tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post110969872798296515..comments2024-03-17T10:32:01.495+02:00Comments on From the Rock: Highlanderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16532761296990891687noreply@blogger.comBlogger15125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1110404677601901202005-03-09T23:44:00.000+02:002005-03-09T23:44:00.000+02:00testtestAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1110336560201541972005-03-09T04:49:00.000+02:002005-03-09T04:49:00.000+02:00I know what you are trying to do Highlander. Pleas...I know what you are trying to do Highlander. Please re-read my first paragraph in my posting at 1:56 AM, the last sentence in particular. You have the gift required to articulate an point of view and to do it well. <br /><br />You ask what I would like to read. What I like is personal experience and original thought and analysis, like <A HREF="http://iraqiexpat.blogspot.com/" REL="nofollow">this guy</A>. There are numerous others.<br /><br />Anything that is simply rote repetion of ancient leftist rhetoric is pointless banality. Your last two posts provide quotes depicting just that kind of thing. It's offensive, insulting to the intelligence of ordinary people, old and useless. The only thing we learn is the extent to which academia has been highjacked.<br /><br />And speaking of highjacking, you say that this article that I have critiqued would be well received in the Arab world. That's the problem, Highlander. The Arab world has been fed this slanted garbage for 40 years or more and it's nothing more than hate mongering. When this highjacking ends, the Arab people will have the freedom they deserve. <br /><br />You can help to achieve that with your blog. It begins with honesty and original thinking and will ultimately produce an Arab renaissance. That is the challenge I propose to you. Maybe you could start by replacing Gandhi's words at the top of your blog with a statement from an Arab philosopher. What are you waiting for?Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02047342179137111486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1110331557711492972005-03-09T03:25:00.000+02:002005-03-09T03:25:00.000+02:00Why do you think I'm blogging my dear Louise? it i...Why do you think I'm blogging my dear Louise? it is to show there is another way. It's not mastery of the English which as you rightly noticed which is the problem. On the contrary, it is mastery of the form of expression which I think can do the trick, obviously you've noticed that on the other Iraqi ,Egyptian, Kuwaiti etc... blogs you are able to relate with them as well ? right? what do you think we all have in common ( apart from blogging in English) which makes you enjoy ( I hope ;)) visiting and reading us more than others..I'm not sure I can put my finger on it exactly, but I sure enjoy each one of them :)Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1110326186048061362005-03-09T01:56:00.000+02:002005-03-09T01:56:00.000+02:00Sorry darling, that's utter garbage. Arabs don't n...Sorry darling, that's utter garbage. Arabs don't need to learn how to express themselves well. I mean what the heck do you think you are doing??? <br /><br />There are dozens of good Arab blogs out there, each of which illustrate forms of expression which are reasonable, well honed and articulate. Mastery of the English is not the problem. It is the lack of integrity, the absense of a desire to continually learn, the willingness to abandon bankrupt ideologies, to question, to adopt and adjust to changing times. <br /><br />This woman is simply parroting 40 to 50 some years of leftwing propaganda, a propensity that is certainly not unique to Arabs. It is so tightly scripted and predictable, it would be laughable, if it weren't for the victims she and her type have left in their wake. <br /><br />She and the hundreds of others who parrot this nonsense need to be taken to task. They are the ones who sit silently ignoring the mass graves, the gassed villages, the brutality of the regimes that have produced the stagnation, blaming everything instead on the West, instead of engaging in self-reflection, criticism and growth. <br /><br />I noticed she also took the obligatory swipe at those Western countries that propped up brutal regimes during the Cold War, but as per required in the ossified leftist script, she conveniently declined to acknowledge the brutal regimes that were propped up by the Soviet union during the same era, and with which virtually every country in the Middle East was aligned at one time or another. Like all third world countries, they were masters at playing the superpowers off against one another.<br /><br />I am not surprised though. This is the oh-so-typical "half the story is better than the whole story" line that legions of far left extremist the world over have staked their academic careers on. <br /><br />She and her kind, of whatever natinality are the Arabs' worst enemy, Highlander. They prefer to maintain the status quo and the privileged positions it has granted them. <br /><br />You are way too kind, my friend. <br />Every sorry excuse they offer needs to be challenged BY ARABS, and your blog could easily be one of the places where that happens. Will you take up the challenge? Or will you go on making sugary sweet, polite excuses for the real oppressors of your people?Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02047342179137111486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1110315872383717182005-03-08T23:04:00.000+02:002005-03-08T23:04:00.000+02:00That is an interesting analysis Louise, you've act...That is an interesting analysis Louise, you've actually gone back and re-read her article wow. I'm going to do the same thing and in my mind's eye try to delete all the rhetoric in her essay, then see what is left :) Obviously Arabs have to find a way to communicate with the west that would get to the point, I don't think she intended to be leftist propaganda and all that, my explanation for this 'bombastic' article is just Arabic method of writing. Now Arabs write beautifully but the audience also must be targeted. This article I think would go well with an Arab audience they would understant what she meant and not take that she is protecting Saddam et al, but I think she should rewrite this stuff to present her ideas to the western reader in the way he/she would understand it. whatever I'll go re-read her stuff. Thank you for participating in the conversation.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1110292606550360412005-03-08T16:36:00.000+02:002005-03-08T16:36:00.000+02:00Sorry for the double post. Either my computer or ...Sorry for the double post. Either my computer or blogger is not working well right now.Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02047342179137111486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1110292229136879982005-03-08T16:30:00.000+02:002005-03-08T16:30:00.000+02:00This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02047342179137111486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1110292161705759842005-03-08T16:29:00.000+02:002005-03-08T16:29:00.000+02:00Okay, Highlander. I’ve reread the article by the ...Okay, Highlander. I’ve reread the article by the so-called academic. One of the first statements she makes pretty much sums up the character of the whole article: <br /><br />“..stale clichés and dim-witted myths, poorly disguised as honest academic research.”<br /><br />No wonder Al Jazeera chose to publish it. <br /><br />What she is offering here is classic leftwing rubbish, littered with an assortment of “big words” meant to convey the impression that she must be highly educated – “postulate”, “hegemonic”, “polemical discourse”, “essentialism”, for example, and most hilarious of all – “hyperbole”. Right there, are the four fingers pointing back in her own direction. Her essay is full of it. <br /><br />This doesn’t teach what you think it might, Highlander. Instead, it tips off the astute reader to the fact that the author is merely an indoctrinated stooge. She is a tool whose sole purpose is to keep hate alive and keep dictators in power. She is, as she so aptly words it herself, a “hideous spectacle of ignorance and arrogance.”<br /><br />Anyone who has been reading this stuff for the past 30 to 40 years should recognize the pattern. There is the standard rhetoric, outdated in the extreme, stale, and devoid of any real argument. She beats at the “Orientalism” school of thought, for example, as though it still had life. Some 40 to 50 years after the colonial era wound down, she must still rely on it to fuel her silly diatribe. She brings up the obligatory swipe at Christian crusades, which ended nearly 700 years ago. <br /><br />Supposedly an academic, she admonishes contemporary journalists for lacking “the most elementary requirements of responsible objective scientific research…” - yet shows none of it herself. She makes sweeping statements condemning writing that has appeared since 9/11, but gives virtually no real examples of it. <br /><br />Instead, she relies on the standard fodder that formed the foundation of old school Arab Nationalism – lambasting things like imperialism and colonialism – overusing statements, like the following, which serve solely to intimidate and dismiss anyone who may want to disagree: <br /><br />“Only the terminally naive and politically blind may, indeed, be duped by the heroic rhetoric of bringing freedom and democracy to Iraq and the region.”<br /><br />This woman IS the Pim Fortuyn, the Le Pen and the Jorg Haider of the Muslim world. She is the Ward Churchill of whatever college has the misfortune of employing her. <br /><br />Her modus operendi is to shield and protect the Saddam Hussein's and the Osama bin Ladins of the Muslim world, by diverting attention away from the rot that is at the core of her nationalist and Islamist buddies' ideology. <br /><br />This is not the solution, Highlander. She is the problem.Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02047342179137111486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1109904801889491082005-03-04T04:53:00.000+02:002005-03-04T04:53:00.000+02:00Jumblatt is a very dark character Alan. The civil ...Jumblatt is a very dark character Alan. The civil would have been for nothing if he gets in power.<br />HighlanderAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1109897311657493402005-03-04T02:48:00.000+02:002005-03-04T02:48:00.000+02:00Libyan
