During my hours in the medical clinic at IBDAA I met Tiaya, a nurse from France who gives up all but four days of her summer vacation as a school nurse to serve at the camp because, "We must be in solidarity with them. I look for solutions; not rely on what I know. For what must be; requires thinking creatively."
Every mother who brought a child into the clinic the day this reporter was present, dressed in the typical dress of a Palestinian Muslim; scarf on the head and long coat like dress, except for the western looking and effervescent Wijdan, who spoke no English but told me through my interpreter, "I have American friends, my cousin is married to an American and when they come here, they stay in the camp...The situation is very bad with the American government and their complete support of Israel but not Palestine. The children in the camps suffer many psychological problems, there is no place to play, no parks, no green areas and they all want to play with guns. My first son was six during the first intifada and the Israeli soldiers would come into the camp and terrorize us. They would just come right into our home and during the second intifada my next baby grew up. Now my Natalie is almost one and a half and all I want is for her to grow up in peace and that we all could return to my home village of Zakariyaa. Zakariyaa is home, this is a refugee camp."
Every one of the women I spoke with was open and warm towards me and laughter filled the room when I asked what they thought of America and Americans. Everyone agreed most American people were better than the American government except for one dissenter who claimed, "Eighty percent of Americans don't know that Bush has no brains and no heart! Bush made a very big problem in the world in Iraq! We just want our freedom, I don't care about politics! The Zionists stole our land, our trees, our homes and I just want to return to my homeland in Zakariyaa."
Back to Walid:
Walid's oratory style is part pep talk and part exhortation with a Hitler-eske intensity and his show is slickly produced to incite the masses. Walid spewed that, "I love FOX News, but not Geraldo Rivera! His biggest mistake wasn't drawing the line in the sand in Iraq; it is his support of a Palestinian state."
The audience roared with laughter and exuberant applause as they also did as Walid preached, "Islam is a revolutionary faith out to destroy all governments…Muslim nations have a command from Allah to rule the world…Islam is a constitutional form of government…when you have a senator take the oath of office on the Koran he is pledging to uphold Sharia law and not the Constitution."
On Feb. 26, I phoned Walid's relative Kamal Youinis the good news that his name was mentioned from the King Center stage and filled him in that his brother Jawad is another supposed terrorist.
Kamal laughed, "Walid is a master of spin! He takes one iota of truth and creates a fiction! It is true my brother is an attorney. It is true that he lost his left hand and some fingers from his right; it was in 1954 and I think my brother was in the sixth grade. Jawad and a half dozen of his friends were out playing under the olive trees in Beit Sahour. They found a grenade left over from the '48 war, but they didn't know what it was. Jawad brought it home and got a hammer. He began banging on the grenade hoping to open it up but it exploded! The explosion killed one of the children and we almost lost Jawad too. Today my brother is a well respected attorney in Amman, Jordan. We all know that King Hussein does what ever the CIA wants, so it would be impossible for Jawad to defend terrorists.
"Walid's father is no fundamentalist. I have known his father since we were young men, we went to college together. Walid's father was not too bright and was always at the bottom of the class. In fact, both his parents have something wrong upstairs. Walid's father is a simpleton, he is a simple man but also an honest and peaceful man. He is religious in that he would pray five times a day, but not a fundamentalist at all. None of Walid's relatives are extremists, only Walid is. It's apparent Walid is involved in a smear campaign with fundamental Christian Zionists to convince Jews and Christians that Islam is out to get them."
Walid's show was nearly 100% successful in that mission. The after show crowd around the table of hundred dollar video sets was three people deep, but I made my way through and asked the merchant to let Walid know that the 'stupid' reporter had been in the audience and would still love to dialogue with him. I handed him my card with phone number and then connected with Billie Young, who stated, "The message was not at all inspiring to me, as a Christian it seemed the speakers were trying to hype the audience up, get them involved in a 'movement' that all Muslim people were out to get the U.S. and the two speakers were the good guys sent to save us. They mentioned our need to join forces to destroy the Muslim people. Personally I believe this is taking a persons life into your own hands, you being the judge and jury against an individual, check out John 8:7, and see if you can cast the first stone…A baby has no control over the family they are born into, Jewish, Christian, Muslim, whatever, so the child has a "mark" on it because it was born into a Muslim household. By this birth they are automatically labeled bad, terrorist, whatever. From the history of this country that I remember, everyone is born free, remember -- democracy -- the freedom to vote, the right to worship your God, earn a living, have a family, home, etc. If one would check out Matthew 22:39 your will find that Jesus said: Love your neighbor as yourself. Let us keep America free by not invading other countries, take care of our own, and when and if, someone invades us, then we have the right to protect ourselves and we did in previous wars. C.S. Lewis summed up what a Christian is suppose to be: "To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because GOD has forgiven the inexcusable in us.'"
Also in attendance was Dana Humphrey, the Director of the Volusia Peace Center, "I came to hear what these men had to say, and I found their on-stage ranting to be extremely disturbing and very detrimental to the peace efforts between Christians, Jews and Muslims. I find it interesting that the group that sponsored this event is a Christian Zionist group who has a mission 'to bring the unity and joy that comes with mutual understanding and love between Jew and Gentile children of God.'
"What about Muslims? Are they not children of God as well? I personally believe in the Oneness of all mankind and the Oneness of God and I hope that we as Americans will build bridges between people not walls. Just before Christmas last year, I stood at the foot of the 30 foot Wall in the little town of Bethlehem and cried for the people of Palestine. Jesus taught us "The Way" and this is certainly not it!
"I'm not really sure how these men can say that they are truly Christians and speak with such violent hatred towards another group of people. They stereotyped and demonized all Muslims and were very clear, that according to them, there is no such thing as a moderate Muslim, even to the extent of saying that Muslim student organizations should not exist on college and university campuses in the US."
In a slight paraphrase of Mahatma Gandhi, this reporter wonders, what difference does it make to the dead, the orphans, the refugees and the homeless, whether the mad destruction is wrought under the name of totalitarianism, Islam, Zionism, Fundamentalist Christianity or the holy name of liberty and democracy?
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