Some reflexions
My last days in Amman are arriving, and without any question many perceptions I had about this particular region have changed, however, some of them remain sticked into my mind, trying to find the final proof of the rightness (or lack of rightness). This region is tough, bite and painful; it is easy to find people with horrible life-stories, from the taxi driver to the shop-keeper that was kick out of his village in 1948 just because he was an arab living in what some people consider their “land”.
There is something that keep knocing in my mind, and it is the influence of religion in the region. Five times a day, every single day of the year, the praying call storms all the arab cities, few minutes after, thousand of persons, looking in the same direction pray to the same God, in the same language and with a fairly amount of similar faith. They are the majority, but not the only group present in the region. One thing, however, is clear, people will define themselves upon their faith, and that makes a difference between two persons. After the clasical arab greetings, the first question is “what is your religion”, which, actually means, who are you?, how can I label you? How can I prepare myself to interact with you?. People´s faith should not, in my personal opinion, be the label hanging from our head in order to make easier our classification, we are, above all, the same. Several times during my time in the Middle East I tried to explain my situation: “No, Sir, I do not have a religion, I do not believe in any God, I just believe…well…in nothing until I see it with my own eyes!”….the face was always the same: “These europeans are crazy” and at the end it was easier to say: “Yes, I am catholic”. It was actually kind of easier and better since catholicism is respected as one of the religions of the book in the muslim world, therefore, the label hanging out of your head doesnt say: “infidel” or “crazy”, it just says: “close to the right path, but not enough”
Religion is everywhere, in the language, in the names, in the outfit, in their daily greetings (the blackbone of the arab society!) and it is impossible to live without its influence. Talking with some friends we came to the conclusion that actually Islam is the best marketing product. It was able to correct the “mistakes” of the other religions (mainly judaism and christianism) in order to obtain a pretty obedient mob, which is actually able to live their religion by themselves but without the possibility to even dare to question a single idea of it. A.k.a, without a door open for evolution.
But again, this is my biased ignorant western view….
