Tolerance of cultural diversity: In defense of Dubai

[qatarperegrine]

Imagine, for a moment, an immensely unlikely scenario: a Sentinelese couple decides to emigrate to the US. They pack up their best harpoons and adzes, hop on a plane to JFK, and settle into their new life in New York City.

And, of course, being Sentinelese, they do this all while stark naked.

How tolerant would Americans be of their public nudity?

Bonus question: how tolerant would Americans be of the fact that the Sentinelese have sex in public?

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My friends and me at the beach in Qatar

As I write this, the top story on CNN is about a British couple who face jail time in Dubai over "kissing and touching each other intimately in public ... and consuming alcohol." Many of the comments being posted voice viewpoints similar to these:

"Muslims go to Western countries and insist on following their own customs, so they ought not kick when Westerners go to theirs and follow Western customs" -Dorothea7 "When a muslim comes to the United States they want and expect us to allow them to keep their religious and cultural identities whether it conforms to our standards or not. There are many lawsuits against our gov. and businesses to allow them to wear clothing that does not reveal their faces or have special work place considerations of their religion and culture. If an American or infidel goes to a moslem country they are immediately put under control of their moslem standards or worse the all incriminating sharia law. Where is the fairness? There isn't. Moslems travel the world expecting their culture to overrule others while citizens of other countries are prosecuted in their's." -isntitgreat

OK, time for a reality check of Dubai's concessions to Western customs. In a culture that views all body parts other than the hands and face as private, Dubai allows Westerners to gallavant around in bikinis. In a culture that views pork as unclean and ungodly, Dubai sells pork to Westerners in grocery stores. In a culture that views alcohol as inherently immoral, Dubai imports alcohol and opens bars for non-Muslim expats.

What would the US have to do to show similar levels of tolerance? We'd definitely have to let those Sentinelese people run around naked, and possibly have public sex. We'd also have to open dog-meat sections in our grocery stores and and open opium dens in our hotels for immigrants and tourists. That's the level of tolerance Dubai (and Doha) shows to Western culture. So, while the behaviors they tolerate may not seem huge to us, if you consider how far Western behaviors fall outside the range of behavior permissible in their own culture, I think they have a far larger tolerance ratio than the US does. While I'm certainly not arguing that the US is an intolerant country, it certainly seems very parochial of us to act as though we have a lot to teach the Gulf countries about tolerating cultural diversity.

Comments

[dsummzzz.livejournal.com]

I'm all for letting anyone who wants to run around nekkid.
Well, some people shouldn't be nekkid but that's a fashion statement rather than a moral statement.

From there, Dubai is only after the money. They have to let westerners do their thing in order o make money.
If they could enforce their laws and make money, you can bet the would.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Certainly Dubai has an economic interest in attracting Westerners. The US has traditionally had economic interests in attracting immigrants, too, though; I don't know that you can argue that we became a pro-immigrant country because we just decided it was the Right Thing to Do.

Also, your argument is less true for Qatar. They really don't need to impress Westerners; they can be the richest people in the world just by selling us their natural gas. So they do have a choice about how much to protect their traditional culture, and they STILL choose to let me wear a bikini.

[dsummzzz.livejournal.com]

Well, yes. But my thought is that they need to show everyone how progressive they can be in order to make that sale.
I could be totally wrong, but that's my gut.

How so?

[shmuelisms.livejournal.com]

How do you figure that? Both Saudi Arabia and Iran are considerably less progressive than either Dubai or Qatar, and they STILL have the world in their palm. Oil - you can't really get it anywhere else, so they don't really care about "being nice".

qatar, I think your point is very valid one. Another more private example is that a Muslim with multiple wives, can't really immigrate to the USA, at least not and keep their legally created family together. And this isn't even really an in-your-face "public" issue

Re: How so?

[qatar.livejournal.com]

Shmuel, that's another good example. In fact, practicing (or even HAVING practiced) polygamy is considered "moral turpitude" for immigration purposes and bars you from citizenship.

[qatar.livejournal.com]

In addition to what Shmuel said, it's worth noting that almost all Qatar's LNG exports are to Asia. China's been increasing its LNG consumption a lot lately... do you think it cares how progressive Qatar is? :-)