A curious thing happened while I was ordering a book for my Classics class, "Latin, Greek, and Arabic." When I order books online, I tend to look at the reviews. This particular book, "Greek Thought, Arabic Culture," focuses on the medieval period when Islamic Arabs in Baghdad translated countless books on science and technology from the ancient Greeks; this knowledge then spread to medieval Europe, which sparked the Renaissance. The book, however, received some extremely negative reviews not because it had been written poorly or inaccurately, but because the author had made some controversial comments at the outset of the Iraq War several years ago. In fact, it is important to note that the two worst reviews of this book were written in 2004, a time when anti−Islamic emotions reached a pinnacle.
At a time when the mainstream media was profiting off the tensions between "Islamic East" and "Christian West," it was not very popular to go around informing everyone that Arabs and Americans share the same cultural heritage — a heritage that should be preserved, not destroyed. To be precise, India, the Middle East, Europe and America all share common cultural and linguistic ancestors. This is not based on wishful thinking or liberal propaganda, but on historical, archaeological and literary evidence. Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the roots of the English alphabet were all created in the Middle East.
While it may be easier and comforting to view Arabs as completely different creatures, similar to Kafka's "The Metamorphosis" (1915), no one should be personally attacked online by cowards and fools for any reason. Of course, most people who make personal attacks online have little reason or common sense. Unfortunately, there is so much that a person cannot say or suggest in the mainstream media without being labeled and attacked from left and right. That is the biggest flaw of putting democracy and free speech as the highest virtues: When right and wrong become a matter of who speaks first and loudest, then religion and ethics become obsolete. Then again, people have a way of conveniently forgetting about their religion or morals when it suits them to commit horrific and malevolent acts (that goes for people of all religions).
Moreover, this instance of scholarship being attacked online for no reason begs the question: can anyone — be it in the media, politics or just online — can any one of us allow ignorant, baseless remarks to go unchecked? Or is it a moral duty to fend off ignorance and raise the level of debate? It is heartening, and also curious, that more people in the last two years have defended the book I am reading, posting much more positive reviews online.
Between globalization and the rise of the internet, it has become clear that education cannot be restricted to the classroom, nor to Northern Europe and America. Everyone should strive to learn and keep an open mind, for as long as one lives. It is still a big world out there, full of information and stories we do not yet know. For college students today, there is a heavy burden to get a degree for the main purpose of acquiring a decent job later on. Still, it is just as important to keep in mind that college is about inquiring after, exploring and examining the myriad of intellectual avenues available. They are all connected, anyway.
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