"Insults to masculinity are insults to family, to nation, to religion"

[Mandate My Ass]

The Bush administration downplays the Abu Ghraib torture scandal at its own peril. Reprimands are just not going to cut it here and when Bush opens his ignorant piehole to Arab news agencies today it will only become clearer to them than ever that the situation in Iraq was, is, and will remain FUBAR because this administration does not have a clue.

This article gives excellent insight into the horror those pictures evoke in the Arab world.

http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/8589981.htm

Arab Americans say pictures cost U.S. its image as liberator

The scenes of abuse and humiliation remind a Philadelphia man of life under Hussein's rule.

By Gaiutra Bahadur
Inquirer Staff Writer

<snip>

Societies in the Middle East are generally more conservative about exposed bodies and sexuality than those in the West - a fact that makes the actions of U.S. soldiers at Abu Ghraib even more inflammatory.

"I don't go outside without a shirt," said Saleh, a U.S. resident for three decades. "It's forbidden to us; this is not our culture. This is not our belief."

"This is a community that's very, very modest," Kreidie said. "You go to one of the baths, and people walk around with towels on. For men to see naked men is bad enough, but for a woman to see naked men is just outrageous... .


<snip>

"The loss of face is unbearable."

[enough]

1. And not only cultural.

snip>

In many countries in the Middle East, gender roles are more sharply defined than in the West, said Roger Allen, a professor of Arabic at the University of Pennsylvania.

"Insults to masculinity are insults to family, to nation, to religion," he said.

The abuse by U.S. soldiers captured on camera was so extreme, he added, that it's more appropriate to talk about insults to humanity rather than to culture.

"I can't think of any society in the world where those pictures are not grossly demeaning and reflective of the basest instincts of humanity," he said. "I can be legalistic about what Islam says about this or that," but the photos "reached such a debased level of morality, I can't differentiate between one culture and another."

snip>



Except there IS one culture that doesn't seem to think it's a problem. That is the one represented by Hannity when he says it's no more than a fraternity hazing prank.

[SnohoDem]

2. Very good point in your last sentence

Janet Jackson's mostly exposed tit is reason for an enormous hue and cry, while photos of naked, abused men are a prank?

I hate the smell of hypocrisy in the morning. Smells like... wingnuts.

[JitterbugPerfume]

3. de -humanise

the so called "ememy"

then you can do any humiliating thing to him you want to

[Tinoire]

4. Excellent point n/t