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October 20, 2003
The General: the al-Jazeerah and al-Arabiyah firestorm
I caught the firestorm that this General of the Dopey Comments on Islam caused on the Arab TVsat news channels.
It was painful. Painful from both ends. First, his comments were typical hick idiocy.
Second, however, it provoked equally stupid and navel-gazing ranting from the 'commentator Imam' and "analyst" crowd that al-Jazeerah and al-Arabiyah call up.
I did not bother to take notes or write down any thoughts, it is the usual crap I have heard a million times. The evil Westerners having no regard for our cultural, religion etc. (of course the only true one), we never had problems like this before, etc. etc.
The self-pitying, woe is us thing of course I get to hear all the time when they cover Israel issues, where the swings between half-mocked up absurdist fits of raging rhetoric swings and down in the mouth we're such wussy weakling incompetents is almost comical, except no one ever tackles the real core issues.
If there is one point in current Arab culture that I feel desperately needs change - I note for the record I am not a fan of calling for other cultures to change, it is usually a losing endeavor and only irritates, when in Rome... - it is the aversion to criticism.
I find it to be worse in the Mashreq than the Maghreb, and I would asociate it with traditional tribal values.
Well, letme come back and edit this. It deserves further thought....
Posted by The Lounsbury at October 20, 2003 12:09 AM
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Jan-Dec 2003
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