Northbrook, IL USA
1) The West perceives Arab governments as being indifferent to the attacks by Muslim radicals on Western societies. Indeed in some Arab countries, like Pakistan, Madrassas play a major role in the education of the young, and they teach hostility to Western societies. Meanwhile, Arabs perceive the world powers of the West to have attacked two Arab countries with the most destructive of military weaponry, asserting democratic objectives. Arabs could not understand that America would invade another country, Iraq; they believed that this was contrary to American democratic values.
The Arab culture of patriarchy is antithetical to Western values, and in fact to the values of many Arab women. Wife-beating is common and is even material for daytime television serials. Honor killings are illegal and punishable under the law, but the culture still allows them. Meanwhile, the sexual exploitation of women for commercial purposes in the West is offensive to Muslims.
Education in Jordan provides an example of the dominance by men over curricula and teaching methods. While teaching is considered an appropriate occupation for women, courses and classes are not pitched to the needs of girls and women.
2) Muslims are generous, friendly and out-going. They show hospitality to visitors from the West.
Both cultures respect religion, and the West is encouraged to remember the protection afforded Jews and Christians as “people of the book” in the centuries of Muslim dominance of the Mediterranean world.
There could be cross-cultural convergence in the simple recognition that war helps no one and all parties can find agreement in the desire to bring stability and peace to the people of the Middle East.
Betsy Warren, Northbrook, Illinois, USA.
Participant in Common Ground (adult interfaith and intercultural study center)