\u201cOnce more, on the supposed psychology of Islamic suicide bombing\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe obsession for purity, which dreads the female body while also craving it, is a recurrent theme in political Islam. \u00a0[The 9-11 terrorist pilot Mohammed] Atta . . . fixated on rescuing his Islamic madina<\/em>, Cairo, from Westernization. \u00a0Meaning \u201ccity\u201d in Arabic and having a feminine gender, madina provides the variant for Medina, the name of the second holiest city in Islam. . . . \u00a0[Israeli clinical psychologist and psychoanalyst Avner] Falk notes that Jerusalem, and cities in general, often represent the idealized archaic Early Mother.\u201d \u00a0(43)<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
I dunno. \u00a0Am I being churlish when I wonder aloud what the exact evidence is for the proposition that \u201cJerusalem, and cities in general, often represent the idealized archaic Early Mother\u201d? \u00a0When I ask on what factual basis Dr. Kobrin links a concern for \u201cpurity\u201d in political Islam with a simultaneous dread of and craving for \u201cthe female body\u201d? \u00a0Some specific actual evidence would be nice.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
Am I being pedantic when I point out that madina<\/em> isn\u2019t a \u201cvariant\u201d of the name of the important Arabian city called Medina but, rather, simply a different transliteration of precisely the same Arabic word (\u0671\u0644\u0652\u0645\u064e\u062f\u0650\u064a\u0652\u0646\u064e\u0629)? \u00a0And that it can also appear as Mad\u012bnah<\/em> and\u00a0<\/b>Mad\u012bna <\/em>and as\u00a0al-Mad\u012bnah an-Nabawiyyah<\/i><\/i>\u00a0<\/em>(\u0671\u0644\u0652\u0645\u064e\u062f\u0650\u064a\u0652\u0646\u064e\u0629 \u0671\u0644\u0646\u064e\u0651\u0628\u064e\u0648\u0650\u064a\u064e\u0651\u0629<\/span>)\u00a0<\/em>and\u00a0Mad\u012bnat an-Nab\u012b<\/i><\/i>\u00a0<\/em>(\u0645\u064e\u062f\u0650\u064a\u0652\u0646\u064e\u0629 \u0671\u0644\u0646\u064e\u0651\u0628\u0650\u064a<\/span>, \u201cCity of the Prophet\u201d) and al-Mad\u012bnah al-Munawwarah<\/i><\/i>\u00a0(\u0671\u0644\u0652\u0645\u064e\u062f\u0650\u064a\u0652\u0646\u064e\u0629 \u0671\u0644\u0652\u0645\u064f\u0646\u064e\u0648\u064e\u0651\u0631\u064e\u0629<\/span>\u200e,\u00a0\u201cthe radiant city\u201d)?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Is it wrong to doubt that the sheer fact that the word madina<\/em>\u00a0is\u00a0grammatically feminine necessarily entails deep psychological or psychoanalytic significance? \u00a0Is it too much to demand some argument in support of such an assertion?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Arabic nouns are all<\/em> either masculine or feminine. \u00a0All non-human plural nouns are feminine. \u00a0The gender of inanimate nouns is largely arbitrary. \u00a0Some are feminine for no immediately obvious reason; some are feminine because of their form (e.g., the presence of a t\u0101\u02bc marb\u016b\u1e6dah<\/i><\/i> [\u062a\u064e\u0627\u0621 \u0645\u064e\u0631\u0652\u0628\u064f\u0648\u0637\u064e\u0629]). \u00a0I doubt that most native speakers of Arabic are thinking about their Early Mother when they\u2019re discussing a \u201chand\u201d or a \u201cnose\u201d (feminine) instead of an \u201carm\u201d or a \u201cmouth\u201d (masculine), any more than most German speakers are thinking of the Early Mother when they\u2019re talking about an onion (die Zwiebel<\/em>) or a library (die B\u00fccherei<\/em>) or a fork (die Gabel<\/em>), all of which are\u00a0feminine (as opposed, say, to a table [der\u00a0Tisch<\/em>]\u00a0or a spoon [der L\u00f6ffel<\/em>], both of which are masculine).<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
This is science<\/em>?<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Another passage from\u00a0Nancy Hartevelt Kobrin, The Banality of Suicide Terrorism: The Naked Truth About the Psychology of Islamic Suicide Bombing (Dulles, VA: Potomac Books. 2010), a book on which I\u2019ve commented in two previous blog entries: \u00a0 \u201c\u2018The psychology of Islamic suicide bombing\u2019?\u201d \u00a0 \u201cOnce more, on the supposed psychology of Islamic suicide […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[3355,195,66,1691,3352,2956,2896,2893],"class_list":["post-70447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-9-11","tag-arab","tag-islam","tag-islam-and-violence","tag-psychoanalysis","tag-psychology-of-religion","tag-terrorism","tag-terrorist"],"yoast_head":"\n
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<\/a>