Islam and Muslim communities

¶ … Baghdad Without a Map and Other Misadventures in Arabia" by Tony Horwitz, and "Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women" by Geraldine Brooks. Specifically, it will critically review the books and tie them into the modern world's view of the Middle East. These two books indicate the great gap between eastern and western culture and beliefs. Reading these books opens the eyes to the many differences between the western world and the Arab world, but more than that, these books open the readers' eyes to things that would never happen in American society. The Middle East often suffers in the eyes of the world, and after reading these books, it is easy to see why.

Women are viewed differently in the two books, and even more differently here in the west. In Horwitz' book, he makes little mention of the women because the people he deals with do not mention them at all. He sees few women and most of the ones he sees are covered in traditional dress from head to toe. Most of the encounters he has are with men because they do the business and run the countries. When his wife has to wear a chador, he writes, "Geraldine, have endured months of hoots and propositions from Arab males, welcomed her sexless disguise. I found it creepy. With one flick of the wrist, she'd transformed herself from the object of my desire into a forbidding black phantom, a foot soldier of the Islamic Republic" (Horwitz 235). He acknowledges how women are treated by a male-dominated society, but Brooks makes it much more clearly in the opening sentences of her book, when a hotel clerk refuses to rent her a room because she is traveling alone. She writes, "No,' he said. 'You don't understand. I can't give you a room. it's against the law for women'" (Brooks 1). In fact, she has to go to a police station to gain a permit to stay in a hotel, and this is in Saudi Arabia, one of the more "modernized" countries in the Middle East. Women do not play as big a role in Horwitz' work not because he ignores them, but because, as a western man, he rarely encounters them. On the other hand, the women in Brooks' work are real Arabic women who have little say in their lives or what goes on throughout their countries.

Brooks explains the origins of Islamic views on women, and most of it comes directly from the Prophet Mohammed. She maintains he had "trouble" with his many wives, and so had a visit from God telling him to seclude them, and the rest is history (Brooks 4). Thus, the status of women in the Arab world stems directly from Mohammed's inability to control his own wives, and women still suffer today. Brooks' work deals directly with the women and their experience, and so it is very differently from Horwitz' work. Reading the two gives a more balanced look at men and women in the Arab world, but still underscores how vastly different Middle Eastern culture is from western culture. Many modern women do rise to positions of power in the government and in business, but for the most part, Arab women still live secluded lives away from their own male family members and the outside world, and that is extremely foreign to most western nations.

Islam is used illegitimately in the modern Middle East as a way to justify behavior and mold people into certain behaviors. For example, in Yemen, most of the people are addicted to chewing qat, a plant that seems to have narcotic properties, and the Islamic scholars do not approve, but do not ban the substance, and yet they ban alcohol. They bend the religion to meet their own needs, and they use it to justify acts of terrorism and aggression against people and other countries.

It does not seem that Islam can truly coexist with the modern world because it has modernized very little and so is so far behind the times it may never catch up. The cities and towns of the Middle East live in a kind of limbo, where modern conveniences such as cars mingle with donkeys, camels, and filth. The Arab world is really living in two time zones, and it does not seem that they will ever fully move into the modern world. Many of their customs and rituals are too archaic, and many of their beliefs are, as well. It is a land where women are treated as second-class citizens, and that may be one of the biggest reasons Islam and the Arab world may never be completely modern. Belief systems have to change for a country or a religion to modernize. Other religions have done it, and they still remain viable. Other religions, such as the Shakers, have not modernized, and it has decimated and even eliminated their numbers. For example, the Catholic Church is far removed from its roots in many ways, even though it still retains the ritual and many of the belief systems it was founded upon. Catholicism has had to change with the times to remain viable, but sects of Islam still resemble medieval religions, at best.

However, the biggest impediment to change may be the people themselves. Author Horwitz writes one young Yemeni says, "We want to be Yemen. We do not want to hurry up and be like the West" (Horwitz 20). All throughout the Middle East, this same resistance to change seems to exist. The people want to hold on to their archaic beliefs about women and the western world; they do not want many of the comforts modern life could bring. There is a difference between modern Arabs and those who follow the fundamentalist path, and this is another way Islam is used illegitimately, especially in controlling women. Author Brooks writes of an Islam woman educated at Harvard who gradually falls under full control of her increasingly conservative fiance. She adopts Islamic dress, allows him to control all aspects of the wedding, including buying the dress, and another "liberated" woman who refused to marry a Christian she loved but would not convert to Islam (Brooks 64). The most conservative sects of Islam are so strict they control every aspect of the people's lives, and politicians and officials use these edicts to control their countries. Islam can be perverted, and many take advantage of it in that way.