Wed 23 Mar 2005
Following Zaydoun’s question on Al-Baghdadi situation, I started thinking about this….Many of you may not agree with me, but hear me out, and just think about it…
Look at it this way:
There are two camps fighting a war…
Each side is in their dugout and shooting at the other side. All of a sudden, one person from the left dugout stands up and runs towards the other dugout…what will happen?? The right will starting aiming at him…..and the left will be trying their best to defent him and covering for him…at the same time, this will mean that they will shift their focus from the war to this person’s battle.
Lets say this person goes and then everyone covers for him and he comes back. Many people will be upset with his actions of doing that solo act, but defended him nontheless.
A few mins later, the same person, stands up again, and runs towards the other dugout again…
U cant expect the same amount of cover for that person.
There r bigger and more important battles to fight. Especially at this critical time! I honestly think that the reason there isnt much support for him is because we are in the middle of a huge battle for women’s rights, it really will be a bad move to shift our focus to an issue that is a lost cause anyway.
You cant attack the prophet and expect to have the support of every liberal in Kuwait at this exact moment! We are not Sweden, we have to take baby steps when it comes to freedom of speech before we can go sprinting! Al-Baghdadi seems to love sprinting from the start! Instead of attacking everything that has to do with Islam, criticize the manaahij rationally!
I agree with 99% of Dr. Baghdadi’s ideas, but there is a time for everything, and a way of expressing yourself. I personally am getting the feeling the Al-Baghdadi is enjoying the attention. The ‘troublemaker’ theme seems to pop in mind.
Again, I am not and never was against him, I am just saying that the timing is very wrong, and that his bluntness sometimes gets over the top. You lose alot more support than gain it at this critical time!!
If, like he said in yesterday’s article, he wants to cool things down, then I have more respect for him and I hope he has the bigger battle in mind when he says that!
Thats just what I think about this situation….
20 Responses to “Thoughts on Al-Baghdadi situation….”
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March 23rd, 2005 at 11:36 pm
Q
I like what ur saying..
But, we should not mix politics with freedom of speech.. Yimkin albaghdadi doesn’t want to play ur politics (in this case, the war).. Because he believes that its is wrong from the begining.
Thats how I think about it, BUT, I agree with what you said.. He had it coming, and I think he wanted it. Just to prove that there’s no freedom in Kuwait (which we already know).. You can always say your point without bothering the others.. Yet he writes it in a way that makes people go mad, and angry.. even myself in the article under trial.. ITBU6 EL CHABD.. o he could’ve said what he wanted in a better way and a more polite manner..
I know people would say that in a free society no one has to explain himself.. and thats true.. but we’re not in a free society, and albaghdadi knows it.. He’s trying to push the envelope, and he knows that it wont move!
March 23rd, 2005 at 11:39 pm
Hem, Q, Interesting thought
March 24th, 2005 at 3:30 am
المسألة ليست مسألة البغدادي بالتحديد
المسألة أكبر.. تتعلق بكياننا
المسألة حرية تعبير ومعتقد
البغدادي في مقاله يقول أنه لا يريد أن يدرس أبنائه القرآن، فهذا ما يؤمن فيه هو .. حر
Q
أنا الآن الآن اذا راجعت مواضيع مدونتك وتعليقاتك .. لوجدت فيها أكثر من ما قاله البغدادي.. واذا رفعت عليك دعوة قضائية، حسب مقايسنا الآن في الكويت
فستطلب أنت أيضاً اللجوء السياسي
الفرق بسيط .. أنك تكتب في مدونة باسم خفي .. والرجل يكتب في الصحافة المحلية
عيب أن يحاسب المرء في 2005 على معتقادته وآرائه الدينية.. أين حرية الإعتقاد التي ينادي بها الدستور
وكيف يأتي الإيمان بالدين غصباً؟
حرية تعبير واعتقاد.. وهذا ما ننادي به
البغدادي ليس بوحفص الذي يضع صورة روث ويقول بأن هذا عقل مسلم.. هذه قلة أدب وتسيء لحرية التعبير..
البغدادي أكاديمي دكتور باحث مؤلف.. لم يأت بما عنده من الشارع.. وحتى لو كان مغرماً بالضجة التي تثار حوله..
المسألة مسألة أن تكون أو لا تكون
آخر شيء ..سؤال لك
انت قلت:
You cant attack the prophet and expect to have the support of every liberal in Kuwait at this exact moment!
