Dear Family,
Greetings of peace, in the day of peace, May all our days will be days of peace.
Prophet Mohamed (peace upon him) before he die, he delivered his last speech to Moslems, and the last thing he said "People, I commend you, to pass my peace greetings, for all those who will follow me until the Judgment day".

Prophet Mohamed sends you greetings of peace, and we send you greetings of peace, today a group from the Jordan Interfaith Action, will visit the Roman Theater in Amman's down town, to light candles for peace, to state that we refuse violence and we love peace, the Roman Theater two weeks ago, received a terror attack by a crazy person, who opened fire on a group of tourists.

Over two thirds of Jordanian population are under 30 years old, youth are the main target group for the terror organizations to transform them to terrorists, are the same youth who can be messengers of peace.

I will not talk about the terror in the Middle East, not because I believe you all know what is the middle east, But because I believe even those who lives in the middle east they don't know it very well. What I want to tell you that there is always hope, and Middle East is not as bad as it looks like, every day there are hundreds of people who are building and moving forward for peace, last Thursday I had to cut my participation in a conference for women in Jordan, to drive 30 km to the Airport, to meet with a guy who I never met or saw before, flying from India to Israel via Amman, an Israeli guy who is a youth worker, very enthusiastic and believe that he with other youth can make a change, he is my age, and we discussed a possible cooperation in building a youth alliance which will lobby and advocate for peace, even we talked about how the participants should be, we will interview them, they have to convince us that they believe in peace and that they have a dream like the dream we have, we even discussed how the posters which we will invite them through looks like, we said we will start with 80 participants and the next year the number will be 800 and who knows the year after it might be 8000, we said fund is not a problem, we are young we can find our way and the idea is great, so for sure they will support us, and we discussed even more detailed issues about the project, all of that was in one hour at the Q.A. International Airport, with one cup of coffee and some cigarettes.

Now some will say, so what? it was all talk by talk. And I say no, what was discussed at that table was something big, something was achieved at that table, we were two young men, we both celebrating our 30th birthday this year, we don't know each other before that meeting, he got my number from a friend, he called me when he was in India, telling me that he will have a transit in Amman for some hours, he have an idea, that’s it, I didn't know before that meeting if he is young or old, nothing. Now what was achieved there, that two young people from two different countries, from two different sides of such a conflict, came together to find out that they share the same dream, two young people one from Israel and the other from Jordan, for one hour they forgot the war, the boarders, bombers, the check points, the buses, Gaza, Tel Aviv, Lebanon they over passed all of that, and they shared a dream, a dream made them happy and optimistic for at least one hour. We greeted each other, we hugged each other like if we know each other since years, and I left happy and he left happy, and we both believes that we made a new friendship, which is true.

This is the other side of the middle east which you can't see, you can't see because CNN, FOX and Al-Jazeera they don't cover this part, you can’t see because we have one day for peace, and the rest of the year?! For what? For War?!.
Peace is here, it's exist, I can see it and touch it, I saw it last Thursday for a full hour. and if you want to see it, just set with yourself for sometime and think about it, it will come to you, and faster than you guess, because it's in side you.

Best wishes of Peace in the Day of Peace,

Anas Al-Abbadi
Jordan Interfaith Action
21.September.2006

An idea was inspired by many different aspects, one of them a project initiated by a friend of main living in Canada, her project title "My Arabic Story" www.myarabicstory.org were she work with some volunteers from different Arab countries on gathering traditional Arabic stories and translate them into English and present them to the west. Another inspiration came when i heard a story from a Maltese friend which was a story we all know but with some different details, the story in its European version says: a Prince was searching for a wife, so he sent a puzzle and the girl who can solve it, she will be the lucky one who will marry, he asked if a girl can come to his palace; wearing and wearing, riding and not riding, and her hair is done and not done. And as usual a smart girl find the solution and she come to the palace wearing a fishing net and riding on a goat and she entered by her left side with her hear is done, the prince liked the clever solution by her, because she is wearing the fishing net, in the same time you can see her body, so she is wearing but not wearing, and she was riding on a goad but her feet on the ground, so she was walking, so she is riding and not riding, and then he told her but your hair is done, then she turned to the right side and her hair was not done, the end of the story he likes her and they get married. Happy end as usual.

Now the interesting part for me, when I noticed the difference between this European version of the story, and our Arab story, our story says, and this is how I got it from my grandfather; A king who was a tough king, he didn’t like old people, because they can’t serve the country anymore, so he decided to kill all the old people, one of the king’s ministers, he hided his father in the store. Once they were setting with the king when the king asked him to solve a puzzle, and if he will not answer it by tomorrow, he will kill him, the puzzle was; He have to come tomorrow to the palace, wearing and wearing, riding and not riding, wearing a shoes and not wearing, and he have to bring his friend and his enemy. In the evening the man was crying at home, because he have no answer, his daughter asked him why he is upset, the father told her the puzzle and that he will be killed tomorrow if he don’t solve it by tomorrow, the girl she gave the answer to the father, who went to the second day to the palace with the solution, wearing a fishing net, wearing a shoes without heals, riding on a stick, and he brought his wife. The king told him smart about the fishing net, but you are wearing a shoes, when he raised his foot, there was nothing bellow, so his feet was touching the ground, and the stick was clear, then he asked him about the wife, he said she is my wife, she is my friend, so the kind said and how she is your enemy, he said you will see, then he spoke laud “Your majesty, my wife is my enemy, I want you to put her in jail” then the wife went crazy and shouted “your majesty, my husband is your enemy, he cheats you, he even hiding his father in our store” so the man said; “you see my king, she is my enemy”. And the king liked the answers and he asked him how he did find the solutions, the man explained that his daughter gave the answers, and the king asked the father to marry his daughter, and they got married, and she asked him to cancel his order by killing old people, and every body was happy as usual.

Now if you can see there are slightly some differences, and as you can see, it’s cultural differences, first the father was included in the story, because what will make the girl meets with the king “the prince” in a community where men and women do not mix!, how a girl in an Arab community will wear a fishing net and walk to see men, who will be able to see her body?! ..etc and many other questions and differences, this is why the idea of “Once Upon a Time” started, we already organized a Seminar early 2005, and the idea is to gather these stories and translate them into different languages, and discuss why we have such a differences, the stories can be used by different members for storytelling nights, we can gather them on an interact website, where each person can upload the story and volunteers can translate them, it’s just an idea, and am happy to hear your comments.
Anas Al-Abbadi