The Wisdom of A Disgraced Man

 

Reading Richard Nixon’s In The Arena, was an interesting experience for me. Growing up in Egypt and seeing Nixon come to Egypt in the early 1970’s and literally help Egypt out of the Soviet orbit made me like him. When Nixon resigned in August 1974, I was just 14; I didn’t know much about the cultural wars of the 1960’s, Watergate didn’t mean much to me, I only viewed Nixon from the eyes of an Egyptian boy. Today, in my sixties and having left Egypt a year after Nixon resigned and spent most of my life in the US, I’m on the opposite political spectrum of Nixon. While I continue to lean right on issues of Defence and some economic issues, I’m on the liberal left on some economic and most social issues. 

Still, I found these Nixon memoirs fascinating and moving in terms of his journey from the greatest heights to complete disgrace and his ability to build back a productive meaningful life after leaving the White House. There is plenty of regrets and contrition over his role in Watergate, but it’s mostly of the type I should have been firmer, there is some of the I never ordered, my predecessors did worse, I didn’t know and the media this and that. Once there was a clear cut acceptance of the blame of not having set the right moral tone. I felt some sympathy but I suspect it’s carryover from my boyhood admiration. 

After few early chapters on Watergate and some interesting history of his “wilderness” years, following loss to JFK in 1960 and loss of California governor race in 1962, the book is mainly made of short chapters on various fascinating topics ranging from his views on religion, to stories about his wife and parents, to stories about his rise in Congress, winning the Senate in 1950 and fascinating stories of his meetings with Mao and Li and later following Tienman Square with Deng Chao Peng. 

There is plenty of wisdom from Nixon’s life and those he admired the most like Churchill, DeGaul and others. I especially enjoyed some of his saying on various topics. These include: you may not lose what you have if you don’t risk, you certainly can’t win more without risk, small people seek office to make something out of themselves while great people seek office to achieve something and of course several sayings on failure and not defining oneself by failure.  Several of the sayings may come across as cliché, but from Richard Nixon, they came across as wisdom gained from an incredible lifetime of trials, successes, failures, or as he learnt from a friend life is made up of 99 chapters. 

Islam: The Truth, Not the Facts!

In the years that followed 9/11, Arab and Muslim Americans have experienced a sharp rise in cases of psychological diseases and mental disorders. Researchers attributed much of this to the anti-Muslim backlash that ensued post-9/11 and was reinforced by the Iraq war. In the current decade the new wave of global spectacular terrorists attacks is making things worse. My own direct observation from own dealings, as well as through observations on social media, is that the problem is spreading into Europe’s  Muslims and indeed to the Middle East itself.

Those who attributed the problem primarily to the anti-Muslim backlash in the West would benefit from looking at Egypt where youth sentiments of depression and dissatisfactions with life are rampant. Young Muslims in the West and elsewhere are looking at the horrors committed in the name of their religion and are unable to reconcile the Islam they thought they belonged to and believed in with the various texts and citations offered by multitudes of sources from ISIS to various TV sheikhs, Imams and Mullahs.

I'm often challenged by both Muslims and Islamophobes to explain how I reconcile my belief in Islam with numerous stories in Islam’s sacred texts that condone violence and discrimination. Much of the inter-Muslim discourse focuses on citations: the prowess in finding citations that would help a point of view prevail over others. Ping pong of citations is what most discussions on Islam rapidly descent into.

Islam, like other major world religions, has relied on an oral tradition. Even after the printing press, the vast majority of the world Muslims learnt their faith from oral traditions. Cultural norms and traditions have naturally coopted the oral teachings of Islam in various countries. Female genital mutilation or FGM has been accepted as an Islamic tradition in Egypt, Sudan and other East African countries, even though it's also practiced by Christians and others too.

Going back to the early days of Islam and those who accepted Mohammad as a Prophet and Islam as a faith, I ask myself why!  Why did those early Muslims accept Mohammad? Islam may indeed have spread through the sword in some parts of the world, but it also spread, in vast areas around the world, through word of mouth. Why did the people of Mecca accept Islam? Why did Islam spread in India, Malaysia and Indonesia? Why do I accept Islam?

I have no doubts that the early Meccans were attracted to certain ideas of Islam: equality, justice, compassion, honesty, and fairness in dealing with others. I'm almost sure that Islam wouldn't have spread as it did if people were told that they would be killed if they were to alter their decision and leave Islam at some point.

