A rant on Arabs
March 4th, 2007Arabs often see themselves as being more aware than others in what matters politics, they like to think of themselves as not being fooled like other nations and that they know why everything happens. In general, they have this thought of that most people around the globe are being fooled either by their governments or by their misleading media tools, while they (Arabs) are not.
At the time when most Arabs criticize Westerners (Americans in specific) because they swallow everything presented to them without questioning, they seem to follow the same route! A single news clip, a show, or a bunch of photos are enough for millions to start demonstrating without questioning, and until this day, a thrilling speech can drive millions of Arab Middle Easterners blindly. Over a night, the media turned the sympathetic feelings toward Iran and the Shiites among Arabs 180 degrees with a 2-minute low-quality clip showing Saddam’s execution, and yet most Arabs feel that they cannot be driven easily, not by the media for sure!
A similar thought can be reflected on some of the conceptions on the west; for instance, there has been a cliche catching on for a while of that all Americans are guilty because they failed in creating a coalition against their pro-war leaders to cause a coup against them, while at the same time forgetting all about Arab states and kingdoms that helped directly in the invasion of Iraq but yet almost no protests took place in the Arab world, therefore neglecting the fact that if it’s anyone’s guilt for not acting then it’s theirs!
It’s easy for many people to whine and complain about the western double-standard policy, which is a fact, and blame them for not interfering when it matters, while at the same time rejecting everything coming from the west under the excuse of that it’s not “original” or that it has to be some sort of a conspiracy against us. Moreover, the western media bias is harshly criticized by the same people who don’t see any biasing in the Arab media and take any word coming from it to be sacred and unquestionable.
It’s my deep conviction that we need to introduce objectivity heavily in our lives in order for us to stand up and face the perils ahead, because as I see it from here, hypocrisy never prevails.
[this article was also published at my personal blog]
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Fantastic Article, and a wonderful conclusion.
Well done
Good post,thank you.
Don’t forget the conspiracies! When Arabs mess up, it’s never our fault. Must be the Turks, the Iranians, the Jews and of course, the Great Satan (US of A.)
In addition, people criticize how Arabs are portrayed in the Western media but have we for a SECOND thought about the way we portray South Asians and Jews in our newspapers?! We are incredibly racist (and sometimes downright hateful) against them! Why complain if we are guilty as charged?
I talked about this in one of my podcasts about racism in the Gulf, where Arabs spend so much time whining about racism from the West when we are the biggest racists against South Asian migrant workers to the point where many of us literally treat them like slaves.
Great post and great points Omar, kudos to you for posting this and realizing the hypocrisies.
I think its a great post. it summarizes the whole situation … we have to be honest with ourselves …. way to go omar
Thanks Omar for an interesting article !
Regarding the statement of Omar “about Arab states and kingdoms that helped directly in the invasion of Iraq but yet almost no protests took place in the Arab world“.CNN reported in March 2003 that an exile plan for Hussein appeared to be gaining support among his Persian Gulf neighbors and that during the Arab League meeting the UAE president had submitted a proposal calling for Hussein to surrender power within 14 days and leave Iraq under the temporary control of the Arab League.The emergency meeting of the Arab League ended March 1. Hostilities began March 19. The senior UAE official said representatives of certain Arab League countries “killed the suggestion,” arguing that the UAE president was not influential enough to make such a suggestion.It was not clear whether Saddam Hussein would have followed through with any agreement. In the same documentary, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak describes the Iraqi leader as “a difficult man; no one knew what he was thinking.”
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/meast/11/02/saddam.exile/
can I ask a ques to our Arab friends here re Liberals Vs Islamists in Arab World?
In Egypt the secular liberal opposition is very weak and the Muslim Brotherhood very strong.The Islamist slogan in Algeria in 1990’s was “one man, one vote, one time.†ONE TIME.Which means dictatorship after the election.And the election where the Islamist won caused a civil war killing hundreds of thousands of Algerians
As Fatemah Farag wrote in AL-AHRAM :The losses have been staggering: all the leading figures of the left-leaning Tagammu Party lost their seats, including political veteran and former Free Officer Khaled Mohieddin in Kafr Shukr in Qalyoubiya, long-standing MP for Port Said El-Badri Farghali and labour representative Abul- Ezz El-Hariri, who failed to win in the Alexandria constituency of Karmouz. The Nasserites have yet to win a seat and only four members of the Wafd have been returned to parliament, leaving leading members such as Munir Fakhry Abdel-Nour out in the cold. The independent left is looking at a big fat zero.http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/771/eg9.htm
Now if the alternative to Mubarak or his National Democratic Party in a truly democratic election is the Muslim Brotherhood – what is the solution for a liberal Arab like yourself if you lived in that situation?
