Sunday, November 21, 2004
Every picture tells a story
and it's not the same story in every culture
In many major American newspapers and, undoubtedly, soon throughout the Muslim world is a photo of conquering Marines inside a Fallujah mosque "resting on a plush red carpet." This one picture tells why the "liberating forces" enjoy such low popular support. As Zeynep remarked on the informative site Under the Same Sun, "Does anyone understand anything about religious feelings in general or about Islam in particular? Have they spent even half a day watching a documentary or two about Islam and noticed that people carefully and respectfully take their shoes off before entering a mosque, where they will kneel and put their head on that carpet? (Those "plush red carpets", by the way, are prayer rugs, or "sajjade." And you don't step on them with your combat boots, especially inside a mosque, and smile for the cameras unless you really want to fight to the death with up to a billion people. This is either the most arrogant, incompetent, ignorant occupation, ever, or the most clever, insidious, skillful effort towards bringing about an apocalyptic world war."
In many major American newspapers and, undoubtedly, soon throughout the Muslim world is a photo of conquering Marines inside a Fallujah mosque "resting on a plush red carpet." This one picture tells why the "liberating forces" enjoy such low popular support. As Zeynep remarked on the informative site Under the Same Sun, "Does anyone understand anything about religious feelings in general or about Islam in particular? Have they spent even half a day watching a documentary or two about Islam and noticed that people carefully and respectfully take their shoes off before entering a mosque, where they will kneel and put their head on that carpet? (Those "plush red carpets", by the way, are prayer rugs, or "sajjade." And you don't step on them with your combat boots, especially inside a mosque, and smile for the cameras unless you really want to fight to the death with up to a billion people. This is either the most arrogant, incompetent, ignorant occupation, ever, or the most clever, insidious, skillful effort towards bringing about an apocalyptic world war."