For me, the truth of Islam is in its simplicity, its humanity, in its compassion and in its mercy. Derivatives of compassion and mercy happen to be the two most repeated words in the Quran. The truth of Islam is in the equality of all human beings before God, in the freedom of human beings to pursue their path to God.

Discourse that regresses from the truths of Islam to debate the facts of Islam is of little interest to me and historically has actually played little role in Islamic history. The battles of texts and citations that dominate much of the discussion in today's Islam in Islamdom would have been alien for most of the fourteen centuries of the history of Islam. Often times those who engaged in them were marginalized or worse.

The obsession over the texts and citations is a primary factor for the dissonance that we see; the loss of identity and center that stems from a loss of faith. Modern day Islamdom has created an Islam that prescribes the rituals that a man must follow to get, along with his loved ones, to heaven. The early Islam that was embraced by Muhammad's early followers did not emphasize a bargain with God to get to heaven.

The Christians and Jews in the West have had several centuries to look beyond disputes over facts to get to the truth of their beliefs. Many of the stories of the Old Testament have largely been discounted by most believing Christians and Jews in the West, the very same stories dominate a large amount of Islamic discourse.

Many Christian scholars in the West, and indeed most Bible Colleges, accept as given than many parts of the Gospels have not been written by the people whose names they carry. Divinity schools across the US doubt the authenticity of the stories of the Virgin Birth, the Trip to Egypt to escape the decree killing children of Jesus’ age, the Bethlehem birth, and many other stories in the New Testament. Yet, believing Christians in the west have reached a comfortable place with the their sacred texts. Some believe in the literal words of the bible, most don't. There is little ping pong going on between the disagreeing parties. Christians are not asked to justify their belief in the truth of their faith through arguments over texts and disputes of facts.

It's hard to be optimistic about a reform movement coming to Islam from the majority Muslim countries where religion remains a tool of authoritarian governments and closed societies. Some of the best writings on Islam are coming out of US Muslim scholars. These scholars remain engaged in the battle of citations and using traditional Islamic jurisprudence methods to push back against authoritarian interpretations of Islam. Future generations of scholars may look beyond texts and citations and may one day offer a way for the truth unencumbered by debates over facts.

Ayman S. Ashour

This article first appeared on Egyptian Streets. 

Marriage Equality and the Supreme Court

I just finished reading the entire ruling of the Supreme Court of the United States on the topic of marriage equality and legalizing the same sex marriage in all 50 States. I approach this as a strong proponent of gay marriage and as someone who was particularly pleased when my beloved Massachusetts was the first state to legalize gay marriage in 2003.

I am not a lawyer and reading all 103 pages of legal opinions was a challenging intellectual task for me. To my utter shock and disbelief I found myself actually more understanding of the dissenters ... the following are arguments that resonated with me:

1. The wave of legalization of gay marriage was taking place everywhere through democratic process. I fear the ruling will take the steam out of it and will now leave us like with Roe v Wade fearing the balance in the Court and hoping for Obama to get the opportunity to name one more progressive judge lest we get a Republican for president and end up with a conservative majority that would cause reversals for both them right to chose and the marriage equality issues.

2. I found and this was particularly shocking for me great logic in Justice Thomas argument about liberty how it can be encroached upon by the State but not be given by it. His argument about dignity and how the State can't bestow it or deny it was also interesting.

3. The argument of the likely encroachment on the religious rights of those who oppose same sex marriage also resonated with me. How would religious colleges deal with this issue without breaking the law when it comes to same sex married couples demanding on campus accommodation for example.

4. I was puzzled by why Justice Alito did not join Chief Justice Roberts dissenting opinion and why Roberts did not join Alito's. Would love to understand a bit more about that and I assume re read of both may help.

5. The dissent from Roberts was very strong and covered multiple facets legal, political and conceptual. The point on polyamorous marriages was particularly powerful and resonated with me.

6. I wish there would have been a way for the Supreme Court to take a narrower view, forcing the States to recognize the marriages of other states and countries. I doubt this would have been possible without the broader acceptance of the intent of the 14th Amendment to the Constitution.

The elegance and the beauty of the US system of government are displayed at their best in rulings such as this. I don't really believe in the concept of national pride for any nation, but if I were to become such a believer, it is something like this ruling and its dissenters that would be making truly proud of being an American.

