Here There and Everywhere

Expat wanderer

The Minority Prayer

I listen to National Public Radio in my car and in my project room. I finally figured out how to stream WUWF, my local station. Until today, unless I wanted to use my wind-up radio, I had to stream KUOW in Seattle, or NPR which I like because it has so much BBC.

I am really delighted to figure out how to stream WUWF, because it has a lot of local news and events I might miss streaming one of the other stations, and I also like hearing who the sponsors are, so I can tell them how much I enjoy National Public Radio.

So today I am listening to Talk of the Nations, a segment on Pakistani-Americans, and this particularly articulate young lawyer mentions ‘the Minority Prayer.

Do you know what that is? I didn’t. But I laughed when he explained it, because we have prayed it so often living overseas . . .

He was talking about when attending a Muslim-American Lawyers National meeting, and how the buzz spread that Osama Bin Laden had been killed, and how they all sent up a quick minority prayer – “Please, Lord, don’t let it be Pakistan where he was found” – and of course, it was Pakistan. He was very wry, and I enjoyed listening to what he had to say. At the same time, I was grinning. I cannot count the number of times we have heard rumors – in Germany, in Kuwait, in Qatar, in Tunisia, in Jordan – and prayed . . . “Please Lord, don’t let it be the USA who did this . . . ”

It’s very much an expat’s prayer.

If you want to listen to the interview yourself, you can find it here.

May 11, 2011 - Posted by | Adventure, Biography, Community, Counter-terrorism, Cross Cultural, ExPat Life, Humor, Interconnected, Living Conditions, Political Issues, Relationships

2 Comments »

  1. Intlxpatr :

    The more i think about it ,the more i beleive that Bin Laden is still alive and in captivity in the hands of his captors.

    It just doesnt make that much sense to go and kill him for the sake of getting even . What about all the information this man has about his network ??? And the Idea that he is keeping a diary is just too much too swallow ??

    Well, time will tell ,say 30 years down the line when the government files are published .

    daggero's avatar Comment by daggero | May 15, 2011 | Reply

  2. I thought about that, too, Daggero, but it would be very hard to keep a secret that big. Too many people would have to know. Worse, as long as he were alive, there would be violence and hostage taking, hoping to trade for ObL. I think he was executed for the crime he took credit for, the Pentagon and the Twin Towers on 9-11.

    intlxpatr's avatar Comment by intlxpatr | May 15, 2011 | Reply


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