One of my heroes, Rick Steves, offered some insight several years ago that I think is relevant today: “It’s good style to get to know people before you bomb them.” In light of recent events in the Middle East and the fallout that many of us woke up to this morning, I wanted to take a moment to reflect on my travels. Specifically, I want to talk about a stop I made in the Middle East.

So, before I begin, I want to make one thing crystal clear. I am not talking about politics or whether any specific course of action(s) recently taken by the current American administration were appropriate. So, if you’re looking for fodder, justification, or an outlet for your own emotional expression, then keep moving. There’s nothing for you in this post. However, I am talking about the spirit in which Rick Steves adventured into the Middle East. So, with all of that, on with the post!

I’m just old enough that I vaguely remember images of seeing President Carter on the TV talking about what was happening in the Middle East. It was just random images that I retained, not anything pertaining to the events themselves. The images presented were of a somber man handling a serious matter. Later on, what I learned about what was going on was related to what became known as the Iran Hostage Crisis. I don’t know why I remember those particular images of the president on TV, but sometimes things just stick with us. However, my first real memory of the Middle East on the news came out of the Iraq-Iran war, and of course, of a scandal involving a new president and a disgraced general who later became a military analyst on a conservative news network. If that weren’t enough of a picture, by the time I was a teenager, we were at war with the nation we backed during that time. I remember sitting mesmerized for hours listening to Tom Brokaw narrate, in real time, the first Iraq war.

Needless to say, these events shaped my young views on what the Middle East must be like. It seemed like a very scary place filled with people in masks who were there to terrorize everyone and everything into submission. At the same time, I was also learning about the US Constitution and the powers it guarantees all citizens, one of which was the right to have firearms to protect ourselves against a government that would unleash masked strongmen out onto the streets to systematically oppress “We the People.” I was grateful that I lived somewhere where such a thing couldn’t exist (I was wrong, but that’s not appropriate here, or for this post, and space). As I got older, I had friends and family who joined the armed forces and spent time in the Middle East. I was always deeply afraid for them, yet also incredibly proud of them. Some of my people who spent time in Iraq and the Middle East came back forever changed. They saw things. So, in my young worldview, it just struck me that the Middle East was never a place that I wanted to go see. Sure, there was Israel and the Levant, but that’s along the Mediterranean Sea, not “the Middle East.”

As life would have it, I went off to university, and after many fits and starts, graduated with both my undergraduate and graduate degrees in history. So, imagine how my worldviews changed upon discovering the old Ottoman Empire, and by proxy, the Safavid and Persian Empires. Understanding the significance of those empires and their contributions to the region and broader humanity completely changed my perspective. Learning about the Silk Road and how the Middle East shaped global trade also changed my perspective. Learning about the tenets of Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, and that they weren’t necessarily incompatible, again changed my perspective. I went from thinking the Middle East was a scary place filled with gun-toting faceless soldiers to imagining what the sights and smells of an open-air market must be like; the trading of spices and silks from the East meeting traders and merchants from Europe bartering their ways through an array of goods that spanned the entire globe. I resolved that at some point, I would travel to the Middle East if my time and wallet allowed for such a trip. So, when the opportunity for me to travel to the Middle East came up for a quick trip, I jumped at the chance!

When I got off the plane, I was struck by how otherworldly this place was. This looked like something that was straight out of a Star Wars movie set. Even the sun was different here. The sky has hues that don’t exist anywhere else in the world. It’s a lot to take in and try to describe. In my mind, the music of John Williams and the soundscape of Tatooine run through my head as I get my bearings.

If it wasn’t Star Wars, then it was the 1930s Indiana Jones. You can just see Indy with his fedora running down the different streets and alleyways of the Old Doha Port. Once again, with the music of John Williams running through my head as I explore and take it all in. This view is of a part of the harbor that connects to the Arabian Gulf (or the Persian Gulf, depending on the map you’re reading). Again, it feels otherworldly compared to what we are used to in the West.

However, Doha is a thoroughly modern city that was carefully planned out and developed. You can feel that it’s a city not struggling with its identity or its place in the world. It is firmly rooted in its heritage and history while marching proudly forward to the future.

The city itself was very walkable. I appreciated walking this path that went from where my hotel was down to the waterfront. You can tell the city takes great pride in itself. The grass is meticulously manicured, and there are numerous parks everywhere that give people open spaces to simply be. During calls to prayer, it was not uncommon to see folks stopping to pay homage to God and practice their faith openly. This wasn’t necessarily shocking. After all, Qatar is a Muslim-majority nation, and regular calls to prayer are observed throughout the day and night. However, it was different from my experience in both Thailand and growing up in the United States.

