Yallah Middle East 2.0

[jordanianprincess 0]

Now I have a pet bunny, a dwarf just like the one in rahma's avatar... they could be twins!!! (Rahma where did you get that photo. I just wastes me.) Mohammed is dying to come and play with him now that he's experienced how lovely having a furry friend can be. He just marvels at how "people like" they can be.

It's from cuteoverload.com, my faaaaavorite website. anno superstar did them. I had a hard time picking just one.

LMAO...this whole time I thought it was a duck!

[iceyspots 0]

When I went to Morocco and saw all the homeless animals my heart broke and I wanted to take them all in.

Tunis is also a breeding ground for homeless cats !!

Ahh.. just how Bob Barker says it ... And don't forget to spay and neuter your pets people

[iceyspots 0]

I disagree, it's also cultural. I am arabic and christian and I can't think of one arabic christian family I know that has a pet in the us or jordan. It's mostly how people are raised. When you are not exposed to something growing up then it is weird to you. Some people can grow to accept it and some can't. My fiance lives in Jordan and has never has a pet nor did his family allow him to have one (he is christian too)but he always talks about getting a dog when he comes here.

My family does not eat pork because they were never exposed to it when they were growing up, the same goes for my fiances family. However I do eat pork, becuase I was raised in the usa and pork is everywhere.

The dog issue is obviously addressed in Islam, but I still believe it's a religious issue, not a cultural one. It's just like using the pork principle.

You said your family doesn't eat pork because they weren't exposed to it. The same rule applies to dogs, you're not exposed to having them as family pets. Arab christians are surrounded by muslims, so over time, muslim qualities rub off onto the christians. So that doesn't neccesarily make it part of arab-christian culture, it's a muslim aspect that arab christians adopted. If muslims didn't exist, maybe arab-christians would have dogs ? Just a speculation.

[AInfante-Saraireh 0]

It is a religious thing according to many who recite the Quran. I have not read this myself. Anyway, the dogs stay.

[dollface41601 0]

jp.............i have a question....not to get personal but is your fiances name Yaseed? my husband says he knows a man in zarqa whoa christian and going thru a similair process...just curious if it was u two!!! let me know

Kelly

by the way...sofyan loves little dogs. we plan to adopt a young maltese pup in the near future

[jordanianprincess 0]

Icyspots - I don't think muslim qualities rub-off on christians. There are families living in the USA now for 3-4 generations that are not surrounded by muslims that just don't like pets. I'm not just talking about dogs which are mentioned in the quran, but all pets. I think your speculation is completly off. I don't think christians were eating pork and one day decided to stop because they were surrounded by muslims. There are places in Jordan that you can buy pork and there are people that buy it and eat it, but most people won't even try it because its not a common thing.

I may not be explaining myself correctly, but if you are arabic you will understand. Arabs are very complex people and not easy to understand sometimes We have rules and quirks about every small subject. There are things we do and things we don't do and you don't get an explanation as to why.

Kelly - no thats not his name, I'll pm you with it.

[Meriem_DZ 37]

Hachemi's family has had 2 indoor cats that have died over the last year. The first had some type of epilepsy problem that the vet could not do anything about and it died. They had let the second one outside and later they found it dead. Dont know what happened to it. Hachemi just cried both times. The whole family loved those cats. Anyway, when I arrived in March, Hachemi's sister said "did you here about the cat?" and I said yes. The whole family said "NO MORE CATS!" It hurts to much to love them, then lose them. One day Hachemi left the door ajar and a cat had come into the house. Well they all got so excited. It was the sweetest little stray cat. So they kept it inside until just before his dad got home from work. Everyday they would do this because their father would be angry if he caught them with the cat inside. One night Hachemi brought the cat inside to play with it and his father found it. He was mad and took the cat and put it outside. For the longest time his father hung out the kitchen window watching the cat. And a stray dog got after it. He went outside and retreived the cat and from that moment on it stayed inside.

[cbd2cai 0]

Oh, such a sweet pic with the kitty!!! Contented looks on both faces!

I hope Ahmed gets that look with at least ONE of my cats . . . he has 4 to choose from when he gets here . . I am betting it is Rufus, my gigantic red and white boy!! I say gigantic because I think he is at about 15 lbs with lots of long fluffy hair!! A very typical Maine #######!

[iceyspots 0]

Icyspots - I don't think muslim qualities rub-off on christians. There are families living in the USA now for 3-4 generations that are not surrounded by muslims that just don't like pets. I'm not just talking about dogs which are mentioned in the quran, but all pets. I think your speculation is completly off. I don't think christians were eating pork and one day decided to stop because they were surrounded by muslims. There are places in Jordan that you can buy pork and there are people that buy it and eat it, but most people won't even try it because its not a common thing.

I believe influences do get ingrained in people and groups of people, although it takes quite a bit of time. After many years, people adopt the norms that are around them.

[Jasman0717 9]

[jordanianprincess 0]

ok...whatever you say

[LebaneseMama 1]

what ? Please elaborate ... who are you angry with and why ? Noone did anything to you.

Edited April 15, 2006 by LebaneseBride

[doodlebugfor_u 0]

[windancer 0]

Wanted to say hi to all and that yup back again in the usa.The hardest thing as always was to say goodbye once again.And that the interview date is in january seems i will have to make one more trip to jordan.I miss him bad as always.But i am thankfull to god for being able to be with him again.We cryed together when we found out the date was so far off.He also was thinking about all the ones like us who have to be apart so long.But as i see it we seem to get stronger with all the things the visa process throws at us.I went to petra this trip and omg it was breath taking.Then i went to mount nebo that as well was something to remember itself.The weather there was great not to hot like the last time i was there lol.I also feel for the ones who can't fly all the time to the ones they love and miss.But as always one should keep the faith and hold on tight.I wish all the best of luck on there hard visajourneys.

[honeyblonde 0]

what ? Please elaborate ... who are you angry with and why ? Noone did anything to you.

In all the time I've been on this forum Jasman has always shown the utmost respect for our forum. He's probably the only non-middle easterner that even takes time to read and post here regularly. Please don't take anything he posts as an insult or be offended until he has time to explain.

I know that at the time I saw his frowns I was also frowning thinking "I see another fight brewing." We do all need to remember that our opinion is just that - an opinion. Once we express it, if it causes a ruckus, we need to sometimes just drop it. I think JP did a wonderful job of averting a fight with her "ok, whatever you think." We all need to remember that phrase more.