Mahjoobian Polls

I’m one of the biggest fans of Emad Hajjaj and his caricatures of Abu Mahjoob. I was actually a big member that was addicted to the forums for several years before I left early this year due to conflicts with the administration that exercised a little too much aggressive censorship. I also had a lot of tiring conflicts with members I felt were a bit extremist and I couldn’t take people preaching extremist Islam to me and thousands of others especially after the Amman attacks really hit home last year.

Despite my conflicts with the administration, moderators and some members that make me never want to go back, I do however check daily to see the latest caricature as my experiences in those forums, both the good and bad, do not affect my admiration for Emad Hajjaj.

But I also look at the polls to the left of the main page, which are always interesting and often times funny. The results are always very right-wing, Arab-nationalist, pro-islamist. Not to mention that the questions and options are usually bias or at best unfair. For instance: “Hamas formed security force, means controlling the security situation and preventing chaos and crime?”, yes or no?

Anyways whatâ??s hilarious are the comments. Keep in mind that many visitors to the site are from all over the Arab world, but mostly Palestinians and Jordanians.

What I love about the comments is that many of them are frankly stupid. Tabloid comments. But what’s more is that they are all anonymous. No one uses his or her real name. All comments are by “Someone” (date and time).

They are uncensored and at times even vulgar and offensive.

But moreover, and more interestingly I suppose, is that I feel they might represent the ultimate form of pessimism and negative views when it comes to the Arab world and specifically Jordan and/or the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Take for instance the following question posed:

“Do you believe that â??Kulluna Alordunâ? forum, which will start its activities in July with participation of 1000 Jordanian,will lead into:”

Positive Results : 21.2%
No Results : 49.6%
Negative Results : 29.2%

(I like the fact that this campaign will actually make things worse!)

One person said:

…where is jordan now, just looking at arabs dieing in lebanon and palestine,i am saying palestine and lebanon awalan o a5iran (first and last)

Another said:

…the arab world consists of 22 useless countries lead by fa*****.. i have a small suggestion that stems from my embarrassment of belonging to such world, specifically this shi***** called jordan.. it is as follows: why dont we just leave this world to them and go seek our futures in other countries? they are 22 leaders, doing basic math you can divide them into two football teams..let them play using our lands as a huge pitch, and let the israelis and americans be referees.. can we please save the last thread of dignity we have? can we please stop being the ball they play with? btw i really loved the comment that starts with walu fada7toona!! more power to you..

and another:

who gives a **** about kullona al urdon!!! i guess we have other important issues to attend to, like GAZA STRIP and LEBANON. nothing will change here in jordan, in fact things are getting worse and nobody gives two s**** about it..starting with myself being part of this lazy repugnant community. ” KAMA TAKOUNU YOWALLA 3ALAIKOM”

Another poll asked: “Will the killing of “Al-Zarqawi” weaken “Al-Qaeda”?”

Yes : 29.4%
No : 70.6%

Some comments were actually disturbing, like…

…we are all ZARKAWE, peace be up on his soul, ZARKAWE lived , living and will live in our hearts for ever

The most imaginative comment on the Amman Bombings:

lets be frank, war is war, mistakes happen and innocents people killed all the time, even u.s.a justify the killing of innocent civilians when they targeting resistance every single time. Only fools will believe that he was targeting innocents people in a wedding party (the Jordanian inelegance fabricated story)

More rational voices:

whoever he was targeting..that does’nt make him a good person!! killing people by cutting their heads off?!kidnaping inocent people..who’s the target here? and whoever the target was, as long as he’s capable of cutting their heads with a small knife!!he’s a cold blooded man.. with sick mentality..God bless Jordan and protect our country from all the terrorists

One person argued:

He lived as ahero and he died as a legend.

Another replied…

He Lived as a Murdered and he died as one… and everybody how belived in him will die just like him. allah yer7am Shohada el ordon o ye7reg a3adeehom in HELL

Anyways, the polls are all fun to read. Some will make you want to slam your head against the wall, well, let’s face it, most of them will do that to you. But they remind me of the many things I’d hear from people who, shall we say had IQs below 80. In Jordan such opinions can be heard spoken boldly by some taxi drivers or random people who are completely uninformed about things but will pretend to be informed by simply parroting the views of their fathers or friends who live in that pool of discontent.