Intro: Arab-American author and radio show host Samar Jarrah today appeared on Tampa FOX affiliate WTVT as a special guest on “Dialogue Between Arabs and Americans.” Samar was a guest on a 1/2 hour live broadcast show called “Your Turn with Kathy Fountain” and shared thoughts on her new book “Arab Voices Speak to American Hearts.” Samar is also co-host of a radio show (with Ahmed Bedier) True Talk on WMNF 88.5FM, a live 1-hour show from an Arab and Muslim perspective.
Download and watch the interview here
Samar was absolutely amazing, I salute her for the great efforts she’s been making to establish a dialogue between the Arab World and the west, particularly the US.
Below is the interview, typed down by myself, so forgive me if you find any mistake. There are few words which I couldn’t hear clearly and/or did not understand, those are the words put between two question marks.
Cathy: After 9/11 Arabs living in the united states more and more defending themselves and culture. Terrorism has made Americans suspicious, questioning what about the videos has been seen on tv what about the way women have been treated in the arab world
What about the hate we’ve heard being smeared by Arab voices against American values. Well, my guest today certainly did her own share speaking to different groups trying to act like a ? between her two homelands, the US and the Arab world. She’s been a contributor to CNN world’s report, reporting from Jordan, she’s a ? journalist. She ended up writing a book which gave the Americans the opportunity to ask these types of questions to the average Arab citizen and what she found is extremely extraordinary about the way we don’t communicate well with other cultures. So Samar Jarrah is here, she’s the author of the book Arab voices speaking to American hearts.
Explain to me first of all what Arab is, when we talk about Arab countries, America ? put everybody who’s Muslim under that category but its not.
Samar: I am an Arab because I speak the Arab language. My culture is Arabic, my food, my cuisine at least when I lived in the Arab world was Arabic. There is a unifying culture. And it is again based on the language not the religion. My best friend her name is Rose, she’s from a Christian family from Ramallah, she’s absolutely Arab but she’s not a Muslim. So it is not faith that determines your identity it is really the Arabic culture. The North African countries like Tunisia, morocco, Algeria, Libya are Arab for instance greater Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and the gulf region are Arab. But outside of that for instance turkey is not Arab, Cyprus is not Arab yet if you go to the dictionary and look at the middle east they would have turkey, Cyprus and Israel as part of the middle east but not the Arab world. Iran is not Arab, it’s a country that has its own language and culture. It happens that most of its people believe in the faith of Islam, they do not speak Arabic and they do not necessarily share the very same Arabic culture that I do.
Cathy:Is Osama bin laden an Arab?
Samar: yes Osama bin laden is an Arab, he is a Saudi and a Muslims
Cathy: so after 9/11 people were saying Samar come and speak to our group, we have lots of questions for u. the Arabs they are terrorists.
Samar: yes not only the Arabs, some people say Muslims they are terrorists but actually it wasn’t how I was approached. I have been doing public speaking and giving lectures for at least 16 years, I’ve been teaching and I’ve been always asked to come and talk about media, to talk about the national relations in the Arab world and Islam but after September 11 the demand on me became extremely more powerful. They wanted to understand, to talk to an Arab not to someone who has been there or is labeled as an expert, yet does not speak Arabic has not read the Qura’an and believes that he knows the Arab mind so why not talk to somebody in flesh and blood like u did rather than bring somebody who does not speak Arabic is not part of that world to talk about us as arabs or Arabs American. Then you’ll have a direct relation, direct dialogue so this is what happens they invited me to synagogues, to temples, churches groups outside church groups anything, public hens, ever walk of life!
Cathy: what is the most common question Americans want to ask Arabs?
Samar: I can’t tell u there is one question in particular. At the beginning, why do you hate us maybe. after few weeks, and after people started reading a little bit more they started to say ok how can we have a dialogue, how can we interact? Why don’t u tell Arabs this this and that. Why don’t U go there and tell them this and that for instance
Cathy: well I think the question that most American struggle with after 9/11 that they got the impression, right or wrong, correct it, that the Arab world if not supportive of what the terrorists did to America on 9/11 well at least in some way in sympathy.
