Emirati professor: Arab world is "a big prison"

[qatarperegrine]

A political science professor from the UAE made some scathing comments about the Arab world at a conference on democracy and development held here yesterday. "We have a surplus of violence," he said, citing the (somewhat perplexing) statistic that Arab world contains 4% of the world's population but 36% of its violence.

He also said, in the words of the newspaper, that "the region is full of tyrants and notorious for large-scale violation of human rights" and likened the Arab world to "a big prison." Meanwhile, a former Bahraini minister said that "We have corrupt political and financial systems and weak and backward societies."

Gosh.

Coincidentally, we're learning about the Arab world in Arabic class this week, too. On Sunday we learned that the Arab world has tharawaat kathira wa quwwa kabira, much wealth and great strength. The next lesson explains that the Arab civilization is responsible for the spread of science and literature, and that its libraries 'aghnat al'alam kullah, enriched the whole world.

Somehow, these things are all true.

Comments

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What kinda of prisons (when compaired to my current country, the USoA) do they have? And what kind of treatment programs do they have for 'social' crimes? Do they label all forms of dissent as criminal? Are their degrees of crime, liken to a misdemeanor or felony?

I feel that you may not get to see much American media coverage of that part of the world, and I can hardly say that I do as well. Yet, I feel that alot of 'hearsay' is tranposed into 'fact' by the American media coverage.

In my history classes and books that I have read, the Moorish society has provided a huge advancment towards what is considered scientific method. Has contributed to the mathematics, literature and arts a great deal more at the time of the 'dark ages' of the Western European world.

The Moors are not all of Arabic descent geographically, much from Northern Africa, and Asia Minor. As well as the regions of the world close to Asia and South Asia.

I believe that the current situations in that part of the world seem more dramatic, when compaired to American history. Where we have gated communities, a huge problem of Class War, poverty levels way out of control, legislation and political organizations horribly corrupt (and by no means as bad as it COULD be, but seems to be degenerating towards more corruption...).

American history revolved around 3 great wars, and we take pride in this. The American Revolution, Cival War, and WWII. We have entire television channels devoted to War. We also have entire television channels devoted to Law and Order (not just the series). American history revolves around the use of Power to Oppress the Weak (Meak).

Only during the times of War, we elaborate on the 'goodly' deeds; such as the aboloshment of Slavery, protecting the Jews and Peoples of Western Europe, throwing of the shackles of a corrupt government (No taxation without representation!).

... I feel like I could write a paper on the differences between my perception of American Culture and that of the Rest of the World.

I find your journal to be of great importance to me, and the articles/issues that you put in it are thought provoking and inspired. Thank you.

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Yet, only after the destruction of the library at Alexandria. The best libraries of the world resided in the hands of the muslim world. The Herculaneum library being another great library that was destroyed, a few hundered years before...

The Muslims conquested the library of Alexandria, thus collecting a huge mass of information; or so my history books say, and also acquireing the greatest collection of the Earths knowledge. At least untell the advent of the Internet.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Oops, I just realized I never responded to this!

"What kinda of prisons (when compaired to my current country, the USoA) do they have?"

I've never visited a Qatari prison. I hear they're rather dismal and cramped. I don't think prison is often where people go for crimes, though. Often people are just fined, or flogged, or deported. Occasionally people are executed, but it's uncommon.

Ooh, I did just find some stats, though, here . Of the 110514 sentences passed in 2004, only 1595 resulted in imprisonment, while 108,076 led to fines (those are almost all traffic tickets!), 463 led to floggings, and 156 led to deportations. The bulk of imprisonments are for "Crimes against Public Trust," whatever that means.

"And what kind of treatment programs do they have for 'social' crimes?"

Er... more flogging?

"Do they label all forms of dissent as criminal?"

No. There is freedom of the press here, although there is a great deal of self-censorship. I have not heard of people being imprisoned here for speaking out against the government, as various bloggers have been recently in Egypt and Bahrain.

"Are their degrees of crime, liken to a misdemeanor or felony?"

I don't know. One notable feature of the justice system here is that there are two types of courts: shari'ah (Muslim) courts and civil (secular) courts. Different kinds of crimes will fall under different legal systems, therefore. And, of course, the religion of the defendant makes a difference: Muslims can be executed for adultery, while non-Muslims aren't, for example.

"the Moorish society has provided a huge advancment towards what is considered scientific method"

Indeed, and we do well to remember this. On the other hand, I just finished a book yesterday (Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel; I recommend it) which asks the painful question, "But what has our civilization done in the last 1200 years?" The Muslim world used to be the bastion of intellectual progress, but that is sadly no longer the case. A man from the American University in Sharjah told me last year, for example, that the entire Arabic-speaking world publishes fewer books a year than the state of Belgium.

"American history revolves around the use of Power to Oppress the Weak (Meak)."

ALL history revolves around the use of power to oppress the weak. :-) I am the last person on the planet to get all patriotic, but I think American history has been certainly no worse than average in this regard. Our government is less corrupt than most, and we do more to ensure the rights of the vulnerable than most countries do.

If you have been following what I write about workers' rights here in Qatar, you know that they are practically nonexistent. Workers get something like 41 cents an hour; they live in dismal conditions; they have no right to change jobs, no right to strike, no right to leave the country. If they go to the police to protest their situation, the police will probably not help them (complaints must be filed in Arabic) and may in fact hurt them. In sum, the vast majority of people living in Qatar are in a situation that is hardly distinguishable from slavery. There is a lot that is unforgivably wrong with America, but not on this scale.

The % of violence.

[(Anonymous)]

and 62% of it is in occupied Palestine.
lwtc247.blog.co.uk

Re: The % of violence.

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I'm not sure where you get that statistic, but assuming it is true, that would mean that the Arab world would still be 4 times more violent than the rest of the world, even leaving Palestine out.