Al-Watan: "Yes I Am A Terrorist"
Al-Watan is an Arabic-language "national weekly Arab-American newspaper" published in Washington D.C., San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York, whose mission is to provide Arab and Muslim Americans "with the most current, valuable, reliable, and informative news on political, economic, social, cultural, and educational issues, which concern the Arab-American community in their relations with the U.S. society at large... through maintaining a positive relationship with the community... coordinating efforts with Arab and Muslim American organizations to promote the achievements of the community as well as empower them through active involvement through political media, social, and educational sectors."
Recently, Al-Watan published a series of poems titled, "Yes I am a Terrorist" and "The Ape," which was accompanied by an image of President George W. Bush together with one of a howling chimpanzee. The poem depicts Bush as an ape worshiped by some Arab leaders. The following is one of the poems:
Yes, I Am A Terrorist
By Ahmad Matar
The West cries in fear When I make a toy from a matchbox
While they [the West] make a gallows of my body Using my nerves for rope The West panics when I announce one day That they have torn by galabia While it is they who have urged me to be ashamed of my culture And to announce my joy and my utmost delight When they violate me. The West is sorely grieved when I worship One God in the stillness of the prayer niche.
While from the hair of their coattails and the dirt of their shoes They knead a thousand idols that they set atop the dung heaps made of the titled ones So that I become their slave And perform amongst them The rituals of flies. And he, they Will beat me if I announce my refusal. If I mention among them the fragrance of Flowers and grass They would crucify me Accusing me of terrorism! Admirable are all the actions of the West, and of its tails As for me, as long as I am related to freedom Everything I do is considered Terrorism
They have destroyed my world Let them reap what they have sown. If on my lips and in the cells of my blood The globalization of destruction has borne fruit. Here I say it, I write, I draw it I imprint it upon the forehead of the West with my wooden shoe"
Yes, I am a terrorist!
Source: MEMRI
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