Thanks Omar for an interesting article !
Regarding the statement of Omar “about Arab states and kingdoms that helped directly in the invasion of Iraq but yet almost no protests took place in the Arab world“.CNN reported in March 2003 that an exile plan for Hussein appeared to be gaining support among his Persian Gulf neighbors and that during the Arab League meeting the UAE president had submitted a proposal calling for Hussein to surrender power within 14 days and leave Iraq under the temporary control of the Arab League.The emergency meeting of the Arab League ended March 1. Hostilities began March 19. The senior UAE official said representatives of certain Arab League countries “killed the suggestion,” arguing that the UAE president was not influential enough to make such a suggestion.It was not clear whether Saddam Hussein would have followed through with any agreement. In the same documentary, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak describes the Iraqi leader as “a difficult man; no one knew what he was thinking.”
can I ask a ques to our Arab friends here re Liberals Vs Islamists in Arab World?
In Egypt the secular liberal opposition is very weak and the Muslim Brotherhood very strong.The Islamist slogan in Algeria in 1990’s was “one man, one vote, one time.†ONE TIME.Which means dictatorship after the election.And the election where the Islamist won caused a civil war killing hundreds of thousands of Algerians
As Fatemah Farag wrote in AL-AHRAM :The losses have been staggering: all the leading figures of the left-leaning Tagammu Party lost their seats, including political veteran and former Free Officer Khaled Mohieddin in Kafr Shukr in Qalyoubiya, long-standing MP for Port Said El-Badri Farghali and labour representative Abul- Ezz El-Hariri, who failed to win in the Alexandria constituency of Karmouz. The Nasserites have yet to win a seat and only four members of the Wafd have been returned to parliament, leaving leading members such as Munir Fakhry Abdel-Nour out in the cold. The independent left is looking at a big fat zero.
Now if the alternative to Mubarak or his National Democratic Party in a truly democratic election is the Muslim Brotherhood – what is the solution for a liberal Arab like yourself if you lived in that situation?
-G.,
In general, I believe this is the case, it’s not an open war, but there’s definitely a huge difference between the two camps, and there’s an absence of any common ground. The nature of this conflict depends on the nature of both liberals and Islamists of course, which leads to your second question regarding the Egyptian brotherhood; this Islamist party theoretically supports the idea of sustainable democracy, in other words, they’re ready to lose against a secular party, it’s not a “one vote, one time” process to them, which makes them a considerable alternative to Mubark’s regime.
I’m not an expert in the Egyptian concerns, but that’s my views on the issue. Thanks for taking time to write.
bismillah
assalamu ala al Muslimeen
First I slightly agree with the main article. By that, I mean that I slightly agree with the content but I don’t agree with what I feel the intention is (and if I was wrong, I apologise). I see it has become fashionable for Arabs to try and wear a Western suite and start critising and attacking other Arabs as a lesser ignorant mass compared to “us intellectuals”. It is because I am seeing this trend alot that I think that the author of the article has such an intention. However, ofcourse, I might be wrong in which case I do apologise.
As for the content of the article, I think it is correct only in minor cases. Most Arabs would tell you (unless ofcourse they’re afraid from the mukhabarat) that they despise their rulers. I go as far and say that Islamic scholars have more influence on the average Arab than any ruler or media circus. However even yet, Islamic scholars must strive endlessly to keep a reputation so that they may be heard by the public. Take for example the fatwa against the shia. Almost everyone attacked it. The fact of the matter is, Arabs ARE more aware than their Western counterparts. We have access to both Western AND Arab medias while the West only eat what their governments put on their plates. Today alot of them even agree that Democracy does not work, yet unfortunately they are ignorant of a more successful alternative. When an Arab struggles against his government he picks up a gun (not that I agree with that method) whilst the most Westerners do is go out in demonstrations or petitions.
