V Y TAU TA S M AG N US U N I V E R SI T Y
FAC U LT Y OF P OL I T IC A L S C I E NC E A N D DI PL OM AC Y
DE PA RT M E N T OF P OL I T IC A L S C I E NC E
Egdūnas Račius • Linas Venclauskas • Gintarė Žukaitė
Intercultural Communication
DIDACTICAL GUIDELINES
Kaunas, 2013
Reviewed by assoc. prof. dr. Kristina Juraitė
Approved by the Department of Political Science of the Faculty of Political
Science and Diplomacy at Vytautas Magnus University on 12 December 2012
(Protocol No. 7a)
Recommended for printing by the Council of the Faculty of of Political Science
and Diplomacy of Vytautas Magnus University on 7 January 2013
(Protocol No. 54)
Translated and edited by UAB “Lingvobalt”
Publication of the didactical guidelines is supported by the European Social Fund
(ESF) and the Government of the Republic of Lithuania. Project title: “Renewal
and Internationalization of Bachelor Degree Programmes in History, Ethnology,
Philosophy and Political Science” (project No.: VP1-2.2-ŠMM-07-K-02-048)
ISBN 978-9955-21-353-6
© Egdūnas Račius, 2013
© Linas Venclauskas, 2013
© Gintarė Žukaitė, 2013
© Vytautas Magnus University, 2013
Contents
I. Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. 1. Historical background . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1. 2. The concept of intercultural communication . . . 1. 3. The main concepts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . II. Stereotypes and Propaganda . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 1. Stereotypes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2. 2. Propaganda and reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . III. Clash of Civilizations, Orientalism And Cultural
Awareness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 1. ‘Cultural awareness’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 2. The trap of orientalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 3. An example of accidental miscommunication? Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses as something between art and provocation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 4. Example I of intentional miscommunication: Theo
van Gogh – an artist or an instigator of hatred? . . 4. 5. Example II of intentional miscommunication: Muhammad’s cartoons rage as the outcome of malevolence and lack of education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4. 6. Example III of intentional miscommunication:
Geert Wilders – the call of fire to himself? . . . . . 4. 7. An example of unintentional miscommunication:
The US army in Iraq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
7
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40
45
50
52
57
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Intercultural Communication
IV. Cultural Variety of MuslimSocieties and Commu­
ni­ties:Muslim Demography andDifferent Aspects of
Islam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. 1. Globalization and migration to Europe . . . . . . 5. 2. Integration of Muslim immigrants into European
societies: a bitter experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5. 3. Muslims in Lithuania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Literary Sources Used andRecommended Literature . . . 73
82
86
90
93
Dear students, these didactical guidelines are intended for students
of political science and communication who have chosen the study
subject of Intercultural Communication. These guidelines consist
of two major parts, i. e., the theoretical part and the practical part
which illustrates the theoretical part. The first part introduces the
discipline of Intercultural Communication, its development and the
main concepts; it also introduces the reader to the origin and influence of stereotypes, to the concept of propaganda, and its influence
is also discussed. Inevitably, every day we face various religious and
cultural identities. For this, it is not necessary to travel, one just
needs to turn on a TV or surf online, therefore, the competencies
of intercultural communication are very important, especially in
the age of universal comments and statements: one can easily insult
someone and incite hatred, but it is difficult to manage hatred.
This publication presents both theory and practical examples
which show how stereotypes are created, and how they remain
unchanged for decades or even centuries; it presents the ways how
collective consciousness functions, how and in what ways it can be
influenced, how to avoid yielding to mass psychosis. It is to be mentioned too that the theories and examples of this publication are
based on scientific evidence, but simultaneously they are of general
nature, i. e., it is not that each individual necessarily satisfies all given characteristics and descriptions. Therefore, the theory provided
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Intercultural Communication
will help to understand the variety of cultures and to recognize
their features, but every individual case can be beyond typological restrictions, therefore the acquired knowledge has to be applied
critically and responsibly.
In communication, especially, intercultural communication,
there is always “the other” that exists, therefore it is very important
how he or she is presented, and to what extent he/she is allowed
to express himself/herself. The human consciousness is inclined to
accept simple and clear constructs, when it is clear what is good
or evil; historically, we can trace back several waves of clear schematic explanations of the world – let it be a presumable conspiracy
of the Tamplier Order in the Middle Ages, or a presumably destructive activity of Jesuits or Freemasons in the 17–19th centuries, or a
presumable global Jews’ conspiracy to rule the world at the end of
the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, or an alleged recent
fundamentalist Muslims’ conspiracy against the West; and the list
could be continued.
However, it is important to mention that one of the most widely
discussed and incompetently presented problems is not the question
of non-Muslim (especially Europeans’ hence also the Lithuanian’s)
relationship with Islam and Muslims, and it seems it is still one of
the most important topicalities of our times, therefore, the second
part of the programme focuses on today’s most recent examples
and challenges, i. e., Muslim cultures, their presentation, and the
thresholds of understanding and lack of understanding. The case of
Muslim cultures is to be seen as one of the examples of intercultural
communication in these didactical guidelines but by no means is it
the only possible example. The choice of it is partly determined by
nowadays realia, as well as by the professional experience of one of
the co-authors of these didactical guidelines.
These didactical guidelines are full of various tests and tasks
which will help to better master the information provided and to
determine the type and nature of one’s communication.
6
I. Intercultural Communication: the
concept and historical background
1. 1. Historical background
Various cultures and mentalities have existed from the beginning
of the human era, and so did exist the need to cooperate firstly by
seeking benefit, and by considering one’s culture to be superior to
the one of the representatives of other cultures. Be it the classical
world of Ancient Greece or Ancient Rome – where people speaking incomprehensible languages were considered to be barbarians,
or the competition of three main monoteistic religions – Judaism,
Christianity, and Islam – for greater influence. Indeed, Judaism was
least active in Europe in the Middle Ages since it did not have a
base – a state, hence it had no concentrated power. On the other
hand, this was also determined by the fact that the Jews were a minority, but preserving the provision that Judaism and the Jewish
culture are as important as Islam or Christianity, this slowed down
the merger of this community with other prevailing groups.
Until World War II one of the most ‘efficient’ means of intercultural communication was the use of power, which would often turn
into military conflicts of some extent. In fact, in the 18th century,
which was the Age of Enlightenment, it was established that the
most important thing in the world was an individual, his rights and
freedoms. This was the start of creation of a different model of identity which helped Europeans to realize that other, i. e., non-European, cultures and identities might also exist. Since then the world has
been viewed not from the perspective of the dominating European
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Intercultural Communication
culture, dominating religion, but through a wider understanding
of diversity. In the 18th century, the representatives of the Age were
researching engaging and interesting non European cultures but
in parallel to this process it was ever more established that the European civilization is first and foremost based on technical parameters, i. e., scientific, technical and military achievements. That is
how a rather contradictory model was created – the representatives
of the European culture were showing increasingly more interest
in non-European cultures and started accepting non-European
cultures and simultaneously thought that the former was superior,
to put it in other words, by strengthening and forming a Europecentered approach. Therefore, there was not only more intensive
intercultural communication but also more intensive export of the
European culture, which was especially active during the so-called
colonization period. At that time Europeans were observing and
analyzing the life in colonies as an exotic process and were often
introducing the European culture, its values, models of education,
etc. under compulsion. In one of his essays Rudyard Kipling stated
that in those days (in the 19th century) the white man’s burden was
heavier than ever before, and he thought that the Europeans’ duty
was to transfer the European culture and values to the cultures
which were considered to be lagging behind at that time. Hence,
although at the end of 18th century and the beginning of the 19th
century the focus on non-European cultures increased and mutual
contacts were more intensive, this cannot yet be called equal intercultural communication. On the other hand, anthropologists have
long ago noticed that cultures have a tendency to use an ethnocentric approach, i. e., they are often convinced that their own culture
is a standard of some kind, a starting point to be used to assess all
other cultures; since one’s own culture is often considered to be the
best, some effort and abilities are needed to get rid of prejudices.
8
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
1. Task: Indicate the scale of your ethnocentrism
GENE (Generalized Ethnocentrism) Scale1
Directions. GENE scale is composed of 22 statements concerning your feelings about
your culture and other cultures. In the space provided to the right to each item, indicate the degree to which the statement applies to you by marking:
5 – strongly agree
4 – agree
3 – neutral
2 – disagree
1 – strongly disagree
There are no right or wrong answers. Some of the statements are similar. Be honest!
Work quickly and record your first response.
1. Most other cultures are backward compared to my culture. ­­_ __
2. My culture should be the role model for other cultures. ___
3. People from other cultures act strange when they come into my culture. ­­_ __
4. Lifestyles in other cultures are just as valid as those in my culture. ­­_ __
5. Other cultures should try to be more like my culture. ­_ __
6. I’m not interested in the values and customs of other cultures. ­_ __
7. People in my culturecould learn a lot from people of other cultures. ___
8. Most people from other cultures just don’t know what’s good for them. ___
9. I respect the values and customs of other cultures. ___
10. Other cultures are smart to look up to our culture. ___
11. Most people would be happier if they lived like people in my culture. ___
12. I have many friends from other cultures. ___
13. People in my culture have just about the best lifestyles of anywhere. ___
14. Lifestyles in other cultures are not as valid as those in my culture. ___
15. I’m very interested in the values and customs of other cultures. ___
16. I apply my values when judging people who are different. ___
17. I see people who are similar to me as virtuous. ___
18. I do not cooperate with people who are different. ___
19. Most people in my culture just don’t know what is good for them. ­­­___
20. I do not trust people who are different. ___
21. I dislike interacting with people from different cultures. ___
22. I have little respect for the values and customs of other cultures. ___
1. Reprinted from Neuliep, W. J. Intercultural Communication. A Contextual
approach. 5th edition. Sage, 2012. P. 33.
