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Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Dr. Sami Alrabaa, a professor of sociology and an Arab/Muslim culture specialist, who one commenter called a "walking, breathing, positive proof that sanity is still flickering in the dark cavern that is contemporary Arab mass culture" wrote this about Hamas' actions in the Middle East:

Hamas prefers war as an alternative to progress:

We Arabs have learned nothing from the two major disastrous wars against Israel. Some of us still believe that the Israelis understand only the language of defiance and violence. Violence is the only "argument" we possess. Rational, realistic thinking has never been a part of our discourse and action.

Especially Islamists, they rejoice at the on-going maiming and killing in Gaza, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq. None of those Hamas-sympathizers has ever condemned the atrocities inflicted upon innocent people, arbitrarily killed in these countries by suicide bombers in the name Islam.

In Arabic we say, Ja'ja'a bila taheen" (It is all noise without flour). We Arabs are most boisterous, shrill people, but less effective or inclined to seeking pragmatic, workable solutions.

According to a clandestine survey by Bielefeld University conducted in Syria and Egypt (2006), over 70% of the population in these countries want peace with Israel. They are "sick and tired", as many put it, of the belligerent discourse of the Islamists and the biased and instigatory propaganda of their national media. They, of course, don't dare say that openly.

Khaled, who wants to be identified by his first name only, told me, "Our leaders and their affiliates suffer from some kind of personality disorder. They keep us busy with Israel to distract from their failure to establish democracy and remove poverty. They also support radical organizations like Hamas and Hezbollah as tools to keep that distraction alive."

Fatima said, "Israel left South Lebanon and Gaza. Yet, for Hezbollah and Hamas this is not enough. What do these people want? They are making the life of their people and ours miserable. We feel hijacked by these murderers. We want peace."

Hamas and its affiliates are among the bloodiest in the history of mankind. They do not value human life. They deliberately provoked the Israeli offensive and were aware that that would cause death to hundreds of civilians living in areas where Hamas had stored its rockets. Hamas leadership has been banking on images of death and destruction as a means to rally support in Arab, Muslim, and Western streets...

Dr. Alrabaa has also recently published a book titled "Karin in Saudi Arabia" about our peacemaking moderate allies:

"Karin" is a real story of a German woman, who lived in Saudi Arabia for a while and fell in love with a Saudi. Later, this love turned into a devastating nightmare. The Saudi "Morality Police", notorious for their bestial brutality, raped Karin and threw her in prison. Her crime was, she was driven alone downtown by a taxi-driver. Her German-Saudi baby son was taken away and she was deported to Cyprus without passport and money. Muna, a young Moroccan woman was luckier. She managed to smuggle herself and baby after one-night marriage with Sultan, the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia, you can marry and divorce a woman in her absence. All you need is a religious man and two male witnesses. This is exactly what happened to Karin; she was married in her absence. Muna never saw any marriage or divorce papers. ...

...Very few atrocities like the ones I'm reporting reach the international media. In March, 2002, the Saudi Morality Police prevented school girls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing the correct Islamic dress. As a result 15 girls were burned alive." My stories are a pattern that happen day in day out.

When you study Islam; the Quran and Shari'a, and live in Saudi Arabia for a while, you find out that the Saudis are in fact applying the Islamic law. "The woman who commits adultery must be stoned to death."(Quran, 36:18). "And (as for) the man who steals and the woman who steals, cut off their hands as a punishment for what they have earned, an exemplary punishment from Allah; and Allah is Mighty, Wise." (Quran 5:38). For more details, check out Islam is a Violent "Faith" and "Understanding Muhammad" by Ali Sina.

The book also shows that not only the Saudi regime and its religious fanatic establishment are oppressive, but also other groups in society: Saudi men oppress and ill-treat women, and Saudi men and women oppress abuse foreigners.

When I delivered the manuscript of this book to friends outside of Saudi Arabia, asking them to read it over, their response was uniform: they shook their heads in disbelief. Nobody in the civilized world seemed able to fathom the extent of the arbitrariness and atrocities to which victims in Saudi Arabia are subjected. To them, it was incredible. Some remarked that I was telling stories about the actions of monsters from another planet. They could not believe that any human could act as a Saudi corrupted by power does.

These are the moderate Saudi allies that we rely on (and empower) in an effort to bring peace to the Middle East. Is it any wonder things are such a mess?

To learn more about the culture our un-pragmatic State Department calls 'moderate', read Dr. Alrabaa's book, available through Amazon.

