One Arab’s Perspective: Since When Was Throwing Shoes A Big Deal In The Arab World?

Paul Ibrahim, who is of Arabic descent himself, wonders where the media got the idea that throwing ones shoes at someone was sort of Arabic cultural statement.
Being an Arab who grew up in the Arab world, I was quite fascinated by progressive journalism graduates’ attempts to show me how my culture played such a big role in the shoe attack (granted, as a conservative, I’m predisposed to be suspicious of anyone with a journalism degree, but I digress). “Really,” I thought? Thinking I was the only one who missed out on this part of Arab culture, I asked some fellow Arabs - and they were just as interested to learn about their culture from the Associated Press. Yes, in some parts of the Arab world, you try to keep from sticking your shoes into someone’s face in a social setting, a matter of basic etiquette. But the idea that the shoe-launcher considered the “insulting” element of the shoe a factor is completely an invention of the mainstream media.
Read the whole thing.
I have a feeling that if some heckler threw his shoes at Obama the reaction would be much, much different.
By Rob
http://sayanythingblog.com/entry/one_arabs_perspective_since_when_was_throwing_shoes_a_big_deal_in_the_arab/
As in the days of Noah....