Muslim Women Love Christian Men

Lying in the arms of her beloved Bartleby, Soraya Suleiman felt safe at last. The young Arab woman thought about all the events that transpired this week, and shuddered. Hard to imagine so many terrible and wonderful things could happen in the span of one week. Why couldn't people look past race, culture and religion and see that at the end of the day, we were all human? That's what Soraya Suleiman wondered for the thousandth time. Resting her head against Bartleby's heart, she listened to its strong beat. Gently she stroked the beard on his chin. Her magnificent African warrior, asleep at last. For his love, she was willing to risk life itself.

Soraya Suleiman thought back about her life back in the City of Riyadh, in the southern tier of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Just an ordinary Saudi gal with an average life. Her father Hassan Suleiman was a civil engineer and her mother Fatima worked as a schoolteacher. One day, the family moved to the capital region of the Republic of Lebanon, which was as different from Saudi Arabia as night and day. Soraya went to the American University in the City of Beirut, the Lebanese capital, where the small-town Lebanese Muslim gal was exposed to secularism and liberalism for the first time in her life. Life in Lebanon was far different from what she knew in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. In Lebanon, women could be police officers, doctors, lawyers and judges. Women's rights were upheld by the constitution of Lebanon, which had been heavily influenced by western ideas.

Women in the Republic of Lebanon could wear whatever they wanted. Lebanese Christian women enjoyed a level of freedom on par with women living in countries like France, Germany and the United States of America. Lebanese Muslim enjoyed those same rights, though many of them chose to follow the Islamic rules about female modesty and submission to Muslim male authority. In the Republic of Lebanon, where a Christian man was President, women had rights and choices. Soraya's life would never be the same. Compared to the restrictive hell that Saudi Arabia was for women, Lebanon seemed like paradise. The young Saudi woman fell in love with Lebanon. Her instructors at the American University in Beirut were for the most part white men and white women from the United States, along with a few Europeans. There were a few Americans at the school too. One of them was Bartleby Edwards, the man who would change her life.

Bartleby Edwards was one of a handful of Black students at the American University in the City of Beirut, Republic of Lebanon. He was six feet four inches tall, broad-shouldered and handsome. A native of the City of Detroit, State of Michigan, he opted to study for a year at the American University in the Lebanese Capital of Beirut. Growing up in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Soraya had certainly seen Black men before. The Saudis hired a lot of migrant workers from African countries to work in construction. Soraya had seen Somali men and Nigerian men working at construction sites all over the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The first time she laid eyes on Bartleby Edwards, she knew that he was different from those men from Africa. Black men from the United States of America were vastly different from those from African nations. The way lions were different from sheep. Black men from America were outspoken, loud, assertive and utterly fearless. Like lions on two legs. Black men from African countries were intimidated by the Arabs that's why they seldom advanced in Arabic societies. There was a lot of racism in the Republic of Lebanon toward all non-Lebanese, including other Arabs.

The racism that Black men and Black women living in the Republic of Lebanon faced was far worse than what Chinese and Hindu workers received at the hands of intolerant Lebanese men and Lebanese women. Bartleby Edwards carried himself like a king. Whenever he walked through the crowded hallways of the American University in Beirut, he strode around like a lion. His eyes were intense. The fact that he was big and tall and downright intimidating also made him a formidable figure. The Lebanese people weren't used to Black men who carried themselves with power and confidence. That's because they didn't meet Black American men too often. Born in the beautiful State of Michigan to an African American father and Haitian mother, Bartleby Edwards was a strong man through and true. His parents taught him that he was just as good as anybody else, that being Black was a good thing, and that he should never bow down to anybody. Bartleby Edwards took those life lessons to heart. He graduated with Honors with his Bachelor's degree in Business Administration from Wayne State University. He'd gotten accepted into the MBA programs of every school from Howard University to Duke University but he wanted to study outside the United States for a little bit. That's how this African American superman ended up in the Capital of Lebanon.

