Arabs..muslims?

[Daedalus]

'We also have a duty to challenge a general reluctance to inquire why the adherents of some religions more than others turn the pages of their scriptures into a divine breath that fans the random homicidal spore to all corners of the world.'

Wole Soyinka, from Climate of Fear: The Quest for Dignity in a Dehumanized World

[Antantoon]

Theyre awesome as a half palestinian Christian, the arabs can be the coolest people. Two of my best friends are Egyptian and the Saudis are so much fun Of course there are the bad apples in all different cultures and it makes me sick what some people do. I believe classifying the Arabs as Muslims isnt right as one who isnt there are other religions apart from Muslims who are Arab.

However the Palestinians fighting against the Israelis, even though its probably not helping the current situation I fully understand why they are doing it. Our land was robbed away and were made second class citizens, to me sounds like colonialism. If any other country were doing it they would be publically disgraced but for some reason the Israelis are allowed to get away with it. The Jews and the Arabs lived peacefully before 1945 I believe giving them a country wasnt right because it took the land of people who have been living there for generations. Personally i dont get scared if I see a muslim on a plane with the burqa and other forms because Ive been on Lebanese Airlines and Royal Jordanian and I wouldve been terrified

[Windstorm G-man]

Australia is an incredibly accepting multicultural nations. Honestly, I see no problems with Muslims or Arabs at all.

I admit, closer to 9/11 with all the media scare, I have probably seen a Muslim on a bus or something and wondered if they were a terrorist - maybe even been scared of them! But that's when I was younger, I am far more accepting now and a lot less willing to digest the word mainstream media feeds us.

I do have issues with Islamic States such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, but that is no reason to think any less or more of their peoples - particularly when there are millions of other Muslims living around the world.

There are bad people in every ethnic group and there are crazy fundamentalists in nearly all religions, I try hard to not let it affect how I assess individual people.

[Meera.m]

Hey there.. =D

To make this clear to Non-arabs as well as to arabs, UAE do NOT oppress their women at all. I'm a UAE female nationalist, and I go out anytime I want; I'm in a co-ed school; I've NEVER been beaten by any of my parents. Infact, I think the UAE female nationalists are the most spoiled muslim women there is in the world. They get whatever any want anytime. The UAE along with other khaliji countries happen to be very rich, hence they treat their women like queens. KSA and Qutar women are even permitted to be actresses and singers. Apparently, NO OPPRESSION in KSA, Just to correct what has been misinformed. The oppression is found in specific families in all over the world, not only with muslims and Arabs.

Here in the UAE, all nationalists feel massively blessed by their leaders. Their leaders do not accept any of the UAE nationist to work as a servant. You will NEVER see a UAE nationalist cleaning toilets in public places. A UAE student can get a schlorship by only scoring a 80% average in their report cards. And many people from many different countries prefer living here because of an increase in job opportunities.Israeli people are not permitted though, but Jews are. I even have a jewish guy in my class, who happens to be very friendly and he helps me with school assignments anytime. So, I personally never generalise hatred because of specific people. Thus, I don't think others should. For instance, there were comments about being intimidated around some muslims, or the plan about burning the Quran on 9/11 offended many muslims. Some of them were like "WHAT THE F***?! WE'LL BURN THEIR BIBLE" . I did not like their response because we all know that two wrongs don't make a right. However, I do believe that our generation is way more open-minded.

At least I hope it is.

[watersnake]

Really enjoyed reading this thread, if it wasn't 11pm and I didnt have to finish History HW I would have replied in true TOK fashion. Adding to the diversity of the goup, I'm an Arab agnostic! yes we exist, and it appears we are trending..

[Max Headcase]

Hey there.. =D

To make this clear to Non-arabs as well as to arabs, UAE do NOT oppress their women at all. I'm a UAE female nationalist, and I go out anytime I want; I'm in a co-ed school; I've NEVER been beaten by any of my parents. Infact, I think the UAE female nationalists are the most spoiled muslim women there is in the world. They get whatever any want anytime. The UAE along with other khaliji countries happen to be very rich, hence they treat their women like queens. KSA and Qutar women are even permitted to be actresses and singers. Apparently, NO OPPRESSION in KSA, Just to correct what has been misinformed. The oppression is found in specific families in all over the world, not only with muslims and Arabs.

Here in the UAE, all nationalists feel massively blessed by their leaders. Their leaders do not accept any of the UAE nationist to work as a servant. You will NEVER see a UAE nationalist cleaning toilets in public places. A UAE student can get a schlorship by only scoring a 80% average in their report cards. And many people from many different countries prefer living here because of an increase in job opportunities.Israeli people are not permitted though, but Jews are. I even have a jewish guy in my class, who happens to be very friendly and he helps me with school assignments anytime. So, I personally never generalise hatred because of specific people. Thus, I don't think others should. For instance, there were comments about being intimidated around some muslims, or the plan about burning the Quran on 9/11 offended many muslims. Some of them were like "WHAT THE F***?! WE'LL BURN THEIR BIBLE" . I did not like their response because we all know that two wrongs don't make a right. However, I do believe that our generation is way more open-minded.

At least I hope it is.

I definitely appreciate the (approaching) modern sensibility implicit in this post. It's good to hear that there are women who are assertive and bold in defense of their humanity, as if that should ever be subjected to any question...although it certainly is in much of the Islamic world, I'm sorry to say. That right there is one of the big perceptions that the West (that monolithic entity) has of Islam in the 21st century. Why do so many of the backward, philistine, reactionary 7th century Wahhabists get so much of the publicity?

