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American students' perception of Islam and the Arab world

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American students' perception of Islam and the Arab world

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Content AMERICAN STUDENTS' PERCEPTION OF ISLAM AND THE ARAB WORLD by Awatef M. Siam A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Education) August 1993 Copyright 1993 Awatef M. Siam UMI Number: DP25534 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. Dissertation Publishing UMI DP25534 Published by ProQuest LLC (2014). Copyright in the Dissertation held by the Author. Microform Edition © ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code ProQuest LLC. 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106- 1346 UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90007 This dissertation,, written by Awatef Mohammed Siam under the direction of h..?T.... Dissertation Committee; and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Graduate School, in partial fulfillm ent of re quirements fo r the degree of D O C T O R O F P H IL O S O P H Y Dean of Graduate Studies Date June 28 ’ 1993 DISSERTATION' COMMITTEE Chairperson ii Dedication For the memory of my father 1 Acknowledgements I I 1 ! I wish to extend my deepest appreciation to my friend l |Joyce Schuyler Parker for her assistance, staunch support, | and continued faith in me. The completion of this study I ,could never have taken place without her help. Many thanks i | are also extended to her husband, Dr. Walt Parker for his I ,support. ^ My gratitude also goes out to my loving mother, and brother Hani for being patient with me. My sincere appreciation is conveyed to the following i I people: i ! Dr. William M. Rideout for his accessibility, kindness, t • and continuous support throughout my program of studies at t I use. I Dr. Nelly Stromquist for her valuable help and I j suggestions. Dr. David Eskey for his support, insight, valuable -suggestions and encouragement. Dr. Richard Sundeen for his support and understanding. I i ! Dr. Don Swanjord for his assistance and support. i Dr. Charles Kokaska, from California State University, i !Long Beach, for his friendship and support. Dr. Carl Ernst from Pomona College for his help. iv The University of Southern California and the faculty of the School of Education for a memorable educational experience. V Table of Contents Dedication.........................................ii Acknowledgements ................................ iii Table of Contents.................................. v List of Tables.....................................ix List of Figures.....................................x Chapter I ............................................. 1 Statement of the Problem ....................... 1 Background to the Problem ..................... 1 Purpose of the Study............................ 3 Statement of the Problem ....................... 4 Methods ........................................ 5 Research Question .............................. 7 Assumptions .................................... 8 Delimitations .................................. 8 Limitations .................................... 9 Implications of this Research ................. 9 Definition of T e r m s ..............................10 Chapter I I .............................................14 Review of the Literature..........................14 Perception........................................ 15 Cultural Assumptions and Values 2 0 Ethnocentrism: Cultural Pride, Cultural Degradation and Cultural Chauvinism ........... 24 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy ....................... 26 I Intercultural Communication . . . . I i Interculturalism ............. I Effective Communication . . . . Miscommunication ............. Distortions in Intercultural Communication ................. i I American Perceptions of Others . . . I j The Media ......................... I | Education ......................... ! Summary of Chapter ................. j Chapter III . . . . | Methodology ........................ 1 f Qualitative Methodology .......... Research Design ................... t Qualitative Methodology .......... Participant Methodology . . . . The Observed ................. i The Observer ................. ' Selecting Settings ........... ^ Triangulation ................. j Working With Data ................. Developing and Verifying Theory Methodology of the Study .......... Summary of Chapter ................. Chapter IV .............................. vi 28 31 41 47 48 51 59 66 68 72 72 72 77 77 77 78 79 81 81 82 82 83 89 92 vii Findings.......................................... 92 The Findings of the Students' Case Study .... 92 Portrayal of Islam and the Arab World in the M e d i a ........................................ 94 Stereotyping and Dehumanization ............... 9 6 Desert People .............................. 98 Have No Principle............................99 Have No Justice System..................... 99 Against Women ............................ 100 Racism ....................... ..... 100 An English Muslim's V i e w ............... 101 Prejudice and Racism................... 102 Double Standards ....................... 105 Inaccurate and Distorted Information ......... 109 Islam is the Enemy of the W e s t ......... 116 Fundamentalism .......................... 117 Militants................................ 119 The West is Right.......... 121 Primitive People ....................... 122 Inaccurate and Distorted Information . . 124 Historical Distortion ................... 130 Teaching Distorted History .............. 13 0 Summary and Conclusion on the M e d i a .......... 13 5 American Perceptions of Minorities ........... 137 Summary and Conclusion of Chapter I V .......... 14 0 Chapter V ............................................ 142 Summary, Selected Findings, Conclusions And Recommendations.......................... 142 Selected Findings ............................ 144 Conclusion.................................... 145 Recommendations .............................. 146 References........................................ 149 Appendices........................................ 166 A. "The Arabs: Who They Are, Who They Are Not." Transcript #101, Bill Moyers, The Arab World................................ 167 B. "The Historic Memory." Transcript #102, Bill Moyers, The Arab W o r l d .................. 173 C. "The Image of God." Transcript #103, Bill Moyers, The Arab World....................... 179 D. "The Bonds of Pride." Transcript #104, Bill Moyers, The Arab World....................... 184 E. The Study.................................... 19 0 The S t u d y ................................. 191 The Group From the Religion Department: Questionnaire ................................ 191 The Group From the Religion Department: Observation.................................. 2 04 The Group From the Anthropology Department: Questionnaire ................................ 211 The Group From the Anthropology Department: Observation.................................. 222 F. Review of Across the Centuries. (Teachers Edition), Unit two, "The growth of Islam," pp. 49-102. . 233 ix List of Tables Trends in approaches to intercultural education by dominant culture ............. 34 A Typology of Filters in Intercultural Communication ............... 43 Strictly Speaking ......................... 128 X List of Figures Levels of Attempted Intercultural Action . . 40 The Times Poll 13 4 CHAPTER 1 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM Background of the Problem The new world order, as a result of the end of the Cold War, demands a different kind of relationship among the people of the world, a relationship should be built on mutual understanding and respect rather than power and exploitation. Unfortunately, the progress in human relations has not kept pace with the advancement in science and technology of our time. There is a constant need for people to develop ways and means in which they can live comfortably with themselves and others. Moreover, to contribute to the solutions of the endless problems facing our world today, such as: The mass destruction weapons that are capable of destroying the major parts of human life and human civilization. The destruction of the global environment, through pollution of air and the soil, water and air, global warming and deforestation; the demographic situation, where the world population is increasing very rapidly; the unjust distribution of the wealth of the world and the way in which we use our resources. Much of the world population is suffering from hunger and malnutrition. Millions of children are living in social destitution, besides children who are forced'to earn their living by 2 begging, prostitution and theft. Children in some countries are hunted and killed like rats. Millions of individuals live as refugees in foreign countries. Illiteracy is extremely high and it is still growing among many of the poor countries. This is despite a whole set of conventions, declarations and recommendations on human rights which has been decided upon through the United Nations. Instead, the world community is characterized by labels such as rich and poor, civilized and uncivilized, or developed and underdeveloped countries. These labels indicate divisions based on material wealth, exploitation, color and religion that reflect the concept of perceived differences among the people of the world. The idea that everyone perceives the world differently and that members of one cultural group share basic sets of perceptions that are different from sets of perceptions shared by members of other cultural groups is difficult to internalize. The way one sees the world and thinks about it is deeply rooted in one's culture. In daily life one is bombarded with quantities of data or communication from the environment such as sight, smell, and sensation. One is forced into a screening process or "selective perception" to classify jor categorize these data. But the problem is that categorizing can lead to stereotyping, especially toward i people from other cultures. People are categorized and classified only according to certain traits of dress, i ( behavior or mein, and all else about them is ignored. i Therefore, stereotyping arises when one's j |categories are confused with reality, especially in the I tendency to mix those categories with negative or j destructive emotions; or when one's own experience does , not fit into his/her own categories, resulting in 1 ambiguity. Thus, one's perception of others can be a ; determining factor in how to view them and deal with them. Racism, prejudice and stereotyping are a clear manifestation of one's perceptions of others. Purpose of the Study The purpose of this study is to focus on American students' perception toward Islam and the Arab world, to detect the reasons for their views and the effect of teaching on the perception of cultural differences. It is hoped that by exploring perception, Americans can have a better understanding of Islam and the Arab world, leading to mutual understanding and respect that might result in more cooperation and peaceful ways of solving problems. 4 Statement of the Problem The gloomy situation of our world divided on the basis of categories that are built around superficial characteristics demands full cooperation among the people of the world, especially with the end of the Cold War. This new era calls for different kinds of relationships among the people of the world, relationships that are built on mutual understanding and respect rather than power and exploitation. Islam, which is the world's second-largest religion, and Muslims, who make up around one-fifth of the global population, are misunderstood and distorted in the Western media and literature (Said, 1978). Islam is seen, for example, as a backward religion that prevents thinking, a Bedouin religion located somewhere in the Middle Eastern deserts, a religion against women. Muslims are seen as uncivilized, violent people with dark hair, dark skin, and as camel riders. Islam and the Arab world cannot be understood without some accurate understanding of Islam and Muslim civilization. Islam is to be considered as a complete civilization with the Islamic faith as a unifying factor (Said, 1978; Massialas & Jarrar, 1983). These people and their religion have been stereotyped by Americans and other Westerners over a long period of time. Their civilization and their rich contributions to human ^ .................. , . , . f civilization in mathematics, science and medicine were j ignored or misrepresented. The oil in the Muslim world has led to increased stereotyping by the West, in which they are viewed as rich prolifigate people. Since Americans and the West, in general, have economic and political interests in the Muslim world, it is imperative that they seek knowledge and understanding about Muslims and their religion, and deal with them accordingly. Cooperation between the East and West can alleviate many cases of human pain and suffering, and as a result enhance the gloomy picture of our world. Methods 1. For this study, a qualitative descriptive research design is used to obtain information on perception of Islam and the Arab world. 2. Several methodologies have been utilized to study American students' perceptions of Islam and the Arab world; the study included a questionnaire and observation and grounded theory. First, the study consisted of two parts, a questionnaire and observation. The questionnaire surveyed students' perceptions on Islam and the Arab world. At the same time, an observation was done on student interaction and reaction to information on Islam and the Arab world. Second, according to grounded theory, the findings of the study directed the rest of the study. New evidence was introduced guided by the findings, to verify and examine these results, until the researcher felt that the data reached the saturation point. Each of these methodologies was useful in the study of some aspects of the process of perception, but none yields a comprehensive result. The descriptive qualitative procedure is designed to show how these different variables are related to one another in forming the perception of the population under study. Data gathered through this research were analyzed, categorized and reflected upon in order to answer research questions and present a different perception of Islam and the Arab world. The methodology aimed at developing a connection between American perception of Islam and the Arab world, and the treatment of American minorities. In order to do so, categories were developed that explore the phenomena of the study. These categories were later refined and clarified on the 7 basis of additional data that were collected. The theory that resulted from this process of generation has several important characteristics. It is grounded in empirical data; its purpose is to elucidate the process of the course and outcome of future perception; it is only one of several possible theories and it is presented as theory in process rather than as a final definitive statement on the process of perception. The literature reviewed in this research offered insight into the exploration of Americans' perception of other cultural and ethnic groups. Research Questions What are the preconceived perceptions of Islam and the Arab world held by American college students? What kind of positive perceptions do American college students hold about Islam and the Arab world? What kind of negative perceptions do American college students hold about Islam and the Arab world? What are the sources of information of American college students about Islam and the Arab world? What are the effects of teaching in forming a positive perception and changing the negative one 8 about Islam and the Arab world? Assumptions Several assumptions were made in conducting this study: 1. It was assumed that within the class setting, especially in the interaction between the students and the teacher, through the questionnaire that was administered, through data collected from newspapers, magazines and television transcripts, and through some history textbooks, the researcher can find situations that, if described and reflected upon, will help detect American student perceptions of Islam and the Arab world. It was also assumed that this perception is related to the underlying interpretations of this religion and its people by Western media and publications. 2. The methodology applied in this research is a valid measure for detecting perception. Delimitations 1. The study was limited to college students only. 2. Some of the data being used was second-hand data. 3. This study dealt with only some aspects of teaching about Islam while, as a whole, Islam is a way of life. 9 Limitations 1. The students were all middle class Americans, and thus not a cross-section of the U.S. population. 2. The two groups involved in this study did not take the same course. One group was studying Islam as a world religion, and the second was studying comparative Islamic societies through the Department of Anthropology. There was a difference in the objectives of the two courses. 3. The overlapping of the terms Arabs and Muslims make it difficult to evaluate the students' perceptions of each of these terms. 4. The students' main source of information was the media, thus limiting the researcher's exploration of other sources that influence Americans' perception of Islam and the Arab world. Implications of this Research 1. The findings of this research can be used to develop a better relationship between Americans and Muslims. 2. The answers to the proposed questions can lead to more understanding and cooperation that might result in peaceful measures to solve mutual problems. 3. The findings help to enhance relationships between the East and West as exemplified in the change of students' perceptions after taking the classes. 4. This research can help these students become media- i literate and critical of received information from l the entertainment industry and educational ( institutions about Islam and the Arab world. Definition of Terms | The following terms used in this study are defined to assure continuity and to present their meanings in i the sense that is used in this study, j Culture is the sum total of the ways of living, which i. includes, among other things, values, beliefs, j ! I aesthetic standards, linguistic expressionism, t patterns of thinking, behavioral norms, and styles j j of communication. Culture is the response of a group of people to the valid and particular needs of its member, Pusch (1979). A subculture is a group of people within a larger sociopolitical structure who share cultural characteristics that are distinctive enough to distinguish this group from other groups in the same society. Race is a concept used to identify large groups of people who share a distinctive combination of hereditary physical characteristics. Class refers to a stratum of people who share basic economic, political or cultural characteristics within a society. An ethnic group is a group of people identified by racial, national or cultural characteristics. This I ' term is often applied to groups with minority status in a large society. . Communication is the transmission of messages from a sender to a receiver. The goal is to do so with as j little loss of meaning as possible. i I Cultural relativism indicates that culture cannot be judged or evaluated from a single or absolute ethical or moral perspective. Evaluation should be relative to the background from which it stemmed. i Prejudice describes hostile and unreasonable feelings, — opinions or attitudes based on fear, mistrust, ignorance, misinformation etc, and directed against racial, religious, national or cultural group, Pusch (1979). Discrimination involves differential treatment of individuals because of their membership in a minority group. . ^ Racism refers to the belief that there are clearly distinguishable human races. A stereotype is an in-group's oversimplified conception of members of an out-group, which is devoid of traits valued by the in-group and is loaded with traits devalued by the in-group. Perception, the personal meaning that one attaches to a given situation and which directly affects how the individual behaves in a certain situation. Multicultural education is a structural process designed to promote understanding, acceptance and constructive relations among people of many different cultural backgrounds. Cross-cultural awareness refers to the learning of the unconscious, culturally-based assumptions and values held by individuals that are brought to the surface. Power refers to the ability of one group to realize its goals and interests, even in the face of resistance. WASP, White Anglo-Saxon Protestant, the power of this group heritage of the United States is still potent, manifested in people's attitude and behaviors. The WASP group is so embedded in American society that its customs and beliefs are perceived by some to be the American core culture. Minority groups are those whose members experience a wide range of discriminatory treatment and ^ 13 frequently they are relegated to positions f | 1 relatively low in the status structure of the j | " society. Occasionally they represent a numerical I !, majority of the total population. J Majority, dominant, and mainstream is the group that has \ 5 the power, and sets the culture pattern and j sustains it, and requires conformity to custom and values. ~ Islam is the world's second largest religion with nearly 1 billion followers. Arabs, the ethnic group that originally spread Islam, \ . . r are now a minority in the religion. 14 CHAPTER II REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The literature relevant to this study explores perceptions of cultural understanding in America. The focus in this review of the literature will be on those selected concepts that are felt to be the most central: perception, cultural assumptions and values, ethnocentrism, self-fulfilling prophecy and intercultural communication. In addition, Americans' perceptions of foreign cultures and minorities at home will be presented. In another section, the media and education will be explored. First, the perceptual system is considered the foundation on which people build their relationships to the rest of the world. Second, the assumptions and values that are buried beyond awareness in our everyday behavior are not accessible without special effort and are among the fundamental stumbling blocks to effective perception, communication and relations across cultures. Third, ethnocentrism is a basic human survival response. The principal characteristic of ethnocentrism is the relatively blatant assertion of personal and cultural superiority accompanied by a denigration of other cultures and other ways. Its impulse is to divide the world into two parts, "us" and "them," in other words, into a "We - they" conflict. Next, in intercultural communication, differences are central and dealing with them is an important cross- cultural skill. It is the ability to appreciate cultural differences that moves people along the cultural learning process. Therefore, differences constitute both the essence of cross-cultural learning and the medium of intercultural communication. In addition, Americans' perceptions will be seen through examples of their perceptions of foreign cultures and exploration of their views of minorities at home. This is explored through the concept of racism. Sixth, because the media function as a powerful societal curriculum, shaping and influencing peoples' perceptions of others, the literature on the effect of media in forming peoples' perceptions is included in this review. Finally, education is defined as the more or less deliberate process of transmitting the culture of the adult to the young. This deliberate teaching influences students' perceptions of others and forms part of the literature relevant to this study of cultural understanding. Perception Perception, according to Webster's New World 16 !Dictionary, is the mental grasp of objects and so forth i through the senses, insight or intuition. The concept of perception looks simple and easy to understand. On •the other hand, one of the simplest and yet most difficult ideas to internalize is the concept of j , perceptual differences. Everyone perceives the world k differently, and members of one cultural group share jbasic sets of perceptions that are different from sets j of perceptions shared by members of other cultural j groups. It is not difficult to understand this idea; but it is hard to internalize it so that it affects our behavior. The way people perceive the world, what they expect of it and what they think about it is basic and I | ingrained, is buried deeply in them and in their unconscious. As a result, people continuously act and react without thinking why and without even realizing that they are doing so (Singer, 1976). This leads to the definition of culture "as the acquired knowledge people use to interpret experience and generate t behavior" (Spradley, p.6, 1980). Cultural knowledge exists at two levels of consciousness: Explicit culture that makes up part of what we know, a level of knowledge in which people can communicate with relative ease; and I tacit, where a large portion of our cultural knowledge remains tacit outside our awareness, according to Spradley. The work of Edward Hall should be mentioned here; he elucidates the nature of tacit cultural knowledge in his books The Silent Language (1963) and The Hidden Dimension (1966). I i Communication from the environment bombards our 'daily lives with huge quantities of sensory data such as: sight, sound, smell, tactile sensation, and taste. ■ This bombardment goes on continuously so that we are forced to develop a screening process called "selective ! perception" that is critical to our mental health; i without it, we go crazy. But how do we decide what to i hear or what not to hear, what to see or not to see? The way to deal with that mass of sensory data is to classify or categorize it, so it can be the means by which people sort, define, understand and store their experiences. Within the selective perception, we are able to establish the categories through a system of values and value judgments based largely on what our culture dictates. By doing so, our experience becomes manageable; we can store and forget most of it, dealing with and reacting to what is important, and that depends on value judgments which vary according to one's values. But when our experience does not fit into our categories, it produces ambiguity. So our response to ! I !that is to force it into an inaccurate category. This ;means the distortion of our perception of reality, or |the feeling of insecurity. Sequentially, those feelings extend to our relationship with the world around us. By i jthe same token, when we encounter values, behavior, I | communication style, ways of thinking which don't fit : our categories of meaning and instead, fit the | categories of some other cultural group, communication j is likely to break down. Also, categorizing may lead to I ! stereotyping. In every culture people make a vast i assortment of distinctions among people, in the way they look, move, dress and sound. These distinctions are \ w w i necessary because people consider as members of their j own culture those upon whom, normally, they depend for , physical, social and economic security. Therefore, they ; should distinguish carefully in order to provide that for themselves; but this is not the case with other culture groups; if we don't encounter them very much or don't depend on them, we have a tendency to categorize 1 them as simply as possible. Sometimes we are puzzled or convinced by the fact that "they all look alike." It becomes stereotyping when we are confused over categories with reality. This is made more complicated by an inclination to invest those categories, because they constitute the 19 i unknown, with negative or destructive emotion. These are emotions that as humans are all subject to, such as I fear, envy, and mistrust. They are emotions all too i !often reality-based, arising out of competition for I |limited resources, territory or power. The important ’point here is that from a natural and necessary function of the human organism, a major barrier to intercultural communication may occur (Hoopes, 1977). In most societies, data and categories are assigned 'meanings. Thereby, the perceptual system and the culture as a whole becomes embodied in and shaped by the languages of those societies because it is difficult for , us to perceive something if we do not have a name for it. Language is a reflection of culture and an important vehicle by which culture is transmitted to and reinforced in the members of a cultural group, but one should remember that language is not the whole culture; much of our perceptual system is manifest in the ways in which we behave, and organize our environment without the intervention of the language. Therefore, learning the language or the linguistic code is important yet is not enough; learning the culture and the cultural code are equally important. So a bicultural person is someone who learned another set of categories of meaning by which to judge experiences since categories of meaning are defined largely by culture (Hoopes, 1977). The data that our perceptual system select may |depend on our own personality or culture, immediate or |temporary need, although one would argue that culture | and the value system embodies the strongest and the most pervasive influence. However it happens, it provides structure and order to the world which provides security i j to us as vulnerable human beings. This perceptual 1 system that we have is the foundation on which we build our global relationships (Pusch, 1979). i j Cultural Assumptions and Values ! It was assumed that cultural assumptions and values are very important variables that our perceptual system i depends upon in multicultural communication. ! Stewart (1975) talked about "assumptions" as well ; as values; where values are a statement of what should be, they have the quality of "oughtness"; on the other ■ hand, assumptions are basic beliefs or perceptions of reality that are behind values and which affect the way people behave. Pusch (1979) stated that "neither values : nor assumptions refers to preferences" as in food, and clothing, that are nevertheless very much a part of "culture." Here, I disagree with Pusch, because clothes i and food, at least some food, in some cultures are 21 manifestations of the values of that given culture, for example, the women's dress code in Muslim society, and some food for Muslims and Jews. Stewart recognizes the ambiguity of these words and ideas; but he resists the creation of new jargon to deal with it, according to Pusch (1979). The work of Florence Kluckhohn and Fred Strodbeck (1961) on values and values orientations, which was applied to the value system of mainstream American culture, was first used by Edward C. Stewart (1971), in cross-cultural research and training. Stewart divides cultural assumptions and values into four components: 1 - Form of activity 2 - Form of social relation 3 - Perception of the world 4 - Perception of self and the individual. Each of these four components is broken down into discrete values or assumptions and is analyzed from a cross-cultural perspective, where it is looked at in terms of how it compares with similar values in other cultures, or how it is viewed by non-Americans, when encountering behaviors based on it either in the United States or abroad. For example, under "form of activity" Stewart noted that Americans are oriented toward doing, or getting things "done," which is a virtue among Americans and has high value placed on it. On the other : 22 i t [hand, some cultures place more value on "being," on the !pure quality of the individual or on "being-in- jbecoming," with stress on self-growth (Hoopes, 1975). Stewart's analysis, based on the characteristics of I |mainstream culture in the United States, that provides a i useful guide to someone who wishes to understand the ^dynamics of the culture. There is a wide range of assumptions and value I . : orientations represented in any given culture. Some i will predominate, and further predominance of one orientation does not always mean a weak manifestation of ; others; Pusch (1971) gave an example where Asians tend to be predominantly "being" oriented; but in Japan : "doing" ranks high as a value too. Also, individual value orientations may be shared by different cultures, for example, friendship patterns are similar in Russian and Arab culture, where an orientation toward the developments of deep and demanding bonds exists in both. Hoopes (1975) stated that we may believe that technological progress is a good thing; that is a value, but this does not reveal the assumption about man's relation to nature in which he/she is capable of mastering and exploiting nature according to their will, in many if not most people who hold the belief. The assumption is unconscious, out-of-awareness; therefore 23 J when nature responds to technology with ugliness and pollution, it comes as a surprise for these people. So i contradictions and dynamics of technological progress |are not simple. Nevertheless, it is a basic proposition of cross-cultural analysis that values and/or the assumptions on which they rest are often, if not normally, out of consciousness, they may be just below the surface or deeply buried; but have a powerful effect i | on the way we behave, think and respond to others. People learn values and assumptions from the minute they I are born, and the function of culture and learning is to reinforce them as people grow to adulthood. One can debate the great conscious value issues of religion, political ideology, economic and social structure. Still, the assumptions and values that are buried beyond awareness in our everyday behavior are not accessible without special effort and are among the fundamental stumbling blocks to effective perception, i communication and relations across cultures. An example of this is the negative aspect of ethnocentrism that implies the superiority of one's culture accompanied by a denigration of other cultures and ways. On the other hand, inter-cultural education and cross-cultural training can provide a framework for that "special effort" (Hoopes, 1975). Ethnocentrism: Cultural Pride, Cultural Degradation and Cultural Chauvinism Culture and the value system it embodies is the strongest and most pervasive influence on the data that the perceptual system selects. On the premise that ethnocentrism is a universal attitude of pride in one's own ethnic or cultural group, a group is provided with solidarity and unity such as the sense of peoplehood, as in the phrase, "We the people" (Garcia, 1982) . The effect of perception on ethnocentrism stemmed from pride in one's own culture and values, and that one's cultures and values are right. Therefore, one's perceptions of other cultures are rooted in his or her ethnocentrism. Sequentially, this can be the foundation on which we build our relationship to the rest of the world. But Hoopes (1975) stated that the principal characteristic of ethnocentric lies in the assumption of personal and cultural superiority accompanied by a denigration of other cultures and other ways. This leads to a division of the world into two parts "us" and "them" or "we— they" conflict. Yetman (1985) stated that ethnic groups are inherently ethnocentric towards their own culture traits as natural, correct, and superior to those of other 25 ethnic groups who are perceived as odd, amusing, i inferior, or immoral. j According to Garcia (1982), ethnocentrism appears I within a society in at least three forms: Cultural i I ipride, cultural degradation, and cultural chauvinism. Cultural pride, a positive form of ethnocentrism, refers to self-respect or self-esteem for one's ethnic or cultural heritage. It is necessary for a positive igroup identity, ethnic solidarity and for developing positive self-identity for its members. By knowing that !their group has a rich heritage going back over many centuries, they can experience a sense of roots in the past and a continuity in the present. i Cultural degradation, a corrosive form of ethnocentrism, is where an ethnic group is made to feel that their culture is inadequate, backward, or inferior. As a result of strong Americanization forces, prejudices and discrimination, some ethnic groups have experienced cultural degradation. Third, cultural chauvinism is one's feeling that his/her in-group's culture and people are superior to others, and the out-group people are "barbaric," or "uncivilized." On the other hand, one can have ethnic group pride without being chauvinistic. "When Brown Chicano power advocates asserted that 'brown is beautiful' they did not necessarily imply that white was i ugly, nor did they assert that brown skin was superior to white" (Garcia, 1982, p. 77). I In general, the ethnocentrism impulse is to divide i i I the world into two parts, "us" and "them," and the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy plays a role in determining one's perceptions and expectations of i others. 1 Self-Fulfilling Prophecy I I Since perception is deeply rooted in one's culture, i I 'therefore, the data our perceptual system selects Jdepends on one's culture and its value system. In other words, the perceptual system is the foundation on which one builds a relationship to the world. As a result, .one's expectations are a critical stumbling block in dealing with cultural differences, and stem from one's culture and its values (Hoopes, 1975). Hoopes added that the further one's expectations are from reality, ! the bigger the problem will be. A good example will be | the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy. Research shows that the self-fulfilling prophecy is an all-too-true phenomenon, where students respond to the expectations of their teachers. Rosenthal and Jacobson's well known studies on the effect of teacher's expectations of students' academic performance clarify ' 27 i this, and in their book Pygmalion In the Classroom :(1988), they talk of their experiments with an academic Jpotential stereotype, when a group of youngsters, at various ranges of academic levels and skills, when identified as late bloomers. These teachers were told that these students were tested with new types of ^ intelligence tests and these tests showed the youngsters I to be exceptionally bright. The teachers treated them as such, through such subtleties as facial expressions, tone of voice, and a general ambiance of acceptance that ' conveyed to them that they were exceptionally bright. By the end of the experiment, these youngsters were , exceptionally bright according to standardized tests. 1 The point is that self-fulfilling prophecy works, the teachers treated the youngsters on the basis of stereotype, and the youngsters reciprocated by assuming the role. As Morland (1962) puts it, the Self- Fulfilling Prophecy for teachers means that if students' capabilities were defined as real, then they are real in their consequences. Therefore, in many cases, teachers , behave in the classroom accordingly. The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights conducted a study analyzing the verbal and nonverbal interaction of teachers and students in the public schools in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. This study investigated the 28 ,kind and the amount of verbal interaction that occurred I i between teachers and Anglo and Mexican American students. The study reported that Mexican American i students received considerably less of some of the most educationally beneficial forms of teacher behavior than that of the Anglos in the same classroom (U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, 1973). In the case of ;minority students, teachers expect less from them and :thus students produce less. I This phenomenon is also important in cross-cultural i i 'relations. The conceptual picture of the other culture I ' or the other people affects one's expectation of those . people or that culture. For example, if one culture j ! considers some groups as violent or criminal, any i : behavior from that group will be taken to fit that perception and agree with expectations. As a result, unrealistic or exaggerated behavior might be taken to ; deal with such situations, and possibly worsen the situation. Therefore, intercultural communication, where differences are central, is an important cross- cultural skill to be acquired in order to facilitate effective communication, and encourages a realistic perception of others. Intercultural Communication Edward Hall, in the Silent Language states that culture itself is communication. Accordingly, culture may be viewed as a continuous process of communication reinforcement of the group's cultural values. The perceptual system described previously agrees with Hall's suggestion, where with the selective perception, one establishes the categories within a system of values and value judgment, based mostly on what one's culture indicates. Therefore, the reception of any sensory data is communication. The characteristics of culture, dress, languages, living styles, manners, etc, develop a parallel non verbal system of communication, parallel to the linguistic code that is known as "cultural code." The cultural code is everything that in the nexus of human interaction has meaning, with the exception of language. Not doing something can be as meaningful as some kind of action. In Arabic culture, it is said that sometimes silence is more powerful than action. On the other hand, the cultural code may result in disorientation or culture shock, due to identity anxiety within a new and different cultural code (Hoopes, 1975). When one encounters a different culture, he or she usually is deprived of the supports and identity reinforcements that are available in one's cultural group. Differences in language can be significant 30 sources of anxiety because language is closely linked to identity. In addition, one is also deprived of many of the guides and cues that orient people to their social, cultural and linguistic environment. As a result, people are likely to experience a marked disorientation (Brein and David, 1974). In intercultural communication, differences are central and dealing with them is an important cross- cultural skill. This is in contrast to basic communication theory where differences are seen as barriers and similarities provide a matrix in which communication is possible. Failing to identify and appreciate differences, they remain unrecognized in the path and may become stumbling blocks. Since one's perception about other people and what is being said are embedded in one's own assumptions and values and his/her expectations of the other people, therefore, perception checking is important. It is necessary for one to ask if what he/she thinks the other person said is accurate or if what happened has the same meaning for both parties (Hoopes, 1975). In other words, as Fox (1992) puts it, is that really what you mean? Interculturalism According to Fox (1992), interculturalism is an interaction between people whose linguistic, geographic, political, and historical backgrounds are not shared fully, and whose values and beliefs are rooted in different cultural heritages. Moreover, differences within those groups are also cultural differences, such as: Young and old, female and male, teacher and taught, elite and oppressed. Fox added that what is important, in this situation, is the interaction of those who would otherwise be "equal" in terms of role, status, power, linguistic competence, class and so on where they are identifiably in the same "culture," but whose beliefs and whose material situations cause different cultural sensibilities. Because cultural differences are obvious within each culture, sociolinguistic cultural differences require different ways of being — ways of thinking, and ways of acting — "In other words an autology, 'a mind-set' which forms a kaleidoscopic view of things whose patterns of formation and interpretation are fundamentally different" (Fox, 1992, p. 3). Then she described the situation as if the communicators use different sets and combinations of colors, some of which can be mixed to form a similar, color, but the subtleties of which can never been seen quite the same way. Fox 32 continued her analogy by adding that it is like musical compositions, where sound can be heard and shared but where different instruments and harmonies are utilized and different interpretations are imposed on the meaning of beauty, pleasure or just a noise. Fox cited Austin- Broos' comment that we are losing the idea of an organic unity in culture and seeing each particular situation as a particular history of social experience and symbolic interpretation; she added that we are also moving away from the idea of culture as biologically or racially determined, and disproved the early theories of particular racial types as being "superior" or "inferior." The notion of context in intercultural communica tion is important, and intercultural communication can be seen as a meeting of ideas between cultures in a particular situation or context. Context, according to Fox, includes the specific situation in which communication is taking place, and the background of understandings within which the situation exists. The background can include the material, objective, "observable" situations. It also includes the social background relating to an individual's expectations and understanding of what is normative. Besides, background context is interpretive, incorporating a broader 'understanding of what the meaning of the situation and the text is, beside its historical, intersubjective, !political, ideological interpretation; in other words, i !it is hermeneutics. A good example is the work of 1 Malinowski (192 3) where he encountered a problem in i ■describing his research among the Trobriand Island I ;people to another culture. He added an extended i •commentary to his translation in order to place his research in its living environment, or context of situation, where he coined the word "con-text," (Halliday and Hasan, 1983). To conclude, we can say j that cultural context looks at situation and background in a multidimensional way. Despite Fox's approval of one cultural domination to which the others have to adapt, she recognized several trends regarding Anglo views of other cultures. She classified them as the 5 D's, they are about who to see as culturally deficient, disadvantaged, different, or dominated, and finally the dialogue, which represents for her the optimistic view through which we can move from the previous definitions and start to develop authentic dialogue interculturally. These trends are illustrated in Table 1. 