16 Comments

Haven't we been hearing for _decades_ that the Iranians really want peace, in spite of what their government does? And have these sage pronouncement been borne out by any effort at all on the part of the Iranian people to change the policies of their government, or even protest them?

Surely, the world is full of expatriate Iranians who are beyond the reach of the Iranian security services. Have they spoken out in any significant way?

So why should I believe the same nonsense about the Syrians?

Weren't the Lebanese supposed to be the most pro-Israel and pro-western Arab country? Don't they tell us every chance they get that they really really would like peace and that it's not at all their fault that their country has been overrun by a terrorist army? And yet what do these words come to?

If they can't be bothered to do more than cry about the sorry condition of their countries and governments, then it certainly is not Israel's responsibility to hear their cries.

I'm not willing to accept a logic in which Israel becomes once again the heavy because, after all, most Arabs really want peace no matter what their governments do and say. If "most Arabs" aren't willing to risk even the slightest social discomfort for the sake of peace, and not even a few are willing to risk more than that, then they have no right to expect peace.

It doesn't impress me to see articles like this on western English language web sites. That makes it an exercise in propaganda, telling a western audience what they want to hear.

I won't go so far as to accuse Mr. Alrabaa of anything, but an article like this on a site like this is hardly an effective protest.

When I see this presumed silent majority do something other than complain, I will be impressed. Until then, I think Israel should assume that the Arab street is exactly what it seems, a dangerous seething cauldron of hate.

Perhaps, if we finally abandon wishful thinking, they'll get the message that the clock has run out and their excuses won't keep any of them from becoming the next Gaza.

If they can't be bothered to do more than cry about the sorry condition of their countries and governments, then it certainly is not Israel's responsibility to hear their cries.

I think that Dr. Alrabaa is saying that it's the Arabs responsibility to do something about the mess that they've created. It's up to the 'silent majority' to take action. If they don't, then they suffer the consequences.

In this article and in Alrabaa's book Arab leaders are the 'heavy'. As they should be.

I see that, rhetorically, but the fact that the message is delivered to a western audience is one thing that makes me suspicious of it. That I've heard it all before is another.

I would be more impressed if he completed the thought and concluded that the evidence is in. The silent majority will never act.

I would be more impressed if he completed the thought and concluded that the evidence is in. The silent majority will never act.

I don't think he could do that, since he's talking about his own community. It's one thing to chide them and criticize them for failing to do the right thing. If you give up on them completely, then you lose hope.

I don't think he's trying to gain sympathy for Arabs in the western world. He is trying to show that Arab/Islamist leaders are the worst of the worst in their society. Hamas is evil and so is Fatah. Iran is evil and so is Saudi Arabia. We're not going to gain anything by allying with any of these losers.

It's not clear what can be done about any of this, but it is clear that pragmatism is a rare thing in that part of the world.

Sorry Mary. I really do appreciate what you're saying. I do. It's just that talk is cheap, and talk directed at non-scary audiences is cheaper.

Let me give an example of what looks like courage to me.

http://www.wupiran.com/

I suspect you'll disagree with their ideology and most of their analysis of the world, as I do, but damn they at least have the guts to be in the fight rather than just monday morning quarterbacking it.

Again, remember Lebanon. There were so many rational sounding voices coming out of Lebanon throughout its decline into subjugation. But they just like to hear themselves talk. They never took any real risks and consequently never accomplished anything.

So yes I've got no hope invested in this guy. Give me more of that woman, whose name I've forgotten, who gets on AJ and takes on the clerics. Show me people who are willing to go where they get spit on and insulted to speak their minds.

> I don't think he could do that, since he's
> talking about his own community.

and yes he can do that, if it's the truth. Any Arab who really wants peace has got to reach the point of being exasperated, or else I suspect he's lying to himself or his audience.

I know people who give personal advice in the same tone as this article. They know you won't take the advice, because it's not practical for you or too ambitious, but they want to be on record as having said something apparently constructive so they won't be on the hook for the disaster that is obviously coming. Same thing.

...and yes he can do that, if it's the truth. Any Arab who really wants peace has got to reach the point of being exasperated, or else I suspect he's lying to himself or his audience

But pragmatists avoid exasperation by having a plan b. If argument A doesn't work, try argument B. When that doesn't work, try C.

I get exasperated when I hear people refer to the need to be allied with "moderate" Saudi Arabia, but I always feel like there must be some way of making them see how wrong this is. There are a million reasons why this alliance is wrong, so there are a million new arguments to try.

Wafa Sultan isn't really a pragmatist, she's an idealist who doesn't mince words. She's great, but she's not convincing Arabs to change their ways.

