Moon
New member
Ok, I have not read everything being said after my last post here but I will just copy my reply on Caroline's pm in the very slightest hope people might finally understand where I'm coming from:
And yes, my answer to Mya on my page includes the word "Arabic", because the thread where we were talking about happened to be in this language! Had it been in the north-eastern dialect of Kalaallisut I would have responded in exactly the same way. And now I won't respond in this thread anymore. Go ahead thinking what an evil anti-Arab person I am and finding "prove" for that in my profile for all I care.
As it is right now, yes I am upset and yes I am starting to regret coming back to the forum in the first place. Fortunately there are people here who know me well enough to understand I have no mistrust or hatred of any culture.
Hi Caroline,
Thank you for your message. I want to apologise for taking the Westerners mistrusting Arabs remark as an insult, because you probably didn't mean it as such, but I couldn't help I did and that's why I decided to make no further reply on the topic. I was very angry and that's usually no good condition to be in when making posts.
I realise you don't know me and that's probably why you and other people here don't understand what issues I have with this thread. First of all it has nothing to do with it being in Arabic. I have been raised with tolerance and respect to other cultures and religions, my parents even own the Quran. I've visited several Arabic-speaking countries and in general I find the people there very friendly. I'm interested in the more traditional styles of bellydancing and I've even tried to learn a bit of basic Arabic, though it's hard to learn from the internet and I have currently no time or money to study it seriously. Please understand it can be painful for those Westerners that are pissed off by their own country's media which tries to make people afraid of Muslims, when someone immediately mentions the anti-Arab attitude just because they say they disapprove of people speaking another language than English on an English forum. It's just as annoying as it is for Arabs when someone assumes all Arabs are terrorists. I would have spoken the same way if the thread had been in Swahili or any other language.
It is just a big pet peeve of mine, not just here but in any international place where people start speaking a language that most others can't understand. I've been called a traitor in the past by a bunch of Dutch people in an international chat box, just because I refused to speak in Dutch with them. I just don't understand why people do that on an international place, while there are plenty of places on internet where you can go to speak your own language. Sorry for making this into a long story but I hope giving you a bit more insight in who I am and how I think will assure you it has nothing to do with the thread being Arabic, just with the thread being non-English. To be honest I don't even care much for what is being said in there, it's more the principle.
Again, thanks for your pm,
Moon
And yes, my answer to Mya on my page includes the word "Arabic", because the thread where we were talking about happened to be in this language! Had it been in the north-eastern dialect of Kalaallisut I would have responded in exactly the same way. And now I won't respond in this thread anymore. Go ahead thinking what an evil anti-Arab person I am and finding "prove" for that in my profile for all I care.
As it is right now, yes I am upset and yes I am starting to regret coming back to the forum in the first place. Fortunately there are people here who know me well enough to understand I have no mistrust or hatred of any culture.