It was a hot and humid night as is every summer night in Muscat. We ate outside at a dimly lit coffee shop. We sat crosslegged on long wooden benches with cushions. The shop was mostly patronized by Omani men in robes and hats, with your occasional indian or oriental lady thrown in. There were fans spraying out mists of water to cool people off. I had a dinner of filafel pita sandwiches, extremely salty pickles, and tea with fresh mint. I very much appreciated this after 20 hours of airplanes. Afterwards we shared a water pipe of apple sheesha tobacco.
I was with Abdul my Palistinian/Jordanian friend and unofficial Arabic teacher, and Mashdi his Palistinian/Kuwaiti friend of 10 years who lives in Muscat. Mashdi grew up in Kuwait. His father was smuggled into Kuwait from the West Bank when he was 16. This was in 1956 and Kuwait was a crazy place. There weren't many roads and no one was allowed in after dark or they'd be shot. I wondered what conflict inspired all this security, and it turns out they were protecting themselves from Bedouin raids, as that was common place back then!
I'm not sure what led to it, but Abdul asked me if I believe in God. Usually I dodge the question, but this time I didn't. I said "no, not really". They were worried about this. They encouraged me to go to church on Sundays. They didn't care if I was Muslim, Christian or Jew, but they wanted me to have some monotheistic religion in my life. Mashdi encouraged me to read the Koran "as if it were an Agatha Christy novel". They both started telling me stories from the Bible/Koran/Torah. It was funny to hear them with the Arabic names, Yakhuub instead of Jacob.
I asked Mashdi just what it is that Islam brings to his life. He said morals. Because of the Koran he would never think of stealing or cheating on his wife. I was surprised he didn't say anything about companionship with Allah, or the afterlife. Those are the things I'd expect to hear from a devout Christian in the US.
I tried to explain that I am not morally bankrupt even though I don't have religion and the West is not morally bankrupt because it doesn't have religion. And actually the west does have religion, around 60% of the people in America go to church regularly (so says the NYT). I said you shouldn't judge the people in America by rap videos and movies, it's misleading.
Mashdi told me that Islam teaches peace and mercy and respect for women. He said Muslims do not support Osama bin Ladin. He doesn't like the picture that gets painted of Muslims in the news, its not fair that Americans think Muslims are all terrorists.
I told them how sad I'd be to never play sports or go running or go swimming. Mashdi insisted such things are fine for women to do in Islam. The Prophet Mohammed's and his wife used to run footraces. But I never see women do these thing in Oman, they wear too much clothing and don't like to go outside.
When Mashdi dropped me and Abdul at the office, him and Abdul said bye the way Arabic men say goodbye. They kissed eachother's cheeks and noses several times. Abdul looked at me and laughed and said "in America you think this for gays". I laughed and said, "yes it would be a little strange to see in the US".
We didn't come to any big conclusions that night, and it wasn't the most original conversation but it was fun. Fun to be with people eager to have discussions that go on till the restaurant closes, and fun to play my small part in much bigger world issues.
