Are You Shee3a or Sunna?

Sitting across the table from my eight year old neice during family lunch on Thursday, I listened to her unpleasant story of having gone over to a new friend's house for dinner. Her friend was half British half Kuwaiti and seemed pretty normal.

"We had to sit on the floor in front of the TV for dinner and then her Uncle came in and yelled at me and said Wa7'ry ya 7emara!" He'd mistaken her for one of their kids and the British Mom yelled "She'll never want to come over to our house ever again!". My neice's version of the story got even worse for me when she said that the Aunt's girl looked at her and asked "Are you Shee3a or Sunna?".

Later that evening, I sat next to an American contractor at a Christmas dinner as he chatted away about his experience in Kuwait when he suddenly turned to me and asked "Are you Shee3a or Sunna?"

Baffled, I answered "Well I'll be damned! This is a sign of the times! Since when do you Americans know about such things unless you worked for the US Goverment? When I was studying in the States, you guys didn't know where Kuwait was, let alone if I was Shee3a or Sunna?"

His answer to that was "Well, we don't want to be accused of being arrogant or ignorant. We oughta know about such things."

To that I answered "So I suppose it would be perfectly normal to be at a party in the States and ask a girl you just met if she was Jewish or Catholic? I think I prefer you guys being ignorant!"

Later I realized he'd only wanted to impress me with his question rather than insult me!

If the sign of the times is being asked "Are you Shee3a or Sunna?" over dinner, I much prefer the olden days thank you very much!

Whatever happened to normal small talk?! Yeesh!