Naguib Mahfouz: A Western and Eastern Cage of Female Entrapment ...

Westerners have not traditionally embraced literature from the Middle East, perhaps because of an inherent bias nurtured by the media that posits the Arab as the Other. Roger Allen maintains, in “Arabic Literature and the Nobel Prize,” “the reception of Arabic literature in the West has…always been set within a complicated array of cultural attitudes,” leading to much controversy and misunderstanding (201). Many Westerners have preconceived notions about Middle Eastern culture even before they approach its literature. Films such as The Thousand and One Nights have conveyed images of exoticism in Middle Eastern culture and help to account for false representation for readers of non-Arabic countries. Reading fiction framed in such Islamic cultural stereotypes produces additional problems relating to Islam itself: many critics, when writing about Islam, intentionally or unintentionally, express biased, distorted, or even errant views and interpretations of both the Qur’an, the holy book of Islam, and the Hadith—the teachings of Mohammed outside of the Qur’an. Trying to decipher the central truths of these holy texts challenges any reader of Islamic mandates and traditions, especially nonnatives who come to the culture and the religion for the first time. Also complicating the mix are the historical quests of the West to Christianize Islamic societies and of Islamic cultures to Islamicize the West.

Add to this confusion authors who use their religious biases to antagonize further dissension and misunderstanding. Take, for instance, the Evangelical Christian assault on Islam by Ergun Mehmet Caner and Emir Fethi Caner. When Christians approached these authors for advice on sharing their faith in Jesus Christ with Muslims, Caner and Caner responded with the publication Unveiling Islam. The authors, despite their sincere intentions to evangelize, reveal what some might view as a lack of sensitivity to the deeply devout Muslim. When pressed to offer a perspective on the conversion of Muslims, they lament, there are “many cultural hurdles and potholes to maneuver” in trying “to witness to the 1.2 billion Muslims on the earth” (223). Their insensitivity may be attributed to the fact that they are ex-Muslim converts to Christianity, an unpopular status for a Muslim in the world of Islam. In fact, in some Islamic regions, this act might be punishable by death.