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Intercultural Communication
Scoring. To determine your ethnocentrism score, complete the following steps:
Step 1: Add your responses to Items 4, 7 and 9.
Step 2: Add your responses to Items 1, 2, 5, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 18, 20, 21, and 22.
Step 3: Subtract the sum from the Step 1 from 18 (18 minus Step 1 sum)
Step 4: And the results to Step 2 and Step 3. This sum is your generalized ethnocentrism score (note that not all items are used in scoring). Higher scores indicate
higher ethnocentrism. Scores above 55 are considered high ethnocentrism.
However, the situation changed after World War II; some authors
(James W. Neuliep) state that the human kind had learnt a lesson
from two World Wars and realized that to reach one’s aims one
does not necessarily have to use power and military means, another
part of authors state that a pragmatic and a rational computation
shows that it is ineffective or even disastrous to reach for desirable
results by demonstrating power and by taking military actions. On
the other hand, the Cold War functioned as a stabilizer and simultaneously as an artificial, questionable but at the same time obvious
criteria of selection, which helps to divide the world into good and
evil from the ideological point of view, depending on the position
taken – the Western or the Soviet approach. A power balance made
people look for alternative forms of communication in politics and
diplomacy, economy preserved the pace too – most states needed to
recover their economies after WWII by expanding their markets,
export, etc. The third stimulus was a natural interest of researchers
in other traditions, cultures and mentalities, their understanding
and comparison. The formation of intercultural communication as
an academic discipline is associated with the book The Silent Language by Edward T. Hall, which was published in 1959; the term
intercultural was used before the work appeared but Edward T. Hall
was the first person to use the concept of intercultural communication. Hence the concept of intercultural communication has been
realized and developed in two different aspects from the middle
of the 20th century – in academic research and practical application; these spheres interfere with each other but the second one
10
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
focuses on practice and tries to provide more practical concrete
pieces of advice how to communicate with the representatives of
different cultures. Both in the first and the second cases schematic
and generalized concepts of different cultures are presented, and
communication takes place on an individual – personal or collective level – therefore a representative of a different culture will not
necessarily have all the features attributable to that culture, i. e.,
not all Germans are necessarily punctual, and, on the other hand,
not all Italians are usually late for meetings. That is why it is very
important to assess the current and received information critically
and adequately, and to react to situations in a responsible and creative way, first of all, by preserving respect to other individuals. To
sum up the importance of intercultural communication, part of
the authors single out four main aspects: a) a healthier community: intercultural communication helps to better understand other
people and to accept their differences as natural and enriching the
society, and not as threatening its integrity; b) more intensive trade
by being able to communicate with the representatives of different
cultures, better economic results were achieved, e. g., in 2010 the US
earned almost three trillion (3,000,000,000,000) US dollars from
its 10 main trade partners: Canada, China, Mexico, Japan, Germany, the United Kingdom, South Corea, France, Taiwan and Brasil; c)
a decreased number of possible conflicts – it is impossible to totally
avoid conflicts, however, unfortunately, they do arise and will arise
all the time, but intercultural communication may help to understand different cultures, to refuse a negative approach to them and
to make them understandable if not attractive; d) expansion of the
limits of individual’s tolerance – by communicating with people of
different cultures we find out about their values, history, customs,
mentality and we gradually realize that cultures are actually different, but they also have much in common.2
2. Neuliep, W. J. Intercultural Communication. A Contextual approach. 5th
edition. Sage, 2012. P. 7–8.
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Intercultural Communication
1. 2. The concept of intercultural communication
There are many definitions of intercultural communication; one
of them, which is attributable to practical application of intercultural communication, states that the essence of the latter may be
described in three words: to explain, to control and to predict. Such
a concept of intercultural communication is mostly prevailing in
business where partners try to achieve as many goals as possible.
In this case, explaining means having done your homework – to
be familiar with the partners’ culture, traditions, mentality, history and modern life. To control does not mean to make partners
do what they do not want to do, by referring to current knowledge
and understanding of the other culture and by choosing the ways
of communication, presentation of information etc. adequately so
that partners feel comfortable, understand everything and feel that
they are communicating with someone who respects them and understands them. To predict, as it has been mentioned before, means
to realize that every individual is unique and some individuals are
more in line with the typological information whereas others are
not, so it is important to predict the possible interferences, deviations from the desirable scenarios etc. so that it is preserved after
the dialogue and tight contacts have been established.
Obviously, the title of the discipline consists of two main concepts, i. e., culture and communication so it is worthwhile to go
deeper into their content.
2. Task: Indicate your Communication Apprehension
Personal report of Communication Apprehension (PRCA-24)3
Directions. This instrument is composed of 24 statements concerning your feelings
about communicating with people. Please indicate in the space provided the degree
to which each statement applies to you by marking:
3. Neuliep, W. J. Intercultural Communication. A Contextual approach. 5th
edition. Sage, 2012. P. 33.
12
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
1 – strongly agree
2 – agree
3 – undecided
4 – disagree
5 – strongly disagree
There are no right or wrong answers. Many of the statements are similar to other
statements. Do not be concerned about it. Work quickly. Record your first impression.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
I dislike participating in group discussions. ___
Generally, I am comfortable while participating in group discussions. ___
I am tense and nervous while participating in group discussions. ___
I like to get involved in group discussions. ___
Engaging in group discussions with new people makes me tense and nervous. ___
I am calm and relaxed while participating in group discussions. ___
Generally, I am nervous when I have to participate in group discussions. ___
Usually, I am calm and relaxed while participating in meetings. ___
I am very calm and relaxed when I am called upon to express an opinion at a
meeting. ___
10. I am afraid to express myself at the meetings. ___
11. Communicating at meetings usually makes me uncomfortable. ___
12. I am very relaxed when answering questions at the meeting. ___
13. While participating in a conversation with a new acquaintance, I feel very nervous.
___
14. I have no fear of speaking up in conversations. ___
15. Ordinarily, I am very tense and nervous in conversations. ___
16. Ordinarily, I am very calm and relaxed in conversations.___
17. When conversing with new acquaintance, I feel relaxed. ___
18. I am afraid to speak up in conversations. ___
19. I have no fear of giving speech. ___
20. Certain parts of my body feel very tense and rigid while giving speech. ___
21. I feel relaxed while giving speech. ___
22. My thoughts become confused and jumbled when I am giving speech. ___
23. I face the prospect of giving speech with confidence. ___
24. While giving a speech, I get so nervous I forget the facts I really know. ___
Scoring. The PRCA-24 allows you to compute a total score and four subscores. The
total score represents your degree of traitlike communication apprehension. Total
scores may range from 24 to 120. Any score above 72 indicates general communication
apprehension. Scores above 80 indicate a very high level of communication apprehension. Scores below 59 indicate a very low level of communication apprehension.
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Intercultural Communication
Total PRCA Score:
Step 1: Add what you marked for the Items 1, 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, 13, 15, 18, 20, 22, and 24.
Step 2: Add what you marked for the Items 2, 4, 6, 8, 9, 12, 14, 16, 17, 19, 21, and 23.
Step 3: Subtract the score from the Step 1 from 84. (84 minus the score from the Step 1).
Then add the score of the Step 2 to that total. The sum is your PRCA score. The subscores
indicate your degree of communication apprehension across four common contexts:
group discussions, meetings, interpersonal conversations, and public speaking. For
these scales a score above 18 is high and a score above 23 is very high.
Subscores for contexts:
Group Subscore: 18 + scores for the Items 2, 4, 6, minus scores for Items 1, 3, and 5.
Meeting Subscore: 18 + scores for Items 8, 9, and 0, minus scores for the Items 7, 10, and 11.
Interpersonal Subscore: 18 + scores for Items 14, 16, and 17, minus scores for the Items
13, 15, and 18.
Public speaking Subscore: 18 + scores for Items 19, 21, and 23, minus scores for Items
20, 22 and 24.
3. Task: Please indicate the apprehension of intercultural
communication.
Personal Report of Intercultural Communication Apprehension4
Directions. This instrument is composed of 14 statements concerning your feelings
about interaction with people from different cultures. In the space provided to the right
to each item, indicate the degree to which the statement applies to you by marking:
1 – strongly agree
2 – agree
3 – undecided
4 – disagree
5 – strongly disagree
There are no right or wrong answers. Many of the statements are similar to other statements. Do not be concerned about it. Work quickly. Record your firsr impression.
1. Generally, I am comfortable interacting with a group of people from different
countries. ___
2. I am tense and nervous while interacting in a group discussions with people from
different cultures. ___
4. Reprinted from Neuliep, W. J., McCroskey, C. J. The Development of Intercultural and Interethnic Communication Apprehension Scales. Communication Research Reports, Vol. 45. No 2. P. 145–156.
