[Marxism] Particularly Humiliating in "Arab Culture"?

["Jurriaan Bendien" <andromeda246@xxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie wrote:

"People of any culture in the world would consider being forced to "insert a
finger into their anus and then lick it" and to "put shoes in their mouths"
no less degrading than people in "Arab culture" do!!! The subtext of many
reports on torture of Iraqi prisoners is a bizarre mixture of sexism,
homophobia, and orientalism..."

Quite. Apart from the banality involved in such an interpretation, what is
remarkable is the contrived ignorance involved. How could any better
international relations, international understanding or international
diplomacy develop, when people who should know better put about such
inanities ? It's a bit like saying that eating Kentucky Fried Chicken causes
chickenpox.
(For "The Curse of Frankenchicken Part 2: From wormburgers to Frankenfoods"
see: http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa010500b.htm ).

What Seymour M. Hersh specifically said in an opinion-making article was:
"The photographs tell it all. (...) Such dehumanization is unacceptable in
any culture, but it is especially so in the Arab world. Homosexual acts are
against Islamic law and it is humiliating for men to be naked in front of
other men, Bernard Haykel, a professor of Middle Eastern studies at New York
University, explained." http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?040510fa_fact

In other words, Hersh aims to convey, that this dehumanisation is not
acceptable anywhere, and that the moral affront is intensified all the more,
because Islamic law forbids homosexual acts and because for Islamic men it
is, as a rule, humiliating to be naked in front of other men unless you are
homosexual. In fact, Islamic culture treats homosexuality more leniently and
tolerantly than does Judaism or Christianity, but Hersh's real point is that
the torturers sought to apply techniques specifically intended to violate
the moral-spiritual feeling of the tortured. It's interesting though how
Hersh's reference to "Arab world" and "Islamic law" subsequently becomes
transmuted into "Arab culture"...

Jurriaan





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