Patterico's Pontifications

5/3/2008

Hope for a Middle East Awakening

Filed under: International — DRJ @ 12:30 pm



[Guest post by DRJ]

Two stories from the Middle East caught my attention that I hope are early signs of a Middle East Awakening. The first was an AP story from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, recounting the first public mixed-gender concert permitted by the government:

“It’s probably as revolutionary and groundbreaking as Mozart gets these days. A German-based quartet staged Saudi Arabia’s first-ever performance of European classical music in a public venue before a mixed gender audience.

The concert, held at a government-run cultural center, broke many taboos in a country where public music is banned and the sexes are segregated even in lines at fast food outlets.”

The second story from the New York Times concerns Turkish efforts to establish Islamic schools in Pakistan that teach co-existence with the West:

“The Turkish schools, which have expanded to seven cities in Pakistan since the first one opened a decade ago, cannot transform the country on their own. But they offer an alternative approach that could help reduce the influence of Islamic extremists.

They prescribe a strong Western curriculum, with courses, taught in English, from math and science to English literature and Shakespeare. They do not teach religion beyond the one class in Islamic studies that is required by the state. Unlike British-style private schools, however, they encourage Islam in their dormitories, where teachers set examples in lifestyle and prayer.

“Whatever the West has of science, let our kids have it,” said Erkam Aytav, a Turk who works in the new schools. “But let our kids have their religion as well.”

Some parents like the Turkish schools because they produce students who are good Muslims and have good educations. Others are suspicious because the Turkish teachers are clean-shaven, wear ties, and look like “math teachers from Middle America.” Still others, like Hakan Yavuz, a Turkish professor at the University of Utah, view the schools as a Turkish attempt to acquire power by shaping the Muslim world.

I hope Pakistani parents will awaken to the rest of the world the way Abrar Awan, whose son attends a Turkish school in Quetta, apparently has:

“[Awan] said he had grown tired of the attitude of the Islamic political parties he belonged to as a student. Now a government employee with a steady job, he sees real life as more complicated than black-and-white ideology.

“America or the West was always behind every fault, every problem,” he said, at a gathering of fathers in April. “Now, in my practical life, I know the faults are within us.”

— DRJ

13 Responses to “Hope for a Middle East Awakening”

  1. Element A:

    “America or the West was always behind every fault, every problem,” he said,

    Element B:

    at a gathering of fathers in April. “Now, in my practical life, I know the faults are within us.”

    Something you will never hear from leftists in our own country. Also, something you will never see gain traction as an ideological option among our own leftist media or their echo chambers.

    It takes a foreigner to appreciate the attempted fraud. He hasn’t been spoiled rotten by our willingness to simply absorb slander, sedition and treason.

    It takes an open mind and …a working one…to take the first element

    cfbleachers (4040c7)

  2. …and follow it up with the sound reasoning of the second element

    cfbleachers (4040c7)

  3. It would be an interesting conundrum for the left – what would happen if the tides miraculously turned and Saudi Arabia & friends collectively had an epiphany and realized it was indeed never the fault of America and proceeded to embrace the West?

    What the would he guilt driven left do then?

    Who would they turn on to seek assuagement of their inherent guilt?

    Or would it come full circle and still be America’s fault because such a turn of the tides would clearly evidence our capacity to effectively brainwash the masses – not only in our country but across the world to….

    Heh.

    Dana (ff758b)

  4. Something you will never hear from leftists in our own country. Also, something you will never see gain traction as an ideological option among our own leftist media or their echo chambers.

    It takes a foreigner to appreciate the attempted fraud. He hasn’t been spoiled rotten by our willingness to simply absorb slander, sedition and treason.

    It takes an open mind and …a working one…to take the first element

    Slander like this?

    http://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=4761188&page=1

    It’s treason to talk about all the innocent Iraqi kids that we kill ‘accidentally?’

    Levi (76ef55)

  5. This shit is screwed up. You guys run your websites like your run wars; terribly.

    BROKEN COMMENTS (76ef55)

  6. I think I believe this guy more than I believe the proven liars of the deadwood media.

    This man, has honor, integrity and truth on his side.

    http://mtv-content.vcommerce.com/products/fullsize/646/37118646.jpg

    cfbleachers (4040c7)

  7. Broken,

    What is your website? I would really like to see a well run site just so I know what I am missing.

    Labcatcher (afe438)

  8. BROKEN COMMENTS is Levi. His comment was hung up in the spam filter for whatever reason and I guess he tried a different name. Don’t think he has a web site.

    Patterico (4bda0b)

  9. It’s treason to talk about all the innocent Iraqi kids that we kill ‘accidentally?’

    Only for you, Retard Boy. Everyone ese gets a pass.

    Paul (266a05)

  10. I think I had a response get caught up in the filter as well…

    cfbleachers (4040c7)

  11. #4 dipsqueak:

    Slander like this?It’s treason to talk about all the innocent Iraqi kids that we kill ‘accidentally?’

    “Maj Mark Bieger killing” an Iraqi kid.

    Asswipe.

    #3 Dana:

    It would be an interesting conundrum for the left – what would happen if the tides miraculously turned and Saudi Arabia & friends collectively had an epiphany and realized it was indeed never the fault of America and proceeded to embrace the West?

    Unfortunately, not an event likely to happen. It’s not so much that Middle Eastern individuals that blame the West that are a problem, as it is that Arab society is something that is dysfunctional.

    EW1(SG) (84e813)

  12. “Maj Mark Bieger killing” an Iraqi kid.

    Asswipe.

    It’s not Maj. Bieger’s empathy and humanity that I’m concerned with, it’s yours.

    We can’t drop bombs in residential neighborhoods, even if we thinking we’re killing some terrorists, or some militants, or insurgents, and then walk around insisting we’re there to help and protect and show the virtues of freedom. If someone starts taking potshots at patrol cars from an apartment building in the ghetto in L.A., they don’t just drop a bunch of ordinance on the building, do they? Because it would get lots of innocent people killed. And that’s what we’re doing in Iraq, while purporting to be upholding some rule of law or standard of decency.

    Unfortunately, not an event likely to happen. It’s not so much that Middle Eastern individuals that blame the West that are a problem, as it is that Arab society is something that is dysfunctional.

    OMG, I agree with you! So what are we doing over there if Arab society is so dysfunctional?

    Levi (76ef55)

  13. All you’ve done, Levi, is show you don’t know the difference between an individual criminal and an militia.

    SPQR (26be8b)


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