However, she might be able to knock some sense into our idiot state department. She certainly respects western values more than they do.

> She's great, but she's not convincing
> Arabs to change their ways.

she's awesome.

but what is this pragmatist question? There's no reasonable and civilized reform option here. The Arabs need a revolution. Nothing less.

...but what is this pragmatist question? There's no reasonable and civilized reform option here. The Arabs need a revolution. Nothing less

The Arabs need a revolution and they think they're getting one with the Islamists. Hezbollah, Hamas and al Qaeda give them a sense of importance and empowerment. People care about Muslims now. Without terrorists, no one would care about such a boring, backwards, static society.

That's not the revolution we want to see, but it's the only one they, as a group, seem to be choosing.

It would be possible for us to reform them the way we reformed fascists in Japan and Germany, but that would require that we simultaneously wage a total war against all of the states that support terrorism (Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Yemen, the Sudan). A total war against these weak states would not be as horrific as WWII, since they don't have much of a military. Once the fascist influence is gone, a Marshall plan could work in the area.

But we'll never do that because our government would never wage war against the hub of world terrorism, Saudi Arabia. Our leaders have shown that they're willing to risk, and lose, thousands of American lives to preserve their 'friendship' with the Sauds.

Waging a war against Islamism without attacking Saudi Arabia is like fighting WWII while being allied with Hitler. It can't be won that way.

So, no revolution.

> Waging a war against Islamism without
> attacking Saudi Arabia is like fighting
> WWII while being allied with Hitler.

now look who's lost hope.

> The Arabs need a revolution and they
> think they're getting one with the Islamists

but you can't have it both ways. It can't be true both that most Arabs want peace and that they've chosen an Islamist revolution.

I suspect narrative B (they've chosen an Islamist revolution) is closer to the truth and narrative A (Most Arabs really want peace) is a handy bit of propaganda.

At a minimum, once you factor out all the particulars of one region vs. another and one country vs. another, Arabs have either chosen an Islamist revolution or have resigned themselves to one and aren't going to do anything about it.

now look who's lost hope

Not really. At this point there is no hope that there will be a revolution that will get rid of Islamism, stasis, slavery and ethnic cleansing in the Arab/Muslim world. But the terrorist infrastructure could be eliminated through more moderate means, like weakening the economies, the influence and the intelligence agencies of the states that support terrorism. Since our primary goal is to get rid of terrorist militias, that's probably all we should do.

It's worth investing the time and money to weaken terrorist states, but trying to change this culture shouldn't be our job. Yet we're the only ones who can do it. Arab/Muslim civilization has been stagnant and unproductive for hundreds of years, and that's not going to change, even if all the terrorist militias disappear tomorrow. Changing that would require a real revolution, the elimination of old regimes, old ways of doing things,old tribal customs - it's a hornets nest that has to be removed, all at once, completely. It would require a huge amount of time, money and effort, and it's not worth it for us.

We know that the Arabs aren't going to change things. Islamism is a huge step in the wrong direction, and they seem determined to follow that path (or to be led along it).

Israel and Lebanon are productive, but the Gulf states and Islamist Iran will be wastelands when the oil/terrorism money dries up. Hundreds of years from now, people will be looking at the farmers still using methods that haven't changed since 700AD, they'll look at the women still in hijabs and they'll still be saying that the Arab/Muslim world needs a revolution.

we're not so far apart. there are two pillars to my view:

1) the arabs will continue down this path of backwardness until it consumes them completely

2) the only thing Israel can do is manage risks (as you suggest - go after terrorist infrastructure and so on).

Every time a US envoy flies off to make peace, it only complicates risk management but doesn't bring peace any closer.

Similarly, these (false, imo) reports that the mass of Arabs really want peace also complicate risk management because they set up the familiar logical framework in which Israel is blamed for their radicalization.

If it were actually true, that would be one thing, but what is more likely true is that the Arabs are telling young and naive German college students exactly what they want to hear, probably just to be polite.

Anyway we agree, more or less, except about the pragmatism.

But Dr. Alrabaa isn't blaming Israel for Arab radicalization, he's blaming Hamas and Arab regimes for the problem. He's even quoting Arabs who blame Hamas - and he's written about the depravity of Saudi society.

Young German students want to hear that America and Israel are evil, and this is what they usually do hear. It's what American students hear at Columbia and NYU. If you haven't listened to the average Saudi-funded college professor speak lately, you have no idea how bad it is. Dr. Alrabaa is a total contrast to the average.

I concede, I have no idea what's happening on campuses.

I've listened in on a few Columbia U. 'teach in's'. It's pretty bad

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