You live in a small room with your three brothers. You once had a sister, but she's dead. So too are an uncle and two of your cousins.
Your parents live in the room next to you. You're lucky, you realize, because you live in an apartment that also has a living room. Some of your friends' families live only in two rooms.
You're also lucky, you think, because you no longer live in a refugee camp, a place where sheets doubled as doors, and the mud was the floor.
Most days you walk to school with your friends. It is a bleak walk, a walk down dirty streets. The walls that line it are rife with bullet holes.
One day your group of friends is short one member. Later that day, you find out the reason for his absence: That morning, he blew himself up.
You go to the apartment of your newly martyred friend, but surprisingly the mood is not somber. His mom's eyes are not filled with tears. Instead she smiles.
"I was very happy when I heard," she says. "To be a martyr, that's something. Very few people can do it. I prayed to thank God. In the Koran it's said that a martyr does not die. I know my son is close to me."
Soon your friend's surviving family moves into a bigger, nicer apartment. They have been given a huge sum of money, more than they would have earned in 10 years.
Question: Who are you, and where do you live?
Answer: You are one of thousands of youths growing up in the Middle East. You could live in Gaza, where the mother quoted above resides, or in Lebanon. Change a few of the details, and you might be in Syria, Iraq or Egypt.
Right now the Middle East is a veritable factory for young martyrs. There are literally thousands upon thousands of young men who have lived in impoverished conditions all their lives. They have all lost loved ones, and whether it be a cousin, a sibling or even a mother, each loss stung.
In return for their lives, these martyrs can do a great many things for those they love. There are trust funds set up by many organizations that provide large amounts of money to the martyr's family.
More importantly, they are told that with their life they provide the foundation for the birth of a country, or the improvement of another. Their death will help millions of their Muslim brothers and sisters, as they struggle to prosperity.
Lastly, they will walk next to the Prophet in the afterlife. They will be rewarded for their ultimate sacrifice. They shall gain entry to paradise.
In light of the Sept. 11 attacks, many in the United States have repeatedly said that America is neither at war with the religion of Islam, nor the Muslim people. This is not entirely accurate.
The United States is in conflict with the Muslim world, a world where, in some places, conditions exist that are much worse than what most Americans can imagine. We see the images on TV and read about their stories on the Internet, but we have no idea what it is like to grow up in such destitute conditions.
The United States government continually refers to terrorist networks as "a great evil." Terrorists are therefore "evil men." I find this explanation to be appallingly close-minded.
Try to imagine yourself as the young man described above. Your grew up in a refugee camp. From incredible poverty you moved to semi-incredible poverty. Your baby sister was killed by a stray bullet or maybe she died in the refugee camp from disease. Either way, she's dead. So are your two cousins. The only time you see them is in your nightmares.
Who is responsible for this? You ask your parents, your teachers, the man you buy bread from. They all respond in kind: Israel and the United States. These nations oppress you, they are the enemies of Islam.
As "the fight to end terrorism" has only just begun and as President George W. Bush and other officials speak of widening the country's military attacks to perhaps other Arab nations suspected of harboring terrorists, it is vital that Americans wake up to the reality that the Middle East is a spawning ground for potential terrorists.
It is not a land of evil, or filled with evil people. Rather, it is filled with men willing to die for the betterment of their people.
The 16th century monarch Elizabeth I famously declared, "There is nothing about which I am more anxious than my country, and for its sake I am willing to die 10 deaths, if that be possible."
Thousands growing up in the Middle East are no different. Some will strap on explosive backpacks and walk up to military posts. Others will become professionals and look to learn how to create weapons of mass destruction.
The only way to stop terrorism is to stem this flow of youth so eager for martyrdom. For every terrorist network we infiltrate, every terrorist camp we destroy, there are new generations ready to fill the void.
Nick Christie is a Trinity junior and a sports writer for The Chronicle.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.