The Dangers Of Arab Self-Hate

Number 10 - "Arab parents scold and slap their children around too often instead of hugging them."

Number 9 - "Arabs can't handle democracy. They are too tribal to care for the greater good and too violent to have rights."

Number 8 - "All Arabs want to study is engineering, computer science, and business administration. Because of it, they are too narrow minded."

Number 7 - "The Arab male is obsessed with dominating the Arab female. He is too uptight about sex."

Number 6 - "Arabs are too cheap to contribute to their causes even if their lives or liberties depended on it. They just like to whine about the problem and blame everyone else for it."

Number 5 - "Arabs don't exercise more often so they are not fit enough to compete in the global race."

Number 4 - "When Arabs stopped following 'real' Islam, they went downhill."

Number 3 - "Islam is the source of Arab backwardness."

Number 2 - "Arab governments should add Prozac and Valium to the water supply so Arabs would feel better about the status quo."

Jesting aside, rampant Arab pessimism has reached epidemic proportions. I recall days when the slightest criticism of the Arab state of affairs would attract a torrent of self-righteous counter criticism. Self-censorship was the norm and the enemy was external. It was all black and white. Some of us struggled like the dickens to bring some balance into the Arab-Arab debate hoping to stimulate objective discussion and encourage even a semblance of self-criticism. Little did we know of the Pandora's box about to open.

A decade or so later, even a moderate defense of anything Arabic can incur scorn and ridicule from a new genre of young and educated but pathetically self-hating Arabs. "Arab Jarab," and other sweeping condemnations are often repeated as a ritual. The issue is not the private and "recreational" expressions of self-blame. Airing it repeatedly to the general public can be very damaging to the already battered Arab image. Neither the traditional self-censorship nor self-hate is the answer. When will the pendulum reach a resting point is still unclear.

Few Arab social scientist have postulated that the structure of Arab society and norms precludes progress. While I am not in a position to directly and credibly challenge those hypotheses, I take comfort in the presence of moderate and highly credibly voices within the media and academia who are slashing at conventional wisdom of self-blame. Often times their tool is as simple as the comparative analysis afforded to them by the plethora of success stories of developing countries in this century. While not without its flaws, comparative analysis does cast real doubt at the array of self-blame theories of stagnation introduced by a new generation of Arab Orientalists.

North and South Korea share a common geography, culture, and history. The North is backward, oppressive, and crumbling rapidly. The South is vibrant and progressive. In North Korea, human and civil rights are a rare privilege. In the South, citizens' rights are taken for granted. What is the difference? Not the Koreans themselves but simply the political system each regime chose to enforce.

How about China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. Taiwan is a poignant example of how a once hopelessly corrupt regime of Chiang Kai-shek which was on the verge of collapse in the face of communism has metamorphosed into a democratic and reformist regime with a country considered the envy of the developing world. How about Singapore, once the prostitution hub for Southeast Asia. Singapore was one of the first economic tigers in Southeast Asia. And today, its massive economy rivals that of neighboring states many times Singapore's size both geographically and population wise.

Even more examples have been demonstrated since the fall of communism of how once dysfunctional regimes and economies are today leaping forward at an impressive rate of growth. If any structural changes occurred in those countries, they obviously followed democratization. There continues to be social ills most developing and developed countries still wrestle with. Conventional and prophetic structural theories of Arab progress while make for good recreational readings, are today as credible as Communist Utopia.

Sadly, the habitual Arab self-blame is exactly that, habitual. Sure society bears some responsibility for the stagnation, but Arabs have demonstrated for more than a century how adapt they are at absorbing the best of Western culture when given the chance. Examples abound of Arabs who have excelled in their newly adopted countries. It is totally baseless to suggest Arabs of the motherland can't replicate our success once grossly inefficient Arab regimes clear the way for progress.

What is more troubling is the tendency for some Arabs to voluntarily share their self-hate to the general public. In the process, they contribute to undermining their own stature and that of their children and loved ones in non-Arab societies. It is unfair for few self-haters to announce to the world time and again that Arab is Jarab. There are better ways for self-haters to handle an inferiority complex than to drag the rest of us into the abyss of disrepute of their own invention. They can simply just walk away.

No one is advocating the censure of Arabs who no longer wish to be identified with their community. That's an individual choice. How many German or Korean Americans ridicule their heritage to prove their Americanness? Not too many.

Sure we need to continue the honest and objective debate over critical developmental issues. Sure we should welcome all to contribute as has been the case for decades now. But we have enough Orientalists who litter our debate as it stands so why have our homegrown Orientalists.

The Fouad Ajamis' of the world, while free to articulate their suspect views, do significant damage. Being Arabs, the race card adds credibility to whatever positions the self-haters wish to advance. For an outsider, they are considered the insider with the real insight. To an outsider with an agenda, the Ajamis' of the world are an ultimate Orientalist's tool to achieve questionable political or social objectives.

On a more positive note, even Dr. Ajami serves a useful purpose. He reminds us of the dangers of legitimizing negative stereotypes and how it can contribute to policies leading to excessive violence and cruelty to humanity. Dr. Ajami in my opinion bestowed legitimacy on the false moral cover necessary to sustain such a disproportionate US reprisal against Iraqi civilians.

But for the sake of objectivity, let us not forget Dr. Ajami was only a willing pawn and not the executioner. And let us not loose sight of the Iraqi regime's mortal incompetence which may have justified the initial allied reaction. But it can never offer an explanation for the sustained and systematic violence inflicted upon the Iraqi population.

When objectively contrasted with other US reprisals against other regional and international threats, the immense and needless cost to human life in Iraq reflects how much devaluation Arab lives have suffered in the eyes of US policy makers. The US unconditional backing of Israeli violations and violence is also an extension of the same flawed Orientalist legacy.

Private expressions of self-hate, while unhealthy, should be tolerated but not encouraged. Many of us experience periods of political or social disappointments and have run the gauntlet of blame ranging from hating the self, community, and origin to history, tradition, and religion. During those moments of short-term despair, it is safer to provide an outlet within circles of friends and family than to have a prolonged and damaging outburst of self-hate later on.

Advocating a happy medium is easier said than done. The line between healthy self-criticism and damaging self-hate is very gray. The challenge is to channel the energy born of discontent into a more constructive outlet such as civic involvement in and support for democratic movements in the Arab World. Also, it takes courage and determination for some of us to break away from a tradition of dependence and into one of self-empowerment. Of all the Arabs around the globe, those living in the free world are better positioned to contribute favorably to positive change in the Arab World.

I would like to conclude by reminding myself again of where the blame primarily lies for Arab stagnation...drum roll...

Number 10 - "Arab regimes don't accept that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

It is time for change so progress may follow.