هل فعلاً هاجم البغدادي الرسول، كما سوقها البعض؟
March 24th, 2005 at 9:46 am
Rasheed, all Im doing is trying to rationalize the situation, to make sense out of the total silence from the liberals. And Im glad someone else agrees that his writings really are provocative!!
esetch, interesting good, or interesting bad? ;P
Mubtadi’, regardless of whether he was attacking the prophet or he was just criticizing his lifestyle, either case, its a lost cause from the beginning! And you will only make ur side lose support!
And with this article, read it and tell me if he couldnt have put his argument and points in a much better way!
وأرى ان الموسيقى وتنمية الذوق الفني أهم من تحفيظ القرآن ودروس الدين, وما هو موجود ا كثر من كاف, ولا أرغب في أن أهدر فلوسي على تدريس الدين, وأهل العلم كما يسمونهم غير قادرين على الاتفاق على حديث نبوي واحد (ما أفلح قوم ولوا أمرهم امرأة) ولا اريد لابني ان يتلقى دروسا من جهلة يعلمونه عدم احترام المرأة وغير المسلم, ولا اريد من المتخلفين معرفياً وفكرياً من المسؤولين عن وضع المناهج غير التربوية ان يملأوا رأس ابني بالاحاديث حول الجن.اريد من إبني ان يتعلم اللغات الاجنبية فهي خير له من اللغة العربية الميتة…….أريد من وزير التربية ان يكف شر مسؤوليه وتخلفهم عن إبني ليتلقى تعليما جيدا وان لا تذهب فلوسي هدراً. وبصراحة لا اريد لابني ان يجود القرآن فأنا لا اريده إماماً ولا مقرئاً في سرادق الموتى, كما لا اريد له مستقبلاً محتملاً في سلك الارهاب سواء الفكري أو المادي.
اريده ان يبني المجتمع لا ان يهدمه.باختصار شديد, اريد ان يكون لي في المستقبل ابن افتخر بعلمه وعقله, وليس بتخلفه الفكري. لذلك ارفض هذا المنهج السخيف الذي تريد وزارة التربية فرضه على إبني, واذا كان هناك من الآباء من يريد ذلك, فليكن هذا المنهج اختيارياً, كما يجب عدم رصد درجته ضمن المعدل العام. كان في كويت التقدم القديمة زمن لا يذهب فيه الى معاهد التعليم الديني سوى الفاشل علمياً ودراسياً, لان النجاح في المعاهد الدينية ببلاش من دون جهد كما هو حال الحصول على الدرجات العالية من دون جهد في كلية الشريعة لاغراء الطلبة بالانضمام لهذه الكلية الفارغة معرفياً.أما لهذا الجنون من آخر? وأما لهذا التخلف من نهاية? ألا يعلم هؤلاء انه من المستحيل ان تتحصل المعرفة من الدين
Mubtadi’, I hope now u see what I mean?? If he says he doesnt like the fact that they are increasing religious and decreasing music, then fine, but he doesnt stop there! He accuses anyone who teaches religion as mutakhalif, anyone who learns religion as faashil and mutakhalif, he says that mas’ooleen the ministry of education are mutakhalifeen ma3rifiyan wa fikriyan, and he says that the arabic language is useless and dead!
yaa akhy shway shway! This is by no means a rational argument by an academic baa7ith o PhD holder and author!
O about my blog and the thoughts here….we are talking to two very different segments of the market! My target is mostly young people who are internet savvy, which probably means educated and hopefully open minded! Also, I get 500 hits a day at the most on a very good day, his newspaper is circulated to the public with tens of thousands of readers! The medium is very different, the target is very different, the comparison between my opinions here and his opinions in his article are different! If I wrote in a daily newspaper, I would use a dif style altogether and use alot more common sene because the responsibilities are much bigger!
March 24th, 2005 at 9:52 am
Mubtade’e,
هل فعلاً هاجم البغدادي الرسول، كما سوقها البعض؟
According to my own personal understanding, no he didn’t. According to the court ruling, he sure did.
Did OJ kill his wife? We don’t know (or in my personal understanding, he did:P), but according to the court, he didn’t. Or at least not enough evidence. Same thing with Robert Blake or Scott peterson. Everybody has their own opinion about these guys, but after the verdict, you start to see the media treating Peterson as the definite killer only based on the ruling.
The point is whether or not Q, you, or I think that he did or not, it doesn’t matter. You don’t need to market it that he attacked the profit as the court ruling will do that for ya. It spoke for itself. Though i disagree with it, but we wanted an institutionalized country operated by the rule of law, and I find myself obliged to accept its outcome.
