By Julie A. Miller
Catholic Herald

Speakers share insights into Muslim world

DULUTH, Minn. -- The reaction of most Americans to the Sept. 11 attacks was shock. But experts who understand the frustrations that American culture and foreign policy cause in the Arab and Muslim world were not shocked.

That was the message conveyed by Priscilla Starratt at a gathering on Oct. 30 at First United Methodist Church. She and Edith A. Dunn explained the cultural basis for the problems and probed the isolation of America from other cultures.

People need to understand the frustrations that caused the events of Sept. 11, Starratt said. First there is economic frustration. In many of the Muslim countries, population has grown so fast that no government, not even a socialist one, could keep up with the demand for services. Islamic organizations stepped into the gap as humanitarian aid societies and won the hearts and minds of the poor people in these countries.

The people were not allowed to vote for the Islamic groups that took care of them, because countries such as Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Algeria either allow no political opposition or have banned religious political parties. That leads to political frustration, Starratt said.

Cultural frustration is the third type. When poor countries are flooded with jeans, discotheques and porn films, it gives them a negative view of Western culture. "To a lot of people in the Muslim world who are not Ôhaves' ... the cultural invasion of the West is a slap in the face," Starratt said.

Much of the Arab world feels under attack, Starratt said. They wonder how the United States can allow the suffering caused by the economic boycott of Iraq. She added that another crucial issue is the United States supporting Israel, while turning its back on the Palestinians.

Starratt said Americans have to get across the bridge of not understanding, or being surprised at Middle Eastern feelings toward America. She added that understanding does not mean excusing of justifying the terrorist actions.

Starratt, a professor of African and Middle Eastern history at UW-Superior, knows about the Muslim world first hand. She lived in a Muslim city in northern Nigeria while doing research for her Ph.D.

Dunn is an Arab-American -- her maternal grandfather was a Christian Arab, born in Jordan. Dunn was born and raised in New Jersey, just 10 miles from the World Trade Center and has many connections with the site.

In 1993 the University of Jordan invited Dunn to participate in a survey of Middle Eastern vernacular architecture. Dunn said the way friends reacted to the news showed her that most Americans have only stereotypical views of Arabs. "During my time in Jordan I was treated with kindness and respect and hospitality," she said.

The people she met in Jordan liked America and Americans but were less enthusiastic about American foreign policy. Dunn said they were bitter about the large number of Iraqi civilians dying from a lack of food and medicine resulting from economic sanctions, and they were frustrated by American support for Israel despite human rights violations against Palestinians.

Dunn said she was horrified to learn that none of the U.S. foreign service officers and embassy personnel she met in Jordan spoke Arabic, and they rarely interacted with Jordanians.

To gauge the level of understanding of Arabs and Muslims locally, Dunn, who is on the staff of the University of Minnesota-Duluth Archaeometry Laboratory and a doctoral candidate in interdisciplinary archeological studies, recently did a survey at UMD. She asked 50 randomly selected students 15 multiple choice and true or false questions. They scored a dismal 33 percent correct. She also asked students in a regional geography class the same questions. They did slightly better at 50 percent.

Dunn said the low scores are indicative of a superficial understanding of the connections between Islam and Judeo-Christian religion and between Arab and European civilizations. Some students, for example, did not know that Christians, Jews and Muslims worship the same God.

Another question asked whether all Arabs have dark hair, dark eyes and dark complexions. Most of the students knew that statement was false, but some did not. Dunn said, profiling based on the assumption that all Muslims or all Arabs are dark-skinned, is not only a violation of civil rights, but it also rejects the possibility that a terrorist can be Ôwhite.' Dunn said, "As we all know from past events at Oklahoma City, that can be a dangerous assumption."

Starratt addressed the political aspects of American relations with the Arab world in her portion of the presentation which she titled, "The Price of Isolationism."

Starratt said Americans allow themselves to be so isolated they don't know the difference between an Arab and a Muslim. She cited lack of proper media coverage and lack of knowledge of geography as contributing to the problem.

About 60 people attended the event, which was sponsored by First United Methodist Church, First Unitarian Social Justice Committee, Understanding and Dismantling Racism Project, Duluth-Superior Fellowship of Reconciliation, Women Speak for a Sane World and the Northland Action for Peace and Justice.

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