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- Newsgroups: soc.culture.arabic
- Path: sparky!uunet!gatech!udel!darwin.sura.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!lhermi
- From: lhermi@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Lotfi Hermi)
- Subject: Re: Arab intelletuals and the binary mind
- Message-ID: <1993Jan25.171726.11118@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu>
- Keywords: Bulbul, serious, sarcasm, Usenet Storm
- Sender: news@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
- Nntp-Posting-Host: top.magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu
- Organization: The Ohio State University
- References: <C1DEB6.Dn5@newsflash.concordia.ca> <1993Jan25.064347.22161@cs.umb.
- Date: Mon, 25 Jan 1993 17:17:26 GMT
- Lines: 30
-
- If you think a little bit in the statement of S. Al-Albani you will find that
- he was carefful not to brand Khomeini and Shi'a in general as Kuffar but
- rather he said that who says so and so is such and such. I do not know if that
- is a sign of binarity or a sign of sitting somewhere in the gray area. The
- fact is, in my humble judgement, that most of us arabs do not have
- accessibility to find out things for ourselves without external interference.
- People are bombarded with tons of messages everyday that sorta reinforce
- existing 'prejudices' rather than letting the people find out for their own
- where they want to go. We have here in the university a library that I know
- for a fact if it was back home it will banned (this is the U. library) and the
- people that work in it will be jailed. A famous statement that people use is
- the proverb: Annasu ala dini al-maliki, i.e. People follow the ways of the
- ruler. This is not to put the blame on rulers but rather part of it is due to
- oppression, oppression of thought, of action and of any activity that would
- open up the society and let the people participate in the coloring of the map.
- The ummah has a hand in this stagnation. After all it is a feedback system.
- Ruler is good people are good, people are bad ruler is bad and vise-versa,
- or kama takunu yuwalla 'alaikum, or as you are so shall be your rulers. The
- West knows this fact very well. There is no one really to trust because the
- people do not have a fixed set of principles that they stick to and defend to
- 'to the bone'. For that it is very hard to predict what will happen tomorrow
- in the area.
-
- I think what Ilyess was refering to is the state if mind of people on a
- personal basis rather than a description of the general conscience of the
- ummah. You will find a lot of variation as you go in this vast area, but I
- know for sure what wavelength everyone down deep is tuned to. I let you guess
- it. ( it is not what you are thinking of right now)
-
- Lotfi
-