Champagne Soon in Anwar Al Quds!

[Amman, 7/11/25]

Told there would be a demonstration outside Grand Husseini Mosque after midday prayer, I went there to find at least a hundred cops, plus a few soldiers. Unlike in Trump’s America, they didn’t brandish weapons, however. Last week, I had already seen a few cops join the prayer at the end, so the same happened yesterday. Boys also gave them water during it, as they did, for free, to anyone present. Afterwards, nothing happened, just clothing merchants dumping their stuff on the ground for exiting worshippers to sort through. The show of force worked.

Before taking photos with my bulky camera, I was prepared for cops to march over, but they didn’t even do that. In Cairo, I was escorted to a booth by two guys with assault rifles. At a subway station, I was accosted by a scowling cop who took me to his supervisor. In Bethlehem, PA, of all places, a security guard detained me in 2010 for snapping Bethlehem Steel’s rusting stacks, visible at least a mile away. In their shadow, miserable New York Chinese who had just been fleeced by Sands Casino waited to be bussed home.