Samar: you may have elements in society, we always have elements in society that are extremist in their thinking, in every society even here in the USA that might support such a thing but publicly all the government of the Arab world of course condemned September 11 and condemned any form of terrorism but also the people, Arabs are not used to coming out the way here because we live under democracy to march on the streets, they are not used to do this so they never thought that this is what the Americans want to see. Deep in their hearts, everybody I met condemned September 11. Everybody is hurt by it and its consequences on the Arab image on the Islamic image yet they don’t know how to express themselves, they are not used to be interviewed on tv they aren’t used to doing marches in the streets.
Cathy: and u know that leads to the second question you heard commentators on television over and over say, why aren’t we hearing more Muslim leaders, more Arab leaders condemn terrorism? And I think of my questions is it because there’s no one a spiritual leader like the Christian world has the pope to come out and condemn something, who in the Muslim world to come out and say this is wrong?
Samar: that’s a very important point u make Cathy, I am a Muslim and I live according to my faith and my own principles, I do not allow anyone to tell me go to kill myself or not to kill myself, I’m an independent thinker, and that’s the case in the Muslim Sunni world, we do not have a pope, there’s no Islamic hierarchy but there are many well known authorities in Islam like sheikh al Qaradawi, like for example the council in the USA(the Fiqh council) where they make what is called an Islamic decree or a fatwa that says we do not support any form or way of terrorism. The point Cathy, I’ve been speaking for 16 years, when did I get on tv? 
after 3 years, actually you and I have been going back and forth maybe 3, 4 months. How many times you see a person like me talking about the Arab women and being also Arab. Unfortunately the media sometimes ignore the moderate voices of the Arab world, for instance the us media knows the face of bin laden and al Zarqawi more than they know myself or any other speaker.
[on the phone: Theresa from Sarasota saying that the Palestine-Israel conflict might be one of the main causes of terrorism stressing the fact that the MSM does not talk enough about what is going on in Palestine]
Cathy: we get your point, and to let miss Samar Jarrah answer your question and also what you feel is going to happen if Israeli Ariel Sharon maybe not be able to resume his leadership?
Samar: to answer yours and Theresa’s question, from my work in the Arab world to research for my book I was surprised that after September 11, after the Afghanistan war and after the gulf war the recent one, the Arabs still have the question of Palestine in their hearts as the most important issue that matters to them more than Iraq, more than the war on terrorism, more than anything! It is the Arab Israeli conflict, they would like to see a peaceful resolution for a conflict that has been going for a long time where like Theresa said in the western media but in particular the American media u do not see much the other side of the equation, for instance watch the coverage of the sickness and the passing of Yasser Arafat versus the coverage of prime minister Sharon while he is fighting for his life you will find that there isn’t much balance in the coverage and same thing with the conflict between Arabs and Israeli conflict. There are instances where the Palestinians are guilty and instances where the Israeli army is guilty but most of the time the media is directed towards Palestinians being terrorists or the victimizers not the ones under occupation, and the Israeli army is always retaliating. So that’s why there’s a lot of misunderstanding between the image of the Palestinian in the Arab Israeli conflict and the perception in the Arab world of what is going on. And the Arab people feel that the us government is a broker in this conflict and they need to be more balanced.
Cathy: do they think that Ariel Sharon was doing a good thing, were they hopeful for peace? and this now going to be negative or leave a vacuum if he passes or not able to resume his process.
Samar: if you look at the history of Sharon before 2005, he is known in Israel as the bulldozer, why does he get this name? because he bulldozes the differences between people or because he bulldozes the Palestinian rights and homes?!
Cathy: ?
Samar: I’m very happy, I’m very happy that he does but after what? After his own government found him guilty or indirectly responsible for the massacre of 2000 Palestinians in the Sabra and Shatila Camp where his own government and his own Israeli people came, in half a million Israeli protested in 1982 saying not in our name that our army should be aiding ?Falanji? Lebanese Christian militias to massacre 2500 civilians. So unfortunately or fortunately in the Palestinian psychic don’t misunderstand it, when it comes to Sharon you will not find one person who will shed a tear over him but having said that other than Sharon, the Palestinians have made a decision in the late 1980’s that Israel has the right to exist and that they will exchange land for peace and that the negotiation on the table is the best solution to this conflict so the Palestinians have publicly signed on treaties that say Israel has the right to exist, it is now the time for Israel to say publically that Palestinians have the right to exist.
