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Yes, I am a Terrorist

Yes, I Am A Terrorist
By Ahmad Matar 

The West cries in fear
When I make a toy from a matchbox 

While they [the West] make a gallows of my body
Using my nerves for rope.
The West panics when I announce one day
That they have torn my galabia
While it is they who have urged me to be ashamed of my culture
And to announce my joy and my utmost delight
When they violate me.
The West is sorely grieved when I worship
One God in the stillness of the prayer niche[1]

While from the hair of their coattails[2] and the dirt of their shoes
They knead a thousand idols that they set atop the dung heaps made of the titled ones 
So that I become their slave
And perform amongst them
The rituals of flies.
And he, they
Will beat me if I announce my refusal.
If I mention among them the fragrance of flowers and grass
They would crucify me
Accusing me of terrorism!
Admirable are all the actions of the West, and of its tails
As for me, as long as I am related to freedom
Everything I do is considered
Terrorism.

*** 

They have destroyed my world

Let them reap what they have sown.
If on my lips and in the cells of my blood 
The globalization of destruction has borne fruit
Here I say it. I write, I draw it
I imprint it upon the forehead of the West
with my wooden shoe: 
Yes, I am a terrorist!
An earthquake has its reasons.
If you understand them
You will understand my reasons.
I shall not carry a pen, but my claws
I shall not hone ideas, but my teeth
I shall never be kind,
Until I see the law of the jungle
And all its adherents
Returning to the jungle.
Yes, I am a terrorist
.From now on, I advise any informer
who follows me barking 
To clothe himself with a tank
Because I will smash his head in
If one day he knocks at my door.

1. In Arabic, mihrab – a prayer niche in a mosque indicating the direction of Mecca 

2. That is, the pro-Western Arab leaders.

Source: memri.org

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