[lit-ideas] Re: Middle East
- From: Eric <mr.eric.yost@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2007 12:48:05 -0500
Judy: "Underlying US personal attitudes and national policy
has been a conviction that Arabs should aspire to a future based
upon learning to be like us, as Israelis are."
Let's accept the shorthand term "Arab" and table objections to it.
Though I'm sure people always want Others to be more like them, the
objections to Arab culture are a lot less narcissistic. In fact, the
argument could be turned on its head.
It's militant Islamic culture that wants the whole world to be like it
is. They execute people for sharing Bibles, jail their migrant workers
for holding private Christian house church sessions, and seek to extend
the realm of the faithful over the entire world.
>>"most students of the Middle East believe the West can prosper in its
relationships ..."
Again, a big difference. Columbia University has a department of Middle
East studies as do many major universities in the West. Do the
universities in Riyadh or Tehran have departments of Western or American
studies? They may offer extra credits in flag burning but I doubt they
even imagine such a thing.
They are the bigots and exceptionalists, the culture of one view. Yet
when we call them on it, we also (in our characteristic self-critical
thoughtfulness) also consider that we are asking them to be like us. If
Islamic culture required wearing skateboards on one's head and praying
to the moon, that would be fine to most Americans, as long as Islamics
weren't trying to destroy those who reject the skateboard and the moon
worship.
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