34 TABLE 1. Trends in approaches to intercultural education by ;dominant culture Historical stages of intercultural interaction Typical interaction by dominant culture Deficiency racism, ignorance Disadvantage inequality, injustice Difference intolerance, curiosity Domination cultural reproduction Dialogue transformation, emancipation 1(Fox, 1991) i The first three stages represent clearly the expression of racism (deficiency syndrome), inequity (disadvantaged syndrome), or intolerance (difference syndrome). The fourth category, domination, can be challenged as continuing to function within the status quo (cultural reproduction syndrome). The last one, which represents an optimistic view to Fox, is transformative, emancipatory and Freire might consider it as concerned with conscientization. Although each of these stages has its historical antecedent, the stages are discernable at any moment and within any person at any level of inner and outer consciousness. It is important for the first four stages to be acknowledged and challenged so that an authentic communication can take place, because each approach contains an assumption of inequality such as power, psychological, political, linguistic, social, and economic. The concept of deficiency was prevalent in most early writings about cultural contact, where groups of people in "the Colonies" were considered to be child like, less intelligent, less able to reason, and/or lacking the niceties of "proper" European society. The literature is full of "discoveries" of so-called primitive cultures and primitive people as in the case 36 !of Arab and Muslim culture. As a result, educators tried to develop programs for students with a supposed cultural "deficit.1 1 The English literature syllabuses i - for students in many African schools is a typical I example: until very recently only authors from the United Kingdom were considered suitable for "good" readings and African authors were not included. I The idea of the disadvantaged has changed its !meaning over the years, but the label remains on i ■ students and schools who have been classified as needing assistance or disadvantaged; where disadvantaged school programs are alive and well, targeting schools with a high ratio of non-English speaking background, and those students who were seen to be failing in educational achievement due to certain disadvantages related to poverty or lack of opportunities. Such programs have been organized in the UK and the USA since the 1960s to overcome the so-called cultural disadvantages. The term disadvantage tends to link economic poverty with the educational and the intellectual poverty and even poverty of cultural spirit, that reflects the same old feeling that the other culture is deficient. The question facing educators is whether the schools have been failing the students, rather than the students failing to "achieve." 37 The third stage saw cultural difference as a way of understanding intercultural contexts, where multiculturalism was adopted as a policy instead of assimilation in the education institutions and in the work place. Here differences are acknowledged, but still the question remains, different than what? The answer, of course, is different from the norm, the culture with power, the dominant culture. A typical illustration of this trend is the social studies units, where another culture is studied superficially, out of context, or as a curiosity, or even worse, as a "problem" culture with only disease and poverty, and wars (Burnley, 1992). Fourth, the concept of dominance. Since the late 1970s increasing attention has been paid to the ideological concept of dominance, and including structural discrimination, racism, sexism, and the institutionalization of power in favor of the dominant culture. According to Fox (1992), this is an important and critical stage, reflecting a shift from acceptance of the status quo to a realization of how the concept of cultural reproduction functions and a determination to act, to empower the so-called powerless. The most obvious example, to Fox, relates to gender issues, and the need to address questions raised by feminists of jconservative, liberal and radical persuasions regarding igirls' education and the status and role of girls in i schools. But Fox failed to include the other powerless groups in society. i The final stage is the stage of dialogue, which is I beyond cultural reproduction, and after the resistance to dominance has succeeded. According to Fox (1992), this is the postmodernist stage with difference, this is the idea of making meaning, of sharing meaning, and of building bridges across the multiple truths and realities that the postmodernist era recognizes; it is the idea of resolving conflicts by agreeing to appreciate each other's gardens. Then she added that it is unlike some dialogues, which are manipulated to reach an agreement based on the dominant ideology, or based on an idea of a "right" answer which is already known, such a dialogue in what Habermas calls "ethical discourse." The discussion should continue through this question, "is that really what you meant?" until some understanding is reached by which social action can happen. But as Gadamer stated: ....The danger is that one will simply take one's own culture or tradition as normative and claim that the communication of others or outside of one's own group is systematically disturbed. On Gademer's 39 view, to set oneself up as the arbiter of the "communicative competence" of others in this way can only be elitism. In addition, it is to forego the chance of learning from the differences and to give up the chance of overcoming them (Warnke, 1987, p. 127) . Fox stated three levels of intercultural communication, as illustrated in Figure 1. FIGURE 1 Figure 1: levels of attempted intercultural action LEVELS OF ATTEMPTED INTERCULTURAL ACTIONS Level 1: COMMUNICATIVE ACTION Level 2: Level 3: Successful communicative action Mishred communicative action I______ r MISCOMML miscoding .repaired communication misunderstanding 1 if unreso. NICATION vedleads to: Competency-based Culturally-based .filtered interpretation distortion tif unresolved leads to: SYSTEMICALLY DISTORTED COMMUNICATION Intended strategic action =power-based manipulation (concealed or open) ZI Unintended strategic action = psycho-systemically based manipulation (concealed) (Fox 1992) 41 In this figure, Fox explained, not all communication action is initially successful. There is some miscommunication, a mismatch of understanding (Fox, 1992; Gumperz, 1982) that is not easily recognized, where intentions and assumptions are less clear, or if there is a power imbalance between a participant and another. The whole question of strategic distortion arises, the third "level" of this model of international communication, with effective communication and miscommunication being the other two levels. Effective Communication Effective communication that leads to coordinated action occurs when meaning is created by means of a number of linking strategies that bring the cultural understandings of the participants closer together. Fox stated that it seems that there are different kinds of filters that we employ to utilize and overcome cultural differences and the different linguistic interpretation. Effective communication assumes a level of communication competence in performance of the language used. This research does not focus on the important area covered by researchers studying strategies of meaning transference by second language speakers to first language speakers. This study is concerned with the critical social 42 'interpretation of ideology and power relations between i the interlocutors. A filter may become the means by which communication occurs where it enriches and enhances the communication by filtering out some of the noise or interference of cultural distortion; but the trouble is that we are accustomed to filtering out any glimpses of reality that do not fit with our views, as Krafts stated (Krafts, 1983; Hoopes, 1975). Fox has identified and classified the so-called filters in Table i I 2. TABLE 2. A typology of filters in intercultural communication Filter Function semiotic/metaphorical expose meaning across cultural boundaries cognitive- classificatory expose classification process of external world experimental- observational isolate behavioral normative characteristics ethical-political expose cultural process of judging moral appropriateness hermeneutic interpret text and context in temporal and spatial terms; interpret change in relation to cultural vision of the future Fox, 1992. 44 1. Metaphor As Fox stated, metaphor is a powerful mechanism for inducing insight into meaning that is used in everyday language; to Black (1981), it serves as a device to reorganize one's perceptual and/or the conceptual structure. Ricoeur's notion of metaphor is similar, where metaphor tells us something about important things that human beings are concerned with, 'things' such as the self, or the soul, human greed, being, God and so on (Madison, 1988) . Lakoff and Johnson (1980) view metaphors as grounded in common experience within a culture, where the new metaphors can change the conceptual system in terms of which we experience and talk about the world. As children or adults, we may experience new concepts within our world that need to find associations with what is known. In the same token, new concepts that are not common to our own culture need to find expressions but we may not have this expression from previous experience. 2. Cognitive Classification In different cultures, meaning is organized differently, and experiences and beliefs are classified differently too. The assumption behind the concept of categorization is similar to 45 Bruner's position, that "categories by which a person sorts out and responds to the world about him reflects deeply the culture into which he is born" (Fox, 1992, p. 11). Research by Triandis in the 1950s and 1960s found that the more similar the categories that people use, the more effective the interpersonal communication will be (Triandis, 1983). Classificatory systems function on various levels, from the micro-level of individual object labelling (Oddou and Mendenhall mention that Eskimos (sic) use 26 words to describe different kinds of snow) to the complexities of concept classification of abstract ideas, to a macro world view. Oddou and Mendenhall stated that research on stereotyping is a case in point, they also note that "receiving positive or negative feedback about how one 'see the world and categorizes it, as one would in a foreign culture, would also influence one's attitude about the experience and people, in the foreign culture'" Oddou and Mendenhall, 1984, p.80). Experimental-Observational Filters These filters operate at the nonverbal as well as the verbal social interaction level and relate to normative patterns of behavior. It is in this 46 area, as Kim (1988) stated, that much has been written about adaptive behavior in intercultural communication. We may benefit from knowing and being aware of these cultural behaviors, especially when they are related to cultural constructions of politeness, of turn-taking between males and females in conversation, of greeting behaviors, of reacting to criticism, of body language such as distance between people and eye contact. Many barriers to intercultural communication will be removed when the differences are exposed and explained; hence, sometimes this is true in a superficial sense, but most behaviors as Fox stated, are of profound complexity and changes in nonverbal expression do not always indicate deeper cognition or emotional change. 4. Moral/Ethical Filters This category represents the communicators' sense of justice, of rightness or wrongness, and morally justifiable action. Although sometimes it is asserted that there are universal moral rules or norms that explain communicators' actions and duties or obligations, these assumptions must be challenged, because universality of ethical principles depend upon the cultural filtering 47 process. 5. Hermeneutic Filters and Interpretation of Time and Space. Fox stated that different cultures interpret culturally their understandings of history and the present; it is our hermeneutic understanding, our ability to reflect critically and interpret the text and context, that may be differently applied from different cultural and linguistic perspectives. An example of this kind of interpretation can be found in how people see their own country in relation to the rest of the world; how far away is another cultural place? The Mediterranean region was once thought to be the center of the world (and still is to many people). Because of these differences in each of the previous categories, communicators need to be aware of and able to utilize a filtering process in their communication action; without that, miscommunication and distortions in communication can occur. Miscommunication Miscommunication occurs when we fail to establish a mutual agreement of who is saying what or what is happening. Miscommunication may go unrealized and the : 48 ichanges which are needed to reach an understanding do not materialize. Distortions In Intercultural Communication This is the third level of intercultural interaction in communicative situations as identified by Fox. Systemic distortion in communication involves communication that is disturbed; that has been twisted out of shape; and/or manipulated, where at least one participant is no longer free from coercion, and the interaction may be deliberately or unintentionally manipulated. In the case of strategically based distortion, it may signify incompatible world views based on unegual power and authority structures, or an incompatible and discriminatory social relationships (Ogbu, 1985 and 1987, Wolfson and Mares, 1985). The most common form of strategic distortion interculturally is manifested in racism and sexism (Fox, 1992, p. 17). Strategic distortion can be seen in an entirely different context, Fox states; we can see that in the use of English language at international forums; such dominance of English creates inequality and communication, cultural and ideological constraints. Tsuda said, it..."allows the dominant nation to become the central source of information, ideas and messages, while forcing the dominated into a marginal position where they only receive the dominant information, ideas 49 and messages." (Tosuda, 1986, p. 46), that means "different languages divide reality differently," according to (Ibid., p. 53). On the other hand, some distortions are strategic but unintentional; these are distinguished from action that relies on a preexisting consideration of a situation. Fox stated that, "Action which is psychologically distorted occurs when the participant does not recognize any communication disturbance and therefore performs an unintentional social act... distorted through a failure to construct an understanding of the scene" (Fox, 1992, p. 18). Then she added that, racism is basically a socially constructed distortion, a misuse of power, a destruction and deliberate act; furthermore, racism is sometimes manifested as an inner distortion among individuals, where Habermas' concept of a "scenic understanding" has not become possible. Then she suggested that it is here that a great deal of work needs to be done in intercultural communication. According to Booth et al. (1992), much of the theoretical and descriptive cross-cultural encounter literature has had some measures of success in analyzing some of the pitfalls and difficulties that arise when people try to communicate across cultures. Some studies 50 i have recommended communication strategies for a better i understanding or for resolving problems and miscommunication such as Brislin (1981), where he explored the concept of culture learning, and has developed a number of case studies to illustrate the problem of cultural differences in interactions. Bochner i (1981-1982) has studied the effects of cross-cultural interaction among university students where he shows ! that interaction becomes easier when students encounter a minimum of culture "distance" from their own culture. Detweiler (1980) worked extensively with Peace Corps workers to develop a country setting which explains why some Peace Corps participants have difficulty adjusting to another culture. These are a few of the studies that looked at strategies for cross-cultural communication which stress the ways of recognizing and allowing for behavioral cultural and communication patterns that send different messages, perhaps not intentional to a receiver. Kim (1988) stated that some of the literature is concerned, in particular with how a "stranger" adapts to a host culture; Gudykust (1983) developed a topology of stranger-host relationships that depends on the length and the purpose of the person's staying in the host country. Gudykunst and Hammer (1984) explored the 51 f ■question of whether the effectiveness in intercultural communication can be slotted along universal lines or whether the effectiveness is cultural and context I specific. Several studies explore problems of cross- cultural communication, such as Metge and Kinlock (1978), Hansell and Ajirotutu (1982), Gumperz (1992) and form a sociological perspective instead of interpersonal perspectives; others have analyzed cross- cultural situations with critical views focusing on issues as the perceived inequities in intercultural relations, especially in classrooms, and also in relations at the socio-political level such as: Ogbu (1987), McCarthy (1988), McDermott (1987), and Tsuda (1986). Using racism as an example of distortion, it becomes clear that there may be several kinds of distortion occurring simultaneously, in any event and at any particular time. We need to go back to the original question, "Is that really what you mean?" However, in systematically distorted communication, the distortion may not be a mistake, but a deliberate manipulation of the context, of what is believed to be true and appropriate. American Perceptions of Others Americans' perceptions are seen through examples of 52 itheir views of foreign cultures and exploration of their perception of minorities at home. This is examined in the following examples and through the concept of racism. American perception of foreign cultures fluctuated between positive and negative. The first example is of perceptions of the English and the Germans. I English and Germans constituted a superior race of tall, blonde, blue-eyed "Nordics1 1 or Aryans. The people of eastern and southern Europe made up of darker Alpines or Mediterraneans, both are seen as inferior. (Yetman, 1985, p. 248) The second example is of perception of southern I Europeans. Those southern and eastern Europeans are of a very different type from the north Europeans.... [they are] illiterate, docile, lacking in self-reliance and initiative, and not possessing the Anglo- Teutonic conception of law and order. (Yetman, 1985, p. 248) The third example is of the perception of Mexicans. Mexicans viewed by some Americans at least as follows: Their minds run to nothing higher than animal functions - eat, sleep, and sexual debauchery. In every huddle of Mexican shacks one meets the same idleness, hordes of hungry dogs, and filthy children with faces plastered with flies, disease, lice, human filth, stench, promiscuous fornication, bastardy, lounging apathetic peons and lazy squaws, beans and dried chili, liquor, general squalor, and envy and hatred of the gringo. The people sleep by day and prowl by night like coyotes, 53 ! stealing anything they can get their hands I on... (Yetman, 1985, p. 172) i The United States, which has been called a "nation of nations," (Yetman, 1985) is one of the most / ethnically diverse societies in the modern world.! The ) analysis of the historical dimensions of cultural diversity and ethnic relations is essential to understand the dynamic of race and ethnicity in the .United States today. An analysis of American society i can serve as an excellent laboratory for the study of cultural understanding and ethnic relations in general because of its extraordinary ethnic diversity. The way one sees the world and things about it is deeply rooted in one's culture and environment. In daily life, one is bombarded with quantities of data or communication from the environment such as sight, smell, and sensation. One is forced into a screening process or "selective perception" to classify or categorize these data. But the problem is that categorizing can lead to stereotyping, especially towards people from other cultures. People are categorized and classified only according to certain traits of dress, behavior or mein, and all else about them is ignored. Therefore, it becomes stereotyping when one's categories are confused with reality, especially in the tendency to mix these categories into negative or destructive emotions; or when one's own experience does not fit into his/her own categories in which ambiguity is the result. Thus one's perception of others can be a determining factor of how to view them and deal with them. Racism, prejudice and stereotyping are a clear manifestation of one's perceptions of others. Most of us are aware of racism, prejudice, and stereotyping in our communication and in ourselves, although some of us are more aware than others. All of us have difficulty discussing racism and prejudice without being defensive, cautious, angry, or timid. When fear, anxiety, and timidity blocks communication and hinders understanding, people need to set aside those human practices so they may begin to understand the causes and results of racism, prejudice, stereotypes, and discrimination, especially as they affect teaching and learning in a pluralistic society. The terms "racism" and "prejudice" have been used interchangeably according to Garcia (1982). "Racism" is the attitude that one racial group is inherently superior to another (Daniels and Kitano, 1970; Yetman, 1985), while "prejudice" is a negative attitude about an ethnic or racial group formed beforehand without knowledge, analysis, or evaluation of the facts about the group. One can have positive prejudice, but in this research this term means, as it is used in general American vernacular, a negative, predisposed bias. A "stereotype" is an oversimplified, mostly negative perception of a member or members of a particular ethnic group. Discrimination consists of direct or indirect act exclusion, discrimination, differentiation, or preference on account of racial or ethnic group membership (Yetman, 1985); while discrimination is an act which is definable in explicit terms, racism, prejudice, and stereotyping are attitudes that are manifest in discriminatory acts, according to Garcia (1982) . Ethnocentrism, like racism, provides an in-group defense against out-groups by building racial group allegiances and unity, but the important difference between them is that racism can provide a rigid caste like system, a powerful in-group race, and other powerless racial subordinate out-groups, by using a myth-like white racial superiority and the black racial inferiority to rationalize white dominance (Yetman, 1985). Racism also served as an economic function to support an economic system based, for example, on the free black slave labor (Garcia, 1982; Yetman, 1985). Katz had conducted a thorough study of racism in American life and concluded that racism exists because of a serious cleavage between white American beliefs and actions; while some white Americans believe in human rights and equality, they act upon racist assumptions about other colored people or racial minorities. Katz also added that the moral cleavage between beliefs and i actions is rooted in American political, social and economic history. In short, white racism is endemic to the 1 American experience: The reality is: Racism exists. It has been a part of American way of life since the first whites I landed on the continent. Although the 1 United States prides itself on its ideologies about human rights and particularly on its philosophies of freedom and equality, the bleak realities that, both historically and presently, this country is based on and operates under a doctrine of white racism (Katz, 1978, p. 4) . A myriad of studies support the Katz thesis. On a national scope, the Myrdal study (1944) , The United States Commission on Mental Health Report (19 65) and the Kerner Presidential Committee Report (1968). Why Racism Exists Why does racism exist in a society such as the U.S. that is based on Judeo-Christian percepts of brotherhood and equality? Ven den Berghe (19 67), in Race and Racism, A Comparative Perspective, had developed the thesis that current racism in the United States existed because of a 57 complex dynamic of group conflict that evolved over a long period of history. He suggested three major sources of Western racism: First, racism developed as a justification of capitalist forms of exploitation, especially slavery in the New World, as Noel stated, "As slavery became ever more clearly the pivotal institution of Southern society, racism was continually strengthened and became an ever more dominant ideology" (Noel, 1972, p. 162) . Second, racism was congruent with Darwinian notions of stages of evolution and survival of the fittest, and with the idea of Anglo-Saxon superiority. Therefore, people who were in inferior social positions were destined to their station because they least fit in the struggle of existence. In retrospect, in 187 0, Francis A. Walker, United States Commissioner of Immigration characterized the most recent immigrants as: They are beaten men from beaten races; repre senting the worst failures in the struggle for existence. Centuries are against them, as centuries were on the side of those who formerly came to us. They have none of the ideas and aptitudes which fit men to take up readily and easily the problem of self-care and self-government (Saveth, 1948, p. 40) . Third, Van den Berghe's explanation of racism is paradoxically related to the egalitarian ideas of the Enlightenment, which were expressed in the Declaration 58 of Independence: Faced with the blatant contradiction between the treatment of slaves and colonial people and the official rhetoric of freedom and equality, Europeans and white North Americans began to dichotomize humanity between men and submen (or the "civilized" and the "savages"). The scope of applicability of the egalitarian ideals was restricted to "the people", that is, the whites, and there resulted.... regimes such as those of the United States or South Africa that are democratic for the master race but tyrannical for the subordinate groups. The desire to preserve both the profitable forms of discrimination and exploitation and the democratic ideology made it necessary to deny humanity to the oppressed groups (Van den Berghe, 1967, pp. 17-18). Noel (1968) and Garcia (1992) mentioned that racism has served an economic function for white groups and individuals who had benefited from the exploitation of discrimination against racial minority peoples. Ironically, some white Americans have believed in equal opportunities regardless of race, ethnic, or social class affiliation, they have not practiced their beliefs provided their economic interests were advanced through racial and ethnic discrimination. The Media The media, in addition to other elements of nonschool learning, influence and shape people's j perception of others. For the purpose of this research 1 only the effect of the media or people's perceptions will be discussed because of its importance in shaping people's opinion and forming their perceptions We spend years teaching reading and remedial reading while we hardly glance at those newer, more powerful media. Our young are literally i at the mercy of television, besieged by far j greater amounts of information on each screen than was ever possible on the pages of a book, and we give them no help in sorting and analyzing that barrage of data or in defending themselves from the high level of stimuli that accompany the passage" (Sleeter, 1991, p. 143) . According to Cortes (1981), the media barrage comes not only from television; it comes from all media, television as well as motion pictures, radio and recorded music, newspapers and magazines. The media provide fictional and nonfictional images and messages, from media that supposedly made merely to entertain, besides making money, and from programs and publications that intended to provide information;^although some members of the entertainment media claim that they are only offering diversion, in fact they also teach intentionally or otherwise. Whatever goals they have, people learn from fiction and nonfiction sources usually without realizing it, according to Joewett, 197 6; Sklar, 1975; Singer and Kazdon, 1976; and Sleeter, 1991). The media as formal or informal education participates in the process of educating societies whiclf lead to the empowerment of some people and groups and to the disempowerment of others by disseminating portrayals of different societal and ethnic groups, such as ethnic, racial, religious, gender, age and the handicapped^ Sleeter stated that there were more than 2,3 00 research |papers on television and human behavior. George Comstock (1977), a social psychologist, addressed the relationship of media to empowerment: Several writers have argued that television is a powerful reinforcer of the status quo. The ostensible mechanisms are the effects of its portrayals on public expectations and perceptions. Television portrayals and " j particularly violent drama are said to assign { roles of authority, power, success, failure, j dependence, and vulnerability in a manner that I matches the real-life social hierarchy, j thereby strengthening that hierarchy by j increasing its acknowledgement among the I public and by failing to provide positive images for members of social categories occupying a subservient position. Content j analysis of television drama support the \ contention that portrayals reflect normative ! status (Comstock, 1977, pp. 2 0-21). The problem is that the media, both fictional and nonfictional have a powerful influence on peoples' images and perceptions of ethnic and racial groups, where often these images and perceptions become widely ^ 61 spread and reflexive and they gain the status of stereotypes. The learning impact of the media forming peoples' perception is manifested through American society. An example of how the constant media reiteration of one theme has created a nearly reflexive virtually mindless ethnic stereotyping, is the vision of Chicano community as being synonymous with gangs. The media fixation with and sensationalizing of Latino gangs from news reports and documentaries to T. V. series and feature films have elevated and reinforced gangs in the popular vision of Los Angeles (Cortes, 1981). This — powerful education by the media, has the capacity to contribute to the empowerment or the disempowerment of | people from different ethnic and cultural backgrounds, j f --■>/ Therefore, Cummins (1989) stated that given the structural inequities in contemporary American society, the empowerment of minority students is important. How can educators encounter that? What can they do about it? Any solution to the problem of media multicultural empowerment needs to have, among other things, structural, personnel, and context changes within the media such as greater racial, ethnic, gender representation at all levels of media decision-making and image creation, greater sensitivity in fictional (and nonfictional) media portrayals of different groups; I _ ithis is in addition to a better balanced and less sensational in media coverage and treatment of stories involving diverse groups .j Obviously, these solutions, or most of them are beyond the reach of the educators, and they lack the power to materialize these solutions; but they have the power to empower within the educational system, as Christina Sleeter argues in her book, Empowerment Through Multicultural Education. Multicultural emphasis should help empower students by jhelping them to get involved in addressing their own iproblems, with social inequities included. Regarding the mass media, the school multicultural empowerment may include strengthening students' knowledge about the media, helping them to be more action-oriented in dealing with media, and to develop their skills in critically analyzing the media. This empowerment is crucial for minority students given their position in American society as Cummins (1989) stated. Sleeter (1991) also stated that the power of the mass media has drawn the attention of scholars and the concerned societal groups. The media, formal or informal, participate in the complex process of educating society. The temporal range of this nonschool learning far exceeds that of schools. Young people learn before they begin school, and they continue to 63 learn in society while they go to school. Adults continue to learn through societal learning as long as they live (Cortes, 1981). Greenberg and Reeves (1976) stated that one study concluded that the economically disadvantaged homes, young children, black children and those with a higher frequency of consumption, all have mentioned more belief in the true-to-life nature of the entertainment presentation. This leads to the relationship of the media to multicultural empowerment. The media, as a societal curriculum, can be considered a central and a powerful element of the omnipresent public educational process; and the development of a sharp capacity to analyze the media can help empowerment; the failure to do so contributes to disempowerment. Therefore, media'7 ' " ^ • J empowerment should be an integral part of all students' j | education, where school can develop an empowering media j literacy which includes helping students to become more \ i effective media analysts and to understand how they can \ ' ~ r " \ influence the media. Moreover, teachers may include the j I / development of understanding of the ways the media treat j different ethnic groups, and sensitize the students to j i ! patterns of ethnic treatment which have become media I standards or cliches. Teachers can help students learn i j to analyze the content of a variety of sources such as / children's stories, photographs, film strips, newspapers and magazines — further treatment of a variety of subjects which might include ethnicity, gender, religion, foreign nations and so on. This can start from the time students enter school and can be done according to their age and grade level. But teachers first have to develop their media analysis skills since most of them have not been exposed to such training. The media themselves are making it easier for teachers to carry out instructions in media analysis, for example, the Discovery Channel has plans for "Assignment," hoping that teachers make classroom use of their programs. Such programs should be used as sources of material for strengthening students' critical thinking and media analysis. For example, students can be involved in the multicultural aspects of the nation's history (the U.S.) where the media can be used to stimulate their thinking and to humanize ongoing historical dilemmas, as in the case of the 1988 feature film Mississippi Burning, and the 1989 television docudrama Unconauered. Education for empowerment helps students to learn to become effective advocates for social causes, teachers can help students to examine how various groups and individuals have responded to the media in an effort 65 to influence the media. Increasing public awareness of the teaching potential of the media and the efforts to influence their content can contribute to "positive images" of specific groups against the negative images, or distortions of groups and/or various multicultural topics. Students also participate in the creation of the media presentations by contacting and/or writing articles or columns on multicultural themes and issues for school newspapers or the local papers, radio, and television programs. How much are Americans trying to learn about other cultures? Note an example from the Los Angeles Times. May 22, 1992. Trade Imbalances Japanese readers are snapping up American books but it's a one-sided relationship. Asian authors are a tough sell in the U.S., and translations are difficult to come by.... For example, "for every Japanese book translated into English, the Japanese publish 35 to 40 titles from the United States and Europe. In 1990, for example, Japan published an estimated 40,000 titles in translation, more than 3,000 of them from English but Americans published only 82 titles from Japan, according to Publishers Weekly Magazine. That compares with 321 titles translated from French, 2 02 from German, 145 from Russian and 2 3 titles from Latin — a dead language. Yet Japan is America's main rival in the post-Cold War era, and the only nation that has economic "leverage" over the United States, said Chalmers Johnson, a UC San Diego professor and a leading Japan scholar. "It is a national scandal that so little is translated," Johnson said. Leslie Pockell, editorial director of Kodaush International, the largest publisher of Japanese 66 books in English, observed that "Americans are culturally xenophobic" and said that Japan is not alone in being ignored. Pockell argued that America is almost as cool to books, movies and cultural artifacts from Europe and even the former Soviet Union, adding, "In general, we don't give a damn...." But the best way to sell the Japanese a book is to attack them. And if the criticism has some merit, the book will do even better.... The provocatively titled The Coming War With Japan, by George Friedman and Meredith LeBard, appeared in America to little fanfare in April last year. Critics dismissed its conclusion that U.S. Japanese economic antagonism will eventually lead to a shooting war — and the book sold only 40,000 copies in its first nine months. But the Japanese edition sold 60,000 copies in its first three weeks and became the talk of Tokyo.... Mori, who, according to the LA Times. controls roughly two-thirds of the market for foreign copyrights, said that, "Japanese are still eager to learn from America." Mori added, "I wish Americans would have the same attitude in the future. The world is now too small to be a Caucasian world alone...." "Anybody who expects to live into the 21st century should try to monitor the Japanese in every way they can," Johnson said. But at the moment, he said, "Americans who are dependent on English to understand Japan are hopelessly lost." (Mori advises the Americans) "Don't just be happy when you sell American stuff to Japanese because Japan gets smarter." Education Education is defined as the more or less deliberate process of transmitting the culture of the adult world to the young. It is the process by which societies choose what they consider to be the most important and significant parts of their cultural heritage, such as, facts, skills, values, and attitudes, and attempt to | 67 teach them to the young (Hurn, 1978). Perception is rooted in one's culture. The data that the perceptual system selects depends on one's culture and its value system. One's expectations from others, as mentioned by Hoopes (1975) is a critical stumbling block in dealing with cultural differences, and stem from one's culture and its values. This is the case of the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy, described earlier in this chapter. The point is that this concept works when teachers deal with students according to the way they perceive these students, and the students reciprocate by assuming the role. Through the teaching process, educators transmit their perceptions of others that are embedded in their culture and its value system. Through that, ethnic biases, prejudices, and stereotypes are transmitted to students. This consequently affects the formation of students' perceptions of others. In addition, the educational material contributes in forming students' views of others. In this sense, all societies educate the young. Although a good part of the cultural heritage is absorbed without formal instruction, no society is content to leave the matter there. The difference between education and the concept of socialization is that education involves the selection f 68 of certain ideals, values, and skills that are deemed of sufficiently great importance not be left to chances. Therefore, it is deliberately and intentionally conveyed ,to the children through both implicit and explicit teaching (Hurn, 1978). This deliberate teaching influences students' perceptions of others when teachers transmit culture through attitudes, beliefs, perceptions, language style and other personal attributes. Teachers and school personnel reveal their ethnic biases through routine practices. This is also important in cross-cultural relations, when educators' perceptual picture and their perceptions of other cultures or other people are transmitted to their students, and participate in forming students' perceptions of others. Summary of Chapter The perceptual system is the foundation in which people build their relationships to the rest of the world. When one encounters values, behavior, communication style, or ways of thinking that don't fit one's categories of meaning, communication is likely to break down, and stereotyping may occur. The principal characteristic of ethnocentrism lies in the assumption of personal and cultural superiority accompanied by a denigration of other cultures and other 69 ways. This leads to a division of the world into two parts: an "us" and "them" or "we - they" conflict, when the concept of self-fulfilling prophecy plays a role in determining one's perceptions and expectations of others. Ethnocentrism and racism and their manifestations, ethnic and racial stereotypes, are endemic to the American experience class/caste scene. Young people will acquire biases and misconceptions unless they are countered by information and experiences about other ethnic groups and cultures. The concept of self-fulfilling prophecy is an all- too-true phenomenon in defining the expectations of teachers from their students. Students reciprocate by assuming the role. This phenomenon is also important in cross-cultural relations. The conceptual picture of other cultures or other people affects one's perceptions of these people or that culture. Thus, the individual is to behave and deal with others according to the conceptual picture that this individual has about other people and other cultures. Intercultural communication is about people from different "cultures" being able to communicate and understand each other. The notion of context, in intercultural communication, is important, and intercultural communication can be seen as a meeting of ideas between cultures in a particular situation or context. Anglos' views of other cultures were classified as 5 D's: deficiency, disadvantage, difference, domination, and dialogue. Three levels of intercultural communication were defined: Effective communication, miscommunication, and distorted communication. There are different kinds of "filters” that people employ to overcome cultural and linguistic i differences. Although filters may enhance and enrich communication, it can become a means by which miscommunication occurs. Americans' perceptions of others are seen through examples of their views of foreign cultures, and the exploration of their perception of American minorities. This is examined through the concept of racism that still exists in American society. The media as formal or informal education participate in the process of educating and forming the perceptions of society. This leads to the empowerment of some people and groups and to the disempowerment of others by disseminating portrayals of different cultures and groups. The multicultural analysis of mass media can be a crucial step toward students' empowerment, especially in 71 a world like ours where students are surrounded by media and are bombarded with information, images and messages as information, as well as entertainment. Therefore, the ability to engage the media consciously and effectively is an aspect of one's control over one's destiny. Education is defined as the more or less deliberate process of transmitting the culture of the adult world to the young. School does not exist in a vacuum. Its climate reflects the culture and the values of society. Educators, and educational materials serve as conduits through which the social climate is transmitted, and contributed to the formation of students' values, culture, and perceptions of others. 