Since a few days we are traveling through Jordan. We visited Amman, Jerash and Madaba and now I am sitting in a very posh hotel at the Dead Sea, feeling bizarre when hearing the muezzin calling for the evening prayer and western music from the outside pool at the same time.
Jordan is a very old country, inhabited longer than one can imagine (it says since about 250 000 years) and thus it has rich experiences in living together despite different beliefs and origins.
It’s an interesting journey, not only because of the wonderful places we visited but also because I am really surprised about the way of living here. More than half of the population is from Palestine, original Jordans are more or less a minority taking into account that families have roots in different tribes from the Arabic peninsula.
Of course, I took the opportunity to discuss the current political situation with people I met and got to hear a lot of interesting stories. Everyone said its complicate and lies in the history but tribes and beliefs were never a barrier for living together in peace. The big trouble came with the end of the colonialism and the more or less arbitrary erected borders and countries.
What unifies many is the rejection of the israeli politics and their (from outside) implanted and supported belief that the Israelics have a right to live in the holy land, alone. That belief and the exploitation of resources by foreign powers was and is the source of many wars and causes a lot of struggles until today. There is no easy solution, but the only way is living together by respecting each other. There is no religion better than another, all humans are equal, no matter of their beliefs. People said, that all the leaders of the Arabic countries and Egypt have old, strong bonds and meet regularly in an informal way and discuss all sorts of issues. There is a new generation of leaders trying to overcome differences for a common healthy development. Even Saudi Arabia made a plan for the sustainable development of its country through cooperation with Jordan and Egypt. There is hope: I learned yesterday, that a woman is the CEO of Saudi Arabia`s Commercial Bank 😉