The Quintessential Arab

Habeeb Salloum

 

Habeeb Salloum is a freelance writer and an author residing in Toronto. He has travelled extensively and written many books about tourism and cuisines of the countries he visited. He has published six books and eighteen chapters in anthropologies. His published books include: Classic Vegetarian Cooking from the Middle East and North Africa; Arabic Contributions to the English Vocabulary; From the Lands of Figs and Olives; Journeys Back to Arab Spain; and Arab Cooking on a Saskatchewan Homestead.  He is the winner of the Cuisine Canada and the University of Guelph’s Silver Canadian Culinary Book Awards in Winnipeg in 2006. The judges were so keen on meeting him because it was the first time that anything about Arab history in Canada had been put into a unified cookbook memoires study. He also authored the chapter on the History of Syrians in Canada in the Encychlopaedia of Canada’s Peoples. For the past twenty six years, Hebeeb has been a full-time freelance writer, specializing in food, history, and travel.

 

Habeeb came to Canada in 1924 when he was about two months old. His family came from the Bekaa Valley, which was part of Syria. His parents were not educated; they barely knew how to read and write. At that time, the Canadian government was giving land for free to get Western Canada populated, so his parents went to western Canada in the hope of benefiting from the free land offers. He grew up in Saskatchewan where his parents worked as farmers.  However, ever since he was a child, Habeeb aspired to travel the world, and did not like the life on the farm. And so at the age of sixteen, he decided to move away from his parents’ farm. He decided to join the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) during the Second World War because he was worried that he would be scripted in the army which was more dangerous. He was trained in Regina and then taken on a boat to England in 1944, where he stayed for one year – never remembering a single day during which he was warm.  He became a top flight sergeant, but he never fought because the war ended before he was able to engage in any real military combat. Although he would not like to hurt a fly, but had he been called to fight he would certainly have fought for his country. Upon leaving the army, Habeeb worked for the Canadian Department of National Revenue for thirty-six years, that is, until his retirement.

 

Habeeb has witnessed numerous waves of Arab immigration to Canada. In particular, he recalls the immigration wave in the sixties. He remembers the tales those immigrants told about the reasons for leaving their countries of origin; they were mainly dismayed by the terrible conditions of their homeland and said awful things about their native countries, including the harsh living conditions and their parents’ rigid treatment which alienated the youth and drove them to seek better opportunities in Canada.

 

In 1961 Habeeb got married to his wife Farieda, and promised her to take her for a visit to the old homeland, Syria. That was the time when he started to build strong connections between his family in Canada and his original homeland. Luckily, Habeeb and his family were able to visit virtually the entire Arab world, all the way from Morocco in North Africa to the United Arab Emirates and Oman in the Arabian Peninsula.  Habeeb does not believe in the division of the Arab homeland into separate countries because he views the Arab world as one unit whose parts complement each other. One of the incidents that he encountered when he was visiting Algeria with his wife was that Farieda wanted to speak Arabic at the airport to show her knowledge of the Arabic language. However, suddenly the airport police came and took her because at that time Algeria was ruled by the French who banned the use of Arabic.

 

Habeeb and Farieda also visited Jerusalem (in Palestine) before it was occupied by Israel in the 1967 War. He remembers how his wife was moved by a Palestinian refugee in the town of Qalqeelia, when he took Farieda by the hand, pointed over across a barbed wire, and said to Farieda: “Look over there! That is my land, and those are my orange trees.” Upon hearing this, Farieda was so disheartened that she started crying.

 

Habeeb strongly believes in the strong role that parents can play in the cultural development of their children. According to him, if Arab parents keep putting the Arabs and their culture down, children will never grow to be proud of their Arab heritage and origin. He believes in the harmful effect resulting from “de-Arabization,” that is the downplaying of the Arab character and the simultaneous concentration and fanatical emphasis on the specific country of origin, such as Lebanon, Qatar, Bahrain, and so forth. This is a harmful phenomenon in many Arab homes, whether among Canadian Arabs or among Arabs in their home countries. He explains how at first the French, British, and Italian colonial powers occupied the Arab world and then began to strengthen local nationalism and sectarian affiliations in order to fragment the Arab world and disconnect Arabs from their pan-Arab origin.

