http://sarahhonig.com/2012/03/02/another-tack-the-context-of-mustafas-misadventures/
“The West doesn‘t get it. Muslim masses will never be free so long as they love the lie. Deposing one despot or another won’t lift the Mideast into the 21st century. That won’t happen until a groundswell of opinion openly admits that it’s as OK to dissent from Islamic dogma as to speak one’s mind in the Judeo-Christian setting; that Islam isn’t inherently entitled to world domination; that millennia of Jewish history in this land cannot be willfully erased; that the Israeli-Arab conflict isn’t the heart of all that ails the Arab world; that the conflict is constructed on Arab lies.”
An Arab fable (as distinct from a potentially biased Western narrative) focuses on Effendi Mustafa’s relaxing afternoon in his idyllic orchard. Suddenly Mustafa’s pastoral peace is disrupted by a bunch of mischievous boys exuberantly chasing each other among his trees. Mustafa’s yells and threats go unheeded. He realizes he must conjure up a clever ruse to get rid of the noisy intruders.
He cloyingly summons them and whispers that apples of solid gold hang heavy off the boughs in their neighbor Ahmed’s garden. If the youngsters rush over quickly enough, Mustafa counseled, they may avail themselves of the alluring bounty. No sooner had he finished spinning his tale, than the kids disappeared in search of fabulous riches.
How sweet the lie!