Some worldly food for thought
COMMENTARY
Michael Bou-Nacklie

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when (a non-native) thinks of Saudi Arabia? It’s probably camels, sand dunes, al Qaeda men running around with AK-47s and a 52 percent expatriate community living in style. In this column, the truth about Saudi Arabia will be unveiled to further explain what the world is like outside the U.S.

The most common misconception is that Saudi Arabia is barren and underdeveloped.

“Dude, didja live in a hut?”

“Did you have electricity?”

“Did you ever join an ‘Islamic’ organization?”

These are just a taste of the questions that I was asked when I got to Fort Worth. Do you honestly expect anything else but uncontrollable laughter to these questions? Life in the Kingdom is like anywhere else (well, almost). The only time you’d see a camel in Saudi Arabia was if you went out into the desert. That’s how hard it is to find them, because you can’t really parallel camels to a GMC. How do I know this you ask? I’ve lived my fair share of time over there in the land of Arabia. A good 10 years of growing up with the sound of mosques starting at 5 a.m. and going on periodically five times a day.

Saudi Arabia is a mixture of old tradition and modern hustle and bustle; much like the United States in its early infancy. A metropolis with a backdrop of both the desert and the sea. However, the rest of the world pictures the region as desolate, death-valley country. Modern-day conveniences and traditional boundaries are often crossed in the land of Arabia as Saudi/Muslim culture is in control. I say Saudi/Muslim culture because Saudi culture has a different regime from most traditional Islamic laws. Some examples are that all businesses must close for prayer .

Most of you reading this are probably thinking to yourselves “Ah Ha! He’s admitting they’re fanatics in that country.” Truth be told, there are religious fundamentalists living in Saudi, but the part you don’t hear about in the American newspapers is that every day hundreds of prayer callers and Islamic teachers are either being removed from their posts of authority, deported or sent to re-education. Additionally, a majority of Saudis or resident Muslims have little to no conflict with the U.S. and its foreign policy.

However, there are those who disagree to a strong degree. Those people make up not 90 percent, not even 20 percent but 3 percent of the country. These fanatics, who use weapons rather than their minds, do not represent the correct image of the Middle East. A parallel to such extreme groups are the Klu Klux Klan in the U.S. What if the world perceived the U.S. as being KKK country? It would not paint an accurate image, would it? But due to America’s largest export, pop culture, a different picture is painted for the U.S.

Michael Bou-Nacklie is a freshman journalism major from La Cote Aux Fees, Neuchatel, Switzerland.