that was a coincidence, just after you men...Libyan<br /><br />that was a coincidence, just after you mentioned jumblatt, now he is almost everywhere, even on this UK MP blog. I would agree with you, he does not sound a great person but perhaps he can change especially with the changes occuring in lebannon<br /><br />http://www.boris-johnson.com/archives/2005/03/walid_jumblatt_1.htmAKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12306523414105146490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1109817835314700512005-03-03T04:43:00.000+02:002005-03-03T04:43:00.000+02:00The thing is, Highlander, nobody comes through the...The thing is, Highlander, nobody comes through the study of history with lily white hands. We're all guilty of bloodletting and oppression at one time or another in our history. And we've all got the propensity to judge others based solely on what we perceive them to be doing. It's like you said: We can't all be enlightened. <br /><br />So it annoys me when some academic thinks that the evil doer or the ignoramous exists only in the "other" society, or, for that matter, only in his own society (a la Juan Cole or Noam Chomsky). <br /><br />In fact, it <I>especially</I> annoys me when the accuser is an academic. Afterall, isn't academia supposed to be the place where one searches for truth? Shouldn't they be looking at the whole picture from all angles and always be prepared to adjust their theories and points of view? I know that doesn't happen very much in academia these days, which is really tragic.<br /><br />For the past 50 years, all the ordinary Westerner knew of the Middle East is what the dictators allowed to be published or broadcast. Ordinary citizens in the Middle East were being brainwashed by their dictatorial regimes; regimes which at the same time and by the same means, projected a very negative image of their own societies for Westerners to view. <br /><br />So just how are ordinary folk, whether in the West or the Islamic world to understand the real truth about each other. It's the classic <A HREF="http://www.answers.com/ying%20yang" REL="nofollow">Yin-Yang</A> of history that has always been with us.Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02047342179137111486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1109785447473519472005-03-02T19:44:00.000+02:002005-03-02T19:44:00.000+02:00Good question Alan, I'll answer very briefly in th...Good question Alan, I'll answer very briefly in this comment as I'm planning a post about that...to leave you guys a bit more in suspense I guess ;). Anyway to address this question Muslims must take a hard look at themselves and study the possibilities of some reforms in the same light as those scholars in the 18th century did and those in the 13th century took. There is a wonderful Islamic revivalist movement which does not get the attention it deserves except in some academic circles. But the issue is not easy either because we have become a global society and things which crop up in Tokyo affect Zanzibar. I can merely suggest but if I had a solution I would probably be in the White House ;). Great analysis you made there Alan . Thanks to you and Louise I can cast a fresh unbiased look at that article.Highlanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16532761296990891687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1109779111233407372005-03-02T17:58:00.000+02:002005-03-02T17:58:00.000+02:00Libyan that must have taken some time to find
The...Libyan that must have taken some time to find<br /><br />The article does make some interesting points, but it fails to address any issues in islam, not to mention being very defeatist and pessimistic.<br /><br />One point being that it treats the islamic world as a whole monolithic culture as well as that of the west rather than of different groups and nations, as it makes no distinction between politically secular nations like libya and more religious regimes like saudia arabia. also ignores differences in west eg US, Uk and France + Russia.<br /><br />but analysis was interesting to read if flawed<br /><br />Libyan one question, if that is true that is what people think what solution do you think would be best. Big question I admitAKhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12306523414105146490noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1109776962347522352005-03-02T17:22:00.000+02:002005-03-02T17:22:00.000+02:00I agree with you on several points Louise, but I n...I agree with you on several points Louise, but I needed to show you and others how many of the ordinary people think so that if someone wanted to reach to them they would find a way. We can't be all enlightened now can we ? otherwise there would be no problem. I admit it was a long post so thank you for actually reading it and making the effort to comment. :)Highlanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16532761296990891687noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5760993.post-1109756126599480212005-03-02T11:35:00.000+02:002005-03-02T11:35:00.000+02:00Hmmm!! Reminds me of the old saying that when you...Hmmm!! Reminds me of the old saying that when you point an accusing finger at someone, you might do well to notice the direction the rest of your fingers are pointing. So many times the "accusation" itself is the very thing that it accuses of. This article has many such statements. Am frankly, I am more than a little tired of stereotypers lambasting the stereotypers for stereotyping by sterotyping them, if you get my drift. This horse is dead and he should quit beating it. If he wants some fresh thinking, perhaps he should teach by example.Louisehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02047342179137111486noreply@blogger.com