Patient Arabic Revenge

I once met an elderly Egyptian man. He told me a story. There was a man who owned a store. A rival killed his son just outside his store in a drive-by shooting. Later the rival had an infant son. Nothing happened for 21 years. Then the man killed his rival’s son, outside the rival’s store in a drive-by shooting. He explained to his rival that he waited so that the rival would know what it was like to lose a 21-year-old son.

The Qur’an condemns aggression. If you are attacked, you must give the attacker several chances to make amends. After that, you are encouraged to take extreme revenge.

In Arab culture, revenge may be taken decades or even generations later. There is no forgiving or forgetting, ever, until revenge has been taken.

The United States behaved abominably in the Afghan and Iraq wars. Both aggressive wars were illegal. The USA killed more civilians than combatants, including children. The USA used banned weapons such as DU (Depleted Uranium), white phosphorus, poison gas, napalm, cluster bombs (disguised as yellow food packets to attract and kill children) and bio-warfare (including destroying water, sewage and electric plants). The USA routinely tortured all detainees. American racism made the US soldiers behave worse than Nazis.

From an American point of view, the wars were all ancient history. From the Arab point of view, those are scores scheduled to be settled.

~ Roedy (1948-02-04 age:70)