
Green Arabia - ingve
http://www.idlewords.com/2014/08/green_arabia.htm
======
gms
As with the author's other essay on his visit to Yemen, this was an enjoyable
one. But this line isn't wholly true:

"I don’t have the heart to tell him that there’s no future for him anywhere
I’m from, either. In the US, being from Yemen is practically synonymous with
being a terrorist. The world expects people like him to stay put and suffer in
place."

Trying to visit the US on a visa with a Yemeni passport is indeed difficult,
and so is trying to emigrate there. But it's not impossible: there is a
sizable population of Yemenis who have settled in the US and been very glad
for how much better their lives are. San Francisco and Oakland both contain
large Yemeni populations.

~~~
idlewords
The US has been systematically confiscating passports from naturalized Yemeni
citizens who go home to visit, leaving them stranded. So I stand by my
hyperbole:

[http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/22/yemeni-
american...](http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/22/yemeni-americans-us-
embassy-sanaa-passports) [http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_25030451/oakland-man-
stuck-yem...](http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_25030451/oakland-man-stuck-yemen-
fights-return)

~~~
gms
I know. It is reprehensibly capricious behaviour, to say the least.

------
616c
Ya marhaba ya mashala!

Firstly, it is very cool to see this guy quoting Bukhari. The internet is a
wondeful place.

I have commented her before, but I am very jealous of your travels to Yemen. I
have talked to co-workers for a while and I am not sure the time is right.

And you have to be sitting in the back of a Land Cruiser! (For the uninitiated
the most popular car in the Gulf, far and large, is the Toyota Land Cruiser,
in all of its carnations, and the Nissan Patrol in a distant second).

~~~
idlewords
Hey, thanks! In Yemen, the car of choice far and away was the Toyota pickup
truck. They were absolutely everywhere. Second place goes to cheapo Chinese
minivans. Of course everyone aspires to a Land Cruiser, like you say.

~~~
616c
Ah, yes. Well, I mis-spoke. It depends which one you mean, however. There is
the Toyota Hilux (Americans think Libya and Afghanistan when they see pictures
of it, because people alwyas mount machine guns on them; I wanted one when
first arriving in a certain neighboring country and was unable to find any
used ones, as rumor has it said country was supporting Libyan rebels and was
buying them in large quantities to ship there).

The other one, which is not good for your plus one, because that is all you
can fit, is the Land Cruiser LX pickup truck, also referred to as the Abou
Houdh (ابو حوض), the "one with the basin/bathtub" for rough translation. This
is super popular everywhere, but specifically amongst Bedouins and the working
classes. Why the Bedouins? As you probably saw this thing has pickup and is
famed for its ability to go up large sand dunes in reverse (Youtube can show
you).

If you like the Land Cruiser LX pick up, there is always the "capsoola", the
capsule. Same car, but in a two-door Jeep Wrangler form-factor. This is one of
my favorites. It is popular elsewhere because it really flies over sand dunes.

Granted this is not Green Arabia knowledge, but I thought it might be fun for
some.

I may or may not have heard how people buy these cars in GCC countries and
drive them through Oman and onward to sell in the black market for crazy
prices in Yemen. This is one of many fun things I have heard about the black
market in Yemen.

Since you generate a lot of interest with this stuff on HN (but you write
better), maybe I will start writing this stuff.

~~~
idlewords
I would love it if you wrote this stuff up. Please write it up! I will link
the hell out of it.

~~~
616c
It has been a while since I blogged. But if someone of your caliber asks ...

~~~
idlewords
ARE YOU CALLING ME FAT

~~~
616c
Haha. But in Yemen being fat is sign of power and health.

(Seriously though, I have a weight problem, no way I am skinnier than you;
thank the Gulf lifestyle.)

------
scrumper
Love the writing on this blog. Been reading it for years. Well worth a dig
through the archives.