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Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
3. I like to get involved in group discussions with others who are from different cultures.___
4. Engaging in a group discussion with people from different cultures makes me
tense and nervous. ___
5. I am calm and relaxed when interacting with a group of people who are from the
different cultures.___
6. While participating in a conversation with a person from a different culture I feel
very nervous. ___
7. I have no fear of speaking up in the conversation with a person from the different
culture. ___
8. Ordinary, I am very tense and nervous in conversations with a person from a different culture. ___
1. 3. The main concepts
We usually do not think what culture is, how it manifests itself, we
simply live within it by doing things which, it seems, are casual and
natural for us; on the other hand, a sudden change of the environment
and cultural surroundings can cause a culture shock: a feeling that is
marked with tension and anxiety that is caused by a different culture,
which is reinforced by the feeling of confusion, fluster and disability,
which arise from lack of understanding of the cultural norms and
rituals. On the one hand, a culture is as if a naturally comprehensible phenomenon, on the other hand, more than 50 years ago Alfred
Kroeber and Clyde Kluckhohn found and presented more than 300
different definitions of culture (Culture. A Critical Review of Concepts and Definitions (1952). Cambridge). It is often thought that a
culture is only comprised of Higher Arts, great history, technological
achievements (this approach was prevailing at the end of 18th century
and 19th century), geography; when we think about Saudi Arabia, we
imagine that there are deserts, it is very hot, etc.; and on the other
hand, when we think about Siberia we imagine that it is very cold,
with mountains, there is little of sunlight, and that it determines the
cultures of people residing there. We must admit that climatic conditions have some influence on the formation of culture and process,
but only partially. In reality, culture is everywhere, every place or a
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Intercultural Communication
group has their own culture; to put it simply, culture is people. However, as it has been mentioned, culture has a lot of definitions, for
naming culture we can use this one, which is provided by William J.
Neuliep: culture is defined as an accumulated pattern of values, beliefs
and behaviours, shared by an identifiable group of people, with a common history and verbal and nonverbal symbol systems. For cultures,
beliefs and values are important, people of the same culture usually
stick to the same values, understand the content of the dominating
religions or belong to them. For instance, in the US, individuality
is highly emphasized, and it is one of the most important values of
the society; and in Japan, in contrast, corporatism and the feeling
of community are important; on the other hand, even though most
Americans consider themselves to be unique individuals, it is obvious
that they dress and eat in a similar way, and they have similar social
rituals and habits. One should also mention the things which seem
to be obvious from the first sight and unnoticeable: it is common in
the US and the Anglo-Saxon world that children or even newborns
live in their own rooms, whereas in Japan, children until the age of
two usually share the rooms with their parents, so already during the
first stage of socialization culture, its norms and values start to form
the individuals’ identity and mentality. In addition to the fact that individuals share the same values, beliefs and behaviour patterns, they
also have a common understanding of history. The past of any culture has influence on today and forms tomorrow, in the formal and
informal teaching of most cultures history takes an important place,
therefore, if we know the history of a group, we know its most important values. Special attention is also given to verbal and non verbal
communication. It may be the case that people who speak the same
language but belong to different social groups or subcultures, can
use different speech models: a direct style, i. e., a manner of speaking
where one employs overt expressions of intention, and an indirect
style, i. e., a manner of speaking wherein the intentions of the speakers are hidden or only hinted at during interaction. Non verbal com16
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
munication in different cultures is also different, sometimes symbols
or gestures which are common for one culture may be insulting in
another. Non verbal communication involves body language, gestures, facial expressions, voice tone, smells, personal and geografical space, and time. For example, in Western cultures, when adults
communicate with children and want to show them their attention,
to comfort them or to encourage them, it is common to stroke their
head, whereas in Tailand, where head is considered to be the dwelling of the soul, such actions are unacceptable.
Over the past several decades anthropologists, sociologists, psychologists and communication specialists have identified several
aspects of culture, which help to classify cultures. We may discuss
five aspects of cultures: individuality vs collectivism, high vs low
context, value orientation, distance of power and avoidance of
obscurity. One should note that no culture exists in a pure form
which has been described here, but in different cultures one can
find more prevailing elements. One should also note that different
cultures which have different compositions of the five aspects, do
not become superior to each other by some means, e. g., a culture
which is based on individuality is not superior to the one which is
based on collectivism, etc. The third thing that must be remembered is that cultures are not static, they always change, and different elements of cultures are transferred to other cultures. Traditionally, Japan is considered to be a collectivist culture, but after
WWII, when contacts of Japan and Western countries, especially
the US, were reinforced, the younger generation of Japan have become much more individualistic than their parents and especially
grandparents used to be. The US is first and foremost to be seen as a
society which is based on individualism but a number of US corporations apply a collective means of management and organization
of work – i. e., teamwork, cooperation, etc.
Recently University of Michigan carried out a research as to the
most distinct feature of individualistic cultures, and, first of all
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Intercultural Communication
they discovered that it is personal independence, by giving most
of attention to personal responsibility and freedom of choice, personal autonomy and the possibilities for self-realization. Harry Triandis (Neuliep, W. J. Intercultural Communication. A Contextual
approach. 5th edition. Sage, 2012) states that in more individualistic
cultures personal aims are more important than the group’s aims:
I am individual and unique vs I am a member of a family, a group,
and a tribe; what will I get from this vs How will this action affect others; I want to win vs I a team member and have to help my
group win; my right to act vs I have certain obligations to my group.
In individualistic cultures, social control depends on the person’s
obligations and the feeling of shame rather than on the opinion of
the community, even though people of individualistic cultures belong to more assemblies and organizations, their devotion to them
and obligations are reinforced. In Western cultures, we can find
very old manifestations of individualism, e. g., in Ancient Greek literature, Odyssey or Achilles reached their goals individually rather
than with a group.
In contrast, in cultures which are based on collectivism, group
achievements are more appreciated than individual ones. Such
cultures are based on the belief that individuals belong to various
groups – families, collectives, working groups, in which members
have different mutual obligations, which must be fulfilled in accordance with their status or position. In cultures which are based on
collectivism, people are not considered as individuals, they share
group dependance, responsibility and obligations. Therefore, in
cultures and societies of this kind people more often than not belong to a smaller number of associations or societies than in individualistic ones, but the relationship and the obligations are much
stronger there, and sometimes they last their entire life. Cultures
which are based on collectivism pay some attention to obligations,
submission and dependance, but first and foremost they appreciate
harmony.
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Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
4. Task: Indicate your scale of individualism/ collectivism
Individualism and Collectivism Scale5
Directions. For each statement indicate the frequency with which you engage or not
in the behaviours described.
5 – always
4 – usually
3 – sometimes
2 – rarely
1 – never
1. I discuss job or study-related problems with my parents. ___
2. I consult my family before making an important decision. ___
3. Before taking a major trip, I consult with most members of my family and many
friends. ___
4. It is important to consult close friends and get their ideas before making a decision. ___
5. Even when I strongly disagree with my group members, I avoid an argument. ___
6. I hate to disagree with others in my group. ___
7. In interacting with superiors, I am always polite. ___
8. I sacrifice my self-interest for the benefit of my group. ___
9. I define myself as a competitive person. ___
10. I enjoy working in situations involving competition with others. ___
11. Without competition, it is impossible to have a good society. ___
12. Competition is the law of nature. ___
13. I consider myself as unique person, separate from others. ___
14. I enjoy being unique and different from others. ___
15. I see myself as “my own person”. ___
16. It is important for me to act as an independent person. ___
17. I take responsibility for my own actions. ___
18. Being able to take care of myself is a primary concern for me. ___
19. I consult with my superior on work-related matters. ___
20. I prefer to be self-reliant rather than depend on others. ___
Scoring. To compute your collectivism score, sum your response for Items 1 through
8. Your sum must be between 8 and 40. Higher sums (more than 30) indicate a prevalence for collectivism. To compute your individualism score, sum your responses for
Items 9 through 20. Your sum must be between 12 and 60. Higher sums (more than 45)
indicate a prevalence for individualism.
5. Reprinted from Neuliep, W. J., McCroskey, C. J. The Development of Intercultural and Interethnic Communication Apprehension Scales. Communication Research Reports, Vol. 45. No 2. P. 145–156.
19
Intercultural Communication
The second dimension is cultures of high and low context. In high
context cultures, verbal communication is just part of the messages
sent, and non verbal communication, social stand, rituals are also
important in this respect. The representatives of this culture do not
have to talk much – the messages are short and clear, many things
can be inferred and expressed by means of carrying out rituals and
using body language, e. g., instead of a load and long greeting, the
Japanese will silently bow and greet each other by showing respect
and social hierarchy – the more honourable a person is, the lower
bow s/he deserves. In high context cultures (with some exceptions),
collectivist tendencies prevail, such countries include China, Japan,
North Korea and South Korea, Vietnam, and a number of Arab and
African cultures.
In the meantime, in low context cultures the information conveyed verbally is the most important. Certainly, when communicating, the representatives of low context cultures also use their body
language, but they do not consider it to be very important, and they
convey everything they want their interlocutors to hear and understand verbally. For representatives of these cultures silence may be
awkward, it may make people feel suspicious that the message is
ignored or is of no interest. As well as in the case of high context
countries, there might be some exceptions but low context cultures
are usually based on individualism, e. g., Switzerland, Germany,
Scandinavia, the USA, France and the United Kingdom.
5. Task: Indicate your context of communication
Low and High-Context Communication Scale6
Directions. Below are 32 statements regarding how you feel about communicating
in different ways. In the blank to the right of each Item, indicate degree to which you
agree or disagree with each statement. If you are unsure or think that an item does
not apply to you, enter 5.
6. Reprinted from Neuliep, W. J. Intercultural Communication. A Contextual
approach. 5th edition. Sage, 2012. P. 57.
20
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
Strongly disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Strongly agree
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
I catch myself on to what others mean, even when they do not say it directly. ___
I show respect to superiors, even if I dislike them. ___
I use my feelings to determine whether to trust another person. ___
I find silence awkward in conversation. ___
I communicate in an indirect fashion. ___
I use many colourful words when I talk. ___
In argument, I insist on very precise definitions. ___
I avoid clear-cut expressions of feelings when I communicate with others. ___
I am good at figuring out what others think of me. ___
My verbal and nonverbal speech tends to be very dramatic. ___
I listen attentively, even when others are talking in an uninteresting manner. ___
I maintain harmony in my communication with others. ___
Feelings are a valuable source of information. ___
When pressed for an opinion, I respond with an ambiguous statement/position.
