Sunday, March 4, 2007

Debate or Fitna??

Among the lots of things that I have learned during my stay in the US is to respect other's opinions even though they look offensive, untrue, or not at all making sense at times. Recently, there was this stirred debate on the infamous Facebook in which many fellow Arab students started a heated discussion about an upcoming movie which describes some sterotypes about Arabs in the US. I have watched the trailer of the movie and i thought it was pretty funny and revealing at the same time, but it might have a dangerous potential for stabilizing these sterotypes in the minds of Americans in general. Regardless of the outcomes of the movie, which should be investigated when the movie is out, i should say that the debate which was stirred about it has gone too far and some faulty or wrong replies came out as a result of this debate. What was interesting about the debate is the mass email phenomenon that included people (whose unfortunate luck drove them to be in this unfortunate email list) and which drove some people to be disrespectful in their language. But the funny thing is that this debate was considered by some people as fitna which should have been quenched from its roots.

Anyways, debate is still a debate if its sole purpose is to stir up good discussion about some topic, but not for the mere objective of just talking for the hell of it (which we might be very famous for!!). Now i can rest my mind peacefully after all this mass email thing has ended without any further troubles, HOPEFULLY!!