Bartleby Edwards was jogging in the quiet neighborhood near the American University of Beirut campus one morning when a woman's scream caught his attention. He headed toward the noise, and spotted a hijab-wearing young Arab woman clad in dark clothing struggling with two large Arab men. The young woman was fighting back against them, hitting them with her handbag. Still, they were bigger and stronger than her and there wasn't much that she could do. Bartleby hesitated. He'd gotten a crash course on Lebanese life and politics during his first two months in the nation's capital. The Republic of Lebanon was forty percent Christian and over fifty percent Muslim, with Jews, Pagans and Atheists making up the rest. The Lebanese Christians were responsible for the modernization of the Republic of Lebanon. Lebanese Christians supported ideals like women's rights, abortion rights, secular government and religious freedom. Lebanese Muslims wanted to turn Lebanon into an Islamist country, with burkas for all women, death to all non-Muslims, and absolute power for Muslim men. The two groups were at odds. Soon the country might head into open conflict. For now, the Christian President of Lebanon was holding the country together. In this strange and beautiful country, Lebanese Muslim women thought it was okay for their men to beat them and Lebanese Christian women were the only ones who supported feminism and women's suffrage.

Bartleby was raised Catholic and was tolerant of other faiths as long as they respected his own, but he didn't think any man had the right to beat a female. So he charged the two Arab guys like a raging lion. The two Arab men stared, stunned, as the big Black man barreled into them. Bartleby slammed into the first one, punching him in the temple and knocking him out. The second guy flashed a knife, and tried to gut Bartleby with it. Before the guy could lunge for Bartleby, however, he fell. For someone tripped him. It was the young Arab woman whom Bartleby came to rescue. Smiling, he looked at her and nodded. The young Arab woman smiled shyly, and said something in Arabic. Bartleby scratched his head. He didn't know Jack in Arabic. He put his hands together and nodded at the young lady, then he left. He had morning classes to get to.

After his morning class, Bartleby headed to the cafeteria. He looked in vain for his buddy Rudolph, a young British guy from Wales who was spending a semester at the American University in the town of Beirut, Lebanon. All Bartleby saw were throngs upon throngs of Lebanese students. Fine-looking Lebanese Christian women in tight shirts and short skirts. Loud Lebanese guys, some in western clothing, some in those long shirts that looked like skirts, shouting to each other. Uptight Lebanese Muslim women with hijabs and in some cases, burkas. Bartleby found the burkas more than a bit unsettling. He grew up watching the American Ninja movie series because his hero Steve James starred in them with that cool Russian guy. Those flicks taught him to fear ninjas. Bartleby sat alone and cracked open his copy of Dreams From My Father, by President Obama. He was absorbed in reading while eating, so much that he didn't notice someone standing near him. A tall young Arab woman wearing a silvery hijab and Black clothing. In her hand she held a tray of food. Bartleby blinked. She looked familiar. It was the woman he rescue earlier. Hmmm. He didn't know she went to the school. What did she want now?

The young woman smiled excitedly at him and in halting English, introduced herself. Soraya Suleiman of Riyadh City. When he offered to shake her hand, she hesitated, then shook it. Then she asked him if she could sit down. Bartleby smiled and nodded. Soraya looked at him, and told him that she was most thankful for his help. Bartleby shrugged, saying that where he came from, men who hit women got sent to prison. Soraya seemed to marvel at the idea, and told him that in the town where she grew up, men who beat women were part of the norm. Bartleby's eyes widened. Those Lebanese Muslim women were taking the Islamic submission thing a bit too far. Soraya shook her head and told him that she was a Saudi, not a Lebanese. He pondered that. He really couldn't tell the difference between all the Arabs at school. Yemeni. Lebanese. Saudi. Algerian. Egyptian. Afghan. Tunisian. They all spoke Arabic, and the only Christians among them were Coptic Christians from Egypt and Lebanese Christians. The rest were Muslim.

For the better part of a half hour, Bartleby and Soraya talked. He had a lot of questions about the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and she had many questions about the United States of America. They laughed about common misconceptions about their respective countries. No, American women didn't wear bikinis to the office, except on that old television show Baywatch. No, Saudi women didn't wear burkas to bed. Sometimes, they wore nothing. Bartleby was fascinated by Soraya. This woman was not what he was expecting. And she was a lot more open than the Lebanese students he met so far. They exchanged Facebook and cellphone information and agreed to keep in touch. Afterwards, Soraya excused herself because she had to get to class. Bartleby smiled and waved her goodbye, then went back to his dorm. He had some homework to take care of, and of course he had to meet his parents on Skype.