Ayman S. Ashour

June 28, 2015

On Hate Crimes, War Crimes and Terrorism

Words and classifications help us understand the many events before us. In the Middle East especially, words are of extreme importance and people often get stuck on words as we attempt to make sense of a the chaos that has become the norm the region is living through. The word terrorist is used to describe violence, that many times people identify with its perceived causes. The Palestinian struggle for freedom and dignity, along with the underlying hate for Israel and racist hate of Jews often expressed as hate for Zionism but not Jews, are primary examples where millions of people find the label terrorist applied to acts they either understand,  justify or actively support.

Many of these people look at the brutal bombing of Gaza or the Iraq war of 2003 and subsequent killing of innocent people and cry out "this is terrorism, Israel is terrorist, USA is terrorist" they can't understand why this ugly painful label is applied one way but not the other. 

I would never actually label a state as a terrorist, it may sponsor terrorism or provide material aid to terrorism but a state can't actually in my view be a "terrorist". What escapes many people in the Middle East is that War Crimes, is actually a more serious accusation than terrorism, for war crimes such as the disproportionate use of lethal destructive force by Israel on Gaza is a more serious charge than terrorism. Israel is a state, that has a representative government and an organized army. Clearly the responsibility, it must carry must be far more than a lone terrorist or a mere terrorist gang, even one as powerful as Hamas. For in the case of Gaza, it's Israel that has the obligation to protect the civilians under its occupation. Israel has refused to recognize an independent Palestine State and it no longer disputes any land in Gaza, so under International Law, Gaza is occupied, therefor the civilian population of Gaza must be protected by Israel. The war crimes here are very serious indeed. This is well beyond terrorism, this is war crime!

Come to tragedy of the execution style killing of three young Muslim Americans in Chapel Hill, NC and again people in the MidEast want to see it called terrorism, for this has become the ugliest word one must use. Many voices from the racist right wing in the USA have started crying out, this is just a dispute between neighbors over parking, while millions of others, like me, see it as an abhorrent and blatant hate crime of the type born out of the bigotry and racism espoused by the likes of Ann Coulter and her friends. Hate Crime or a dispute over parking is the battle that is going on in the US social media; for a simple parking dispute would wash the blood off of the hands of the heroes of Islamophobia from across the USA political spectrum from the Bill Mahers to the Coulters and fanatical white supremacists and Christian nation types. Hate crime is a serious charge against the savage killer personally and the discourse created by the likes of Bill O'Riley and Fox News and its  principal owner Mr. Rupert Murdoch.

Was the Chapel Hill tragedy terrorism? Linguistically speaking because it frightens people, for it is terrifying indeed to see people getting killed, so in a way we can see the link to the word terror. Yes it aimed to terrify the Muslim and Arab American community of course, so there can be an argument for application of the terrorist label. However, I see the label Hate Crime, here, carrying far more weight than terrorism, for in terrorism the choice of victims is often arbitrary, accidental where, the very deliberate nature of this heinous crime was no accident. An hate crime, the deliberate selection of three beautiful young people at the prime of their lives, this is hate, in its worst and ugliest form, perpetrated by a human being whose heart and brain were blinded with bigotry. The ugly killer did not aim to change government policy, nor did he have an obvious political goal, he simply aimed to exterminate those he hated. This is a hate crime and to call it anything else would lessen its ugliness.

I wish there is a way the kind of work I've witnessed first hand, and played a small part in, by the Massachusetts Governor Task Force Against Hate is adopted elsewhere and possibly by the Federal Government. The discourse of Fox News, whose hands now are soaked in blood, must be challenged as an urgent national priority and effective US style campaigns against hate must be extended to cover all hate. It must no longer be acceptable for the likes of Bill Maher and Ann Coulter to go spreading hate and bigotry with no financial accountability, for had they espoused their same venom towards other racial or religious groups, they and their sponsors would have been in financial ruins.

Ayman S. Ashour

Je suis Charlie

I have not seen any of the cartoons of Charlie Hebdo, I will not see them, I don’t want to see them. What Charlie Hebdo has to say about my religion doesn’t interest me in the least. They can mock my faith all they want, it does not matter to me, they can have their heartfill lampooning my religion; I’m not angered and my faith, Islam, isn’t impacted by their words or cartoons. The terrorists who carried out the butchery in Paris and those who hailed or even merely  justified their cowardly act damage Islam more than any of the cartoons at Charlie Hebdo ever can.

