I know we all have selective historical memories. Cultures and countries have their foundation myths and focus on the good, etc.
However, reading Al Jazeera and the Arab news, I feel that this has become a particular problem now with the conflict in the East/West.
Here is a link to an editorial in Al Jazeera:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/247B538A-449B-47DF-BE4B-351AED0FDA6C.htm
Quote:
"Let us not be deceived about this rhetoric of liberalism and free speech. The Danish cartoons have nothing to do with freedom of expression and everything to do with hatred of the other in a Europe grappling with its growing Muslim minorities, still unable to accept them.
Muhammad, who had been depicted in medieval legends as a bloodthirsty warrior with a sword in one hand and a Quran in another, is now made to brandish bombs and guns. Little seems to have changed about Western consciousness of Islam.
The collective medieval Christian memory has been recycled, purged of eschatology and incorporated into a modern secularised rhetoric that goes unquestioned today.
The medieval world abounded with hostile stories, folktales, poems and sermons of Muhammad where the imagination was given free reign.
About Muhammad, or “Mathomus” all could be said since, as the 11th-century chronicler Guilbert of Nogent had put it: “One may safely say ill of a man whose malignity transcends and surpasses whatever evil can be said about him” (Dei Gesta per Francos, 1011).
Guilbert’s Muhammad, like that of most medieval authors, bears little resemblance to the historical Muhammad, or his journey.
Just as in the Danish caricatures, he appears as a scoundrel who used licentiousness and the promise of paradise with its many beautiful virgins to lure men into following him. His career was devoid of virtue. His vast empire was built on slaughter and bloodshed.
In the popular Chansons de Geste, written from the 11th to the 14th century at the height of crusading fervour, reflecting sentiments and beliefs that were widely accepted, Muhammad and his followers, the "Saracens" are described in the most grotesque of terms.
Creatures of Satan, they are painted with huge noses and ears, blacker than ink with only their teeth showing white, eyes like burning coals, teeth that can bite like a serpent, some with horns like the antlers of stags.
Humans inherit their prejudices as they do their language. Europe has inherited an enormous body of stereotypes of the Muslim elaborated in the course of many centuries of confrontation with Muslim civilisation.
Islam could not be regarded with the same detached curiosity as the far away cultures or beliefs of China or India. Islam was always a major factor of European history.
As the historian Richard Southern put it, Islam was Latin Christendom’s greatest problem, a mighty military and cultural challenge, dazzling in its power, wealth, learning and civilisation."
Fine...It goes on.
But how come things like the destruction of the Near-Eastern Civilizations, the conquest of Spain, the brutality inflicted on the Balkans for hundereds of years, the attacks on Vienna, etc. have all been erased from the collective memory, and only the Crusades exist?
America or 'Merria's first conflict with any foreign power was with the Barbary States in the early 19th century, as they proceeded to kidnap and capture Americans "infidels" and sell them into slavery, in particular the women to be sex slaves in Turkish harems unless the US paid money. Should I walk around with a perpetual chip on my shoulder about this?
I don't mean to single Arabs out as the only people who do this, but in our quest to not offend are we playing into this historical memory loss?
However, reading Al Jazeera and the Arab news, I feel that this has become a particular problem now with the conflict in the East/West.
Here is a link to an editorial in Al Jazeera:
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/247B538A-449B-47DF-BE4B-351AED0FDA6C.htm
Quote:
"Let us not be deceived about this rhetoric of liberalism and free speech. The Danish cartoons have nothing to do with freedom of expression and everything to do with hatred of the other in a Europe grappling with its growing Muslim minorities, still unable to accept them.
Muhammad, who had been depicted in medieval legends as a bloodthirsty warrior with a sword in one hand and a Quran in another, is now made to brandish bombs and guns. Little seems to have changed about Western consciousness of Islam.
The collective medieval Christian memory has been recycled, purged of eschatology and incorporated into a modern secularised rhetoric that goes unquestioned today.
The medieval world abounded with hostile stories, folktales, poems and sermons of Muhammad where the imagination was given free reign.
About Muhammad, or “Mathomus” all could be said since, as the 11th-century chronicler Guilbert of Nogent had put it: “One may safely say ill of a man whose malignity transcends and surpasses whatever evil can be said about him” (Dei Gesta per Francos, 1011).
Guilbert’s Muhammad, like that of most medieval authors, bears little resemblance to the historical Muhammad, or his journey.
Just as in the Danish caricatures, he appears as a scoundrel who used licentiousness and the promise of paradise with its many beautiful virgins to lure men into following him. His career was devoid of virtue. His vast empire was built on slaughter and bloodshed.
In the popular Chansons de Geste, written from the 11th to the 14th century at the height of crusading fervour, reflecting sentiments and beliefs that were widely accepted, Muhammad and his followers, the "Saracens" are described in the most grotesque of terms.
Creatures of Satan, they are painted with huge noses and ears, blacker than ink with only their teeth showing white, eyes like burning coals, teeth that can bite like a serpent, some with horns like the antlers of stags.
Humans inherit their prejudices as they do their language. Europe has inherited an enormous body of stereotypes of the Muslim elaborated in the course of many centuries of confrontation with Muslim civilisation.
Islam could not be regarded with the same detached curiosity as the far away cultures or beliefs of China or India. Islam was always a major factor of European history.
As the historian Richard Southern put it, Islam was Latin Christendom’s greatest problem, a mighty military and cultural challenge, dazzling in its power, wealth, learning and civilisation."
Fine...It goes on.
But how come things like the destruction of the Near-Eastern Civilizations, the conquest of Spain, the brutality inflicted on the Balkans for hundereds of years, the attacks on Vienna, etc. have all been erased from the collective memory, and only the Crusades exist?
America or 'Merria's first conflict with any foreign power was with the Barbary States in the early 19th century, as they proceeded to kidnap and capture Americans "infidels" and sell them into slavery, in particular the women to be sex slaves in Turkish harems unless the US paid money. Should I walk around with a perpetual chip on my shoulder about this?
I don't mean to single Arabs out as the only people who do this, but in our quest to not offend are we playing into this historical memory loss?
