As a Western expat living in the Kingdom for a while, I often come across instances, which make me believe Saudi Arabia is a much better place than the rest of the world for peace loving people to live in. It is perhaps the only country in the world where the evil is officially suppressed. There are no casinos, discotheques and liquor stores. Here women are protected and respected like nowhere else.
I notice that most people here are generous and compassionate, something totally absent in the capitalist West.
The recent case of a bearded Bangladeshi cleaner in his sky-blue uniform, looking at expensive jewelry sets at a shop, who was mocked by a Twitter user, and then flooded with gifts and cash handouts by other Twitterati, drives home the point that the land of the Two Holy Mosques is full of kind people who feel the pain of the poor and are always ready to help the underprivileged.
Last week, while waiting for my wife to come out from a shop, I saw an Asian gentleman and his wife visiting a cobbler. While leaving, the man shook the cobbler’s hand and his wife, after thanking the cobbler for the job, asked him to remember her in his prayers. I can’t imagine seeing such kind of civility anywhere else.
Last Friday, I saw after the noon prayer one Arab man who wanted to give some money to a panhandler come to a woman in a wheelchair. Before handing her cash, he greeted her with Salam and then gave her the money and left. How many of us would greet a begger?
I have come across very kind people on different occasions in Jeddah who never failed to amaze me. But at the same time, I must say I have seen some very nasty people, the real bad fish, who give a bad name to a nation known for its worldwide charity and help.
— Othman Al-Syed, Jeddah
Peaceful Saudi Arabia
