The Arab Regimes and Arab Citizens

By: Mohammad Magoot

“The wine plays with my head, while my wife plays with my pockets and the grocer manipulates my accounts. Worse still, Arab political leaders toy with my fate. What can we do with these Arabs, who stretch from ocean to ocean, yet from the Gulf to the world, bring only strife? They give us watches but steal our time, shoes but take our roads, parliaments but deny us freedom, perfume and rings but snatch our love, swings but cancel our feasts, dried milk but snatch our childhood, chemical fertilizers but destroy our spring, mosques and churches but undermine our faith, guards and locks but leave us unsafe, and revolutionaries but quash our revolution.
The only unity among Arabs is a shared experience of pain and tears. Instead of unity, authority watches the people, the people watch the authority, and Israel watches everyone. They preach unity under God but divide our homes. Our problem lies not with Allah but with those who claim to act in His name. In times of tyranny, true heroism lies not in commanding tanks but in standing up to them.
Every day, I discover both glorious and shameful news that lifts my spirits and raises my blood pressure. It seems liberating the Arab mind is even harder than liberating Palestine. I feel like a prisoner who spent 20 years digging a tunnel only to find it leads to another cell. Oh God, while other homes sleep and wake up at decisive moments, the Arab world stays awake but sleeps through critical moments, prioritizing power over progress.
We have national industries, schools, anthems, shoes, petrol, bathrooms, and toilets, but we lack a true homeland.Whatever on earth, heavens and occeans belongs to home , but thieves have taken over our home. Whenever freedom flourishes anywhere in the world, Arab regimes rush to shield their people, fearful of even a whisper of dissent.

Translated from Arabic by Abdul Aziz Ali Omer