February 16, 2006
sui generis
We've been hearing lots of generalizations lately about what Islam is, and what Islam believes, etc. I think they are as much the bunk as similar generalizations about Christians would be. You never hear them from people who are actually dealing with Moslems--they always write about character of the people in the local town or tribe or ethnic group.
Blogger Dennis the Peasant is an advisor to the Somali Community Association of Ohio, which represents about 30,000 Somali refugees in central Ohio. He's started a series of posts about his adventures working with them. They are certainly some odd ducks, but don't resemble any Moslem stereotypes I've ever heard...
The latest post is about an election the association held in 2002. Their first election, and the first election of any kind for most of them.
....Happily, as the campaign season progressed, the atmosphere seemed to grow less tense, if not more relaxed. That isn’t to say the intensity of the electioneering diminished. It didn’t. But as the weeks passed and the Somalis saw that the candidates were actually soliciting their votes, that there were no spies, that there were no goons or killings or bombs, it began to dawn on them that this was really going to happen... they were really going to have a voice. And once they began to believe, the anger, distrust and suspicion turned to excitement. It was an amazing transformation to watch....Posted by John Weidner at February 16, 2006 07:04 PM
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...For whatever reason, Somalis (or at least the Somalis I have dealt with) consider a closed door to be an invitation to come in unannounced and find if who or what they’re looking for happens to be around. It took a while for me to get used to people barging into whatever room I happened to be in when I was at the Association, but by the time this young Somali man, whom I had never seen before, came barreling through the door, I was used to it enough that I wasn’t really taken by surprise.
“Hello,” I said.
He was a young man, in his 20s, and quite handsome. He was tall and slender, but well built. An athlete. He didn’t respond to my greeting. He just stood there with the most amazing look on his face – a combination of excitement, exuberance and, quite frankly, what appeared to be rapture – and his eyes were as bright as a man’s could be.
He stared at me for a moment, smiled a huge smile and said, “We’re having an election!”
That was it. He turned around and was gone, slamming the door behind him.
I have not seen him since....
Interesting post, both by you and by the one you are quoting. How I appreciate it when I see things such as this "I think they are as much the bunk as similar generalizations about Christians would be"! Well said.
One other problem is that the TV pundits who always are brought in as experts on "Islam" (whatever that means) are often either authors of quite polemical treatise on Islam, or some sort of religious nut. I am yet to see one of the professors whose books I read on the tellie.
People are, near as I can tell, just people. Given certain sorts of incentives, they tend to behave in certain sorts of ways. What we call culture tends to be a reaction to those incentives. Cultures that react well to a wide range of incentives will tend to thrive. The fact that American culture tends to let individuals do pretty much anything means that we’re reacting fairly well to pretty much the broadest array of incentives humanity has seen. And that’s why we do so well...
The question I have (I’m sure the linked blog answers it, but not the linked post) is how central Ohio ended up with 30,000 Somalis?
It usually happens that one or a few people settle somewhere, and then others from the old country want to go to the same place to be with their own kind.
I've read that in the past you could find tenement buildings in New York filled entirely with people from one village in Greece or Poland or Sicily...
Posted by: John Weidner at February 17, 2006 08:25 PM