------
nuhar
The title gave me a rush thinking it was going to be about this hadith :)
[http://sunnah.com/muslim/12/76](http://sunnah.com/muslim/12/76)

~~~
hgezim
...yeah, thought about the same :)

~~~
nuhar
:) Salaamalaikum

~~~
hgezim
Wa alaikum salaam wa rahmetullah!

------
ibisum
I yearn to explore the middle east in a peaceful, productive way .. so much
culture, so much for me - a white, privileged, western man - to enjoy and
understand. So many mysteries, so much history, so many very, very significant
things which mean so much to the species.

But yet, so many walls to climb. I would not, for a moment, hesitate to wake
at 4am and join the locals, I would not - for a moment - be dissuaded from
removing my shoes and joining those ancient prayers. But there is so much
prejudice in the world, and I could not say for sure that I would give it all
up for the chance.

If only we could find a way to have our cultures co-exist. I yearn for it. But
then again, I have yet to feel the same for Europe, where I live. What a trap
we live.

~~~
idlewords
I'm not sure what you mean by this. There are lots of places you can go
(including the local corner store) to experience whatever Middle Eastern
culture you want, and they co-exist with us just fine.

Be careful about joining the ancient prayers, though, unless you know how to
perform them, and have converted to Islam. Otherwise you'll really offend
people.

~~~
meIias
>Be careful about joining the ancient prayers, though, unless you know how to
perform them, and have converted to Islam. Otherwise you'll really offend
people.

Disagree with this, they'll likely be overjoyed that someone foreign shows
positive interest in their religion.

~~~
halflings
Your comment is downvoted, and people are posting comments like "ok, try",
"this is offensive". Doesn't sound like a hackernews thread :)

There are some things you have to do before going to a mosque: unlike
churches, you can't get in a mosque "just to visit" (except if they have open-
hours for non-worshippers/tourists, which is unlikely for a mosque in the
middle of Yemen). You have to be in a state of purity
([http://www.onislam.net/english/reading-
islam/understanding-i...](http://www.onislam.net/english/reading-
islam/understanding-islam/worship/prayers/416641.html\);) Also, joining the
prayer if you're not muslim can be troublesome, but by all means if you just
get in the mosque and maybe observe people praying, I'm not sure you'll get in
any trouble. Theoretically, even a rude behavior in a mosque shouldn't cause
you any big problem (a man once urinated inside the prophet's mosque, and the
prophet stopped some believers that wanted to punish him and just covered the
part where that man urinated).

Muslims are really friendly with non-muslims that are geniunly interested
(even in mosques where there are some rules to respect)

~~~
idlewords
This is a really wonderful comment. What I was trying to get at is that you
can't just show up and pray along with the group, like you can do in some
Christian churches. There's no way to stand in the back and follow along.

In my experience, the biggest challenge you face in visiting a mosque is that
people will make a sincere effort to convert you to Islam. They do this out of
generosity and kindness, but it leads to some intense conversations. It is
best to be ready with some good deflecting answers, unless you are considering
becoming a Muslim.

I was very surprised to find myself invited to enter nearly every mosque I
visited in Yemen. The only exception was the Great Mosque in Sana'a, which is
closed to nonbelievers. My guess is this is because Sana'a sees a relatively
large number of tourists compared to the rest of Yemen.

It would be hard to overemphasize the positive, welcoming, generous attitude
of Muslims towards anyone with a sincere interest in their religion.

------
sq1020
Great essay. It really captures the essence and beauty of the dawn prayer
which is a time of immense blessings for Muslims.

------
mkaziz
Have you read Road to Makkah by Muhammad Asad? It reads similar to your
writing and I greatly enjoyed it. After reading your article, I think that
book merits a reread for me.

