1. 2 8 E S Q U I R E FEBRUARY 2011
Although it shames me to admit it, I’d never been inside Jumeirah Mosque until
I interviewed Nasif Kayed, who runs the guided tours down there. Nasif, born in Kuwait,
went to college in the United States and stayed for the next twenty-five years, becoming
a wealthy businessman in the process. In 2007 he sold-up and returned to Dubai where
he now works as a full-time volunteer for the Sheikh Mohammed Centre for Cultural
Understanding. And this isn’t a token role. When I met Nasif he was busy helping the
maintenance guys fix a pressure cleaner. “We’re trying to get rid of the bird droppings,”
he told me, pointing to a tree-covered area outside the mosque.
After talking me through his expansion plans for the centre (it might be non-profit,
but Nasif is thinking big) we went indoors to talk. He told me about his fascination with
the Islamic Golden Age; a time when the Arab world was responsible for breakthroughs
in the arts and sciences and was known for religious freedom and cultural tolerance.
He thinks of Dubai in the same terms and wants it to be an example to the world.
Nasif is well-placed to talk about bridge building. After 11/9, he was instrumental in
bringing Christians, Jews and Muslims together in North Carolina for inter-faith dialogue.
“We were there to understand each other,” he told me, “not convince each other.”
This same theme emerges from the other regional people featured in our Wisdom
of Men edition. All of them actively strive for the advancement of progress and tolerance;
principles that many of us agree with but often fail to do much about in practise
(hence my embarrassment at not having taken the time to visit the mosque sooner).
Now is as good a time as any to be reminded of the importance of their work.
Here we are, one month into 2011, and a wave of violence has engulfed parts of the region.
On New Year’s Eve, a bomb detonated at a church in Alexandria killing twenty-four
Coptic Christians (the city is profiled on page sixty-six). Two weeks later, also in Egypt,
a shooting onboard a train led to the death of a seventy-one-year-old man and
the wounding of five other Christians. And then, of course, there has been a mass
uprising in Tunisia, triggered by the death of Mohamed Bouazizi who set himself on
fire in protest at the local authorities. A wave of copycat suicides followed in Egypt,
Mauritania, Algeria and Saudi Arabia; a brutal reminder of the many disaffected
citizens labouring under sclerotic regimes in this part of the world.
Though there are no easy fixes to sectarian strife or political conflict, it’s possible
to find inspiration in stories like the ones on these pages. The men profiled here may
not be able to fix the world, but read on about the peace café meetings, mosque tours
for non-Muslims and grassroots campaigning and you realise that meaningful change
requires time and patience. And it always, always comes from the ground up.
JEREMY LAWRENCE
A Slow Change is Gonna Come
THIS
AWY
IN
Writetouswithyourthoughtsorobservationson life in general: esquireletters@itp.com
Ali Al-Ahmed Anas Shallal Nasif Kayed Colin Firth Samuel L. Jackson Robert Duvall Hussan Hatrash Seth MacFarlane Sulaiman Layeq George H. W. Bush Robert De Niro
Believes
Saudi has a
free press
Mentions
government
Quotes
Michael
Caine
Moved to
America Mentions
George Lucas
The eleven people profiled in
this year’s collection of wisdom,
insight, and occasional lunacy
(beginning on page 86) have
some unique qualifications.
Here are just a few of them.
THEWISDOMOFMEN:
A VISUALGUIDE
Peace advocate
Has a problem
with Jimmy
Carter
Has run a
country
Nominated for
an Academy
Award
A LETTER FROM THEEDITOR

2. 8 6 e s q u i r e february 2011
What I’ve Learned
featuring
Robert De Niro
WITH
samuel l. jackson
hassan hatrash
andy shallal
SULAIMAN LAYEQ
colin firth
Nasif Kayed
seth macfarlane
geOrge H.w. Bush (and Barbara)
ALI AL AHMED
AND
ROBERT DUVALL
the wisdom of modern man

3. 9 6 e s q u i r e february 2011
I
f you want to do something, just do it. If you want to
write, if you want to draw, if you want to animate
— you just have to do a lot of it in your spare time.
That’s how you find your voice, that’s how your
find your style. You’ve got to put your nose to the
grindstone to really get good at it. I was nine when
I started cartooning professionally for a local
newspaper and all those years helped a lot.
Collaboration’s the key to success. When we’re putting
an episode of Family Guy together, the team throws a
hundred different ideas at the wall. The finished show is a
combination of the best of the best ideas.
You can go too far. There were times, particularly back in
the early days, when going too far was a constant concern
on Family Guy. A joke once came up about Kirk Douglas and
his current condition and that was dropped very quickly. I
mean, the guy was f***ing Spartacus. As for today, I think
we’re well aware of what we can and can’t get away with.