By contrast, the so called American Freedom Defense Initiative anti Islam posters spark a completely different feeling in me, they offend me, I feel insulted. The courageous Egyptian American journalist Mona Eltahawy, in an act of civil disobedience, sprayed the ugly hateful posters with pink paint, she was arrested. The New York Metro is used by tens of thousands of Muslims daily, people use it to get to their places of work, kids use it to get to their schools and colleges: here the freedom of expression of hate for my faith interferes with my right not to be subjected to such hate, I can chose not to buy Charlie Hebdo, but I have to use the Subway, it is my subway, my public space, my infrastructure! Eltahawy’s used pink spray paint to signify her rejection of the laws that permitted the hate speech in a public infrastructure, she stood there, elegantly dressed peacefully spraying pink, while a woman associated with the bigoted ad attempted to use her umbrella as weapon against her. Eltahawy was taken into custody and faced a long legal battle for breaking the law, she received wide support from Muslims and non Muslims alike, thousands of people joined her cause, civil disobedience campaigns confronted the hateful ads wherever they appeared. Eltahway refused to pay even one dollar and was prepared to go to prison for her defiance of the unjust application of the laws that permitted hate speech in a public space.

My native country Egypt has blasphemy laws banning the belittling and disrespect of religions. Yet, Egypt has only three sanctioned, officially recognized religions, Islam, Christianity and Judaism. Islam, in Egypt means only Sunni Islam, so Shia’a Islam, which is the faith of well over 100 million people is publicly discredited and belittled. Shia’a mosques are not allowed in Egypt. While Judaism is an officially sanctioned religion in Egypt, anti semitism is rampant and Jews are talked of often with words like impure, filthy and pigs. Former President Morsi lectured his adherents publicly to teach their children to hate Jews, while Morsi is currently facing several charges ranging from spying to jailbreak, there are no charges against him for belittling or disrespecting Judaism. Such charges will never get filed because they would surely bring Morsi only sympathy. In Egypt, the State itself launches campaigns against what it deems to be false religions such as the Baha'i faith. In short, we only ever hear of the anti blasphemy laws being applied when it comes to Sunni Islam and Christianity. Blasphemy, disrespect and belittling of other faiths is tolerated and often encouraged as matter of state policy.

For Egyptian Christians, like most Christians, a fundamental belief is that Jesus Christ was crucified to offer salvation to those who believe in him. Yet Muslims strongly reject every word in this notion, Jesus was never crucified and there is no such a thing as Salvation through belief in his crucifiction. Muslims claim to respect Christianity but, in fact, what is respected in Islam, is an Islamic Christianity, entirely different from that the Christians themselves actually believe. Muslims believe the bible was corrupted and Christians have essentially been misguided..... well if that is not belittling and disrespectful, I am not sure, what is. Similarly Christians do not believe Islam is a religion of the same God and those Christians who politely concede that Mohammad was a Prophet, use the word prophet to mean a sage, a wise man, a man with blessing but not a messenger of God. Manifestly, the belief in Islam is a disbelief in Christianity and the belief in Christianity is a disbelief in Islam. To belief in one faith we reject the other. To Christian ears the Friday Muslim sermon blaring out on loud speakers addressing Christianity is disrespectful of the Christianity actually practiced by the Christians, it is blasphemous to them.  

Back to the West and France in particular, where secularist values dominate; the laws and cultures grant people the total right to chose, and to change, their faith, to state it publicly or keep it private, to practice their faith or not, to gather for worship etc. We, Muslims in the West have gained from this freedom, we enjoyed it and lived it and were able to build our mosques and schools.  In our mosques, we teach that Christians believe in a corrupted bible and Jesus was not divine, thoughts and ideas contrary to Christianity. We teach that Jews have deviated from God and exasperated Moses, what we teach is, in reality, offensive to most non Muslims.

Words such as ‘I am not afraid of retaliation….It perhaps sounds a bit pompous, but I’d rather die standing than live on my knees.’ These were the words of Charlie Hebdo cartoonist Stephane Charbonnier, they carry a religious zeal to them. Just like a Muslim magazine in France has the right to ridicule and belittle and disrespect the beliefs, morality and values of a large percentage of the population around them, others have similar right. Muslims wish to offer sermons and write articles on the evil of homosexuality, a practice that is permitted in the west, why would gays not be allowed to respond. Do I wish for the Law in the USA or France to ban me from reciting Quran Surah 112 in mosques because it is blasphemous to Christianity, for it categorically states that God has no sons.  In order for Islam to exist as a minority religion in the West, it requires the very freedom that Stephane Charbonnier was willing to die for. Like him, I too, I am prepared to give my life for my right to recite my Holy Quran and will not allow any authority to censor me from it. The religious notion that morality is only a product of faith is challenged, not only by the atheists’ acts of charity but also by their willingness to die for the values they believe in.  

