A young man drops to his knees and places his hands behind his ears as if trying to hear something in the distance. He then lowers his forehead to the ground and whispers to the dirt. Coming back up to his knees, the young man looks left, right, then left again. He blankly stares deep to the west as the sun drops from sky. He stares but he cannot see. He can't hear nor smell. He is not able to touch or taste. He can only feel. As he faces west toward the holy city of Mecca he feels his blood boil, his hair stand up and his nerves tremble with pure faith and love for one god. The sun has fallen and he has completed his fifth and final prayer of the day. Abdul gathers his belongings, closes up his store and heads home for the night. His mother and sister wait eagerly for him to return with the evening meal, three hard boiled eggs, a half cup of brown rice and some fresh pomegranate.
After the death of his father three years ago, Abdul had taken over as the head male figure of the house. He is to support the women and continue to run his father's store, which consists of nothing more than a half of a twenty-foot shipment container and a make-shift tent for outside cooking and baking. He remembers back to a time when his father would teach him the "Qu'ran" and show him how to be a proper Muslim; pray five times a day, follow the holy creed , read the holy book and travel to the holy city at least once in his lifetime. His father had never made his "hajj" to the city of Mecca before his death. And therefore died an unclean Muslim.
As he marches home he remembers attending the local school. The head "mullah" would tell tales of the west and how the Christian people lived there lives. He recalls being quite interested to hear of this foreign religion. He noticed many similarities between the western religion and his own. This Christian religion is a religion of peace and love just like Islam. These people of the west believe in one god. They also go to a house of worship with other believers to pray to their god. They even have a holy book! Abdul has always vowed that one day, after he visits Mecca, he would travel to the great land of the west. Sometimes, when he would visit the big city of Kandahar, he would see Americans. His father would tell him they are here to catch the devil. It took Abdul some time to realize his father was speaking of the Taliban. This group of extremists were loathed and feared throughout this region of Afghanistan. They were responsible for many deaths in Abdul's village. Any townspeople who were suspected of speaking with westerners were usually executed. That was what had happened to Gul Wali, Abdul's father. Gul was leaving the store on the last night of "Ramadaan" three years ago, with his youngest daughter. He was approached by four men in a Toyota pick-up truck. They had very long beards and AK-47 rifles. They had stopped Gul because they had heard Americans were at his store earlier in the week, and they wanted to know what Gul had said to them. Gul lied and denied ever speaking to Americans, in fear of his life. The men started questioning why his daughter was out of the house during "Ramadaan". Even though Gul had pleaded for his daughter's safety, the men had thought it proper to make an example out of he and his family. They said any woman found outside during the light hours of the holy month was to be punished as a whore. Gul begged and tried to reason with them that his daughter was merely a child of eleven years and has not reached womanhood, and therefore should not be held to the same standards. Yet the face of evil has no soul and shows no mercy. Two of the men bound Gul and began stoning him with nearby rocks. The remaining two proceeded to beat and rape his daughter. After the four of them were through they executed the father and daughter, secured them to the truck's bumper and hauled them back to their home village.
As Abdul recalls the night his father did not come home, a small tear dances down his cheek and lands in the Afghan sand. These individuals are not considered Muslims he thought. They may call themselves Muslim, pray in an Arabic tongue and read the Qu'ran, but they are not Muslim. A Muslim is a man of peace. He is a man who dedicates his life to one god, Allah. Whenever Abdul goes to the big city to shop at the bazaar, he sees American soldiers. He always wonders if they had ever found the men who killed his father and sister. Ever since his father told him why the Americans were in Afghanistan, he had always looked at them like heroes.
Abdul walked through the wooden front door of his home. He handed the evening meal to his mother and gave his sister a hug. His mother could see his face held sadness. She just smiled and ensured him not to fret, for his father was in a safe place. As he and his mother peered out the window he said, " So are we, the devil will be caught soon enough."
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