday and learn even more about the Israel/Palestine issue on Sunday.
I agree, we should be aware of the Arab culture. It’s a culture where Sunnis and Shiias kill each other by the hundreds in Iraq; Sudanese Arabs kill Darfurian blacks by the hundreds of thousands and rape their women to make more Arabs; al-Qaida Arabs kill Algerian police and Afghanis and Somalis; and Sunnis kill Iranian revolutionary guards, all during the same week.
We should be aware of the culture that supports Hezbollah attacking Israel unprovoked, and when Israel responds, that culture demonizes Israel for defending its citizens, even though 4,000 Katyusha rockets, filled with ball bearings and nails, are launched from the civilian houses in Lebanon into civilian populations of Israel, and their speaker still blames Israel.
We should be aware of a culture where Israel leaves Gaza for the Palestinians, and in turn they launch hundreds of Qassam rockets into its cities, where Fatah and Hamas freely kill each other. We should be aware of the culture that teaches a person to wear a bomb and go into a bakery and kill others with him. Just read any newspaper and you will be more aware.
The real Arab culture is great. Let’s see that – not bloodshed, destruction and wiping another country off the map. Let’s stop demonizing and blaming the United States and Israel.
Sam Goodly
San Luis Obispo resident