Honest condemnations of the terrorist attacks in Paris came fast and furious, the #JeSuisCharlie hashtag dominated social media.  Many Muslims saw the offensive cartoons for the first time and were offended by the work of the dead cartoonist. The #JeNeSuisPasCharlie (I’m not Charlie) hashtag emerged, aided by some non Muslim writers as well. We, as Muslims, need to confront a simple fact; not an insignificant number of us believe that the killing of those who insult the Prophet, be they Muslim or not, is their just comeuppance.  Recall the Salaman Rushdi Fetwa, indeed the death penalty or life in prison would be the likely outcome in most Muslim countries for publishing less offensive material than what appeared in Charlie Hebdo.

Condemnations with "but" or allocation of any level of blame on the victims come across to my ears as indecent and frankly are more disturbing than silence ….  for I’m Charlie because Charlie stood for my freedom to practice my religion as I want to, to recite my Quran without fear of the majority culture around me.

I’m Charlie because I want to practice my beliefs in my mosques, the way I choose, with no censorship by others and I want for others to practice what they believe in away from me, even if it is offensive to my eyes and ears.

I’m Charlie for Charlie’s courageous stance for freedom is actually far closer to my faith than the cowardly act of those terrorists who butchered Charlie

I’m Charlie and Je suis Charlie with no reservation!

Ayman S. Ashour

The Muddle East

Everything is the Middle East is the fault of USA and Israel .. and if you dig deeply you will also find British hands too, this is the accepted conventional wisdom in this wonderful region. So let’s now move on to get some clarity on what has been going on in this great neighborhood. 

The Muslim Brotherhood was formed in Egypt in late 1920’s as Islamist resistance against the  British… Between the 1920’s and the 1950’s the Brotherhood cooperated alternately with Nazi Germany, the British and the Egyptian King …lots of interesting history, lots of accusations and smoking guns, sometimes a bit more!

The British used the Muslim Brotherhood against Nasser and Egyptian army in the 1950's ... but the Muslim Brotherhood were fierce fighters against the British before 1952!

Starting from the 1960's Saudi Arabia and the USA became the main backers of the Muslim Brotherhood, seeing them as counterbalance to Nasser and Egypt which was then in alliance with the Soviets pushing socialist Arab nationalism, dangerous stuff!

Egypt and Israel went into wars in 1948, 1956, 1967 and 1973, but have signed a peace treaty in1979 and have since then been at peace…

Egypt’s Nasser helped Start the PLO and Fateh to combat Israel in the 1960's ... 

Israel countered by supporting the establishment of Muslim Brotherhood in Palestine to be known as Hamas as counter balance to the PLO ... later Hamas turned on Israel..

Everyone is scared of Iran ...

Iraq and Iran had a ten year war then Iraq invaded Kuwait ..everyone then invaded Iraq ..Iraq fired rockets on Israel ..

Qatar, a country with immense wealth and very few people, was worried that Saudi might just take it, so it became buddies with Iran and started Al Jazeera Satellite TV

Iran hates the USA ...

Qatar invited the USA to have massive military base, the largest US airbase in region, is now in Qatar, the most friendly Gulf Arab State to Iran ...

Qatar helps Hamas, but has minimal animosity towards Israel, indeed some commercial ties ...

Iran hates Egypt, USA and Saudi so it is siding with the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt ...

USA is neutral on Egypt, gets blamed by both liberals and Islamists for supporting the other side ...

In Syria, Iran and Russia fight the Muslim Brotherhood and Al-Qada and other non Islamist Sunni forces ...

AlQada is off shot of Muslim Brotherhood who thought it too moderate, they occasionally ally again. One has a green flag, the other a black flag .. Both flags could be seen in Pro Muslim Brotherhood and pro Morsi marches in Egypt … 

Saudi Arabia supports Egypt against Muslim Brotherhood, Qatar supports Muslim Brotherhood against Egypt ....

Israel is, largely, minding its business, building more settlements and facts on the ground ...  The Palestinians are divided .. Hamas like the Muslim Brothers in Egypt and Syria and the PLO like Egypt and Saudi, later is supporting Syria Muslim Brotherhood.....

