The source of all problems in the Arab world: Regimes or people?
Bloggers who cover the Arab world – both Arabs and non-Arabs – are talking about UK reporter Brian Whittaker’s new book, “What’s Really Wrong With the Middle East.” The provocative thesis of his book, writes The Arabist blogger, “is that there is too much focus on how bad the Arab regimes are not enough of Arab societies’ problems: patriarchy, intolerance, misogyny, etc.”
Whittaker writes about his book:
My purpose in writing the book was to present an alternative view of the “Arab problem”. One that would challenge the neocons’ preoccupation with “regime change” and their tendency to equate freedom with free elections (but little else). And one that would also challenge the popular Arab notion that all the region’s problems are the fault of foreign powers.
It is on this latter point that the book steps into what, for many Arabs, is very sensitive territory. Blame foreigners, even the regimes if you like, but the people are – and must remain – blameless.
Rob (formerly of The Arab Shack, now with a new blog) says it boils down to society’s relation to the individual:
…in societies where there is overwhelming pressure to conform and stay inside the box, the individual’s creative capabilities are wasted. When you take away the creative dimension, you get stagnation.
The Angry Arab (As’ad AbuKhalil) accuses him of racism. Whittaker responds,:
There is nothing racist or illegitimate about pointing to the flaws in a society and discussing how they might be addressed, as I do in the book. That is very different from presenting them as an immutable part of the national character, hard-wired into people’s genes.
shams, 
johnpi, 
null, and 1 other are discussing. 
CAIRO (Reuters) – Rokaya Mohamed, an elementary school teacher, would rather die than take off her face veil, or niqab, thrusting her to the forefront of a battle by government-backed clerics to limit Islamism in Egypt.
Buzz are discussing. 
Alphonso and 
Sabir are discussing. 
null 8:30 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Is Manji writing the foreword?
johnpi 8:43 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
lol.
I should add my own response to this: I haven’t read the book. I’m sympathetic to the direction he’s pointing because I’ve always conceived of social and religious progressivism encouraging a sense of personal responsibility and inspiring direct action.
However, I’m leery of anybody who claims they have a ‘unified field’ theory of why something as complex as society is the way it is, and the ‘magic bullet’ solutions cum disasters that seem to always result from them.
johnpi 8:51 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
In the context of the other ‘unified field’ theories that are out there – ‘it’s all about the foreign interference,’ ‘it’s all about the regimes,’ this is an attempt at balancing the conversation to make it more ‘reality based,’ I gather. Taking it by itself though outside that conversation would be a distortion.
But again, I haven’t read the book so I don’t know if it’s even successful at doing what it sets out to do.
null 9:19 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Agree with all of that.
I can’t comment as I haven’t read the book, but the title itself is so provocative that it instantly makes me skeptical of the contents. If I weren’t familiar with Brian Whittaker, I would simply think it were another piece of neo-con, imperialist, paternalistic propaganda talking about the inherent backwardness of “tribal desert people”
shams 11:30 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
The UFT of culture and society is evolutionary biology and Social Brain Hypothesis.
shams 11:32 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink
and cognitive anthropology i guess.
plimfix 9:02 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
So when is Brian gonna write the sequel (or perhaps prequel), “What’s Really Wrong With England.” Covering cultural enfeeblement in the form of unsustainable consumerism (i.e. avarice and greed) and an oprobrious media (from the Express to ‘Closer’), the sexualisation of culture, growing divisions of wealth along with class hatred, intellectual torpor (e.g. growing support for climate change denial and creationism), and political apathy. That’s just for starters.
null 9:25 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Hopefully there are some Arab authors willing to take up the challenge. I’m sure they will be taken very seriously if they do.
johnpi 9:37 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
There certainly are. Religious and intellectual movements throughout the Arab world have developed extensive damning critiques of ‘the West.’ Given that these movements and their theories drive a lot of action in the world, they are influential and not ignored.
null 9:49 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink | Log in to Reply
Sure, I think my emphasis would be more on my second sentence than the first. An Arab writing about all the ills of the Western world isn’t cause for westerners to huddle around and lap up those worlds. Oh, please enlightened foreigner, tell us where we have gone wrong! People roll their eyes, and move on. Another Arab talking about the hedonism of the west. Yawn.
It would only be taken seriously, as you say, in their own societies, where people are already sympathetic to these views. When Imran Hussein talks about the evils of riba, the only people listening are Muslims.
I guess that’s what I found irksome about Whittaker’s book project. It seems like more fodder for people who think these distant lands are a puzzle – their problems to solve. If only they could find the missing piece.
(These are only primary, gut reactions. Maybe this book is a sincere attempt to communicate important points, out of which much good comes. God knows.)
johnpi 10:00 am on November 12, 2009 Permalink
“Not ignored” is not the same thing as “respected” or “well-considered.” I think for some though, there is an exchange of ideas.
We’re talking about change arising from ideas developed within and without societies, but there’s a third direction that drives social change: out-of-the-blue Acts of God.
I would say the arrival of AIDS had far more to do with the conservative reorientation on sexual behavior in both the Western and Arab worlds than conservative critiques in either.