72 | CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY The methodology employed in this study closely follows the methodology developed by Glaser and Strauss for generating theory in areas of social science research that have not been previously explored. The methodology is aimed at generating a theory that is integrated, consistent, plausible and close to the data. The topics presented in this chapter are: Qualititative methodology, Research Design, Working with Data, and Methodology of the Study. Qualitative Methodology Qualitative methodology, in its broader sense, refers to research that produces descriptive data: People's own written or spoken words and their observable behavior, according to Taylor and Bogdan (1984). Ray Rist (1977) points out that qualitative methodology, like quantitative methodology, is more than a set of data gathering techniques; it's a way of approaching the empirical world. The phenomenological perspective is central to the concept of qualitative methodology: What qualitative methodologists study, how they study it and how they interpret it, all depends upon their theoretical perspective. The phenomenologist sees human behavior, 73 iwhat people do and say, as a product of how people i define their world. In other words, the phenomenologist attempts to see things from other people's point of view. Therefore, the task of the phenomenologist and qualitative research is to capture the process of interpretation (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984). For this study, American students' perceptions of Islam and the Arab world at the college level, it was assumed that qualitative methodology was the best choice for this research for the following reasons: 1. Qualitative research is inductive, where researchers develop concepts, insights, and understanding from patterns in the data, rather than collecting data to assess preconceived models, hypotheses or theories. Researchers in qualitative studies follow a flexible research design, where they begin their studies with only vaguely formulated research questions. 2. Qualitative researchers look at settings and people holistically; people, settings, or groups are not reduced to variables; instead they are viewed as a whole. This methodology enables the researcher to study people in the context of their past and in the situation in which they find themselves. 3. Qualitative researchers usually are sensitive to 74 their effects on the people they study. These researchers have been described as naturalistic; they interact with informants in a natural and unobtrusive manner. 4. The qualitative researchers suspend, or set aside, their own beliefs, perspectives, and predispositions. Bruya (1966) indicates that these researchers view things as though they were happening for the first time, in other words, nothing is taken for granted, and therefore everything is a subject matter of inquiry. 5. Qualitative researchers try to understand human beings from their own frame of reference, which is central to the phenomenological perspective. Therefore, this research is experiencing reality as others experience it. These researchers empathize and identify with the people they are studying so as to understand how these people see things. Herbert Blaumer explains as follows: To try to catch the interpretive process by remaining aloof as a so-called "objective" observer and refusing to take the role of the acting unit is to risk the worst kind of subjectivism— the objective observer is likely to fill in the process of interpretation with his own surmises in place of catching the process as it occurs in the experience of the acting unit which uses it (Blaumer, 1969, p. 86) 75 6. Qualitative researchers consider all perspectives to be valuable. They seek a detailed understanding of other people's perspective. In qualitative studies, people who are ignored by society, the poor and the "deviant," are often given a forum for their views according to Becker (1967). Oscar Lewis, famous for his studies of the poor in Latin America, writes: "I have tried to give a voice to a people who are rarely heard" (Lewis, 1965, p. xii). 7. Qualitative methods are humanistic, the ways in which we study people of necessity affect how we view them, and when people's words and acts are reduced to statistical equations, we lose sight of the human side of the social life; when we study them qualitatively we get to know them personally and experience the experience they have in their daily struggle in society. We learn about concepts such as pain, faith, suffering, frustration, beauty and love which its essence is lost through other research approaches. In other words, we learn about "....the inner life of the person, his struggles, his successes and failures in securing his destiny in a world too often at variance with his hopes and ideals" (Shaw, 1966, p. 4). 76 8. Qualitative research is a craft. Qualitative methods have not been refined and standardized, as other research methodology. In one part, it is a historical artifact which is changing with the publication of books and first-hand accounts of field researchers, and in another it is a reflection of the nature of the methods themselves. Here, researchers are flexible in how they go about conducting their studies, and they are encouraged to be his or her own methodologist, they have guidelines to follow, but never rules. In other words, the methodology serves the researcher, where the researcher is never a slave to procedure and techniques. Dalton stated that: If a choice were possible, I would naturally prefer simple, rapid, and infallible methods. If I could find such methods, I would avoid the time-consuming, difficult and suspect variants of "participative observation" with which I have become accustomed (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984, p. 8). 9. Qualitative researchers emphasize validity in their research. Qualitative methods allow us to stay close to the empirical world; as Blaumer (19 69) stated, they are designed to ensure a close fit between the data and what people, in fact, say and do. When researchers observe people in their everyday lives, listening to them talking about 77 what is on their minds, and looking at the documents they produce, these researchers obtain first-hand knowledge of social life unfiltered through concepts, "operational definitions and rating scales." La Pierre, quoted in Deutscher (1973), writes: The study of human behavior is time consuming, intellectually fatiguing, and depends for its success upon ability of the investigator... Quantitative measurements are quantitatively accurate; qualitative evaluations are always subject to the errors of human judgment. Yet it would seem far more worthwhile to make a shrewd guess regarding that which is essential than to accurately measure that which is likely to prove irrelevant (p. 21). Research Design Participant Observation Participant observation, the mainstay of qualitative methodology indicates that the research involves social interaction between the researcher and informants in the environment of the latter, during which data have been collected (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984; Spradley, 1980). Participant observers are flexible; they begin their study with general research questions and interests, and they usually do not predefine the nature and number of "cases," settings or informants they need 78 to study (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984; Glaser and Strauss, ,1967). Qualitative researchers typically define their sample on an ongoing basis as their study progresses. Glaser and Strauss used the phrase "theoretical sampling" as "the process of data collection for generating theory whereby the analyst jointly collects, codes, and analyzes his data and decides what data to collect next and where to find them, in order to develop his theory as it emerges.... The initial decisions for theoretical collection of data are based on a general i sociological perspective and on a general subject or problem area....The initial decisions are not based on a preconceived theoretical framework" (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, p. 45). The theory that is discovered from data is called "grounded theory." The Observed The observations for the study on American students' perception on Islam and the Arab World was conducted at the University of Southern California. Two groups of students were observed. These students were enrolled in two classes studying Islam and Muslim societies. Within these courses, students and teachers discussed Islam and the Arab world. Through that discussion, together with a questionnaire on students' perceptions, the observer can detect and examine their 79 preconceived notions on Islam and the Arab world. After a second administration of the questionnaire at the conclusion of the course, the researcher was able to assess changes in their perceptions. The students were mostly from middle-class American backgrounds that are representative of white middle- class America, constituting the majority views of Islam and the Arab world that is the core of this study. The students were very close in age and educational level. Group 1 took a course on Islam through the Department of Religion. Group 2 took a course on Muslim societies through the Department of Anthropology. There were ten students in each group. They were mostly white-middle class, and very close in age and educational level. Teachers for both groups were also from white-middle class backgrounds and both have a Ph.D. The Observer The primary instrument of data collection is the researcher. Therefore it is important for the researcher's orientation and background to be presented, according to Lincoln and Guba (198 5). I bring to the study the perspective of a Middle Eastern person who was born and raised in that part of the world. I have earned several degrees, and my 80 ]specialization has been Middle Eastern history. I taught Islam, Arabic and history among other subjects. I have trained teachers to teach these subjects, and was an academic dean in a community college. I have done field research on the disadvantaged in that part of the world. I participated in collecting field data for ethnographic studies and studies in local dialects. I was among a team collecting and analyzing artifacts for a folklore museum. I was on the editorial board of a journal on cultural heritage and society. In addition, 'I was involved for many years in a wide range of volunteer work in literacy, health and nutrition, counseling, social work and fundraising. I was affected by the work of my father, who was a well known scholar working in education for over half-a- century. He also preserved Arabic and Islamic history and heritage through his contribution as a calligrapher and author. I have been living in the United States for many years, where I have earned degrees and taught Arabic and English as second languages. Because I have seen that Islamic values of fighting discrimination, prejudice and stereotyping are distorted in America, and the Arab and Muslim contributions to world civilization are misunderstood, I have become convinced of the need for 81 i such a study. All of this, I believe, has made me an effective data collector on the subject of American student perception on Islam and the Arab world. Selecting Settings The ideal research setting is the one that the observer obtains easy access to, establishes immediate I rapport with informants, and gathers data directly related to the research of interest, that was the case for this research. But this is not always the case. The researcher must negotiate access, win trust, and gradually collect data (Taylor and Bogdan, 1984; Spradley, 1980). Triangulation In the literature on participant observation the term triangulation means the combination of methods or sources of data in a single study to produce stronger findings than would have been possible with a single method (Danzin, 1978, Patton, 1980). It also is often thought of as a way of guarding against researcher bias and checking out accounts from different sources; therefore observers can have a deeper and clearer understanding of the setting and people in the target study. Danzin explains the logic behind the usage of 82 triangulation is that: No single method ever adequate solves the problem of rival factors.... Because each method reveals different aspects of empirical reality, multiple methods of observation must be employed. This is termed triangulation. I now offer as a final methodological rule the principle that multiple methods should be used in every investigation (Patton, 1987, p. 61). Working With Data Developing and Verifying Theory Most qualitative research studies are directed toward developing or verifying sociological theory. Glaser and Strauss are probably the strongest proponents of the view that qualitative sociologists (and other) must direct their efforts to develop and generate social theory and concepts; their grounded theory approach is designed to help researchers to do so. Thus, it is a method for discovering theories, concepts, hypotheses, and propositions directly from data rather than from a prior assumption, other research, or existing theoretical frameworks. Glaser and Strauss stated that social scientists have overemphasized testing and verifying theories and neglected the more important activity of generating sociological theory. They propose two major strategies for developing grounded theory. The first is by constant comparative method in which the researcher simultaneously coding and 83 analyzes data so as to develop concepts by continually comparing some incidents in their data; the researchers refine these concepts, identify their properties, explore their relationships to one another, and integrate them in a coherent theory. The second is the theoretical sampling when the researchers select new cases to study according to their potential for helping to expand on or refine the concepts and the theory that have already been developed, where data collection and analysis proceed together. Researchers do not seek to prove their theories in generating grounded theory, they only have to demonstrate plausible support for them. Glaser and Strauss stated that the key criteria in evaluating theories are whether they 1 1 fit” and "work": By "fit" we mean that the categories must be readily (not forcibly) applicable to and indicated by the data under study; by "work" we mean that they must be meaningfully relevant to and able to explain the behavior under study (Glaser and Strauss, 1967, p. 3). Methodology of the Study The methodology employed in this study closely follows the methodology developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) for generating theory in areas of social science research which have not previously been explored. The methodology is aimed at "generating a theory that is 84 integrated, consistent, plausible, close to the data" (p. 103). In order to generate theory, Glaser and Strauss suggest using the "constant comparative method of qualitative analysis" (p. 101). The generation of a theory begins with a study related to the problem being explored. Then the researcher develops categories which explain the phenomenon under study. Data that are collected at a later stage are then compared with the original study and with the categories which have been developed. Researcher tests the categories, refines then, and defines their properties on the basis of the constant comparison. The selection of data to be collected, for the target problems, is governed by a logic of "ongoing inclusion": Data are sought for their "theoretical purpose and relevance" and for their potential to illuminate the categories that have been developed, according to Glaser and Strauss (1976, p. 48). They also stated that the types of data available for inclusion in this "theoretical sampling" are not limited to any one kind, as they explain, No one kind of data on a category nor technique for data collection is necessarily appropriate. Different kinds of data give the analyst different kinds of vantage points from which to understand a category and to develop 85 I 1 its properties (p. 65). They added that the collection of these different kinds of data referred to as "slices of data," proceeds !until reaching the point of "theoretical saturation." According to this method, examples are continuously collected and compared with the previously collected data and with the categories that have been developed until "no more data are being found whereby the [investigator] can develop properties of category" (p.61). They also claimed that "control of the data by [these criteria] assures that ample data will be collected and that the data collection will make sense" (p. 52) . Finally, in summary, this process of generating theory that Glaser and Strauss describe is one in which categories are developed on the basis of a study and tested, amplified, described, and refined on the basis of additional data that are collected. Glaser and Strauss summarize their method by explaining that "in discovering theory, one generates conceptual categories or their properties from evidence; then the evidence from which the categories emerged is used to illustrate the concept" (p. 23). This methodology was followed in this study by collecting the data and introducing new data according to the need felt by the researcher, until 86 data reaches the saturation point and no more needs to be introduced. The researcher began with a study of the established perception of American students of Islam and the Arab World on the University of Southern California campus. This was selected for in-depth study of American students' perceptions of Islam and the Arab World at the college level because it represents the perception of mainstream America. i The study consisted of the following: First, there was a three-semester observation of a course being taught on Islam, where students' perceptions on the subject were observed through their interaction with the teacher, and through their reaction to information on the subject. Second, a questionnaire was given to students at the beginning of the semester about their perceptions of Islam and Arabs: This instrument explored the positive and negative perceptions of the students and their source of information on the subject. Third, a second questionnaire was given to students at the end of the semester on the same topics to see the difference in their perception after taking a course on the subject. A series of categories was developed on the basis of this initial study, and after that 87 | additional data were collected in order to verify the categories, to modify them, and then elaborate on them. Additional literature was selected to illuminate various categories that have been developed. The "slice of data" collected on the additional literature included sociological analysis that aimed at examining cultural understanding. Newspapers and magazine articles, i television transcripts, and a document on the earliest 1 encounter between an American president and a Muslim king were used. The theory that is generated in this study has several characteristics that stem from the methodology that has been employed: First, the theory is "grounded" in empirical data, by generating theory on the basis of data, and by constantly checking the theory against the data, where the researcher is assured that the theory will "fit" the data, as Glaser and Strauss state: "Categories must be readily (not forcibly) applicable to and indicated by the data under study" (p. 3). Second, the purpose of the theory is to increase understanding among Americans about Muslims and Arabs, and it is hoped that this would be extended to others. The goal "is not to provide a perfect description, but to develop a theory that accounts for much of the relevant behavior" (Glaser and Strauss, p. 30). Considering the complexity 88 of the phenomena under study, the goal of the theory developed is to elucidate and not to predict. Kaplan (1964) described the relation between explanation and prediction in scientific theories: If we look at the explanations which actually occur in science as well as in everyday life, and not only at what an ideal explanation would be or at what all explanations are "in principle," it appears that we often have explanation without being able to predict, that is, without being in a position where we would have predicted if only we had had the explanation in time... explanation still explains even though it leaves open a range of possibilities so that which possibility is actualized is knowable only after the fact (p. 347). Thus, the theory outlined here elucidates only the patterns of perception; it does not claim to be able to predict a change in perception. Third, the theory is one of several possible elucidations of the phenomena being studied. Glaser and Strauss state that a theory generated by the process they outline "is not the only plausible one that could be based on data" (p. 225). Kaplan also expresses a similar viewpoint by describing the quest for theory in social science: "We need to encourage various theories, and without thinking of them as only so many candidates for the single post to be filled" (p. 309). Kaplan compares the scientist's theory to the poet's metaphor: As the poet can create many equally effective metaphors 89 to describe the same phenomenon, so the scientist can create many theories to elucidate the same phenomenon in which all of them can be equally effective. Fourth, the theory outlined here is offered as "an ever-developing entity, not as a perfected product" (Glaser and Strauss, p. 32). Therefore, this theory is put forth as a "theory in process" and not as a final and definitive statement. Newly developed data can further the process of generating the theory by providing more data for comparative analysis. The connection that is generated here is grounded in the data, and aimed at elucidation rather than prediction, it can be one of several possible clarifications of the phenomena under study, and is presented as a an idea "in process." Summary of Chapter For this study of American students' perception of Islam and the Arab world, it was assumed that qualitative methodology was the best choice for the following reasons: Qualitative research is inductive, whereby researchers develop concepts, insights, and understanding from patterns in the data, rather than collecting data to assess a preconceived model. Researchers look at settings and people holistically; 90 they are sensitive to their effect upon the people they study; they put aside their own beliefs, perspectives, and predispositions; they try to understand people from their own frame of reference; they consider all perspectives valuable; people who are ignored by society are given a forum for their views. Finally, qualitative methods are humanistic and people are not reduced to statistical equations in which we lose sight of the human side. These methods ensure a close fit between the data and the people, they emphasize reality, and give first hand unfiltered knowledge of social life. The qualitative methodology employed in this study closely follows the methodology by Glaser and Strauss for generating theory in areas of social science research that have not been previously explored. The methodology is aimed at generating a theory that is integrated, consistent, plausible, and close to the data. The process of generating theory that Glaser and Strauss described is one in which categories are developed on the basis of a study and tested, amplified, described, and refined on the basis of additional data that are collected. For this study, the researchers began with a study to establish perception of American students on Islam 91 ■and the Arab World on the University of Southern California campus. Two groups of students who took courses on Islam and Islamic societies were observed and participated in a questionnaire. A series of categories was developed on the basis of this study, and additional data were collected in order to verify the categories, modify them, and then elaborate on them. This process resulted in showing a connection between American students' perception of Islam and the Arab world and I American perception of minorities. Chapter IV FINDINGS This study is concerned with students' perceptions of Islam and the Arab world. A descriptive qualitative research design was used. The methodology employed in this study closely followed the methodology developed by Glaser and Strauss (1967) for generating theory in the areas of social research which have not previously been explored. The methodology aimed at generating a theory that was integrated, consistent, plausible, and close to the data. The generation of a theory began with a study related to the problem being explored. Then the researcher developed categories that reflected students' perception of Islam and the Arab world (see Appendix E). Data that were collected at a later stage were then compared with the original study and with the categories that had been developed. In this chapter, the following will be presented: The findings of the student case study (responses to the questionnaire and the observerations), the portrayal of Muslims and the Arab world in the media, and examples of Americans' perception of foreign cultures. The Findings of the Students' Case Study The findings of the case study indicated that the most negative perceptions of Islam and Muslims came from 93 the media. The perception of the students who mentioned the media, newspapers, magazines, and television as their source of information about Arabs, Islam and Muslims, are very negative. For example, they see Islam as a religion hostile to the West, and/or a religion that calls for fighting and killing non-Muslims. They ! see Arabs and Muslims as dark people always fighting, 1 . . . J religious fanatics, fundamentalists and extremists, and desert people and camel riders. I It was evident in the findings that students who mentioned some history textbooks also have a negative i perception of Arabs, and Islam and Muslims. However, they did not show as extreme a negative perception as that held by other students who had the media as their source of information on the subject. The negative perception that students had about ^ Islam and the Arab world was based on (1) stereotyping ; and dehumanizing Islam and the Arab world, and (2) \ inaccurate and distorted information that the students had on the subj ect. On the other hand, students who had connections with Muslims and Arabs had a more accurate and balanced perception of Islam and the Arab world. The findings will determine the direction of the remainder of the research, in accordance with the "grounded theory" from which the methodology of this research stemmed. Data will be introduced to verify the i findings of the case study. The popular media channeled student perceptions of Islam and the Arab world. Popular media affecting American students include local newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, television programming, the entertainment industry productions, and newsmagazines such as Newsweek. According to the findings of the case study, these were their main sources of information on Islam and the Arab world. It was evident that the students who had the media as their main source of information demonstrated the most negative perceptions of Islam and the Arab world. Portrayal of Islam and the Arab World in the Media Since the media has inflicted extreme stereotyped perceptions on students who participated in the study, the researcher collected a large volume of data from the media between 1990 and 1993 about American perceptions of Islam and the Arab world. In addition, a few examples of Arabs and Islam and Muslims in history textbooks will be presented. Examining the data that was collected from the media, newspapers, magazines, and television programs between 1990 and 1993, the researcher found that through 95 the media presentation of Islam and the Arab world to the American public, Arabs were characterized as hypocritical, selfish, illogical, without honor or principles, as desert people and primitive people who are against the West, and as fundamentalist and militant. Islam was seen as a hostile religion to the West, calling for a holy war against non-Muslims; Islam and democracy were presented as incompatible; and Islam was described as against women. The history of Arabs and Muslims was distorted and misinterpreted. The media description of Islam and the Arab world fell into two categories: First, stereotyping and dehumanizing of Muslims and Arabs. Second, inaccurate and distorted information on the subject. In the findings of the study of students' views, the researcher found similar categories of perceptions. For the purposes of this research, these categories will be presented through examples from articles, clippings, and comments from the media. The researcher and/or same specialists elaborated and commented on these materials, so as to give an idea of how the researcher chose these categories. These examples may represent one or more of the previous categories, and they were chosen randomly from articles, editorials, comments, and letters to the editor of the most important local newspaper, television 96 I itranscripts, and Newsweek magazine. These are the popular media that were available to students from this area and were mentioned by them as their main source of information on the subject. During the Gulf War the students were exposed to a large amount of information on Islam and the Arab world that was a source of material for the researcher in this survey of media presentation. The materials were classified and analyzed, and the researcher presented them under the category that she felt to be the main one in that example. These categories were: Stereotyping and dehumanizing, and inaccurate and distorted information. The ideas are more important than the categories themselves; therefore some categories may include more than one concept. The researcher's examples were chosen randomly from the popular media. The researcher and/or some specialist commented on these examples. Stereotyping and Dehumanizing Iraq: In the Middle East, what one does or says is often less important than how the viewer sees it— even when the cause is misdirected. "An Arab is a man who will pull down a whole temple to have a stone to sit on." — Arab proverb. The writer of this article presents Arabs and Muslims as hypocrites and extremely selfish, and he even 97 has a definition for an Arab. He defines an Arab "as a man who will pull down a whole temple to have a stone to sit on" (see Appendix C, pp. 1,2). i To an Arab in the Middle East, honor is often less a matter of what one does or says than of how he thinks others view him. Honor is showing strength even when the cause may be misdirected. Honor is the ability to inflame passions with fiery rhetoric, even if the words cheat one's sensibilities. The writer also presents Arabs as people with no real honor (see Appendix B, p. 4). He defines Arabic honor as hypocrisy. The fact that Arabs do not believe that is immaterial. They know Hussein has violated every Islamic and Arab standard by invading Kuwait, and they understand that for him to waiver or show weakness now would be to deny the very essence of his Arabness. The writer generalized, stereotyped one man's action and behavior for personal goals as a manifestation of Arabness. "Their thoughts," Lawrence wrote of the Arabs in 192 6, "were at ease only in extremes. They inhabited superlatives by choice. Sometimes inconsistencies seemed to possess them at once in joint sway; but they never compromised. They pursued the logic of several incomprehensible opinions to absurd ends, without perceiving the incongruity." Certainly, there is incongruity in Hussein's call linking the invasion of Kuwait with Palestinian rights and a redistribution of Arab oil wealth and a 98 holy war in defense of Islam. (David Lamb, Jan. 13, 1991, p. M2, a Times reporter, is the author of The Arabs: Journeys Beyond the Mirage. [Random House]). ; The writer presents Arabs as extremists and illogical in their thought and behavior. The writer gives as an example "the linking of the invasion of Kuwait and Palestinian rights....Islam," to show the Arabs as illogical, although the common demoninator, between the two cases, is occupation (see Appendix B, p. 4) • I just refuse to believe that a Third World person who rides a camel can be as smart as I am." Lt. Dave Leppelmeier, a U.S. fighter pilot in the gulf, on Iraqi pilots. (Leppelmeier. Newsweek. Letters, December 10, 1990, p. 23). Although the writers spoke about a Third World person, he meant an Arab and or a Muslim person, because he was talking about the Gulf, so these people, who are camel riders cannot be as smart as Americans. The writer thinks of himself as superior to them. Desert people. Two days into the rout of Saddam Hussein's Army, a man with a Texas accent called a restaurant in Jordan to order 200 pizzas for American soldiers in Iraq. The manager hung up. The caller phoned back, claiming to represent a radio station looking for reaction to the American victory. Didn't the proprietor support U.S. 99 troops? No, in Jordan most people supported Saddam. Well, the Americans were in Iraq, said the voice from Texas, and they might just go into Jordan and put the people there back on their camels. Fadi Ghandour, one of the restaurant's owners, slammed down the phone. It was humiliating to confront such gloating. A sense of despair nagged at Ghandour. "What scares me," he said afterward, is it's just starting." (Dickey. Newsweek, March 11, 1991, p. 66) . According to the article, Arabs and Muslims who are camel riders and desert people should go back to the desert where they came from. Also, it shows the American sense of superiority. They, the Americans, might go into Jordan and put the people there back on their camels. Have no principle. The Arab states don't have a history of standing up to bullies," said a U.S. official. "This is a bargaining culture. They're always looking for a deal." (Watson, Newsweek, August 20, 1990, p. 23). The writer reflects the misconception and distortion of Arab and Muslim history and cultural values, in which they were portrayed as people with no principle, honor and values. Have no justice system. If you hit a Saudi, it's your fault. If you hit a Korean, it's his fault. If you hit a Yemeni, go to the nearest police station and claim your prize. 100 From a list of driving tips posted outside the office of the British chief of staff in Riyadh. (Newsweek. March 18, 1991, p. 15). The writer presents Arab and Muslim countries as places with no justice, and no law and order (see Appendix C, p. 3). Against women. Let me get this straight. We sent April Glaspie as ambassador to the Arab nation knowing the culture's perspective on women, and now the State Department is concerned that miscommunication may have contributed to the invasion of Kuwait? (Lawrence C. Korchnak, Aliquippa, PA Newsweek, Letters, April 22, 1991, p. 14). The writer strongly believes that the Arab and the Muslim culture do not respect women. Racism. The Los Angeles Times, on February 3, 1991 published an article by Josh Getlin about Edward Said, who is the Chairman of the Doctoral Program in Comparative Literature at Columbia University: He is angered by the portrayal of the conflict as a clash between American virtue and "the mad Muslim" of Iraq. He castigates the media for focusing attention on Hussein and his bunker, as if 18 million other Iraqis don't exist. In "Orientalism," his most famous work, Said attacked what he said was a disturbing tendency of Western scholarship to view Arabs and Islamic culture through patronizing, racist 101 eyes. It's not that Americans are malicious, Said says, but many of them seem truly ignorant. On occasion, students and other people have asked to visit his apartment near Columbia, just to see for themselves that he lives like they do and is not some creature— or terrorist— from another planet. "Can you imagine that?" he says with wonder. "It's extraordinary." (Getlin, [1991, Feb. 3]), pp. El, E10, Ell) . Edward Said, who is a Christian, is angered by the portrayal of the conflict in the Gulf as a clash between American virtues and "the mad Muslim" of Iraq. Using the word Muslim here gives the impression that the conflict is between American virtue and Muslims, who lack this kind of virtue. Said attacked the disturbing tendency of Western scholarship to view Arabs and Islamic culture through patronizing, racist eyes. Arabs are seen as terrorists or even as different creatures from another planet. An English Muslim's view. I am an English-Muslim married to an Arab and we are doing everything we can to bring our children up as good Muslims and good American citizens. I do not see that this always has to be a contradiction. The Anglo-Saxon virtues of hard work and thriftiness, combined with the close family life and good morality of the Muslims can fit together very well if given half a chance. (Los Angeles Times. Abuawad. Letters to Editor, February 5, 1991, p. 10). 102 The view of this English Muslim is that Muslims have virtues too, and there are no contradictions between Anglo-Saxon virtues and Muslim virtues; on the contrary, they complement each other. This is if Muslims' morality was given at least half a chance. It is an indication of the distortion of Muslim values and cultures. Prejudice and racism. Muslims without an immediate stake in the Middle East conflict— those from non-Arab countries— say they too have become the victims of prejudice and racism from Southern Californians who have come to equate Islam with Saddam Hussein and Iraqi terrorism. Jahan Stanizai, a Muslim who fled war-torn Afghanistan 10 years ago, said Muslims have been unfairly singled out by friend and foe alike. "To tell you a sad comment, it is not a polite comment, that I heard from a friend," Stanizai said, "She said, 'So what if they are killing the Muslims, all they do is hold their butts in the air and pray.' Religion is something private to people. How they pray is none of anybody's business." (Dean E. Murphy, Los Angeles Times. January 22, 1991, pp. All, A2 6). Muslims are victims of prejudice and racism for no reason. Islam is equated with terrorism. There is no use for Muslims. Then "so what if they (the Americans) are killing the Muslims." On January 24, 1991, the Los Angeles Times published the following by T. Priston and J. Dart: 103 Muslims a Growing U.S. Force But despite the rise in numbers, they feel their beliefs are misconstrued as hostile to the West. Now they fear they will be held responsible for a war most say they didn't want. Many Muslims see themselves as the victims of cultural stereotypes and caricature as underscored most recently be outrage over the current movie, "Not Without My Daughter," which tells the story of an American woman trapped in Iran by an abusive husband. "You will not find a single Arab or Muslim who does not believe that America ridicules them," said [Yvonne] Haddad. The popular image of Islam as a bellicose religion was spread in the West as a means of rationalizing its conquest of the Muslim world, [Carol] Ernst said, "If you have an image that the enemy you are subjugating is violent then that justifies your own violence," he said. Muslim law allows self-defense in response to aggression, but does not sanction religious imperialism, according to Ernst. "There is a quotation from the Koran that is quite explicit," he said, "It says: 'There is no compulsion in religion.'" Most Muslims in this country have condemned the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, saying that Saddam Hussein, a secular leader who has persecuted religious activists in his own nation, has exploited the concept of jihad, or "righteous striving," to justify his actions. Jihad is popularly known as "holy war," though it can also signify an internal struggle. In its external sense, it is authorized only in defense of people "whose human rights have been violated and whose land or freedom of faith have been attacked," said Fathi Osman, resident scholar at the Islamic Center of Southern California. (Los Angeles Times. 1991, Jan. 24, pp. Al, A24, A25). 104 Haddad and Ernst are well known scholars on Islam. Muslims feel that their beliefs are misconstrued as hostile to the West. Many Muslims see themselves as victims of cultural stereotypes and caricature by the West, as in the case of a current movie, "Not Without My i Daughter," where a Muslim man abused his wife. Islam was portrayed by the West as a bellicose religion, so as to justify the killing of Muslims. Muslim law does not allow them to kill others under the name of religion: "There is no compulsion in religion." The West misunderstood the concept of Jihad, that is known as "holy war," which also means an internal struggle (see Appendix C, p. 2). The West equated this concept with Muslims killing non-Muslims under the name of Islam. Another example by Dean E. Murphy, Los Angeles Times, January 22, 1991: "Whenever there is a confrontation among countries, naturally the people with roots in those countries feel the tensions," said Don Bustany, a radio producer of Lebanese descent who is president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Arab American Anti-Discrimination Committee. "War is doing what war does, which is causing a tremendous amount of distress among all kinds of people." Nadia Saad Bettendorf, a Palestinian high school teacher who lives in Orange County, was reminded last week of just 105 how close to home the war can come. While grocery shopping in La Mirada, she watched as two Arabic-speaking women were spotted by a couple of other shoppers. "I feel like kicking their... i1 1 Bettendorf heard one shopper fume. The shopper,she said, then followed the two Arab-American women, cursing them as they pushed their cart down a store aisle. Everybody is on edge, and that is understandable,1 1 said Bettendorf. "But I hope it doesn't get out of hand." ; (Los Ancreles Times. 