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This guy gets it
Jul. 17th, 2010 11:23 pmCommunication is vital, it's our first line of defense
It's an uplifting story about a polyglot immigrant who left the private sector to work for gov't. I saw it in a comment to a thread about another post, one about a nationalist guerrilla who, after the war was over (he lost), and he was no longer a political prisoner, moved to Damascus to settle down and live a life of quiet contemplation.
Which he did, after he he prevented another St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre†
[I've done some rearranging of the following excerpt. In the original the timelines are more convolute, which is perfectly understandable in context. Go and read it, but for those who aren't going to follow the jump]
Abd el-Kader was one of those men who, in Shakespeare’s words, had greatness thrust upon him. He certainly was not born into it. He was born in a remote region of the Turkish province of what we now call Algeria, in 1808, to a tribal family living on the edges of the Sahara desert. You would be hard pressed to find a region on Earth from which one of the century’s most influential men would be less likely to emerge...
The Druze and Maronite Christians were concentrated in Lebanon. The two groups had never liked each other, and their relationship was getting worse. It didn’t help that outside powers were encouraging both sides. The French supported the Christians, the British supported the Druze, and with the Ottoman Empire crumbling by the day, the Turkish rulers were unable or unwilling to end the conflict.
In 1858, Christian peasants in Lebanon mounted an uprising against their Druze feudal lords. The Druze retaliated. The patriarch of the Maronite Christians then threatened to forcibly remove the Druze from the Lebanese mountains. Then things got ugly...
On July 8th, Abd el-Kader had learned the details of the plot between the Druze and the Turks, and had rode out of the city to confront the Druze cavalry before they attacked. He – and his small army – succeeding in, ahem, convincing the Druze to call off their attack. Meanwhile, though, he was oblivious to the fact that there was a mob already sweeping through Damascus.
He returned to the city on July 10th, and found chaos before him. “Abd el-Kader soon learned that the Turkish troops assigned to protect the populace had been ordered into the citadel or were lackadaisically watching as rioters were running amok, burning homes and slaughtering Christians.”
And at that moment, Abd el-Kader, the man who had led his Muslim people in a war against Christian invaders for 15 years, knew what he had to do. And that he had to do it quickly.
And he did. He lectured them, they didn't care. So he told them they had one other choice... kill him, and all his soldiers; who would be resisting them. They left. Then he spent time, and money, collecting Christians, and then moving them to a safe place. He offered a reward to anyone who brought a Christian to his house, and then he escorted them to the very fortress which had been planned for their massacre.
When all was said and done (and a lot more was done than said) he was credited with the saving of 10,000 lives. Why did he do it? Because his religion told him it was wrong to kill people who had done no wrong.
What did he gain from it? Nothing, and perhaps everything. He went back to his life of contemplation, like Cinncinatus, he didn't want fame, or glory; he wanted, to pray, and think, and commune with his God, and, so it seems, live in his house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.
†The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre is still contentious. Undisputed is that the French Crown wanted to assassinate some Protestant leaders; in contention is still the question of the desire to impose a massacre in general. There are still sects of protestants who see it all as being done at the behest of the Pope
It's an uplifting story about a polyglot immigrant who left the private sector to work for gov't. I saw it in a comment to a thread about another post, one about a nationalist guerrilla who, after the war was over (he lost), and he was no longer a political prisoner, moved to Damascus to settle down and live a life of quiet contemplation.
Which he did, after he he prevented another St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre†
[I've done some rearranging of the following excerpt. In the original the timelines are more convolute, which is perfectly understandable in context. Go and read it, but for those who aren't going to follow the jump]
Abd el-Kader was one of those men who, in Shakespeare’s words, had greatness thrust upon him. He certainly was not born into it. He was born in a remote region of the Turkish province of what we now call Algeria, in 1808, to a tribal family living on the edges of the Sahara desert. You would be hard pressed to find a region on Earth from which one of the century’s most influential men would be less likely to emerge...
The Druze and Maronite Christians were concentrated in Lebanon. The two groups had never liked each other, and their relationship was getting worse. It didn’t help that outside powers were encouraging both sides. The French supported the Christians, the British supported the Druze, and with the Ottoman Empire crumbling by the day, the Turkish rulers were unable or unwilling to end the conflict.
In 1858, Christian peasants in Lebanon mounted an uprising against their Druze feudal lords. The Druze retaliated. The patriarch of the Maronite Christians then threatened to forcibly remove the Druze from the Lebanese mountains. Then things got ugly...
On July 8th, Abd el-Kader had learned the details of the plot between the Druze and the Turks, and had rode out of the city to confront the Druze cavalry before they attacked. He – and his small army – succeeding in, ahem, convincing the Druze to call off their attack. Meanwhile, though, he was oblivious to the fact that there was a mob already sweeping through Damascus.
He returned to the city on July 10th, and found chaos before him. “Abd el-Kader soon learned that the Turkish troops assigned to protect the populace had been ordered into the citadel or were lackadaisically watching as rioters were running amok, burning homes and slaughtering Christians.”
And at that moment, Abd el-Kader, the man who had led his Muslim people in a war against Christian invaders for 15 years, knew what he had to do. And that he had to do it quickly.
And he did. He lectured them, they didn't care. So he told them they had one other choice... kill him, and all his soldiers; who would be resisting them. They left. Then he spent time, and money, collecting Christians, and then moving them to a safe place. He offered a reward to anyone who brought a Christian to his house, and then he escorted them to the very fortress which had been planned for their massacre.
When all was said and done (and a lot more was done than said) he was credited with the saving of 10,000 lives. Why did he do it? Because his religion told him it was wrong to kill people who had done no wrong.
What did he gain from it? Nothing, and perhaps everything. He went back to his life of contemplation, like Cinncinatus, he didn't want fame, or glory; he wanted, to pray, and think, and commune with his God, and, so it seems, live in his house by the side of the road and be a friend to man.
†The St. Bartholomew's Day Massacre is still contentious. Undisputed is that the French Crown wanted to assassinate some Protestant leaders; in contention is still the question of the desire to impose a massacre in general. There are still sects of protestants who see it all as being done at the behest of the Pope
