A kurd from Akre regrets deniedhis jwish cousins from Israil

[Emmunah]

I was at work and people were going to see me cry so I just want to say it's tears of joy. I did not have that experience personally, but I was using a metaphor to describe the relationship between the Muslims and the Jews, and/or between what had to happen under Saddam and what can happen now.

I am just really lucky to know you all....I am just amazed that we live in a time when we can really talk to each other, and find out that while there are some really hateful Jews and some really hateful Muslims too, for the most part, we are all just good people trying to do the best things we can. We are mostly, loving people that care for others.

There will always be Kawa's...and that's okay too. You know, I told you once I think, but I went to school with a Palestinian who was from Haifa/Jaffa and had an Israeli passport but insisted to me there was no Israel, it was a Jewish lie. So, I did not argue, instead we became study partners because we were the only two that showed up early to study, and I did not go away because of his comments....I just studied with him, and got to know him. I bought him lunch when he had no money, and he found interesting articles in Arabic that he translated for me so I could get some accounting numbers that I needed for another business class. At the end, he would always smile when I showed up, and he called me his friend...and eventually he would tease me that there was no Israel and I would tease him there was no Palestine and we would laugh and say "we are imaginary people, with imaginary countries". We decided I could be queen of my imaginary country and he could be king of his

Then this guy from Liberia was studying with us one day and he saw all of this happening. My Palestinian friend left the room and the Christian Liberian shook his head and said "You know....God is really great" I had to agree 100%.

All I can ever wish for in life is to live to see the day, when it will not matter where you are from, what your color or religion, but only whether you are a good person or a bad person. We all lose our temper, and we all cuss at this group or that group, but if we just judge everyone on their own, then we have really made the whole world a MUCH better place, and I don't understand how anyone could want anything more than to go to God knowing that you didn't just think about yourself, or your own people, but you cared about other people too...and if you did not do that then I don't think God will be very happy. If you don't even believe in God, it's still true that you will want people to get along better, and your kids will live in a peaceful world and not a hateful world. There is no good argument for hate as a long term strategy, but there really is a good argument for love.

[kassem]

w

[cheryl]

are there still jewish communities in kurdistan? that still practice they're rituals freely? or is there still prejudice?

roller rebwar, there are no more Jews left in Kurdistan. Kurds, in general, do not seem very prejudiced according to my impressions. It depends on the individual. In other words, prejudicial attitudes are not ones that the Kurdish authorities encourage and this is what makes a big difference.

It is one thing if individuals have prejudices. You can only control that through law. But if the state encourages prejudices, you have a much bigger problem.

By the way, is that a llama or an alpaca in your avatar?

[Diri]

Emmunah...


Don't worry - This is all God's plan... I think God has made this world THIS ugly for us to have a chance to prove tthat we are not bad people... If everything was just superduper we wouldn't have had this chance... This world is crazy! Many places people suffer hunger and abuse. Many places they come under opression and torture - But thats is my point - By exposing us to all sorts of bad actions and negative thoughts - God gives us the choice either do good or bad and this we will be judged for when walking in the valley of the shadow of death... Azrael will bring us to our Lord and upon arrival we will be asked what we did with our life - And to know on that day that you were a part of the suffer and opression, that you were a part of the abuse and torture - If you did love your next akin... Or if you have been a beacon for love and tolerance...

God truly is great! We must not forget that a life on this earth and these plains and these mountains will not bring us salvation - it is but a mere comfort for today... We will pay for our cruelty and failure to love our kinsmen...

[Vladimir]

Emmunah great post.. reminds me a little bit of Yunus Emre. He said that if there are people that use religion to persecute others, they are unbelievers. In this way he believes that's possible that someone who doesn't follow a religion is a better believer and someone who follows a religion can be an unbeliever.

I don't know of this website is true: http://www.haruth.com/JewsKurdistan.html