Lying Is Cultural Trait Of Arabs, Says Barak

The Guardian (UK) ^ | 5-23-2002 | Brian Whitaker

[blam]

Lying is cultural trait of Arabs, says Barak

Brian Whitaker in Jerusalem
Thursday May 23, 2002
The Guardian

Palestinians have no compunction about telling lies and see truth as irrelevant, the former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak has claimed in an interview. "They are products of a culture in which to tell a lie... creates no dissonance," Mr Barak says. "They don't suffer from the problem of telling lies that exists in Judaeo-Christian culture."

"Truth is seen as an irrelevant category," he says."There is only that which serves your purpose and that which doesn't. They see themselves as emissaries of a national movement for whom everything is permissible. There is no such thing as 'the truth'."

Interviewed by the Jewish historian Benny Morris for an article in the latest issue of the New York Review of Books, Mr Barak not only relates his comments about lying to Yasser Arafat in particular, but to Arab society in general.

He says: "The deputy director of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation once told me that there are societies in which lie detectors don't work, societies in which lies do not create cognitive dissonance [on which the tests are based]."

As an example of Mr Arafat's alleged mendacity, Mr Barak cites an incident in October 2000, shortly after the start of the intifada. The Israeli and Palestinian leaders, together with Madeleine Albright, the US secretary of state at the time, were meeting in Paris to discuss a ceasefire.

Mr Arafat had agreed to call a number of his police commanders to implement a truce.

Mr Barak recalls protesting: "'But these are not the people organising the violence. If you are serious, then call Marwan Bargouti and Hussein al-Sheikh [two West Bank Fatah leaders].'

"Arafat looked at me, with an expression of blank innocence, as if I had mentioned the names of two polar bears, and said, 'Who? Who?'

"So I repeated the names, this time with a pronounced, clear Arabic inflection... and Arafat again said, 'Who? Who?'

"At this, some of his aides couldn't stop themselves and burst out laughing. And Arafat, forced to drop the pretence, agreed to call them later."

[goody2shooz]

I know what you mean. I worked with a man, an engineer, who had emigrated to the U.S. from Nigeria. He is a Christian and left because of the problems in his home country.

The problem as he saw it was that Islam strangles initiative by demanding conformance, killing anyone who is an independent thinker. Let them in and they will try to take over, subjugating everyone to their demands. In that they're just like fascists.

I never thought of Islam in terms of evil until recently. Any religion or nation that would pay families money for those families' children to commit suicide are, to me, truly evil. They have embraced despair and death over hope and life.

The pictures of the bombed embassy in Kenya was heartbreaking. I know it was cruelly done to try and turn Kenyans against Americans and to make us run back home. Well, we're not cowards and the colors red, white and blue don't run.

[A CA Guy]

In California our state recognizes that lying is what they do as part of their culture.

When my sister was divorcing an Iranian (Praise God) she was telling the government person of all the problems with the truth this guy had. He lied everywhere in order to serve his purpose as said in the story.

The government employee said, "Well, lying is part of their country. They rarely tell the truth"!

Our state knows that, my sister was surprised and her jaw dropped to the ground.

[The Great Satan]

"Truth is seen as an irrelevant category," he says."There is only that which serves your purpose and that which doesn't. They see themselves as emissaries of a national movement for whom everything is permissible. There is no such thing as 'the truth'."

This explains why the Left loves them so.

[sheik yerbouty]

They can lie to infidels(non Muslims)

[sheik yerbouty]

Why? Is Hillary his first cousin?

[Red Jones]

There is an old joke, it goes like this: The Arabs will lie to please. The English/Americans will lie to get out of trouble. The Russians will lie by habit.

[Red Jones]

There is an old joke, it goes like this: The Arabs will lie to please. The English/Americans will lie to get out of trouble. The Russians will lie by habit.

[Chunga]

It was funnier the first time.

[FreeReporting]

I spent about a year working on used car lots as a mechanic for Arabs, Jews and Pakistanis. It soured me on all three groups. They were all among the worst lying thieving bastards I have ever met.

Some of us feel the same way about people calling themselves Elmer Fudd

[Centurion2000]

Is there no prohibition in Islam against lying? Probably doesn't matter if you lie to an infidel.

You're exactly right; they can lie, cheat, rob and kill the infidel.

[Robert_Paulson2]

I would down four shooters of portofinio with him, and hide his car keys, then go out in the front yard and puke with him, till he passes out... put him on the couch, and talk sense into him, when he is at the disadvantage of a rather severe hangover for the next 18 hours... after he sleeps it off.

By then, the shotgun would be "missing" and we would be going out for beer and more pizza...

After a few days, he would definitely realize he was better off, without her...

[NCDoc]

...I'm reading "Peace To End All Peace" - a history of the Middle East from 1914 to 1922...

It's one of the great books of modern world history. If you haven't read this one, you can't understand the Middle East.

[Pistias]

LOL, perfect answer. Point being, you lie to the MF instead of letting him do something you'll both regret...thus, we see that simply saying "lying is bad" is adequate for children or the untrustworthy, but in the real world it's not so cut and dry.

It's but a small leap then to a battle situation, and since taqiyya assumes that all the infidel are actively trying to destroy the faithful (body and soul), if what they say is true then what's wrong with talking out both sides of their mouths?

[Robert_Paulson2]

My point was... I would find an honest way to dissuade him WITHOUT lying... and not that I would lie to him. Why say that is an advocation of telling a lie?

There is NO excuse for arabs lying.

Sorry if my willingness to get my friend pukeass drunk, comes across as any form of lying. It's not.

[SauronOfMordor]

"Truth is seen as an irrelevant category," he says."There is only that which serves your purpose and that which doesn't. They see themselves as emissaries of a national movement for whom everything is permissible. There is no such thing as 'the truth'."

This is why the Left gets along so well with the Islamists. Both Communism and Islamism have the same contempt for objective truth

[SauronOfMordor]

My mother spent her childhood in what was then the Italian colony of Tunisia, in North Africa. She dealt with lots of Arabs, and despises them as being animals.

She would tell me why they wear robes instead of pants: she would see one walking across the street, stop, squat in the street, and continue on leaving a pile of feces where he had been

[Pistias]

I would find an honest way to dissuade him WITHOUT lying

Not giving him his stuff when he asks for it is dishonest, isn't it? You promised to give it back when he asked for it...and there's nothing wrong with lying if there's a good reason. If you were captured by the enemy in a battle and questioned, would it be right to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?

[Robert_Paulson2]

NO... if he did not want me to control it... he should NOT have left it with me. Sorry, saying NO to a friend, is not lying.

[FreedomPoster]

Indexing / al-Taqiyya bump.