Narcissism and the Middle East
Nabeel Fawzi
Narcissism is a pattern of traits and behaviors which signify infatuation and obsession with one's self to the exclusion of all others and the egotistic and ruthless pursuit of one's gratification, dominance and ambition.
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When confronted by other people they either dismiss their confrontation, or become extremely defensive, enraged and look for revenge. Of course this terminology is usually used to describe individuals. But I am suggesting a model where we examine the same style of pathology but in cultures and societies.
-I believe that our culture(s) in the Middle East fit the criteria that we usually apply to narcissists. In general, people in our culture are not used to examining themselves. They are too fragile to tolerate acknowledging their weaknesses. They lack objectivity when they –as a society or as individuals- try to problem-solve.
We believe that we are better than everyone else on earth, we believe that all of our problems are “imposed on us”, we are always the “victims” of other people “plots” to control. If one us tried to remind the group of our responsibilities, he or she would be forced to shut up in the name of “political party, religion, family…”
http://makeashorterlink.com/?K1F6356CC
Al Guardian
den stedlige udgave af Dagbladet Samarbejds-Æstetikken, har sin egen version af Wash. Post.
Negative Perception Of Islam Increasing
http://www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,,1727812,00.html
We should fear Holland’s silence
The Sunday Times
Islamists are stifling debate in what was Europe’s freest country, says Douglas Murray.
‘Would you write the name you’d like to use here, and your real name there?” asked the girl at reception. I had just been driven to a hotel in the Hague. An hour earlier I’d been greeted at Amsterdam airport by a man holding a sign with a pre-agreed cipher. I hadn’t known where I would be staying, or where I would be speaking. The secrecy was necessary: I had come to Holland to talk about Islam.
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Europe is shuffling into darkness. It is proving incapable of standing up to its enemies, and in an effort to accommodate the peripheral rights of a minority is failing to protect the most basic rights of its own people.
The governments of Europe have been tricked into believing that criticism of a belief is the same thing as criticism of a race. And so it is becoming increasingly difficult and dangerous to criticise a growing and powerful ideology within our midst. It may soon, in addition, be made illegal.
I had planned — the morning after my speech — to see Geert Wilders, but instead spent the time catching up with his staff. Their leader had been called in by the police to discuss more than 40 new death threats he had received over the previous days.
As I left the Netherlands I once again felt terrible sorrow for a country that is slowly being lost. A society which should be carefree and inspiring has become dark and worried. The jihad in Europe is winning. And Holland, and our continent, takes one step further into a dark and menacing future.
Douglas Murray
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2092-2058502,00.html
Her kan jeg tænke mig Dylan Thomas digt fra 1951 - ikke bare fordi det er 
en association til "Europe´s Darkness", ikke kun fordi jeg hørte det læst op af Allen Ginsburg idag, men også fordi det er så trodsigt og smukt:
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO THAT GOOD NIGHT
Do not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Though wise men at their end know dark is right,.
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Good men, the last wave by, crying how bright
Their frail deeds might have danced in a green bay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle into that good night
Grave men, near death, who see with blinding sight
Blind eyes could blaze like meteors and be gay,
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
And you, my father, there on the sad height,
Curse, bless me now with your fierce tears, I pray.
Do not go gentle into that good night.
Rage, rage against the dying of the light.
(foto: Bill Brandt, 1941)
Åh, Frankrig.................
landets største supermarkedskæde
http://www.carrefour.com/english/homepage/index.jsp
Hvem vile savne ytringsfriheden?
hvis den pludselig forsvandt? Interessant spørgsmål at stille sig selv - og besvare. Ingen nævnt, ingen glemt.
Når angsten eter sjelen
Norge går nå inn i en ny periode med selvsensur, mener forfatteren Tore Stubberud. Han frykter også en gjenoppvekking av det hellige i vårt samfunn. Stubberuds nye roman er en psychotriller der en urban, venstreradikal vestlig karrierekvinne, med kaldt blod dreper ektemannen til sin muslimske elskerinne.
En sensitiv kobling i særlig disse ytringstrange tider. Stubberud opplever situasjonen alvorlig: ”Hvor mange politikere og økonomer vil egentlig savne ytringsfriheten? Ytringsfriheten har vært en beskyttelse for de skjeve, for dem som er annerledes, som famler i mørke. Ytringsfriheten er også viktig for å ivareta kvinners rettigheter. Jeg tror ikke det er tilfeldig at noen av de mest interessante innspillene i karikaturdebatten kommer fra kvinner; jeg tenker på Shabana Rehman, Nina Witoszek og Hege Storhaug,” sier Stubberud til Dagbladet.no.
Stubberud er ikke i tvil om at Norge nå går inn i en periode med selvsensur. Hva gjelder muslimers følsomhet for religionskritikk, sier Stubberud: ”Hva skal jeg som forfatter gjøre? Skal jeg sende mine manuskripter til biskopen i Borg og Islamsk Råd for godkjennelse?”
Hvad skal f.eks. Henrik Hartmann med den ?
Skråplan
Det er et typisk træk ved mennesket, at når det mangler en god grund til at handle, som det gør, så opfinder det en hel række af mindre gode grunde. Det er de mange bortforklaringers logik. Kvantitet frem for kvalitet. Se nu f.eks. Betty Nansen Teatrets leder Henrik Hartmann, som just har aflyst et show med den norsk-pakistanske standup-komiker Shabana Rehman.
Først hed det sig, at teatret ikke ville provokere indvandrere. Så forklarede Henrik Hartmann, at forestillingen var fjernstyret af partiet Venstre. Derpå var problemet manglende finansiering. Så kom tilføjelsen, at den kvindelige komiker, der lever i USA, fordi hun er blevet truet på livet af islamister i Norge, faktisk ikke var god nok. Hvorpå det forlød, at man ikke rigtig havde kunnet finde ud af, hvad hun stod for. Efter den forklaring fulgte en om, at teatret ikke ønskede at sætte sin tillid til publikum over styr. Endelig konkluderede Henrik Hartmann, at aflysningen skyldtes en kunstnerisk beslutning, selv om han til Politiken bedyrede, at »hun er skide dygtig«.
Nu lever vi som bekendt i både boykottens og i den politiske forbrugers tid, så hvorfor egentlig ikke boykotte Betty Nansen Teatret hårdt og brutalt og nøjagtig lige så længe, Henrik Hartmann sidder i direktionen, medmindre han indvilliger i selv at spille hovedrollen i et stykke – efter eget valg – om politisk korrekt medløberi og bortforklaring. Der skulle være drama nok at finde i kunstens store skatkammer.
Mikael Jalving, Groft Sagt, Berlingske
Imam Assigned to Swede Hospital First Time Ever
For the first time in Sweden a Muslim ecclesiastic will serve at a hospital.
Skovde Nyheter, a local newspaper published in the Skaraborg region, reported that Smajo Sahat, an imam who escaped from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Sweden during the Bosnian war, will work at Skaraborg State Hospital.
Hospital Administration welcomed the demand of local Muslims’ to employ an imam at the hospital.
Sahat will inform hospital staff on Islam, attend to the psychological needs of Muslim patients, and help organize funeral arrangements.
http://www.zaman.com/?bl=national&alt=&hn=30695
posted by Steen at
fredag, marts 10, 2006
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