Steve Jobs and Salafism
Was published in Arabic in October 10, 2015
Translated by Ahmed Fathy
Introduction:
1- Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali was born in 1931 in the area of Jib Al-Jandali in Homs, Syria. He was sent by his father in 1949 to Beirut to study political sciences at the American University of Beirut, and then he traveled to the USA in 1950 to study political sciences at a university in Nevada. He entered in a sexual relationship with his colleague Joanne Carole Schieble, who bore a child from him, Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali rushed a week after the child's birth to look for adoptive parents for him. Paul Jobs and his wife Clara in California became the adoptive parents who named the child Stephen Paul. This baby of Syrian origin (Stephen Paul) was to become later on one of the greatest businessmen in the world and one of the greatest inventors of our time: Steve Jobs. He was the founder, former CEO, Chairman of the Apple Company and also the CEO of Pixar Company. He became a member of the chair board of Walt Disney, the inventor of the Macintosh (Mac) PCs and the inventor of three portable devices: the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad. His gifts to humanity cannot be denied.
2- The Syrian father gave up his baby and deleted it from his memory, and after giving the child to the adoptive parents, he married within 10 months in 1957 Joanne Carole Schieble, who gave birth to their daughter, Mona Al-Jandali, in the same year. Abdul-Fattah Jandali got his Ph.D. degree and his conditions improved. He became a professor at the University of Nevada in the 1960s, and later on divorced his wife in 1962, and he disowned his daughter. Joanne remarried someone else. Mona later on has come to bear the name of her stepfather: she is now Mona Simpson. Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali turned to food and beverage industry. Since 2006, he became the vice-manager of one of the casinos in Nevada.
3- So, Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali deserted a son and denied a daughter. Steve Jobs rose to stardom in the media, and Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali did not know that this was his son. His daughter Mona Simpson has become known as a famous novelist, but her biological father knew nothing of her as well. In the 1980s, Steve Jobs met his biological mother, who told him about his biological sister Mona. Both brother and sister met for the first time in 1985 and became close friends. They revealed their relation in public for the very first time in 1986 when Mona introduced him in her ceremony to celebrate the appearance of her first novel.
4- Both Steve and Mona decided to search for their biological father, and later on, Mona Simpson found him as the manager of one of the cafés. She told him that she is his daughter Mona and about his son Steve Jobs the famous inventor whom he did not know. Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali told his daughter that he was previously the manager of a restaurant near the place where Steve Jobs used to work and that Jobs used sometimes to dine it that restaurant.
5- Mona Simpson tells the story of her childhood after her father left her: "…I grew up as a lonely child with a single, divorced mother. And because we were poor and because I know that my father had emigrated from Syria, I have imagined him to have the features of Omar Sharif. I hoped him to be rich and compassionate and that he might come back to our life and our apartment (that has not been yet fully furnished) and help us. Later on, after I met him, I tried to believe that he had left us without leaving his phone number and address so as not to communicate with him…"
6- Steve Jobs harbored negative feelings toward his biological father. He said: "The day I was looking for my biological mother, instinctively I was looking for my biological father as well, and I learned a little about him that I did not like at all. I asked Mona that she would never tell him about me." Steve Jobs stayed on intermittent contact his mother Joanne Simpson, who lived in a house for the care of the old in LA. Steve Jobs said about his parents: "They were mere storage places for my inborn cells, no more." He was always repeating that his real parents are the Jobs. Throughout those years, Steve Jobs did not try to meet his biological father even when the biological father made this request in public via the media. Steve Jobs died on 5th of October, 2011 during his biological father's life. It remains for us to say the following.
Firstly:
1- We are not to generalize and say that all American parents of Arab origin are cowards and rogues like Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali. Arab fathers are usually known for their care for the interests of their sons and daughters. But we say that this father's forsaking them was in their interests. They have been brought up away from him in the care of two respectable American families and became creative famous people: the daughter became a novelist and the son became the worldwide famous Steve Jobs.
2- The American climate allowed the Syrian Arab Abdul-Fattah Al-Jandali to excel at his studies and also allowed him to be a villain who forsook his offspring. The same climate allowed Steve Jobs to be a genius. Steve Jobs was not very good in his school studies. Jobs grew up in a family that adopted him in the area that later became known as the Silicon Valley, the USA technology industry center. Jobs went to school in winter and worked in summer vacations, and he harbored a passion for electronics since his youth. He was fond of technology and the way the machines work. The first of his creative innovations was at the high school stage of his life: an electronic chip. Despite his lack of interest in high school studies, Steve Jobs fell in love with informatics, and got a training course on it. Steve Jobs attended the Reed College in Portland, but he did not achieve success at the university; he flunked in the first year and decided to leave the college after a semester. Steve Jobs sought to develop his skills in the field of technology and electronics, and continued the way to rise to stardom and fame in the world of inventions and business, without obtaining a university degree. There are millions of Arabs and Egyptians who have graduated and got degrees without knowing how to write correct Arabic sentences. There are Salafist leaders who spread Salafist backwardness and drink camel urine and believe in breastfeeding adults, despite their Ph.D. degrees!
3- As usual in Middle-Eastern tyrannical states, any outstanding clever youth is cursed and driven away, in any field of knowledge. Whereas in democratic societies in the West, excellence is open for all people in all fields, with competition open for all, regardless of one's color, race, origin, wealth, religion, or lack of it. Anyone who fails will find help. What matters is one's achievements to society.
Secondly:
1- Steve Jobs said in a message to all Arabs: " …I never learned anything from you; try to learn one thing from me: your attachment to the past will never change the present, let alone the future. The past will imprison you, and you have to leave it. Leave this ancient stupidity! Any nostalgia for the past will never change matters, Arabs! You look at the wrong direction, my ancestors! Yes, I am an Arab like you, but I do not believe in fear, envy, the unknown, horoscope, holiness, and hypocrisy. I only believe in work and achievement and accurateness. I do not believe in the past. I believe only in tomorrow that has not come yet, because I see it now. I do not speak about dreams that come true on their own! I speak about work I do that ends in a result; a reality. My Arab ancestors: I never seen anything clear in your conditions, forgive me! I cannot change your conditions, but I have changed the future of humanity in dealing with technology in our planet. I will go on changing that for the better, because I walk while I see ahead, not spending my time in kissing the feet of an imam. Keep dreaming about the happy past! …"
2- Steve Jobs used to live the present and work for the future. He offered humanity unprecedented achievements. As for the ''achievements'' of the Salafism, they are merely devil-humans appearing a lot in Arab media to spread the gospel of worshiping ancestors and present the worst past ever as if it were Islam. Steve Jobs rose to stardom in a field beneficial to humanity, while Salafists have tier media stars of the backward, filthily rich sheikhs. This is the vast difference between those who create future of humanity and those who reproduce the worst nightmares of the past.