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Inside the Arab Mind! 33

Professor Raphael Patai, the eminent Israeli Arabist who is quoted in this article, says the
“rules that restrict contact between men and women, have the effect of making sex a prime mental
preoccupation in the Arab world” (ibid., p. 118). And an Arab wrote of his own people: “Sex is our
eternal headache, the incubus that devours us day and night. If you ask me about the size of the
sexual problem I will tell you that it is exactly the same size as our cranium, so that there is not a sin-
gle convolution in the Arab brain which is not tumescent with sex” (Nazar Qabbani, On Poetry, Sex
and Revolution).

A favorite topic of discussion among Arabs is the immorality of Western women, and John
Laffin says: “Because of the frustrations and repressions which follow the rigidly held sexual mores
and prohibitions of his own society, the Arab is dangerous to women of other nationalities...When
Arabs go abroad their projected sexual adventures loom more important than any work or study”
(The Arab Mind, p. 86, 90). Dr. Sania Hamady, herself an Arab and one of the leading authorities
on Arab psychology, observes that “whenever an Arab man finds himself alone with a woman, he
makes sexual approaches to her” (ibid., p. 90).

Sex is an all-consuming passion. It occupies an Arab’s thoughts night and day and often ex-
presses itself in violence and brutality brought about by sheer sexual frustration. Sigmund Freud,
and other psychoanalysts and psychologists, find a clear link between aggression and sexuality. The
intensity of aggression is always related to the intensity of the sex drive. The continuous upheavals
and violence in the Arab world is a way of “taking the mind off the consuming pre-occupation with
sex” (Laffin, The Arab Mind, p. 93). This “pre-occupation” is “expressed by going to near certain
death in a coup against the establishment, in a factional fight, or in an act of terrorism. Death in such
an event would bring its own reward -- the martyr would find himself among many beautiful, and
more importantly, willing girls in paradise” (ibid.).

Substituting Words for Actions

The Arab is notorious for substituting words for actions. It is believed by most Western Ara-
bists and even by many Arabs themselves, that Arabs never carry out their threats or intentions. Stu-
dents of the Arab world rightly conclude that there is a penchant to substitute words for actions, but
this is not an ironclad rule, and it is extremely dangerous to regard it as such. Certainly, there are
topics on which the Arabs have waxed eloquent for over 50 years without any action having taken
place, but given a sufficiently powerful motivation, they will always attempt to carry out their
threats. Israeli defeats of Arab armies in 1948, 1956, 1967, 1969, 1973, and again in 1982 provides
such motivation. The Arab world has been repeatedly shamed -- honor must be restored, and Arabs
will patiently plan revenge for years, even decades, if need be.

Concerning the belief that words are always substituted for actions, take as an example the
October 1973 Yom Kippur War. The Egyptian Deputy Foreign Minister, Salah Gohar, was asked by
Time magazine about all the sabre-rattling declarations against Israel. Gohar replied: “When Arabs
argue, they start on opposite sides of the sidewalks and shout at one another, ‘I will carve you in
pieces!’ and ‘You’ll never see another sunset!’ Then, after ten or 15 minutes, they walk away and
nobody gets hurt” (cited in Patai, The Arab Mind, p. 60). Time believed him. The world believed
him. The Israeli government believed him. Even Yitzhak Rabin, Chief of General Staff during the
1967 Six Day War and then Israel’s Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, believed him. Three

The Berean Voice November-December 2002