~~~
sq1020
I haven't read it but I've heard great things about it. I've read his
translation of the Quran though...he was a gifted writer and scholar. What a
luminary!
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Asad](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muhammad_Asad)

------
lotsofmangos
_" This little episode captures something I’ll see over and over again in
Yemen. Faced with a problem, you find out who is in charge, escalate to the
highest level of authority present, and communicate your sincerity by vigorous
yelling. There is always a phalanx of sons (and presumably a similar, hidden
number of daughters) who can be deployed as messengers, sent on errands, or
otherwise made useful. Everything is done with a level of verbal vehemence
that would involve grief counseling and possibly lawsuits back in the United
States. People are able to operate at emotional temperatures that would melt
down an American._

 _If you asked me what I had witnessed, I would say angry people with guns had
nearly come to blows over handwashing. "_

I'm not from the USA but have spent some time there and this description for
some reason reminded me of New York.

~~~
waps
Having been in both places, let me tell you it's different. I managed to dent
a rental car into a local's car in Southern Italy though. That, that was
similar. Although the threats there were implicit, rather than spelled out.

The big difference being that in New York you don't find yourself surrounded
by the 50-person family of anyone you have the slightest grievance with in 5
minutes flat.

In Italy you just get surrounded, and there may be vague references to that
fact. In Egypt, the references won't be vague, but explicit and colourful.

~~~
lotsofmangos
_" Having been in both places, let me tell you it's different."_ ... _" In
Egypt, the references won't be vague, but explicit and colourful."_

I was not aware that Yemen and Egypt were so interchangeable. Perhaps they are
not. Have you been to Yemen?

~~~
idlewords
I'd bet my last bag of qat that Egypt and Yemen (and a lot of other Arab
countries) are culturally very similar in this respect.

~~~
lotsofmangos
They may well be similar, however without meaning to disrespect your greater
experience here, it would be lazy for me to assume that someone telling me
their Egypt story applies to things you have said about Yemen, purely on the
basis of you swearing on your drug stash.

edit - I feel it is a little like someone saying that they understand an
aspect of the Scottish from the time they had spent in Paris, with another
tourist who happens to be slumming in Edinburgh supportively saying that they
would bet their last can of Tennent's on the veracity of the comparison. The
comparison may be true, however there is no way of judging that without a few
slightly more reputable sources.

------
sytelus
What a wonderful experience to read this article! Author has a gift for
writing. I hope he travels more and writes more :). The only thing missing is
all those photos he mentioned he had been taking. I really hate it when travel
writers hog their photos and don't post them. It would really add another
dimension for the reader if author can post more photos somewhere.

------
infinitone
> Even the Prophet had trouble getting up at this hour.

I suppose author expected people not to follow thru with the source;
[http://www.quranexplorer.com/Hadith/English/Hadith/bukhari/0...](http://www.quranexplorer.com/Hadith/English/Hadith/bukhari/001.010.569.html)

But the source is quite the contrary to what you claimed.

~~~
idlewords
How so? Mohammed told his pal to wake everyone up for pre-dawn prayer, the guy
fell asleep instead, and everybody (Mohammed included) overslept. They
performed the prayer after dawn instead.

Or am I misinterpreting this?

~~~
azth
What you implied in your post was that this was something that happened
regularly; it was not. Furthermore, read the name of the chapter of the Hadith
you cited, the goal of citing this Hadith is to denote prayer times.

By the way, don't be surprised at the existence of green in Arabia. There is
an authentic Hadith (in Muslim's collection) that states that the Hour shall
not come until Arabia returns into being rivers and meadows.

Lastly, the Companions of the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) are called
that, not "pals".

Edit: user nuhar linked to the Hadith I was recalling:
[http://sunnah.com/muslim/12/76](http://sunnah.com/muslim/12/76)

------
happyscrappy
>It was a dark day when Islam met the loudspeaker. All travelers to the Middle
East discover that this normally self-assured religion gets insecure in the
small hours of night and feels it has to rehearse its foundational beliefs, in
public, at 190 dB.

-Hey, wake up. God is great.

Hnnnnghh. What’s happening? Where am I?

-Hasten to prayer! Hasten to success!

Islam, is that you?

-I bear witness that there is no god but God.

Jesus Christ, Islam, it’s four o’clock in the morning!

