Not that one, this one:
Posted on 08/26/2009 5:45:13 AM PDT by SJackson
As I always do around this time of year, I pushed aside the Arab-Israeli conflict for a moment to contemplate the more serious conflict between secular Muslims and Christian Arabs and the growing religious extremism in the Middle East.
There are 22 Arab countries, yet only two had the courage (or pride in their women) to field entrants in this year's Miss Universe Pageant, which was held in the Bahamas, where string bikinis replace car bombs and women are truly free.
The only two Arab countries that entered contestants, again, were Egypt and Lebanon.
Now I know Egypt and its president, Hosni Mubarak, get a lot of flack for the alleged oppression of its citizens: The Coptic Christians are screaming; the Muslim Brotherhood is screaming; the religious fanatics are screaming; and Egyptian ex-patriots are screaming.
I wonder if Egyptians are protesting, or they just like to scream? Anyway, this was the 58th Miss Universe Contest and Miss Venezuela Stefanía Fernández was declared the most beautiful woman in the universe.
I have issues with that. The universe is a big place and who are we to define beauty based on our human criteria? What about creatures from other planets? Well, we can deal with that when they come here, occupy our lands and try to kick us off the planet.
I HAPPEN to think Arab women are the most beautiful in the world. And I think that beauty is something we should brag about, not suppress, hide or run from in fear and shame.
I mean, as an Arab, I have to ask this question: Why is it okay to threaten women who make the choice to showcase their bodies in the Arab world and not okay to challenge the oppressed women who wrap themselves in a burka and niqab like sacks of potatoes while their husbands and male family members run around unshaven in dirty Nikes and other "Western" T-shirts?
Why is it that an Arab woman has the "right" to make the "choice" to wear a burka and face veil and erase her physical identity in public, but that same Arab woman does not have the right to wear a bikini? I think the bikini is the symbol of true freedom and the burka is the sign of modern-day oppression of Arab women.
It's one of the hypocrisies that plagues the Arab world, brought on by the religious fanatics - the lowest common denominator in the Middle East. And instead of standing up to it, secular Muslims and Christian Arabs - let's just call them "Arabs" - are doing nothing to stop this growing oppression.
ON APRIL 9, 2006, Tamar Goregian, 23, a Christian woman from Iraq, which remains occupied by American forces, withdrew from the Miss Universe Pageant after Islamic extremists called her "the queen of infidels" and threatened to kill her if she participated. The 2006 pageant was held at the Shrine Temple in Los Angeles.
The two runners-up in the Miss Iraq Beauty Pageant, who were Muslim, declined to take Miss Goregian's place in light of the death threats. The fourth place runner-up, Silva Shahakian, 23, also a Christian, was left to take the title, but apparently she, too, declined as she was not among the 86 pageant beauties who were introduced during the 2006 show's broadcast.
The religious thought police in the Arab world argue that a woman showing off her body is disgraceful. Blowing yourself up at a crowded bus stop is not disgraceful, though.
They also assert that the "rights of women" are guaranteed in writing in some Arab countries.
When you have to put something in writing, it usually means it is a problem; otherwise why have it written in a constitution? You have to ask yourself, when a religious fanatic says his wife must wear a burka to protect her "purity," who is he protecting her from? Strangers? Or his own selfish ego, pride and arrogance.
The truth is that in human beings, the fear that sin will be committed usually comes from the person's own heart. Humans fear what they know they would do. Are we forcing women to wear the veil to protect them from others? Or are we protecting them from ourselves? That's why many men in the Arab world would kill their daughters based not on the fact but on the rumor of sexual indiscretion, because the Arab men fear the damage to their own pride, not the "damage" to "their" women. Honor killings remain a serious problem in the Arab world and it's only getting worse.
THE ISSUE of the Miss Universe Pageant may sound trivial to some, but in truth, it is the cornerstone of the problem that plagues the Arab world and continues to threaten its freedom.
With the exception of violence, a society achieves true freedom when it tolerates the intolerable, mainly in speech.
