News » September 23, 2005
Ready for Dialogue
“I’m afraid that if I watch a lot of TV, I will start to hate myself as an Arab, or as a Muslim or as a Palestinian,” says Samar Dahmash-Jarrah, “because there is nothing out there except bias and stereotyping and hatred.”
Jarrah, 42, is a long way from her year-and-a-half stint as a contributor to CNN’s “World Report” in the late ’80s, when she was filing three-minute spots every week from Jordan. Back then, she had hope that the fledgling world news network could bridge gaps of understanding between nations and cultures. Now, she’s given up on the mainstream press, and has decided to personally act as a medium for the two cultures she calls home.
Since moving to the States more than a decade ago, Jarrah, a Kuwaiti-born Palestinian-American, has taught classes on Islam, history, media and international relations at the University of South Florida. “I ask my students to read books by Arabs before they go and read books by non-Arabs to explain the Arab mind,” says Jarrah.
After 9/11, Jarrah found herself having to walk what she taught. She was asked to speak to church and community groups in her Port Charlotte, Fla., community. She earned praise and more invitations to speak with each appearance, but she soon realized that having lived in Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan did not make her an expert on the post-9/11 Arab world.
“For three-and-a-half years, all I did was answer questions on behalf of Arabs and Muslims,” she said. “Finally I said, ‘maybe it’s about time that I let Arabs answer these questions that Americans keep asking me.’ “
Jarrah sent out emails to every American she knew, soliciting the questions people wanted to ask an average Arab on the street, consolidating them into 100 questions in 7 categories: religion, 9/11, the war in Iraq, women’s roles, Israel and Palestine, Arab and Muslim society and U.S.–Middle East relations.
Jarrah then traveled to Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait and interviewed a dozen random strangers: Women and men, Christians and Muslims, with a cross-section of education and accomplishment, ranging from ages 19 to 66. The transcripts of the answers to those questions have been compiled in her self-published book, Arab Voices Speak to American Hearts.
“I didn’t expect people to be so consumed by the Arab-Israeli conflict,” says Jarrah. “I was traveling soon after Abu Ghraib, and it was important, Iraq was important, Afghanistan was important, this attempt to defame Islam was important, but nothing seemed as urgent as the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
Jarrah describes her target audience as “average Americans who don’t know much about the Arab world and the Arab people.” As a dozen Arabs talk about their families, fears and beliefs, the complexity of their personalities emerge, and the diversity of their views serves to bust the myth of a monolithic civilization.
A couple of interviewees supported the invasion of Iraq, although they unanimously don’t like President Bush or how the war has been handled. The reader is reminded over and over that Arabs like Americans, but not the policies of the U.S. government. “We have no quarrel with the American people, but we need them to reclaim their country,” says Dr. Khaled, a Jordanian professor and retired diplomat.
Hamed, 53, who owns a construction firm in Kuwait, criticizes religious fundamentalism in both Arab and American cultures. “To be a liberal, you have to put forth effort,” he says. “You have to read, travel, it’s a lot of work. But all a fundamentalist needs to do is go to a mosque all the time.”
Jarrah made a conscious decision to exclude more extremist Arabs “because they have more airtime,” she says. “The extremists–not only in the Arab world, but all over–they are most visible. You know their names and faces more than the millions and millions of people who are moderate, and who do not commit crimes.”
Thus far, Jarrah has received inspiring feedback from readers. “A guy came up to me at a restaurant and said, ‘They keep telling me they hate us and they are the enemy and they are jealous, and finally I found a logical answer to all these questions.’”
In order to spur more dialogue, the back section of Arab Voices Speak to American Hearts contains the questions posed back to Americans by her Arab interview subjects. Those answers will make up Jarrah’s next book, tentatively titled American Hearts Respond to Arab Questions. Find out more at www.arabvoicesspeak.com.
ABOUT THIS AUTHOR
Andrew Stelzer, a freelance journalist in Oakland, Calif., is a producer at "Making Contact," a weekly public affairs radio program. His reports have appeared on "The World," "Free Speech Radio News" and "Latino USA," among others. Stelzer has been a contributor to In These Times since 2005, and can be contacted at www.andrewstelzer.com.
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Reader Comments
I am all for both such projects. Understanding can often lean to better relations.
