Blasphemy: I Love the UAE (Oman was even better)

People reacted unusually to my vacation destination: Where? What’s that? Aren’t you afraid? Isn’t that near Iraq?

No, fear never struck me until I was there. The scariest thing about being in the Middle East was poetically my own fellow Americans. Knowing that a lot of them would just as soon bomb the shit out of any country not deemed 'worthy' made me feel vulnerable and angry at a goodly percentage of our country.

My experience in UAE and Oman were compounded by spam forwarded by one of my aunts in good ol' Madison County, Indiana. It read "Boycott this 'Christmas' Stamp" and went something along the lines of how dare our government print a Christmas (this was the first clue of ignorance; I believe Eid is the season between the end of Ramadan through Mohammed's death) stamp (in print since 2001) for people who don't even believe in Jesus Christ (false--next clue) and how if everyone just banded together and refused to buy the stamp (so impactful--yet another clue)--all 41 cents worth--it would be a noble cause. Having just purchased a sheet of Eid stamps myself, and being in a Muslim country, I couldn't help firing off a reply to all. And so now a large portion of my ear-infected waking time is absorbed with how I should reply to the reply to my reply. I deleted some responses without looking at them, but I did read my aunt's which seems to be blaming hateful people who want to poison our children with paint, those who have recently become citizens who seem to have less rights than other citizens, all non-Christians, international aid, and greedy foreign companies for job loss. Shew!

I guess she didn't take me up on my suggestion to voice her concerns to her legislator, because her intended path of action is still to boycott the stamp.

So, really the ONLY scary part of being in the Muslim world was knowing that I am stymied as to how to address a major portion of my own country who has forgotten how to love thy neighbor.

And that, my friends, pretty much sums up my analysis of my trip. More later on how Mohammed is not too down with women and the schools of the UAE.