The Mall vs. Muslims

In my last post, I alerted you all to the @america cultural center that recently opened in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The placement of an American “cultural center” in a shopping mall in a largely Muslim country seems ironic to me, to say the least.  It does, however, provide a great opportunity for us to think not only about the nature of the American culture generally, but also the nature of the conflict the American culture has with Islam (and vice versa).

The modern day shopping “mall” is not only an American cultural invention, but also our cultural icon.   A completely manufactured environment; perfection packaged for your consumption.  From the air we breath (ripe with Cinnabon), the temperature control, the relaxing muzak, to the indoor flora - the Mall provides us with the opportunity to live the good life, or at least buy some of the outer trappings to make our lives look good.

[Opinion Alert - Unqualified Opinion Follows]

What a better metaphor for the American culture than a shopping mall?  Our culture is about consumption, consumerism, expressing ourselves and exerting our freedom through our choice of brands. (Which seems counterintuitive to me, in terms of freedom, but who am I to judge - I am just a humble brandDR)

[Return to Objectivity] [Kind of]

I seem to remember a flurry of articles and news coverage around 9/11 that tried to answer the most pressing question of the day – “Why do they hate us?” 

The answer first was – they hate our freedom.  And, freedom isn’t free, so we have to fight them to protect our freedom and impose freedom on them.  Done and done.

But, they still hate us.  Hmmm…  perhaps our first answer was wrong.  They don’t hate our freedom, they hate our policies.  Ah, gotcha.  So our policy of imposing freedom through force, and our policy of imposing our cultural beliefs on them through a "cultural center" might be what’s bugging them.  

Here's my illustration of the situation:

I think my diagnosis is most in line with Bill Mahrer, who may have gotten closest to the “right” answer – “they hate us because we don’t know why they hate us.”

This clear lack of understanding of the Muslim culture, to me, is the big problem.  Through understanding comes appreciation, and tolerance of differences.  Why must we go “teach” Muslims about us, when we can just as easily “teach” ourselves about Muslims?  Home is where the heart is, not the hate is.  Let’s take care of that…