When I was in the “Muderiyya”, the detention center in Sharjah before being transferred to the Central Prison, the inmates were crowded so tightly into the rooms that if you could find a place to lay down, there wasn’t even enough space to turn over.
There was a huge Nigerian man, a Christian, named Sonny, who was very loud and aggressive. He was probably about 2 metres tall, muscular and extremely angry. He had been detained for several weeks, and there seemed to be no solution to his problems. Because of his size and demeanor, everyone was scared of him, and tried to avoid him as much as possible.
At one point, I found myself laying in a place where Sonny used to sleep, and I saw that he had drawn a christian cross on the wall and written the words “God is good”.
Prisoners are very innovative, and they had learned to make paste from bread crumbs, water, and cigarette ashes, so I took a piece of paper, applied the paste to it, and glued it on the wall to cover the cross, leaving the words uncovered. The other prisoners became nervous about this and told me Sonny would be angry. I said, “it is enough what we are going through, I am not going to sit in a jail in a Muslim country, surrounded by Muslims, and have to look at a Christian cross on the wall.”
Nothing happened. Then another day, I found myself back at the same spot and saw that Sonny had ripped off the paper. So, I started trying to rub the ink off the wall with my thumb while Sonny was out of the room. Again, the other prisoners were nervous. The ink wouldn’t come off, so I took the little wire used to tie the plastic bags of bread, and started to scratch the cross off the wall. I told the others to tell me when Sonny was coming back.
While I was in the process of scratching the drawing off the wall, they told me “Stop! Stop! He’s coming!” but I stayed where I was and continued. When Sonny came in, I called him over.
“I am removing this from the wall because it disturbs me,” i told him. “The cross is an instrument of torture and execution. It is a symbol that represents the lie that our Prophet Jesus was abandoned by God and murdered by his enemies. I know this is not what it means to you, but it is deeply offensive to us, and I am sure you do not want to offend us, just as you do not want us to offend you. So I am leaving the words ‘God is good’ because this is true, and we agree on that.”
You may be surprised by Sonny’s reaction. He respected what I said, and the fact that I was direct with him, and he actually scratched the cross off the wall himself.
You may be further surprised to learn that over the next two weeks, Sonny and i discussed Islam and Christianity at length, and he eventually embraced Islam.
#دروس_المعتقل
#Prison_Lessons