A Haircut And A Good Terry Jones Conversation

He begins by buzzing the left side of my head. Before he can move to the back or right side, the man in the chair next to me comments on my Arabic, "You speak well the Arabic."

I try to downplay it as usual, "Yes, the basic things. But I don't understand everything."
"Little by little," comes the reply.
"Where are you from?"
"I'm American."
"Good."
"Did you fast during Ramadan?"
"A little. When people invited me to iftar I fasted before."

For a few seconds silence reigns. But the man next to me cannot resist.
"Do you know about the qas in Florida?"
"The story (qissa)?" I ask.
"No," he clarifies in French. "Le pere, the father."
"Oh yes. I know. But you know he decided not to burn the Koran."
"It does not matter if he burns it. You cannot destroy the Koran. It is written on the hearts of Muslims throughout the world."

Practically every conversation I have with a Moroccan these days ends up mentioning Terry Jones and Koran-burning. It reminds me a bit of my time in Latin America and in Europe in the years following the Iraq invasion. Once they found out I was an American, locals felt compelled to stop what they were doing and tell me just how evil of a man my president was.

But at least George W. Bush was President of the United States. Terry Jones has a few dozen people in his congregation in Florida.