In Sha'allah

I should note, one nice thing, is when I got back from Jerusalem the tv finally went back to normal. Gone were the stations broadcasting a still image of King Fahd, gone were the Quran readings, gone were the moving pictures of King Fahd. I should note that for about 3 weeks Gary and I never turned on the tv. Its mnostly the Melody Hits music channel that comes on every once in a while. Although, becuase the hotel can apparently select its channels through satellite, but wont show all of them, we now have CNN and BBC World News. Right in time to leave.

In other news I thought I give atleast some closure on the Arab issue, which I abandoned for a while, well, until now. So those of you who want to skip the weak analysis start madly scrolling to see if I try to be funny. The main thing Ive noticed is that, in watching people, and just hearing them talk, that Islam has definately crashed into the Modern world. Or, more realistically vice versa.

One of the more funny things you wouldnt think is an issue is Arabic as a language. See, today there are basically 2 Arab languages, basically classical (Foosah), and modern (Ammeeah). People learn classical when they go to college, but modern is the far more wildly spoken, which then breaks down into country and regional dialects (thats why its really hard to talk to the wedding kids-we know almost all classical and they only can speak modern). So wheres this going? Muslims believe the Quran was written in a perfect language, Classical Arabic. The problem with the perfect language is that its set back in the seventh century. The Arabs riding camel carevans then werent exactly thinking up words for things that didnt exist, car, nuclear bomb, cheeseburger, bikini's, etc., etc. So the language, as all do, has evolved, but its now not Classical, its Modern. The really hard core guys search the Quran to form chains of words from Classical to fit the modern words, the less hard core use as much Classical as they can. They rest (most) use Modern.

What the big stink is, is that the world is changing, and its not at all like the Arab Pennisula was at the 7-9 centuries. The language losing its power is a big deal when youre holy text is written in it. I think I made that sort of clear, like I said yesterday, I always forget what Im going to say by the time I get to the internet cafe.

The second thing I'll touch on (since I dont want to write pages) is similar to the language problem. I dont know how Islam affected Arab culture in the past since I wasnt there, from the history books Ive read I'm guessing that Islam has created a strain with Arab culture since its begining. Now the world has, and is changing quicker it seems than the Arabs really are comfortable, topics like if there was no oil, or had it already ran out, or is there really a thing called "Arab unity" are common in Arab intellectual circles. Really, it seems like just a cry saying "Geez, what if the West just f'ing backed off and left us alone"

I really think this collision has caused alot of the stress in the society, people wanting to embrace the modern world risk being bad Muslims, people wanting to go back to days of yore are going to have to wait until the world economic system crashes. Both my teachers are really cool and nice, but (esp with the guy) you can see how the modern world has trouble fitting smoothly with Islam.

Now some of you are saying, "Hey every society and people are adapting to change, and just b/c the Arabs seem to have a hard time with it doesnt mean other places, say America dont either. Come off your high horse so we can stone you." Yeah thats right, but the point of this is I've been trying to figure out the Arabs, and I think this is a major thing. Pretty much the first hour I stepped foot in Cairo I knew this part of the world has trouble being explained by the West, all the books, doc's and lectures I've heard didnt come close to preparing me. You can make the Arab thing out to be an easy thing of opposites, almost everything is backwards here, ex. its looked down on to work with your hands (why Saudis and Kuwati's dont work), being fat means your rich, they write right to left, their language is actually one giant trick becuase you have to learn 2 to speak with people (classical and modern) so to torture students, the list goes on.

Yeah, so I definately lost my way on trying to explain this, and trying not to cross the always risky point to generalize and tell people what they want to hear. Hope I said something partially coherent. Comment or email if anyone has something to say.


I'll be back in a week if you want to beat me.