Sitting in Tim Horton's (the American-owned Canadian institution) after midnight with a large group of occasionally rowdy Muslim guys. The store management must either love or hate this time of the lunar year: love, because people like us give them late-night business, or hate, because we drive everybody else away.
In a discussion about Arab vanity projects - 6-star hotels and indoor ski hills - one wise individual uts forward the following thesis on the failures of the Ummah:
"Where in the Muslim world do you see an equivalent to the Library of Congress? Where are the massive libraries of the Muslim world? We don't realize the power that comes with the ability to write history. We started with a simple oral tradition, but not one that can satisfy historians today. How did the Companions defeat the Romans and the Persians? We have few details of how they saw it, just "We had an army of so many men, we went out to meet them, and then we won." It's such a simple story. But the ability to write the history and to record it gives you the power to create a narrative. Look at how zionists have controlled the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: 'in 1948 they were attacked by six Arab armies and bravely repulsed the invasion,' and now that's what most people around here believe. We need to start writing our own history."
Something to think about.
2 comments:
"Look at how zionists have controlled the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict: 'in 1948 they were attacked by six Arab armies and bravely repulsed the invasion,' and now that's what most people around here believe. We need to start writing our own history."
I would be interested in learning how your friend would rewrite the history of the 1948 Israeli/Arab conflict to show that Israel lost and the Arabs won. After all, Israel was still around in 1967 and 1973 to do it all over again.
Gerry Porter
Ottawa
"I would be interested in learning how your friend would rewrite the history of the 1948 Israeli/Arab conflict to show that Israel lost and the Arabs won. After all, Israel was still around in 1967 and 1973 to do it all over again."
If you think that the outcome is what my friend was disputing, then you have (unsurprisingly) missed the point of the anecdote.
The points of the common North American narrative that are untrue are:
1) That the Haganah were outnumbered by Arab forces
2) That the Arab entry into Palestine was unprovoked and motivated by irrational hatred
3) That the Haganah were engaged in a defensive war rather than an aggressive war of conquest.
For more information on these points, read the accounts of Israeli historian Benny Morris (Tom Segev would be a good 2nd choice). Both are affirmed zionists and citizens of Israel, but have the honesty not to attempt to whitewash their country's birth.
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