Mykolaiv, Ukraine

I could have written something like this blog last year in Morocco or the year before in Turkey. The sentiments I heard in those countries were identical to the sentiments I picked up at a café in Mykolaiv, Ukraine. Two men and a woman sitting at the next table, speaking in broken English, caught my ear. “Where are you from?” I asked. The men, Abraham and Mamet, said they were from Turkey. The woman, whose name I didn’t get, said she was from Ukraine. Here’s what they had to say:

Abraham: I’m here to see my girl friend. We met over the Internet. Mamet: I came along just for the fun. Don’t know if I want a woman. Just looking, you know. Woman: I don’t know, maybe I go to Turkey with Abraham. I’m Christian. He’s Muslim. I must decide. Perhaps Ukrainian women deserve a separate blog, but what interests me here, is the direction our conversation then took. Abraham: I was in New York, fabulous city, never shuts down. But, people in America look at you different when you tell them you’re from Turkey. Like, oh, you’re one of them. You know, one of those terrorist type guys. I’m Muslim, and like most Muslims, I wouldn’t hurt a flea. It’s in the Koran. It’s what we’re taught. Mamet: You know, sir, it’s not true. You know, the way they report on what happened to the twin towers. The CIA did those attacks so they could attack Middle East countries and get their oil. Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda were invented by the CIA. Abraham: Yes, it’s true. Bruce Willis, you know, that movie star, he agrees and there’s a lot of research that proves it. You know, why weren’t any bodies found from the planes that crashed?  Mamet: Why didn’t the U.S. fighter jets shoot the planes down? And, where are all these supposed al-Qaeda members? They don’t exist. They’ve been made up. Abraham: You know, everyone in the U.S. drives a big car and gas there costs less than $2 a gallon. The U.S. needs Middle East oil because they consume so much. As soon as I answer one question, they come back with another. 9/11 conspiracy theories, stoked by people like Bruce Willis, take on a reality of their own in the Middle East, providing a soothing explanation to the beleaguered collective Muslim psychic, which cannot, and rightly so, tolerate the implied guilt by association so many Americans would want to assign to them. Their sensitivities are not without justification as I recall the many Islamophobic statements made by the candidates during the Republican primaries: Rick Perry suggesting that Turkey is ruled by terrorists, Sarah Palin tweeting that a mosque at ground zero is an unnecessary provocation, Michelle Bachmann claiming that not all cultures are equal, meaning Islam, Herb Cain refusing to appoint Muslims to his administration, Newt Gingrich vowing that Muslims in his administration would have to take a loyalty oath, Rick Santorum’s insisting that America is at war with Islam, or Romney suggesting that not just al-Qaeda, but Shia and Sunni are the problem. So Abraham and Mamet have it right and it’s no wonder they react with bewilderment and pain and like others in the Middle East resort to insane conspiracy theories to deflect the prejudices that are hurdled at them.