Kuwait Times

Published Date: October 22, 2008
By Fouad Al-Obaid, Staff Columnist

People often adapt their knowledge to situations as they happen. Consider the following: How would the average Westerner perceive a man with a beard dressed in a traditional dishdasha, walking around with a woman who is covered from head to toe by his side? Is he a wife beater, a person that is unaware of women's rights and modernity? Perhaps he is one of the nicely portrayed terrorists who, thanks to the negative global media coverage, have been projecting a rather bleak image of the wider Arab-Islamic wo
rld!

Now consider this other situation: A woman wearing a mini-skirt, strolling out past midnight in a European capital. Is she a hooker, a student out to a club? Is she the prey of beauty magazines or the product of modern decadence?

The reason I mentioned these two very stereotypical yet very natural scenes is that they remain shocking visions to the viewer of the "other" culture. It is human nature to have presuppositions when it comes to our view of the "other" (other being people from different countries).

Sometimes our differences are closer to home. Let's take for instance the situation (a hilarious one in my humble opinion) of the two Kuwaiti ministers and the veil that some MPs are trying hard to force them to wear when in Parliament!

Usually different backgrounds will yield different and at times opposing views. However, life has taught me that if given the right tools, if placed in the presence of the "other" we come to realize that we do have opposing views, but we should nevertheless learn to accept our differences. Ultimately who are we to judge?!

In another show of opposing views, a woman led a prayer in Oxford, England. Amina Wadud, an American professor led men and women in prayer creating controversy as one of the rare times globally when a woman would lead the prayer - an Islamic prayer that is.

Is a woman to lead prayers? Is she not? Such a question has left many shocked while others see a new perspective, a shift of paradigm. One wouldn't qualify it as revolutionary. Rather it seems to be an evolutionary push towards a more diverse spectrum of religious interpretation. Hoping in the end, that God will accept our deeds and forgive our sins.

Enlightenment is the ability to be able to critically analyze information, to think concepts and ideas through, subjecting them to hypothesis and then creating experiments to prove or disprove them.

Enlightenment is furthermore the notion of being able to be open enough to have a meaningful dialogue with people that might differ in opinion, faith or creed, yet nevertheless remain civil in our interaction.

In our modern era, ideas seem to be more powerful than swords, knowledge the key to prosperity and economic success. It is with the latter in mind that we need to collectively reassess our vision of the world and to start thinking of ways to help ensure that by understanding one another, we can at least come to live in peace together.
For thoughts and comments fouad@kuwaittimes.net