I dreamed that I woke up to a world other than the miserable one we see now. I dreamed that we were all more loving, less aggressive. I dreamed that man has become more receptive to his fellow man, and that human beings are putting their hands together to build a better future for humanity.
I dreamed that the hatreds and animosities that existed in the heads of the peoples of our exhausted east are over, that the borders have been visited, that the Iranians are visiting Arabs and Arabs are visiting Iran. I dreamed that Erdogan returned to his senses and started to rebuild his country’s economy after he abandoned his Ottoman dreams of succession. I dreamed that he had put his hand in the hands of neighbouring countries to plant borders with flowers, not mines and concrete walls.
I dreamed that even Israel accepted the two-state solution, stopped its expansionist ambitions, and Judaising itself and everything around it. She was convinced that the Palestinians had rights to their land, which could not be uprooted, and also dreamed that Palestinian politicians had stopped conflicts among themselves and had already turned to the interests of their people.
I dreamed that I switched on the television to a news bulletin that moves from Arab achievement to achievement, and that the issues of environment, education and public cleanliness are what concern us, not news of killing and destruction in Libya, Yemen and Syria. Syria, where we are accustomed to the news of the death and death of tens and hundreds, Syria, where in the past three months alone nearly 10,000 people were killed, a figure that would fill half of a football stadium, but people no longer care about it.
I heard that everyone loves everyone. I heard that all the Lebanese gathered together to rebuild their country and that Hizbollah no longer threatens the Lebanese with its weapons, but its ideas. I dreamed that dialogue fills our lives, that we have become more understanding of our partners in religion and the homeland, their beliefs, attitudes and opinions, and that we can live together without cancelling each other out.
I dreamed that the Arab man was liberated from his outdated beliefs, tragic traditions and abhorrent nervousness. That he had begun to work on rebuilding himself, his family and his community, and planning for a future in which his children lived. I dreamed that we gathered in this world to work together to rebuild ourselves. We are establishing great works in medicine, space and education, and we are giving to the whole world.
I dreamed that we became more supportive of each other, realising that happiness is the only thing that increases as we share it with others, that the good that affects each other will prevail for all of us, and that we do everything in our power to add something new to this world every morning.
But unfortunately, I woke up from my beautiful dream to our bitter reality to say: You took everything from us in a moment of distraction, robbed all our energies and possibilities, our countries became barren, our water is salty, our ideas are obsolete, our universities are scanty, our armies are junk, you took the goods of our land and gave us instead weapons and ammunition to kill each other. Our young people line up at the gates of your embassies to seek immigration or sleep on the sidewalks of ignorance and unemployment.
You have made us Islamic extremists to kill in the name of our religion, despite our deep belief that we will ensure paradise, God willing, through this true religion.
We ask that you in the name of humanity let us live. We will not be able to walk the way you have drawn us as you wish after you have divided us, and you have been watching us kill ourselves and waste our energy with our own hands.
Let me ask, I do not wish, wish is a request to get something impossible, it has been said “wishes are for fools “, but please ask for something that can happen, so I hope that my dream will become a reality one day. Let my dreams breathe in my soul in comfort and tranquillity, and in my body let there be happiness and tranquillity, let me flee from my reality to my dream.
When Martin Luther King dreamed of liberating slaves in America, his expectation was almost impossible, but it was a dream. A black man, Barack Obama, became president of the United States. As for my dream, I do not know where, when and how it will be realized. It may be enough for me now that I dreamed, dreamed and dreamed...
akram@fp7.com