In My Prayers, I Want To Say:

The Fact Of Simultaneously Being Christian And Having As My Mother Tongue Arabic, The Holy Language Of Islam, Is One Of The Basic Paradoxes That Have Shaped My Identity.

Life Is Like A Fire. Flames Which The Passer-by Forgets. Ashes Which The Wind Scatters. A Man Lived.

The Identity Cannot Be Compartmentalized; It Cannot Be Split In Halves Or Thirds, Nor Have Any Clearly Defined Set Of Boundaries. I Do Not Have Several Identities, I Only Have One, Made Of All The Elements That Have Shaped Its Unique Proportions.

Taking The Line Of Least Resistance, We Lump The Most Different People Together Under The Same Heading. Taking The Line Of Least Resistance, We Ascribe To Them Collective Crimes, Collective Acts And Opinions. "the Serbs Have Massacred…", "the English Have Devastated…", "the Jews Have Confiscated…", "the Blacks Have Torched", "the Arabs Refuse…". We Blithely Express Sweeping Judgments On Whole Peoples, Calling Them "hardworking" And "ingenious", Or "lazy", "touchy", "sly", "proud", Or "obstinate". And Sometimes This Ends In Bloodshed." – Amin Maalouf "on Identity

How Do I Pray? I Study A Rose, I Count The Stars, I Marvel At The Beauty Of Creation And How Perfectly Ordered It Is, At Man, The Most Beautiful Work Of The Creator, His Brain Thirsting For Knowledge, His Heart For Love, And His Senses, All His Senses Alert Or Gratified.