We can not and will not accept Western values in our lives. The West always wants to impose its culture and mentality on us. We should never bow.
| "Yeah! If we ain't ignorant and brutal, we're not even Arabs!" |
This is what a friend of mine told me while chatting in a restaurant in Jordan after the subject of âWestern influenceâ on Arabs in and out of the Arab world. I tried to argue with my friend that many so-called Western values are in fact human values. Those include respect of human rights and liberties, justice, innovation, etc.. Hence, we need not to ignore or oppose such values. The response I got was fierce.
| "What's this? Good sense? You sure you're an Arab?" |
You want us to adopt Western culture? You say that the West needs to be imitated? You imply that we need to think and live the way Westerners do?
| "Never! As an Arab, I have a right to kill my sister and marry my first cousin! I will never live under a government that doesn't rule with an iron fist! I will never accept the right to practice any damned religion I want or even none at all! I don't want my children to live a better life than I do, anymore than I live a better life than my great-grandparents! I will defend my holy man with my life and give him as much of my money as he can wheedle me out of!" |
I then gave a few more comments and changed the subject after I felt the dispute could grow further. I wasnât sorry just because my friend could not tolerate or accept the idea that some Western practices are acceptable, and indeed, favorable.
"They do make good icecream, y'know!"
"Apostate! You must be killed!" |
But what I was truly sad about is the fact that his views reflect a popular opinion among Arabs everywhere. It is in my opinion an obligation to bring our people to understand that as humans, we need to be open-minded to each other. We need to look into the possibilities that we may be the ones who are doing wrong, while others may be right. It serves us no good to avoid and disagree with every practice we see in the West, for there may be many of those practices are originally inspired from Islam.
| Ummmm... I don't think so. |
I remember a famous saying by prominent Islamic figure Jamalleddin Al-Afghani, who once said, âI visited the West and found Islam without Muslims, and returned to the Arab world to find Muslims without Islam.â
| Stole your watch, did they? It happens... |
I remember the day when Mr. Sameer Khidr, a senior editor of Al-Jazeera Satellite Channel, spoke about the unique feature that made Al-Jazeera so professional and accurate in its reporting, which of course led to greater credibility and more popularity. âWe are an Arabic-speaking channel working with Western mentalityâ was what Mr. Khidr said, shocking almost all those who came to attend his lecture.
| Don't laugh. CNN and Beebs have Western mentalities, too... |
âHow can you say you are working with a Western mentality? This is outrageous!â said one of the attendants. Mr. Khidr nicely explained that the West has developed a set of guidelines that regulate how the media should work to maintain a high level of professionalism. This includes never being biased, even for the issues that touch our Arab affairs.
"Liberal Islamic bias? It doesn't exist! We're objective!" |
He said that reports should never be exaggerated. Only the truth needs to be told, and nothing more, nothing less.
| "All you have to do is pick which truth and â viola! â you're CNN!" |
He explained that being broadcast from Qatar does not imply that it should not criticize Qatar issues. âOn the contrary, we sometimes feel obliged to report on news items that are quite sensitive for Qatar, and we report on them freely and openly.â In other words, what I want to say is that not everything practiced by the West should be forbidden for Arabs. We need to learn from each other. Thinking otherwise would only serve to isolate us further and is considered an act of selfishness and intolerance. We are all humans, and if Westerners are doing many things much better than we are, then I believe that it is not only possible to learn from them, but it should be compulsory to do so.
| Compulsory. Welcome to the Wonderful World of Islam. |
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