1991, Jan. 22, \ pp. All, A2 6). Arabs were humiliated by Americans for no reason, just because they were Arab. Double Standards. The West's record of double standards, together with sensitivities about the recent colonial past, make many Arabs suspicious of Washington's stated aims in the Gulf. "Many people think all this talk about international legitimacy is just a bunch of blah, blah, blah," said Mohammed Sid Ahmed, a Egyptian political columnist. "They suspect Americans are just there for neocolonial oil interests. In Egypt, these sentiments are not so crudely expressed as they are elsewhere, but you do find people talking that way." The suspicion that once more the Arabs are allowing their fate to be manipulated by foreign powers pursuing their own narrow interests is compounded by the fact that the Arab world is bereft of inspired leadership of its own. (Los Angeles Times. February 12, 1991, pp. H4, H5) . The West's record of double standards in dealing with issues in the Middle East and the Muslim world, in i 106 I addition to the recent colonial past, and American interest in the Arab oil, made many Arabs suspicious of American involvement in the Gulf. The article, "Is This Any Way to Wage Peace?" (Los Angeles Times. January 31, 1991, p. B7), shows the theory of "just war" in action, where it is manipulated to justify one's goals, or "the ends justify the means." The article "Striking a Balance With Evil" (Los Angeles Times. January 31, 1991, p. B7) shows how the "enemies" were demonized and dehumanized,"When we look at Hussein, we are staring at the face of evil" in order to justify the just war theory (see Appendix B, p. 4). The writer of this article blamed the religion for not going far enough, with him, to justify the killing of others, "the enemies," and because they are his enemies they cannot be God's children like himself. Jack Shaheen, who is a professor of Mass Communication at Southern Illinois University, tracks and analyzes the stereotyping of Arabs in the media. He watched many of the 400 films that have been done featuring Arab characters over the last 50 years in the United States, besides most of the additional hundreds of television shows and hundreds of comic books. The pervasive image, the dehumanization of the Arab is all over American society. It has not stopped and it 107 continues* The portrait of Arabic men is a portrait of Bedouin bandits attacking the Foreign Legion, or of billionaires driving around in Rolls Royces out to destroy the American economy, and seduce American women or of bombers setting off bombs in shopping malls or threatening to drop nuclear weapons on New York City. The U.S. image of Muslim women is of belly dancers, or black bundles of clothes. They're almost chattel following camels in the desert. These are the prevailing images that persist in American society today (Public T.V., April 1, 1991). According to Haddad (Public T.V., April 13, 1991), (see Appendix A, pp. 1- 3) . Vice President Quayle made a statement in May, 199 0 in which he said that in this century, we have three evils, in a sense — Nazism, Communism, and Islamic fundamentalism. Furthermore, Haddad notes that Jihad, a holy war, in Arabic means "struggle" and its context in the Quran mostly refers to the struggle of the soul to control the soul from veering toward evil. So the greatest struggle is the struggle of self to bring it in obedience to God. Then the lesser struggle is Jihad as "holy war" that is sanctioned in Islam only when the faith is being attacked or Muslims are not allowed to practice their faith. In the West people switched the two around; 108 every time Americans hear the word Jihad, they have an image of a mob, violent people who are out to oppress the world. Americans are deliberately stereotyping them, demonizing them to make it easy to rule them, according to Haddad (see Appendix C, p. 2) . According to the same source, you never see an Arab man with his wife and children doing things that other people do; this is excluded from their image. In other words, to humanize an Arab in American culture, particularly in entertainment, is not so much in the news. "There's almost an unwritten law saying that we cannot do this." The consequence of this consistent and persistent stereotype is that when you dehumanize, delegitimize a group, you can take action against that group and get away with it, according to the same source. Dr. Haddad added that the Americans have been watching on television, for a decade, Muslims with chanting mobs and terrorist fanatics. Television has brought to the U.S. images of armed gunmen chanting Muslim slogans, of women in dark robes, of sinister looking clerics. Headlines repeatedly point to the resurgence of Islamic fundamentalism, and she added that, "one letter to the editor recently said, 'Islam is giving religion a bad name'" (Public T.V., April 3, 109 1991). And she added that a book came out of North Dakota, with a picture of a Muslim dressed in green, riding a horse, and has the Quran in his left, hand, the sword in the right, and it says, "You know, The Muslims are coming," (Public T.V., April 3, 1991). For more information about Islam and Muslims in the media, see Appendix A. Furthermore, The Arabs have always been fair game for political cartoonists and moviemakers.... Even "Sesame Street," the respected children's television program, once used an Arab as a symbol of evil. (David Lamb, Los Angeles Times. February 12, 1991, p. HI). Inaccurate and distorted information The following segment is from an article that elaborates on the information that Americans have on Islam and the Arab world: America remains largely uninformed about the predominant religion of the region— Islam. A superficial understanding of Islam breeds a superficial policy toward the Muslim world. Accordingly, America's long-term international interests are damaged. The source of anti-Western sentiment in the Muslim world is not Islam, but the West's association with dictators and their oppressive rule. Islam 110 upholds the right of free expression and the right to self-government based on the Koranic principle of mutual consultation or government by representation. If a lasting reconciliation between Islam and America is to be achieved, the current shortsighted U.S. policy of supporting dictators must give way to a genuine attempt at understanding and supporting the aspirations of the Muslim peoples. Toward that end, U.S. Muslims must take their place in American pluralism so they can lead the effort to establish a more constructive U.S. policy in the Muslim world. (Al-Marayati, Los Angeles Times. January 20, 1991, p. M4). Americans are largely uninformed about Islam; therefore, a superficial understanding of Islam creates superficial policy toward the Muslim world. The problem is not in Islam; Islam calls for democracy. The problem is in the West's policy in the Muslim and Arabic world that supports dictators and their oppressive rule. According to the writer, the current shortsighted American policy should be changed. A genuine attempt at understanding and supporting the aspirations of the Muslim people should be in order to achieve a lasting reconciliation between Islam and America. "A Call to Prayer," by J. Dart, et al., (Los Angeles Times. January 24, 1991 pp. E2, E3) was chosen. In this article, the Times staff writers interviewed Muslims from different backgrounds, where the Ill interviewee expressed the following views as examples of American stereotyping and ignorance of Islam and Muslims. 1. Americans assume that Muslims are all alike, but American Muslims like all Muslims are a heterogeneous group, often with little in common except, in varying degrees, a devotion to the Ooran and the rules of Islam (see Appendix A, p. 3). There is a diversity of cultures in American mosques, where Middle Easterners and Europeans pray next to Chinese, Indonesian and Indian Muslims; but daily ritual of prayer is the same as practiced throughout the Islamic world. 2. Americans engage in "ignorant misconceptions," "such as relating terrorism only to Muslims." People tend to generalize. 3. Most Americans are totally ignorant of Islam, and almost totally uninterested in learning anything about it (see Appendix A, p. 1, 2). 4. Americans believe that Muslims are anti-Western, but the prophet Mohammed with his message dispelled the idea of the superiority of one race over another. 5. Americans believe that Muslims are fanatically 112 puritanical, but the Quran doesn't dictate puritanical fashions. It does dictate modesty. 6. Americans believe that Muslims oppress women, but there is nothing inherently oppressive toward women about Islam. Muslim men who treat women with disrespect are doing so because of cultural proclivities rather than because of any dictates of the Koran, which urges husbands to treat wives with kindness. 7. Americans assume that most Muslim women cover their faces and participate in a polygamous marriage. On the same subject, the following article was chosen: "Why We Can't Seem to Understand the Arab." In his article that was published in Newsweek (January 7, 1991, p. 7), Christopher Dickey had raised that question. The answer is very simple, and it is in the article itself; "Americans were interested in oil and what it took to get it out of the desert. Even those who moved to the Middle East tended to live in their compounds." Dickey considered history as the essence of the problem. Also, it is not only that he legitimized some stereotyping, such as, (1) 'It is natural for an Arab to speak with double meanings,' and 'If something is threatening to an Arab or puts him down, he will 113 simply reinterpret the 'facts' to suit himself— which is perfectly correct by his code.' American troops in Saudi Arabia were given a primer called "Customs and Courtesies" on how not to offend the Saudi which included these views. Ironically, Dickey stated that "Stereotypes such as these are useful, at least, as reflections of Western fears and prejudice." By doing so, Mr. Dickey has increased the degree of stereotypes and mistrust which, according to this article, were already there. This in addition to the writer's sarcastic i interpretation of the Arabic phrase "ahlan wa-shlan," as a reply to either goodbye or hello, this phrase is an abbreviation of "nazalta ahlan wa-halalta sahlan," which means that a person, as in Dickey's article, is among his/her family— that the hosts consider themselves as a family to this person, and this person is in a hospitable place— the word sahlan means a plain or a meadow as an indication to generosity and hospitality; so this person is welcome now and in the future. The writer stated that, "So American visitors blithely say goodbye, hear hello, and make jokes, while Iraqis are saying welcome and wondering what the foreigners are sniggering about." Unfortunately, according to the article, the Arabs 114 seem to understand the West more than the West understands them; but "it takes two to tango" or as the Arabs say, "One hand does not clap." This misunderstanding goes back to Roosevelt's time; as indicated in the following: This is an exchange between two journalists about the meeting between Roosevelt and King Ibn Saud: Bradlee [Editor, The Washington Postl: The difference between the aristocratic president and the desert king were rooted in history. Talk about America not understanding Arabs and vice versa. Take as an example, the traditional exchange of gifts. Roosevelt, who knew the king was a horseman, decided to give him a bronze copy of Frederick Remington's Bronco Buster. Mroue [who is a Lebanese journalist]: True Muslims do not allow graven images in their homes. I'm sure the Bronco Buster would have elicited a few snickers from the Saudis, but their tradition of hospitality would have overcome their religious concerns. Bradlee: At the last minute, a State Department protocol office caught this mistake, and a more appropriate gift was chosen — a transport plan. Practical for us, too, since it would be accompanied by a six- man U.S. military crew, and so help along the negotiations, then underway, to get a U.S. base in Dharan. King Ibn Saud had his own gift ideas. For the president, a sword, robes, and musk oil. For Mrs. Roosevelt, what was listed as a harem costume. Mroue: Simply stated, a harem dress is a Hollywood-inspired American fantasy. There isn't a harem dress or costume in Arabia. In fact the king's gift was a traditional Arab dress worn by Arab women when receiving their guests. And the king's other gifts to the president are an expression of an Arabian expression of respect and esteem. If Arab 115 gifts are misunderstood, it is no wonder that Arab customs are ridiculed. (The Secret Files, WETA-TV Transcript No. 106, February 17, 1992) In Stanley Meisler's article in the Los Angeles Times on November 1, 1991 (pp. Al, A13), he states that "Africa and the Middle East are as inhospitable to democracy as ever.” He states that, "Some experts fear that Islamic religion is simply incompatible with democracy," and he adds that, "in much of North Africa and the Middle East, the opposition to authoritarian governments comes not from democratic groups but from Islamic fundamentalists who believe that Koranic law should be the basic law of a state and Islamic religious leaders should have the right to oversee the decisions of the government." Professor Huntington, a professor of government at Harvard, stated that, "Islamic concepts of politics differ from and contradict the premises of democratic politics," according to the article. The definition of democracy, according to Webster7s New World Dictionary is: "1. Government by people, directly or through representatives. 2. A country, etc., with such government. 3. Eguality of rights, opportunity and treatment." Accordingly, it should be mentioned that the Quran calls for such a government and there is no 116 contradiction between the Islamic concept of politics and the democratic politics that the professor stated, except that the Islamic democracy is divinely sanctioned because it is a statement out of Quranic teaching. The professor is confused between the principle of democracy in Islam and its application by some Muslims because consensus, equality, liberty and justice for all are from the main principles of Islam, and if it is otherwise, it is not Islam that should be blamed, but the people who claim to be Muslim. Michael Hudson, a leading Arab specialist of Georgetown University, stated that "those post independence governments in the Middle East tended to be wobbly affairs. But I wouldn't attribute that kind of instability to Islamic culture." Islam is the enemy of the West. An article by Robin Wright from the Los Angeles Times (January 26, 1991, pp. Al, A13) states that Islam is perceived by some as the enemy that takes the place of the Communist, and is a threat to the Judeo-Christian West. A European foreign minister expressed his concern about an "Islamic challenge" that is dividing the world along new lines." Furthermore, even when Muslims are rising to power through what is called a "democratic process, ballot box," this was taken away from them as in the case of j 117 I Algeria, which got no support from the West, especially the U.S., "the most powerful democracy on earth," which claims to support democracy and launch wars for that reason. Because the United States thinks that Islam and democracy do not go together, therefore, the U.S. is facing a dilemma, how to protect democracy without encouraging new Muslim states, or what is called "fundamentalist states." "It is a double standard on democracy," according to the article. For Muslims, Western democracy is not the model to be followed, the article added. "You would be wrong to assume democracy would be the alternative if the old regimes fell. There is a much better organized alternative already waiting and that is fundamentalism." (See Appendix D, p. 5). said Heikal (Newsweek, January 7, 1991, pp. 20-24). Fundament a1i sm. Ray Waddle wrote an article entitled: "Religious Fundamentalism An Often Misunderstood Term." in the Tennessean newspaper on January 19, 1992, p. 3D. The writer said that, "Muslim fundamentalism... tends to confound the American public, who often call such movements 'fundamentalist,' even if the word doesn't always fit." And he added that many Muslims consider "Islamic fundamentalism" a term of derision, 118 just as many Christians dislike the fundamentalist label |when it is applied to them. It is not a useful word because it has taken on an American association with militancy and lack of tolerance. Said Muhammad Ahmad, a local Muslim and spokesman for the Koranic Open University branch here, "So much of Islam gets misrepresented as a result." Also, the writer added that, "Many Americans think of scowling intolerant images of Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini when they think of Islamic fundamentalism, but observers "say that is misleading: The Iranian example !is usually authoritarian and severe, but others from Jordan to Algeria are less so." And according to the same source, Politically, many of these movements accept modern democratic parties, the rights of minorities and the accountability of leaders to the people. These lines were written by Said Mumtaz Ahmad, a political scientist in Hampton, Virginia. Interestingly, "The word fundamentalism is of U.S. origin, referring to a series of booklets on conservative Protestant doctrines written from 1910-1915 by two rich laymen who attacked liberal theology," but, unfortunately, when Americans applied this term to Islam or Muslims, it became a synonym for terrorism, 119 !intolerance, and mob action or behavior. On the same topic, Kenneth Freed wrote an article entitled "The Varied Politics of Islam," (Los Angeles Times, March 26, 1991, pp. Al, A12). He said: Some Western leaders worry about the growth of Muslim fundamentalism, but many in the movement are pragmatic, and their strength may not be destabilizing. "The growth of fundamentalism is not necessarily a threat to the West or inherently destabilizing in the region," said Earl Sullivan, a political scientist at the American University of Cairo. "Not all fundamentalists are extremists. Many are pragmatic and realistic." "If the fundamentalists were to win widespread control, one European diplomat said, "it shouldn't be assumed that it would be an external threat to the West. If we don't pursue policies that threaten their interests or appear to intervene in their internal affairs there is no reason to fear them." Also, in his article, Freed describes a Muslim fundamentalist: With his London-styled suit, faultless English and neatly trimmed beard, the American- educated doctor hardly met the Western stereotype of a Muslim fanatic. Yet as a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, he is an Islamic fundamentalist, and to many minds, a threat to Western values and traditions and the American way. I 120 i i Militants. In K. Murphy's article in the Los Angeles Times (April 16, 1992, pp. Al, A9, A10), "Islamic Militants Build Power Base in Sudan.": "Religion: The regime vows to export beliefs, worrying i its more secular Arab neighbors and the West," she attacked fundamentalism, "'the head of their agenda is the export of their ideology, which is radical, political Islam. They're determined to infect anyone in the world with this virus, and certainly their neighbors by any means,' a senior Western official said recently of the Sudanese," according to the article. Looking at the previous paragraph, one can identify the bias in it: The ideology is labeled as "radical"; the word "virus" is now if it were a disease. Turabi, a religious and political leader from the Sudan, is described as having "challenged the conventional wisdom of traditional fundamentalist groups," and as "the holder of graduate degrees from schools in Paris and London, "he speaks Arabic, English, French and German." So "conventional wisdom" Turabi challenged continues the stereotype of portraying Muslims as an uneducated mob. Also, when the writer stated that Turabi "has helped to develop a new brand of populist Islam...." It should be mentioned he developed a new brand of 121 i japplication of Islam. The problem is not in Islam, but ! |in the people who claim to apply it and abide by it. i Turabi outlined the reasons behind the West's fear of Islam, according to the article, as: "Most of what the West is afraid of is subconscious historical backlog. You know Islam was a target of antagonism and hostility during the Crusades and the colonial wars. Most of these (Western) powers had to fight their way in Muslim territories, and, during the liberation wars they were thrown out by force in Algeria and many other countries and they developed some antipathy toward Islam....They came to realize that the revival of Islam would correct the eguation between West and East, and the Third World....The other factor I think there is a vacuum now, a threat vacuum with Russian out of the scene." He added, "You (in the West) need an empire of evil to mobilize against..." (Los Angeles Times. April 16, 1992; see Appendix D, p. 5). The West is right. According to the article "The Code of the Wasp Warrior," by E. Thomas et al., (Newsweek. August 20, 1990, p. 33), "President Bush's position on war against Saddam Hussein was coming from "Christian principles" of "respect for justice and fair play," in which people had to choose between "right and wrong," and "to stand up for good against evil." 122 Henry Stimson was George Bush's hero; this role model "was especially avid about fighting wars." He said that "A war would be a wonderfully good thing for this country" and believed that the United States had the duty and destiny to civilize the world. Can somebody like Stimson be a role model for American children? According to Woodward's article, "Ancient Theory and Modern War" (Newsweek, August 20, 1990, p. 47), the language of just-war theory is inevitable. Michael Walzer says, "You can't send soldiers into battle or order them to kill without being able to justify these actions in moral terms for your self, to fellow citizens and to the world." So this concept of "just war" was a license or a permission to kill; but who has the authority to issue that license or to grant that permission? On the other hand, Muslims' idea of just war, or holy war (Jihad) is considered as an act of terrorism. Primitive people. In his article in Newsweek (January 28, 1991, p. 66), George Will called the Iraqis "a primitive people" and Iraq, a "culturally underdeveloped society." On the other hand, he called the United States of America, "the most modern nation" and a "scientific nation." Thus "When a scientific 123 nation like America goes to 15 years between wars, it brings to the next battle new weapons never tested in the crucible that counts. America's new array is passing its test." Indeed, this is an impressive display of the most sophisticated war machinery which reflects the level of the cultural sophistication of a country, according to Mr. Will. But one can ask: Is this the scale for a culture to be measured by? The comparison between Irag, which is a Third World country, with its limited resources and a former colony, to the United States of America, the only "super power on earth," is like comparing a lion to an ant. Therefore, Irag cannot compete with the super power in the creation of very sophisticated war machinery, but Iraq and many other countries who are "culturally underdeveloped" can be the testing field or the laboratory where the new war machinery can be "tested in the crucible ‘ that counts," in which babies, children and the elderly can be the testing targets, and the result can help the "culturally most advanced country," so as when it "goes 15 years between wars, it brings to the next battle new weapons never tested in the crucible that counts." But one wonders where the next laboratory is going to be. The writer of another article thinks "these sophisticated weapons don't show how far we've 124 come, they indicate how far we've gone astray" (Los Anaeles Times. May 9, 1991). In retrospect, the following article titled, "Bombs, the Moral Tools of the West" (Los Anaeles Times. February 3, 1991), is presented, giving some historical perspective on the killing of Arabs, and Muslims by the West, and it speaks for itself: The concept of bombing Iraq is an essentially wholesome liaison between morality and Western technological prowess goes back to 1919, when Britain sought dominance of the Gulf oil fields and a docile government in Baghdad as an outcome of World War I. The Royal Air Force asked Winston Churchill, then the secretary of state for war, for permission to use chemical weapons, the "smart bombs" of their day, "against recalcitrant Arabs as an experiment." Churchill rejected timid naysayer. "I do not understand squeamishness about the use of gas," he wrote, "I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes....It is not necessary to use only the most deadly gases, gases can be used which would cause great inconvenience and would spread a lively terror and yet would leave no serious permanent effects on most of those affected." (Alexander Cockburn, "Bombs, The Moral Tools of the West," Los Anaeles Times. February 3, 1991, p. M7) Inaccurate and Distorted Information. Even the Encyclopedia Americana is inaccurate in presenting information about the Arabs. Kim Murphy wrote a report titled "The Arabs— Language of Discord," that appeared in the Los Anaeles Times on March 10, 1992 (pp. H-l, H-2). Although there are many comments that 125 can be made on that report, for the purpose of this research, only the following will be presented: 1. It says of "the Arab language: The alphabet has 28 letters, all consonants, vowel symbols are inserted above or below the letters," (source, The Encyclopedia Americana, according to the Los Anaeles Times. March 10, 1992). It is known that Arabic has three vowels: Alif (A), waw (o,u) and ye (e,i) besides the vowel symbols that are inserted above or below the letters and considered as short vowels. 2. The same source stated that, "Naskhi is the ordinary cursive writing," but Naskhi can be considered classic because it is used in writing the Holy Quran and other books on religion, and the printed letters that are used to print books, newspapers, etc., are taken from this style of writing, according to Muhammad Siam (1990, p. 6). On the other hand, the ordinary cursive writing which is used in everyday life, and taught at schools is called Reqea, according to Siam (1990, p. 73), and not "Naskhi" as the Encyclopedia Americana states, according to the Los Anaeles Times. 3. The same source states that "Kufic, a bold 126 decorative form that adorns buildings” is not used only as a decorative form that adorns buildings. According to Siam (1990, p. 76), the correct term is "Kufi.” 4. The Encyclopedia Americana states that the Islamic Quran (7th century) was the first prose work in Arabic.” First, when we say "Islamic Quran." that indicates that there are other kinds of Quran (this spelling is used in the Encyclopedia of Islam) such as Christian Quran or a Jewish Quran. etc. It is known that the Quran is the Muslim Holy Book, and it is the only book with this name. Second, although Arabs were and still are very famous for their poetry from the pre-Islamic era, there was some prose writing too, and the Encyclopedia Americana statement that the Quran was the first prose work in Arabic is not true. In her report, Murphy said, "Above a picture. Palestinian girls study Arabic. Top left Kufic script of phrase that opens many documents. One translation: "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Compassionate," (Los Angeles Times. March 10, 1992). Looking at the picture one can see girls reading the Quran and not studying Arabic; and the "Kufi," as it should read, script was a phrase that opens every "sura" 127 verse in the Quran except one,and this is the origin of that phrase; this type of writing is considered the j classic, and called "Thuluth," according to Siam (1990, p. 63), and not Kufic according to the Encyclopedia Americana. Los Angeles Times (March 10, 1992). The Encyclopedia Americana was used as an example of the inaccuracy in presenting information about Islam, and Muslims, including Arabs, in this highly respected source of information. Murphy also included a table (see Table 3) in her report titled, "Strictly Speaking. ...,1 1 "It is all called Arabic, but the local equivalents of the simplest expression vary widely around the Arab world." Although there are many differences among the local dialects in the Arab world due to many factors which are beyond the scope of this research, I would like to state the following as examples of the inaccuracy of that table (see Table 3). TABLE 3 128 | STRICTLY SPEAKING.... ' It's all called Arabic, but the local equivalent of : the simplest expressions vary widely around the Arab world. A few examples: ENGLISH MOROCCO LEBANON EGYPT KUWAIT CLASSICAL OK, fine wakha tayib mash i zein wahwa kathalik good mzian mnieh kwayia zein hassan bad khaib 'ati I wahash battaal sayi' two zowj tneen itneen ithneen i thnayn how much? sh'hal? addaish? bi kam? shged? kam? none khasse maf i maf i sh mako la yujid where feen ween feen ween ayna (K. Murphy, Los Angeles Times. March 10, 1991, p. 41). 129 1. The writer did not take into consideration the stages of feeling or the person's situations in her examples; in the case of the first line, these words are answers to the question: How are you? In Arabic, as in many other languages, there are different words to answer that question, each word indicates how the person feels. For example, the word "mashi" does not mean that person is feeling great; therefore, it is not equivalent to the word "zein" which is not equivalent to the classic word the writer used. 2. Most of the words in the Table are not strange to the Arabs. 3. The slight difference in pronunciation, i.e., the words "tneen" and "itneen" does not cause misunderstanding and the word "zowj", which means "a couple" in English is known all over the Arab world. For example, if somebody asks "How many apples do you want?", the response may be, I want two, or a couple. In many cases, one can hear different pronuncia tions in one single city; therefore, most words on that table are familiar to most Arabs. Besides, the media such as television, radio, newspapers, movies, etc., easy transportation, migration and intermarriages - all i 130 I ;of these factors and others - have contributed to the alleviation of many differences in pronunciation. Therefore, the writer's idea, which was that the Arabs do not understand each other, was a false one. Historical distortion. The history of Islam and Arabs is also often distorted when presented to Americans as in the following examples: In Peter McGrath, et al.'s article "More Than a Madman" published in Newsweek (January 7, 1991, p. 20), the writers made an analogy between Saddam Hussein and Tarig ibn-Ziyad, which, I believe was a false one. For example, Tarig's time and situation was different than that of Saddam's; Tarig was asked by the Spaniards to go to Spain; Tarig did not own the ships,and it is not certain that he burned the ships. Tarig was and still is a hero in Islamic history. The association of Tarig with Saddam, who is presented as a madman, is an indication that the heroes of these people, the Muslims, are crazy or madmen. Teaching distorted history. Textbooks played a part in the formation of negative perceptions of the students involved in this study. As an example of that role in distorting the image of Islam and the Arab world, some history textbooks are presented to demonstrate their content regarding that religion and 131 its people. For the purpose of this study only the popular media have been explored, and textbooks are used as a category to demonstrate a distorted history, not to explore the role of textbooks in forming the perception of students on the subject. A Muslim view of these textbooks appeared in the Los Anaeles Times: "Muslims protest that proposed textbooks depict Islam as a camel while other cultures are personified as kings and warriors" (January 31, 1992, pp. Bl, B4). These proposed textbooks included the Houghton Mifflin series that "was created to meet California's demanding new history and social studies curriculum, which places special emphasis on such previously slighted subjects as geography, Muslim and Far Eastern history and the role of religion in world history." (Los Angeles Times. November 4, 1991). On February 12, 1992, p. B6, the Los Anaeles Times published the following letter from a reader called Yacoob: I have the whole section about Islam in the textbook published by Houghton Mifflin that was mentioned in your article ("Making New Maps for the Labyrinth of Learning," Metro, Jan. 31). In this regard, I would like to say that there are more schools in the United States than any other country in the world; there are more libraries in the United States than any other country in the world; there are more books in the United States than any other country in the world, and yet there is more 1 132 ignorance about Islam in the United States I than any other country in the world. The referenced book has been many discrepancies and inconsistencies concerning Islam, this is not a zoology book to give details about a camel caravan. This is one of the reasons why there is so much anti-Muslim feeling, discrimination, bigotry and hate crimes against Muslim citizens in the United States. I earnestly hope that Los Angeles school board members will vote against adopting this book. A review of the Houghton Mifflin Social Studies book (see Appendix F), Across the Centuries (Teacher's Edition), Unit Two, "The Growth of Islam," pp. 49-102 by Carl W. Ernst, Ph.D. (Harvard), an Associate Professor at Pomona College,in which he stated: My interest in this textbook hinged upon whether or not it will 1) introduce students to Islamic history as part of the world's humanistic heritage and 2) discuss Islamic history without ideological preconceptions. While in some respects this section represents an improvement on similar proposed and existing texts, unfortunately it will not make an appreciable difference in terms of removing common stereotypes of Islam.... In other words, unless this unit undergoes major modification before publication, it will not make my job as a teacher any easier Then he listed a long list of mistakes and misconceptions about Islam and Muslims (see Appendix F). Also, the Los Anaeles Times on January 24, 1991, p. Al published the following by Pristin and Dart: To many American Muslims, textbooks are to blame for disseminating and perpetuating misconceptions about their faith. When Shabbir Mounsouri, a board member of the Los 133 Angeles-based Islamic Center, complained that his daughter's textbook depicted Islam as the religion of 1 1 sword-carrying Bedouins," the center began pushing for revisions. The new seventh-grade textbook recently approved in California, "represents a real advance over what's been available in the past," said Ernst, who reviewed competing textbooks at the request of members of the Islamic community. Still, he said, the book continues to "leave the impression that camel nomads are the basic identity of Muslims, which is patently ridiculous. Contrary to the stereotype, the Muslim world stretches across about 50 countries from Africa to Europe to Asia, with more followers than elsewhere. On American views of Islam, the Los Angeles Times published the following poll of 1,273 adults across the nation on February 18-19, on April 6, 1993 (see Figure 2) . 134 Figure 2 The Times Poll H/4 TUESDAY, APRIL 6, 1993 II in ■ TlieM m esToIl What Do We Think of Islam? The Times polled 1,273 adults nationwide on Feb. 18-19 regarding their views on Islam. “Not aware” or ’ don’t know” were common responses to the questions.* ■ What Is your Impression of . the religion called Islam? ? Unfavorable 22% Not aware/ don’ t know 64% Favorable 14% Do you think the religion called Islam Is compatible with Westem-style political democracy or Is It basically an anti-democratic religion? Compatible with ______ democracy / — AntT \ 10% (Figure continued) 135 Figure 2 Do you think the religion called Islam poses a threat to the security of the United States and its Western allies or not? threat ;37% know Threat 29% p When you think of the religion called lslamy what j comes to yourjmind?* * Middle East 16% Arab countries': . , 6% Fanatics/zealots 7% Iran 3% 7^' - Black Muslims in U .S . 3% fT u r tfa m e h ta iis m v f y ^ 1 Great religion 2% Other answers 30% * M?®0 ••npWng error is plus or minus 3 percentage points. r* Accepted up to two replies 136 The result of this poll agrees with the findings of the students' case study and the media presentation of Islam: In all three cases, Islam, mostly, is perceived negatively, as incompatible with democracy, and/or a threat to the West. If one adds the percentage of the unfavorable, in the poll, to that of the unaware or do not know, the percentage of the favorable represents a very small percentage of American society. In addition, there is a lack of information on the subject amongst Americans as indicated by the percentage of the people who do not know or are not aware. Also, the result of an investigation of the media's portrayal of Islam and of Muslims, conducted by the Islamic Information Service (I.I.S.) in 1992, agrees with previous findings in which Islam and Muslims were subject to stereotyping and discrimination. Summary and Conclusion on the Media. From the data presented, it is evident that Americans perceive Islam and Muslims negatively. Muslims are seen as people with dark skin and dark hair, childish, not as smart as Americans, camel riders, people who should go back to the desert where they came from. They are also labeled as fundamentalists, militants, extremists, in addition to being terrorists and kidnappers; and their culture is looked upon as primitive and/or uncivilized. 137 | To conclude, the findings of the case study ,indicate that American students have a negative perception of Islam and the Arab world. The source of the formation of such a perception was, to a great extent, the media; to a lesser extent, it was history textbooks. The researcher's exploration of the media's portrayal of Islam and the Arab world found that students' negative perception was the output of the media's negative input. The examples from textbooks agree with the media's negative presentation of Islam and the Arab world. Where the media identify this religion, and its people, with terrorism and lack of civilization, textbooks project Islam as the religion of the sword and its people as warriors. It is as if the media and textbook input on student perception produce the negative output that the study revealed. The formula can be expressed as follows: Media image of Islam and the Arab world + history textbook presentation ----> students' perception of Islam and the Arab world. As the examples from "the Portrayal of Islam and the Arab world" indicate, the media projects its images across the American population as a whole. These images, reflected in negative perceptions, go beyond the student population to affect American perceptions of 138 Islam and the Arabs generally. The results of negative perceptions as a factor in cross-cultural relations are the focus of the next section of the research. American Perceptions of Minorities While this research was being conducted, the so- called Los Angeles Riot of April, 1992 broke out. This unfortunate incident gave the researcher the idea to explore cultural understanding in America through the riot. The researcher collected data between April, 1992 and February, 199 3 that represent the views of people in Los Angeles. Residents, from all walks of life, expressed their feelings and why they felt that way. Their words were simple, spontaneous and direct expressions rooted in peoples' lives. Data gathered through this incident were classified and categorized and found to fall into the following categories: Stereotyping, racism, prejudice; injustice; ignorance, and the role of the media. The following is a summary of the opinions stated in the media during that period in each of those categories. There are many examples of stereotyping by whites against blacks, whether they are rich or poor, educated or uneducated. There is an exaggerated estimate of the percentage of blacks belonging to gangs and committing crimes. 139 The verdict (of the Rodney King trial in Simi Valley) was deeply rooted in the history of racial attitudes, in the assumptions that blacks are naturally more impulsive and violent than whites and require more control and restraint. This assumption was used to justify police brutality against blacks. Some race riots in this country have been started by white policemen. The police deal severely with blacks accused of crimes against white persons or property. Racial attitude is alive and well in this country, and remains the most debilitating virus in the American system. Twenty-five years after the Kerner Commission Report, this nation remains in critical ways two societies, sharply divided between the haves and the have nots. The commitments once made to racial equality and equal opportunity have been revised, compromised, diluted, permitted to erode or abandoned altogether. The American Constitution that provides "liberty and justice for all" does not provide that for African- Americans. It was not the first time that white Americans have, in the name of justice, inflicted injustice on Afro-Americans. There is a lack of cultural awareness as well as communication on the part of the parties involved. They do not know enough about each other, i.e., all Asians 140 are considered the same, and all Latinos also are considered the same in spite of the differences in their cultural backgrounds. There is a feeling of hopelessness and disaffection l ,among the minority communities in Los Angeles as well as minority journalists and others towards the media. Minorities' issues and problems are not understood by j ! s the media because they are presented by the majorities \ who don't know how to be a minority. During the riot the media were covering the "what" and "when" instead of the "how" and "why" that are the root of the problem. This widened the fissure and increased the stereotyping among the races in the country. This study of the civil unrest has concluded with these paraphrases of people's voices in the media. These voices express the anguish and dissatisfaction of observing the destruction of their neighborhoods and their city. 141 Summary and Conclusion of Chapter IV The research began with conducting a study of the established perception of American students of Islam and Muslims on the University of Southern California campus. This was selected for in-depth study because it represents the perception of American college students. A series of categories was developed on the basis of this initial study; after that additional data were collected in order to verify the categories, modify them, and then elaborate on them. Additional literature was selected to demonstrate various categories that have been developed. The data collected included articles from newspapers, magazines, and television transcripts pertaining to the subject matter. On the basis of the data that were dealt with in this research, according to the "grounded theory," the following theory was generated: Americans, the majority, perceive Muslims and Arabs in the way they perceive American minorities. The following are some examples of the premises that this theory is generated from: Both groups, Muslims and American minorities arev subject to racism and stereotyping. They are considered | 5 second class, they don't belong to Eurocentric ( i civilization. They are labeled as violent, uncivilized, I ; 142 i I criminal, and/or dangerous people. They are stereotyped as inferior, not smart, as uneducated people; even in terms of physical appearance, Muslims are portrayed as people with dark skin and dark hair, similar to that of some minority groups in America. Their cultures are seen as backward, and/or culturally impoverished. They are dehumanized, and the law is used to justify killing them. The media and some textbooks are biased against them. The American majority do not understand them. Therefore, when the American majority begins to understand the minorities in the U.S., they may begin to understand Muslims, and other cultures better. Chapter V SUMMARY, SELECTED FINDINGS, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Summary The major purpose of this investigation was to detect American students' perception of Islam and the Arab world and the reason for such a perception, as well as the effect of the teacher on this perception. It was assumed that this perception is related to the underlying interpretations of this religion and its people by Western media and publications. The media, as a societal curriculum, can be considered a central and a powerful element of the public educational process. The literature related to perception was presented in Chapter II. Perception is embedded in culture, and is deeply affected by all of the educational processes. Our perception reflects our culture; therefore every cultural group share basic sets of perceptions that are different from the set of perceptions of other cultural groups. Thus, cultural awareness can be seen as the recognition that culture affects perception and culture influences values, attitudes and behavior. When ethnocentrism exists in society, it influences peoples' perceptions of others and impedes cultural 144 !understanding. Communication plays an important role in the achievement of cultural understanding among people who are different in culture. Intercultural communication is about people from different "cultures” being able to communicate and understand each other. Ethnocentrism and racism and their manifestations, ethnic, cultural and racial stereotypes, are endemic to American society, as the literature review indicated. The literature review was divided into four selected areas that are relevant to the subject. First, the areas that were considered to be related to the cause of stereotyping were perception, cultural assumptions and values, ethnocentrism, self-fulfilling prophecy and intercultural communication. Second. American perceptions of other cultures were presented in some examples, and through the concept of racism. Third, the media also was discussed for its importance in forming peoples' perceptions of others. Fourth. through the teaching process, educators transmit their perceptions of others that are embedded in their culture and its value system. Through that, ethnic biases, prejudices, and stereotypes are transmitted to students. 