Because of the Americans (interesting analysis of Arab culture)

Frontpage ^ | November 28, 2001 | Jamie Glazov

[FreedomPoster]

The next thread I opened was this:

Culture Crash: A conversation with William Langewiesche, the author of "The Crash of EgyptAir 990,"

In it we find this quote:

The Egyptian investigators professed outrage at the idea that the crash would be called intentional, which they seemed to feel was a cultural slight.

Sure does back up some of Glazov's assertions, doesn't it?

[wimpycat]

My own personal theory is that Arabs don't think in a straight line. I know from personal experience that they're not logical thinkers. Case in point: our Bible goes in chronological order. It starts at the beginning and ends at the end. The Koran wanders hither and thither, has no chronological order and is very repetitive and chaotic. Our holy books are indicitave of our pattern of thinking.

Arabs also tend to be fatalistic. Whenever something happens, it's "God's will". Someone fall in a pit? God's will. Someone get their legs run over while they were working on their car with their legs sticking out into the street (they really do this in Cairo)? God's will again. It's either God's will or an evil Zionist/American pig plot to destroy the Arabs.

[LTCJ]

...there is often little motivation for Arabs to take action for change or to evaluate critically their own circumstances.
... The result is that many Arabs often do not end up feeling a sense of responsibility for their own failures. To admit that a problem is one's own fault brings humiliation upon one's self and also shames the group's honor. Thus, the obsession with avoiding shame cancels out the possibility of truthful self-reflection and examination.
When a problem is confronted in the Arab world, a hidden enemy is often imagined.

Interesting excercise: Substitute well known Democratic constituency groups for the word "Arab" above and apply the "does this sentence still make sense" test.

[coffmg]

The proces is not only an Arab thingy, but also the very foundation of the Demoncraps society. The zero sum based thinking of them is profound.{If a person has a dollar from hard work it means the dollar is not available to be given to someone that has chosen not to work,} Does that make sense? The only difference is the fact the Islamites think the Evil Americans are thwarting the will of Allah in making the Middle east the paradise it can be. My philosophy is God will not give me what I will not do for myself. The Arabs believe that Allah will give them everting they dream of. Question.....How powerfull is a god that can't overcome a puny and evil American?

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Arabs do seem to be like liberals, but without the bleeding hearts.

With many liberals the bleeding heart is a tactic, not a feeling. They are amoral and use the tactic to intimidate those with morals and true compassion. It works too often.

[Mr. Mulliner]

That is funny! I tried it and it came out just as true.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I don't mean this to be as rude as it sounds, but isn't all this an elaborate way of saying Arabs are stupid and lazy?

I think it is saying this about the Arab culture, that the Arab culture encourages attitudes that lead to this assumption. I know it is easy to think, "So what? What difference does that make?", but the difference is that Arabs not raised in that culture, i.e. second and third generation Arabs raised in other cultures, may not be the same. I know several Iranians who are quick to point out that they are Persians, not Arabs. They hold the Arabs in disdain.

[Alouette]

LaPierre is the author of O Jerusalem!

Co-authored with Larry Collins. Excellent book! They also wrote The Fifth Horseman, a thriller in which Arab terrorists hide a nuclear device in New York City. Written in 1975, so it's kind of chilling reading it now.

[LTCJ]

That is funny! I tried it and it came out just as true.

That's what I was afraid of. Just what we need, another Deomcratic constituency group.

[IronJack]

The geographical milieu in the Middle East has given rise to a culture that is vastly different from ours. Those who expect Arabs to respond to a given stimulus the same way Westerners do are simply deluded. The principles that guide our lives don't necessarily govern theirs. Contrary to what the multiculturalists would have you believe, not all people have even fundamental values in common.

[BlueLancer]

"Arabs also tend to be fatalistic. Whenever something happens, it's "God's will". Someone fall in a pit? God's will. Someone get their legs run over while they were working on their car with their legs sticking out into the street (they really do this in Cairo)? God's will again. It's either God's will or an evil Zionist/American pig plot to destroy the Arabs."

Then how come, when they send their children out to throw rocks and molotov cocktails at armed men and they come home in body bags, they don't have the same attitude?

I know ... I know ... never ask rhetorical questions to the Arab/Pali-lovers; it's like wrestling a pig .. you both get dirty and you only make the pig happy.

[IronJack]

For a similar perspective, see this link.

[The Energizer]

Saying that you are going to do something can often become much more significant than actually doing it. Words serve as substitutes for acts.

I didn't know Bill Clinton was Arabic!

[ZULU]

"They see the world through the perspective of all Arabs being brothers – children of one single nation. And this is why Arabs strongly believe that there is such a thing as an Arab personality, which they call shakhsiyya."

They see the world through the perspective of all Germans being brothers – children of one single nation. And this is why Germans strongly believe that there is such a thing as an Aryan personality, which they call Herrenvolklichskeit. - Similar comment might have been made in 1939.

[Woahhs]

With many liberals the bleeding heart is a tactic, not a feeling. They are amoral and use the tactic to intimidate those with morals and true compassion. It works too often.

I couldn't agree with you more. Being immoral, they have no compunction about using our more refined and sensitive moral structures against us. A liberal trying to construct a "you're actually a hypocrite" argument on the fly is so common many don't even notice it anymore, and adopt the same tactic. Trouble is, it doesn't work on them...they don't care if they are hypocritical...they just want what they want, and your broken bleeding corpse is not too high a price to pay.

[tom paine 2]

It is a struggle between two cultures. The Western tradition is founded in Aristotelean logic, thesis, antithesis, Descartes and the sciences this process produces.

Eastern cultures are based on Ying-Yang, preservation of 'face',avoidance of shame, ancestor worship and fatalism.

Wherever these cultures interface, like in Yugoslavia, there is conflict. I don't hold out hope for the strategy that Bush is employing with the Muslim world.

[arthurus]

to find more support for some of the things that Glazov asserts

My father used to say much of the same things about Arabs after
he came back from a stint as a UN Truce observer in Syria in 1965.

[KC_for_Freedom]

Wherever these cultures interface, like in Yugoslavia, there is conflict. I don't hold out hope for the strategy that Bush is employing with the Muslim world.

But many of us are pointing out that this attitude is prevalent in the West as well, not to profile, but many of our societie's underacheivers have the attitude that success is determined more by G-ds will than their own efforts. When a high percentage of a people adopt this attitude, they as a group fall into the poorer class and then blame the people in the middle and upper class for their plight. Not that uncommon. As for Bush's policy, teach them that there will be h*ll to pay for messing with us and this lesson will be remembered. (Perhaps they will just shrug and say its Allah's will, who knows as long as they stop doing what leads to terrorist acts against the west.

[CathyRyan]

An Arab complains about how they are being treated in this country tell them it is Allah's will.
Bomb them back into the stoneage an say it is Allah's will.
Take back our oil fields and tell them it is Allah's will.
Take their bank accounts and use the money to rebuild the WTC and let them it is Allah's will.
...You get the idea.

Works for me and it sounds like a plan that will work for them.

[Alouette]

I didn't know Bill Clinton was Arabic!

He's only in it for the virgins.