Anything that goes wrong is blamed on Israel and the USA so don't tire your brain if you are from the muddle east, it's easy!

And if you are American, the mission in Syria is very clear, as you can see from this tidy picture of the Muddle East, so let's bomb Syria!

AA

August 31, 2013

On Eve of Morsi's departure, what's going on in Egypt!

OK people ..Obama and US Administration want to be seen standing with Morsi to the last minute, the US does not want to be seen as an enemy of Islamists again, you want Caliphate again, have it, but don't bomb New York. Obama knows Egyptian Seculars and liberals are angry, but he knows those don't bomb buildings in America, they just have the same hate/love/envy thing with America as the European left does.

Morsi does not want to resign and admit mistakes, because Muslim Brotherhood makes no mistakes and prefer to have his kids, his followers, all believe that only a small minority of the people of Egypt was against Ikhwan and that the Army and the Americans forced him out, so he can then be a victim and start rebuilding Islamist popularity and credibility again as victims of American Zionism and army etc. etc. 

The army in Egypt just wants to have peaceful life and make money, they don't care too much about US Aid, which is only $1Billion and all of it gets spent on US arms, much more important for them is their budgets in Egypt, the amazing control they have over land, industry, trade, etc. etc. The army does NOT want to run the country, does not want wars or trouble, they just want to get on with free entreprise, make money. 

Islamist masses mainly want to keep their womenfolk under their control and away from any possible dishonor and of course they enjoy seeing Christians and minorities suffer a bit, other than that, they want cars, iPads and sex in that order!

AA
July 2, 2013

My Boston Marathon

Boston is my hometown, I have spent more of my life there than anywhere else and even though I moved to Europe in 2009, Boston remains the place I feel most at ease at, home. I am not a Boston native, I was born in Cairo where I spent my childhood, when I first moved to the US, I lived in California, which, I loved, but contrary to my own expectations I have become a Bostonian. It is the Boston Red Sox that I follow, WBUR that I listen to on the web and Boston trends I look at on Twitter; home! 

I was on a business trip in Australia, on that saddest of days, the day of the cowardly, cruel attacks on the Boston Marathon. It felt like disaster has struck my immediate family, I was in deep shock and disbelief. The distance from Boston, from my family, along with the massive jet lag and associated sleep deprivation added to my deep sadness, a sense of void in my heart, hollowness in my entire being. I hardly watch TV and rely on Twitter as my primary source of news. The very nature of following such horrible news on social media, naturally, added to my anxiety and tension.

The vast majority of the tweets were from the Boston Globe, other Boston media, CNN, few tweets of eyewitnesses and hundreds of tweets from people in shock and sadness expressing their grief or anger. Some tweets I saw emphasized bigger tragedies in other parts of the world and objected to Boston Marathon bombing dominating their timelines. An Egyptian tweep, mockingly stated that the Egyptians know one kind of running, away from an aggressive dog, or trying to catch a bus. Even though @el_Shazli tweet was of the self-deprecating type, it added to my sadness and actually angered me; how could someone crack a joke at a time like this?

It is a sad fact that many young Egyptians are smokers; a small tiny minority is active in sports of any kind. This generalization applied fully to me up to my early thirties, when I finally quit smoking and attempted to start running. Shortly after that, I moved with my family to Boston, where gradually I started running once or twice a week. I still remember an event that had a profound effect on my life, it was a Monday, Patriots Day, an official holiday in Massachusetts, commemorating early events of the American Revolution. Patriots Day is hardly known or observed outside of Massachusetts; it is celebrated on the third Monday in April and exactly at midday, the Boston Marathon starting gun fires.

I lived in Newton, MA, very close to the route of the Boston Marathon, but it was only after several years of living in the Boston area that I happened to be at home on Patriots Day, what a day it was! The 100^th running of the Boston Marathon, a record number of runners, well over 40,000 were allowed to run that year. My kids excitedly took me up the street to the Marathon Route, the road was closed, hundreds of people on both sides, virtually all of our neighbors were there with beach chairs, or just sitting on the curb, lots of people of all ages, a total carnival atmosphere. I looked to the right and left up and down the route, the festival clearly stretches on for miles, all waiting for the runners to arrive.