[Robert from Tampa: Americans had a problem with seeing a video of Arab people dancing in the streets after 9 /11]
Samar: It reminds me of the mother who had to turn off her TV when her son had to watch the image keeping repeating with aeroplane hitting the tower because he thought it was happening every two hours, and it was happening everyday. There was one image of one woman with three kids around her, out of context, we don’t know where this was shot and how but it was repeated on and on and on and on so people assume that it was happening everywhere. If it happened its absolutely wrong, and despicable but there was a lot of vigils and a lot of condolences, there were a lot of Arabs who went to embassies and visited their American friends, those images were not shown on TV so images can sometimes deceive, if they happened they are absolutely wrong but its not the general sentiment that I found out when at least I was there last year.
Cathy: So are you saying that the American media was over shooting these images, deliberately sort of isolated, the most inflammatory video and ignoring the videos of people who were horrified about the terrorism? I mean is that happened or?
Samar: I don’t know I’m not saying that, what I’m saying is that it was just one image of that one woman with these kids next to her, there’s no context and was shown over and over but did not for instance have a camera in Cairo, and a camera in morocco and a camera in Baghdad and a camera in Saudi Arabia that was showing images, no, it was just one photos for few seconds and was repeated, and I’m not saying that somebody is trying to put it there. It was an unbelievable emotional time, It was an unbelievable emotional time, it was a double jeopardy because I did not understand what happened but I was so scared, it was like my dreams collapsed infront of me because of all the years of building dialogue and all the years of talking and interacting with Americans. All the Arab organizations and Muslim organizations efforts, I knew were crumbling down with the same building falling down, so it was the most terrible thing that can ever happen to me as an Arab American but also if you read my book you will find that people there are quite upset about it because it just tarnished the image of Arab for instance when ?Temethy Mcvay ?did what he did, the Arabs in the Arab world and the Europeans didn’t think of all the Americans, of Cathy and Jim and everybody in the studio as ?Temethy Mcvay?? No they dealt with it as just few individuals did something wrong or vented in the wrong way.
[on the phone: Tara from Tampa, asking if Qura’an teaches peace and condemns terrorism then why do people justify what Osama bin laden did and what happened by using the Islamic religion]
Samar: Very good question Tara, everybody can you know abuse a verse whether its in the Bible or the Qura’an or the Torah and use it to serve their political means. I personally consider myself a Muslim, a practicing Muslim, I read it and I see it is about compassion and mercy and love and I see about worship and extending friendship and I don’t see it about murder and killing and actually in Qura’an its black and white, no if’s no but’s, if you kill someone not in self defense then it is as if you kill all of humanity. So one life, that I’m not for instance defending myself, somebody trying to kill me, it’s like killing all humanity. So how could one use that and abuse anything out of context in order to pursue…
Cathy: In America women are horrified at how some women in some arab countries are treated and you said to me that it doesn’t say anything in the Qura’an about women being stoned to death for a minor infraction, and women not allowed to drive cars, women have to cover up or they are stoned or killed or beaten, this is not from the Qura’an either?
Samar: Actually I have never heard yet of a woman being stoned in the Arab world and plus in the Qura’an btw it never says that the punishment for adultery is stoning, that’s the law of Moses, and in the Qura’an it is lashes no stoning. So there might be either mix up here or some incident. This is again because people don’t know what is an Arab and what is non Arab but maybe Muslim, but in the Arab world where I grew up, where all my cousins live and all my friends and relatives. The worst thing that happens to be honest with you, in my opinion, is the lack of democracy, the lack of democratic practice, it kills the ability of the woman to be creative, to pursue a dream the way I pursued my dreams of writing a book. So that’s the worst nightmare but to think that women there are beaten up or have no rights…Islam gives me absolute rights in marriage, the pre? Agreement is in my marriage contract, alimony is written there I don’t need a lawyer, even though living here in the USA…
Cathy: But culturally that’s not the way its practiced in many areas right?
Samar: In most of the area in the Arab worlds you have these laws as part of the constitution and if you read Ola for instance, the lawyer who deals with divorce cases, she’s telling you and me in the book that the most difficulty in the Christian divorce cases not the Islamic because in Islam its black and white, what is for the woman, what are for the kids, I have the right to divorce my husband even if I just physically can not be with him, this is all I need to tell the judge.
Cathy: we have to remember that in Afghanistan that’s not the Arab you’re talking about
Samar: you raise a very important point Cathy about the culture, its true, if you look at religion in general all over the world, the rabbis, the imams, the popes, the fathers, they’re all men and men seem to be interpreting and re-interpreting (Cathy says YES ) the Qura’an for you and me and all the holy books
