Mohamed

“المجتمع العربي مشغول بفكرة النمط الواحد، على غرار الحاكم الواحد والقيمة الواحدة والدين الواحد، لذلك يحاول الناس أن يوحدوا أشكال ملابسهم وبيوتهم وآرائهم، وتحت هذه الظروف تذوب شخصية الفرد وخصوصيته واختلافه عن الآخرين، أعني يغيب مفهوم المواطن الفرد لتحل مكانه فكرة الجماعة المتشابهة المطيعة للنظام السائد”
― نوبوأكي نوتوهارا, العرب: وجهة نظر يابانية

“The first thing you notice, coming to Israel from the Arab world, is that you have left the most courteous region of the globe and entered the rudest. The difference is so profound that you're left wondering when the mutation in Semitic blood occurred, as though God parted the Red Sea and said: "Okay, you rude ones, keep wandering toward the Promised Land. The rest of you can stay here and rot in the desert, saying 'welcome, most welcome' and drowning each other in tea until the end of time.”
― Tony Horwitz, Baghdad without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia

“Arab children,
Corn ears of the future,
You will break our chains,
Kill the opium in our heads,
Kill the illusions.
Arab children,
Don't read about our suffocated generation,
We are a hopeless case.
We are as worthless as a water-melon rind.
Dont read about us,
Dont ape us,
Dont accept us,
Dont accept our ideas,
We are a nation of crooks and jugglers.
Arab children,
Spring rain,
Corn ears of the future,
You are the generation
That will overcome defeat. ”
― Nizar Qabbani

“Our shouting is louder than our actions,
Our swords are taller than us,
This is our tragedy.
In short
We wear the cape of civilisation
But our souls live in the stone age”
― Nizar Qabbani