___
15. I try to adjust myself to the feelings of the person with whom I am communicating.
___
16. I actively use a lot of facial expressions when I talk. ___
17. My feelings tell me how to act in a given situation. ___
18. I am able to distinguish between a sincere invitation and one intended as a gesture of politeness. ___
19. I believe that exaggerating stories makes conversation fun. ___
20. I orient people through emotions. ___
21. I find myself initiating conversations with strangers while waiting in line. ___
22. As a rule, I openly express my feelings and emotions. ___
23. I feel uncomfortable and awkward in social situations where everybody else is
talking except me. ___
24. I readily reveal personal things about myself. ___
25. I like to be accurate when I communicate. ___
26. I can read another person “like a book”. ___
27. I use silence to avoid upsetting others when I communicate. ___
28. I openly show my disagreement with others. ___
29. I am very precise communicator. ___
30. I can sit with other person, not say anything, and still be comfortable. ___
31. I think that untalkative people are boring. ___
32. I am extremely open communicator. ___
Scoring. Reverse your score for Items 4, 6, 7, 10, 16, 19, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 28, 29, 31, and
32. If you original score was 1, reverse to a 9; if your original score was a 2, reverse it to
21
Intercultural Communication
an 8; and so on. After reversing the score of those 15 items, simply sum the 32 items.
Lower scores indicate low-context communication. Higher scores indicate high-context communication.
Regarding value orientation, it is to say that, as well as culture, values are to be learned, we start mastering them in our childhood,
understanding of values, i. e., what is right and what is wrong is
similar in different cultures, e. g., respect for life, effort to survive,
etc. Israeli academic Shalom Schwartz (Holliday A., Hyde M., Kullman J. Intercultural communication, An Advanced Resource Book
for Students, Routledge, 2010) states that, despite their cultural variety, three features are characteristic to all cultures: biological needs
of individuals, the need for social coordination and the need for
group survival and welfare. But what is acceptable and prohibited
may differ, as well as what is acceptable and unacceptable, i. e., it is
universally acceptable that driving while intoxicated is not allowed,
but the reaction to such an action will be different in different cultures – in some societies a bribe will help to avoid responsibility, in
other cultures severe sanctions may be taken, and, say, in Japan, if an
intoxicated driver who is stopped by a police officer has not caused
any problems, the officer will take him home by the driver’s car.
Power distance – in different cultures, the power distance is
different; in some cultures decisions are made from high power
positions and are expected to be implemented quicker and more
effectively, whereas in other cultures decisions are made by consulting. In cultures where power distance is minimal (e. g., Austria,
Norway) managers are expected to consult their team and to find a
common best decision, and vice versa, in cultures where power distance is bigger (e. g., Malaysia, India, Mexico) decisions are taken by
managers solely, the others simply have to implement them.
Uncertainty avoidance – sometimes it may be difficult to communicate with the representatives of other cultures, and if such a
conviction is strong, people become anxious. The more we believe
22
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
that we will not be able to communicate, the more tense and anxious
we become. The representatives of high context cultures try to understand the body language of new partners they communicate with,
to look for signs which would confirm their expectations, whereas
the representatives of low context cultures in the case of uncertainty
rely on words, therefore they may ask a lot. Usually, to overcome
tension and uncertainty, more general topics are chosen, in this way
the possibilities of communication are tested, i. e., the weather is
discussed, ‘external’ situations are discussed to find out what the
interlocutor thinks of the events taking place in various places, or
what their opinion is on one or another issue, etc. This way people,
upon detecting signs of interpersonal understanding or upon finding that their values are similar, or, on the contrary, different, start
discussing relevant issues. Uncertainty and avoidance are common
for all cultures, therefore people have to try to find ways and means
to ‘warm up the situation’ – what signs of non verbal communication may be understood as favourable to us, or neutral topics help us
to understand the values of a representative of a foreign culture.
6. Task: Assess your time orientation
Assessing time orientation7
Directions. Below is a scale designed by Charles Phipps. The scale is designed to
measure one’s monochromic and/or polychromic time orientation. In the blank after
each statement, indicate how do you feel about it:
1 – strongly agree
2 – agree
3 – are neutral
4 – disagree
5 – strongly disagree
7. Reprinted from Neuliep, W. J. Intercultural Communication. A Contextual
approach. 5th edition. Sage, 2012. P. 66. Created by Gudykunst, B. W. et al.
The Influence of Cultural Individualism-Collectivism, Self Construals, and
Individual Values on Communication Styles Across Cultures. Human Communication Research, 1996. Vol. 22, Issue 4. P. 510–543.
23
Intercultural Communication
There no right or wrong answers, and many of the statements are similar, this is by
design. Work quickly and report your first impressions.
1. I usually feel frustrated after I choose to do a number of tasks when I could have
chosen to do one at a time. ___
2. When I talk with my friends in a group setting, I feel comfortable trying to hold
two or three conversations at a time. ___
3. When I work on a project around the house, it doesn’t bother me to stop in the
middle of one job to pick up another job that needs to be done. ___
4. I like to finish one task before going on to another task. ___
5. At church, it wouldn’t bother me to meet at the same time several different people who all had different church matters to discuss. ___
6. I tend to concentrate on one job before moving to another task. ___
7. The easiest way for me to function is to organize my day with activities with a
schedule. ___
8. If I were a teacher and had several students wishing to talk with me about assigned homework, I would meet with the whole group rather than one student at
a time ___
9. I like doing several task at one time. ___
10. I am frustrated when I have to start on a task without first finishing the previous
one. ___
11. In trying to solve problems, I find it stimulating to think about several different
problems at the same time. ___
12. I am mildly irritated when someone in a meeting wants to bring up a personal
topic that is unrelated to the purpose of the meeting. ___
13. In school, I prefer studying one subject to completion before going to the next
subject. ___
14. I am hesitant to focus my attention on only one thing because I may miss something equally important. ___
15. I usually need to pay attention to only one task at a time to finish it. ___
Scoring. For Items 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, and 11, reverse your responses (5 = 1), (4 = 2), (3 = 3),
(2 = 4), (1 = 5). For example, if your response to Item 2 was 5, reverse it to 1. If your
response for Item 3 was 4, reverse it to 2. Once you have reversed your responses to
those 6 items, sum the scores of all 15 items. Scores of 30 and below indicate a monochromic orientation. Scores of 42 and above indicate a polychromic orientation.
However, a different classification of cultures is also possible; they
may be divided into linear-active cultures, multi-active cultures
and reactive cultures. Linear-active cultures focus on goals and
planning, multi-active cultures focus on communication and es24
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
tablishment of relationships, and the representatives of reactive
cultures are often silent introverts paying a lot of attention to their
partners. Richard D. Lewis provides the following classification of
representatives of linear-active, multi-active and reactive cultures8:
Linear-active cultures
Multi-active cultures
Reactive cultures
Introverts
Extroverts
Introverts
Patient
Impatient
Patient
Calm
Talkative
Silent
Stay out of others’ business
Curious
Courteous
Enjoy privacy
Friendly
Good listeners
Plan ahead step by step
Plan grand outline only
Look at general principles
Do one thing at a time
Do several things at a
time
Respect what others do
Work regular hours, are
punctual
Work irregular hours, are
not punctual
Flexible working hours,
punctual
Stick to schedule and
time-line
Schedule unpredictable
Respect their partner’s
schedule
Divide projects
One project influences
another one
Observe overall situation
Stick to plans
Change their plans
Do minor changes
Stick to facts
Flexible truth
Statements are promises
Gather information from
statistics, manuals and
data basis
Receive information from
first hand (orally)
Use both sources of information
Work comes first
People-oriented
Very people-oriented
Not emotional
Emotional
Polite and indirect
Work in one area
Work in different areas
Work in all areas
Conform to law
Use connections
Difficult to understand,
calm
Find it difficult to accept
favours
Seek favours
Must not lose face
8. Richard D. Lewis. When cultures collide: leading across cultures 3rd ed. Boston (Mass.); London : Nicholas Brealey international, [2010]. P. 599.
25
Intercultural Communication
Linear-active cultures
Multi-active cultures
Reactive cultures
Delegate tasks to competent colleagues
Delegate tasks to relatives
Delegate tasks to trustworthy people
Stick to logical work
sequence
Observe agreements with Respect partners
people
Like fixed timetables
Associate things
Talk on the phone briefly
Talk most of the time
Good at generalising
Use diaries
Seldom use diaries
Take time planning
Respect fomalities
Look for the most important person
Especially honest
Do not like losing face
Have good excuses
Do not lose face
Confront with logic
Confront emotionally
Avoid confrontation
Consider everything
Restricted body language Body language unlimited
Subtle body language
Seldom interrupt
Often interrupt
Never interrupt
Seperate professional relationships from friendly
ones
Professional relationships intermingled with
friendly ones
Combine friendly and professional relationships
7. Task
Which cultures could be allocated to linear-active, multi-active and reactive cultures?
Prepare schedules of clash of these three cultures. Single out the main difficulties that
may arise when the representatives of different cultures communicate. How can they
be solved?
Respectively, referring to these categories, Richard D. Lewis divides
audiences according to what they expect in meetings and provides
several examples: in the US humour, jokes, modernity, tricks, slogans, popular sayings, active advertising (attention span – 30 min)
are expexted. In the United Kingdom humour, narration, ‘excellent’
goods, acceptable prices, quality, traditions rather than modernity
are expected (attention span – 30 to 45 min). In Germany, trustworthiness of the company is expected, reliable production, technical
details, presentation of wider context, introduction-body-conclusion, a lot of text, no jokes, good prices, quality, delivery dates are
26
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
expected (attention span – an hour or more). In France, formalities
are expected, innovative products, sexual attractiveness, imagination, logical thinking, references to France, style, appearance, personal relationship, interruptions allowed (attention span – 30 min).