When you cannot tolerate an individual's right to live his/her life as s/he wishes, that is called tyranny. Tyranny is the cancer that destroys all societies, and will destroy the Arab world.
The writer is a columnist, author and Chicago radio talk show host. He can be reached at www.RadioChicagoland.com
Hey, it's in the Koran.
Helen Thomas is an Arab woman....case closed, as far as I’m concerned.
Does she only date goalies?
PPPPPPing
What happened to Hillary’s squeeze?
I thought she was cute.....
So THATS why I wasn't invited.
Seriously, though; when you have a party with friend (you don't invite strangers, right?), that's not nearly on the same playing field as what women go through picking a swimsuit for a day at the beach. Now guys couldn't care less about the color, the fit - they simply throw something up that doesn't bind, create a rash and meets whatever decorum standard they have. Why else do you see a hairy version of Shamu wearing a Speedo on the beach? Men don't care.
Same thing with men looking at a woman in a bikini; we don't care about the color, the texture, we are looking and straining out eyes to see as much skin as we can, and what we can't see we imagine. We are pretty basic creatures, we are as subtle as a dog, and far less romantic than a dog as a whole.
However, when women have a party with jewelry and dresses being flaunted, they are probably flaunting the cost of their stuff, not the body beneath. In beauty pagents they won't have a prayer, as the pagent judges thier bodies, their faces and their poise - not the dress and jewelry.
Houston huh???
Ohhhhh LOOK!!! A soccer ball!!!
What’s she doing in that cheap hotel room???
For an Arab, this guy sounds pretty out of touch with the actual voice/power Christians have in Muslim countries.
For Christians to protest something as relatively insignificant as beauty contests as compared to survival and dignity is about akin to expecting a newborn infant to express dissatisfaction with their parents' treatment of them.
Although it takes courage today to point out publicly any of the myriad blatant oppressions of freedom found wherever Islam gets a foothold--not unlike an American can expect when expressing the realities of the liberal/socialist agenda in the U.S. today--I think it's safe to assume this writer did not grow up a Christian in a nation trapped in the darkness of Islam.
If he had that experience he might realize how insultingly naive his stand for women in bikinis sounds to people living under oppression in every area of their daily lives.
If he knew what being denied basic freedoms is like and he had real courage I think he might be using his little soap box to fight for Christians and Muslims to have freedom in far more basic and essential matters before lamenting his lack of freedom to oggle the women he most wants to see in bikinis because they're Arabs like him.
My impression from when I lived in the Middle East was the women paid attention to all that you listed. It just wasn’t displayed to every male.
Even though they are controlled in public display, they are still women.
Doesn’t she hang out in the White House Press Room???
How’d that guy get so lucky!
Where is the Arab anything? Nobel Prizes? Patents? Music? Literature? Technology?
Under cover, of course. ;-P
I will have to take your word for it then, you have lived there - I haven’t.
My logic tends to say that the odds of them winning a beauty contest are similar to those of a South Dakota water skiier winning a global trophy. With 9 months of winter and 3 months of poor sledding - there isn’t a whole lot of time or incentive to prepare to compete on a global scale. While a Florida native can be immersed in the culture year round, the odds of the Florida native winning are much higher.
When arranged marriages between cousins is the norm, true beauties are few and far between
I used to work with a smokin’ hot Palestinian girl. She was a Muslim, and she sure was not hiding the goods under no Burqua! (I’m sure she would have if her father had not gotten smart and taken his family the heck out of there years ago)
India, Pakistan, and Iran are cross roads for civilizations. Asian, Turko, and Europeon traits are intermixed amongst them. That is why their women have exotic beauty. I remember a buddy of mine from India showed a picture of one of his favorite Bollywood stars. Dark hair with a brownish tinge and almond shaped green eyes!!!
Not that one, this one:
She looks like my sister.
I’m sure Arab Muslim women can be beautiful but they turn into fat cows once they get covered. Fat cheeks and fat heads. Walking zombies
They don’t get outside enough and being all covered and kept indoors by idiot husbands....They have calcium and osteoporosis problems
The Christian Arab women can be extremely sexy
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