145 i i Chapter III described the research methodology for this study. It included the theory and methodology, quantitative methodology, participant observation and working with the data. The methodology chosen for this study, described in Chapter III, was descriptive qualititative methodology. It closely followed the methodology developed by Glaser and Strauss or generating theory in areas of social science research that have not been previously explored. The methodology aimed at generating a theory that was integrated, consistent, plausible and close to the data. Chapter IV contained the findings of a study of American student perception of Islam and the Arab world with an analysis of the media's presentation of that religion and its people, followed by a summary of Americans' perceptions of their minorities. Selected Findings The findings of the study indicated that the most negative perception of Islam and the Arab world came from the media, and further negative images came from the schools, teaching and textbooks. On the other hand, the most accurate and balanced perceptions came as a result of traveling in Islamic countries and through direct contact with Muslims and Arabs. The teacher makes a difference in changing the negative perceptions. 146 iand stereotyping of Islam and Muslims to positive ones. From the data that was gathered with according to grounded theory, it was evident that Americans perceive Islam and Arabs negatively. Muslims were seen as people I with no honor, not as smart as Americans, and as terrorists. Islamic religion is the enemy of the West, takes the place of Communism, is incompatible with democracy, and is against women. Muslims were victims of cultural stereotypes and caricature. The pervasive image, the dehumanization of Muslims, is all over American society. Even the Encyclopedia Americana is inaccurate in presenting information about Islam and the Arab world. The findings indicated that Americans perceived Islam and the Arab world negatively, and that there was a lack of cultural understanding of that religion and its people. In addition, there was a lack of cultural understanding in American society itself, in which minorities were misunderstood and perceived negatively, as manifested in the recent civil unrest in Los Angeles. Conclusion As a conclusion, the following theory was generated: Americans' perception of Islam and Muslims is similar to their perception of minority groups within the U.S. itself. 147 When majority-minority relations in American are built on mutual understanding and respect rather than on stereotyping and prejudice, these relations can be translated to more understanding of other peoples and other cultures. As a result, Americans can understand Islam and the Arab world better and enjoy more cooperation with that region. Recommendations In the light of the findings and conclusions presented, the following recommendations are made: In intercultural communication a cultural awareness of the various filters is recommended to create a meaningful and effective communication. Narrow categorizations were more likely to lead to stereotypical assertions. If categorization is broad, then it is possible that the unexpected or unpredictable aspects of another culture will not have the same degree of negative or confused responses as in the case of narrow categorizations. We think based on shared values and experiences or "projected cognitive similarity" as the psychologists call it; therefore, aware of this unconscious belief that other people think and perceive the world as we do is recommended. For better cultural understanding, greater emphasis on empathy and other values is recommended in schools. 148 i The educational system is filled with material that needs to be analyzed from an intercultural perspective: Policy statements, texts, administrative organization, :student attitudes, and teaching techniques. Interventions create awareness of different levels and types of effective interaction, as well as avoidance of miscommunication and intercultural distortions that are the most troublesome to deal with. In particular, the power-based distortion that is destructive in human relations should be taken into consideration at all ,levels. In intercultural settings, it is imperative that all cultures and ethnic groups be examined relatively, rather than viewed from the perspective of one's own culture. Our global survival depends on our ability to communicate with those who do not share a common cultural heritage. Listening is a skill, and failure to listen carefully contributes to peoples' miscommunication. In cross-cultural situations, effective listening becomes more critical. Premature judgment and emotional reactions are often dysfunctional, and stimulate the other person to defensive responses. Judging someone on the basis of words or behaviors, which may either have completely 149 .different meanings for each one of them, or be a ( function of culturally conditioned habits that have little relation to the present situation, creates serious consequences. So suspending judgment and concentrating on listening, seeking feedback and checking perceptions, allows the person in intercultural communication to be more open to receive the other side's ideas and feelings, and to reduce defensiveness. ; The cynicism of the media should be challenged. Minorities are neglected and stereotyped in the daily press, on T.V., and in the entertainment industry. 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All through the Persian Gulf Crisis, the American press and public talked about “The Arab World.” But the Arab World stretches across a score of countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa, its people number nearly 200 million. And far from being a Bingle race, they are as diverse and original as people any where. Many things divide them, and some things unite them. In this series, w ell take a closer look at the Arab World. Today, “ The Arabs: 'Who They Are, and Who They Are Not.” Jack Shaheen is a professor of mass communication at Southern Illinois University. He tracks and analyzes the stereotyping of Arabs in the media. He’s of Lebanese heritage, as is Jim Abourezk. founder and national chairman of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Com mittee, and the author of a memoir, Advise and Dissent. After a term representing South Dakota in Congress, Jim Abourezk was the first Arab-American elected to the U.S. Senate. Dr. Shaheen, have you watched many of the 400 films that have been done featuring Arab characters over the last 50 years in this country? JACK SHAHEEN, Professor of M an Communica- - tions. Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville: Unfortunately, most of those, plus hundreds of television shows, hundreds of comic books. The pervasive image, the dehumanization of the Arab, is all over our society. It hasn’ t stopped, and it continues, unfortunately. MOYERS: What’ s the image? What’ s the portrait of the Arab that comes through all of these? Dr. SHAHEEN: Well, very simple, the portrait of men, you see them as Bedouin bandits attacking the Foreign Legion, or as billionaires out to destroy our economy, seduce our women, driving around in Rolls Royces. Or they’ re the bomber, setting off bomba in shopping malls, or threatening to drop nuclear weapons an New York City. The other image, of course, when we look at women, we look at the obese belly dancer, or blade bundles of doth. They’ re almost chattel following the camels in the desert. And so, these are the prevailing images that persist in our society today. MOYERS: You took a survey some time ago, of high school teachers, was it? Dr. SHAHEEN: Yea. MOYERS: Tell me about it. Dr. SHAHEEN: Well, I asked 287 high school teachers to name one heroic or humane Arab, something in literature or what they’ d seen in the movies or on television. Five responded saying, Ali-Baba and Sinbad. One said, those Arabs in Line of the Desert: The rest said none. And if educators are not aware of the dehumanization of the Arab, how- can we expect others to understand that these insidious portraits are really helping us become more and more confused about the Arab World, instead of bringing the realities of the Arab World into our homes, into our psyches. MOYERS: I remember as a boy growing up in East Texas, seeing, you know, Bob Hope and Bing Crosby on The Road to Morocco, even seeing repeats of that old movie with — the first movie, Rudolph Valentino played Ahmed and the sheik. Dr. SHAHEEN: But he wasn’ t an Arab. Did you know that? MOYERS: Well, I’m not surprised because most of the na tive Americans portrayed were not— Dr. SHAHEEN: No, but it wasn’ t that Rudolph Valentino wasn’ t an Arab, it’s just that the woman that he seduces is from England and Bhe doesn’ t willingly accept the seduc tion until she discovers that he in fact is an Englishman dressed in Arab garb. MOYERS: There’ s that line that Ahmed, who's the character he plays, says; “When an Arab sees a woman he wants, he takes her,” and that sticks, doesn’ t it? Dr. SHAHEEN: Right. Even today. You never see, for example — Ed Murrow used to say, “What we don’ t see is as important, if not more important, than what we do see,” and we never see an Arab man with his wife and children doing thingi that other people do, or at prayer. It’ s ex cluded. In other words, to humanize an Arab in our cul ture — particularly in entertainment; not so much in news, but in entertainment — there’s almost an unwritten law saying that we cannot do this. MOYERS: What’s the consequence of this consistent and persistent stereotype? Dr. SHAHEEN: Well, we’ ve learned from history that | when you de-humanize, de-legitimize a group, you can take | action against that group and get away with it. We f learned in pre-Nazi Germany, for example, what happened § with Jews when the Jews were de-humanized; we learned J the internment of Japanese-Americans, for example — % that internment was made possible primarily because of | the newspapers, of William Randolph Hearst and the mo- J tion picture industry. We know what happened with black-Americans when they were portrayed as “step and fetch it." None of these images really bring us closer to gether as a nation. MOYERS: But a Saddam Husaein doesn't help your cause, does he? Dr. SHAHEEN: Of course— well, it’ s not my cause. Sad dam Hussein doesn’ t help— MOYERS: I mean, the cause at trying to prevent the stereotype. Dr. SHAHEEN: But the late Rabbi Meir Kahane, weren’ t we mature to realize that he did not represent Jews? Don’ t we realize that the late Ayatollah Khomeini does not represent Islam or the Iranian people? We fail to take into consideration with Saddam Hussein that there were nine Arab nations with us in the Gulf, more than 200,000 troops that were standing alongside American troops. MOYERS: But one consequence of the stereotyping, it seems to me. showed up in a poll I saw many years ago, taken by my old colleague and friend Patrick Cadell. It found that Arabs were at least four times likelier than Jews in this country to be thought of as backward, un derdeveloped, greedy and barbaric. Jews were at least four times likelier than Arabs to be described as honest, friend ly and like us. Now what does that say to you? Dr. SHAHEEN: That says to me that there is racism, that says that there is ignorance, that there is greed, that the image-maker has abdicated his and her responsibility and made a buck off the Arab. It says to me that if in fact you stand up for anything Arab, that if you try to humanize the Arab — particularly if you have Arab roots — you’ re accused of being pro-Arab, anti-Israeli, which makes no sense whatsoever. r'' Universities in this country, did you know there is not one university that offers a course dealing with perceptions ; of the Arab peoples in our culture? and yet we actively go i out and seek scholars to teach courses related to black im ages, images of Hispanics, women and others. That’ s a na tional disgrace. MOYERS: There are two-and-a-half million Arab- Americans in this country today. Jim Abourezk is head of a committee dealing with anti-Arab discrimination. Why do you let these stereotypes persist without trying to com bat them? JAMES ABOUREZK, National Chairm an, Arab* American Anti-Discri mi nation Committee: Well, you always try to combat them. I wrote an excellent book, as you know, called The TV Arab, which documents the in justice, and Jim and myself and others in this country speak out against these images. But there is not an American-Arab presence in the industry, we’ re not shaping the images of American-Arabs or of Arabs. Also, I think that once a stereotype becomes embedded in a person’ s psyche, it’ s very, very difficult to shake it off. It has to come from the top. The president has to condemn it, mem bers of the Senate have to condemn it, and image makers — men like Robert Redford, Kevin Costner; woman like Barbra Streisand and Jane Fonda — have to take a stand and say it’ s wrong to denigrate a people. That hasn’ t hap pened. MOYERS: Jim Abourezk, you’ ve spent much of your career dealing with these stereotypes. I said earlier you were the first Arab-American elected to the senate. One could make a case that you disprove the stereotype, that it didn’ t hamper you in your political career. Mr. ABOUREZK: Well, it didn’ t in South Dakota at all because I, as a matter of fact, bragged about being an Arab and the son of an Arab merchant in South Dakota, so I think it helped me out there. But the problem is not in South Dakota; it’ s nationally, and in particular in Wash ington, where the images flow into the minds of policymakers. MOYERS: Tell me how that image has affected politics as you saw them. Mr. ABOUREZK: Well, for example, the Israeli lobby has played upon that image, the image of the bad, the terrorist Arab, or the Arab oil sheik, very handily in trying to pre vent the Congress from voting anything in favor— see, the job of the lobby — and I hate to bring this into it but_this isi really an important part — the job of the IsraeliUdbsy is ’ make sure that money keeps flowing to Israel from the} United States Treasury, and anything that interrupts that, they have to stop it. In fact, when the Arab oil countries became rich in 1973 and 1974, when the price of oil in creased, the lobby, the oil industry and a lot of politicians went after the Arabs at that time to try to divide the United States from the Arab World. MOYERS: Did you ever feel any personal discrimination because you were an Arab? Did anybody ever make ugly remarks or— Mr. ABOUREZK: In South Dakota? MOYERS: No, anywhere in this country. Mr. ABOUREZK: No, not toward me because I’ m an Arab, but because of my politics, I think that’ s probably where I was hammered. But the people who are ham mered are not people such as Jim Abourezk or Ralph Nader or Danny Thomas; it’ s the Palestinian immigrant, the Lebanese immigrant, who comes to this country, who speaks with an accent, they’ re the ones who get hammered. MOYERS: What do you think is the best way to overcome stereotypes that Jack Shaheen just described? Mr. ABOUREZK: Well, Jack said it, you have to start at the top. Far example, during the Persian Gulf War. we re quested, my committee requested, that President Bush make some public statement saying, "Look, these people here are different from Saddam Hussein.” You know, we didn’ t approve of the invasion of Kuwait, nor did we ap prove of the war against Iraq, either. But in any event. Bush made one statement, and I looked at it and said, well, you know, he made a bigger fuss about not eating broccoli. You really have to have public opinion makers in this coun try make a strong stand against it, and come out against it time after time. That’s how you stopped what was happen ing to blades, to Jews, to other ethnic groups. MOYERS: Have you seen, noticed or chronicled an in crease in acts of violence or threats to Arab-Americans? Mr. ABOUREZK: Yes, ADC, the American-Arab Anti- Discrimination Committee’s violence log increased dramat ically the minute Saddam Hussein took over Kuwait. And there’ s a direct correlation, we found, between the demon- ixation of Saddam and violent acts against Arab- Americans in this country, and always when something happens in the Middle East, it bubbles up over there, we get hammered here. For example, during the Achille Laura hijacking, one of my employees, Alex Oda, was assassinated out in Califor nia by the Jewish extremist groups, that’ s what the FBI told us. So there’ s always something happening to us each time. MOYERS: But Jack Shaheen says that these images have actually been used to hurt Arabs as a group, but yet indi vidual Arabs in this country have succeeded, been honored — F. Murray Abraham, the wonderful actor, and yourself and Danny Thomas and many others, so how do you ac count for that? Mr. ABOUREZK: Well, I think we do it as individuals and not as a part of an Arab ethnic group, is what it 171 -- amounts to. I just believe there’ s a separateness in that respect. MOYERS: How do you think the Arab-American com munity has been affected by the Persian Gulf War because, as Jack said, many Arab nations were on the side of the U.S.-led coalition and that should rebound in their favor, shouldn’ t it? Mr. ABOUREZK: Well, actually, but people don’ t dis tinguish. The average American doesn't distinguish be tween the Arab countries who are allied with the United States. But for the most part in this country, moat Lebanese and most Palestinians and most other Arabs in this country were opposed to the invasion of Iraq; they were opposed to the invasion of Kuwait as well. But they didn’ t want to — they saw a double standard, and that’ s the real source of, perhaps, Arab-American anger in this country at what happened, was that there was a double standard, nothing has happened to Israel because of its in vasions and occupations, and when they saw that the President made such a tough stand against Iraq for the same thing that Israel has done, that they became very angry. And of course, the President didn’ t help much when he sent the FBI out to announce an investigation of all Arab-Americans — many Arab-Americans in this country, the interviews and so on. MOYERS: What do you think is the typical image of the Arab in the American mind? Mr. ABOUREZK: If you ask an average American, he'll say, “I think of Yassir Arafat,” or "I think of an oil sheik.” It’s one of the two images. You can’t escape that in this country until something changes drastically. MOYERS: Quickly, each of you, what’s the one thing you would most like us to understand about Arabs? Dr. SHAHEEN: To treat Arabs as we would treat other groups. Simple. MOYERS: Which is to? Dr. SHAHEEN: Is to humanize them, aa we humanize other groups, to be fair. That's not so much to ask, is it, just to be fair? Mr. ABOUREZK: Well, for example, in television, you’ ve never seen, as Jack said, an Arab who is humane, or kind, or had a family. You never see that in a television pro gram. You see only nasty Arabs. You see other ethnic groups who have families, who do things with their kids and their wives and so on. But not an Arab. You have to really start with the media, I think. Bill. MOYERS: Thank you very much, Jim Abourezk, and thank you, Jack Shaheen. Dr. SHAHEEN: Thank you. MOYERS: Joining me now is Edward Said, a scholar and professor of English at Columbia University. He’ s also a member of the Palestinian National Council, Palestine's Parliament in Exile, and speaks out often on issues affect ing Arabs. He was born in Palestinian Jerusalem and edu cated in Cairo and the U.S. Dr. Said, in what important ways are Arabs different from the stereotypes we heard about? EDWARD SAID. P rofessor of E nglish. Colum bia U ni versity: Weil. I think, the first thing is that Arabs are fantastically diverse. I mean, there are many different kinds of Arabs— I mean, a Syrian is very different from aC Moroccan, there are regional accents, there are traditions completely local to various parts of the Arab World, tradi tions of dress, of cuisine, of accent, of dialect, of history. I think that’s the most important thing. To think of Arabs as just one large group of screaming fanatics who are prac tically faceless is, I think, the first myth that has to be set against the reality. The second one is that it is — and this is the most im portant, to me, difference between the cliche and the reality — is that Arabs are the inheritors of an ex traordinary civilization, one that stretches back now, in its modern forms, for about a millennium-and-a-half. First of all, there’s the language. The Arabic language is one of the, in my opinion, one of the most extraordinary construc tions of the human mind. MOYERS: The language of poetry. Dr. SAID: It’s a language of poetry, it’s a language of mys ticism and theology, it’s a language of law, it’s a language of extraordinary humor, for example, narration. I mean, some of the great feats of narrative skill — The Arabian Knights and The Travels of Imba Toota [sp?], etcetera — are written in Arabic. So there’s that. It’s also one of the great religions of the world, which is in Arabic. I mean, the Koran is the word of God, in the Arabic language. And this tradition encompasses such things, not only of the learned traditions that we just men tioned, but architecture, city planning. For example, the city of Baghdad was considered one of the great summits of Arab art, because of the structure, the circular structure of the city, and the way it was constructed, with fountains — and then, the range in geography is fantastic. You have the great civilization of the fertile plain, like Syria and Iraq, and then you have the Andaludan civilization of the Arabs in Southern Spain, really up to the center of Spain. And then you have an entirely different kind of, sort of hybrid Arab civilization in North Africa, mingling with, you know, Southern African art and tradition and customs, with Islam. And then you have Egypt, which is a iu- egenerous kind of — a combination of Arab and Pharonk civilizations. And above all, in all of this, there is the diversity of many different, not only races, if you like, but also dif ferent religions and cultures. MOYERS: A lot of sects. Dr. SAID: Lot of sects. But, for example, I happen to come from a Christian minority in the Arab World, which is — there are Christians throughout the Arab World, and we consider ourselves Arabs, and our civilization is Is lamic. It’s a rich enough civilization to make place for all of them. The idea of separation between Arabs and the rest of the world is a relatively modern idea. MOYERS: Then, how do you account for this obvious stereotype that has come across to us in all of the movies and television programs and literature, that Jack Shaheen and Jim Abourezk were talking about? Dr. SAID: Well. I think one has to analyze it. not as a problem of the Arabs but a problem of our society, of the — 3 — United States, which has packaged people, which have no long— for example, Britain and France have had much dealings in the Arab World, and there are cliches there, too, I mean, there are racist portraits of Arabs in Britain and France. But there is also another tradition, which is long re sidence and encounter, mostly colonial; the British and the French ruled the Arab World for many decades. So there’ s at least the knowledge, the intimate sense of what the Arab people are like, as a people. In the United States, we don’ t have that, we don't have a long encounter or residency. We’ re relative newcomers to this world, and we tend to see it in terms of packages, in terms of quick images, sound bytes. MOYERS: The entertainment culture. Dr. SAID: Entertainment, and above all, politics, a very dehumanizing kind of politics, in which Arabs are seen, es sentially, in this country, as enemies of Israel and fanatics of one sort or another. And that, of course, has nothing to do with it. MOYERS. I was struck the other day, during the Persian Gulf Crisis, by a piece you wrote in The New York Times magazine, in which you referred to a remorseful propensity to violence embedded in the Arab culture. Dr. SAID. Well, I was talking about contemporary politi cal culture, that is to say, we have had, in the 20th Century', a series of periods— for example, the penod be tween World War I and World War II was essentially a period, as we look back on it now, of liberal democracies, you know, mostly monarchies of one sort or another, that took up from where the British and the French had left ofT . And there was a great deal of building in that period — you know, universities were built, schools were made avail able to large numbers of people, and the general som nolence of the Ottoman Period, before World War I, was coming to an end. After World War II, when the United States came into the region, and the British and the French had terminally left, with the founding of Israel, we get a new kind of cul ture, which is based upon militant nationalism, which is the nationalism of the Third World. MOYERS: Meaning, “ My country, right or wrong?” Dr. SAID: Exactly. And the one-party state. MOYERS: Military government. Dr. SAID: Military government, people defending the security of the Arab Nation, and using the rhetoric of Arab nationalism, which is a grand and marvelous thing, in cultural terms, but it’s used in these ways of which Sad dam Hussein is a pathological symptom, you see. But there are similar governments like that now. Now. that culture has. in effect, marginalized many of the great writers, the great artists, who are still writing. And what instead you have are these national security states, which are abusers of human rights, you see. in the Arab World. But that's not the whole .Arab World, that's just the governments with which we do business, whereas the largeness of Arab life, with the 200 million people that we've been speaking about, goes on. MOYERS: I was saddened by something else you wrote. which I realized, when I read it, was true, that I l ad expe- ; rienced but hadn’ t thought about. You referred to the fact , that, during the colonial period, when the Europeans ^ were— well, earlier in this century, you could travel from Syria to Egypt without any kind of— Dr. SAID: Well, I did it in my own life. MOYERS: But today, every country has a border. Dr. SAID: Exactly, and we’ re living through this new kind of nationalism, which is widespread in the world, gener ally, where boundaries and the separations between people— for example, the idea that there should be a holy, homogeneous Syrian state, or Israeli state, or Lebanese state, is really not part of the history and culture of that part of the world. Hie Romans, for example, ruled what is now the Arab World as one large country, with different races living together, and I think that’ s a much healthier attitude. My feeling is that it still persists. For example, a great Syrian poet, Nizal Kabani [sp?l, is the most popular poet in the Arab World, read everywhere, from Morocco right through to the Gulf. The language is that of all the Arabs, there’s a lingua franca, which is amazingly alive, and a literature that goes along with it. There’ s a political culture, not of individual countries, but of Arabism, of a sense of a nation and of a people, which is tremendously important to every Arab, despite these divi sions that are now plaguing our contemporary reality, and that is unknown in this country. MOYERS: You really are fascinated with that language, aren’ t you, as a writer and professor? Dr. SAID: Well, it’s not only a rich language, it's been so much maligned, because, it's considered to be a very dif ficult language; in fact, it’ s not. But it's characterized —' it’s interesting — a lot of the attacks, and the cultural at tacks, on the Arabs focus on the language; it’ s considered to be a language of violence, of bombast, of sort of awful portentousness. It isn’ t, in fact; it’ s a very flexible, athletic language from which the— _ MOYERS: Athletic? b Dr. SAID: Athletic. Oh, fantastically so. MOYERS: Can do many things. Dr. SAID: Many, many things. MOYERS: Like Greek. Dr. SAID: Exactly. Most of the great classics of the Greeks, the scientific, classics, the logical classics, the works of Aristotle, came to the West through Arabic trans lations, I mean, that’s how they were known. So that sense of the language unites us, because it’s a language of reli gion, it’ s a language of everyday life, it’ s a language of courtship, it’ s a language of society, and its possibilities are as many as the Arabs are many. MOYERS: Many of those great romantic, if not erotic, poems came out of that certain Arabic style that you're talking about. Dr. SAID: Yes. but not only that; I mean, that has a certain kind of stylized thing. But if you look, for ex ample— one of the great creations of the 20th Century is the .Arabic novel; I mean, Naguib Mahfouz won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1988, writes in Arabic, that is parti cular to him because he's an Egyptian writing out of a par- 173 f ticular quarter in Cairo, but it is intelligible to, for ex- ample, a reader in the Sudan, or a reader in Baghdad, and ^ each of these countries has produced its own literature, which reflects the architecture, the design of the city, the customs and the traditions of the past, for example, the re lationship between a certain religious tradition that is unique to the Sudan or to Iraq, or to Egypt. Those things are very much part of the everyday life of the Arab, and they’re completely hidden, you see, to the American public. MOYERS: Are politics and nationalism going to be the ultimate undoing of this great civilisation? Dr. SAID: Well. I don't think so. No. I think one has to take the long view; it’ s a civilization that has had many peaks, many heights. Some would argue that we are at perhaps a low point now in the 20th Century. I myself am not sure of that. I think, politically, there is a division now between the rulers of the Arab World, who are, really, a handful of men, effectively, and the people, with a great deal of skill and competence in modernization. I mean, you know, after all, in my lifetime, when I left Cairo in the ear ly 60s, it was a city of three million; it’ s now a city of 15 million, and it supports these people with astonishing— I mean, it’s crowded and dusty and so on, but there are tre mendous changes occurring in the Arab World, and I think to look at them just from this perspective of the moment and the present despair that a lot of us feel at this terrible war is. I think, not the way to look at it. MOYERS: What do you most appreciate about your Arab past? Dr. SAID: Well, I think precisely that, that there is an Arab past and a people to which one can point and see these tremendous achievements in— I think cultural is the mean thing. This great culture of philosophy, of literature, indeed of daily life. There is something about Arab life on the level of minute by minute that has a certain esthetic to it; the relationships between members of the family, for ex ample, is quite unique to the Arab World, it doesn’ t exist in this country, where we think of the unit, of the nuclear family— MOYERS: Kinship. There’s a strong bond of kinship. Dr. SAID: Exactly. And the complexity of it. The Arab mind is capable — I mean, I hate to use the phrase — but the Arab mind is capable of tremendous complexity of hu man relationships, relationships between members of a family, members of a clan, members of a society, members of guilds with each other; the Arab guilds of the Middle Age continue into the 20th Century. MOYERS: So, like all the rest of us, the. quote, “Arab World," is many worlds. Dr. SAID: Is many worlds. Exactly. Large and small. Right. MOYERS: Thank you very much. Dr. Edward Said of Columbia University'. Over the next four programs. we'U be talking about some of these issues in greater depth: the culture, the religion, the language, the humor, the econom ics of the .Arab World. I'm Bill Moyers. C o p \ n g h t Z 1951 by Public Affairs Television. Inc. Appendix B. "The Historic Memory." Transcript #102, Bill Moyers, The Arab World. 175 w -" ' ' BELL MOYERSTHE ARAB WORLD * Air Date: April 2, 1991 ' Transcript #102 The H istoric M em ory BILL MOYERS: I’m Bill Moyera. Our story, history, began in the valleys of the great rivers — the Nile, the Tigress and the Euphrates — what is now the Arab world. History happened there yesterday, too, on the battlefields of Kuwait and Iraq. In this broadcast, w ell look at some of the historical events that have shaped the Arab world and our world-at-large. The Arab world stretches across almost two dozen coun tries of the Middle East and Northern Africa, a region about one and a half times larger than the United States, containing approximately 185 million people. Although they do not make up a single race of people, history has given them a sense of shared memory, and that’ s the sub ject of this discussion on the Arab world. With us are Yvonne Haddad, who was born in Syria and studied in Beirut and the U.S. and now teaches history at the University of Massachusetts; Michael Suleiman, professor of political science at Kansas State, who was born in Palestine and educated in the U.S.; and Afaf Mar- sot, who was born in Egypt, educated in Cairo and England and who now teaches history at UCLA Dr. Marsot, when Arabs talk about the “glories of the Arab past,” what are they talking about? AFAF MARSOT, Professor of Near and Middle East ern History, University of California at Los Angeles: They're talking about the 8th and 9th centuries, the glories of Baghdad, the age of translations, the age of discoveries, the age of experimentation, when things like pharmacol ogy, algebra, chemistry were all set up by the Arab or Is lamic civilization as the basis of the culture. MOYERS: We Americans like to talk about defining mo ments, like the settlement at Jamestown and Plymouth, about the Revolutionary W ’ar, about the Constitutional Convention, the Civil W ’ar. Were there defining moments and events, specifically, in the history of the Arab peoples, Dr. Haddad? YVONNE HADDAD, Professor of History, University of M assachusetts at Amherst: There are quite a few. It depends whether you’ re talking about as they look back now at their history or in the development of their history. In the development, probably the most important one was the migration of— you know, the beginning of Islam, which gave Arab history a context, an Islamic civilization in which Arab civilization, Islamic civilization became inter changeable. If you’ re talking about the present conscious ness of the Arab world, there are other defining moments that are very important, also, including the Crusades, in cluding the loss of Arab power with the fall of Baghdad, in cluding the formation of the Ottoman Empire. And then you come into the modem period — the occupation and colonial suppression of the Arab world and then, the formation of the state of Israel and then, as they look back, they begin to see that there is this confrontation with the West that they have had to deal with and have to deal with today. MOYERS: What about— what about words. Dr. Suleiman? Americans talk about being a people of the word, the Declaration of Independence, the preamble to the Constitution — “ We, the people”; the Gettysburg Address — “Of, by and for the people." When Arabs look back over their history, do they talk about being a people of the word as well? MICHAEL SULEIMAN, Professor of P olitical Science, Kansas State University: They certainly do. Of course, the most important word is the Koran itself. It is the word of God, as far as Muslims are concerned, and it is written in Arabic. Arabic becomes, then, a very important, not only tool, but, actually, almost sacred text. And the Hadith, then, also — the sayingB by the Prophet to his companions, his own tradition. Yes, very much so, the word then becomes, also, important so far as the texts them- Belves are concerned, so far as poetry, writings in philosophy and so on. Dr. MARSOT: The law, that’ s— MOYERS: The law— Dr. MARSOT: The law— [crosstalk] MOYERS: —the holy law. What’ s the word? Dr. HADDAD: Sharia [sp?]. Dr. SULEIMAN: Sharia. Dr. MARSOT: It’ s based on four foundations that are the roots of the law, and one of them is the Koran. What’s in the Koran is unchangeable. The second one is the sayings and actions of the prophets. The other two are consensus and consensus of whom is not quite sure at what period of time, and then analogy, so that— People assume that this is a hide bound law, when, in fact, it’ s a very changeable law, because there is no study of the [unintelligible] of Is lamic law and, therefore, it’s the interpretation of the judge at the time. MOYERS: No— no precedent that binds irrevocably. Dr. MARSOT: No precedent. There is no binding prece dent. You just have the opinions of all the learned. Dr. HADDAD: I think that’ s true of ethics. MOYERS: So who evolves the law? Dr. HADDAD: The judge. Dr. MARSOT: The judge. MOYERS: The judge. In response to a particular issue at the moment. Dr. HADDAD: Right. Dr. MARSOT. That’s right. Dr. HADDAD: No jury. MOYERS: No jury? Dr. MARSOT: No jury. Dr. HADDAD: Just the judge. Dr. MARSOT: And they have several schools of jurispru dence, not just one. In Sunni Islam, you have four accepted schools of jurisprudence. You have two or three or four in Shiite Islam, and they’re all equally valid. MOYERS: So this gives even more weight to the role of the authority in Arabic culture— Dr. MARSOT: Exactly. MOYERS: —just as Mohammed— just as the Koran has 176 this injunction about obeying the Prophet, the messenger, so you must also obey those who axe in authority. Dr. HADDAD. Right. MOYERS: And those include— Dr. SULEIMAN: Yeah, there is, of course, the question of “ Do we take the words of the Koran as they are, literally, or should there be some leeway and some interpretation that uses rationality or reason as the method to try to fig ure out what, in fact, is there. Or is there more than one meaning?” As. for instance, Shiites— or at least some Shiites believe that there are two meanings to every word, practically, of the Koran, one esoteric, one that is clear to everyone — exoteric — and among the reformers, there is the feeling that, perhaps, if we are going to live in the 20th century, there should be some kind of leeway that we can interpret the Koran and the Sunna — the Hadith — in a way that gives us the use of reason more than merely the literal interpretation of what was in the Koran. MOYERS: So, when we look back— when Arabs look back — like Americans look back on the last 200 years. Arabs look back over thousands of years — what's the answer to the question, “ Well. OK, who are the Arabs?” Dr. MARSOT: Those who speak Arabic. MOYERS: That’ s essentially the— Dr. MARSOT: That is the— [crosstalk] Dr. HADDAD. And identify w-ith Arab history. Dr. MARSOT: Exactly. Dr. SULEIMAN: And, today, yes. I think that that is it. Of course, the Arabs originally, supposedly, came from what is today the Arabian Peninsula. They became the people that— from which Islam originated. They’re the or.es that fanned out to the— to the all the areas that became the province of Islam. Some of these people, then, became Arab-ized and started to speak Arabic and, today, yes. Today, the people who speak Arabic, which means the people that, perhaps, also are to be included in the Arab League— and, today, there are some 20 countries and, of course, the Palestinians, who are also included as a coun try and as a nation in the Arab League. MOYERS: Why is it, given this history— and I think I un derstand something when you talk about the authoritarian background— I mean, the power and significance of the Koran, but why is it that democratic institutions have not evolved in this long history? Dr. MARSOT: Oh, that's an easy and a difficult question. The easy part is because moat of these countries have been colonized and the trauma of colonization is very deep. In fact, we’ re still suffering the trauma of colonization. MOYERS: What did it do to the Arab imagination? Dr. MARSOT: First of all, it caused the Arabs to distrust the West, because all the promises that had been made by the West in 1919— none of them ever came true, so the first word is, “Don’ t trust the West. They’ re going to lie to you.” The second thing is, “Economically, they’ re going to dominate you and there is going to be a dependence on the West who are going to exploit you for their own purposes.” And then, you come down to '48 and the creation of the state of Israel, which has allowed totalitarian rulers to con tinue to rule in the Arab countries because their only raison d ’ etre — their only excuse for being there — is. “ We’ re protecting you militarily from Israel and. perhaps, we’ re going to even recover Arab domination.” Dr. HADDAD: Yes, but there is also the fact that the United States, which has become dominant in the Arab world since the '50s — after, you know, the United States declared that there's a vacuum there and we had to fill it in, and, before that, the British and the French, as they colonized the area — they found it much easier to deal with one leader than with a group of— democratically elected Parliament and, so, you will see that, if you look at the history, they bribed the Parliament people; they used blackmail; or, some way or another, the foreign powers have subverted the democratic system in order to maintain their dominance of the area. MOYERS: And there is this tradition — is there not? I mean, there is the past of tribalism, of personal loyalties to a particular kalif or— [crosstalk] Dr. MARSOT: That’s a stereotype. Dr. HADDAD: But there is also the consensus— MOYERS: Is that a stereotype? Dr. MARSOT: That’ s a stereotype, yes, because in a place like Egypt, there are very few tribal connections and the idea that all the Arabs have tribal linkages — that’ s not the case. That’ s one of the easy things that gets thrown around. Dr. SULEIMAN: I wanted to add to what Dr. Marsot was saying about the West — and Dr. Haddad. There is also the feeling among intellectuals in the Arab world that they have really wanted to move — or at least, many of them — in the liberal democratic tradition and they have admired much of what is written in the West about liberal democra cy and in the end, they— many of them discovered that what intellectuals as well as political leaders in the West say about democracy, they want to include in the West as democracy. But when it comes to dealing with the Arab countries, as has been said, they have found it not only easier to deal with one particular leader, but, often, more economically advantageous. In other words, where there are democratic movements, these movements have aaked for the use of the economic means of the Arab world for the benefit of the Arabs and— including the present situation, where, in fact, there is a concern about the oil-producing countries investing most of their wealth in the West rather than in the Arab countries. And it is the groups that ask for this that often are suppressed, with the help of outsiders. MOYERS: Well, let me see that, if I— What I’ ve heard you say so far is that the first recent historical event that had an impact on the Arab world was the drawing of boundaries by the European powers after the end of World War I— Dr. HADDAD: That’s right. MOYERS: —and so the West found it much easier to re late, as you said, to individual leaders than to democratic institutions. So, are you saying that the West — Europe and the United States — deliberately made it difficult for democracy to take root in these countries0 Dr. HADDAD: I think they claimed that they were setting — 2 — 177 up democratic systems, but if you look at some of the let- ’ ters that— even some of the residents, you know, from the I • colonial rulers, whenever the parliaments asked for some- « thing, they used to mock them and say, “ They think that now they can have democracy," ’ cause they were holding : the West accountable to the values that had been pro claimed. The West proclaims values, but does not live up to them. In the relationships, they deal very differently with the people of the Arab world. MOYERS: And the boundaries that were drawn were artificial and imposed boundaries— Dr. HADDAD: Absolutely. MOYERS: —they didn’ t respect natural divisions of geog raphy or religion. Dr. HADDAD: No, no. i Dr. MARSOT: There are no natural divisions. There’ s a desert. How do you have a natural division in the desert? Which block of sand is yours and which is mine? And that’ s why there was always the concept of a greater Assyria, which doesn’ t mean centered in Damascus, but this whole fertile crescent has some kind of unity. Dr. HADDAD: Yeah. In the 16th century, there were three Islamic empires — the Ottoman Empire, the Sophovith [sp?l and the Mogul fsp?] Empire. When the , West was done, it— the Arab— the Muslim world was divided into 44 countries. There are about a billion Mus- | lims in the world. In 44 countries, they are the majority, I but there are— one-third of the Muslims of the world live in minority status in other countries — you know, like Russia, China, Africa, where they are a minority group. And, therefore, what you have is the dismemberment of the Muslim world and out of these 44 Muslim countries, | only 21 are Arab, so that the Arabs are only a minority within the whole Muslim world. 