It’s a line we walk with some confidence.
George Lucas is a lovely guy. When we talked about doing
the Star Wars episodes, Fox thought there was a good
chance he would nix the idea. But he couldn’t have been
more helpful. It’s quite something to send-up a guy’s film
and for the guy to offer you all the help you could ever need.
Know your limits. Lovely guy as George Lucas might be,
there were a few things we did that he wasn’t so happy
about. In the first Star Wars parody, Blue Harvest, we
wanted to change the Jawas into the Jewas. That had to go.
You’re never too old to love Family Guy. When we created
the show I imagined it’d appeal to the fifteen-thirty
demographic. But every once in a while I get an eighty-five-
year-old that comes up to me and says they are a fan of the
show. That’s surprising — pleasantly surprising.
It’s pretty well known that I dodged a bullet [on September
11, 2001, MacFarlane was meant to be on the American
Airlines plane that crashed into the North Tower of the
World Trade Center but missed the flight after a night’s
drinking]. What do I make of that? That hangovers are good
for you? I really don’t know.
“Fan” is short for fanatic. Family Guy and American Dad have
some wonderful fans. And then there are those people you
bump into who’re dressed exactly like Meg. God bless them,
but, in my book, that’s a step too far.
Everyone has the right to s*** on one another. South Park
has been s***ting on Family Guy for years. They gave up
two-and-a-half hours of their show to s***ting on our show.
Have we ever contemplated revenge? Oh man, I’m just
thrilled that they have that much time to devote to us.
Respect your elders. I wouldn’t be doing what I am today if
it wasn’t for The Simpsons. That show changed everything.
Because of their success, Fox had become the place for
primetime animation. Matt Groening’s a good friend of
mine. Does it bother me when his show takes a whack at
ours? No, we’re both grown-ups.
Adam West is a genius. To a lot of people, he’s still just
Batman. But I’d seen him in a pilot called Lookwell! that was
written by Conan O’Brien and it became my dream to work
with him. What he brings to Family Guy is unique.
What I’ve Learned
I lived in North Carolina for
twenty-five years. I started a
restaurant business and had a
dozen and a half outlets within
ten years. Not coming from an
elite family, it was easier to start
from scratch over there. There
was nothing here.
Back then, black hair and dark
skin meant you were foreign.
We were named according
to whoever was in the news.
We were Iranians, Libyans…
But they were hospitable
people and once you got to
know them you could get by
okay. They were kind people.
There is more good in America
than there is bad: the freedom
of speech, freedom to express, freedom to worship however you
want, the concept of being who you want to be...
America was built on the principles of hard work, freedom and
equality. But after Bush’s re-election, his “them and us” mentality
began to rub off negatively. I thought it was only fair that my
family could live without this attention. It became disheartening.
The Middle East was not conducive to my life compared with the
States. But then Dubai exploded and became the happy medium
between West and East. I wanted my kids to learn the kind of
tolerance you see here.
Islam teaches you to look at life as half full, not half empty.
On September 12, 2001 I was in the newspapers talking about
how this act had nothing to do with Islam. I asked for patience
and a chance to learn about each other.
We brought the faiths together. In the beginning pastors would
say, Is this going to work? But slowly slowly it did work. Jews,
Christian and Muslims. We weren’t there to convince each other.
We were there to learn about each other.
The SMCCU was the perfect vehicle for me. A non-profit
organisation where you have the freedom to ask anything.
I became a full-time volunteer when I returned.
I came from nothing to being a self-made millionaire. But I came
to realise that you drive only one car, you live in only one house.
I go from crack of dawn through to night. Speaking, talking,
exchanging. No money has ever given me the same gratification.
We don’t have the free will to choose whether we are male or
female, born rich or poor, what colour we are, the choice
of when, where and how we die. So what do we choose?
Deciding between wrong and right. This is what Islam teaches.
Without a woman that is educated and inspiring where are we?
Prophet Mohammed, PBUH, married a trader who was older than
he was for whom he had worked. Does that tell you something?
Think about the cold war and all those stereotypes. All that time
and energy and money wasted on those weapons.
It’s a short life. You only leave the good you did.
I would loved to have lived in Al-Andalus..This was a golden
age for humanity. It was an era of peace and inventions. Jews
Christians and Muslims prayed in the same place on their
different days. They knew they all came from the same God.
Istillcookmeatloaf, Carolina style.
Interview: Jeremy Lawrence. Photograph: lester ali
nasif
kayedGeneral Manager, Sheikh Mohammed
Centre for Cultural Understanding,
47, Dubai