However, there are some parts of this post that aren't so modern, like the assumption that menial service jobs aren't for Kuwaiti nationals (that's the word, by the way). So who does them? Is that for Pakistanis or Filipinos? I wonder how much elitism is being inculcated in Kuwait if this is an accepted standard.

And the off-hand dismissal of Israel (no doubt because it's not considered a country by most of the Middle East) is just a little bit too casual. I would seriously be questioning why Israel doesn't qualify as a nation-state. What part of this "received wisdom" in the Middle East is based on Qu'ran (and whose interpretation?) and what part is based on political expediency?

Again, question authority intelligently and there will be so many more interesting questions to follow...

[Fatih313]

Not all Arabs are Muslims. Not all Jews practise Judaism. Not all whites are Christians. Not all Chinese are Buddhists. Not all Indians are Hindus.

Well, people are just being stereotype.

Actually good people and bad people are anywhere, regardless the skin colours, the genders and the religions.

There are good Arabs and there are good Jews.

There are also bad Arabs and bad Jews.

There are good Muslims and there are good Christians.

There are also bad Muslims and bad Christians.

I hope my explanation is simple, understandable and logic.

Peace no war!

[Ezak]

What I find funny is that the arab countries seem to have a problem with separating Islam from the state, thus ending up in some sort of theocracy.

What do you who originate from middle- eastern (or would call yourself arabian or muslim) say about commiting blasphemous actions? Just watching how people have turned to violence to stop people such as Lars Vilks from having lectures about his "art" have left me with an impression that a greater part of the muslim minority is willing to go much further to strike down on people using their freedom of expression than compared to for example Piss christ, which I agree stird up some commotion, but not in the same manner as the burning of the quran or the muhammed- dog. The fact that people are willing to put their holy book before values such as democracy, freedom of speech and the right to express yourself leaves me worried. Do you think this is acceptable behaviour?

[Wykked Wytch]

America didn't have the most positive view of Muslims to begin with, and that only got worse after 9/11. Most Americans, I've found, do not understand the difference between "Arab" and "Muslim" and frequently use the interchangeably to mean "Middle-Easterner."

I remember when President Bush said he was invading Iraq, which I was absolutely opposed to. I was sitting in class later that week with some kids, and inevitably the topic of the war came up. I said that the civilian casualties were not worth it, and that perceptions of our nation abroad are simply getting worse and worse due to our foreign policy decisions. One boy responded that killing civilians was okay because "it's in their culture to hate America and if we get rid of them then we're eliminating future terrorists." He went on to say that their religion supposedly commands them to kill people of other religions. I pointed out that singling out the likes of the 9/11 hijackers to represent all Muslims made as much sense as singling out some abortion clinic bombers to represent all Christians. Then he accused me of being a "terrorist sympathizer" (lol what?) and asked me if I was a Muslim who "prayed to a moon-god Allah." I laughed and said no, I was not a Muslim. He then asked me what church I went to, and I only answered that I didn't go to a church because I was Jewish, and that I went to a synagogue. He answered, "What's a synagogue?" *facepalm*

To be fair, that boy was like a parody of what was being broadcasted in the media at the time. Perceptions of Arab-Americans have begun to improve, but slowly. Generally speaking, all the bigoted nonsense you hear about how evil all the Muslims are comes from the mouths of right-wing pundits and politicians who can't move out of black-and-white wartime thinking. Now, most of the people who stereotype Muslims and Arabs are also diehard Zionists looking to justify Israel's abysmal human rights record against the Palestinians, but that's a topic for a different thread.

[sberkmetin]

I live in Turkey, and I don't have much information about the Arabs other than some news or articles I read about their politics, culture etc. But as a Turkish citizen, what I see in common between the muslim peoples are; anti-semitism, women not being socially (in some countries even legally!) equal to men, there is no such thing as RESPECT towards non-muslim minorities, gays (lol some even kill them) et cetera. This is what I withness in my own country and this is what the media tells me about other Muslim countries, and the most visible reason to me is Islam. Sorry.

[Your Favorite Survivor]

I think not only Islam, but the term religion as general is terribly corrupted. For example: Islam started as the religion of respect, tolerance, and kindness. "Namaz" was a concept to work the body, aptes was for cleanliness ("Temizlik imandan gelir." --> Cleanliness comes from belief) pork was prohibited because there was a major disease spread by hog meat that time, and men were allowed to have more than one wife in order to protect women. I found this from my researches as an agnostic. But now, we see people discriminate, humiliate, and even kill each other in corruption of religion, which is a terrible view, and the things I just counted are seen enough to go to heaven by a group of uneducated people. I don't know if there is anyone who thinks this but there is a belief that all terrorists are Muslims and all Muslims are terrorists, and it is just very, very sad.

Edited May 18, 2014 by Your Favorite Survivor

[Firas Hommos]

umm im an arabian muslim in a quakers school! a lot of friends are christians and we live with each other peacefully, so the problem is with bad people doing what ever they want and then say they did it because islam asked them to do so .. if you go and read alquraan you will see the reality of islam and how much this religion is an amazing religion that asks for peace between every body so i think the world thinks islam and arabs are bad because of some people that claim to represent islam which if you look in quraan these people should not even be considered to be muslims