Between Muscle and Mind!!
A message arrived on WhatsApp containing an article by my brother Yaqoub Al-Muzaini, in which he wrote: There were three Kuwaitis strolling down one of London’s streets, shortly after the Liberation. An Arab man approached them and began hurling insults at them and at the Gulf people for refusing to comply with his demands.
One of the three Kuwaitis was muscular and chose not to respond. Upon returning, friends jokingly teased him for not retaliating against the insults, despite him being the strongest in physique. He then said, “Why should I confront him? I have everything I desire in Kuwait—a job, a home, and wealth. If I had confronted him, I would have lost a great deal, whereas he has nothing to lose.”
As I read this anecdote, I recalled that something similar happened to me personally. Twenty years ago, I was having lunch with a family member at a five-star hotel restaurant. As we were finishing our meal, a well-dressed man entered the restaurant with his veiled wife, whom he deliberately seated at the opposite table. He then turned to me and said harshly, “Do not sit in front of my wife!” I thought for a moment and replied, “May God grant you goodness.” I then asked my companion to leave after I settled the bill, and we moved to the hotel lobby for tea.
After more than a quarter of an hour, while I was observing the situation, I saw that man leaving the restaurant, with his wife and five children hurrying behind him to exit quickly. I approached the receptionist and asked, “What is happening?” He replied, “That man and his family ate everything they liked in the restaurant, and then he said he had no money and left.”
I used my judgment and left the restaurant because I understood his scheme. When he asked me to move, he intended to provoke a physical altercation so that he could claim I had harassed his wife and involve security to file a harassment case, demanding compensation before dropping the charges. Either he is a fraudster acting in this manner, or he had just been released from prison and had no other means to provide food for his family. Fraud takes many forms, and the mind has the capacity to discern situations and make sound decisions.
The article’s author, Mr. Yaqoub Al-Muzaini, whom I mentioned at the beginning, linked such behavior to what is happening with neighboring Iran, which strikes Gulf states with its missiles and drones. The Gulf states do not retaliate in kind because doing so would lead to greater destruction of our cities.
Therefore, using reason is safer. In this context, if the armed groups in Gaza had exercised restraint and not responded to the reckless enemy, the Gaza Strip would not have been destroyed and its people displaced.
