More CRAP | The Arabist

More CRAP

Et tu, FT?

CRAP stands for Courageous Reformist Arab Personalities, of course.

Comments Published by arabist March 19th, 2006
Categories: Posts.

2 Responses to “More CRAP”

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1 Issandr El Amrani Mar 23rd, 2006 at 11:27 am

Adam,

I’m late getting back to your request for why I don’t like the article — I’ve been feeling a bit ill for the last few days.

First of all, it’s a badly written article full of cliches and pompous stylistic flourishes. It marks the continued decline of the FT Weekend edition from an enjoyable highbrow newspaper to an ode to luxury consumerism. It is really one of the laziest and badly written article I have read in a while.

Secondly, the Palestinian blogger it refers to has barely written anything. He could have at least referred to an established Iraqi female blogger (Riverbend, I believe, is one) or even an Egyptian one like the very fun and smart Miss Mabrouk. But instead he chose a really irrelevant blog, and used it in a stereotypical way: as if for a young Arab woman being chatted up was a transgressive act.

Thirdly, the crux of the issue. While I don’t have any problem per se with Wafa Sultan, even if I disagree with some of the things she said in that MEMRI edit of her Al Jazeera appearance (there was a line about Jews having achieved their aims without violence, which is patently absurd when applied to Israeli Jews who carried out all sort of terrorist acts, the occupation of Palestine, invasion of neighboring states, extrajudicial killings etc.), I do not find her representative of courageous reformist Arabs — and I know plenty of them. There are so many people in the Arab world who labor tirelessly for reform in one way or the other it’s practically insulting to glorify this woman who is not so much a Muslim reformist as a non-Muslim who wants to do away with Islam. (Same applies for Irshad Manji: no particular problem with her, but don’t expect Muslims across the world to suddenly be okay with homosexuality. I know half a dozen Arab gay activists who have the good sense to realize that and work progressively on the issue.)

This is really the problem: Sultan and Manji are really targeting a Western audience and playing to Western stereotypes. I suspect (or know in Manji’s case) that they are most interested in publicizing themselves. Meanwhile, the real Arab reformers in the Arab world who have worked for years in human rights, civil society, politics and elsewhere are completely ignored. The whole Wafa Sultan affair shows, once again, what total ignorance the Western media intelligentsia has of the Arab world.

1 The Arabist » The Missionary Position Pingback on Jun 3rd, 2006 at 6:31 pm

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