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Adam nudged me as I climbed the steps; as forcefully as he could while speaking discretely under his breath he made it clear that my name was NILE. Adam hadn’t been site seeing. He had negotiated my entrance by escalating the non-Arabic speaking Muslim-American story through three levels of management. When Adam was about to concede, the Director of Muslim Security asked Adam one more time, “his name is Nil?”

Instead of correcting the director as he had corrected Arabic speakers throughout our trip that the correct pronunciation of my name was “NelZ,” Adam responded, “Yes, Nil, like the river.” The security guards, their manager, their manager’s manager and the Director who assembled to question the Iraqi at the top of the steps looked at each other and agreed, Nil is a Muslim name. They told Adam that his friend was welcome inside Al-Aqsa.