AIBU be absolutely horrified that this product is widely sold in Egypt?

[notamum3210]

Backstory: I'm half Egyptian and was recently there with family. We needed to buy some pesticide and this product was recommended by a local shop.
My fiance is certainly horrified. He posted this to reddit last night www.reddit.com/r/WTF/comments/3r96k8/my_fianc%C3%A9_went_to_egypt_and_went_to_buy_some_bug/

Warning: there's a lot of awful commenting.

I know that casual anti-semitism is rife across the Arab world and even, shamefully, my extended family but even this shocked me. According to the shopowner, it's one of their topselling products and sold across the country. He also seemed to find it hilarious.

Egypt is horribly anti Semitic (I find this word strange though, as Egyptians, or at least Arabs are themselves a Semitic people)

There's a certain depressing amusement when you shift your perspective as to how various peoples see each other. I know some people of Indian sub-continent background who are antipathetic (at best ) towards people of an afro-caribbean background. Yet to a BNP supporter, they would both be "***"s (I'm sure people can imagine a nasty racist epithet).

Or the cultural sparring that goes on between Manchester and Liverpool. To most people from London you're all a bunch of Northerners.

To me, there a myriad of diverse cultures and peoples in the world, all with their own differences. Yet to a racist there are only two: "us" and "them" ... they're so close - closer than you or I - to realising we are all one.

I'm a bit confused there, LurkingHusband. Are you suggesting we all become racists to understand the oneness of humanity?

All the Egyptians I know show a depressing preference for white skin and would be horrified to think that anyone would think of them as people of colour. Not sure if this is about post colonial notions of power or what.

shovetheholly my comments were directed at Arab culture, and Iranians aren't Arab. I'm sure that there are nuanced and subtle Arab comedians out there, but I have an extended Arab family and lived in the ME for half of my life and the vast majority of humour I have encountered leans heavily on slapstick, anti-semitism, racism, misogyny and general offensiveness. So that's where my POV originates from.

Mind you my welsh relatives are not that much better

I'm a bit confused there, LurkingHusband. Are you suggesting we all become racists to understand the oneness of humanity?

It's part of a comedy routine, pointing out how complex everything is, including the notion of racism, given that race has no real meaning.

All the Egyptians I know show a depressing preference for white skin and would be horrified to think that anyone would think of them as people of colour.

Wasn't there a sketch/running gag on "Goodness Gracious Me" with a similar point ? There was an (obviously) Indian couple, but they really thought they were "English" ?

There's also Reginald D. Hunters comment that "class is how you discriminate against people that look like you."

CactusAnnie

I've learned a lot, reading this thread. What I may or may not think now may (or may not) be the same as Tue 03-Nov-15 08:33:15 when I blundered in here.

Oh, and easy mistake but I was paraphrasing Richard Herring, not Stewart Lee. Maybe they all look the same ?

So just to be clear:

I can't see any clarity there at all. Just some inference as to what I may (or may not) have thought at some point in the past 48 hours. I'm flattered at your interest in things I may (or may not) have thought at some point in the past. But I'm not quite sure what it has to do with what I do (or do not) think at the moment.

HTH HAND

CactusAnnie

One of us must be enjoying this ....

It's not ok but given the geography and history of the region and that many of these people were alive and maybe even fought and lost against the Israelis - it's not surprising or even that shocking. You know there is a lot of hate, mistrust between Israel and it's neighbours. It happening in the UK, would be shocking.

No, sadly it's not surprising at all (to me anyway). I don't think it should be occurring though.

LurkingHusband

There's a certain depressing amusement when you shift your perspective as to how various peoples see each other.

Or the cultural sparring that goes on between Manchester and Liverpool. To most people from London you're all a bunch of Northerners.

Completely agree; at various times we slot ourselves (and others) into different sets of a complicated Venn diagram, whether it's distinctions between parentage and place of birth, appearance, football supporter, language, car driver/truck driver/cyclist - we're forever defining categories and distinctions, instead of looking at similarities.

Why are you surprised? The Arabs are notoriously anti-Jewish and the Mufti of Jerusalem (Amin al-Husseini) was friends with Hitler and was very supportive of the holocaust. Mein Kampf is one of the best selling books in the Islamic world.

It's basically implying that Jews are insects (makes a change from pigs and apes) .

Mein Kampf is one of the best selling books in the Islamic world

I thought you must surely have got that wrong, so have just been googling - and it appears there's truth in it after all

Words fail me ...

Well said, CactusAnnie. I too have been thoroughly shocked by some of the comments on this thread.

^^This. Amazed how many people are prepared to twist and turn and misinterpret the facts to defend the indefensible.

Funny, if it was the other way around there would be hysterical screams of "Islamophobia" and "racism" and we would never hear the end of it. Apparently Arab and Muslim racism against Jews is acceptable for some reason. The last fashionable form of racism.

No, I don't agree. I think a lot of people would (and do) happily embrace Islamaphobia. Quite a few of them would be the same as those who embrace anti-semitism.

Totally agree CactusAnnie. I think what Lurking is trying to say is that he is far too sophisticated and urbane simply to see something anti-Semitic as anti-Semetic. Because he knows far more about the subtle nuances of other cultures and can understand it on the level of the culture in which it was found to appreciate the witticism therein.

Which is a very fucking pretentious way of saying that if he thought northerners were some sort of glamorous ethnic group he'd be telling us all we were too ignorant to understand the culture of Rochdale or Chorley or Blackpool to appreciate the subtle nuances of the humour of Bernard Manning.

Great posts CactusAnnie - just great. thank you.

booyaka, you take a more generous view of Lurking than I would. I think he/she is just thick. Now not so thick he/she couldn't have a punt at some cultural relativism to justify the anti-semitism, but certainly too thick to actually maintain the argument in any sort of coherent fashion.

if it was the other way around there would be hysterical screams of "Islamophobia" and "racism" and we would never hear the end of it

This ^^

Oh no canyouforgiveher I agree about the thick. And the very special sort of thick that thinks it's really clever. The one where if they say things they don't really understand in a very flowery way, other people will think they don't understand too, when actually an awful lot of people understand perfectly well it's just pretentiously presented bollocks.