In Japan, good prices are expected, as well as the US patent, interaction with the image of the company, harmony, courtesy, respect for
the company, reputation of the company, peaceful presentation, the
presenter must be dressed-up, fomalities, diagrams are expected
(attention span – an hour). In Sweden, modernity, quality, design,
technical details, delivery dates are expected (attention span – 45
min). In Finland, modernity, quality, technical information, modest presentation, design is expected (attention span – 45 min). In
the countries of the Mediterreanian Sea / Arabic countries personal relationship, rhetorics, eloquence, liveliness, loud voice can
be expected, interruptions allowed, ‘additional’ discussions alowed
(attention span – short). In Australia, a friendly introduction, no
formalities, humour, persuasive style, no verbalism allowed, narrow context, innovative products, essential technical information,
personal relationships, interruptions allowed, imagination, conclusions are expected (attention span – 30 min).
8. Task
Prepare presentations to partners of different audiences. Pay attention to your language and precision.
It is best to speak the language of the country visited, but this happens seldom therefore an intermediary language is used for communication. In this case preciseness and clarity of expression are
important. If there are problems or something is not clear during
the meeting, it is advisable to find out what is meant, what is asked,
etc. For instance, Richard D. Lewis gives some examples that similar sounding words may lead to utterances such as the following
ones: next week I will become a new car (in German, bekommen
27
Intercultural Communication
means to get), or to say thank you for your kidneys (instead of kindness), what is your deathline (instead of deadline), I have split up my
boyfriend (instead of split up with), my father is a doctor and my
mom is a typewriter (instead of typist), I work harldy ten hours a
day (instead of I work hard ten hours a day). Therefore, proper attention should be paid to the language and appropriate use of concepts, words and expressions should apply. One should not forget
the fact that in some cultures figurative language, additional information, jokes and anecdotes are acceptable during the presentation,
whereas in others, on the contrary, they lead to misunderstandings,
tension and additional problems.
Representatives of these cultures have respective consideration of time. For representatives of linear-active cultures, time is
continuous, with a clearly defined beginning and ending, as well
as its inner structure: time for work, time for rest, and time for
entertainment. In the meantime, representatives of reactive cultures would be inclined to adjust to their partners or to reach for
a compromise. For representatives of multi-active cultures, time
is a relative concept. They can easily change the time of the meeting, deal with their personal issues during their working hours
(they may be physically present in a meeting but to communicate
with friends or relatives by means of innovative technologies), to
be late for meetings or to appoint several meetings at the same
time, and if the partners or offers appear to be interesting, they
may stay in the meeting, if not, they may excuse themselves and
go to another meeting despite the fact that some partners will
not understand what has happened and why the meeting has been
discontinued, or may be irritated by the fact that the meeting is
half an hour or an hour late.
28
Intercultural Communication: the concept and historical background
Questions for revision:
How can cultures be divided into different types?
Who are the main authors presented?
What are the main similarities and differences of the authors
presented?
Recommended literature:
Neuliep, W. J. Intercultural Communication. A Contextual approach. 5th edition. Sage, 2012.
Richard D. Lewis. When cultures collide: leading across cultures 3rd ed. Boston (Mass.) London: Nicholas Brealey international, 2010.
Holliday A., Hyde M., Kullman J., Intercultural communication,
An advanced resource book for students, Routledge, 2010.
Jandt, F., E., An introduction to intercultural communication,
Sage, 2010.
II. Stereotypes and Propaganda
2. 1. Stereotypes
Walter Lippman, in his book, Public Opinion which was first published in 1922, introduced the concept of a social stereotype. The
author as if divides the world into the existing world and a pseudo world; even though the book was written 90 years ago, its basic concept remains relevant to this day: the author speaks about
the construction of the world and the social reality. As a journalist, Walter Lippman was perfectly aware of the power of the press
and its contribution to the formation of the public opinion. The
author does not render any definition of a stereotype, he calls stereotypic knowledge simply a picture in our heads, which in Lithuanian could be replaced by one word image. In this respect, Walter
Lippman makes a clear distinction and calls the first chapter The
World Outside and Pictures in Our Heads, therefore Walter Lippman’s approach could fit into the context of the so-called first wave,
i. e., a discourse related to stereotypes by stating that stereotypes
have little to do with the reality or even distort it. The question then
is what are stereotypes for?
The author suggests that first of all we decide and then we see. In
this respect, he gives an example. Presentation of a conflict which
was staged beforehand to unaware spectators brought slightly surprising results. When the audience were asked to describe what
they had witnessed and why this had happened, only six of the answers were more or less a precise description of what had actually
30
Stereotypes and Propaganda
happened, whereas 24 answers were a mere product of fantasy, and,
according to W. Lippman, ten answers could be considered tales or
legends. This only proves that we realize the world in different ways,
but we gradually suggest our subjective approach to others if we
have the necessary measures.
One of the author’s main insights often quoted in other works
and dictionaries is that stereotypes are useful for economic reasons,
i. e., we save by making the world stereotypic. We save both intellectual power and time. According to Walter Lippman, we quickly
recognize only a narrow circle of people in which, certainly, everyone is different, we familiarize ourselves with the environment we
live in, i. e., our neighbors, ‘the celebrities’ of our block, etc., but we
do not have enough time for the remaining world and we accept it
as ‘already constructed’. This way incongruities appear, but again
we sometimes lack time to notice them. On the other hand, stereotypes are passed by one generation to another, therefore individuals
are not interested in their content: it is as it is. Another Walter Lippman’s insight is that stereotypes are necessary for defence, ‘systems
of stereotypes can be the root of our personal tradition, the defenders of our state in the society’; what is meant here is one of the features of stereotypes – their stability (Lippman W. Public opinion,
NY, 1965). This may be illustrated by an example. At the time when
the author’s book appeared, people in the US were often prejudiced
against black people. There were a number of stereotypes: that they
were lazy, dirty, brutal hence second-rate people, unskilled; they
were opposed to white people. Once one or two black persons would
make their way up the corporate ladder, stereotype-driven white
people would perceive it as a serious threat to traditional values,
stratification, etc.; this may lead to alleged conspiracies or attempts
to take up authority or conquer the world. Stereotypes are closely
related to emotions: usually a collapse of a negative stereotype, its
change should be realized as a welcomed phenomenon, but among
the people driven by this stereotype (either consciously or not) such
31
Intercultural Communication
a change may be perceived as a serious threat. And since this is
also related to emotions, such phenomena as fear, aggression, intention to defend oneself may appear, and the worst thing is that then
one believes that these actions are significant: according to Walter
Lippman, if one phenomenon or another does not fit the accepted
scheme, the indidividual is inclided to understand this as an exception which confirms the rule rather than is a serious signal to revise
the scheme. In the meantime, there is also another example: if a
person assumes that the Japanese are sly, and by chance he or she
meets two Japanese people who deceive him, a conclusion is drawn
immediately that all Japanese are exactly like that.
Walter Lippman writes, ‘for when a system of stereotypes if well
fixed, our attention is called to those facts which support it, and diverted from those which contradict’. Eventually, the author finalizes,
‘Real space, real time, real numbers, real connections, real weights
are lost. The perspective and the background and the dimensions of
action are clipped and frozen in the stereotype’ (Lippman W. Public opinion, NY, 1965).
Other authors notice an interesting thing – the dichotomy between a word and an action: a questionnaire was composed and
sent out to hotel owners; in it, among other things, they were asked
if they would like to have ‘people of colour’ as their guests. After
receiving negative answers from part of the respondents, the latter
were visited; among the visitors, there necessarily was a ‘person of
colour’, and the visitors would try to book a room for that guest.
And then, in contrast, the ‘person of colour’ was welcome, hence a
conclusion was made that the wish to eliminate ‘persons of colour’
is weaker when they are met face to face. In other words, common
models of activity were used on a formal level, but on a personal
level the case may be different. In this case, we are dealing with a
cognitive stereotype which may differ depending on the situation.
Another topic to be mentioned here is a family problem; stereotypes may be generated not only by stronger or weaker ethnocen32
Stereotypes and Propaganda
trism but also by a strict authoritarian family. In such a family, critical thinking is not encouraged; on the contrary, family members
are forced to accept what the authority or a superior family member
says: 1960s and 1970s in the US were very active in terms of research
on social psychology. This included the famous Phillip Zimbardo’s
experiment which was carried out at Stanford prison; some of the
participants of the experiment had roles of convicts, and some were
their supervisors, including Stanley Milgram’s book Obedience to
Authority, and Calman-Lévy’s experiments in which randomly chosen volunteers were teachers and students. For wrong answers, the
teachers would punish the students by applying an electric shock:
the more mistakes they made, the stronger shock was used (there
was no current, the students simulated discomfort or even pain)
since a big part of the teachers increased the current with ease as
they were told to do so by the supervisor of the experiment.
Another phenomenon to be mentioned here is transposition. A
superstitious individual transfers his secret emotions to his victim
who stands for a scapegoat. It seems that personal negative individual’s or a group’s features consciously or subconsiously are transfered onto another group or individual by making oneself free of
them. Apart from this, mass media provide some opportunities:
Hadley Cantril mentions a case when before World War II a play
was broadcasted on the US radio; the play was on the invasion from
Mars, the style of the play was close to serious academic assumptions and consistent and persuasive stream of knowledge. It was
extremely easy to check the news – one simply had to look over the
window, however, some of the answers were like this:
‘I looked out of the window and everything looked the same as
usual so I thought it hadn’t reached our section yet.’
‘We looked out of the window and Wyoming Avenue was black
with cars. People were rushing away, I figured.’
‘No cars came down my street. “Traffic is jammed on account of
the roads being destroyed,” I thought.’
