Comments on: Throwing Insults http://blog.oup.com/2008/12/shoes/ Introducing brilliant authors to the blogosphere. Sat, 21 Nov 2009 22:43:07 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Jean http://blog.oup.com/2008/12/shoes/comment-page-1/#comment-148725 Jean Sun, 21 Dec 2008 06:54:10 +0000 http://blog.oup.com/?p=2663#comment-148725 I don't know if people here in the US understood just how great an insult was made by this journalist's actions. Certainly the police understood; he was arrested and beaten, quite severely from what I understand. Many Muslims were apologetic about the man's behavior, yet many Americans found the incident funny. My Islamic friends consider shoes to be filthy. The rug upon which we leave our shoes inside their home (cold climate) is never touched by bare feet. They put their shoes on with their left hand. As filthy as they consider shoes to be, they consider dogs to be filthier, perhaps the filthiest creature possible. Dogs are not fed or given homes in the countries where my friends grew up (Iran, Pakistan, Iraq). Dogs eat carrion and garbage, feed on the unburied human dead, are used to kill or dispose of the bodies of the outcast, the criminal and the irredeemable. Sometimes they are used to carry out an extra-judicial death sentence. My friends do their best to understand our love of the dog, but basically are disgusted that not only do we allow the dog into our home, but we treat it as a good friend (and in some cases, as family). It is the part of American culture they have the most trouble understanding. If there are insults in our culture as serious as these insults are in my friends' culture, I cannot think of them. I don’t know if people here in the US understood just how great an insult was made by this journalist’s actions. Certainly the police understood; he was arrested and beaten, quite severely from what I understand. Many Muslims were apologetic about the man’s behavior, yet many Americans found the incident funny.

My Islamic friends consider shoes to be filthy. The rug upon which we leave our shoes inside their home (cold climate) is never touched by bare feet. They put their shoes on with their left hand. As filthy as they consider shoes to be, they consider dogs to be filthier, perhaps the filthiest creature possible.

Dogs are not fed or given homes in the countries where my friends grew up (Iran, Pakistan, Iraq). Dogs eat carrion and garbage, feed on the unburied human dead, are used to kill or dispose of the bodies of the outcast, the criminal and the irredeemable. Sometimes they are used to carry out an extra-judicial death sentence.

My friends do their best to understand our love of the dog, but basically are disgusted that not only do we allow the dog into our home, but we treat it as a good friend (and in some cases, as family). It is the part of American culture they have the most trouble understanding.

If there are insults in our culture as serious as these insults are in my friends’ culture, I cannot think of them.

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