As a people constantly under oppression and are on the front line, we do know more than your average Western counterpart. We know how it feels to loose a member of our family in the middle of the night for more than 10 years now (two members in my case).
Maybe instead of spending those few minutes you spent writing that article, you should have wrote something in support of the people – the ONLY people, on the front lines against Western imperialism. Maybe instead of attacking your own people with that air of arrogance you should count yourself as one of them and take on with them the load they carry.
Nay, maybe I shouldn’t have said Arabs. Muslims rather. Arabs and Arabism has proved itself worth less than the dust we walk on. Muslims are the only people struggling. And most Arabs being Muslims, your insult carries a bigger weight than you might think.
assalamu alaikum
Oh this is just priceless! You’re Socialist even! And what, may I ask, kind of Socialist are you? Ideological or the more friendly rainbows and flowers Socialist (what I would rather call a hippy in fact). If you are ideological then allow me to tell you that I am right now giving you a warning which I hope you choose to listen to. Ideological Socialism replaces your deen. In other words, if you were a Muslim before you adopted Socialism then you are on the thin ice of being a murtad. Being ideological I take it you know about the dialectics of materialism and the Hegalian philosophy (both of which are the basis of Socialism).
If you are however just a hippy then I have no interest in this conversation. I do apologise if I sound mean, but I myself used to be a Socialist (member of the Socialist Workers Party infact) until I realised it’s foolishness and returned to this deen with my tauba.
-Abdul Rahman, I respect your points, but I don’t of course appreciate the prejudice.
I do agree with you on the part of that there are Arabs who try to look fashionable and start bashing their own people, it’s something I always write against as I consider blind westernization waves to be exceptionally dangerous. You can take a look at many previous posts that I published in my blog to have a better view on my opinions.
Criticism, and even harsh criticism is part of standing with your people, Middle Eastern Arabs live in messed up mentalities and lots of hypocrisies, overlooking and defending these mentalities simply because some of them are in the line of fire(as I comprehended from your post) is contrary to what you call “taking on with them the load they carry”, this is my point of the post, it has nothing to do with me showing off the “us intellectuals”, I don’t even consider myself as an intellectual! What you may have felt as arrogance is probably frustration, I say again and again that we need as Arabs to get over hypocrisy and introduce much more objectivity into our lives.
Omar, what hypocrisy exactly? Can you be more specific by maybe giving an example? You referred to the Danish cartoons in your main article which is fair enough as one issue although that in itself is debatable in regards to who carried out the demonstrations. These things do not happen using ESP but are organised by a party or a group. I have been on a several demonstrations, infact I have helped organised alot and believe you me it is not very easy to drag people into the street unless you have good resources. But that’s another story of little importance. Do you have any other examples of “hypocrisy” or when Arabs moved en mass out of blindess?
Critising the public will change what exactly? Infact, let us ask the main question; what is the problem in the Arab world? The main and biggest problem? The source of every hardship the average Arab faces in one day? Is it not the corrupt tyrannical despots? If Arabs are illiterate, is it not because they have not been provided with proper schooling by the people who should be taking responsibility of the community (ie, the government)? If sanitation is horrible, is it not because of the government is too incompetent to provide a proper healthcare to the community? If the people are hungry is it not because of the government being too corrupt to bring the Arab world out of its economic crisis even though our lands are the richest lands on the planet and the bellies of our rulers testify to that? Let me ask you again the main question. Is your problem with the Arab people or with the Arab governments?
Certain the people are just the victims of an environment they have never chosen for themselves. An environment that is the result of corrupt inefficient governments. And if this is so, then how exactly are you trying to solve this problem? Your method is the method of a reformist. A reformist is a person who will keep the current system but align it properly so as to correct a few faults here and there. This is as compared to a revolutionary who is willing to start from point zero. To take that current system, throw it in the dustbin of history and establish a whole new ideological system that will finally do its duty of taking care and responsibility of the people.
Spoken like a true member of the 1970’s Youth movement, of the Baby Boomer generation! Only it didn’t work
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