El editor de este sitio rinde un sentido homenaje al autor de esta carta, un gran hombre y un arabista de corazon
Ronald Gorab Nahas (Que en Paz Descanses)
The publisher of this site pays tribute to the author of this letter, an Arabist and a great man of heart
Ronald Nahas Gorab (To rest in peace)
Letter published in El Mercurio, Santiago de Chile
Tuesday April 8, 2003
In the section letters to the Director
Dear Friends,
I thought you`d like to read a letter of mine that was published last month in Chile`s main newspaper.
Title: The Arabs
Dear Sir,
Due to the conflict in Irak I`ve noticed that exists a great unknowledge and confusion regarding the arabs in our country.I think that it has to be considered in the first place, the following :
Not all the arabs are moslems (there are more than 12 million christians)
Not all the moslems are arabs (in Turky and Indonesia,they aren`t )
Not all the moslems are extremists
Not all the extremists are arabs.
The main foundationes on wich the arabs sustained are, the family,religion and hospitality.Besides one of the five "obligations" of the Islam,that says that one must do charity and alms to the needed people (the statistics says that is approx.2.5% ).
Lowell Thomas,who travelled with T.E.Lawrence (better known as Lawrence of Arabia),said that the arabs are complety different from the occidental people because they measure the solids and weight the liquids,they mount the horses from the right side,they read from right to left.Even its language ,very rich in words,privileges the style over the substance.Their clothes(the way they dress) , the general behavior ,even the way they communicate with God (without a middleperson) are absoluty different to the Occident.Is the reason why this region hasn`t capitulate to the majority of the occidental values.
People just disqualify the arabs because they considered them to be violents. THe arabs societies are the ones with less criminatility in the world.As if the terrorists were born like that and not the product of the aggression and humiliation of other powers.
WE are talking about a millenary culture that originated 3.500 years B.C. (the pyramids in Egipt were built 1.000 years after )The contributions of the arabs to the occidental culture are many.While Atila destroided the Balcans,Italy and France; the arabs tribes gathered in poetry festivals along with scientifics and philosophers. PLatos,Arquimides and Pitagoras travelled to Egipt to study their advanced culture. During 700 years the knowlodge of Ibn Sina were the basic text for the european students of Medicine.
Damascus,Bagdad,Cairo and Cordova in Spain,were the intellectual centers at that time.THe arabs believed that the earth was round while the europeans thoght that is was plain.They created the sextant,discovered the numbers,including zero.,Introduced the coffee and chess(the words"jaque mate" means dead king in arab ).
During the X siecle,Cordova had 700 mosques,70.000 houses and 70 libraries,all with a population of 500.000 people , while Paris had less than 10% and London was at that time a village.Cordova also had the first streets lightning in Europe.
As a descendant of syrian, I visited my ancestors house in the city of Homs and realized that it had more than 400 years old.Homs is called the city of the blue stones and is the place were the majority of the syrians in Chile come from.
I admire the northamerican people.I have tights of frienship,familiar and of business.I regreted the attack on the twin towers and I cosidered a barbarity.Nobody deserves this violence nor the northamericans nor the arabs.

Ronald Gorab Nahas
Q.E.P.D.
30 DE AGOSTO DE 1941 - 15 DE OCTUBRE DE 2008
The arabs in spanish
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The arabs in spanish

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The web site of Boabdil
Cultura Arabe : Mundo Arabe




Creada Lunes 26 de Mayo de 2003
8/7/2003
25.5.2005
09.11.2008