Arab American Quotes

“If you drop her, she’ll break, but she’ll cut you, too. She’s tough and tender, enraged and exhausted, withdrawn and outgoing, a pessimist brimming with humanist hope.”
― Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America

“I was hostile, and I had every right to be. Middle school didn't make any sense. If you were mean, people liked you. If you were nice, people were mean. If you teased girls, they smiled and laughed. If you complimented them, they frowned and walked away. If you were bad in class, you were hailed in the hallway. If you were good in class, you were bullied in the locker room. The pretty girls dated the ugly boys, and the only friends you had were the ones you didn't want.”
― Yousef Alqamoussi, Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging

“Words were magic. They healed me when I was sick, comforted me when I was scared, and guided me when I was lost and alone...When confused, I consulted the Qur'an through kheerah. When thirsty, I drank from the brass cup inscribed with the Throne Verse. If I lost something, I incanted the besmalah and I would find it. We hung calligraphy on the walls and wore jewelry with Islamic inscriptions. When we entered the house, we announced our arrival with "Salam" so that evil spirits would flee.”
― Yousef Alqamoussi, Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging

“Never in her life had she thought that she would end up in jail unless she had committed a crime. So why was she here? ... She hadn’t been convicted. She had been abducted.
This wasn’t justice. It was revenge.”
― Moustafa Bayoumi, How Does It Feel to Be a Problem?: Being Young and Arab in America

“Khalil Bendib is an equal-opportunity skewer. The more a subject or victim is ignored by the mass media, the more he infuriates, informs, and intensifies the reader's attention. Cartoons need to jolt. Bendib obliges page after page.”
― Ralph Nader

“Anything can be a microphone.”
― Yousef Alqamoussi, Hadha Baladuna: Arab American Narratives of Boundary and Belonging