[lit-ideas] Re: Muhammed and the Giant Peach
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 4 Feb 2006 14:24:46 -0800
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20060204/ECARTOON04/TPComment/Editorials
(Canadian newspaper)
Even more disturbing has been the reaction of (Arab) governments, several of which have
recalled their ambassadors or registered other diplomatic protests. Seventeen Arab countries
have called on Denmark's government to punish the newspaper, an absurd thing to ask of a
democratic country that guarantees free speech.
The uproar underlines an alarming tendency in Islamic societies to lash out at the West at
the slightest provocation. When a few simple drawings, however controversial, can trigger
outrage from Cairo to Kuala Lumpur, it is clear that something is askew in the psyche of a
civilization. To put it plainly, the Islamic world has a chip on its shoulder.
It is commonplace in the Islamic countries to blame the West for nearly everything that goes
wrong, from the Israeli occupation of the West Bank to the wealth gap between Muslim and
Western countries. Anti-Americanism is rife, anti-Semitism all too common. When Iran's
President called the Holocaust a myth, many people in Arab countries quietly nodded in
agreement. Bernard Lewis, a British scholar of Islamic history, calls this "a twilight world
of neurotic fantasies, conspiracy theories, scapegoating and so on."
In truth, most of the Islamic world's problems -- from economic stagnation to political
paralysis, from the oppression of women to the poor level of education -- are homegrown. By
and large, these societies have failed to come to grips with the modern world and as a
result have fallen far behind much of the rest of the planet. Out of this failure to keep up
springs a keen sense of grievance that does nothing to help them progress.
As Prof. Lewis has written, "If the peoples of the Middle East continue on their present
path, the suicide bomber may become a metaphor for the whole region, and there will be no
escape from a downward spiral of hate and spite, rage and self-pity, poverty and
oppression." But "if they can abandon grievance and victimhood, settle their differences,
and join their talents, energies, and resources in a common creative endeavour, then they
can once again make the Middle East, in modern times as it was in antiquity and in the
Middle Ages, a major centre of civilization."
The choice, says Prof. Lewis, is theirs alone.
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
