Extremes
Older, Arab gentlemen, Jerusalem
Last night, Aubrey and I attended a costume party. I went dressed in a traditional Arab man’s outfit: the long, white shirt that looks a bit like a skirt, a black over “coat” for decorative purposes, and a plain white keffiyah, like the one in the picture.
As we were walking to the residence of the party, we passed two men who were taking their children trick-or-treating. One of the men looked at my outfit and laughed and said something to the effect of “needing to shoot people” like me (i.e. Arabs). I was a bit apprehensive about wearing the full outfit in public, but I figured being up in the Northwest, where political correctness is supposed to be all the rage, maybe I would find “tolerance.” I knew better.
On our way home, we passed a teen-aged kid who saw us and yelled at me, “Muslim!” We didn’t recognize what he said at first and kept going on. He then yelled, “If you’re not a Muslim you are being really disrespectful!” It finally dawned on us what he was saying. We were amused because the kid isn’t educated enough to know that my outfit is not religious. It is Arab which is not synonymous with Muslim. I was in no way being insulting to Arabs nor Muslims. In fact, I bought the clothes from an Arab-Muslim in the Old City in Jerusalem. He was in no way offended. He actually helped me pick out the correct accessories.
The incident just made me think about the curious blindness that people of all types have towards “hot button” issues. In regards to Arabs and Muslims, the first people reminded me of some very conservative Christians who are staunchly pro-Israel and seem to act as though Arabs are more or less animals that can/should be rounded up and shipped off somewhere else. These first people also reminded me of certain types of people who are so staunchly patriotic that they make blanket statements that they “should shoot people” who look the same way I was dressed. This is frightening to me. Arabs are human beings. They are like any other group of people: most are kind, friendly, helpful, and generous. Sure, there are crazies who want “to kill people” who are dressed as I am at this second (as an American). But, as a general rule, Arabs and Muslims are people. They deserve to be according dignity and respect that all humans ought to receive.
The second person displayed a different type of ignorance: that of idealism. This kid doesn’t know that “Arab” and “Muslim” aren’t interchangeable. He also doesn’t know that traditional Arab clothing is not intrinsically religious. Most of the Arabs we met in the Middle East were only nominally religious. But, this kid here has bought into the idea that Arabs who are Muslims are somehow a delicate, overly-sensitive people group who must be coddled with kid-gloves. This is not true either. I’ve met many and the ones I know are really easy going and laugh at themselves with ease.
To sum up, last night was a good reminder to me that not all things, and particularly people, are black and white and many things require a bit of nuance.
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