Chapter 3

That evening, after Marcy had cleared away the supper dishes, the entire group, Rose, Debra, Tori, Chef Jacques, Farouq and myself were sitting around the table. Shelly joined us, as well, when she could but rose frequently to give Helen, the other barmaid, a hand.

"Dad, I spoke to Sandy this morning; she'll order that suckling pig for your méchoui; I asked to have it the Wednesday before Easter."

"That's good," I replied. "I think we'll hold the méchoui on Thursday, then. That way it won't interfere with the Easter week rush."

"You're having a méchoui? But that is with lamb..."

"In northern Africa, yes," replied Chef Jacques. "But when the French came to North America, they started using pork. Most people here dislike the way lamb tastes of lanolin. In Quebec, méchouis are fairly common. As a matter of fact, I bought the barbecue unit from a snowbird who used to do them as a sideline."

"Snowbird... ?"

"Yeah, that's an interesting phenomenon here in North America. In most of Canada and also in some of the more northern states, the weather in winter is really awful ... so quite a few retirees and some seasonal workers come south for the winter. In November, all you see on the road are caravans and trailers, all headed south, then in April, they all head back north again. We call them Snowbirds because they are like migratory birds, flying south for the winter and north to the nesting grounds in spring."

"Excuse me," said Debra, "Farouq ... you're Arab, aren't you? Maybe you could answer me. Sandy, the woman who owns the store where we buy our groceries, was telling me she had some customers, she thought they were Lebanese or something like that, were asking about 'halal' food. She had asked me to find out from Chef Jacques what that might be."

« Merde! Je suis arrivé trop tard... »

"I'm sorry... ?"

"Oh, sorry ... I'm afraid I haven't told you everything ... I was hoping to have a little bit of time to catch up with old friends before having to tell you this but I see that they were quicker than I had anticipated. In order to explain what is happening, I must go back several hundred years to give you some background information about Islam."

"In the 7 ^th century, the prophet Muhammad went into the desert to fast and had a vision, just as your Jesus is said to have done. Out of this vision came the Quran and Islam. At the time, Islam was an open, tolerant religion, as befits a people that are basically nomadic traders and merchants. This openness can be inferred by the immense scientific advances that were attained during this period. I won't mention the Crusades because these were politically motivated; they were basically a giant land-grab by the noble houses of Europe."

"However, some two hundred and fifty years ago, a theologian by the name of Muhammad ibn Abd-al-Wahhab, a follower of the Sunni branch of Islam, in Saudi Arabia, upset with what he called the laxity of the faithful, came up with a whole new interpretation of the Quran. He insisted on a more literal and much more exclusive reading of the holy book. In this, he was not any different from John Calvin, the originator of one of the reformed branches of Christianism."

"Where things went wrong is that one of his students was Muhammad ibn Saud, who eventually became ruler of Saudi Arabia. Salafism or, as the west calls it, Wahhabism became the official 'state' religion. It is an extremely repressive, fundamentalist branch. Al Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan are modern-day examples of Salafist beliefs."