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Intercultural Communication
Whatever people saw – streets full of people or empty streets,
they were so overwhelmed by the idea of the invasion that they interpreted all the information as a confirmation of their conviction.
Another research was carried out in a laboratory in pursuit to
confirm the theory of ‘selective perception’ (the experiment was
carried out by Jerome S. Bruner and Leo Postman in 1949 in the
USA); it was found that people perceive the world as they expect
it to be or what they think it is like. Participants of the experiment were shown a pile of cards, and they were asked what cards
they thought were in the pile. Most of the respondents replied that
there were red hearts, black spades, etc. However, some consciously
misleading cards were placed in the card pile – black hearts or red
spades. Having left the laboratory, the authors draw a conclusion
that an individual who believes that black people are lazy, seeing a
black person on the street, will probably think that the person is a
vagabond, and, naturally, jobless.
Jean–Lois Dufays renders R. Bathes’s idea that a stereotype is
one of the main figures of ideology (Psychologie sociale, sous la
direction de Serge Moscovici, PUF, Paris, 1984). This means that
possibly due to the fact that, on the one hand, stereotypes can easily
help make a distinction between one’s supporters and enemies, and
due to their simple structure, they are quickly memorised, spread
out and become popular quickly. Further on, he notices that the
content of a text and its richness also depend on the reader: first of
all, from the stream of information an individual first of all tries to
grasp the things which fulfil their expectation or convictions. A sociological research was carried out in 1932 at Princeton University;
100 American students were interviewed in the research to find out
how they imagined a Jewish person. Here are the results that the
researchers produced:
34
Stereotypes and Propaganda
Smart, sly – 79
Hired worker, mercenary – 49
Enterpreneur, – 48
Greedy– 34
Clever– 29
Ambitious – 21
Smart, bright – 20
A family person – 15
Persistent, stable – 13
Talkative – 13
Aggressive – 12
Pious, submissive – 12.
Here are the results of the opinion poll of 1950; in this case 100 Armenian students in Beirut were examined:
Rich – 71
Greedy – 63
Smart dealer, trader – 59
Materialist – 51
Traveller – 48
Fanatic – 49
Poor, scanty – 35
Conservative – 35
Educated – 31
Pious – 26.
Obviously, even now, after several decades have passed from the
publication of this data, some respondents nowadays would describe the Jews in a similar way; therefore, obviously, stereotypes
persist and they change little in various countries.9
Therefore, stereotypes may be: often simplistic rather than complex or differentiated, often misleading rather than true to life; often second-hand rather than first-hand experience which would
be related to the reality that a stereotype tries to represent, it does
not yield to change. According to Dujker and Frejd (Etniškumo
studijos: teoriniai samprotavimai ir empiriniai tyrimai. Prepared
by L. Kuzminskaitė. V., 2000. Kasatkina N. in Etniniai procesai
šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje), during the analysis of stereotypes an
analysis of the verbal element is always carried out. <...> the information published is especially convenient in the case of studies of
stereotypes <...> and also since it partly influences and forms our
stereotypes. However, there are some doubts as to how identical are
those or other texts to the stereotypic approach, what kind of texts
could be considered stereotypical.
9. In Lithuania, opinion polls are also carried out and obervations are published,
some of the newest data is published on the website of Lithuania’s Institute
of Ethnic Studies at: http://www.ces.lt/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/2012visuomenes-nuostatu-rezultatai.pdf
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Intercultural Communication
Some other notes of several authors are important firstly due
to the fact that ‘the society should care about the reasons which
determine the appearance of negative stereotypes, and stereotypes
fulfill various functions: they may express a protest, they may serve
for the protection of the society’s order and may reflect cross-border
relationships’.
7 problems that are related to the functioning of a stereotype are
presented here. First of all, it is a problem of reliability: there are
cases when stereotypes are taken from other members of the society
(e. g., journalists can successfully spread their personal attitudes)
rather than base them of their individual experience. A problem of
projection (a nation that somewhat appoints its characteristics to
another nation), the problem of universality (the representatives
of the same socium define the same nations in different ways), a
problem of specificity (it is difficult to substantiate the assumption
that some features of a ‘national character’ influence specific stereotypes of another nation), a problem of differentiation (a similar
idea that people belonging to the same unit define other people in
different ways), the problem of feedback (stereotypes of other nations can slightly influence the character of a stereotypic nation),
and finally – the problem of self-description (autostereotypes are
characteristic of favourable assessment, one’s own nation is usually
described as hard-working, brave, benevolent, etc.).
9. Task: Jokes are a popular way of introducing stereotypes.
Here is one example10:
A desert island archipelago on the Pacific Ocean. There are two men and one woman
on each island.
On the first island we have the British. The two men are standing on one side of
the island and are waiting for someone to introduce them to the woman who is standing on the other side of the island.
10. Intercultural Communication. Resource pack. Available on the Internet:
http://www.salto-youth.net/downloads/4-17-1789/Booklet%20Intercultural%20Communication%20Resource%20Pack.pdf
36
Stereotypes and Propaganda
On the second island we have the Irish. The two men are completely drunk with
coconut whiskey and they are oblivious to the fact that there is a woman on the island
but they are still having so much fun because from their island they can see that the
British aren’t having any fun at all.
On the third island we have the Spanish. The two men are drinking calimocho
and are talking about the sex they had with the woman, and actually nobody has
touched her.
On the fourth island we have the Polish. The two men are fighting for honour and
the one who wins gets the woman and the other one is obviously dead.
On the fifth island we have the Slovenians. The three of them are discussing how
their island is the best and are making fun of all the other islands.
On the sixth island we have the Portuguese. The two men are having bureaucratic problems over the question who will get the woman that’s been going for years
now, because they are waiting for the approval from the Commission for Intimate
Affairs. And the woman is happy with her Spanish lover.
On the seventh island we have the Dutch. The three of them are smoking all the
plants on the island and are trying to make SOS sign with smoke signals.
On the eighth island we have the Americans. The two men are contemplating
suicide because they can not stand the woman who is continuously shouting: Why is
this happening to us? We are American citizens. Where is my cell phone, where is my
mirror?
On the ninth island we have the Austrians. The two men are drinking and fishing
and the woman is out of the picture.
What do you think about this joke? What stereotypes can you depict here?
Do you know any jokes related to your culture? How do they make you feel?
Can you imagine how they could affect different people? What can you do to
oppose offensive jokes? How can you use humour to overcome difficulties in
an international team?
L. Kuzminskaitė and R. Tamošiūnaitė also notice a rather significant turn in the attitude towards stereotypes. Stereotypes were seen
for quite a long time as distorting the reality, as phenomena of irational basis, as prejudices which have little to do with the reality.
This point of view was changed at the end of 1960s. In 1969, Henri
Tajfel was trying to prove in his work that people are able to modify
their behaviour depending on how they realize the situation. This is
a cognitive approach. The research has shown that individuals are
inclined to take that information from the environment which does
not contradict to their expectations and confirm their stereotypes.
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Intercultural Communication
Each text is a message, and indeed one needs to know how to
read messages. Experts of communication divide texts into two
types – entropic and redundant. John Fiske (Fiske J. Įvadas į komunikacijos studijas, V., 1998) states: ‘Entropy as a concept is of less
value for the general student of communication in that it constititutes a communication problem, whereas redundancy is a means of
improving communication.’
M. Foucault (Foucault M. Diskurso tvarka (L’ordre du discours),
V., 1998) when discussing discourse says he does not want to start
a discourse first but he prefers to feel he is already involved, to become part of the nameless voice of the discourse already started.
The author probably feels the dangers related to the appearance of
discourse. It seems that the discourse started not necessarily ends
when the source is exhausted, once started, discourse acquires its
own life, and it may happen so that it starts controlling the mind
instead of the mind controlling the discourse.
The representatives of knowledge sociology, Peter Ludwig Berger and Thomas Luckmann (Berger P. L.ir Luckmann T. Socialinis
tikrovės konstravimas, V., 1999), pay a lot of attention to speech. In
this respect, too, the authors apply a rather well known Berger’s trinomial model – externilization, objectivity and internalization. Externalization or revelation would exactly be the formation of a new
plot, new plots can be created by anyone, objectivity or provision of
preference are related to the establishment of this plot. To be able to
establish one or another linguistic structure different measures are
needed. For this kind of work, the so-called mass media would suit
best since many more people read newspapers than books, listen
to the radio, etc. Nazis had sufficient amount of measures like that.
Finally, internalization is the acceptance of a newly created plot, as
a suitable and reflecting part of the reality. In this way, our personal world is created step by step. The aforementioned Lippman’s
insights allow us to state that we accept a big part of the world as
already ‘constructed’, and one of the best means to translate this is
38
Stereotypes and Propaganda
by means of a language; therefore, it means that a language does not
reflect the existing world but forms it instead.
Some time ago J. P. Laswell’s model of communication act analysis appeared; in it, the author suggested to draw attention to several aspects:
Who says
What
Through what channel
To whom
With what effect
In search for these answers we can successfully decode the information sent. Using the US example of a play on the invasion
from Mars, we can try to evaluate the situation using a minimum
model: Who says? – academics, local officers, military officers –
all the peolple who have the power to act and show their expertise.
What they say? – they convey useful and at the same time convincing information but if they talk convincingly, by introducing
themselves as experts or by communicating with the people, even
the strangest things may be taken as simple truth.– Through what
channel? – in the aforementioned case, it was a radio broadcast,
and the ‘hot’ mass media help to create a greater effect of greater
dynamics, involvement, and influence – they provide not only the
news but also the visions which reinenforce it, the sounds, etc.
