Topic : 11/26 Katherine Returns

I'm upset that people on the show called Abdullah a terrorist and that everyone assumed that he's a crook , just as easily as everyone assumed that Katherine must be an innocent victim. The Middle Eastern lifestyle is different from our Western lifestyle and Abdullah probably had a sheltered life growing up, thus I do not doubt that his feelings are sincere and that he is just as much of a victim of circumstances as Katherine is.

In the Middle East men rarely have physical contact with their prospective brides before the wedding night and this can account for his lack of knowledge on how to treat women. He's not used to women throwing themselves at him so easily and I can assure you that a woman from a proper Muslim family would not run away to him and have sex with him without her fathers consent. Katherine is not an innocent pawn and just because she's American doesn't justify her actions and instantly turn him into a villain. From a Muslim viewpoint she would be a social pariah right now and probably jailed for her actions. No wonder the boy is confused!

I understand that she's a lovestruck teenager, but she should be held accountable for her actions too. He's only 2 years older than she is and in many ways more of a child because of where he grew up.

Dear Dr. Phil:

I am a teacher who has spent quite some time in the Middle East and am married to an Arab Muslim. I enjoy watching your show even on the other side of the world. Some of my students also watch your program and agree with you on many issues. However, your broadcast of "Katherine Returns" was shown last week here in the Gulf and their enthusiasm with your program has declined.

Unfortunately, many people here felt you and Katherine's family were biased based on Abdullah's ethnic and religious background. While it is normal for many Arabs to marry soon after meeting without much of a courtship and in some cases in their teens, what is NOT acceptable is to go behind the family's back when making such major life changes. Perhaps, cultural background knowledge would have been helpful at the time of this broadcast to prevent such misunderstandings. After all, we can't assume that everyone in the world is on the same page as we are. What should have been stressed in the show is that meeting someone over the Internet is dangerous and that marriage involves families on both sides. Too much emphasis was put on how dangerous the Gaza strip is and while you'll get no argument from me on that, it's probably not the best way to reach out to viewers of other cultures.

Meanwhile, Abdullah is going to be on MBC1 to tell his side of the story to an Arab audience. My Arabic is still on the weak side, but I am certainly going to hear about it from my students. If you have people who can translate Arabic for you, they can click on the following: http://www.mbc.net/portal/site/mbc/menuitem.b917eb5e783f544358798f10480210a0/?vgnextoid=e5397fb9d32ee010VgnVCM100000f1010a0aRCRD

• i watched the three episodes, that shows abdullah, kathren and Dr. phil hosting kathrens family. In addition, i watched a show on mbc1 called nawa'em that hosted abdulah. he defended himself saying that he was married to kathren (till now), so she is his wife officially! also, he said that she is living at her sister's house and she cut off talking to her family!
• what's going on! and by the way, kathren is talking to abdullah telling him she is coming back to him!
• Dr. Phil, i sincerely appreciate you and respect everything about you. i wana know what is hapening with abdalla and kathren at the moment! and was the show successful for uniting or breaking the union between the two belovers!
• by the way, i found your speech was too much on abdullah, knowing that abdulla's behavious was so rude, high horse and erogent... but not all the arabs and there culture terroritic!
• with all my respect, love and appreciation :) 
• yours Mohammad Ali ... 

Dear non-Arab brothers & sisters,

I just want to make it clear that Abdulla really loves his wife Katherine. he confirmed the same on a live T.V show on MBC channel yesterday and he said that he was happy with her and he is waiting her to come back to him.

what I want people to know that we are having an excellent marriage ties in our society and strong family relations, we treat women the same way we treat our mothers & sisters. I think in this show there was a big miss understanding to the situation of this couples, and I think that if we leave them alone things will be fine and they can live a great life together.

Thank you! However I AM an Arab, Palestinian and PROUD!!

I've seen some really horrible replies accusing Islam or Arabs of Terrorism as always! but I’m just to tired explaining stuff for ignorant people! I mean you're supposed to go back in time to know who the terrorist is and who isn’t!

AS IF women are not abused in America? Not killed or rapped? They have the highest number of crimes of all kinds! And in somehow we end up being the terrorists!

Running out of comments!

Hi my name is Wendy and I'm from Holland.

I saw the show in which Katherine returned home, just this afternoon. I don't know when it was on tv in the US but that must have been some month's ago. That is why I would like to know how things are with Katherine. Is she still at home? Has she stopped all contact with Abdullah? Has he been bothering her and so on. I watched all shows about Katherine so I  am curious how things are going at this moment. I hope some one can tell me something. Keep up the good work!

Greetings from the Netherlands!

Wendy