With my admiration of the hospitality, friendliness and beauty of Lebanon and its people, I came to find the Arabness within. It was not that I had suddenly become Arab after visiting Lebanon, but that I was always Arab and only discovered what it truly meant to be Arab. From my own generosity to my loyalty to others, I found that I was Arab through and through.
As much as I can blame others for misinforming me of Lebanon, I blame myself for not knowing better. I only wish I had learned earlier about what it truly means to be Arab. To be Arab was not about whether other Arabs considered me Arab. To be Arab was to accept myself, fully. It was to accept the influence that Arab culture has had, and continues to have, on my life. To accept my past, my family, my history. To be Arab was to be me.
And so, every time I rejected my Arabness, I was rejecting myself.
While I still have times where I associate Arabness with the negative behaviours I see in other Arabs; I now remind myself just how it important it is that I break those stereotypes and perceptions.
Being an Australian Arab is thus a responsibility that I bear. To remind myself and others that being Arab has nothing to do with ignorance, arrogance and violence. To demonstrate that being Arab is not a point of a shame, it is a point of pride. To declare openly that I am an Arab, and that there is nothing nor no one that can tell me otherwise.
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