Arab-Muslim Societies Stereotypes Misunderstandings

Fundamental Attribution Error View own actions as responses to situations View others’ actions as expressions of personality traits

Projection Freud: mechanism of defense Anti-social, immoral wishes & abject self-images attributed to others Usually to an other group: ethnic group, nation, religion, gender, “the poor,” etc.

Mini-stereotypes

Orientalist Paintings 19 th & early 20 th centuries

Bridgeman, Harem Fountain

Bridgeman, Harem Boats

Giraud, Interior of the Harem

Bouchard, Almees (entertainers)

Dicksee, Cleopatra

Collier, Pharoah’s Handmaidens

Delacroix, Algerian Women

Delacroix, Odalisque (concubine)

Renoir, Odalisque

Matisse, Odalisque

Ingres, Turkish Bath

Ingres, Grand Odalisque

Falero, Enchantress

Weiz, Odalisque

Gerome, The Great Bath

Gerome, Bath

Ponsan, Massage

Long, Love’s Labor Lost

Cormon, Jealousy in the Seraglio

Gerome, Slave Market

Gerome, Slave Auction

Giraud, New Slave

Rosati, Dancing Girl

Marinelli, Dance of the Bee in the Harem

Alloula: The Colonial Harem French-made postcards from Algeria

Today?

Wafah Dufour Bin Laden’s neice GQ 2006

Misunderstandings 1.Despotism & strife stem from a tribal mentality equipped with modern weapons  MENA should not be seen as having a “still-tribal” social organization -- though underdevelopment and oppression may lead people to create tribe-like relationships

Misunderstandings 2.The “honor code” monopolizes the Middle Eastern psyche and subverts modernization  There is an “honor-modesty” ethics & social etiquette, but this does not retard modernization

Misunderstandings 3.Islamic “fatalism” breeds passivity and stalls development  An “Islamist ethic” fuels achievement and development, but when thwarted people turn to Islam for consolation

Misunderstandings 4.The momentum of tradition resists modernization  People may choose “tradition” as superior to “modernity”  People invent “traditions” to defend against “modernity”

Misunderstandings 5.Terrorism springs from a vein of fanaticism in Arab culture and psyche  Terrorism better explained by… a) strategic considerations b) social psychological processes that operate in all cultures  Violence can create a “culture of terror”

Underdevelopment Modernity Underdevelopment ( H. Sharabi: “neo-patriarchy” ) Tradition