 

Habeeb thinks of himself as a Canadian of Syrian Arab origin and not of Lebanese origin because when he moved with his family to Canada, the entire region was known as Syria. As a case in point, when his family used to send letters to their relatives back home, the address would be Beirut/Syria, and not Beirut/Lebanon. According to him, Lebanon was first mentioned in the Bible as Mount Lebanon. The modern Lebanese state was the construct of European colonial powers. He also believes that Palestine, Jordan. Lebanon and the present state of Syria were all considered to belong to one nation or country known as Syria.  Habeeb asserts that in 1923, he had no Lebanese or Syrian identity card – it was Turkish at that time. In this respect, Habeeb was influenced by a friend of the Salloum family whose name was Ahmad Hatoum, and who also had a Canadian name – Albert Hatoum. That was a normal practice for many early Arab immigrants to Canada; to have both Arab as well as “Canadian” names.  When he was living in Saskatchewan, Ahmad Hatoum always discussed Arab history and culture and that infused Habeeb with a sense of Arab identity and Arab cultural affinity. At the same time, Habeeb feels deep admiration for the Canadian system which allows different ethnic and national groups to maintain their cultural identity and help to strengthen their affinity and loyalty to Canada. He gives credit to Canada’s public education systems which help to cultivate a strong sense of Canadian identity.  According to Habeeb, Arab countries should benefit from the successful experiences of Canada in the molding of diverse groups and cultures into one Canadian identity. In this respect, Habeeb thinks very highly of the Pierre Elliott Trudeau whose government introduced and implemented the policy of multiculturalism.

 

Hebeeb remembers fondly his fabulous father who used to run a coffee shop in Saskatchewan. When he visited his father in his coffee shop in 1948, he found him deeply distressed. When Habeeb asked his father about the reason for his sadness, his father answered with tears flowing out of his eyes: “The split of Syria and Lebanon must be the ultimate humiliation for the Arabs.” Habeeb’s response to his father’s sorrowful statement was that: “Syrians will always be faithful to their Arab identity.” And when asked to choose between Syrian and Lebanese identity after the separation of Lebanon from Syria gaining independence from the French, Habeeb simply tore the papers because he refused to accept the partition of the two countries. He says that until 1952, Canada considered all those immigrants coming from Lebanon and Syria as Syrians.

 

Habeeb has been involved in Canadian Arab affairs throughout his entire life. Meetings of the Canadian Arab Friendship Society, one of the oldest Canadian Arab organizations (established in 1960 by Habeeb Salloum and his close friend the late Jim Peters), used to be held in the Salloum’s house in Don Mills for many years. However, Habeeb became increasingly frustrated and disillusioned with the division and the petty sectarian conflicts “imported” to Canada by recent waves of Arab immigrants, especially from Lebanon, Egypt, and Iraq.  Habeeb has a very strong aversion to sectarianism which he views as a debilitating disease in Arab societies. He dislikes a state which is built along religious or sectarian foundations, such as Lebanon. Indeed, he considers sectarianism to be one of the main reasons responsible for the deterioration of the contemporary Arab world.

 

Hebeeb is in his eighties now. He has seen it all by now: the happy days as well as the hardship-filled days. He believes that people come to Canada in search of peace, security, and better economic opportunities. He is disappointed with the use, or abuse, of such terms as democracy because it has been manipulated to justify American and British invasion and occupation of Arab and Muslim lands, when the real purpose is to control and exploit Arab and Muslim resources. His advice to his fellow Canadian Arabs is to forget their petty regional and sectarian differences and concentrate on the factors that unite them, including their common culture, common language, and common interests. They should make good use of their growing number in Canada in order to enhance their collective interest, dispel the many negative stereotypes about the Arabs, and be more active in the social and political life of Canada.