1 Dr. SULEIMAN: I wanted to say that, yes, I think the j West has played a part in both dismembering the region and. also, often, in suppressing or helping some leader sup- 1 press their own people. But, also, I think democracy doesn’t mushroom— doesn’ t come out of nothing and, in a , very real sense, the Arab world — or the different coun tries that make up the Arab world — have not yet had the , means to actually bring about a true revolution that would allow them to be democratic. For instance, Gamal Abdel Nasser, when he was president of Egypt, talked about a so- cial revolution, an economic revolution and a political revo lution — three of them not being possible — for him, i anyway— to bring them about at the same time — and ; talked about social revolution and economic revolution coming fust because, otherwise, the people would not know i what democracy s all about, that it would be corrupted, that they would be bought by outsiders and bo on. i So, the roots for a democratic system have not really been very well watered to strike a very strong basis in the ! region and, in a very real sense, this has yet to come, al- ; though, I must say that we cannot completely avoid the i fact that there have been some democratic regimes in the | Arab world. We need to say that Lebanon, for instance— Dr. MARSOT. Well. I tell you. it’ s a good— Dr. SULEIMAN: —and Tunisia, sometimes in Egypt. Dr. HADDAD: If you compare Europe in the 19th century and the Middle East in the 20th century, it's almost the same thing. MOYERS: In what sense? Dr. MARSOT: The amount of uprisings in Europe in the 19th century, the similar amount in Egypt; the amount of disturbances, I mean, in the Arab world, the amount of dis turbances in all of Europe in the 19th century. You can al most have a computer match of the two. And the end results of the use of force to create states and what have you — that’ s happening. So you might say that we're get ting to the 20th century in terms of institution-making, in terms of state formation. MOYERS: You said the seminal modern event, if I heard you correctly, was the founding of Israel, when Palestine was petitioned in two with 56 percent of the land going to the Jewish state, even though two-thirds of the population was Arab. Why is Israel held responsible for everything that’ s gone wrong in the Arab world? Dr. MARSOT: Very simply, because by creating the state of Israel, you’ ve been able to polarize the Arabs. You’ ve been able to account for the rise of dictators, because these dictators were military oligarchs and the army, therefore, was regarded as the sole bulwark against the expansionist tendencies of Israel and as the sole bulwark for recovering Arab lands in the region, although no state nowadays talks about recovering Arab lands. They’d only be too happy if the Palestinians have a little something of their own. It’ s one of the reasons for the massive armaments, the wasted money that’ s been put into ordinants and armaments and bombs and machinery — and that is the reason for the poverty of the Arab world, amongst other things, for its disruption and for the rise of the totalitarian rulers. MOYERS: What about— You said— you were talking about the economy and about oil. Surely, another recent event that has informed the Arab history today, the Arab imagination today, it was the oil boom 50 or 60 years ago which catapulted some — not all — of the Arab world into a global, capitalist society. What do you think that has done in terms of dividing the Arab world between rich and poor? Dr. SULEIMAN: It has greatly sharpened the difference between the haves and the have-nots in the area. It has made it difficult for even the countries that have the oil, that have the money from the oil, to actually use it in a re sponsible manner, because it has come rather suddenly, with great wealth which has had a corrupting influence on some of the leadership. It has also aroused the interest in the rest of the world — particularly in the West — to be protective of specific leaders that are more conducive in their treatment and dealings with the West to get some of that wealth not utilized in the Arab world, not invested in the Arab world, but outside of the Arab world. It has also made it more mandatory for some of the leaders to suppress their own people, because, otherwise, their people would be a lot more wanting of democracy and better wealth— excuse me, better economic conditions, not only for themselves, in those countries, but for their fellow Arabs in the rest of the .Arab world. — 3 — 178- MOYERS: Dr. Haddad, let me ask you a tough question. I clipped out an article— a letter to the editor of The Wash- ington Post from a staff consultant on a House committee saying, “In reality, much in Arab culture" — what we’ ve been talking about here — “explains Saddam and the prevalence of other Saddams in the Arab world and ! throughout modern Arab history. Such motivators as the [ shame/honor concept go a long way in helping us to under- I stand the Arab world, explain the spectacle of Palestinians standing on rooftops in the West Bank cheering Iraq Scuds launched at Tel Aviv. They help explain why Jordanians and other Arabs believe that Saddam was lured into Kuwait by the West as part of a diabolical conspiracy. The ' Arabs are no better and no worse than any other people, | but they're not just like us— I Dr. HADDAD: Here we go again. 1 MOYERS: “—very real characteristics of their .culture cause them to behave as they do." What’ s your response to 1 that? Dr. HADDAD: I’m— You know, this is as stereotypical as 1 possible, and racist, also, because it says, “ They’re different ; and. therefore, we can treat them differently." It justifies a | lot of stuff. It justifies our killing them, because they don’ t think like us. They don’ t value life like us arid that kind of j stuff. i MOYERS: But if I say the people in Louisiana are dif- j ferent from the people in East Texas, where I grew up, I I don’ t mean that meanly. Dr. HADDAD: Maybe not, but that’ s what it implies to j people. ‘ They’ re different, and so it’s OK to do things to them.” But, you know, this has all the stereotypes. Maybe some of the Palestinians stood and cheered for the Scuds \ falling. How many Americans cheered when our, quote, un quote, “ordinances” killed all these Iraqis? What’ s the dif ference? In fact, there are some people that are asking, “ Why were the .Americans so hvped up about the fact that j the Scuds, you know, didn’ t kill a few people—” There I were— some people were killed, but people were upset | about that and there were hundreds of thousands of Iraqis ' that were killed. Nobody cared. And, so, is there a dif- , ference in the value of life? This is what the Arabs see. | You see, our world has become one in which the Arabs watch American TV. They watch CNN and some of the , others and they see that we look at Arab life as something ' different than Jewish life. But if you— you know, if you 1 look at it, it is true that some of the Palestinians — but not 1 only the Palestinians; a lot of Arabs — are beginning to 1 talk about Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm as ! “Operation Desert Trap” and they believe that Saddam Hussein walked into a trap that was prepared for him by President Bush, that President Bush did not— MOYERS: Now, why would they believe that? Tell me— I Dr. HADDAD. Because President Bush used language right from the beginning that was very abusive and bel- ; ligerent and challenging, that— Saddam Hussein could not back out and— ■ MOYERS: So that does go to the issue of honor— . Dr. HADDAD: Honor. But so did George Bush— He had a lot of honor. He was responding to the same shame.honor thing as Saddam Hussein. There was no difference. Dr. MARSOT: Of course. Exactly. And he was not' negotiating. He was laying down ultimatum* ’ Dr. SULEIMAN; I think that that is basically the point to' be emphasized. It is not a cultural thing. It was a power element. Dr. HADDAD: Exactly. Dr. SULEIMAN: It is political. We give you an ultimatum exactly because if you accept it, then you are humiliated. If you do not accept it, then it gives us an excuse to go in and bomb Iraq and destroy it. I wanted to get back to the quote that you gave. MOYERS: The author— the writer of this letter said, “There is something in Arab culture that produces a Sad dam Hussein.” Now, do you agree with that? Dr. SULEIMAN: Right. OK. No, I do not agree with that. In fact, I wanted to address the issue, again, in political terms. What is really being said there is that Palestinians stood there and cheered when the Scuds came to attack Is rael because of a cultural factor. It is not a cultural factor. What is really happening here is a political factor. What is being hidden is the fact that the Palestinians have a legiti mate case against Israel. They have lost their country. Is rael occupies now the West Bank and Gaza, as well as the Golan Heights and Southern Lebanon. They have been very frustrated that the world has not really dealt with their problem. There have been many United Nations reso lutions on the issue. The United States did not feel that it had to go in quickly and implement those resolutions. The Palestinians were frustrated to see that the United States and the West actually went in very, very quickly and passed some dozen resolutions in the United Nations when Iraq attacked Kuwait and they’re seeing a double standard and, in essence, they’re expressing their frustration. Final ly, something happens to Israel that is inviolate, that no body touches. They really are not expressing the— the pleasure that somebody is going to get killed. They’ re saying, “ Why don’ t you do something about us?” Dr. MARSOT: Well, also, they’re expressing the fact that the Israelis have been killing any number of Arabs with the Intifada over the past three years. Dr. SULEIMAN. Right. Dr. HADDAD: And nobody cared. Dr. MARSOT: And many of these people who stood on rooftops cheering the Scuds probably had had children of their own being killed, had had parents being killed, had had their houses blown up. MOYERS: We have about a minute and a half. Let me ask each of you, beginning with you, Dr. Marsot. What’ s the most important thing about Arab culture that you think we Americans, we Westerners, ought to know? Dr. MARSOT: The diversity. There are many Arab coun tries. They have different foreign policies. They have dif ferent interests. They have one thing that draws them to gether and that is a joint culture and a joint language, but they do have different interests. MOYERS: Dr. Haddad, what do you think is the one thing you’ d most like us to take away about Arab culture? Dr. HADDAD. I’d like Americans to know that there are — 4 — 179 , Arab Christians. There are about 14 million of them and the reason they exist there is because they have lived in peace with the Muslims. There are come Arab Jews. There are about two million Arab Jews, also. They are the people that were welcomed— the Jews that were welcomed when they thrown out of Spain by the Arabs. And that— it is not true, what a lot of, you know, the press usually says, that the Arabs are against the Christians and the Jews. MOYERS: Dr. Suleiman, you have the last 30 seconds. Tell us what we ought to take away. Dr, SULEIMAN: I think I would emphasize the family and the very strength that is in the Arab family, the fact that people care about each other. They're very much con cerned about the welfare, not only of their family — which is often mentioned — but also about the community. They’ re concerned about their neighbors. Maybe this is not done in terms of organizations as such, but very much the charity toward others and the family bond is very strong. MOYERS: Well, we'll come back in our next broadcast and talk about religion and culture and some other aspects that we’ ve only raised briefly in this program. Thank you very much. Dr. Suleiman, Dr. Haddad, Dr. Marsot. Thank you for watching. I’ m Bill Moyers. Copyright C 1991 by Public Affairs Television, Inc. Appendix C. "The Image of God." Transcript #103, Bill Moyers, The Arab World 181 c BILL MOYERS/THE ARAB WORLD A ir Date: April 3, 1991 Transcript #103 The Image of God BILL MOYERS: I’m Bill Moyers. Sometimes, it seems as that God couldn’t decide whether to bless or punish the Middle East. There, three of the great religions of the world were born — Islam, Judaism and Christianity — and there, the faithful have been striving and battling ever since. In this broadcast, the image of God in the Arab world. Of the 185 million people in the Arab world, most are Muslims, but several million are Christians. And the Mus lims themselves, like Christians everywhere, are rife with sectarian divisions. In the Arab world, as elsewhere, God wears many masks and is invoked for many causes. Here to discuss the image of God in the Arab world are Yvonne Haddad, who was born in Syria and studied in Beirut and the U.S. and teaches history at the University of Massachusetts; Michael Suleiman, professor of political science at Kansas State University, who was born in Palestine and educated in the U.S.; and Afaf Marsot, who was born in Egypt, educated in Cairo and at Oxford and who teaches history at UCLA. Dr. Haddad, let me ask the first question to you. For a decade now, we Americans have been watching on televi sion Muslims with chanting mobs and terrorist fanatics. Television has brought us images of armed gunmen chant ing Muslim slogans, of women in dark robes, of sinister looking clerics. Headlines repeatedly point to a resurgence of Islamic Fundamentalism, and one letter to the editor recently said, “Islam is giving religion a bad name.” What’ s your response to that portrait? YVONNE HADDAD, P rofessor of H istory, U niversity of M assachusetts at Amherst: I think the West is giving Islam a bad name, because, basically, we have decided to demonize Islam. Vice President Quayle made a statement in May in which he said this century, we’ ve had three evils, in a sense — Nazism, Communism and Islamic Fundamen talism, which I think is very unfortunate. The images that television can bring are very selective. They do not cover all of Muslims. There are Muslim terrorists. There are ter rorists who happen to be Muslim. There are Christian ter rorists. They happen to— you know, they are terrorists who happen to be Christian. And you have Jewish ter rorists. That doesn’ t mean Christianity, Islam and Judaism are terrorist religions. The Ku Klux Klan does not stand for all of Christianity, nor does the Jewish Defense League, nor do the Muslim terrorists. There are a few, but there is a resurgent Islam in the Middle East and we have to understand it. It is something that is happening worldwide. There is interest in religion worldwide. It is not a uniquely Islamic phenomenon. We know that there is religious revival in India, in Sri Lanka. There is religious revival in the United States. There is re ligious revival in Israel. We cannot only say that the Mus lims are the ones, or that Islam is the one. MOYERS: But it is true, Dr. Suleiman, that during the recent Iran-Iraq war, Khomeini said that “the purest joy in Islam is to kill and be killed for God.” What’ s your response to that? You’ re sighing over here. MICHAEL SULEIMAN, P rofessor of P olitical Science, Kansas State U niversity: Well— AFAF MARSOT, P rofessor of N ear and M iddle E ast ern H istory, U n iversity of C alifornia at Los Angeles: I am so sick of hearing these stereotypes, that— I mean— Dr. SULEIMAN: One— MOYERS: But Khomeini did say it. Dr. SULEIMAN: Yeah, well, one particular leader, and I may disagree with Khomeini. All right, Khomeini says it is the purest joy, but primarily, it is the same kind of argu ment that we use when we send soldiers to war, because you’ re fighting for your country, you’ re fighting for your faith. It doesn’t mean that we’ re celebrating death and kill ing. That is not the message. The message is that you’ re out to defend your faith. I wanted to go back to the remark about Islam giving religion a bad name. I think that this is a distortion of what is happening. I agree fully that, in fact, it is some re ligious leaders in the West — some individuals in the West — who are giving Islam a bad name. Now, what happens is, to illustrate— what happens is, when you keep saying that these people are bad— and I’ ll give you an example of how they are bad. It is similar, as has been said, to some one saying that Socrates, for instance, was short, not very good looking, argumentative, quarreled with his wife, and actually gave Athenians a very hard time. Now, if I told you all these things about Socrates, I would be telling the truth, but it certainly is not the whole truth about Socrates. And if we keep repeating and repeating about Muslims and Islam, only the negative things, only when specific individuals, who happen to come from Islamic backgrounds, do something terrible, then that is the image that is formed, and repeatedly, actually mentioned. There fore, that’ s the problem. Dr. HADDAD: This is a deliberate policy. It’ s simply a deliberate policy, designed to give Muslims a bad name, be cause none of the good things about Islam and the religion of Islam are shown. Nobody mentions the fact that Islam is also a culture as well as being a religion and a civilization, as well as being both, and it is simply the negatives that are highlighted, designed to give Muslims a bad name, to show that they are fanatics. They are loonies. They’ re crazies. They are other than us. MOYERS: Somebody mentioned to me before this broad cast the example of Terry Waite, who was quoted on televi sion saying— Terry Waite’s the Episcopalian cleric who went to— He said, “Islam is a noble faith that has at its heart an unshakable faith in one God, a God who is full of mercy, compassion and justice.” And this person said to me, ‘ Yes, Moyers, Terry Waite has disappeared into Lebanon, either a hostage or dead at the hands of militants who call themselves the Army of God.” How do you recon cile the paradox? Dr. MARSOT: How do you reconcile the Spanish Inquisi tion with the Christian faith, the love of humanity, the 182 gentleness of the Christian faith? How do you reconcile the two? MOYERS: I’ ve had even a more difficult— I’ ve had a dif ficult time with that, but I also have a difficult time with James Jones leading his cult into Guyana and having— Dr. MARSOT: Precisely. Precisely. And we have a difficult time with Muslims kidnapping people as hostages. This is against the spirit and the letter of Islam. They are not doing it in the name of Islam. They’ re doing it in the name of Lebanese politics. MOYERS: What is the core belief of Islam? Can you reduce it down? Dr. MARSOT: Yes. There is no God but God. Mohammed is his prophet. God is the merciful, the compassionate. MOYERS: The belief in one God. Dr. MARSOT: The belief in uncompromising monotheism. MOYERS: Daily prayers, too. Are they not a part— Dr. MARSOT: Daily prayers, five daily prayers a day and the prayers begin with the— “God, the merciful, the com passionate.” MOYERS: And, like Jesus— Dr. MARSOT: —“in the name of God, the merciful, the compassionate.” MOYERS: And, like Jesus, taxes on the rich to help the poor. Isn’ t that a— Dr. MARSOT: Absolutely. This is one of the five pillars of Islam, is taxing the rich to recycle wealth amongst the society. MOYERS: And then, fasting? Dr. MARSOT: Fasting, prayer, pilgrimage — once in your lifetime, if you can afford it — and simply recognizing the existence of God. MOYERS: What about, then, the connotations that come around the jihad, the sense of a holy war, Dr. Haddad? Dr. HADDAD: Well, the word jihad, in Arabic, means “struggle” and if you look at the- context of the Koran, you will find that most of the references are for the struggle of the soul to— to be— to control the soul from veering toward evil, because the Koran says that the next assault tends towards evil. So the greatest struggle is the struggle of the self, to bring it in obedience to God, to make sure that you are living a holy life according to what God wants. Then, it says the lesser struggle is jih ad and jihad as, quote, unquote, “holy war” is sanctioned in Islam only when the faith is being attacked or when Muslims are not allowed to practice their faith. And in the West, we have switched the two around. Every time we hear the word jihad, it’ s as though there is this, you know, mob image, these violent people out to oppress the world. I’ ve seen a book that came out of North Dakota, and it has a picture of a Muslim dressed in green, riding a horse. He has the Koran in his left hand, the sword in the right, and it says, you know, “the Muslims are coming.” And this is so un fortunate, because, first of all, it’ s an error. Muslims would never carry the Koran in their left hand. But it is the stereotype, and I think that we are deliberately stereotyp ing them, demonizing them, to make it easy to rule them. Dr. SULEIMAN: There was, for very many centuries, a conflict between countries that followed Islam and coun tries that followed Christianity and that certainly scared many of the Christians in the West and it brought up this threat of Islam as almost a— something that is in the back of Westerners minds, that always comes up to the fore' whenever there is a conflict in the area — “Muslims are a threat to Christianity,” although the threat now is gone. But as part of the attempt to try to get people in Europe, especially in the Middle Ages, to stop fighting among each other and to get them to unite to fight outsiders, then Is lam became a useful outside force, the “other” that we are fighting. And it was at that time, I think, that the image of Islam as people who basically conquered with the sword— Yes, of course, any conqueror would have to use force, including the sword and the gun and so on, but, really, more often it is the case that the Arabs and Muslims primarily con quered by appealing to the people of the area to join them because there are benefits to join and because the coun tries and the civilizations that were dominant at the time, including the Byzantine Empire, were already crumbling. So you go in and say, those people that you have sup pressed who are willing to accommodate and have them be come, say, protected under Islam, people of the book, and that was more useful than actually killing them. MOYERS: Dr. Haddad, you are a Christian, are you not? Dr. HADDAD: Yes, I am. MOYERS: What do you admire about Islam? Dr. HADDAD: Well, there are lots of things that I admire. It’ s very close to Christianity and it honors— you know, Jesus as a prophet— I know a lot of Muslims who are very devout people, and they're as devout as my mother, who was a reformed Presbyterian. Basically, they believe the same things we do. They have— they share a lot of our values and there is— you know, the devout people have no interest in the wealth and all this all other trappings of society and it is a religion that is very democratic. It has very little distinction between colors— color, you know, language differences are ignored and you will see, if you go to mosque in the United States today, you know, and there are some mosques that may have up to— people from 60 different countries and they’ re all there together as one group. Dr. MARSOT: What— what you have to— to— Perhaps what people don’ t know is that it took centuries for the con quered countries to Arabize and Islamize. It didn’ t happen overnight, because they said, “ We offer you religion or the sword,” as many people think. That’s not true. Egypt be came Arabized and Islamized five to six centuries later and much of the religion was spread simply by merchants. The religion, as spread outside the Arab world, was spread by merchants who simply went and established themselves and converted the people of the place. Therefore, the idea that you go out on jih ad and you force people and bash them into conversion is totally erroneous. In the first place, they didn’ t want that many people to convert because they were paying a poll tax. It’ s true the Muslims paid a tax which is much higher because it’ s a tax on the capital, not simply a fixed amount. But, nonetheless, people don’ t realize— listen, they don’ t realize that whether you’ re — 2 — I I 183 j Christian or Muslim or Jewish, if you live in the Arab f world, you're part of the past history, which is what Is- * lamic civilization or Arab civilization is all about. * MOYERS: Dr. Marsot, how do you explain the fact that Saddam Hussein is. as I understand it, a secularist. I don't think he's a— Dr. MARSOT: Absolutely. ; MOYERS: —a devout Islam and yet, he uses the appeal to ' Islam, to— to— Dr. MARSOT: Because all rulers use religion as part of their political baggage, and even the most secular of coun tries, on its dollar bill, is written “In God We Trust.” It doesn't say, “We trust in the Bank of America,” or “in the Federal Reserve." MOYERS: I remember from my own study of history at the University of Edinburgh, an engraving of Pope Urban sending off the Crusades with his knights armed and the spears and the swords all flashing in the sun and he’ s saying, in Latin, “God wills it." I mean, there you have this tendency— Dr. MARSOT: Absolutely. I Dr. HADDAD: That's right. MOYERS: —and, yet. so many governments in the Arab I world today make this appeal to Islam, even on the part of leaders like Saddam who do not exercise— who are not devout. Dr. SULEIMAN: Well, what is— Dr. MARSOT: No, they will manipulate religion and, to go back to the Crusades, everybody thinks the Crusades were a religious war. The Crusades were for younger sons of Europe who had no land to go and conquer themselves a piece of territory somewhere else. It was a purely economic series of wars which had nothing to do with religion, except using religion. MOYERS: But what are the practical effects of the ab sence of a secular— You know, we talk about the separa tion of church and state and, as a Baptist, that's been a very important principle to me, what about in the— in the Arab— Dr. HADDAD: We talk about it, but look at what George Bush did— On January 15th, when he announced the war, he walked out of the White House with Billy Graham at his side, who had spent the night there. The image that was, you know, telecast to the Arab world was, “Here is a Christian war,” because he said, “It’ s a just war,” which— he used Christian values to justify it and he cast Saddam Hussein as an evil thing and we were the forces of righteousness. Now, seen from the Muslim perspective, it was George Bush as a crusader. In fact, one of the names that was given to him was Saint George, because Saint George was always killing the dragon and, you know, Sad dam Hussein was demonized. But, also, he was Saint George on the 11th Crusade and it was all tagged together. Dr. SULEIMAN. I wanted to say that the appeal to Islam and Muslims is done by the various leaders, primarily be cause they recognize that, obviously, most of the people in the area, as you indicated, are Muslim, most people in the area actually identify-, not only as .Arabs, but even, in some cases, more so as Muslims. So it is a very good, legitimiz ing force and so, whether you are actually, yourself, a reli gious leader or not, whether you are, in fact, a practicing Muslim or not, you use religion. And this has been used by all the different leaders in the area, including, for instance, Sadat. Sadat was viewed to be, supposedly — in the West, anyway — as very religious, when, in fact, he was not as religious as he made out to the outside world. Primarily, he was using religion and when it suited his purposes, he turned against the Muslim Fundamentalists within Egypt. So, Islam is a good legitimizing force, and that’ s why it is used. Dr. MARSOT: As good as any religion. Dr. HADDAD: No, but there is— MOYERS: All right, so tell me a little bit about— excuse me. Dr. HADDAD: Yes, there is something very important and that is all Arab countries— most Arab countries don't have a democracy and, therefore, the only opposition there is politically is from the religious groups, the Islamic move ments that are demanding democratization and free speech and, therefore, in order to deal with the opposition, all the leaders are tapping into religion. If you go to Morocco, you will see pictures of King Hassan praying. If you go to Tunisia, you’ ll see Ben’ Ali’s pictures dressed in the ihram, you know, going to the hajj, and so did Saddam, and this is, in a sense, an effort to coopt the opposition. It’ s a political move. MOYERS: Yeah, but I’m— I am puzzled by part of that, because I know some people who will argue that Islam is not calling, in many of these states, even though they're calling for a change in the regime, they’ re not calling for democratization— Dr. HADDAD: They are. Dr. MARSOT: They are. MOYERS: —you’ ll find— the American soldiers in Saudi Arabia had to be careful not to offend the Saudis, to the point where the freedoms of Jewish and female personnel were seriously repressed. Now, that— Dr. HADDAD: Yes, but Saudi Arabia is not the rest of the Muslim world. MOYERS: But it’ s part of the Muslim world. Dr. HADDAD: It’ s different than the rest. Dr. MARSOT: When you say “Fundamentalists,” if we summarize what they want to say, what their demands are, you can point to three thingB. The first thing is they’ re asking for a rule of law, except they put it in the Muslim idiom, which is sharia. They want sharia, because— MOYERS: That’ s a holy law, divine law? Dr. MARSOT: It’ s partly divine, partly interpretation of divine and, therefore, they mean by that they don't want rule of whimsy or caprice of rulers. They want the rulers to be under the law, as well as the rest of the population. MOYERS: Under Islamic law? Dr. MARSOT: Under the law, the Islamic law. The second thing they’ re asking for a return to zacat [sp?l, which means a redistribution of wealth, because you pay 2-1/2 percent of everything every year. The third thing they’ re asking, is they're asking for social justice, because it doesn't exist in the .Arab world with totalitarian govem- — 3 — 184 ments. MOYERS: But will they extend that to non-Muslims— Dr. HADDAD: Sure, yes. Dr. MARSOT: Of course. MOYERS. —to women? Dr. HADDAD Yes. Dr. MARSOT: Of course. That is the assumption. Whether they, in fact, if they ever seize power, they will do that, is moot. MOYERS: Why, Dr. Marsot, do so many Muslims rage against the West? Dr. MARSOT: Because the West has done so many things, has abused the Muslim world, the Arab world, so frequent ly. The very fact that people can say things about “Islam is giving religion a bad name"— How would Christians feel if Muslims said “Christianity gives religion a bad name” ? Would you feel very friendly towards people like that? Would you feel friendly towards people who’ ve occupied you, colonized you, exploited you economically, and then ended by dropping bombs on your head, as they’ ve have in Iraq0 How would you feel about these people? Dr. SULEIMAN. The rage comes— has different roots. It depends on which community, which individuals we're talking about. Of course, if, indeed, the individuals or the groups are, say, what has been termed as Muslim Funda mentalists. their main concern is that Islam itself and Muslims have been defeated, have been put in a position of being dominated by non-Muslims — basically, the Christian West — and it is that response, then, that animates them. But there are others who, for instance, are educated, who want, in fact, to be like the West, who want liberal democracy, but have been disappointed in the West, primarily because of the West actually having betrayed their trust. MOYERS: Betrayed their trust in regard to-— ? Dr. SULEIMAN: Especially after World War I and the promises that at least they thought were made as to them helping the West fight the war and then, after the war, getting independence, and not getting that independence. MOYERS: Isn't there also something else, Dr. Suleiman? I saw a recent documentary’ done about Islam in which there was a powerful interview with an Islamic woman who was saying that, in her judgment and the judgment of many of her peers, Western culture is corrupt, sinful, obsessed with sex, that she actually preferred wearing the— the habit that is so common in thft part of the world. Dr. SULEIMAN: There is that, and I was coming to it. Yes. indeed, there is the element that the Western culture has become too obsessed, say, with sex, if you wish, has be come too free, if you will and, therefore, there is no control over people's actions and so on. But this— this is one parti cular group emphasizing one particular element. They see that, but they do not see the democracy in action. I mean, all of us have, to some extent, some tunnel vision and I think that this particular group, for instance, yes, emphasizes that particular element— Dr. HADDAD. But there is something else at stake that we don't talk about — our image, in the United States, of the Muslims is from television. You know, it's conditioned by the movies we see, by television programs «.e're see,, where we see Muslims depicted as— covered as violent and' in the movies, they have three or four wives. They're las civious. They've everything else. But their image of who we' are as Christians, as Americans, comes from television. It comes from Dallas and Love Boat and it comes from any of the other films— MOYERS: And what do they conclude from that about the rest of society? Dr. HADDAD: That our women are loose. They’ re ready to hop into bed at the earliest thing and they think that we hit our— you know, men abuse women, woman are used for sex. The don’ t want to emulate the women of the West because that is— Dr. MARSOT: And that we are a very materialistic cul ture, which they can’ t afford, and a highly consumer cul ture, which they can’ t afford either. MOYERS: What is the notion of morality— and I know this is a general question, but give me a general answer. What’s the notion of morality in basic Islam? Dr. MARSOT: It’s the very same notion that we get in basic Christianity — an upright life, thinking good, behav ing in as honorable and decent a— a method as we can, not lying, not cheating, not abusing or exploiting anybody else, trying to remain faithful to your vows, faithful to your word, fidelity in marriage, virginity for both male and fe male until marriage. That is the ideal. MOYERS: How do you explain the fact that, say, take Saudi Arabia — which is one of the most Fundamentalist countries, in terms of the practices that are enforced social ly within the country — whose leaders seem to adore and purchase the amenities of the West, the luxuries of the West, the habits of the West while trying to protect their own people from exposure to these influences from the West. How do you explain that? Dr. MARSOT: Well, the basic contradiction of all societies and what the rulers say and do. It’ s a question of "D o as I say, not what I do,” because their moral lives are ques tioned by their own people. Dr. SULEIMAN: They live in the 20th century. They're part of this world. They need to interact with the outside world. They— of course, they have the oil and they have to sell it to the outside world. The question is how much in teraction and what do you borrow from the West? And this is the subject of much discussion among intellectuals in the area. Basically, some — especially among more Fundamen talist Muslims — all they want is technology and science, and they say everything else should be Muslim. MOYERS: No manners, no mor6s, no— Dr. SULEIMAN. Right. But, of course, it’ s not very easy to just take science and technology. MOYERS: Well, that’s it, isn’t it? I mean, Muslims— Is lam is up against the same human and democratic — with a small d — force that every other religion in the world is facing— Dr, HADDAD: Sure. Dr. MARSOT: Yes. MOYERS: —that is, the ideals are confronted at the base operation of human behavior in a way that com upt the — 4 — 185 ideals. 