In addition to learning Arabic, we have been learning a great deal about perceptions of America and the West. Some situations are a bit uncomfortable and other times it is just plain funny. Many things that are forbidden in Islam we in the West engage in openly and frequently. We drink alcohol and have sex without marriage to name a few.
One of the more humorous encounters was with our Iraqi friend Jamal. One evening over tea, he was telling me how he would like to move his family to the US but had concerns. He was asking me about teenage girls having sex without marriage and having babies at 13 years old. I tried to explain that this isn’t common and that many women don’t have kids until they are in their 30s. Not only did he not seem to believe me on this topic but he also was convinced that women there would be begging for sex. I am not sure if he meant that he is that desired or if he was just inferring that American women are sexually voracious. Either way, it’s highly unlikely for this to happen but I couldn’t convince him of that either. Another time, his wife asked me if it is true that you can buy sex in stores the same as you buy clothes. The first thing that came to mind was “no, that’s in Amsterdam”. Plenty of Muslims live there too (although I didn’t say this).
There is some truth to their perceptions of the US. I was kicking myself because just days after I was staunchly defending that teenage pregnancy isn’t the norm, the number one Google headline was Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant. Sex before marriage is a common thing and women have children out of wedlock. His fears aren’t groundless but I tried to explain that just because these things exist in America doesn’t mean that they have to do them too. I guess it is one of those things that people have to see for themselves to believe.
From what I have read, global jihad is surprisingly tied to phoebia of women (theres probably a word for it). First generation jihadist Qutb traveled to the U.S. in the fifties. A knock on his stateroom door was a hooker. He found it an abomination and it colored his entire stay in the U. S. Upon his return to Egypt he began a Jihad to instantiate the Shiria as the basis of all islamic governments.
Disaffected Arab youth appear to be hugely conflicted. On the one hand their religious training demands rigorous moral strength and fidelity. On the other they have the same carnal instincts of all males. If they can keep all the woman covered, their temptations are controllable. When they are exposed to an unaccustomed female openness it stirs their instincts generating feelings forbidden by their religion. It must really frighten them. They hate us for nothing less than tempting them to get sent to hell.
I agree there is some substance to their observations. Not enough, however, to mistreat and subjegate woman or to destroy the world economy because your hormones run amok.