Soraya went back to her folks house in the South end of the City of Beirut with a smile on her face. She kept thinking about Bartleby. The handsome African American was not at all what she expected. When she got home, she was glowing. Her mother Fatima asked her what was up, and Soraya told her everything. The only things she left out were the parts about Bartleby being Black. Her mother thanked Allah that her daughter was safe, and they both agreed not to mention the incident to Soraya's father. He simply wouldn't understand. The next day, Soraya went to meet her favorite American at the school library, where they hung out together and talked for hours. When he invited her to catch a movie, she briefly hesitated but acquiesced. He was a good man, and he was decent. What was the harm? Besides, what her parents didn't know couldn't hurt them.

And that's how it all began. Soraya found herself smitten with Bartleby, the fearless American. Her friends at the American University were stunned to see a Saudi woman with the school's only Black American scholar. They made quite a couple. Oh, there were interracial couples in Lebanon. Arab men with Hindu women. Arab men with Black women. Arab men with White women. Wherever Soraya and Bartleby went, people stared. They simply weren't used to seeing Arab women with Black men. Bartleby was always fearless and defiant, and the Arab guys quickly learned that the gigantic African American wasn't somebody they should mess with. When he got in their faces and challenged them, they were too surprised at his boldness to react. Most of them. Soraya walked around the Lebanese capital's hotspots holding hands with the man she was falling in love with.

Bartleby was falling fast for Soraya. He never thought he would fall for an Arab woman because they always seemed cold and distant. Even the pious ones with the hijabs. Well, Soraya wasn't like the others. She was a woman with a mind of her own. She liked him and made no bones about it. However, she did explain to him that they had to keep their love a secret from her family. Bartleby grew up in America, where Muslims are a very, very small minority. American Muslims lived it up, partied and drank just like regular Americans so he couldn't base what he knew of Muslim culture from their example. Soraya explained her culture to him. Male domination. Female submission. Arranged marriages. Honor killings. Oh, and above all else, Muslim men could marry women of any religion but Muslim women could only marry Muslim men. Double standard of the millennium. Bartleby listened carefully as Soraya explained to him the danger she faced by being with him. When she finished, he took her hand in his and kissed it. Soraya looked into his eyes and what she saw in there made her heart melt. She threw herself into his arms, and let's just say it's a good thing they were in his dorm at school away from prying eyes because things got loud and sweaty real fast between them.

Soraya's first time with Bartleby was powerful, erotic and wonderful. The handsome African American stud gently and passionately made love to her. He kissed her all over. He massaged her body. He sucked at her breasts. He nibbled on her ears. He kissed a path from her throat to her breasts. He licked a path from her belly to her pelvic area. He spread her thighs, and gently asked her to relax as he began licking her pussy. Soraya squealed in delight as Bartleby sent cascades of pleasure rushing through her. And when he finally slid his manhood inside of her, she wrapped herself tightly around him, welcoming him. Locking eyes with the man she loved, she urged him to make love to her. And make love to her he did, for hours on end. Until finally they lay exhausted on his bed, spent and pleasurably sore.

Hours later, Soraya lay next to Bartleby's sleeping body, her mind racing. She told her parents that she was spending the night at her friend Zainab's dormitory. And they believed her. Zainab was the most religious person that Soraya knew and Soraya's parents trusted her wholeheartedly. Soraya gently ran her hands through Bartleby's chest hairs. Tonight, she made love for the first time. It was everything she imagined it would be, and more. Much more. Tonight, she crossed the line. She lost her virginity. Also, she was in love with an infidel. A Christian man. Muslim women were forbidden from loving Christian men, or any men who weren't Muslim, really. However, Soraya couldn't help it. She was in love with the big American. The handsome devil who turned out to be as gentle as a teddy bear. What was she going to do? Insha Allah, she'd figure something out. Gently she kissed his forehead, then she went to sleep.