When The Jews Left Kuwait
7 08 2008Posted By Yousef
My Mother and I were in the car the other day. An old guy with black clothing and a black hat wanted to cross the road and i stopped for him. Mom then pointed out that this guy is a jew.
This got me thinking about how we’re always taught to hate the jews, never talk to them, not be friendly with them..etc.
Me: How come we’re taught not to like and interact with jews?
Mom: No, there is nothing wrong with befriending the jews.
Me: But we were always lectured on how its almost a national duty not to like them.
Mom: We don’t like Israel. The country and the government but not the jews themselves. The prophet (PBUH) had jews connections and did trade stuff with them.
Me: oh..
Mom: We were talking about the jews in Kuwait the other day and flana (a relative of ours) told me this interesting story about them living in Kuwait back in the 30’s.
There was a street in Kuwait that was famous coz a lot of jews were living there, they called it the jews street, “fereej ilyohood”. they lived among us till the 1930s. They used to come visit every once in awhile. They liked my mother’s mother. They left kuwait in the late 30’s to Israel. They were rich people; they did a lot of lending and saving, they also had lots of gold. When they decided to leave Kuwait to Israel (via boats to Basra, Iraq), the news travelled fast (back then everybody knew everybody else, literally) so some young men from various Kuwaiti families (young guys from the royal family too) wanted to steal the jews’ gold. They waited till it was dark and no one was around, then went to the jews’ boats and dug holes in them. When the jews set sail in the early morning the day after, the boats started leaking and eventually they started sinking.
Almost all of the jews lived in Kuwait and left with no harm and were treated nicely. Only a small group were targeted by an even smaller group of Kuwaitis (Sawwadallah wyoohom) and when their boats went down, they left a lot of gold behind.
That was awful
I don’t see why we have to hate the jews in general and then expect others to be fair to us!!! Like your story shows, there are muslims who are worse than jews.
لعلي أختلف معاك في هالنقطة لأن كره الكفار سواء كانوا يهود أو نصارى ، مذكور في القرآن ، وهالشي ما ينافي المعاملة بالحسنى ، وانا أتفق وياك على ان اللي صار في السابق كان خطأ تماما ، لكن في نفس الوقت ما نغفل هالجانب لأن بالأخير هم يعادون ويخالفون معتقادتنا .
طبعا حطوا في بالكم اني اتكلم عن اليهود المتدينين ، لأن مثلكم عارف ان كثير من الناس في الوقت الحالي “لا ديني” لا يؤمن برب رلا ديانة وتلقاه ماخذ الديانة عادة وتقليد.
ومشكور على هالمعلومة بصراحة كنت أسمع ان في يهود حتى بفيلجا من الوالدة .
The funny thing is you can be all of these things at once : Jewish by nature, Muslim by faith and Hindoo by food habits and appearance. Variety and diversity is what makes the world a vibrant place to live.
I’ve never heard that story before. It is absolutely fascinating. How lucky she is to have a son who asks such good questions, and who is really listening when she answers! Your Mom is full of really good information. She needs to write another post soon!
I don’t think Muslims should hate the Jews, or Israel and it’s government. What they should be against is “il9ihyoniya.” But we can’t seem to have enough hate, so we teach our kids to hate everything Jewish. Ether that, or it’s complete ignorance =)
I for one do not hate them and feel sorry for them…..they went through a lot and look at them now…..they r always the best and the top anything they go into. They must be doing something right and i admire them for that.
thats what i always think of.. Jewish people r the smartest most hardworking people. when they get into any business they get it right n top of the notch. plus its diyana samaweya, so we have to respect them as much as christianity. the aversion which we was told if dor Israelis, what they did to Palestine, thou im not a big fan of them, is exactly what iraq did to us, so imagine how can u like an iraqi back them?
Aurous I wouldn’t call those Kuwaitis who stole the gold Muslims.. and yeah I agree, Nobody is perfect.
The Talker Wana ba3ad akhtelef ma3ak. Ilyohood wilmasee7 mo koffar, hathaila ahal kitab. o mayjooz 7asab ma ana a3teqed ina tekrah aywa7id ma3a6ak sibab lilkorh.
inzain magetly 3ad shisawoon ibfailicha!? lol
Fountain of Old Age diversity is yet to be taken all in without prejudice and hate. we have a long way to go.
Intlxpatr Thanks intlxpatr
Kuwait’s history is not very well documented and there is lots of editing and polishing going around.
dishevelled I agree that we shouldn’t hate the jews in general, but I think we should be against their government. Please, can you explain “el9ehyooniya” to me?
Delicately Realitsic I admire their perseverance too.
fkj I don’t hate people becoz they’re of a certain faith and certainly I’m against all kind of prejudice. Same goes to Iraqis, I don’t hate them at all, I had some iraqis friends in college, they’re good people.
In this life, the only things we are allowed to hate are prejudice and ignorance. It’s tough not to hate something or someone but not impossible - if we only tried a little harder. I loved this post more than anything else I have read in a very long time.
WOW! that is interesting
Exactly. This is the only thing I can recall from Mid-school Islamic religion subject. I remember the teacher telling us “Never hate Jews and Jewish religion, always hate Zionists and Zionism”.
I never understood why some Muslims force themselves to hate jewish people. I am a Saudi Muslim woman, and i have so many jewish friends. I don’t look at my friends as jews, i look at them as human beings. Nobody ever has a proper explanation as to why they dislike jewish people. Its always “Ohh no no i don’t want her to help me cause she looks jewish” 6ayib witha kanet jewish?? What does that have to do with anything. I think that ignorance is the core problem in this world.
Now the Kuwaiti Jews that sank in the boat, where they of European origin or of Arab origin. And to the Saudi lady above, do you have a native/ancient Jewish population in Saudi Arabia, like the old Jewish communities in Yemen and Iraq?
I am also very interested in this story. How true is it? If a boat has a whole in it, I’m sure one notices pretty quickly, maybe quick enough to turn back. Or quick enough to have a chance to swim back to shore.