As-salamu alaykum. ("Peace be upon you" in Arabic)

 I am Chris Kim and it's my pleasure to introduce the Middle East with the "Beautiful Arabian Life" column. As I write this, Ramadan has just begun. Lasting 30 days each year, it is a period for worship and thanksgiving to God and also for reflecting on one's faith through fasting during sunrise. You may wonder how a person lives without eating a drop of water for a month, but speaking precisely, it is only a fast during the time when the sun is in the sky. So, people sometimes overeat or binge after sunset. Still, it would surely be very difficult if one cannot eat anything all day long and has to wait until after work. The act of starving for 12 hours a day must be impossible without the power of faith.

 This chapter is to introduce Islam, the religion followed by Muslims who devotedly participate in fasting. (Muslims refer to followers of Islam. It is the same concept as Christians being those who practice the Christian religion.)

 Actually, Muhammad was not welcomed in the beginning. Unlike polytheism which was the mainstream in the city of Mecca then, he claimed to believe in one god, Allah, and to make a clean break from one's sinful past and receive the judgment of Allah on the final day. Since the business related to sacrifices to various gods was developed in Mecca, Muhammad's monotheistic claim confronted merchants' interests and thus did not get support. Therefore, he relocated to the city of Medina. There he played a role as a coordinator of the major tribes in the region and finally succeeded in mobilizing Muslims.

 In my opinion, the most fundamental reason is that the states were formed in a wrong way from the beginning. Typically, a nation is formed over many years through a long and natural process of institutionalization of communities, which are the groups of people sharing same values, languages, religions and lifestyles. However, the Middle East was suddenly made into states by the interests of the Western powers as the Ottoman Empire was dismantled at the end of the World War I. This is the same case for African states. If you look at the map, the border lines between countries of the Middle East and Africa are straight lines. In fact, the lines were drawn with a ruler. At that time, factors such as race, religion and tribe were not considered, and those who could not live together were forced to be a part of one state. As a result, they are at feud with each other constantly. To make things worse, the rulers in the region, dependent on the foreign powers, tend to corrupt and become a dictatorship. Consequently, it was impossible to solve all the problems by internal efforts alone. You might ask why people from the same Middle Eastern region disagree and quarrel so much. However, imagine what would have happened if the US and the Soviet Union forced Korea, China and Japan to form one country after the World War II just because the three all were situated in the Far East.

 The salutation of Arab Muslims is As-salamu alaykum.

 As I began this column with this greeting, Arabs always shouted for peace. The terror of extremists is not their nature but just a sad fact of life. In the culture of Arabs that welcomes strangers and be considerate to women and the sick and elderly and in the teaching of Islam that Muslims should never go beyond those who ask for help, I am delightfully working to fulfill the mission as an Asian Beauty Creator.

 I hope that readers of this column will be able to overcome the misconception about the Middle East and Islam and sympathize with the message of peace. As-salamu alaykum.