Friday, January 04, 2013

The poor Muslims are coming to Lebanon

"The xenophobia and racism directed at Syrian and Palestinian refugees is one of the wages of political arithmetic, as Rhoda Kanaaneh calls it. It is a symptom of political sectarianism, and we are all complicit in this system until it is ended.
With this in mind, I offer my humble translation of Recent Statements Made by Minister Gebran Bassile and MP Nayla Tueni regarding the Syrian and Palestinian populations that have fled violence and civil war in Syria to find refuge in Lebanon: 
The [poor] Muslims are coming! The [poor] Muslims are coming!
Now we have another excuse to cover our, and the government's, ineptitude, corruption and complicity in the ongoing degradation of Lebanon's economy, political life, and infrastructure. Don't have a job? Blame it on a Syrian refugee! No electricity? Blame it on Palestinian refugee camps that don't pay their electric bill and plunge all [real] Lebanese into darkness!
Oh God, the [poor] Muslims are coming!"