Suddenly, police sirens, lots of commotion, very loud applause, a couple of police cars pass by and an older man in an open car, standing and waiving cheerfully left and right. I am told this is Johnny Kelley, the Grand Marshall of the Boston Marathon. Just a mile up the road there is a statue I run by of two runners, they are John Kelley, a younger and an older John Kelley. Kelley took part in the Boston Marathon 61 times, completed it 58 times, amazing! I have been running by that statue and now I have seen the man himself in the flesh. Few minutes later, the wheel chairs racers arrive, first the men, then the women … the focus and determination on the faces of these elite athletes close-up is hard to describe. Nearly half an hour later, the main event …the fastest men, fifteen minutes later the fastest women … .and then non stop runners, hundreds and hundreds of runners keep on passing by. The carnival on the street never stops, people offering water, energy drinks and oranges to the runners, cheering, yelling, clapping, lots of high fives. I walked back home for some lunch and some work phone calls, this after all was an ordinary working day for the rest of the country.

Two hours later, I walked up my little street to the Marathon route, still the carnival atmosphere, but with fewer spectators, the runners, were slower obviously, some were older, some were heavier, but plenty of young and athletic looking types too. As time went by there were more tired looking runners, some were clearly suffering from muscle cramps, some were bloodied from falls or the painful bleeding nipples, a common affliction of distance running, that I had not heard of before that day, I also saw plenty with dried salt on their faces, a result of lots of sweating, dehydration and wind. Some of these runners had their names on their shirts, so people would yell out come ‘on Pat or Rick …. others had other messages like running in memory of a father, mother or friend, or for cancer or autism. I stood watching these amazing people, cheering them on; their faces spoke of determination.

I was there for over an hour clapping and encouraging. The sheer determination of these ordinary, these slow runners amazed me, here I was close to Mile 18 of this 26.2 mile route, those runners if they finish, may only get to the finish line after dark, and they were still going and going defying pain and fatigue. I had only been running few miles, but right there and then, on that day, with these slow but determined people passing before me, I decided that I would one day run this Boston Marathon, maybe it would take me two years to do it, but I would run the Boston Marathon!

It took me a while to investigate signing up for the Marathon and after sometime I registered as part of the Kids At Heart team, raising money for the Boston Children’s Hospital. I started training harder, building up the miles. I was running five to six days every week, taking just one day off, I would get up early to run for an hour or so before work and have at least one long run on the weekend. My job required extensive global travel, so I was running everywhere in hotels on treadmills, on the hilly streets of Hong Kong, the crowded waterfront in Bombay, in Hyde Park and along Thames in London and of course along the Boston Marathon route itself when I was home.

Building up to the Marathon the Children Hospital team had organized training runs that were getting longer and longer and I run the New Bedford Half Marathon in March and a 20 Mile race from Maine to Massachusetts in brutally cold conditions. It felt, like I was running all the time, regardless of the cold and snow or even the heat if I was traveling. Three weeks before the date, I eased off on the training and gradually reduced my weekly mileage. I still remember a motivational event organized by Children Hospital where one of the patients spoke. Katie Lynch was in her twenties, but still had the body and voice of a child and hence still a patient of Children’s Hospital dealing with various complicated health issues from her rare genetic disorder. Few years later, this beautiful young woman did something, she never did before … she managed, unassisted, 26 steps, she nearly fell at the end, this was her marathon, years in the making.

Finally, Patriots Day! I woke up early and my, ever supporting, wife drove me the eighteen miles to the west, to Hopkinton, the small town where the Marathon starts. The streets were overflowing with thousands of runners, a short while after I arrived, the roads were closed to traffic, it must feel like some sort of an alien invasion to the residents of this sleepy town. It was a cold day, there was no place to sit, so people kept pacing up and down to keep warm, the lines for the porta-potties were getting ridiculously long, hard to accommodate all these runners hydrating and requiring toilets to the very last moment.

I finally handed my small carry-on bag with my official number stapled to it, the organizers would see to it, that we all receive our bags after the finish line. I went to line up towards the back, I expected that I would finish the marathon in over four and half hours; I wasn’t racing to beat others. We heard the cheers for the start of wheel chairs race and after what felt like forever, at exactly midday the starting gun. Lots of yelling and shouting, screams of excitement and joy, but we didn’t move an inch, after more than ten minutes we started moving slowly and it took me close to fifteen minutes to cross the Starting Line. We were still inching forward and it took another five minutes or so, before enough space opened up and I actually started running ..Finally!

