Friday, September 24, 2004
Shame, Honor and Tribalism
I had mentioned in this post that I wanted to delve more into the pysche of the consumers of Muslim news.
In The Closed Circle, David Pryce-Jones turns to their modern literature for a view into the souls of Arabs. In The Children of Narrow Streets Morroccan writer Abdelhak Serhane tells of a coming of age story of a young Morroccan. As Pryce-Jones relates, it's a portrait of misery:
General expressions of loathing as well as self-pity far exceed any narrative demands. Characters marginal to the plot elaborate how they trick boys into pederasty. A ceremony of public storytelling provides the occasion for prostitution. The mosques are filled with hypocrites. Men and women are described as equally sick and sickened with the relationships arising from sexual segregation. "Violence was the atmosphere in which we lived," [the narrator] sums up his past. "We were children of hate and misery. We know everything about life. Except whatever might have been useful to us."
Pryce-Jones also cites a 1972 article in a French magazine, where author Mohammed Karoi gives us this picture of family life:
Who among us Arabs can claim that he was acknowledged, loved, wanted and accepted by the family or atmosphere in which he grew up? None, I am sure. Can anyone be loved who is no more than a useful object, produced to continue the family line, for the troublesome old age of parents, or for the male chauvinist glory of the father who proves what a real man he is by the number of his offspring?
If the prospects of the boys are dismal, the plight of the girls is worse. Any accidental departure from the shame/honor code or the rules that govern the sequestration of Arab females can prove fatal.
In comparing Arab literature to Western, he points out something that I found startling. The modern Western novel is base on free will and the outcome the character's choices product. Arab characters are so tightly bound by family and society that this free will doesn't exist. My impression from Pryce-Jones (I haven't read any Arab literature myself) is that it is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Another unsettling conclusion he reaches at the end of the book is that in the Arab world there is no concept of the commonwealth or public interest.
One of the reasons for bringing up these points is that one of the liberal articles of faith is that Muslim/Arab terrorism is due to misery that is caused by Western imperialism. I can't see how the West is to blame for the causes of the scenarios that Pryce-Jones presents. I can see however how the West can increase that misery simply by being an example of the fact that their misery isn't inherent to the human condition but particular to their world. Pryce Jones quotes a story by an Iranian author about some of his countrymen who were exiles in the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. One of them finally cries out in exasperation,"We're all really miserable. We're all making fools of ourselves. What do we know about art and civilization?"
This is a horrible situation and I can empathize with those afflicted with this kind of upbringing. The only human options seem to be self loathing or blame. And obviously a significant percentage of Muslims blame us (as many of the Arab values transfered through Islam). I think Islam in one sense can be seen as an escape from Arab culture for many of it's victims, and yet in another sense it is merely another vehicle for the power challenge dynamic about which Pryce-Jones writes so extensively.
I'll also grant that many of Muslim's criticism of Western culture as immoral are valid. In The Crisis of Islam Bernard Lewis describe the effect contact with the West had on Sayyid Qutb, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood:
Even more revealing was his shocked response to the [post WWII]American way of life-principally its sinfulness and degeneracy and its addiction to what he saw as sexual promiscuity. Sayyid Qutb took as a given the contrast between Eastern spirituality and Western materialism...
But here the difference between Christian and Muslim morality becomes apparent. Because of the aforementioned lack of a concept of free will in Arab/Muslim culture, there is no possibility of tolerance. And the pent-up rage finds a target.
I am neither excusing the motives of terrorists, nor gloating over the sad estate of the Muslim world. As a Christian I'm called to love my enemies and I have to admit I can't always do that, but I can strive to understand and at least empathize with their plight. And as little as Muslims may want to hear it, I know the cure for what ails them.
In The Closed Circle, David Pryce-Jones turns to their modern literature for a view into the souls of Arabs. In The Children of Narrow Streets Morroccan writer Abdelhak Serhane tells of a coming of age story of a young Morroccan. As Pryce-Jones relates, it's a portrait of misery:
General expressions of loathing as well as self-pity far exceed any narrative demands. Characters marginal to the plot elaborate how they trick boys into pederasty. A ceremony of public storytelling provides the occasion for prostitution. The mosques are filled with hypocrites. Men and women are described as equally sick and sickened with the relationships arising from sexual segregation. "Violence was the atmosphere in which we lived," [the narrator] sums up his past. "We were children of hate and misery. We know everything about life. Except whatever might have been useful to us."
Pryce-Jones also cites a 1972 article in a French magazine, where author Mohammed Karoi gives us this picture of family life:
Who among us Arabs can claim that he was acknowledged, loved, wanted and accepted by the family or atmosphere in which he grew up? None, I am sure. Can anyone be loved who is no more than a useful object, produced to continue the family line, for the troublesome old age of parents, or for the male chauvinist glory of the father who proves what a real man he is by the number of his offspring?
If the prospects of the boys are dismal, the plight of the girls is worse. Any accidental departure from the shame/honor code or the rules that govern the sequestration of Arab females can prove fatal.
In comparing Arab literature to Western, he points out something that I found startling. The modern Western novel is base on free will and the outcome the character's choices product. Arab characters are so tightly bound by family and society that this free will doesn't exist. My impression from Pryce-Jones (I haven't read any Arab literature myself) is that it is like watching a train wreck in slow motion. Another unsettling conclusion he reaches at the end of the book is that in the Arab world there is no concept of the commonwealth or public interest.
One of the reasons for bringing up these points is that one of the liberal articles of faith is that Muslim/Arab terrorism is due to misery that is caused by Western imperialism. I can't see how the West is to blame for the causes of the scenarios that Pryce-Jones presents. I can see however how the West can increase that misery simply by being an example of the fact that their misery isn't inherent to the human condition but particular to their world. Pryce Jones quotes a story by an Iranian author about some of his countrymen who were exiles in the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. One of them finally cries out in exasperation,"We're all really miserable. We're all making fools of ourselves. What do we know about art and civilization?"
This is a horrible situation and I can empathize with those afflicted with this kind of upbringing. The only human options seem to be self loathing or blame. And obviously a significant percentage of Muslims blame us (as many of the Arab values transfered through Islam). I think Islam in one sense can be seen as an escape from Arab culture for many of it's victims, and yet in another sense it is merely another vehicle for the power challenge dynamic about which Pryce-Jones writes so extensively.
I'll also grant that many of Muslim's criticism of Western culture as immoral are valid. In The Crisis of Islam Bernard Lewis describe the effect contact with the West had on Sayyid Qutb, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood:
Even more revealing was his shocked response to the [post WWII]American way of life-principally its sinfulness and degeneracy and its addiction to what he saw as sexual promiscuity. Sayyid Qutb took as a given the contrast between Eastern spirituality and Western materialism...
But here the difference between Christian and Muslim morality becomes apparent. Because of the aforementioned lack of a concept of free will in Arab/Muslim culture, there is no possibility of tolerance. And the pent-up rage finds a target.
I am neither excusing the motives of terrorists, nor gloating over the sad estate of the Muslim world. As a Christian I'm called to love my enemies and I have to admit I can't always do that, but I can strive to understand and at least empathize with their plight. And as little as Muslims may want to hear it, I know the cure for what ails them.
papijoe 6:10 AM
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