Islam_in_Focus_text

In a more tangible sense, the Associated Press reported
on October 14, 1973, that "The last Israeli strong points on
the eastern bank of the Suez Canal surrendered ... and 37
tired and bedraggled Israeli troops were paddled in dinghies
across the waterway to captivity. ... Some of the Egyptian
troops, carried away with the emotion of finally liberating
this last stronghold (the Bar-Lev line), grabbed handfuls of
sand and put them in their mouths. Others kissed the
ground." (Dispatch Observer, p. 2A)
More recently, the same news agency, reporting on the
returning Syrian prisoners of war, said that the first man off
the plane "sat upright on a stretcher on the stumps of his am-
putated legs... 'Legs are nothing. We are ready to give our
souls...' he shouted. He then insisted on being lifted from his
stretcher and placed on the ground so that he could bend
down to kiss the soil." (Dispatch Observer, June 2, 1974, p.
3A)
It is in this human perspective that the Black Stone story
should be viewed. And it is in the light of such human ex-
periences under extraordinary circumstances that it is best
understood.