Where to now?
With the prevailing mood of gut wrenching trauma in our part of the world that has endured periods of continuous military invasion, occupation and a fair bit of in-fighting for the most part of five hundred years - is it not surprising that the West is blamed for all our woes? The Jordan Times is right to raise the following points - but the overall question is where do we go from here in practical terms ...... water supply permitting of course?
Back to the classroom with a large dose of pluralism
... from the first day of the new scholastic year ....?? J
Editorial The Jordan Times
The right stand
According to a just released survey by an American research centre, suspicions between the Muslim world and the West are growing.
Westerners see Muslims as fanatical, violent and intolerant, according to the study by the Pew Research Centre in Washington.
Muslims, for their part, tend to view the West as selfish, immoral and greedy — as well as fanatical and violent.
Both consider the other disrespectful of women. All agree that relations between the West and the Muslim world are bad and that Muslim countries ought to be more prosperous. But on both counts they disagree over who is to blame.
The Muslim world solidly finds the West responsible, while opinion in the West is more divided, with roughly a third finding blame is to be shared.
So what do we learn?
Westerners certainly seem more sanguine and Muslims more defensive and insecure. But that is hardly surprising. After all, Westerners do not have Muslim armies in their midst; Muslims do have Western troops, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Muslim armies are not threatening invasions, as Western armies are in Syria and Iran. Nor are Muslim countries blindly and hypocritically supporting the occupation of a Western people, as the West is doing in Palestine (in the latest instalment of such hypocrisy, the US Senate voted to boycott the democratically elected Palestinian government, but gives more leverage to the US administration to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian people directly, including, astonishingly, a $20 million “peace, reconciliation and democracy fund” to promote Palestinian democracy).
The West directly and violently interferes in the Muslim world, and the opposite is not true. Therefore, it is not surprising that the West is seen as being responsible for all the ills of the Muslim world.
That, however, is a dangerous attitude that only leads one to complacency and lazy analysis about the ills in the Muslim world, of which there are plenty.
It is a convenient attitude, paradoxically, for those intent on maintaining the status quo, because blaming the West diverts attention. It is convenient, too, for those who have no real policy and play only on the fears and prejudices of their people to promote themselves.
We have our own problems that we need to solve honestly, rationally and without unnecessary finger pointing. One of those problems is the West and our relations with it.
We need to stand by our principles in our context, applaud that which is right and stand up to that which is wrong, whether it comes from the West or from the Muslim world.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
Back to the classroom with a large dose of pluralism
... from the first day of the new scholastic year ....?? J
Editorial The Jordan Times
The right stand
According to a just released survey by an American research centre, suspicions between the Muslim world and the West are growing.
Westerners see Muslims as fanatical, violent and intolerant, according to the study by the Pew Research Centre in Washington.
Muslims, for their part, tend to view the West as selfish, immoral and greedy — as well as fanatical and violent.
Both consider the other disrespectful of women. All agree that relations between the West and the Muslim world are bad and that Muslim countries ought to be more prosperous. But on both counts they disagree over who is to blame.
The Muslim world solidly finds the West responsible, while opinion in the West is more divided, with roughly a third finding blame is to be shared.
So what do we learn?
Westerners certainly seem more sanguine and Muslims more defensive and insecure. But that is hardly surprising. After all, Westerners do not have Muslim armies in their midst; Muslims do have Western troops, in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Muslim armies are not threatening invasions, as Western armies are in Syria and Iran. Nor are Muslim countries blindly and hypocritically supporting the occupation of a Western people, as the West is doing in Palestine (in the latest instalment of such hypocrisy, the US Senate voted to boycott the democratically elected Palestinian government, but gives more leverage to the US administration to support Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian people directly, including, astonishingly, a $20 million “peace, reconciliation and democracy fund” to promote Palestinian democracy).
The West directly and violently interferes in the Muslim world, and the opposite is not true. Therefore, it is not surprising that the West is seen as being responsible for all the ills of the Muslim world.
That, however, is a dangerous attitude that only leads one to complacency and lazy analysis about the ills in the Muslim world, of which there are plenty.
It is a convenient attitude, paradoxically, for those intent on maintaining the status quo, because blaming the West diverts attention. It is convenient, too, for those who have no real policy and play only on the fears and prejudices of their people to promote themselves.
We have our own problems that we need to solve honestly, rationally and without unnecessary finger pointing. One of those problems is the West and our relations with it.
We need to stand by our principles in our context, applaud that which is right and stand up to that which is wrong, whether it comes from the West or from the Muslim world.
Sunday, June 25, 2006
posted by joladies at Sunday, June 25, 2006
2 Comments:
I notice that there are no complaints about the west interfering with all that oil by finding, extracting, and paying for it. Western cash feeds and clothes the Moslem world.
I also notice the absence of complaints about Western interference in 1918, or would it be better if Arabia were still a part of the Ottoman empire?
Without the oil that the west needs, and the money paid for it, Arabia and North Africa from the Atlantic to the Caspian would be as poor and torn by intenecine wars as it was two centuries ago, when piracy was the main industry.
There is plenty of historic bad and good. We have, as you say, to look forward. Continuing to hold onto anger and historic grudges will create nothing but corpses. Unrealistic expectations- like the disappearance of Israel, or a free society in Saudi Arabia- are just tools used to keep people apart.
A responsible Palestinian leder would recognise and admit that whatever the rights and wrongs, continued irredentism is no help to the Palestinian people. That irredentism has made them the dependent serfs of their Arab and Western paymasters, and that they should seek self sufficiency. But it's easier to preach shaheed.
No one wants the Moslem world and the West to solve their differences like the Americans and the Japanese did in 1941-45. But that could still happen. Whenever the West looks at Moslem culture AS PRACTICED, it sees violence, oppression, and instability. As long as that isn't projected to the west, we don't really care enough to intervene. There weren't any "invading armies" on September 10, 2001.
And I will say this to those who think these are invading armies. These are HUGS. Invading armies leave things like Hiroshima and Constantinople behind them.
"The west" may be a cruel, insensitive bully. But it is infinitely kinder and more thoughtful than Hamas would be in a similar position of power. And if the Chinese had the world's only real Navy, how much do you think THEY would pay for the oil?
And it's still not sensible to tease and anger the bully. "The West"- we know that means the U. S.- is a pretty good friend to have.
Hi Staghounds - when you say "these armies are HUGS" .... do you mean I have to go and wrap my arms around a tank and say thankyou?
Errr "no invading armies on 10.9.01" ....Earth to Staghounds, where've you been - on Mars - working out your next strategy?? - they hadn't invaded on the 10th because THEY WERE ALREADY HERE STRUTTING THEIR STUFF!
I'll take my chances with these marauding A-rabs anyday - and throw in the odd Chinese too - and pray that the world wakes up to the possibility of pluralism in this global village so that intolerance and racism are a thing of the past. We have to right the wrongs and there must be justice for all, not just a select few. And then we can worry about the oil or even a new social order ... oops no go - that would upset the status quo - back to the drawing board!
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