Yet, it’s also not so different that it feels unfamiliar. In the United States, churches are everywhere. Some are cathedrals, and some are small places where communities come together to worship. The same is true here and across the broader Middle East. However, instead of churches, which you do find in different pockets of towns, there are mosques. Mosques have their own beauty and place in Islamic art, just as churches find their own place in Western art.

One of the things that also stood out in my mind, which was refreshing to experience, was just how relaxed everything was. People are living their lives here, but they aren’t anxiety-plagued bundles of nerves either. Not once did I notice anywhere that people were acting like they were in a hurry, rushing to their next appointment, or just scared of the world and everyone around them. People just lived and were out living their lives.

Everywhere I went, I ran into kind people who were generous, helpful, and genuinely curious about seeing people like me wandering around. In one of my conversations, a gentleman pointed me to some of the unique, off-the-beaten-path places. He was very proud of his city and happy to tell me all about the places I should see. Of course, the part he left out is that things are not usually that busy during the day. I wouldn’t have thought too much

on it had it not actually struck me as unusual. After all, it’s the middle of the day! Where are all the people?! Then, I realized my own culture was getting in the way. We barrel through everything during the daylight hours, whether it makes sense or not. Here, people don’t go out much during the day. The sun is intense in the Middle East. However, at night, you’ll find a different scene that is vibrant, alive, and working well into the night.

All of the markets and regular hustle and bustle that we’re used to come out at night. Families are out eating, people are buying, bartering, and trading, and shoppers are getting the things they need at the markets and stores. It’s all very… normal. Like, we go shopping and have these kinds of regular experiences, just not at night or in dark places on the streets, which are very few and far between.

All in all, any place where French fries are served and people easily stroll about with their family members with disabilities is not a place that is full of anxiety, hatred, or worry about their lives being in jeopardy. For all of my studies of the Middle East that was the thing I was probably most surprised about. Maybe it’s my American sense of anxiety, but it wasn’t here, and that was delightful!

There are few places in the world where I just felt comfortable like I did when I visited Doha, Qatar. While Doha is not Tehran, one of the tenets of Islam is hospitality. There is an emphasis on generosity, kindness, and respect. It is not only a social aspect of the culture, but it is also considered a moral and spiritual obligation.

So, with all of this being said, and seeing the bombing that we, the United States did, hurts my heart a bit. This region of the world is full of wonders, both modern and ancient; biblical and futuristic; and filled with people who are just as proud of their country as we are and happy to share it with all who have an interest in it and give it the respect that is deserved. We need not be afraid of the Middle East, or our Islamic brothers and sisters.

Again, Doha is not Tehran, but my visit gave me some insight that I think does bridge the gulf. It provides some understanding of the place and people there who call this region home. In the broader context, Qatar is just on the other side of the gulf from Iran, and thus there are some cultural similarities that both countries share. It’s not unlike the same cultural similarities that exist between the United States and Canada. Sure, Canada and America are different places, but culturally, we’re more closely related than not and often share some of the same ties back to our old colonial masters. So, having that understanding means we can come to understand a little bit about the culture on the other side of the gulf even if the parallels aren’t exactly the same.

In the end, when we dehumanize people in strange lands we fail to see ourselves and our own struggles. We lose a bit of ourselves and our own humanity in that process. We give up a bit of our souls when we start seeing the world in terms of “good guy, bad guy” and start bombing people because they are a perceived threat to us. So, if we’re going to hold places in contempt, speak ill of them, and maybe bomb them, then maybe we should

go visit those places and understand what exactly we lose in ourselves when we commit to a specific path of destruction. With very few exceptions, what we lose will always be more than what we gain. Maybe we, as a nation, have bombed enough nations that we have lost our humanity, and that is reflected in the election of the current administration. I don’t know. What I do know is that we all drink from the same well. So, maybe we shouldn’t shit it just because we don’t like our neighbors.

However, those are my thoughts. I could be wrong. I’ll be back on track with my time in Thailand shortly. This post felt important enough to derail my process and cancel a whole day’s worth of plans to post. I will also have more to post on my time in Qatar later too. There’s too much to cover. So, until next time, please take care of yourself, look out for each other, and stay curious. The world is a good place filled with kind people, and we should always remember that.