March 2012
Mobarack
Al-Fawaz is a man, a student, a soccer player. Mobarack is also a Muslim, but
that fact should not be the only one determining what other people think of
him.
It is a sunny day in Greeley, Colorado. Eighty degrees
and a slight wind: spring is definitely here. “It is chilly around here!” says
Mobarak Al-Fawaz, sat under the shadow of an oak. Mobi, for his friends. Dark
hair, bubbly brown eyes and skinny body, the student studying English always
splits his face with a smile.
Today,
because he is wearing a tee-shirt of the Liverpool soccer team, anyone would
think he is English. Sometimes, when he eats a hamburger at Wendy’s, anyone
would think he is American. At other times, when he is tired of cooking and
buys dozens of packs of ramen noodles, anyone would think he is Chinese. But
five times per day, Al-Fawaz is definitely a Sunni believer coming from Saudi
Arabia.
Between
Al-Fawaz and the grass, a blue rug has been unfolded. The 19-year-old student has
been carrying it everywhere he has gone since he was nine. Five times per day,
he kneels on it and repeats the parts of the Koran he believes in. He must have
made the same gesture thousands of times, most of them in the heat of a south
Saudi Arabian village called Abha. In Abha, there are only Sunnites. In Abha,
no one talks about Shiites. In Abha,
Al-Fawaz never sees in the newspapers what is happening in the east of the
country.
When
he arrived in the US, about six months ago, Al-Fawaz could hardly ask for a
glass of water. Today, he cannot tell a lot about the conflict between Shiites
and Sunnites, but it is not because of a lack of vocabulary.
Most
of the Shiites living in Saudi Arabia are established in the east of the
country. Thought to be 10% of the overall 19 million Saudi Arabians, Shiites
find their roots in Iran, a country bordering Saudi Arabia. Many reports are
clear: Shiites suffer from being excluded from important jobs in the industry,
politics, economics, etc. “There are no problems with Shiites,” says Al-Fawaz.
The
Saudi Arabian monarch, Abdallah Bin-Abd-al-Aziz, recently
became aware that it was not trendy being a Monarch anymore. To avoid an Arab
Spring in his country, he distributed billions of dollars to build houses for
young couples, and to increase their annual salary. He also accused Shiites
from the East of the country of supporting Iran, rather than Saudi Arabia. King
Abdallah required Saudi Arabian Shiites to choose between being loyal to their
country, or to their religious chief, Ayatollah Khomeini, who is also the
religious chief of Iran. A report released by the minister of the interior made
it clear that anyone choosing the second one would pay for it. But still.
“There are no problems with Shiites,” says Al-Fawaz.
King Abdallah sent soldiers into Bahrain to help the government crushing
an uprising led by Shiites. But once again, “there are no problems with
Shiites.”
After
all, how would Al-Fawaz know about all of these events? He recognizes that he
is not fond of reading the newspapers, or just reading. Like
any other boy of his age, Al-Fawaz prefers to play soccer with his friends
rather than reading about equal rights and politics. Here in his garden, or in
a stadium, Al-Fawaz focuses more on how to control a ball rather than how to
control a conflict.
Always
smiling, Al-Fawaz does not know what he should be mad at, or worrying about.
“King Abdullah is good. Nothing like the Arab Spring would ever happen in Saudi
Arabia,” says Al-Fawaz. An Arab Spring, why? The young man does not seem to see
the point of it. Even after six month passed in the US, Al-Fawaz is still
supportive of his king. When asked if he does not prefer democracy to monarchy,
the dark-brown eyebrows of the boy shiver. “Democracy? Sorry, I don’t
understand the word,” says Al-Fawaz.
Democracy
or not, Al-Fawaz says he does not choose his friends depending on their
religion. Here in Greeley, he met Joey Ali, a Shiite student studying at the
University of Colorado. Joey grew up in Koweit and then moved to the US when he
was eleven. Contrary to Al-Fawaz, Ali was raised by a Catholic mother and gave
up praying five times a day. Student in history, Ali explains in clear words
the differences between a Shiite and a Sunnite. “It does not bother me that
Mobi is Sunni, and I don’t think it bothers him that I am Shiite, but the fact
that a Shiite can be friends with a Sunni surely does bother governments in the
Middle East, like Saudi Arabia and Iran,” says Ali.
Funnily
enough, Ali figured out that Al-Fawaz was Sunnite really simply. “He told me he
was from Saudi Arabia, and since only Sunnis in Saudi Arabia would ever have
the chance to study abroad, I simply made the link,” says Ali.
Even
if both of them are Muslim, Al-Fawaz and Ali have never prayed together.
Sometimes, they would smoke a cigarette, talking about the best way to win in a
video game. Some other times, Ali would drink a beer, Al-Fawaz holding a can of
Coke or a glass of juice. Islam is not one unified religion. Al-Fawaz and Ali
cannot be put in the same box tagged “Muslim”. Muslims fight for their rights.
Muslims are unfair kings. Muslims are kids playing soccer. Muslims are bullies
and bullied. Muslims are Ali, who stands up in class to offer a Shiite point of
view when talking about Islam. Muslims are Al-Fawaz, a kid wearing a Liverpool
tee-shirt, smiling and playing the PlayStation.