To whom? – in this case, it was a broadcast of a play, but when
we communicate we have to know the audience, to evaluate its
strengths and weaknesses to better evaluate our speaking strategy,
choose better examples, tone, speaking manner, etc. With what
effect? – in the case of the example at hand, the listeners’ reaction showed that the goal was reached, people believed the news,
therefore when communicating, the speaker feels if he managed
to reach the intended results or not; and on the contrary, when
analyzing information one also has to take into account whether
the information has helped to reach the aim, i. e., if there are any
39
Intercultural Communication
reasons to believe it or not. In this regard, one should mention
once more that the mass media has influence on stereotypes, the
dissemination and the establishment of unilateral information in
the society. It is often the case that we accidentally become targets
of propaganda. Hence what are the main features of propaganda
and how does this mechanism function?
2. 2. Propaganda and reception
From the point of view of social psychology and sociology, modern
societies preserve fragmentation, different interests and foreseen
ways of their realization, they have prejudices of modern society
and their own, which become much more intensive and marketable
in periods of social and economic changes. Even individuals living
in democratic conditions constantly face propaganda: before different kinds of elections and referendums, and on the everyday household level a person is constantly attacked by propaganda which is
merely called advertising. In other words, propaganda has been accompanying the human kind since early modern times, when in
1620s the Catholic Church started to actively advocate Catholicism
trying to overcome and manage Protestantism. Certainly, Nazis
and Bolsheviks were the ones who used propaganda as a trick and
a manipulation most widely, and they also helped to improve it. At
that time propaganda was not a measure used by individual people
or their groups, but it was an obligatory part of state politics. As
we have already mentioned, propaganda never disappeared and in
nowadays countries, even in those having long lasting traditions of
democracy and pluralism. It is only now that the term propaganda
has changed into the concept of public relationships in politics, and
the concept of advertisingI in social life. The form and the content
of propaganda may or must be simple and attractive therefore it is
very difficult not to be manipulated by it and to “stay away” from it
not succumbing to its influence.
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Stereotypes and Propaganda
With the advancement of technologies the number of forms of
propaganda is increasing and, certainly, the greatest success of the
goal is guaranteed when the entire mass media works hand in hand.
However, how can someone make a distinction between a text of
propaganda and nonpropoganda? Academics who are interested in
the phenomenon of propaganda point out several qualifying characteristics of such texts:
The news and belles-lettres draw attention to the text by trying
to solve conflicts within the narration. Propaganda draws attention
behind the text and seeks to provoke a conflict within a reader.
The news and belles-lettres focus on the events in the past in which
the action is possibly finished. In the meantime, propaganda connects
the reader with the future and tries to prepare him or her for actions
which are yet to take place. The news and belles-lettres comment on
present events, whereas propaganda tries to change the future.
The news and fiction try to keep the reader unbound, make him
a passive receiver or user of information, whereas propaganda involves the reader.
The news and fiction try to show impartiality, objectivity, whereas propaganda seeks to make influence and to make connections of
trustworthiness between the addresser and the addressee (Propaganda // John Hartley. Communication, cultural and media studies.
The key concepts. London and New York, 2002).
The criteria provided are certainly formal but there may be some
very subtle texts which seem to be analytical, informative, but in reality they are propaganda. However, it is important to note another
aspect as well: the criteria provided has to be adjusted and analyzed
by the individual, i. e., there is no collective antidote against propaganda, and, on the contrary, propaganda works best collectively.
Therefore a good propaganda spreader has to know the psychology
of masses and to know its sensitive points, which once hit, would
make it faster and easier to achieve one’s goal. One of the best specialists in the area, Joseph Goebbels, has best described the essence
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Intercultural Communication
of propaganda: We speak not to say something but to achieve the desired result (Ellul, J., Propaganda: the formation of men’s attitudes,
New York : Vintage Books, 1973.).
We will not consider how good or bad propaganda is, since we
have long ago stated that propaganda is an inevitable part of our
world: one of the most democratic systems in the world, the US,
does not avoid using propaganda to substantiate its desirable results. After 11 September 2001 events, the US established the United States Strategic Command under US Department of Defense,
whose task was to influence mass media and the public opinion in
such a way as to it would seem that the US have started a combat
against terrorism; however, at the beginning of 2002 the Command
was closed down due to increasing public discontent but we have to
note the fact that propaganda is not monolithic.
It is usually divided into agitational and integrational. An agitational propaganda campaign is organized for a specific purpose and
the best example of this could be election campaigns and advertising campaigns. In the meantime, integrational propaganda is of a
more universal nature; it aims for a greater effect, and simultaneously requires greater involvement. It also has to be persistent, since
once involved in such a propaganda, an individual cannot be left
alone. A person starts doing and professing common social rituals,
stereotypes, norms and forms of public, economic and cultural life,
i. e., by using the propaganda model when an individual is involved
in the entirely simulated world, and is forced to refuse his individuality by becoming an obedient professor of the doctrine. Another
aspect of work of propaganda is also rather important, it may be
vertical or horizontal. Vertical propaganda is organized from top to
bottom, whereas horizontal propaganda takes place among more or
less equal people, when the propaganda spreader is not a know-all
director, but just a group animator.
Mass society, according to Jacques Ellul, has several more quantitive characteristics. To form such a society, the place has to be
42
Stereotypes and Propaganda
quite densely populated (therefore urbanized territories are especially suitable for this purpose), with well developed communications, people should live in groups of different clusters and should
have similar interests and live similar lives on the material level,
and the most important thing is that they should profess similar
social rituals, mythological beliefs, superstitions and stereotypes.
Simultaneously, simple symbols and stereotypes are some of the
best props of propaganda, some of them due to their universal nature, and primitively taken, due to narrow frame of interpretation,
and some due to their simplicity. Superstitions, symbols and stereotypes more or less exist in local communities, especially if they are
bigger than those in which people may know each other; however,
every place may have its own version of superstitions and stereotypes, and then it is up to propaganda to make different experiences
universal and to present a common model of behaviour or stereotype. For this purpose, more dense population is in favour of this;
for this purpose good communications have to be developed so that
the piece of news can be spread quickly and be internalized.
In the meantime, Ellul notes that in modern societies people
who are willing to do something but do not know what to do is one
of the most frequent types of people. All you need is a spark or a sly
manipulator who could exploit a wish like this. Last but not least, a
person though attacked by propaganda, seldom takes action if he is
alone, so translating words to deeds, there have to be real or imaginary groups of like-minded people.
Questions for revision:
What function do stereotypes fulfil in the society?
Who are the main creators and broadcasters of stereotypes?
What are the main features of mass society?
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Intercultural Communication
Recommended literature:
Propaganda // John Hartley. Communication, cultural and media
studies. The key concepts. London and New York, 2002.
Lippman W. Public opinion, N.Y.1965.
Ellul, J., Propaganda: the formation of men’s attitudes, New York :
Vintage Books, 1973.
McLuhan, M.,Understanding media: the extensions of man, Cambridge ; London : MIT Press, 1995.
III. Clash of Civilizations, Orientalism
And Cultural Awareness
Literature: Samuel Huntington, Clash of Civilizations?; Edward
Said, Culture and Imperialism
10. Task: Present critics of Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations,
a) Discuss the relation between the concepts of civilization and culture;
b) Discuss identification of civilization with religion;
c) Discuss discrepancy of the term Islamic Civilization.
Intercultural (or even cross-civilizational) communication is often
seen in the perspective of a potential conflict (its simpliest form is
miscommunication, and in more difficult cases it is direct confrontation), this way communication is turned into a strategy of conflict
management. In such a case cultural characteristics as such cease
existing as independent values and are seen as factors allowing (or
disturbing) intercultural communication. In other words, the success of cross-cultural communication is often measured by the indicator of likelihood of conflict, i. e., the less tension there is, the
more successful intercultural communication is. Conflictological
paradigm of intercultural communication is especially often used
in the theoretical framework of alleged clash of civilizations presented in intercultural (cross-civilizational) communication.
Supporters of Samuel P. Huntington, who declared his theory on
as if inevitebly arising clash of civilizations almost twenty years ago,
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Intercultural Communication
had a lot of chances to prove the validity of his theory in the last
twenty years. Especially in the cases when in the countries where
Muslims are the majority, wild reactions arise to the audio-visual
products produced in Northern hemisphere. For example, reactions in the case of the cartoons which were published in Danish
and subsequently other European newspapers, which depicted the
Islamic prophet Muhammad; this case was called by some observers a manifestation of civilization clash. However, people who do
not share this opinion often do not even think about the concept of
civilization, how many civilizations there are in the world, where
are their limits and how they interrelate (communicate).
In his theory Huntington reduced the concept of civilization to
religion – he considered every major religious tradition to be identical to civilization. Indeed, he divided Christianity into several, not
necessarily ‘friendly’ civilizations. Huntington attributed Muslims,
as well as a number of non Muslims, to the alleged Islamic civilization. Indeed, the major part of Huntington’s theory is related to the
Islamic civilization which, according to Huntington, will inevitably
confront other civilizations, firstly western Christianity. Universal
indignation of Muslims, which is often accompanied by outbursts
of violence and vandalism, as in the cartoon case when prophet
Muhammad was mocked at in 2006, when the cartoons spread out
across Europe and beyond its borders, which it seems confirms
the fact of existence of such a pan-Islamic civilization but also its
conflict-prone nature. However, seeing it more critically, the Huntington concept of civilization cannot withstand critics, at least in
the case of Muslims.
Throughout the Islamic history, Muslims were split up amongst
themselves on a religious basis not less than Christians: apart from
the majority of Sunnis who have four legal traditions and the minority Shias’ following three lines of Imams, there are also other
Muslim communities which do not belong to any of the branches.