It is hard to describe exactly how I felt then, I was excited for sure, but more I was apprehensive, I had many fears. I was worrying that I would trip up in the crowd, others did; I worried that I would have muscle cramps, that I wouldn’t finish the Marathon after training so hard for it. I had to focus on not starting out too fast, I have to pace myself; the route is mostly downhill for the first fourteen miles and this pounding can be brutal on leg muscles later. I had to keep hydrated even if I didn’t feel thirsty. The crowds on both sides of the road were so thick, cheering us wildly as we went through Hopkinton, then Ashland and Natick … and then we hit scream alley .. what an amazing experience running by Wellesley College whose students for decades have established this amazing tradition of making every single runner feel simply extra special, with their loud cheers and high fives, the young women of Wellesley College organize waves of cheerers so they never get tired.

Nearly five miles later, I made it to Newton and soon, the Newton hills! I run up the first hill, past the fire station and get closer to the spot where I was, not so long ago, standing cheering the runners. I heard my daughter shouting my name, then my son, my wife was there too, so were the neighbors, all cheering me on, my wife shouted that they would meet me near the finish line. I felt stomach cramps, I felt cold, but I went on and headed up heartbreak hill and down past Boston College, with loud music cheering us on.  This is where people normally hit the wall, right around the 20-mile mark, many people just can’t keep going beyond this point. Apart from the cold and my stomach cramps, which were getting worse, I knew that I would be able to finish, so I run on.

I run past Cleveland Circle for a long three miles, strong cold headwind made me feel very chilled, but I kept going, crowds had thinned out, but they were still rooting for us, cheering us on. Finally I passed Fenway and it was not as windy and much more crowded again, then a turn to the right followed by turn to left on to Boylston Street, I run stronger, the Boston Library on my right, I saw my wife standing on the left side of the street, my son is cheering wildly and my daughter shouting Papa! … I run past the finish line four hours and forty some minutes after I started.

Someone puts a medal around my neck and another young volunteer wraped a blanket around my shoulders and undid my shoelaces to retrieve the official chip that recorded my progress along the entire route. I staggered into a large tent where I retrieved my bag to enjoy the relative warmth and eat bagels and drink more fluids. I could hardly walk… around me hundreds of people, many with tears in their eyes from joy of finishing, from pain, or from both; hundred of marathon winners, each with own stories and reasons for running. The fact that the fastest runners crossed the line some two and half hours before us didn’t mean anything at all to me or to those around me, we were each in our own totally private race surrounded by thousands others with their own private races and we all won!

The Marathon in Boston has a special place, it is the world oldest marathon, it is held on this special holiday, that only we celebrate, it is the beginning, the real beginning of spring after our long harsh winter, it is school holiday week. But perhaps, most importantly, it is the personal stories that lead thousands of people to run, it is the amazing carnival atmosphere all the way from Hopkinton down to the finish line at Copley Square. It is a day of celebration and festivities, celebrating our ability, us ….we ordinary human beings who will our bodies to do the extraordinary …it is a celebration of our determination to defeat addictions or old bad habits, our inner journeys to achieve our hopes and aspirations, positive aspirations for no one runs a marathon for a mean or a negative reason. It is all about us, the runners, our families, neighbors, our friends and the entire community come to celebrate profoundly positive emotions and ideals.

A lot has been written about the brutality and cruelty of the bombings and condemnations of the abhorrent act have appeared everywhere. For many people outside of Boston it is still hard to appreciate what this event means to us. I wanted to write my own account as an Egyptian American, a Bostonian of my first Boston Marathon. I run the Boston Marathon twice more, each time, for my own very personal stories and reasons. The thousands that run on April 15, 2013 each had their own story, their own reasons for embarking on their personal journeys to train for and to run the marathon, so did their loved ones and the more than one million people that lined the streets along the entire route.

Weeks after the tragedy, I think of the amazing young woman, Katie Lynch, whose 26 step marathon required her to train, she did it to motivate us to run. Her little fragile body never stopped her from finishing high school and graduating from college and completing her very own little baby marathon. She did all she could do with her God given body until she finally passed away few years after I first saw her. This is what Boston Marathon about, ordinary people willing their God given bodies to do something very extraordinary and having their entire city will them on and celebrate with them. The bombing of the Boston Marathon is ultimately an assault on our humanity … the best of humanity…..it is a direct attack on the All Mighty God, the creator of these bodies, and it can never, never be of Him or in his Name.

AA
April 27, 2013