I live with the Arabs in Israel.
I live, work with and mingle with what are called “Israeli-Arabs”, “West Bank” Arabs, “Gaza-Arabs”.
I have mingled with Christian Arabs as well.
The VAST MAJORITY of Arabs from these groups call themselves “Palestinain” Arabs which means they identify with the “struggle” which means to wipe the Jews out in more honest terms.
They are confident in their faith as they must be unquestioning and SUBMIT (Islam) to the dictates of that faith, no matter what, on the pain of death. It is a confidence of both belief and FEAR.
Your words suggest that they do not mind your crucifix but that just means you are still very naive for you do not understand that it is an absolute abomination in their eyes and if they could do something about it, they would!
TOLERANCE and COMPROMISE does not exist in their world, just look around you.
My problem with your statements are that you still do not get it.
The Arab Muslims can be exceedingly warm, giving, gracious hosts and very very nice BUT, there is a passage in the TANACH, (Jewish Bible) that says (paraphrasing) “respect the other but be wary”. That means you should pay respect to the Muslim yet watch your back.
This is as it has always been, for as T.E. Lawrence said (at least in the 1962 film with Petere O’Toole):
Sherif Ali: What is your name?
T.E. Lawrence: My name is for my friends. None of my friends is a murderer!
Sherif Ali: You are angry, English. He was nothing. The well is everything. The Hasami may not drink at our wells. He knew that. Salaam. Hut, hut, hut.
T.E. Lawrence: Sherif Ali. So long as the Arabs fight tribe against tribe, so long will they be a little people; a silly people; greedy, barbarous, and cruel, as you are.
Nothing has changed since 1917.
The terms:
little people; a silly people; greedy, barbarous, and cruel
STILL APPLY, UNFORTUNATELY
Ok. Meant to just make a simple observation and I appreciate your comments and am in agreement for the most part with you.
Not naive my FRiend having deployed overseas in the USAF for my first time at 18 years old back in 1971. Lots of military time since then including combat. Most recently here I have been flight testing military aircraft here for a couple of the US allies in the region.
As I said, I plan to write a more in depth vanity upon my return in a week or so. As for your TE Lawrence quote from the 1962 movie, I actually have that video clip on my personal laptop as I also felt it captured the essence of the culture and life over here pretty darn well. Cheers.
It also goes back to when Sarah told Abraham to father a child via Hagar and we had seen how that work out.