These laws might be difficient or unjust, but we created them. You don’t wreck your car and say why it doesn’t work. You fix it and it’ll work.
As a side note: what’s with my examples today?!
March 24th, 2005 at 3:47 pm
I wanted to comment on this but after reading mobtadi’s comment I fel I couldn’t have said it any better. But I have to comment on your last entry;
Most of teachers today were the students of the 70’s, and he is right students who did not fare well in schools back then would enroll in ma3had elmo3alimeen or elma3had Eldeeni and readily gradate. Some of them hold high positions in the MOE today, this is a fact, he did not invent anything new when he said that. Motakhalifeen wi akthar ba3ad.
Another thing you mentioned is his notation that Arabic language is dead. Hey we should not get over dramatic about this issue, we are talking about science and knowledge and Arabic is an artistic beautiful language, but its power in technology era stops right there. It is not a universal language, so when knowledge and information is the main concern Arabic language is dead.
March 24th, 2005 at 11:25 pm
Ayya,
When knowledge and information are the concerns then Music and Art are dead too.
Arabic is our identity, even if we’re using english, Arabic is our native tongue.. Arabic is who we are, whether we like it -want it- or not!
Za3alteeni wallah..
March 25th, 2005 at 12:17 am
Rasheed,
I agree.
Then let’s drop Spanish, French, Urdu, and Swahili since they can’t catch up with western advancements in technology.
March 25th, 2005 at 12:26 am
This post has been removed by the author.
March 25th, 2005 at 12:31 am
Back in the day, especially for the average woman, getting a “ma3had mu3allimat” degree was an achievement. I don’t think they headed there because they failed other options.
I’m mature and confident enough to not take Baghdadi’s article and its negative generalizations personal. But if i want to think like the average Kuwaiti Joe, my beloved mother and auntie are both ma3had mu3allimat graduates. My mom is a sports teacher and Auntie is arabic/religion teacher. Yet they’re 2 of the most sweet, open-minded, and intelligent women/teachers i’ve known. Again if i was an average Kuwaiti, i’d build my opinion by taking his article personally about my mom and auntie.
And that’s what’s hurting him, publicly. The average person doesn’t based opinions on principles and constitution, they base it on personal connection with this public figure and his ideas. So here comes the importance of expressing your ideas in a more polite and persuasive manner, as Q said. You want to be heard, you gotta have public support. You can’t win the public by such negative generalizations.
I hope the point is clear.
March 25th, 2005 at 1:23 am
Rasheed
You might not know how infatuated I am with the Arabic language, the point I was trying to make is that science; although started with Arabs, and I am proud of that, it continued in the west. I’m not against Arabic teachings in Schools, on the contrary, I was just trying to see Albagdadi’s point of view concerning this issue.
In our public schools, all the materials are presented in Arabic language, and Islamic preaching is reinforced in each and every subject, while English is only treated like a second language barely enough to be able to communicate. Most graduates of these schools, if not exposed to the west, find it hard to do a simple research if the material is not available in Arabic (most of the time they aren’t) and that is the reason why most of us have to pay dearly to private schools.
Jandeef
I do not understand why you took this issue personally; I was referring to males here not females, because there were other issues when it came to females. I was referring to the ones that hold and control the education system here in Kuwait, take a visit to jam3iyat elmo3alimeen and see for yourself. And a mother like yours who raised a son with such mentality deserves a monument.
March 25th, 2005 at 11:41 pm
Im sorry to interupt the discussion, but I just have to say that although this post didnt get the most comments, this has to be the most enlightened and civilized ive ever had in my blog!
Just saying thank you guys (and gal)!
June 24th, 2006 at 10:57 am
nmrjg yuublfw evfzfsyr
June 24th, 2006 at 2:12 pm
Just had an email from a student who finds it a bit odd that lecturers would be bloggers. Nice odd, though.
June 24th, 2006 at 4:42 pm
Your confidence allows you to take your general awareness and channel it into creativity.
June 25th, 2006 at 12:41 am
I like the idea of googles happy birthday warhol thing, but its not the most attractive of their logos, is it?
June 25th, 2006 at 11:03 am
Where football and kids are concerned, I have a tendency to turn into Brian Glover in Kes
June 25th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
(And discreet lovers who know what Sexyland really is might understand why I still love catalogs.)
June 26th, 2006 at 9:32 am
Just heard about this via LINGUIST. The bit that intrigued me is the suggestion that machines can measure how drunk you are based on prosody alone.
June 26th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
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