2Ibrahim Salam shared his room with me temporarily, until I could find somewhere permanent to live. ‘Why do you have to live in Jabriya?’ I asked Ibrahim, since I had only painful feelings about the area. My father’s friend had died in a plane with the same name and it was in the same area that the friend who had betrayed him lived. ‘Because it’s close to my work in the Philippine embassy,’ Ibrahim explained.
One night I asked him to tell me about the Prophet Muhammad in return for me telling him about Jesus Christ, rather like those bedtime conversations that Cheng and I used to have about Jesus and the Buddha. ‘I’ll tell you about the Prophet Muhammad, but you don’t need to tell me about Jesus,’ he replied. When I asked why not, he answered confidently, ‘I’m sure I know more about Chris
