In always cite a very telling and relevant incident that happened to me in the 1980's during my college days as a curious student in Tulsa, Oklahoma, US. I looked like the typical 20 something, with a polo shirt and worn out pair of blue jeans but as a typical young Saudi I also had a goatee on my face which accented my looks well as I thought. I was planning to attend an afternoon lecture at Oral Roberts University, a well-known hub for extremist Southern Baptist type of fundamental Christianity named after a well-known Sunday morning preacher famous for his exotic fund-raising style as well as his tall stories that usually brought the simple folksy crowds to tears or to pay (it was mostly both). As I approached the gates of the campus to enter I was stopped by a polite guard who said that it is too late to go in. I told him, “But there is at least another 20 minutes before the lecture begins!” There was a brief exchange back and forth between me and him, me trying to persuade him to let me in and him trying to prevent me. He took me aside, lowered his voice and said, “Look between the two of us, I can't let you in because you have facial hair.” I exploded with laughter and said, “You must be kidding!” He looked stern and replied back, “No sir, I am not.” He sighed, “We have strict rules about facial hair here.” I could not allow this chance to pass without replying back so I sighed back and told the man, “This is funny, actually it's borderline hilarious as there are some places in my own country where I am not admitted to because I don't have enough facial hair!.” This incident told me volumes and taught me loads. It was simply and clearly ‘vulgar' and an example of racism. Discrimination knows no culture, realizes no boundaries and is in every society no matter how secular it claims to be or how noble and religious it says it is. The real problem is when societies become blind – and I mean completely blind to this fact – it simply becomes in complete denial. It also does ‘wonders' to defend and justify its ugly situation. We clearly see this today in Israel (as well as other places without a doubt). But Israel has the audacity to ‘officially' create a caste system that discriminates amongst its people. Officially that is. It gave itself the licenses to segregate by stating that Israel is officially a Jewish state. So technically all non-Jews in Israel – Christians, Muslims, Druze, Baha'is and others – are second-class citizens with lesser rights than their fellow Jewish citizens. Now Israel is undertaking an ugly and brutal anti-African workers campaign to arrest them and abuse them. Officially the state says that it is doing it to rid the country of illegal workers. However, the truth is that there are “white Europeans” who are also illegal workers, but they remain free and untouched and are spared the ‘African treatment!' But again, this is Israel, a country that has an open license to break rules and laws. Pathetic! __
