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Thoughts on freedom of speech and Muslims in the Middle East
14 years ago
General
I think we take advantage of the idea of freedom of speech to an extreme. Am I saying that there is anything fundamentally wrong with freedom of speech, but with every right there are individual responsibilities and no where is that more true than with freedom of speech.
It's easy to forget that things we take for rights were not earned without a struggle and need to be respected as the valuable and precious things they are and that, to me at least, means knowing when your freedoms start to push the boundaries of safety for others. Like one wouldn't yell bomb in an airport, even though they have the right to, there are things that are simply not appropriate to express in a global political climate like we have now.
Imagine for a moment that you live in a smallish country with not the best economy and for the past 100 years the big rich countries seem to have put out a stream of media that portrays all of your culture and beliefs as stereotypes. Out of 500 portrayals of people from your culture in movies from these big dogs only 5% show people of your culture even having the same basic feelings and needs as everyone else.
Imagine that in this place you live you are a woman who people in the bigger countries view as a subjugated second class citizen, With out asking what you feel your needs are they tell you what you need, how you should dress to please their culture when all you really want and need is an economy that can support a better education and jobs for you and the children, both male and female, in your family.
Then imagine after years of being stereotyped, pitied and looked down on someone in your midst snaps and decides to conform to the stigma that has been rubbed in your face. And as soon as you know it, now you are being vilified further due to the radical actions of the few. Your religion is a cult, you worship the moon and a box in the sand, your women are all sad and raped and abused.
Now if in the midst of this that same big country came with guns under the guise of liberating you, not from the poverty that causes extremism to flourish but from the religion they associate with it. Would you trust them? Would you want to adopt their cultural beliefs when all you have seen of yourself in it is degradation?
This is why freedom of speech needs to be practiced wisely, in the "west" we've made every Muslim in the middle east feel like less than human, like something to be pitied and laughed at then wonder why this offering for our version of democracy isn't catching. The media from here hasn't solely dictated feelings in the middle east but it has aggravated the situation exponentially. Hell even Disney is guilty of it, portraying Arabs in Aladdin as barbaric people who will cut off your hand for stealing. It's no wonder why so many Americans and Canadians are suspicious of Arabs and have the assumption that Arabian = Muslim = terrorist when it's what we've been feeding to people ever so increasingly since the last big bad guy dissolved it's communism.
One side feels insulted, one side feels there is nothing of value on the other side and to an extent, both sides feel they are the better.
Now if only we could use this right we've been given to actually communicate without presuppositions we might actually be able to get some where that doesn't end in blood shed for anyone.
It's easy to forget that things we take for rights were not earned without a struggle and need to be respected as the valuable and precious things they are and that, to me at least, means knowing when your freedoms start to push the boundaries of safety for others. Like one wouldn't yell bomb in an airport, even though they have the right to, there are things that are simply not appropriate to express in a global political climate like we have now.
Imagine for a moment that you live in a smallish country with not the best economy and for the past 100 years the big rich countries seem to have put out a stream of media that portrays all of your culture and beliefs as stereotypes. Out of 500 portrayals of people from your culture in movies from these big dogs only 5% show people of your culture even having the same basic feelings and needs as everyone else.
Imagine that in this place you live you are a woman who people in the bigger countries view as a subjugated second class citizen, With out asking what you feel your needs are they tell you what you need, how you should dress to please their culture when all you really want and need is an economy that can support a better education and jobs for you and the children, both male and female, in your family.
Then imagine after years of being stereotyped, pitied and looked down on someone in your midst snaps and decides to conform to the stigma that has been rubbed in your face. And as soon as you know it, now you are being vilified further due to the radical actions of the few. Your religion is a cult, you worship the moon and a box in the sand, your women are all sad and raped and abused.
Now if in the midst of this that same big country came with guns under the guise of liberating you, not from the poverty that causes extremism to flourish but from the religion they associate with it. Would you trust them? Would you want to adopt their cultural beliefs when all you have seen of yourself in it is degradation?
