Wednesday, June 27, 2007

There is no question that Arabs and Muslims in UK feel more free and less constrained than Muslims and Arabs in US. I was walking down the street on Edgeware Road and saw this man who looked--well, like the stereotype of an Al-Qa`idah member (of course, the stereotype is not accurate or fair, but you get the point)--and he stood at a street corner holding a bucket on which is written: "School (wait, that was actually maadraaassaaa) for Qur'an Memorization." I could not help but compare that to the US. I actually stopped and looked at him in amazement. In the US, he would last for a few minutes before the police would be called in. Serious. I can actually see Irashad Manji chasing him down yelling: Maaaaadraaasssssaaaa!