1 Dr. HADDAD. Absolutely. jD r , MARSOT: Absolutely. < Dr. SULEIMAN: And often, we forget the ideals and we look at some practices of specific individuals and say, “This is Islam.” Dr. HADDAD: But, see, in the situation of Saudi Arabia, which you raised, the political structure in Saudi Arabia is very interesting. The legitimacy of the Saudi family is held out by Benbas fsp?] and the religious structure and the Saudis and the Wahhabis, which is the religious teachings of the Saudi state, are together in a coalition as govern ment, so that the Saudis rule, in a sense, with the religious orders, and that is different than any other Muslim state. MOYERS: Thirty seconds, Dr. Marsot, last word. What would you most want the West to understand about this vast Islamic religion? Dr. MARSOT: That the— If I had to summarize Islam in one sentence, it would be a passage out of the Koran that enjoins as the duty of every Muslim to do good and to set aside evil. MOYERS: Love thy neighbor as thyself, in a way. Dr. MARSOT: By the hand and by the heart and by the mouth. MOYERS. Thank you, Dr. Marsot, Dr. Haddad, Dr. Suleiman. In our next broadcast, we’ re going to talk about language, family life, women and politics and humor. I’m Bill Moyers. Copyright < C 1991 by Public Affairs Television, Inc. Appendix D. "The Bonds of Pride." Transcript #104, Bill Moyers, The Arab World 187 , BILL MOYERS THE ARAB WORLD Air Date: April 4, 1991 Transcript #104 The B onds of P rid e BILL MOYERS: I’m Bill Moyers. We talk, in the West, about “the Arab world,” but 185 million people live in that world, in a score of countries in the Middle East and Northern Africa and. like all other places and peoples on this planet, they defy simplistic description. But some things, they do share in common and, in this broadcast, we'll talk about the bonds of pride. Many of the English words we use in everyday living come from Arabic. “Algebra," “alcohol,” “checked and checkmate,” “sugar," “ magazine," “tariff' are just a few. Arabic is an old and rich language, and so is Arabic cul ture. We'll talk in this program about language, humor, ed ucation and family life in the Arab world with Yvonne Haddad, who was born in Syria and studied in Beirut and the U.S. and now teaches history- at the University of Mas sachusetts; Michael Suleiman, professor of political science at Kansas State University, who was bom in Palestine and educated in the U.S.; and Afaf Marsot. who was bom in Egypt, educated in Cairo and England and who teaches history at UCLA. Dr. Suleiman, what is it that constitutes “Arabness” ? MICHAEL SULEIMAN, P rofessor of P olitical Science, Kansas State U niversity; Let me begin by talking about what is not Arab and Arabness. Certainly, in the West, there is often the misconception that, for in stance, Iranians are Arabs, or Persians are Arabs. They are not. Turks are not Arabs. The people who are Muslim are not necessarily Arab. There are many more Muslims than there are Arabs and, of course, there are Arabs who are Muslim. There are Christian Arabs. What constitutes Arabness today is primarily a feeling that people who share the language — the Arabic language — and speak it have, a sense — a vision — of the future, that the Arab— Arabic-speaking countries today should, in fact, unite together in some form of— fashion to advance their economies, their politics, to become again the great civilization that they were before. In other words, they have a vision that they once were a great nation that pro duced Islam, that, in fact, ruled a great deal of the Middle East and some parts of Europe, and that produced a great culture, and it is that feeling that now unites them that they should again march toward that particular vision. MOYERS: Dr. Marsot, what is it about Arabic as a lan guage that you find so intriguing? AFAF MARSOT, P rofessor of N ear and M iddle E ast ern History, U niversity of C alifornia at Los Angeles; In the first place, the Koran came in Arabic and that gives Arabic a very special place. In the second place, .Arabs love poetry. That’ s their an par excellence, and you will fre quently find Arabs sitting together and somebody will spout a line of poetry and somebody else will say "Ah. but do you remember—" and he'll stan the second line without feeling embarrassed. Poetry is something very natural, and we even sing our poetry. Our most famous singer sang poetry and, therefore, this, to us, is something very living and veVy vital. MOYERS: What is it about Arabic that makes it so inimi cal to poetry? Dr. MARSOT: Because it’ s such a rich language and you can marry the sound to the meaning, as you can in many other languages, of course. But it is almost a symbiotic re lationship between the Arab and his language and what you can do with the language and play around with the language. MOYERS: Dr. Haddad, some people have said to me that they thought George Bush’ s, President Bush's, comments about Saddam Hussein during the war were chosen to be especially offensive when they were translated to Arabic. Do you think there’s something to that? YVONNE HADDAD, Professor of H istory, U niversity of M assachusetts at Amherst: I think so, but let me tell you, at first, I thought that he had the wrong kind of ad visers. I was even ready to write to him and 3ay, “Please, President Bush, you’re hiding behind some people who don't understand the Arab world." But I have a feeling that he— they probably knew and it was deliberate. Those words that were used were very offensive in Arabic, once translated. He wasn’t the only one to use them. Javier de Cuellar used, also, some very offensive language. When he went, theoretically, on a diplomatic mission to see Saddam Hussein and came back, he said, T went to dance and there was no partner." It was as though he was saying that Saddam Hussein was a prostitute and it was very of fensive. And President Bush used some of the most bel ligerent kind of language that, in Arabic, is unacceptable. MOYERS: What, in your judgment, constitutes Arabness, to follow up on the question we discussed with Dr. Suleiman? Dr. HADDAD: I think it’ s really a question of identity and a sense of dignity and belonging to a specific people. You are an Arab if you identify as Arab. Ail right, my kids and I, we emigrated to this country. We’re identified as Ameri can and we can stand and sing, Land where my father died ! Land of the Pilgrim s’ pride, and, yet, we weren’t born here. And in a very interesting sense, all Americans are American, yet, they come from a variety of backgrounds and, yet, we consider them Americans, but only the Ameri can Indians are the indigenous people. In a similar way, all of the Arabs, whether they are— you know, including some Armenians, Kurds, Circassics. They identify as Arabs because they identify with the cul ture and, yet, the only true Arabs are the ones who live in Arabia and some of the tribes that moved up north. There’ s a large number of Arabized people who identify with the culture, with the history, with the language. They laugh at Arabic jokes and they sympathize and empathize with the culture and, therefore, they are Arab. MOYERS: What are your own roots in the Arab world? Dr. HADDAD: I’m originally of Greek background. I also have a great grandmother who was Armenian, that— I grew up in a culture that identified itself as .Arab and I was raised as that. 188 MOYERS: Dr. Marsot, what about your roots? Dr. MARSOT: My mother's grandfather was Greek. Her mother is Circassian. My father is partly Arab, partly Egyptian peasant. MOYERS. You really were at the crossroads, weren't you? I mean, there were a lot of people coming through. Dr. MARSOT: Absolutely. Everybody has gone through Egypt. Therefore, Egyptians are a very mixed bag, and the only ones who can claim descent from the ancient E©p- tians are the Coptic Egyptians— MOYERS: The Christian war— Dr. MARSOT: —of course, some of the Muslim Egyptians, also, are direct descendants, but they may have inter married with Arabs, with Turks, with— The French came; the English came, the Greeks came, the Persians came; the Romans came. Everybody came. MOYERS. So it's a culture borrowed from many, many sources. Dr. SULEIMAN: It's borrowed, but the borrowing has been— the culture that has been borrowed has been as similated and, certainlv— MOYERS: Refined— Dr. HADDAD. Refined, ves. Dr. SULEIMAN —is part of the corpus of what is the Arabic language and the Arabic heritage. MOYERS: What are your roots? Dr. SULEIMAN: My roots are— Well, I was bom in Palestine, but my family originally came from Lebanon. That was in the early 19th century. MOYERS: What do you remember most about— most Arabic about being a child? What was the thing that hap pened to you that you can now look back and say, “Oh, yes, that was really Arabic." Dr. SULEIMAN: Well, primarily, I think, the feeling that people cared, so far as I'm concerned. I mean, the fact that it was— Palestinians were suffering, but, also, others who are Arabic-speaking, whether they were in Egypt or Iraq or Morocco. I'll tell you an experience. When I was in Morocco doing research a few years ago and anytime I mentioned— People would ask me, “ Where are you from0" Once I men tioned I was Palestinian, literally, older people, even, would kiss my hand. It's as if I'd come from a sacred land. And I was, you know, quite embarrassed by it and upset, but— but they were associating me with that particular piece of holy land, yes, and the bond was there, immediate ly established. MOYERS: Do you try to— What do you do with your chil dren to remind them of that very distinct and specific back ground? Dr. MARSOT: My children feel they're very blessed in that my youngest was bom in this country. My eldest came here when she was two years old. They feel they're very American, yet their father is a Frenchman, so they feel they have French roots, and their mother is Egyptian, and they feel they have Egyptian roots. So they glory in having three strains, and they think that's— that's wonderful. They're so different from everybody else. MOYERS: You've written a good bit about .Arab humor and politics. Is there a distinct Arabic sense of humor0 Dr. MARSOT There is a great Egyptian sense of humor. In fact, the earliest cartoon in the world is an ancient Egyptian cartoon. But when you asked Michael what does he remember about growing up— what I remember is all the cousins getting together and being funny and simply the laughter that you had with your cousins, cracking jokes, starting pieces of movies and turning them— turn ing a dramatic piece into a comedy — the laughter that you have in the family. MOYERS: Now, there is a difference. My cousins all got together, but none of them had a sense of humor, so I guess that's what they lose when they come to— What about women and family life? We hear so much, you know— we hear so much about the veil, and this is part of the problem that affects even Americans who want to be open-minded and tolerant and modem. They say, “ I just don't under stand why women would want to live that way." What about that, Dr. Haddad? Dr. HADDAD: I think part of it is an American problem, because we have decided that wearing a scarf on your head is a 3ign of oppression. And let me give you an example. I invited, once, a Lebanese woman [to speakl and she had this wonderful, beautiful scarf and she had it around her shoulders and as she was giving the lecture, she said, “ This is now fashion.” And she pulled it up and put it on her head and said, “Now, it is a sign of oppression." It real ly left an impact on me, because what it said is that what we wear is something that, you know— it’ s an act of com munication. We want to say something about ourselves. What the women who are wearing the scarf on their head are saying is absolutely different than what we imply that they are saying. MOYERS: What are they saying? Dr. HADDAD: I did a survey of over 100 women that had put on the head scarf and there were political reasons; they thought that they were protesting lack of democracy. There were economic reasons, because it was cheaper than wear ing a variety of clothes every day. It was a very* convenient thing. You put it on— There were social reasons. For a lot of women who are active in public life — that means the engineers, the women who are doctors, the women who are teachers — when they are going into public life, they want very much to disassociate themselves from the image of the American woman or the Western woman or the liberated woman that they saw on the television and, in a sense, it was a sign saying, “I am not available for sexual harass ment." MOYERS: But there’s the other side of it, too, which goes beyond fashion to behavior. The women in Saudi Arabia who tried to drive cars — they were stopped by the authorities and told that they had to be there, in effect, un der “car arrest,” until a relative, a male relative, could come and promise— make them promise that they'd be have. What about— what does that say to us? Dr. MARSOT: Well, women will liberate themselves if they want to. They will change their society if they want to. .After all, it is women who educate and socialize children in the Arab world. It’s the woman who has custody of the child and who brings up the child — even the male child — — 2 — 189 until the age of seven. Therefore, she— MOYERS: But these women wanted to, Dr. Marsot. Dr. MARSOT. These women wanted to, but— They wanted to make a point and that point misfired because of political conditions at the time. But these women, remem ber, are women who have professions. They are women who own their own property, because this is the difference in Islamic law. Women have to inherit. You cannot dis inherit legal heirs and women inherit property and that property is theirs to do with as they please. It is not to sup port themselves with. MOYERS: Would either of you want to live in a— in a— Dr. HADDAD: Well, you see, this is what you’re saying— is that Saudi Arabia is all the Arab world, but that isn't true. Dr. MARSOT No, that's not— MOYERS: Egypt is totally different — isn’ t it? Dr. MARSOT Not— Dr. HADDAD: Not only Egypt — Syria, Lebanon, Iraq. You know, the women in Iraq were the bus drivers and the truck drivers. They were the most liberated in the whole Arab world. Dr. SULEIMAN: Not only is it different within different countries, but it’ s also different within each country, depending on the social status of the group, depending on the religious background of the person, depending on whether the person has been educated overseas or not— Dr. MARSOT: Rural or urban— Dr. SULEIMAN; —yes, and rural and urban, and so on. Diversity should be mentioned, OK? Yeah. One particular incident is taken as if it were actually what the whole Arab world is like. It is not so and Saudi Arabia is perhaps the most conservative, on this particular issue, of all the Arab countries. MOYERS: Why does Saudi Arabia— and maybe others— Why does Saudi Arabia have such a severe penalty for adultery? Dr. MARSOT: That's not Saudi Arabia. This is religion. In the Koran, adultery is one of the very few cases punishable by death. MOYERS: It is, in the Christian and Jewish testaments— Dr. MARSOT: Exactly. Dr. HADDAD: —a very strong— a very severe wrong, but it's not punished anymore. Dr. MARSOT: It’ s not punished anymore in Saudi Arabia. But in order to prove adultery— Dr. SULEIMAN: Yes— ' Dr. MARSOT: —you have to have three impeccable wit nesses— Dr. HADDAD. Four— Dr. MARSOT: —four— have your four impeccable wit nesses watching penetration, and if they’re standing around watching penetration, they’re no longer impeccable, morally speaking. MOYERS: So what does this say to us. then, this— this— Dr. MARSOT: It's saying it's very difficult to prove adultery unless a woman goes and says, “I’ ve committed adultery." Dr. HADDAD R i g h t , and i f you accuse someone of adultery and you can’t prove it with four witnesses who ac tually witnessed the act — I mean, we are talking about an orgy of some sort, right? — if you can’ t produce that, the person who accuses an innocent woman is punished. Dr. MARSOT: He is punished for— Dr. HADDAD: So it is a very— MOYERS: So what do you think is the rationale, the root behind that kind of combination of laws? What’ s happening here? Dr. HADDAD: It’ s the way— it’s the same thing as Christianity and Judaism — the whole idea, then, that marriage is a sacred relationship and that sex is organized within the marriage relationship, not— Dr. MARSOT: To produce children, and that the father is entitled to know who his children are. MOYERS: And, as in the United States, there are certain privileges— privileged groups who escape this. I mean, the emir of Kuwait is very well known for his weekend— That’ s the same sort of— Dr. MARSOT: But that’s— Dr. SULEIMAN: But he tries to do it within the law. MOYERS: How do— What do you mean? Dr. SULEIMAN: Well, basically, you can marry, if you’re a Muslim, up to four wives, at least in most countries in the region, and, therefore, if he marries, say, three and marries a fourth one, then that’ s OK. If he wants to have a relationship with an additional one, then he would divorce one and marry another one. Dr. MARSOT: Of course, it says in the Koran that divorce is one of the most heinous things in the eyes of God, but people pick and choose their religion. MOYERS: What about— Each of you, as an educator, what about— I remember meeting a young man who was Egyptian and he talked about how his early education was memorizing long passages of the Koran, the holy scripture. Is that still the case? Dr. MARSOT: In some societies, it is, especially if they’re very religious, but remember that the whole corpus, the rules of Arabic grammar, are derived from the Koran. And my father always used to say, “If you want to learn perfect Arabic, the only way to do it is to learn it through the Koran. Dr. HADDAD: I think— Dr. SULEIMAN: But it’ s also part of the culture, that people learn— memorize a good deal of the text, if you will. MOYERS: We used to do that in this country. Dr. SULEIMAN: Right. Dr. MARSOT: That’ s right. Yes. Dr. SULEIMAN: And I think it’s an aid to memory, anyway. I think we've given up too much of it. But, in any case, yes, as a child, I memorized not only the text that I was using in school, but— I grew up as a Christian and, yet, because I was Protestant— I was the only one in the class and when it came to religion, I was given a choice — “Do you want to stay or go out?” — and I always stayed and I memorized, also, parts of the Koran, because it is also part of the culture of the area. MOYERS. Is there a core of learning in the Arabic— in .Arabic society, in .Arabic education? — 3 — 190 Dr. HADDAD: There is a new kind of education. It came in with the, you know, the influx of all the colonial people and, also, the missionaries, who also came there, and so what we have is two-track education. The Islamic educa tion, which was based on rote memory and the inculcation of the Koran is— exists, maybe, in places like Oman where you have, still, a large number of Koranic schools. There are some places in Morocco where you have it. But the ma jority of the people go to public school and most of the pub lic education came after the colonial powers were expelled, and that education is Westernized and you will see that, although there is some memorization— and if you look at the text of what is taught as Islamic religion, there are some passages from the Koran that are taught, but most of the Islamic education is now being read, because you have more publishing and so a lot of people read the Koranic text and reflect on it and there is a great deal of effort to distribute Korans and so it’ s not memorized anymore, but, rather, read and reflected [upon]. You have, in a sense, something like the Protestantization of Islam taking place, in which people begin to read the text and reflect on it and come out with their own understanding of what the text says. MOYERS: Is it expected that young women will get the same education as young men? Dr. HADDAD: Absolutely. Dr. MARSOT: Absolutely. Dr. HADDAD: Absolutely. Dr. SULEIMAN: Not only expect it, but already [it is] very much in existence in many of the Arab countries, yes. Dr. MARSOT: The rules of grammar — of Arabic gram mar — are the very same rules that we’ ve had for 1,400 years. They haven't changed. The vocabulary has changed, but the rules are exactly the same. MOYERS: Do you remember learning Arabic when you were— Dr. MARSOT: I remember not only— MOYERS: Was it hard? Dr. MARSOT: I went to missionary school, even though we were Muslims. We are Muslims in my household, but my father thought that one religion is just an enrichment of another religion and I used to have a sheik come to the house and teach me Arabic and then my father would make me learn large passages of poetry and he’ d bribe me and say, “111 give you a pound if you learn this piece of poetry, and for every mistake you make. 111 remove a plaster from you." MOYERS: Your father obviously intended for you to go out into the world and be your own, independent person. Dr. MARSOT: Absolutely. Absolutely. He was a feminist before they’ d even invented the term. MOYERS: And he was a Muslim? Dr. MARSOT: He was a Muslim and my uncle, who was the first director of the Cairo University, is the one who opened the university to women. MOYERS: You know, the terrible thing about stereotypes is you're always, daily, encountering an exception to them. Dr. HADDAD: Not “an." “many." MOYERS: Many. What do you think is the largest stereotype in the West? You’ ve lived here how many years now? Dr. HADDAD: Twenty-seven. MOYERS: What’ s the biggest stereotype about— , Dr. HADDAD: It’s changed. When we first came to this country in the ’ 60a, it was the “camel jockey." Every Arab had the little camel in the desert — you know, Lawrence of Arabia type perception. Then, in the ’70s, it was the oil sheik with the stretch limousine, four wives and a private oil derrick in hia backyard. And now, it’s the terrorist. I even have some toys that are called “Nomad, enemy of Ram bo.” And there is this— Since ’ 79, we’ ve had in the United States a great effort to depict Arabs and Muslims as terrorists, as violent people. Dr. SULEIMAN: I wanted to add to that. I agree with it, but I think one other aspect that— Especially in politics, it is becoming difficult for Arabs to participate— Arab- Americans, primarily because Arabs are viewed as not really part of the main political stream in the United States. In fact, there were incidents, during previous campaigns, when Arab—‘ quote, unquote “Arab money" was rejected by the candidates when, in fact, it was given by Arab-Americans. And so, it is that that really is hurting the Arab-American community now — “ Why is the Arab viewed as an outsider?” MOYERS: To turn a comer ’ round, is there a body of liter ature growing up in the Arab world about America and about Americans or do they suffer the same prism that we do— have to look through the same, tiny prism? Dr. SULEIMAN: Yes. Yes. Dr. HADDAD: Oh, yes. Dr. MARSOT: There are courses taught about Arab— American government, American institutions in all the Arab— [crosstalk] MOYERS: Do you think, though, that they have a stereotype of Americans? Dr. HADDAD: Oh, absolutely. Dr. MARSOT: Absolutely. Of course. Dr. SULEIMAN: Yes. Yes. Dr. HADDAD: It’ s a very interesting thing, because I’ ve been analyzing some of the material. The most devastating critique of America is done by Muslims who have lived in the United States and have experienced the American racism. So, you have [unintelligible], for example, and some others that I’ ve been analyzing. What it must be like for someone to come in for a brief period of time and be on the periphery of America and watch what Americans say about Arabs and Muslims on television. Most people are not aware that some of the televangelists say vei-y nasty things about Islam. You know, they have said that the Prophet Mohammed is in the bottom most pit of hell. Jer ry— Jimmy Swaggart— and there’ s some other material. And that image shows America, at least in— The percep tion of the Arabs is that America hates Islam, that Ameri ca fears Islam. MOYERS: But isn’ t it true that— Isn’ t it true that Mus lims believe that all people of the book who live— who do— who live good lives — Jewish, Christian and Muslims — will go to heaven? — 4 — I 191 | Dr. .MARSOT Absolutely Dr. HADDAD: That's true. 1 Dr. MARSOT: Yes » MOYERS And yet we have this sense of — as in Saudi Arabia and other places — of repression and oppression, of ' people who are '‘different." Dr. MARSOT: That is our perception. They have the per ception that we are equally oppressive vis a vis Arabs, tis a vis blacks, vis a vis American Indians. MOYERS: Do any of you have hope that these stereotypes, I on both sides— that we can break through them? And, if so. how do we do it? 1 Dr. MARSOT: Educate people. Educate the rulers— i Dr. SULEIMAN: I think there’ s more to it than education— Dr. HADDAD: N o - Dr. SULEIMAN: —if I might say so. I think politics has a great deal to do with it. There are two different hypothesis that are advanced about why the stereotypes [exist ; . One, basically, says that the public is ignorant and once the public is educated, then the stereotypes are gone. The other hypothesis says, basically, that at least some aspects of the .Arab world are not really friendly or [are] viewed as unfriendly to the United States and, therefore, in politics, you first decide who your enemy is and then you give them , the image. If you view these people as enemies, then you say, “Were going to give them a negative image." Now, what is it, in Arabism and the Arab world, that perhaps is viewed as antagonistic toward the United States? I identify three elements that really answer this ques tion. One is a certain brand of Arab nationalism that has i been viewed as perhaps harmful to American interests in the area. The other is the question of Palestine and how to solve the Palestine problem without hurting American in terests. And the third is a certain branch of Muslim Fun damentalism that is anti-establishment in certain areas where the establishment is pro-U.S. and that is revolution ary in wanting to change the regimes in the area — again, regimes that are friendly to the U.S. So, once we’ ve identi fied these as really harmful, supposedly, to our interests, then we say, “We’ re going to look at these people nega- . tively.” Dr. MARSOT. Wait. One of the things is that we lump all Fundamentalists in the same bag— Dr. SULEIMAN: Yes. Dr. HADDAD: Uh-huh. Dr. MARSOT: —and there are enormous varieties be tween the Fundamentalists. There are those who wish to work within the system and simply reform the corruption of the system and there are those — the extremists — who w-ant to destroy the system and put something completely new in its place, and they haven't quite decided what they want to put in its place And in between, you have all the gamuts, from those going to extreme left to extreme right. Dr. HADDAD: But more than that, what we have is a problem that, whenever we see a Muslim praying we think he's Fundamentalist and a terrorist and we have really— have— You know, the American people begin to identify with religion— the religion of Islam with terrorism. I had a student who came to my room and was terrified because somebody told him— asked him, “Do you pray7" and he said, “Sometimes." And he said. “Don’ t say that to so-and- so, because he will kill you." MOYERS: On that unhappy note, we are out of time. But thanks to you, Dr. Suleiman, Dr. Haddad. Dr. Marsot, for coming here and discussing these issues with us. In our final broadcast, w ell do a summing up of the Arab world with one of the most versatile graduates of that world I've ever met. I’m Bill Moyers. Copyright C 1991 by Public Affairs Television, Inc. — 5 — Appendix E. The Case Study. 193 | The Case Study The study was conducted in the University of Southern California to detect the students' perceptions of Islam and the Arab world. The study consisted of the following: First, a three-semester observation of a course being taught on Islam, where students' perceptions on the subject were observed. Second, a questionnaire was given to students at the beginning of the semester about students' perceptions of Islam and the Arab world, what kind of position and/or negative perceptions they had, what their source of information on the subject was. Third, a second questionnaire was given to students at the end of the semester on the same topics, to see the effect of teaching in changing their perceptions. The Group From the Religion Department: Questionnaire The following are examples of the students' response to the first set of questions that given to them before talking the class, the students' names are given for clarification. Although there are 10 students in this group, only three students have been presented extensively and in detail to show differences in their perceptions of Islam and the Arab world throughout the course. This is in addition to the general analysis of the classes. 194 j Here are their responses to my questions about their reasons for choosing this course. ! Jeff: Satisfied a major requirement, more specifically,, because it involved the study of a major religion which I wasn't familiar with. It was the first thing that caught my eye in the schedule. Stan: Islam is a fast growing religion that claims a membership of a billion or so adherents; a religion valuable to a clear world understanding. Anthony: I chose this class in light of schedule placement. Giving further understandings to Middle East and understanding diplomatic relations. In the students' answers to my question about why they chose this class, I found the following: Jeff, besides satisfying his major requirements, wanted to know about this major religion, Islam, that he was not familiar with. He also said that it was the first thing that caught his eyes in the schedule. From Stan's answer, one can find that he considers Islam as a valuable religion to a clear world understanding, and this religion was growing very fast and already had many followers. So, for the above reasons, he chose the class that teaches this religion. He demonstrated interest in the subject itself. Besides that, he has international feelings. He wants the people in the world to understand each other and 195 understanding Islam is part of that. Anthony knew that there is a problem with the American policy in the Middle East, so he wants to give \ that area further consideration, and also to gain an understanding of the diplomatic relations involved. This student demonstrated interest in that part of the world and he saw that studying Islam could be the path that will lead to better understanding and to better relations with the Middle East. Also, he could have ;chosen another class to take just to satisfy his schedule. Anthony demonstrated interest and maturity in his answer and in his international feeling. All students in this group mentioned having chosen the course because they are interested in it. For example, Liz indicated that since her trip to Turkey she was fascinated with Muslim art, and she decided that she wanted to know more about Islam and Muslims. Joy mentioned similar interest in the subject. These two students did not take the course to satisfy their major requirements. Their reason for taking the course was pure interest in the subject. On the other hand, Kris, Kathy, Jack and other students, stated that their reason for taking the course was their interest in the subject besides satisfying the requirements of their major. For example, Jack said, "I needed the units for my major, 196 why could it not be this course? So I decided to take the course and learn about Islam.1 * Mary and six other students mentioned the word understanding in the answer, which indicated their feeling of a lack of understanding of Islam and Muslims. For example, Mary indicated that she needed to understand the Islamic religion; Kathy mentioned that she wanted to know more about the Muslim world. The second question was about the meaning of the word Islam. Their answers were: Jeff: A perfect example of American media propaganda. I believed that the Islamic people were bad, always fighting with each other and causing a threat to American society. Stan: Islam means submission to God, upheld by the five pillars. Anthony: Islam is portrayed as one religious group against each other. Constant war and upheaval as portrayed by the media. Jeff first described himself as a perfect example of what Dan Rather, David Brinkley, Tom Brokaw, and others of the media present as propaganda on the television news, and the Los Ancreles Times. Then he talked about Islamic people as bad people always fighting each other and causing a threat to his country, the U.S. From all of this, one cannot miss the powerful influence and effect of the media on the audience's mind and in 197 forming their views, by the continuous portrayal of Muslims as 'bad people, always fighting each other, and icausing a threat to American society" as Jeff stated in his answer. In this case, the media has a negative view of Muslims, and to enforce this negative attitude, the media has made Americans feel that Muslims will be a threat to them; Muslims are not only bad, but dangerous to America. Jeff's usage of the word propaganda gave some indication that he feels that the media is trying to spread this view, but he believed the media. Many people, when they hear things on television or read about them in the paper, believe that they are getting the truth and nothing but the truth. Jeff in his answer did not address Islam as it was in the question, instead he talked about Muslims. Stan's answer was that the meaning of the word Islam was the submission to God, and Islam is upheld by the five pillars. He explained what this term meant in the Arabic language and in the Islamic faith perfectly correctly. It is not only that, but he added more information, that Islam is upheld.... by these five pillars ... the principles of the Islamic religion. He also used the article "the" before the word pillars, to indicate that they are known, identified, not just any pillars, and this is the way it is used by Muslims and 198 in Islamic literature. He was the only one who answered the question correctly and he also added more information to clarify his answer. To be sure that he I knew what he was talking about, I asked him to say the five pillars which are: No God but Allah, and Muhammad is his Messenger; praying, fasting, giving alms, and the Pilgrimage to Mecca. His answer was also correct. Anthony's answer to the same question, what does the word Islam mean? was similar to that of Jeff's in that both of them mentioned a group of people fighting each i other. But Anthony used the word upheaval which means a sudden or violent change (Websters Dictionary). That characterized that Muslims are a violent people. He also used the passive voice in identifying his source of information, the media, and it was the last word in his answer. This was not the case in Jeff's answer where the media was in his first sentence and he was direct about it. I think Anthony wanted to distance himself from the media because he already had some information from his class. His use of the word upheaval indicates the media's affect on people. Like Jeff, he also addressed Muslims, not Islam. Among the whole group (10 students) only Stan, who had a Muslim friend, addressed Islam as a religion or faith. Among all nine of them, the word Islam had some 199 connotation of violence, and they mentioned the media as their source of information, especially, the Los Angeles Times, and the entertainment industry. This reflects ,the profound effect of the media in forming the students' perception of Islam, as though when they were asked about Islam they remembered the media and its portrayal of Islam. For example, Jack, Kris, and Mary stated in their answers that Islam calls for fighting. Mary and Kathy said that they have seen lots of movies on television and in theaters where Muslims were presented as warriors and bad people. Joy, Liz and John said that they read in the local paper about Islam, where Islam was portrayed as something bad, and against women. Students' view of Muslims before taking this class were: Jeff: No real image, I feel a bit indifferent, confused, I don't really understand. Stan: The Middle Eastern male can be characterized as firm, confident, aggressive, etc. An Arab is got by boiling three Hebrews together. The only good thing about an Arab is that he is Muslim. If he is not, that is a problem. Anthony: In general, I saw a feeling of insensitivity and defensiveness in Muslims. 200 Looking at Jeff's answer, one can realize that he was either confused and could not have an opinion, or he did not know the difference between Muslims and Islam; this is unfortunately common among even highly educated Americans. Recently, one of my colleagues asked me about the difference between the two terms, Islam and Muslim. When I compared Jeff's answer to this guestion to that of his previous answer, I found out that he too does not know the difference between the two terms. I Actually, in his previous answer, he talked about Muslims not Islam, which the guestion was about, and he already had a negative view that he blamed on the media. In Stan's answer, I found the following: 1 1. He mentioned the Middle Eastern male, but he did not mention the female. 2. To him, the Middle Eastern male is used as a representation of Muslims, although there are other religions in the Middle East. Also, there are Muslims who are not Middle Eastern, this reflects the confusion between nationality and religion. He had a formula to make an Arab: An Arab is got by boiling three Hebrews together. He explained his formula by saying that it is bad enough to be a Jewish person, but it is worse for a person to be an Arab. So you can boil three Jews, or melt them to make one Arab. I can see that he had 201 stereotyped feelings against Arabs beyond description. But, following the rest of his answer, one can realize i that he does not have the same feelings towards Islam. For Stan, the only good thing about an Arab is that he is Muslim. To him, although Arabs are very bad,there is something good about them, that they are Muslims. So he likes Islam, but not the Arabs. To him, it is a problem if Arabs are not Muslims. He thinks that all Arabs are Muslims, which is not true. What about the Christian Arab? Also from his answer, he did not mention Muslims from other nationalities, i.e., Pakistani, Turkish, etc. These people are not Arabs, but they are Muslims. Islam is not limited to the Arabs only. Anthony characterized Muslims as insensitive and defensive. As he told me, he formed this view on the Muslims from watching the news and reading the local newspaper. In their answers to the previous question, the group as a whole (10 students) have indicated some bad images of Muslims fluctuating from strong stereotyping such as Muslims as terrorists and bad people to a mild one such as Muslims as insensitive people. The group as a whole indicated that Muslims and Arabs mean to them the same things, in other words, all Muslims are Arabs, and all Arabs are Muslims. 202 The answers of the same three students were used again, extensively, as an example of their perceptions of Islam and Muslims after taking a course on these subjects, in order to show the difference between their perceptions before taking the course and after. Their views after taking the class were: Jeff: Beginning to understand the culture a bit, shedding more light on Islamic beliefs to gather evidence to form my own objective conclusions of the religion in general. Stan: I am getting a better idea of Muslim needs and thinking, especially for Muslims in America: Such as Pakistanis, Syrians, Palestinians, Egyptians, and Afro-Americans. Cultural distinctions do not have a profound effect on me. Anthony: Understanding more so why there are things that each culture does. Seeing the aspect of a relationship with God. Jeff said about himself that he had begun to understand Islamic culture and Islamic beliefs. In his answer he used Islamic culture to talk about Muslims, and Islamic beliefs to talk about the Islamic faith. This is the correct usage of the two terms, previously unclear to him. In addition, he decided to gather evidence to form his own objective conclusion about the Islamic religion in general. From his usage of the word objective, one can understand that this student has realized that he was not getting an objective view from I 203 ithe media, which was the main source for his knowledge i on this subject, so he decided to do it on his own as if he did not want to trust the media any more. ' Stan acknowledged the cultural diversity among people, but this diversity does not have profound affect on him. It means it still has some effect on him, but not a profound one. Comparing his answer to his previous answer, one can see the difference. Before, he did not know the difference between religion and nationality. It is clear that he understands the i difference now by mentioning different nationalities as Muslims. Anthony sees the aspect of a relationship with God as a way that created diversity among people; different people see the relationship with God differently. This created diversities of cultures. This student is trying to find the reasons behind this diversity among people by trying this philosophical analysis. Looking at the answer of the groups as a whole (10 students), I have found a great deal of change in their perceptions of Islam and Muslims from negative to positive. I have seen more understanding of Islam and Muslims, in which Islam is seen as a religion, or as a relationship with God in their own way. An example will be Mary, Kathy, and John's answers. They indicated that 204 ! now, after taking the course on the subject, Islam to them is like Judaism and Christianity, Muslims are people who followed their religion, and they are no different from other people who followed a religion. Liz, Kris, Jack, and Joy added to that by saying that Islam's teaching is similar to that of Judaism and Christianity, and should be considered as such. The students also understood the difference between religion and nationality, where Islam is seen as a religion, and its follower can be from any nationality, such as Arab, Turkish, American as it was mentioned by Liz, John, and Jack. Also Joy, Kris and Mary stated that they did not know before that a Muslim could be British or French. But the big change in students' perception in the usage of the word "objective" where six of them have used in way that there should be a kind of objectivity in presenting information on Islam and Muslims. An example will be the answers of Jack, John and Liz, where they called for an objective portrayal of Islam and Muslims. Also, Kelly, Mary and Joy mentioned the need for more objective views in presenting Islam and Muslims to Americans. They added that this would change their negative perceptions of Islam and Muslims. It was as if they just discovered that they were not getting an objective perception on the subject. Since most of them 205 have referred to the media as their source of information on Islam and Muslims, one can conclude that I r I the students meant the media was not objective in portraying Islam and Muslims. If you were to choose a religion for your children, what religion would it be? Jeff: Any religion, or anything else that fulfills their spiritual needs. They should have an idea or belief : to guard their lives, without that I it will be only a materialistic life. Stan: My choice will be as the following: 1-6 Confucianism 6-9 Judaism 9 —14s Christianity 14-18 Islam 18-20 Theravado Buddhism 2 0-up His choice Anthony: If I had a choice, I would want him to pursue whatever religion that would satisfy his needs, but I would hope that he would see peace in his life. Jeff's main idea was to fulfill his child's spiritual needs through religion or anything to prevent the child from being materialistic. In other words, he wanted the child to fulfil his materialistic and spiritual needs. Stan says he wants his child to be familiar with many kinds of religion, and he had a scale according to the child's age. He will start teaching his child from the first year until 2 0 years of age and he will leave the child to choose any religion he wants at the age of 20. 206 |He wants to teach his child Islam when he/she is between 18—20 years of age because he wants his child to be mature enough to learn Islam. To Anthony, peace is very important, and he hopes that his child will see peace in his lifetime. Also, he wants a religion to satisfy his child's needs. He leaves the freedom to choose up to his child. Looking at the answers of the whole group (10 students) I realized that about nine of them wanted their children to have any religion, including Islam. That is a good indication that their perception of Islam has been changed from negative to a more positive one after taking the course on Islam. Only one student wanted his child to follow his religion, which is Christianity. The Group From the Religion Department: Observation This group took a course on Islam through the Religion Department. The purpose of the observation was to detect students' perceptions on Islam and Muslims through their interaction with the teacher. Their responses to new information on the subject, especially if the responses contradicted their perception, their area of interest, their inquiries and comments, their enthusiasm in doing the assignments of the course. But, in many cases, the observer was moved beyond the subjective perceptions of particular incidents to the 207 I totality or the unifying nature of particular settings. Also, some explanations and comments by the observer were needed to illuminate some situations; otherwise they would be obscure. This group was observed all semester long, and the setting was already described for this group. Everyone was observed closely, and the observation was related to the information from their answers to the first set of questions. It was noticed that students were asking for more references and names of books about different Islamic topics such as the Golden Age of Arabic Literature, the best translation of the Quran. etc. This happened on an average of twice per session. From that, I realized that their interest in the subject had exceeded what this class could offer, but the teacher was very helpful. He kept bringing new books with him, or writing names of books on the blackboard that would help to answer the students' questions. Every time the researcher visited the class throughout the semester, she noticed that the students had done their homework. They also came up with very specific questions about topics and issues in the homework such as meaning of terms and words. They were really serious students, as their teacher said about them, "they had done an incredible job" that ; 208 demonstrated interest, understanding and maturity." Although all students shared the previous interest, the researcher realized that each one of them had established a specific line of interest. For example. Jeff, Stan and Anthony, have shown in the questionnaire a difference in their perception before taking the course and after. In the case of Jeff, the researcher found from her observation notes that he asked questions about law and politics at least once each time the class was observed, such as, can a Muslim lawyer specialize in one area of the law, i.e. business law, and what were the sources of law in Islam. The answer to the second question, about the source of law in Islam, was too long and took around thirty minutes of explanation because the teacher had to list the following sources of law and explain them: 1. Ijma (consensus) 2. Quran 3. Hadith (the prophet's sayings, doing, and approvals). 4. Qiyas (analogy) 5. Finally, the judge's own judgment, in case there is no law in the previous sources to fit. After that, Jeff started comparing the Islamic law to the American law and to that of other countries. He 209 criticized American policy in the Middle East, he said, "We (America) always supported the wrong guy under the name of law and order, as we did with the Shah of Iran, we thought he was good and we were happy with that." He also criticized the U.S. government for supporting Israel and he said, "that kills me." Jeff demonstrated a great curiosity in the subject. Stan said in his answers in the first questionnaire that he was interested in Islam because it is a fast growing religion and valuable to a clear world understanding. He asked questions in class about almost every topic. He wanted to know Islam's view of sex, praying, fasting, Sufism, other religious groups, taxes, etc. He also talked in class about Moses, Jesus and Muhammad and he dealt with them as three prophets. He decided to go to Al-Azhar, the oldest university in the world, that is famous for its Islamic teaching and is located in Cairo, Egypt, to pursue his study of Islam. If we go back to his words about Arabs, one would be surprised to see him going to live in an Arabic country. During my conversation with Anthony, he said that he wanted to give further consideration to the Middle East and to understanding diplomatic relations. Throughout the observation, the researcher realized that he asked questions regarding Islamic literature on the average of 210 i [one question on this subject during every class observation. This, besides his other questions on i pilgrimage, fasting, and the history of the pre-Islamic era. But he asked questions about politics and law on average of two questions on each subject per session; i.e. he asked about the separation of church and state in Islam, and about the constitution. From his questions, the researcher realized that he was following the same line of interests he indicated before. Looking at the information about the students from Questionnaire #1, and through observation and conversations with them, the researcher realized that this information was consistent with their reasons for choosing this class and with their development throughout the semester. During the observation, a pattern kept surfacing between two and three times in every meeting. The students' interests exceeded the books required for reading and they kept asking for more resources on the subject. Observing the teacher and talking with him, the researcher realized that he had answered all of the students' questions, and he provided them with lists of new books, according to their requests. He answered their questions with detail, even though some of their 211 questions were not part of the course requirements. He wrote some sentences on the blackboard in Arabic to help the students pronounce some words in Arabic. Throughout the observation, the teacher used Islamic expressions, for example, in greeting the students and talking to them, he used videos for some Islamic practices that are hard to explain in words, for instance, praying, and hajj (pilgrimage). He made himself available in his office for the students, he was in class before the students arrived, and he asked them to call him at home to answer their questions. He also traced the source of the stereotyping against Islam and Muslims, which goes back to Europe before the Industrial Revolution, where the "ice-box*' theory was created to minimize the effect of the Arabs and Muslims on Western civilization. This theory says, "that the Arabs preserved the Greek civilization as an ice box." According to him, the teacher also talked about anti- Semitism and the anti-Semitic mind in Europe, where they view this race as incapable of abstract thinking because they have limited thinking. The role of the Arabs as Semites, was only to freeze and preserve the Greek civilization and to hand it over to the West. This teacher was very interested and knowledgeable on this subject. 