Dear Iraqis in Jordan: Please Accept My Apologies.
August 24th, 2007When Facebook.com was created, its creators never thought it would one day be a place for racist fights. The last of these fights, and the bitterest is a group that attacks Iraqi refugees in Jordan. The group is called “I Hate Iraqis”. I was really disappointed to see my compatriot young Jordanians join this group, and there are up till now 249 members in there. Some members attack Iraqis merely because they celebrated in Amman over the win of the late Asian Cup achieved by the Iraqi football team. Others throw blames on Iraqis for the increase of prices in Jordan. Many others are responding to what’s said about the treatment of Iraqis at an airport in Amman.
It is really sad! Let’s remind ourselves, fellow Jordanians, who those Iraqis are: brothers neighbors, and faithful friends. Go ask Jordanian students who studied at Iraqi universities in the past how they were treated. They all felt like home, they never complained about any kind of disrespect, and they were never reminded of who they were or where they came from. And now should we abandon them when they are in huge distress?
These people need our support after the invasion. They lost their country, their families, their property, each one of them have seen crimson blood flowing in the streets or even on the floor of their houses; they have seen death with their own eyes. This means they have had enough.
Many Iraqis and other Arab supporters asked to close the group on Facebook.com , and a new group appeared under the name “I Will Delete My Facebook Account If The Group “I Hate Iraqis” Won’t Be Removed.” Just think! The new group wasn’t named “I Hate Who Hates Me.” Please let’s be a bit rational.
A few days ago another Jordanian blogger waged assaults on Iraqi refugees, and what made me sick was when he started reminding Iraqis that Jordan at least has an airport but Iraq now doesn’t! I said before let’s not forget what Iraq is and who Iraqis are, let’s not forget the oil we used to get for free from Iraq before the invasion. And let me not say more dear fellow Jordanian. The blogger concluded his sharp attack by asking Iraqis to find themselves another country saying “If you don’t like the way Jordan treats you then get the hell out of it! Yes, you can… there’s Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and many other countries that you can consider home. Help yourself!”
I think this is an immature way of facing critical issues in such a critical time for us, Middle Easterners, and Arabs in general. Dear fellow Jordanians…we want no more xenophobic crises, the Jordanian-Palestinian racist conflict which was and still at stake in Jordan caused us many troubles, so let’s not show again uncivilized attitudes.
I love Jordan and I’m proud of being Jordanian, but I won’t remain silent if fellow Arabs are maltreated in any direct or indirect way because it harms the name of Jordan and Jordanians.
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http://www.elaph.com/ElaphWeb/AsdaElaph/2007/8/257333.htm
http://alarabalyawm.batelco.jo/pages.php?news_id=39121
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,292487,00.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20123887/site/newsweek/
http://electroniciraq.net/news/newsanalysis/Terrible_things_happened_to_me_Violence_against_Iraqi_women_and_girls-3133.shtml
Enjoy the links and if you need more, I am more than ready to provide! Focus on the article in alarab alyawm, where 15,000 jordanians and palastenians were kicked out of iraq and hundreds of them killed in the streets..
Wow, “Hi Five” I am very sad and surprised to see you try and justify this racist hatred. Ahmad’s article is a sincere apology which young people everywhere should learn from. At a time where all of us should stick with Iraqis, you are trying to justify their abuses?
It just shows how important it was for Ahmad to write this article. I hope people will agree for a change, instead of shame us all in the region by attempting to harm each other. Thank you again Ahmad for giving us hope!
Hi Five, you are really doing a dis-service by posting what you did. I think this is one of the mentalities that not only the Middle East uses to justify things but the whole World. This tit for tat back and forth non-sense has got to stop.
[...] was created, its creators never thought it would one day be a place for racist fights,” writes Jordanian Ahmad Al Ghasmary, who writes about his disappointment with the “I Hate [...]
One ver-r-r-r-ry highly placed Jordanian government official quite recently confided in me that the dirty little secret in all this is that Jordan has actually economically benefitted from the influx of Iraqis into Jordan. Wealthy Iraqis, with nowhere to park their money as they were fleeing their homeland, chose to park a lot of it in neighboring Jordan. Jordanians are often heard complaining about all the construction in their country and boasting of the new businesses and investments. . .well a goodly portion of these are thanks to the Iraqis.
Jordan has had a long tradition of benefitting economically from the troubles in the region, but it has also, I think, been quite generous in providing a relatively safe haven for refugees. As a small, impoverished nation, it is somewhat ill equipped to deal with them, but I’ve seen some real efforts made by Jordanians to deal with these refugee crises.
It’s a pity that some unenlightened ones are willing to squander that reputation by engaging in a hatefest. In such a troubled region, do those people think that they could never be in a similar situation? How naive. Do unto others, etc.
Thank you Ahmed for this article it shows that the ME still has good people in it.
We are all brothers and we should help each other.
Most of Jordanians with Palestinians origins didn’t like it when they were treated by some as unwanted, now they do the same to others makes you wonder, well we ever learn from history.
Good bless all