Ayoon Wa Azan (A Selection of Brief News Stories)

We must give credit to those who deserve it, and therefore, despite our known stance towards George W. Bush and his wars against Arabs and Muslims, we must admit that the former U.S President has made all Arabs “devout”. While most of us were already “devout” before Bush and his eight bleak years in the White House, the financial crisis which he caused then made us all “devout”, whether to God Almighty, or to the banks [i.e. by being in debt].

This brings to mind another thing: the word for profession in English is “Job”, which also is the name of Ayoub in English [Job]. I could not have expressed the following idea better than this coincidence did in fact, even if I intended to: as unemployment in all countries have reached record levels, job seekers now need to be as patient as Job to get a Job, if they got one at all.

I pause here to admit that I have been trying over many days to find humorous material for my articles that would relieve the reader of the burden of cumbersome political news, but did not find anything. As such, I saw it fit to lure the reader with some humour before moving on to a collection of serious but brief selection of issues and news.

- The last week in London carried with it four news stories related to honour killings; the strange thing about that however, is that two of them involved Englishmen instead of Arabs, Kurds, Pakistanis and Indians as we normally read:

Neil Ellerbeck, a banker in London, murdered his wife Kate by strangulation after he found out that she was cheating on him with two other men. The court convicted him of manslaughter but cleared him of murder, since he had not intended to cause her death, but lost his temper during a violent row and killed her.

Also, Alisdair Sinclair stabbed his wife to death after she filed for divorce citing his extreme jealousy and possessiveness. He stabbed her 30 times after he discovered that she was going to leave him to be with her lover.

The third crime claimed the life of Tulay Goren, a Turkish 15-year old girl whose father is now on trial for her murder and for hiding her body with the help of his two brothers Ali and Cuma. The girl’s only crime is that she had an affair with a young Turkish Muslim like her, but from another sect, and their two sects do not usually intermarry. Also, three Indians were sentenced to prison after repeatedly raping their 14 year old cousin until she became pregnant, and then sent her to India to be forcibly married.

In London, honour crimes are prosecuted like any other crime, and those who are convicted for these do not receive any special treatment. I wonder, as we read about four honour crimes taking place in only one week in London, how many honour crimes are being committed in our countries, and then how many of those get to the trial stage? When will the murderer of his own daughter or sister in an honour crime be ever treated like an ordinary killer, and sentenced to life in prison, instead of six months after which he walks free as a hero and not as the criminal that he is?

- From America this time, I read a strange news story about Kristian Oliver, who is facing execution by lethal injection within days if the death penalty against him is carried out, and if he is not included in the general pardon granted by the Governor of Texas. He was convicted of killing a man while engaging in a robbery.

While there is nothing strange about the above, the details tell a different story: the jurors who convicted him had turned to the Old Testament to determine their verdict, and specifically the book of Deuteronomy, which says that the “the killer should be killed” and that “revenge should be by killing the killer”, and other similar passages.

The American defendant is supposed to be tried under U.S laws and not Jewish laws. This is while noting that the jurors are Christians and thus, they must have been Zionist Christian Evangelists since they are from Texas, or the so-called “Bible Belt”.

Deuteronomy, which the Jesuits call “The Book of the Second Law”, includes most Jewish laws, and a lot of burning and stoning that is absent from the Holy Koran.

-Also in America, I read the news about Rep. Robert Wexler, a Democrat from Florida, who informed his party’s leadership of his intention to resign from Congress. The Sun-Sentinel newspaper reported that he is likely to take a public policy job that deals with the Middle East.

In fact, Wexler had always represented Israel in the Congress, and is one of the most despicable enemies of Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims. However, the Huffington Post electronic newspaper quoted sources in his state as saying “Robert Wexler enjoys cocaine and the company of prostitutes because they are fun things to do." Perhaps this explains his policies in favour of Israel.

- Finally, in the same manner as when I started with something light to lure the reader to read my article, I will conclude with something also light to reward the readers who have persevered until the very end.

Every day, I contact my colleagues in Beirut to ask them about the latest details regarding the formation of the Lebanese cabinet, since everyone there knows better than I do in London about this, but every day, I simultaneously hear the same answer and its opposite, and I become less informed and more worried.

Today I want to ask the readers, do they remember the famous Lebanese colloquial saying [which loosely translates as:] “This matter has three sides”? The government crisis reminds me of this saying, since its issue has three sides: one that you are aware of, one that we don’t have to explain, and one that you do not need to ask about.