The Saudi Community Committed to “Equality”

     There are lots of ways to corrupt a community. It can range from all kinds of corruption to violence. But the main obstacle that faces a community and prevents it from functioning very well and makes it a better place to live is racism. Racism is a disease that tares the community apart. Will we Saudis overcome the distrust of the foreigners and the racism amongst ourselves? 

     In my opinion, I doubt that the authorities have done enough to minimize the deep and profound racism and xenophobia. As a community that takes the Quran and the Sunna as its main resource in dealing with life, we don’t see people actually following everything because if they did, we would not see this kind of discrimination in our community should it be against the foreigners or our own citizens.

     “They’re judging me on my appearance. They’ve disrespected me because I’m not Saudi and rich” Sudanese National Abdulrazzag Ahmed, a 50 years old driver who works in the city of Jeddah, was stopped near his home by a policemen and started to throw all these questions at him. This is his twenty-fifth year in the country, and he has a valid work visa. However, last year, he started to get a lot of questions from the police asking about his identity and his work place on almost a daily basis. He was aware that the police were doing their job, and they were on duty, but he didn’t take kindly to the fact that they judged him simply by his appearance.

     An experience of my own that happened years ago that I could easily recall is when my friend of a Hijazi background and I were on Malik Road and the police stopped us. We were asked to hand in our IDs, we cooperated with the authority and handed in everything he asked for, but what was unusual is the way he reacted to my friend’s name on his id; starting to make jokes and asking question like “ Where do you come from?” though my friend is a Saudi and his whole family is as well. He didn’t do the same to me because I was from the same region he was, and as a Najdi, I don’t usually get the same reaction from people as others would. If we happened to be in the United States at the time, we could have easily reported what had happened to police, but there is no law against discrimination in Saudi Arabia, so there’s nothing the police are able to do about it.

     As you can see, racism isn’t necessarily restricted to foreigners, but also amongst us. It sometimes goes to the extent that marriages do not take place because of different backgrounds. For instance, a family from a Najdi background most likely won’t allow their son or their daughter to marry from a Hijazi family background, and this goes under the name of  “Cultural Values”? Seriously? Because they don’t have the same background you’re simply not going to marry from their family? What ever happened to wanting “ A good, educated, independent and God fearing man?”

     I’ve seen lots of maids getting punished for simple, stupid stuff; people get on their nerves because of these stupid mistakes. If those maids were from an Arabic background, I assure you they wouldn’t be treated the way that those people from poor eastern Asian countries would be treated. Is it the sense of superiority that makes us commit those actions and behaviors with them? Why won’t most of us do the same with Arabs? Why don’t we feel compassionate with those who flew all these miles from their countries to provide money for their poor families? 

     A person who experiences daily racial discrimination can result in the accumulation of negative thoughts and ideas that can affect his performance in his work or in his day in general; it can also affect them psychologically, and it might lead to depression! It can also make them violent, angry, and unproductive. It also destroys the connections in the community and creates division amongst us. Having someone judging you by the look is ugly and unacceptable. Knowing that you can’t change your physical appearance or your background is a hard thing to accept.

     I ask these questions not rhetorically, but hoping to find an answer, and with it, find a solution to the issues amongst us. Addressing a serious matter such as racism isn’t something simple; it has a huge affect on us. The world has changed and developed significantly. With all the technology around us that defines our generation, things we thought were impossible are possible now, we can connect with our families and friends from all around the globe. Countries’ political views around us changed, but at the end people are people no matter what are the changes around us. You can’t strip people’s respect and dignity; we are all human beings. There are millions of people in the world who all have different beliefs, religions, and lifestyles. I can say that I never experienced racial discrimination directly, but I’ve witnessed it a lot, and I have no tolerance for it whatsoever.  So why are we still dealing with the issue of racism and discrimination till this day?

Note: Thanks for reading this article, and I’ll be flattered to have your opinion on it, thanks.

By: Faris Alothimin

You can follow the writer on twitter: @AlothiminFaris