212 All participated in discussions freely. The teacher created a very relaxed environment in class. The Group From the Anthropology Department; Questionnaire The purpose of this questionnaire is to know the students' perception of Islam and Muslims before taking a course on Islam. Although there are 10 (one student left the class before the end of the semester, but participated in the study) students in this group, the responses of three students have been presented extensively and in detail to show differences in their perceptions of Islam and the Arab world throughout the course. This is in addition to the general analysis of the students' answers as a whole. The following are some examples of their responses: Why did you choose this class? Rose: I chose this class because I enjoy learning about cultures different from my own. Additionally, I am not very familiar with Muslim societies and I would like to increase my knowledge. Rose expressed her interest in learning about other cultures, and because she was not familiar with Muslim societies she had decided to take a course about them. Sam: Interested in Muslim societies, particularly Central Asia. Travelled in many Muslim countries i 213 and wanted to get anthropological perspective on Islam. Sam is interested in Muslim societies. He had first hand knowledge about Muslims; but because he wanted to get an anthropological perception on Islam, that is, on Muslims themselves, he decided to take this course. He was direct in expressing his interest in the subject. Sue:I want to learn more about the Muslim religion. Sue wanted to learn about the Muslim religion; but she did not know that Islam is a religion, and Muslims are the people who follow this religion. Looking at the answers of the group as a whole (10 students), it was realized that all of them expressed some interest in Islam and Muslim societies as a reason for taking the course. This interest was either direct, for example, "I want to know more about Islam and Muslims," or as a general interest in other cultures and societies, in which Muslim societies are included. Students' response to the question about the meaning of Islam were: Rose: I do not know enough about Islam to say what this means? Rose stated that she did not know enough about Islam to say what this word "Islam" means. By saying, "I do not know enough about Islam to say what this means," it indicates that she knows something, and the usage of the 214 word "this" is an indication that Islam could mean anything to her, as if she never heard of it. That is surprising because she did not even connect Islam to Muslims in her previous answer. Sam: Islam is one of the world's main religious, spread all over the world Islam is the word of God, as delivered by Mohammed. Sam, who had first-hand knowledge about Islam and I Muslim societies through his travelling in many Muslim countries, had a complete and precise description of Islam. Sue: Submission to Allah, the theory of the religion that Muslims follow, as my parents told me and what has been reported in the LA Times. Sue's answer was right since submission to God is the core of Islam; she got her information from her parents and from the Los Angeles Times. Looking at the students' answers from the whole group (10 students), it was realized that five students had direct connection with Muslims; these students had correct answers, completely or partially. For example, in their answers Bill and Jan mentioned that Islam is submission to God, and Islam is one of the world religions. Two students heard about Islam and Muslims from family and friends, and these students had some ideas about Islam and Muslims. I should mention here i 215 that these families and friends had known a Muslim person. As in Sue's answer above, and in Pam's answer where she stated that Islam is a heavenly religion, a religion from God. Joe stated that he had no idea about Islam and Muslims, and added that he never heard of them before. This was a surprise, because this student should have learned something about Islam in high school. Bill, Perry and Chuck mentioned Muslims as a huge mass of people, with dark hair and dark skin, worshipping in temples, and involved in terrorist activities. For these three students, Muslims include women in dark clothes and lots of jewelry, and men riding camels in the desert. Jan and Bill added to that that Islam is a backward religion that reminded them of belly dancers. Their view of Muslims before taking this class were: Rose: Repeat, I do not know enough about Islam.... Rose said that she had no knowledge about Islam, although the question was about Muslims not Islam. In her answer to the first question she mentioned that she was not very familiar with Muslim societies, and she would like to increase her knowledge. That means she had some idea about Muslim societies; but instead of using the word "Muslims" in her answer, she used Islam, although she mentioned before that she wanted to 216 increase her knowledge about Muslim societies. That indicates she had an idea that "Muslim1 1 are the people and not Islam. Sam: I have visited many Islamic countries...and have a view of Muslims and Islam that goes a little further than stereotypes. I view Islam not only as a religion but as a state of mind and a lifestyle. I see Muslims as normal people not as the media presented them. Sam visited many Muslim countries, therefore, he had a real perception of Muslims. He sees them as "normal" people, and he added, "not as the media presented them." Thus, he thinks that the media presents them as "abnormal" people. Also, he indicated in his answer that his view of Muslims and Islam goes a little further than stereotypes. That reflects that he knows that there are stereotyped views about Islam and Muslims. Islam to him is more than a religion, it is a state of mind and a lifestyle, which is true because Islam is a civilization and a way of life. Sue: I view them as any other human being. However, I often wonder about the consequences that Muslims face molding their social political attitudes and the Koran. I do not imply this as a criticism, but rather curious observation. For example, we are living in a Western European, Christian-dominated country.... I wonder how Muslims living in the U.S. can accept such domination when their religion 217 somewhat originated as a reaction to Christian domination. Sue sees Muslims as any other human beings, which is a positive way to look at other people, especially who i are from different cultures. But she had an idea that Islam was "originated as a reaction to Christian domination." This view reflects the misconception and distortion of Islam in Western media and literature. This student had mentioned the Los Angeles Times as a source of information about the subject. Therefore this i student had an idea that Islam was originated as a reaction to Christian domination, and she is surprised how Muslims can live in a Christian society. In general, students' response (10 students) to this question was very much similar to that of the previous one, which was about the meaning of the word Islam. Students who had some connections with Muslims, for example, Sam and Brenda answered with more accuracy. Brenda said about her source of information on Islam, "I actively went out and researched, when I had time, I would visit some mosques or go to the library and read." And she added, "There is not much to say about the media's presentation of Muslims: They are the fanatical religious terrorist, or the extremist fundamentalist, according to the media." On the other hand, students 218 who mentioned the media as a source of information on the subject, had some stereotyped image of Islam and Muslims, as in the case of Sue who stated that Islam was originated as a reaction to Christian domination. That means that Islam is against the West and vice-versa, and another student who sees Muslims as ugly people who hate America and the West. This was also true in the case of i Bill, Perry and Chuck, who mentioned the media as their source of information on Islam and Muslims. These students portrayed Islam as the religion of people who are involved in terrorist activities. Jan and Pam added history textbooks as sources of their information on Islam and Muslims. These students see Islam as a bad religion, and Muslims as desert people with dark skin and dark hair, riding camels and raising their swords in the air, as if they are ready to f ight. Their views of Islam and Muslims after they took the class were: Rose: I did not learn much in the class, I was confused. Too much reading, teacher did not explain, I wanted to drop the course, but I needed the credit. I wanted to know about the Quran, I wished he gave us something about it, anyway I don't want to talk about this class. Rose did not learn much. She was confused, she felt 219 that the reading was too much, besides lack of explanation from the teacher. She did not get from the course what she had hoped for, she wanted to learn about the Quran, but the teacher did not teach about the Quran. All of this contributed to the idea of dropping the course except she needed the credit. No particular view of Islam or Muslims was expressed as a result of taking a course on Islamic societies. As she said, she did not learn much from the course. Sam: I was disappointed from the teacher, he did not prepare for the class. I felt lots of tension in the class as he wants you to be in the class at the same time he wished that you were not there (speaking of me, the observer). What I learned from the class was from you. This teacher wasted my time and money, I feel cheated, I feel like I want to sue the university, I can't believe that this is a teacher. He imposes his views on everybody, he does not allow us to present our view, he is forcing that on us. He does not want to change only his views, he wanted to say many kinds of Islam and he succeeded in that. I wanted to know about the Quran itself I wish he did more. (This student travelled in many Muslim countries and had many Muslim friends throughout the world as he said in his answer to another question). Sam was disappointed by the teacher because the teacher did not prepare for the class and because of his authoritarian teaching style, where he imposes his views 220 on everybody. This student noticed that the teacher was not giving the right information on Islam, where he used Islam as a plural, "Islams." The student expressed his anger about that by saying, "he wanted to say many kinds of Islam and he succeeded in that." The student means that there is only one Islam and it cannot be used as a plural. The student also expressed his anger because he felt that he was cheated, he wasted his time and money, and did not get much in return. The student felt tension in the class because the observer was there, and the teacher was well aware of that all the time. The student said that what he learned from the class was from the observer and not from the teacher. Sue: What a class! I did not learn anything from him, what I got from this class was through my reading, which was too much and confusing. I feel as if there were no beginning and no end to the material. He spent the whole semester reading his syllabus. He was late every time, we are cheated, this class was supposed to meet twice a week, he made it one time and he comes late for the class, and disappears during the break for a long time, he never discussed the videos he had us watch most of the time. I don't understand them, use my real name in your research, I do not care, I am not going to take another class with him, I want the department to know about him. Sue was also angered by the way that the teacher 221 i conducted his course: The reading was too much and confusing; the teacher wasted lots of time, reading his syllabus, being late, cut down on the class time; he did not discuss the videos he presented. This student was i so angry that she wanted her real name to be used, she wanted the department to know how this teacher conducted his course. Looking at the answers of the whole group (10 students), it was obvious that the students did not talk about their views of Islam after taking a course on Islamic societies, instead, they were criticizing the way the teacher handled the course, his teaching style as in the case of Brenda, Jan, and Pam. They questioned the information he presented, and the reading material as mentioned by Bill, Perry and Chuck, among others. So the students were angry, disappointed, frustrated by all of that. This was evident in all of their responses in a variety of degrees, one student even thought of suing the university. Therefore, their views of Islam and Muslims after taking the course were not known. Instead they expressed their anger and frustration at the teacher. Their response to the question of what religion they would choose for their children included the following: Rose: I would probably not choose a 222 religion for my children at this point. This is because my parents did not select for me. But if I were to find a religion that I felt very comfortable with, I would introduce my kids to it, but not force it on them. Rose would not choose a religion for her children because her parents did not choose one for her. On the other hand, if she were to find a religion that she felt comfortable with, she would introduce her children to that religion, but would not force it on them. This means she would allow her children to choose, but she would introduce them to her own if she were to have one. Sam: I would not choose a religion for my children, but give them time so they can choose their own. I personally have a critical look at religion and have no particular religious belief. It would be impossible to choose a religion for my children when I haven't myself found my spiritual orientation. Sam's answer is direct and definite that he would not choose a religion for his children; but he indicated that he would give them time to choose. That also might mean that he would allow a time frame for them to choose, and then interfere by telling them his opinion on the subject, he had a critical look at religion and had no particular belief. He sees religion as spiritual orientation. Sue:I am not sure on this subject, I can say no more, no 223 less. i Sue was not sure about the subject, and she seemed not to want to talk about it. I should mention here that Sue's parents have two different religions. This might have contributed to the way she answered this question. Looking at the answers of the whole group (10 students), I realized that Brenda, Perry, Jan and Bill would participate in some way or another, in choosing a religion for their children although they would not force it on them. But Brenda, Perry, and Jo among i others, would not participate at all in choosing a religion for their children. Brenda and Jan wanted their children to follow their own religion. Sue would rather not talk about this subject. None of the students excluded Islam, or mentioned that they do not want their children to be Muslims; that can be considered a positive attitude. As was mentioned before, this part of study consists of two components: The first was the questionnaire, and the second was the observation, which follows. The Group From the Anthropology Department: Observation This group took a course on Islamic societies. Because of the uniqueness of each course, I could not follow the same pattern of observation pursued with 224 Group I. Although the purpose of the observation is to detect I students' perceptions on Islam and Muslims through their interaction with the teacher as in Group 1, students played a passive role. There was not enough interaction between the two sides. The teacher was the center; he was the main player. The observer will describe what went on in the class. Through the process of teaching, the teacher was reflecting and emphasizing his own [perceptions, of Islam and the Arab world, on the student. Therefore, it was necessary for the observer to move beyond the selective perceptions of particular incidents to the totality or the unifying nature of particular situations. Due to the teacher's views, perceptions and qualifications on Islam and Muslims, it was vital for the observer to explain, comment, and counter the teacher's views, perceptions, and knowledge of the subject. Two other people, who had spent a long time teaching in Islamic countries, also observed the class. Each one of them observed almost half of the semester, and will be referred to as John and Bill. The teacher started his first class by distributing his syllabus and reading it and explaining what he wanted to do in this class, in addition he was recording 225 some names of the students who were coming to the classroom and their names were not on his list. The classroom looked too small for the number of students; the class was moved, as mentioned before, to a more appropriate location. By the end of the semester there were ten students in this class. It should be mentioned that this class was offered after the Gulf War and many students were interested in the subject. Unfortunately, I cannot structure my observations for the group cannot be described the way it was done with Group 1, because of the uniqueness of every class. Therefore, the writer starts with the way this professor administered his class. He asked the students to change from two meetings a week to one meeting, then he began revising his syllabus, and he continued to do so until almost the end of the semester. He spent between thirty and forty minutes reading his syllabus and asking the students to make some changes. By the time he was done with his reading, especially when he came late, it was break time, one could see the students stretching their bodies and yawning. John, another person who was observing the class, commented that, "Students can read, why doesn't he tell them about the changes in the syllabus and move on." The break time was usually long, i 226 I everybody in class would be waiting for the professor to show up. i During the second part of the class period, which was after the break, the teacher either gave the students a quiz or asked some superficial questions about the reading or talked about different unrelated things at the same time without concentrating on anything. Everybody in the class were confused. One person said to me, "This teacher is like a child, has a short attention span." And another added, "Can't he find something important in the Muslim world to talk about besides this veil thing?" He talked about the veil extensively and frequently. He kept on changing and doing last minute scheduling for visiting places, and as a result, not all students could attend. He did not discuss the visit with his students to learn from the experience, and he did the same with videos that he brought frequently to class. One time he had the students watch one video the entire class period that was not related to the subject of the class; he said that he had not seen it before and did not know what he was getting. The boredom and the confusion that were evident on everyone's face in this class, I believe is due to the way this teacher conducts his class and the way he 227 presented the class requirements. He started comparing Islamic societies without talking about Islam itself, in fact, Islam is the common denominator among Muslims all over the world; and the diversity among Muslims, is due to the unique cultural experience among them. Most students did not have a background on this subject, and whenever the students asked questions about Islam, his answer was "This is not a class about Islam, but on Islamic societies." He did not distinguish between Islam as a religion and the cultural practice of a given Islamic society. For example, he extensively described how Muslims in Morocco cherish the tombs of some holy figures, students and everyone in the class got the impression that Muslims worship tombs (this is against the teaching of Islam). As a participant observer, I tried to comment on the previous example and many other similar situations, his answer was, "I am not interested in Islam in your country," He used the word "Islam" in the plural as "Islams" to refer to the different "kinds of Islam" that, according to him exists in Muslim societies. There are many examples that show this teacher's lack of basic knowledge about Islam. One example: It is known that Islam emphasizes women's dress code, in which a Muslim woman should dress modestly and respectably. The professor described the dress code that a Muslim woman should wear while practicing hajj (pilgrimage), as two pieces of unsewed fabrics, similar to towels, one piece on one shoulder and the other around the waist down to the knees, and a woman should wear nothing else. I should mention here that this teacher talked extensively about the veil (hijab) for Muslim women in which even the face is sometimes covered, and at the same time described women's dress for the hajj partly covering parts of her body. John commented on the teacher's knowledge of Islam by saying, "He knows that much (almost an inch according to his finger gesture) about Islam and he tries to stretch it to cover the whole Muslim world. Bill told me about his disappointment from this teacher and he added, "The first thing people learn in education is that the teacher should be knowledgeable. This teacher is lazy, immature, a person can't carry on a conversation with him because he keeps jumping from one subject to the other with no relation between them." Muslims usually use Islamic terms in Arabic as it is stated in the Quran and the "Hadith," which is Prophet Muhammed's sayings, doings and approval. The teacher in this class was not only reading these terms or words incorrectly, but he did not recognize that they were the 229 same in many cases, but they were translated from Arabic to English according to their grammatical mood in Arabic, and were used in English according to their position in the sentence when translated. But what struck me the most, when he insisted on reading Ali as Khalid, despite its clarity, and his answer to a student, who asked whether Istanbul was the capital of the Ottoman Empire, was that it was not and that it never was, that Ankara has always been its capital. Bill, who was also observing the class, said, "Oh my God! It can't be, I wish he at least said, 'I don't know.' I wish I could find an excuse for him for not knowing the capital." I would like to mention, that the teacher will spend a year in Turkey writing about Mus1ims there. In many cases, his teaching can be characterized as stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims. I will give some examples: First, he said about the Islamic empire that a person should be either an Arab or from the Prophet's descendants to have a position in the government. The history of Islam is very rich with non-Arabs and non- Muslims who held great offices in the Islamic empire. I wonder whether he knew that Salidin, the famous Muslim sultan, who is still a role model for all Muslims was not an Arab, and, of course, not a descendent of the 230 Prophet Muhammed. The second example, he had a tendency to generalize an incident or an event to cover the whole population. He said about Muslims in China that during Ramadan, the Muslim fasting month, they fast during the day and they go to bars at night. The listeners got the impression that all Muslims in China do that and they can also be generalized to cover all Muslims in the world. I would like to mention here, that according to the teaching of the Quran, Muslims should avoid drinking wine at all times, and for this teacher to say that Muslims were going to bars during Ramadan shows them as hypocrites. Third, by refusing to teach about Islam because, as he repeated many times, "this course is not on Islam, but on Muslim societies," while discussing in great detail the importance of the tomb for Muslims in Morocco, and did not mention that it is a local cultural phenomenon, gives the impression that Muslims worship tombs. As a result of his tendency to generalize, one can conclude that Islam is a superficial religion and its Muslim followers are nothing but tomb worshipers. Fourth, he asked the students to interview some members of the Islamic community; but he tried to tell students not to interview members of one specific, nearby Islamic community, claiming that if the students 231 did not do it right, they might be killed. This was stereotyping Muslims as terrorist, crazy, and criminal. Fifth, he did not allow his students to interview me because, according to him, "She is Westernized," as he told me several times, especially when he talked about I women in Islam. So, because I did not fit the stereotyped picture that he had painted for a Muslim woman, therefore, I am "Westernized." The students in the Anthropology class were bored most of the time because of the way this professor conducted his class, his slogan was "We want to keep our house in order" so he kept organizing and reorganizing his syllabus, as mentioned before. Too much reading was assigned. Some of it was difficult to read according to the students, especially for those with no background on the subject. Most of the students did not do the reading most of the time except for quizzes and exams. Students were confused because of the way information was presented to them; there was no logic, sequence, continuity or relation among the pieces of information that were given. I ran into some students crying because they could not make sense of what was going on in the class. The teacher in Group 2 was very kind to allow me to 232 observe his class. Although the agreement between me I and him was "to help in class and use you as an example," as he said, I felt that he was not too happy for me being there. Two of the students in the class told me, "He wants you to be there, at the same time he wishes you were not." I saw the confusion in the class which I think was because of the way he conducted his class, as I described before, and because he did not give a background for the subject which is on Islam itself before comparing Muslim societies, but he kept on saying, that "this is not on Islam, but on Muslim societies." Towards the end of the semester, after some confusion in the class, he said "If I said (to the department) this class needs another class on Islam as a prerequisite, I cannot teach this class." This means that he was worried about teaching the class, and did not care how the class will be taught. At the same time, he tried his best to convince me that his way of teaching the class was the way it should be. Although I have a lot of experience in teaching and training teachers in Islam, Muslim history and Arabic, besides other subjects, I contacted Professor Fadwa A1 Guindi, a professor of Anthropology at U.C.L.A., who is Muslim and Arab, and asked how this course should be ! 233 taught. She was kind enough to allow me to quote her, "A background on Islamic religion should be taught first; how can the student understand without having to know what Islam is all about?" She added that Islam is the same all over the Muslim world, the diversity among Muslims comes from the cultural differences among Muslims, and there is no such a thing as "Islams" (the term the teacher had used in his class). While observing the class, I noticed that he was not relaxed, he was nervous, especially when I was taking notes, and once he asked me, "I wonder what you are going to write about me." This created lots of tension in the class that the students were aware of. I had good relations with the students I talked with during the break time, and some of them called me at home and asked me to help in the reading. They were very open in expressing their feelings about the course. 234 Appendix F. Review of Across the Centuries (Teachers Edition), Unit two, growth of Islam,” pp. 49-102. "The 235 i ■ i ■ - . 1 ! R e v i e w o f A c r o s s t h e C e n f u r i e s ( T e a c h e r ’ s E d i t i o n ) , Urt i ( T w o , J ; " T h e G r o w t h o f I s l a m , " p p . ^ 9—102 ’ j T h e r e m a r k s t h a t f o l l o w a r e m a d e f r o m t h e p e r s p e c i i v e o f a p r o f e s s o r o f I s l a m i c s t u d i e s a t s. l i b e r a l a r ‘ £ c o l l e g e , w h o 1 h a p p e n s a l s o t o b e t h e p a r e n t o f a n e i g h t h —g r a d e s t u d e n t i n t h e C l a r eir.o r. ■ : s c h o o l s . M y i n t e r e s t i n t h i s t e x t b o o k h i n g e s u p o n j w h e t h e r o r n o t i t w i l l 1) i n t r o d u c e s t u d e n t s t o I s l a m i c h i s t o r y a s p a r t o f t h e w o r l d ’ s h u m a n i s t i c h e r i t a g e , a n d 2 ) d i s c u s s i I s l a m i c h i s t o r y w i t h o u t i d e o l o g i c a l p r e c o n c e p t i o n s . W h i l e i n s o m e r e s p e c t s t h i s s e c t i o n r e p r e s e n t s a n i m p r o v e m e n t o n s i m i l a r j p r o p o s e d a n d e x i s t i n g t e x t s , u n f o r t u n a t e l y i t w i l l n o t m a k e a n a p p r e c i a b l e d i f f s r a r . e e i n t e r m s o f r e m o v i n g c o m m o n s t e r e o t y p e s o f * 1 I s l a m . I n a d d i t i o n , i t c o n t a i n s a n u n a c c e p t a b l e n u m b e r o f g r o s s e r r o r s , s o m e o f w h i c h a r e p o i n t e d o u t b e l o w . I n o t h e r w o r d s , ! ^ u n l e s s t h i s u n i t u n d e r g o e s m a j o r m o d i f i c a t i o n b e f o r e p u b l i c a t i o n , i i t w i l l n o t i n a K S s i y j o b a s a. t e a c h e r a n y e a s i e r . i h e o v e r a l l f o c u s o f t h i s u n i t i s a 1 i t t i e p e c u l i a r . J.: ♦V w. i 1e p . 67 r i g h t l y p o i n t s o u t T h a t i t u s i ; m c o-mm u n i t i e s a r e i. U a t e d i n a r e a s - o u t s i d e t h e fi i d d i e E a s t a n d N o r t h A f r i c a , a n d t h e r e i a u s e f u i m a p e x e r c i s e s u g g e s t e d i n w h i c h s t u d e n t s a r e t o 1 i s t I s l a m i c c o u n t r i e s i n o r d e r o f p o p u l a t i o n . s t i l l o n e w o u l G i iT;a 9 ‘ n e f r o m a q u i c k p e r u s a 3 . o f t h i s u n i t t h a t I s 1 - ir> w a s I d e n t: f i e d p r i m a r i 1y w i t h t h e e a r l y c a i i p n a i e m p i r e a n d , f o r a d d i t i c n a I i" il T 8 P 2 5 V > p 1 Tt « 1t i s g o o d t c s e e f r o m t h e t a b l e o f c c n t e n JL s t h a t t h e O t t o m a n a n d M u g h a l e m p i r e s a r e g i v e n c o r . s i a e r a t i o n f GT t h e g s g ' s v s i p e r i o d . N o n e t h e 1e s s , i t i s s u r p r 1 s : n g t h a t or. 0 d o e s n o t s e e a n y m e n t i o n o f t h e f a c t t h a t t h e m a j o r i t y o f M u s i i m t o d a y 1 i v e e a s t o f h e I n d u s v a l l e y , a n d * ■ ^ — l i e t t h e 1 a r g e s f ^ (JlS 1 i m c o u n t r i e s a r e I n d o n e s i a , B a n g 1 a B e s h , I n d i a , F ' a k i s t a n , t h e U . S . S . R . , T u r k e y , N i g e r i a , a n d < p o s s i b 1y > C h i n a . O n e a e T S t h e i m p r e s s i o n t h a t I s l a m i c h i s t o r y i s p r e s e n t e d f r o m t h e p e r s p e c t i v e o f w h a t w a s m o s t i m p o r t a n t t o E u r o p e . B a z a a r . I t i s m i s l e a d i n g t o s u g g e s t t h a t t h e b a Z 3.5. r i c: a u n i q u e l y A r a b i n s t i t u t i o n . T h e w o r d i t s e 1 4 i . 1 i s P e r s i a ( A r a u e. u s £ t h e t e r m s u c ^ , b u t t h i s k i n d o f m a r k e t w a S T o u n d t h r o u g h o u t + h e w o r l d b e f o r e m o d e r n t i m e s . S i n c e m a r k e t a i n E u r o p e a n d A m e r i C 5 a r e n o w m o r e m e c h a n i z e d a n d b u r e a u c r a t i z e d t h a n s o m e p r e s e n t - d a y m a r k e t s i n o l d e r c i t i e s i n t h e M i d d l e E a s t a n d A s I a > i t i s i m a g i n e d t h a t t h e " c o i o r f u l " b a z a a r i s a d i s t i n c t i v e 5S D e c t O i I s l a m ; c c u l t u r e , bu. t t h i s i s a r o m a n t i c p r o j e c t i o n . T h e i l l u s t r a t i o n o f A r a b i c - c a l l i g r a p h y o n p . 60 i 3 m i s l a b e l e d ? i t i s t n f a c t a v e r s e f r o m t h e K o r a n \40 .2 ii2 > s a y n q " T h a t i s , t h e i r p r o p h e t s c a m e t o t h e m w i t h c l e a n p r o o TS? b u t A L- Via e V r e j e c t e d f r i e Q , s o 6o d t o o k t h e m ' h e i s t r, e m i ; • •. y u n E u ~ T « -v G s t a t e m e n t q u o t e d i n t h e l a b e l i s a s a y i n g o f t h e P r o p h e t M u h a m m a d , w h i c h M u s 1 I m s r e g a r d a s b e i n g o n a v e r y d i f f e r e n t 1e v e * f r o m t h e K o r a n , w ' n i c n i s t h e w o r e c f S o d . T h i s c h a p t e r G 065 Xi G t m a k e t h i s d i s t i n c t ; G n c i. e a r . A i s o o n p . 60, t h e a r c h a i c L a t i n a t e t e r m “ H e g i r a i 3 u c e ci, ■ < - > i t h a D i z a r r e p r o n •Jln c i a t i o n ( t h i s t e r m w a s i n t r o d u c e rf ■ * n E n Q 1 i =; h ; n I 590) . I t s h o u l d b e a b a n d o n e d o n c e a n a f o r a l l ? a n d o n e s h o u l d u s e : n s t s a d * - h e t e r m " H i j r a " ( p r o n a u n c e d H U J — r a h / > h ; c 236 is the term used by Muslims. The term does not mean "flight," but "emigration." It is important to get rid of these outmoded phrases that do not reflect how Muslims themselves understand their own tradition. On the next page, illustrating "The Life of the Prophet," The captions misleac ingiy speak of "night journeys" and "night flights" in the plural; there was only one such ascension or ntght journey. The painting depicting the fabulous creature Buraq should be described as part of the later iegendary portrayal of this event <some Muslims object to paintings of Muhammad; an issue of Newsweek featuring a picture like this was banned last year in Pakistan) . While some popular accounts describe the Dome of the Rock as the site of Muhammad7s ascension, the reel.: was associated with Solomon’s temple when the Dome was built (thus one can stress how Musi ims looked upon this as a continuation of the work of the ancient prophets). A separate structure calied the Dome of the Ascension a few hundred feet away from the Dome of the Rock is regarded as the correct marker for the starting point of Muhammad's journey to heaven. ’ The note or. "Historical Context" on p. 63 is badly garbled. Haoit h is not a bock about Muhammad's appearance and character, but a generic term for oral reports about the sayings and practices of Muhammad. There are seven major collections of hadith, each containing thousands of reports on ail subjects (especially ritual ano law), and there is a vast literature on the subject. What is quoted in this note is one important hadith report that happens to be a description of Muhammad by one of his associates. The note on "Religious Context" on p. 63 is simply wrong when ;t says "Muslims are obligated to spread Islam by waging war." What Musi tins call "the greater jihad," which the text refers to as "waging war within oneself," is not a recent innovation, but has always been part of the larger context of jihad ("struggle," not "fight") in Islam. Actual warfare is called "the iesseT jihad." The Koran siates, "There is no •compulsion in religion," and Islamic law prohibited violent interference in the religion of Christians and Jews. The Arab conquests should be looked upon as military conquests and empire- building in a society which happened to be regulated by Islam. There is no special impulse to conquest taught by the Koran. Since 80% of Muslim countries were conquered by Christian countries between 1S00 and 1922, should one assume that Christians are taught to spread their religion fcy warfare? The capt ion on p . 64 i mpl i es t ha t ve i 1 i ng is pract iced i ri "especially religious" villages. Since the form and nature of modest feminine dress varies widely in Islamic ccentries, it would be best to describe villages where complete veiling is practiced a= "traditional" rather thar, "rel igicus: " since this particular cress is basically a matter of local custom rather ■ than Islam. Seclusion and veiling of women was, in any case, a non-relig:ous class practice borrowed from the Greeks and Persians, by yr. . ch upper-class women we r e, d i s - i ng u : shed from the masses of ordinary women. On p. 70, answer to "Exploring Ccncepts? " quest ion B9, states that "Muhammad claimed he was awakened by the angel 237 i el ..." Couid one not use language that does not suggest the dubiousness cf tn is revelation? The neutral term "stated" would be appropriate. s On p. 83? the paragraph on "A Common Language" is misleading. Speak i nc Arabic was net the issues it was rather the question of which language would be the wr i 11 en language cf government records and especially taxation. The Arabs had initially taken over existing tax records using Greek or Persian, and the changeover had to do with writing; speech naturally followed suit. The reference to the Fatimios on p. 91 is quite erroneous.' They were not critics of the Abbasi ds’ lifestyle, but followers of a Shi’tie imam who claimed the caliphate and absolute religious authority. Much more could be said about them, but tc omit this issue of authority is irresponsible. The use of the story of Sinead raises several questions. The lOOl Nights from which it is taken is a popular work that undoubtedly reveals much about certain aspects cf medieval Arabic culture, but of course it nas little to do with the Islamic faith. If a. piece cf literature were to be selected by Muslims as r ep r ese n t a t ; ve of medieval Islam, the 1CG1 Nights would v-ot be h.gn or the 1 • s stnce it s regarded as common -s - o ry f e 11 : ng and not ’’fine" literature; the great popularity these stories have enjoyed in the West since the ISth century, like the popularity cf Gmar Khayyam, is strangely greater than that given to it in Isi am . c ’coun t r : es . Once again, it appears thg* ar. exotic aspect of Isxamic culture i s mentioned primarily for i t s importance from the viewpoint of European culture. why could one not choose an interesting excerpt from a biography of Ahmad ibn Kanoal, the great religious scholar who was persecuted by the caliphs for his beliefs? Or a poem in praise of the Prophet Muhammad? Even in the 1001 Nights, there are a number of stories that at least present some tale about the caliph iriarun al— Rash i a touching upon an aspect cf Islam. The larger problem posed by the select - o n of such a fantasy piece is whe ther there is any reai discuss ion c f I s j . am as a religion in this t e x - . A gl ance s. t r«dex rsvea u . that the Islamic r e1 i a ion is rarely discussec, whi 1e ; n th e b < og rapnicai dictionary , w itn the exception cf a few ScCU1ar inteliecxuais, tne only Muslims mentionec are poiit icai fi gures and ruiers. Unoelievab 1 y, the vital role of the reiigious s c h c 1a r s in Is.amic c;v ; 1 ~at : on is comp i e t e i y m •ss 1n9 A-net I ' l S in T erms of isiarr. c c I e.w o r the Suf: b ro tn e r n o o ds. in other wcrcs, Is i a m as a re. ig i on is cci • aps c t r.£ c o l ; * i c a. i p o w e r of Musi ; ms . Tne phrase !iT ne Empire G T Is am >: enveys this fa u.t y not t on quite cLeariy; it wouic b t ITiUCr. itiij 1 ■ e a c c u r 6 to sp s s. k o * an ”Ai"s r K . r. g c o cv: \ss Wellhaus c r. Cai 1e 0 : 4 for ~r.e Umayyad period. an o perhaps "Islam i cat e Emp 1re i c tr, Add as :ds, since as Mars hail riodgson potnieo out, the errp •r6 i Tsei f was net a religious entity < tne adjective "Is iam j c«it e • * : r. I . cares tna. t there is a. s£ co I* c a y c c r. n e c t i o n with th e I 5 1 am - religion). One wouic never imagine from reading This chapter inc.: there were important I s l a m ; c r e l i g i o u s I eaders whc s e v e r e l y criticized ine caiipr.s: Another aspect cf tins m i suncerstand ; ng ■: s e v i d e n t cn p. 7 T , u. h e r e . ^ e -* ' r b a hsl - dozer, p a s s a g e s vde-e' i one sees the term "Muslims" used where one should use "Arabs.“^ ^ For instance* we are told that "with the help of the Berbers* the Muslims moved northward . . . " The Berbers involved? of course? were Muslims too? helping Arabs. The other military expeditions referred to on this page were not carried out as Islamic religious rituals but as ordinary raids; the first Spanish chroniclers who mentioned these events simply described the invaders as Arabs and Berbers? and did not initially feei that the religion of these soldiers was relevant. Only later? with , the propaganda of the Reconquista* did religion become the principal iaeological marker of warfare. It is? in addition? silly to describe the skirmish at Tours in 732 as "one of the most decisive CbattlesJ in history?" since it was at best a minor r a •d i ng force that ha rtel defeated. There is some good historical analysis in this unit? dealing w i t h political and cultural topics. It is a pitv that these points are weakened by blunders on elementary topics and by l d e o i o q i c c i c o n c e p t o n s a n d t e r nts t h a t p s r p e n a g G S O 7 a s a a m a s t i ; s a n t a g o n i s t o f -f r ? O n e f i n a l c o m m e f i t • f i n s d ! t o r i a l p i e c e b y D i a n e R a v i f c h t h a . t a p p e a r e d i n t h e S e p T . 3 L o s A n g e l e s T i m e s s u g g e s t e d t h a t t h e c r i t ; c i = m o f t h e H e • J . g n t o n M i f f 1 i n s e r i e s w a s s p e c i a l p l e a d i n P b Y m i n o r i t y g r o u p s w h o w a n t t o t w i s t h i s t o r y t o s u i t t h e i r o w n P " p G S 6 2 - • 0 0 ! rt Q 3 C ” , £ s h G d d y e x a m p1e s o f w r i t i n q o n t h e = f 1 ^ ‘_A L.* j SC i. o ? I s l a m ? w h i c h a n y o f ray ( n o n —r i u s l i m / u n d e r g r a d u a t e s w c u i o h a v e b e e n a b l e t o c g r r e c f ? A S . m V T i a t i n ,--- ; a s_. 3 |j ■ 1 £ ■ - . 1 i < c c r. t ; d e n e s a b G U t t h p o v e r s i x s i a n o a r o o f e x p e r t i s e o f t h i s s e r i e s 1 s i n c e r e l y h o p e t h a s r» o r - , c o m i n g s i n t h i s 58 v * ! a r e n o t b e i n g n a . s k e d b y s u c i . a t t e m p t s t o d i s c r e d I t t h e c r 1 T i e s H i s t o r y t e x t b o o k s c a n s s r v e a v i t a a p u r p o s a t t i C- a i i f a r n i s . * n o t b y r e p r s s e n t i n g s o it. e g n e r s i c e o j . o g i c a i a g e n d a ? b u t b y r e v e a l i n g t h e a s t o n i s h inq depth a n d diversity of the human societies that we may all claim as cur heritape. Carl W. Ernst? Ph.D. (Harvard/ Assg c i t a t s p r c f esse r Pomona College

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Asset Metadata

Creator Siam, Awatef M. (author)

Core Title American students' perception of Islam and the Arab world

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag Education, Multilingual,Islamic Studies,Middle Eastern Studies,OAI-PMH Harvest

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c29-18290

Unique identifier UC11217705

Identifier DP25534.pdf (filename),usctheses-c29-18290 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier DP25534.pdf

Dmrecord 18290

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Siam, Awatef M.

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA