The Gulf Within: Canadian Arabs, Racism and the Gulf War Tapa dura -

To the Arabs and Muslims of Canada, in the hope that they unite and advance the struggle of Canada's visible minorities; and To my uncle, the late Professor A. A. A. Fyzee, a scholar par excellence of Islamic and Middle Eastern studies, who following words began my unceasing love affair with Arabs and the Middle East: I would invite my friends to go into the burning sands and be stunned by them; to see the dawn in the Syrian desert and the sun rising above the Nile, silhouetting the Mohamed Aly Mosque in Cairo; a little later to hear the call to prayer in the myriad-voiced radio or at the Ummayyad Mosque at Damascus; then to enter a suk and drink black coffee in the tower of Babel or Fishawy; thence to do business and p ay five liras for what was worth one and be fooled ... and laugh at oneself; then to eat kebab and have a fertile discussion ... about philosophy, law, politics, as unreal and devoid of practical wisdom as the doctrine of Maya...