June 9, 2004
Help Me! I'm a blogger
I have been mulling over this excerpt that I grabbed from the Belmont Club for a while.
Mr Gardner, BBC's security correspondent and an Al Qaeda expert, was left for dead by the fleeing attackers, local newspapers said. But he survived and pleaded for his life, shouting to bystanders to help a fellow Muslim, a police officer told AFP."I'm a Muslim, help me, I'm a Muslim, help me," the father of two daughters cried in Arabic, the officer said. Mr Gardner, fluent in Arabic, was carrying a small copy of the Quran, a device used by Western reporters to try to reassure extremists.
Wow. Life is certainly different on the Arabian peninsular. Let us go over the incident. A man is shot and lies bleeding on the ground. He seems to know that the only way he will get help from bystanders is if he identifies himself as a Muslim. He calls out "I'm a Muslim, help me, I'm a Muslim, help me,".
From the article, I cannot definitively say that help was only offered to the man...
after he identified himself as a Muslim. For all I know, people may have been planning to help whether he made the remarks or not. What sickens me is that the fallen man felt that he had to yell out his religious association in order to get help in that part of the world.
The article says that the man is indeed a Muslim (he was not fibbing) and that he is fluent in Arabic. This of course means that he was not just a foolish foreigner trying to elicit help by grovelling for sympathy but rather that he indeed knew the culture very well and must have had some inkling that help would not be offered to him if he was not a Muslim.
This saddens me.
This story suggests that if I were visiting Saudi Arabia, I would have to pretend that I was a Muslim in order to get help or else I would be left to die in a pool of my own blood or vomit or entrails or whatever ailed me at the time.
Is it possible that a similar scenario could occur in North America?
I certainly don't feel like I have to explain that I am an Episcopalian to my family doctor before he agrees to treat my throbbing haemorrhoids. I am particularly glad about this because it is difficult to go over the finer points of Episcopalian theology while sitting on one cheek.
If I happen to be lying in a bloody mangled mess on the side of the highway anywhere in North America (except New Jersey), I would feel comfortable flagging down any passing vehicle no matter who was in it. I don't believe that I would have to hold up a small sign with the MovableType logo in hopes of getting a passing blogger to stop and help.
I don't think I would look at the driver of a passing car and upon seeing a turban, decide not to wave for help because the driver and I were plainly from different religions. It just would not cross my mind that such a difference would matter and I think this is true of most people in North America.
I believe I would flail my shattered arms at any vehicle that passed feeling very confident that because driver's licences are issued primarily to human beings, I have enough in common with any driver to prompt them to screech to a halt and have them help roll my carcass out of the lanes of traffic.
Then again, maybe that’s just me.
No but if hold up a sign that says WordPress newbie, you're bound to get lots of help...
on the net.
In Saudi Arabia, more likely they would help you die in a pool of blood a lot sooner after they rape you.
Posted by: Mog at June 10, 2004 7:08 AM