Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Schizophrenic Arabs?
1st order: Recently I talked to a religious Arab, who used to be a university professor. He told me something very interesting. He said: “many Arabs have a split personality”, because on the one side they are very religious, trying to be ‘good’ Muslims paying every day and following the traditions, but on the other side they drink alcohol, feel guilty about that, send their kids to Western universities instead of letting them being educated in traditional Arabic universities. He said that this is some kind of schizophrenic, including himself.
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Jan I think the professor was not successful here! either in his analysis or the the outcome of it which lead him to use "Schizophrenia" Look at it as more of a "Cultural Clash" where the Traditional Arabic society; with their habits and traditions and way of living heavily driven and based on Islamic teachings to varying degrees, opened up (like many other cultures) to the global village we live in today! so they are trying to find their identity within this context,,, The problem is that there is really lack of a collective agreement on where to draw the lines, at best it is really ill-defined! and each individual ends up with their own interpretation/version that might or might not work! in the later case! one might feel more of "divided" rather than Schizophrenic!
ReplyDeleteI think Schizophrenia by definition means one personality is not really aware of the other! but in this case you are well aware of what ur doing and constantly and consciously comparing to your "islamic baseline" and making decisions whether it is the right or the wrong thing!
Globalization and Cultural Crash are phenomena that have swept over all cultures! and touched all of us in one way or another! it's not just about sex, drugs and alcohol! these are only small pieces of a bigger jigsaw puzzle!!! if the professor had made a conscious choice of the word Schizophrenia! then I think he wanted to come out as a victim,,, which in any case is un-ture!
One last point that might help you gain better insight! there seem to be a gray area between the red lines and the white space! those who crossed the red line,,, well they just crossed it and they know that they did (and the guilt might come in later if any!). The grey area is just test grounds,,, it could be too red or it could be too white! or something in the middle! from a strict Islamic point of view! it is encouraged to stay away from grey areas!