This is why freedom of speech needs to be practiced wisely, in the "west" we've made every Muslim in the middle east feel like less than human, like something to be pitied and laughed at then wonder why this offering for our version of democracy isn't catching. The media from here hasn't solely dictated feelings in the middle east but it has aggravated the situation exponentially. Hell even Disney is guilty of it, portraying Arabs in Aladdin as barbaric people who will cut off your hand for stealing. It's no wonder why so many Americans and Canadians are suspicious of Arabs and have the assumption that Arabian = Muslim = terrorist when it's what we've been feeding to people ever so increasingly since the last big bad guy dissolved it's communism.
One side feels insulted, one side feels there is nothing of value on the other side and to an extent, both sides feel they are the better.
Now if only we could use this right we've been given to actually communicate without presuppositions we might actually be able to get some where that doesn't end in blood shed for anyone.
World values as a whole: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped.....Values_Map.svg
The problems in this sort of cultural mentality can be pretty well covered here, for starters: http://www.uwgb.edu/dutchs/PSEUDOSC/TOXICVAL.HTM
And the problems that end up cropping up furthermore: http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/A.....ne_arabs1.html
A certain degree of sensitivity and humanity is called for when dealing with others, certainly. But we can't expect our entire civilization to censor itself completely just to avoid hurting the feelings of others. That's both unrealistic and, frankly, the beginning of a dangerous cultural and social trend.
One of the reason values are still so conservative in middle east countries is that they are third world, it's not easy or logical to battle for a woman's freedom to drive when you can barely get food into your families mouths. When polled women in the area did not feel that our version of women's rights was right for them for a number of reasons including that the economy was more important and that the system for equal rights here might be equal but not fair in their situation when it comes to bride gifts and never having to spend your own money on your own up keep. In essence they see it like giving a carpenter and a farmer a hammer, it's equal treatment, but not fair treatment.
The link about toxic systems like honor only cover a small segment of the Muslim population and is in fact cultural and not religion base, but the demonization is some how focused on religion instead of the Wahhabi-ist sects that practice Islam in a way that most Muslims don't agree with. Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population and honor killings are virtually non-existent.
I'm not sure why you linked the article about Arabs and war, since that has little to do with anything I've posted.
As for the article on Arab militaries, my point was that traits that are engrained in Arab culture are what undermine its struggle to adapt to the modern world and climb out of the third world. And as for secularism, yes, Iraq is a good deal more secular than the rest of the Middle East, and more secular even than America. It isn't secularism alone that determines the health and prosperity of a country. A bigger part of it comes from the self-expression vs. survival aspect of the scale. And it's there that America has Iraq beaten.
Again, I'm not saying that Islam in particular is the problem. I see Islam as no better in and of itself than any other religion. I'm merely pointing out that the Middle East and Africa aren't suffering simply because of the west. There are serious problems with Arab culture in particular. After all, like you said, you need only look at Indonesia to see a relatively Islamic nation that isn't behaving badly.
To me I guess a lot of hostilities on both sides of this equation could be alleviated if both sides were more open to understanding and present the argument for more understanding from us in the first world because this is an English site and in the end we do have more of an economic hold on the world and to me that's a responsibility we have.
We need to be more mindful of other cultures. The whole 'Draw Muhammed Day' was rather tasteless, I always thought. Openly harassing a religion or culture is just plain stupid. But at the same time, refusing to depict a tasteful and completely inoffensive portrayal of an important figure, simply because a particular sect sees it as heretical...I can't say that's right. My fear is that if we start censoring ourselves in this way, we might end up unable to criticize other cultures or religions or what have you, simply because they find it offensive and we've outlawed giving offense.
After having spent much of the first decade of my life in Saudi Arabia, and having a Sunni father (despite my mother being Lutheran), I have plenty of baggage and feelings involved in all this, too. I try my best to approach things calmly.
If anything is truly crippling Arabs, it would be some aspects of the culture..the worst I've seen would be both "pride" and favoritism..
Pride being on our history, which is nothing to be proud about..the only true pride comes from our individual achievements to elevate humanity as a whole..
Favoritism being where people would get certain high ranks or position simply based on family name or from relatives, this is where that article about the Arab wars hit the needle on the head..it seemed that my culture was consumed by egotism and taking pride in it too...this is one my biggest peeves :P
as for Draw Muhammad day..well...it was somewhat tasteless as you said..however, it had some good in it for me..On draw Muhammad day..it made me look back to where this whole drawing Muhammad thing started..and it made me question why we got so angry..when the prophet Mohammed himself had worst experiences in his life time..and he never got angry or upset or threatened to kill..in fact..he laughed it off..so when these angry Muslims act in this violent way calling for retaliation for the prophets name..yet the prophet himself was an example of tolerance..this hypocrisy itself made me realize that it was not a matter of retaliating for the sake of the prophets pride..but their own..at that point..my mind broke another chain and it elevated to a higher level of understanding..I'm glad the west took a stand..because I can see tolerance growing here.
http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/wv.....rticle_base_54
As you can see Iraq is more secular in belief than America.
A couple of things you mentioned called to mind the documentary "Reel Bad Arabs: The Way Hollywood Vilifies a People." Might you have seen it?
I honestly only bring up politics since it seems so many care making a erroneous assumption that Islam = any given culture with a Muslim majority and thus all Muslims are this or that assumption a person can make up based on any given culture.
I honestly wish we could all just get along, but I realize that's not practical in reality.
But great documentary. ^.^ You're the first person I've asked that has seen it. Whee!
Heh. I like to believe that someday people will get along. I would rather reach for a beautiful dream than settle for an ugly reality. And the reaching has a beauty of its own, no? Ma'a salama.
Actually freedom of speech does not allow you to yell "bomb" in an airport, harmful and hateful speech is not protected under freedom of speech.
Also I'd have to disagree that it is solely the west responsible for the poor portrayals of other countries, admittedly they haven't helped, but I've read newspapers from other parts of the world and seen their politicians on TV late at night. There's nothing like an Indian politician stating that the west should do as they're told and invade X country because India said so, or reading that Robert Mugabe is a saint and the results of his disastrous policies are actually caused by the west to let you know that the bias goes both ways.
Not to mention stories like the woman who had her nose and ears cut off, or the woman gang raped in India because her brother allegedly did something wrong, or the issues in France with gang rape of Muslim girls by Muslim gangs. Even where I live, I've faced threats and hate from some of the local Muslim and Asian community so I do know that some of the bad press isn't just media hate mongering, it's caused by people like the men who blew up those buses on 7/7 one of them came from where I live. I've handled Muslim men talking to me like I am a whore simply because I'm white, I've been groped, asked personal and intrusive question simply because I am not a "good Muslim woman". Also there have been issues with Muslim and Asian men grooming under aged white girls for sex, these reflect some of the inherently harmful beliefs that unfortunately do exist and why western media often feels Asian women in general are treated as chattel because often Muslim and Asian men do treat western women as if we are inherently less because we're women.
I've had friends who've had to flee from families who wanted to kill them because they wanted to marry someone other than the person who'd been picked out.
If poverty causes extremism? Why are the heads of it often highly educated and rich men? The area one of the 7/7 bombers came from? Is the richest in my town, it contains 20% of the population but 50%+ of the wealth.
I don't deny that stereotypes and bigotry are harmful, but I do think you're over-simplifying it and failing to take into account that stereotypes as repugnant as they are, often aren't formed in a vacuum. Admittedly I think all western governments need to do more to tackle home grown terrorists like the ones who bomb clinics and murder doctors based on the bible. But even if western newspapers and new sources ceased all bias and stereotyping tomorrow, there would still be friction.