That said, i have indelible memories of dancing in the (Arab) streets after 911. Women making yowling sounds (ululating, i suppose), celebrating the deaths of thousands. Lots and lots of them. . .
TV certainly can be biased. It would be interesting for Dahmash-Jarrah to comment on the effects of TV, particularly the news sources in the Middle East. Do they help raise her self esteem as an Arab? I do wonder what she means about TV making her hate herself though. I do watch TV with some regularity, but really have no examples of what this could mean. Perhaps it *only* refers to US news, which i rarely watch (i prefer to get my news from the Internet and printed materials). Anyone with an example of how Arabs might be induced to feel self loathing due to TV, please post!
Posted by wolf on Sep 23, 2005 at 11:21 AM
I would not presume to speak for her, but I imagine that these ‘indelible memories’ you have are exactly the ones she struggles with the most. Images of arabs rejoicing over the tragedy of the American people - devoid of any context or sense of scale have a certain effect. This is probably similar to, but not exactly like the self loathing a lot of us felt when the Abu Ghraib images were released - the happy, thumbs up American smiling over the suffering of other human beings…
It make you want to say “Hey guys, we aren’t all that way, please don’t think we are all bad…” But deep down, you know that a lot of people add it to the list of items like evangelical leaders calling for assassinations and other things they have heard about us… and just write us off.
So, yeah, I guess you could say that self-loating is sort of thing universally felt when the negative is getting airtime while the majority view isn’t being represented. It can be reflected in the ramblings of blog posters who purposefully use selective imagery as a means to negatively portray a much broader culture. I guess that could be what she meant.
Posted by GrayArea on Sep 23, 2005 at 2:05 PM
The whole point of such a project is to allow those who have seen these images you mention to understand what exactly they were seeing.
Wolf your intentions are very well, but you are still making judgement from a place you imageine to be better or somehow beyond the surroundind world. How can a people who have such an all encompassing effect on the world, not realise that the world does not exist in isolation but is affacted like all things by the eye of the beholder.
The people you saw dancing and some using a traditional ‘Ullulating’ cry which can signify many things as far as you know, were not substantially different from you or I. They live and die for the same reasons as all people.
The fact that so many were delighted about what happened has for itself a cause, which if you understood from their viewpoint would seem much more natural to you. But first you must gain that understanding, really, before you can judge how they reacted to an event that neither you nor Rabbit can at this point definately even attribute to “Muslim Extremists”
You do know about the mossad agents who were caught with traces of explosives and videos of the WTC’s collapsing on 911? They were also dancing and celebrating when the police nabbed them.
Some Israelis, in government expressed satisfaction at least that the USA would now understand the “Israeli Struggle”
Poor little Israel and USA struggling against all the evil murderous Muslim and Liberal extremists. Poor little darlings with their Huge Nuclear Arsenals, and Chemical and Biological Weapons stockpiles.
Poor little scared Israel and USA who are so afraid that they need to make sure nobody else even gets one bomb. Even a dirty bomb which is something the USA dumps on Iraqis at the rate of 3500 tons in two years.
You are right Wolf, some understanding is in order here. Rabbit doubts the good Jarrah is likely to make much headway with those who are looking to understand why somebody else could be so deluded and twisted and hateful.
Remove the Log from your eyes and the mote in your brother’s may be much clearer.
Pearls before swine probably. Not you Gray.
Posted by GhostRabbit on Sep 23, 2005 at 10:14 PM
I do agree with Ms. Jarrah regarding her comment ” I will hate myself if I watch TV”. As an Arab American living in the US, I’m still frightened by the media’s coverage of news in the middle east. It seems that all they put on TV are ugly, ignorant, extremist, uneducated middle eastern which only resembles 1% of the population. Why can’t the media interview the average Arab who is bilingual, goodlooking and well educated. Only I see on TV is horrible images of Arabs, Muslims and Palestinians. I suggest that Mr Wolf and anyone interested in the Middle East to visit the region or get to know their people who are living with us in the US who serve as Doctors, Lawyers, and regular innocent citizens.
Posted by adjo73 on Sep 24, 2005 at 6:01 AM
I have not read Samar Dahmash-Jarrah
Posted by whattheheck on Sep 24, 2005 at 9:00 AM
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