Op-Ed: Why Arabs are so Easily Offended

Arutz Sheva ^ | 30/9/12 | Ron Jager

[Eleutheria5]

“Call me Ishmael”, is the opening sentence that opens the novel “Moby Dick” authored by Herman Melville. Ishmael, who is telling the story of Moby Dick, recounts that he is sailing to sea out of a sense of alienation and cultural inadequacy.

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Ever since the days of Napoleon's landing upon the shores of Egypt at the very end of the 18th Century and bringing with him the modern era to the Middle East, Islam has been unable to free itself from the shackles of inferiority and self-destructive primal rage that typifies the hatred of modern day Islamic radicalism against Western civilization.

In recent years, despite Israel being at the foci of much of what has been termed the "war of civilizations" between the Western world and Islam, Europe is undergoing a rapid demographic transition that will lead to a large Muslim population harboring an unchanging, hostile attitude toward their national communities.

Nicolai Sennels, a Danish psychologist who has had extensive experience with treating Muslim youths has identified four main differences that are important in order to understand the behavior of Muslims and how they interact with Western influences. Without dismissing the intrinsic value of multiculturalism or the need to identify with ones cultural roots Sennels has identified four main differences that are important in order to understand the behavior of Muslims. They concern anger, self-confidence, the so-called "locus of control" and identity.

Westerners are brought up to think of anger as a sign of weakness, powerlessness and lack of self-control.

In Muslim culture, anger is seen as a sign of strength. ....

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[RobbyS]

Rule by Congress probably would have CAUSED radicalization. Just as the establishment of the Jewish homeland in Palestine in the Palestinian Mandate caused Arab resistance to Jewish immigration. The Muslims would have immediately started to demand inclusion in the government, and if the Hindi majority has resisted, as they probably would, then no telling what might have happened. The differences may superficially seem to be like that French-Anglo divide in Canada. But I think that it would eventually have followed the route taken in the Palestinian movement where religious fanaticism begins to grow and grow and to make compromises almost impossible. The British would have been caught in the Middle.

[Cronos]

1. a minor corection -- "Hindi" is a language, "Hindu" is the religion/culture

2. Muslims were already represented in the Congress -- Maulana Azad etc. and they stayed there even after Pakistan was created. There were also pacifist Moslems like the "frontier Gandhi" - a Pathan (from the north-west frontier province): Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan.

3. Though the rest of your point about a growing fanaticism rings true - Hindus in the 1800s welcomed the British for having destroyed the possibility of Moslem rule (even the current Hindu rightwing RSS did not participate in the national movement)