The confrontation of Shias and Sunnis is obvious even for those
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Clash of Civilizations, Orientalism And Cultural Awareness
whose knowledge about Islam is shallow – periodically repeated
blood-stained encounters of the representatives of these major Islamic branches in Iraq, Liban, Pakistan and elsewhere in the world,
witness this again and again. But even the differences inside the
communities of Sunnis and Shias are rather remarkable and they
allow us to speak even not of dual (the Shia and Sunni) Islam, but
of a multipartite Islam.
There is a classic division of the Muslim community into eight
legal traditions, each of which interpret the Quran and prophet
Muhammad’s pronunciations in its own way, and provide a value
system and its scale which is characteristic only to itself. So saying
that a civilization necessarily has to have common values, we may
speak of at least eight autonomous Muslim sub-civilizations or even
independent civilizations. However, it would be more meaningful
to talk about eight legal cultures which in their turn conditioned
or influenced formation of many constantly changing Muslim cultures. To put it in other words, instead of the imaginary monolitic
Islam civilization, in reality we face a number of competing Islamic
visions immersed in everyday life of many Muslim cultures.
On the other hand, leaders of the Muslim countries seeing increasing division of Muslims inside their communities and seeing
their hostility (first of all, we mean ever more popular Islamic and
Jihadic movements), in their speeches call on creating a single Islamic civilization, which would unite all classic legal visions and
would resist further fragmentation of the Muslim community.
These Muslims sincerely wish and seek for creation of such a civilization. Saudi Arabia may be named as their flagman, while an incubator or at least a forum of the civilisation may be an organization
of Islamic conference, which unites 57 states. That is approximately
what Bin Laden type jihads think of a united Muslim front, if not
civilization. Indeed, what they have been creating in recent years
remind us more of an ‘anticivilization’. However, up to now, there is
no manifestation of either political or religious unity of Muslims.
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Intercultural Communication
Formally, there are three things that unite all the Muslims in
the world, i. e., God (who, indeed, is shared by Muslims with Jews
and Christians), prophet Muhammad and the result of their communication which is between the two poles – a manifestation which
is called the Quran. This is it. However, the third component, unfortunately, makes Muslims more distant from each other, since
without a common formal authority who would be exceptionally
empowered to explain the holy scripture, the Quran has long been
kept hostage of interpretation. Unfortunately, the number of selftaught interpreters claiming the authentic explanation of the book
is constantly increasing.
However, any disrespectful actions towards one of the three
poles is a crime of the largest scale for Muslims, which is subject
to a severe punishment according to the requirements of all legal
traditions. Therefore, Muslims’ solidarity in the case of spread of
Muhammad’s cartoons is fully understandable. Indeed, in the face
of challenges of fundamental poles of their religion Muslims have
shown their conditional solidarity more than once – in 1989, Salman Rushdie was universally condemned by Muslims after the appearance of his book The Satanic Verses. A similar wave of indignation, which also took some people’s lives, arose in 2005, when
American and British soldiers were accused of disrespectful behaviour towards the Quran. In 2012, after the publication of film extracts in which Muslims are despised, another wave of indignation
took lives of tens of people and some state and private property was
destroyed.
However, both in the epopee of caricatures and in other cases,
a distinction should be made between a valid Muslims’ indignation, which was expressed by legitimate means, starting with riots
of marginal extremist groups which were accompanied by acts of
vandalism and violence. Whatever the number of users of brute
force is among protesters (these means are totally inadequate for
expressing one’s civil, religious and political position), they defi48
Clash of Civilizations, Orientalism And Cultural Awareness
nitely do not represent a community of one and a half billion of
Muslim community, and especially an alleged Islamic civilization.
Therefore, despite the tension regarding current relationships
of countries and societies of the Northern hemisphere with the
Muslim majority states and societies, the only element – the clash –
remains relevant from Huntington’s theory of civilization clash.
However, no matter how doubtful it is if the second element will
come into effect, the fact that the confrontation is increasing causes
a valid concern and the need to reconsider the current schemes of
intercultural communication.
Literature: Edward Said, Orientalism, Covering Islam
11. Task
referring to Said’s theoretical insights, identify and explain intercultural stereotypes
that are found in Lithuanian mass media
Intercultural communication suffers chronically from cultural stereotypes and superstitions that are found in various resources. Even
though politicians’ statements are full of stereotypes and superstitions, as are textbooks and academic literature, most often cultural
stereotypes and superstitions are found in mass media and art,
whether they are constructed consciously or without considering
them. Since mass media (and partly mass art) have become mainly
the only source of information and a tool for socialization (and indoctrination), its faulty influence for the masses cannot be overestimated - both politicians, educators and scholars are held hostage
to it and are products of it. Namely journalists are most responsible
for the well-being of intercultural communication since it is them
who render cultural characteristics or, to be more specific, their images, via their reports and news reports to the public. Uneducated
and improper rendering of cultural characteristics in mass media
(but also in ideological art) is usually the reason or a stimulus of in49
Intercultural Communication
tercultural tension. Below one can find several examples of reduced
repetition of cultural stereotypes in pieces of art and mass media in
their evaluation, by rendering cultural characteristics that are supposedly characeristic of different cultures.
4. 1. ‘Cultural awareness’
The opinion about Islam and Muslims that most people from the
west have stuck to for many centuries has been really negative (let
us remember the status of the Catholic Church and its role in the
Medieval Europe and its attitude to Islam and Muslims, especially
during the Cross Marches, European imperialism and the era of
collonialism, and the Turkoman / Ottoman image which existed
among Europeans in the 19th century). In fact, most of these images
were fictitious stereotypes that have already been rejected. However, part of them are still prevailing in the context of xenophobia
and racism. According to Nonneman, in the concrete case of mainly
Christian (though seculiarized) Europe and Islam the historic store
of knowledge of collective memory about “the other” remained an
important factor. Apart from other factors, all these things survived
in the elements of folklore, and in the course of time became ever
more mythological and stereotypical11. It is worth taking account
of intercultural communication of Western and Muslim countries
with regard to two different perspectives, i. e., cultural awareness
and orientalism (which are inversely proportional).
In this regard, cultural awareness means elementary store of
knowledge of distant societies with whose representatives we often meet, of history and lifestyles. The concept became common in
American and British military terminology after the introduction
of special courses of cultural awareness raising and after prepara11. Nonneman, Gerd. Muslim Communities in the New Europe: Themes and
Puzzles, Nonneman, Gerd & Niblock, Tim & Szajkowski, Bogdan. Muslim
Communities in the New Europe, Ithaca Press, 1996, P. 12.
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Clash of Civilizations, Orientalism And Cultural Awareness
tion of material which is offered to military staff who are sent on
military missions abroad, especially to Muslim countries. Cultural
awareness is increasingly becoming a mania among the US soldiers
to state that ‘a combat brigade would not be deployed into hostile
territory without maps. The beliefs of a culture are as critical as terrain features. The unit should have those coordinates as well’12, and
‘but it is cultural awareness that helps determine whether a host
population supports long-term American military presence – and
may determine the outcome of the mission.’ 13
One can say that cultural awareness is an essential condition
in any trans-ethnic situations, in military and peace clashes – this
would make mutual understanding easier and would help preserve
human and material resources. However, one can state that in the
case of officials (social workers, local administrators, lawyers, etc.)
who are directly dealing with people of different cultures ‘cultural
literacy’ is even more desirable. This includes not only superficial
knowledge of the different main aspects of the foreign culture.
More profound ‘cultural training’, e. g., training on the history
of countries, languages, religion and the society would enable to
acquire more profound understanding of religion and to base intellectual currents and anti-currents, stratification of the society,
pressure groups, informal authority, all on studies of a relative local
language14. Some governmental agencies have already started ap12. Skelton, I. & Cooper, J. You’re Not from Around Here, Are You?, Joint Force
Quarterly, XXXVI, 2004, P. 14.
13. Skelton, I. & Cooper, J. You’re Not from Around Here, Are You?, Joint Force
Quarterly, XXXVI, 2004, P. 12. Also see. T. Duffey, Cultural Issues in Contemporary Peacekeeping, International Peacekeeping, VII: 1, Spring 2000,
151, where he is convincingly trying to prove that ‘Keeping good relationships
with the local communities which determine positive outcomes is based on
peacekeepers’ understanding and respect for cultural traditions of local communities’.
14. Duffey, when discussing cultural training singles out ‘common cultural’ and
‘culture specific’ components. Duffey T., Cultural Issues in Contemporary
Peacekeeping, International Peacekeeping, VII: 1, Spring 2000, P. 164.
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plying this kind of practice, but so far the results, unfortunately, do
not fulfill their expectations.
Certainly, one cannot expect each government officer or a worker of the private sector, who hold specific positions related to immigrants, to individually be well aware of the specificities of those
cultures. However, one may expect (or even require) people taking decisions to be well aware of the cultures whose representatives
their decisions would affect or should have advising experts since
only decisions which are based on cultural awareness can be largely accepted by those who they are meant for. In general, cultural
awareness and cultural literacy serve as a tool to foster confidence
between people of different cultures. The question is an ‘enlightened’
relationship which is based on mutual confidence, tolerance and
respect. Major threat and a major mistake that is still penetrating
into the cross-cultural (especially assimilation-based, and sometimes multicultural) communication is ignorant (and sometimes
arrogant) behaviour of officers, the society, which spurns and marginalizes target groups (in this case, Muslims and immigrants) and
in this way even without wishing to do so rejects them and pushes
themselves into isolation. Thus, due to lack of cultural awareness
(one must admit it is mutual) integration without wishing to do so
and unconsciously are inclined to a cultural conflict which is sometimes called a clash of civilizations.
4. 2. The trap of orientalism
Cultural awareness and cultural literacy should ideally counterweight the so-called orientalism. Orientalism is a wide concept
which defines a unique European approach (or to be more precise,
European outlook) to non European cultures, which implies dichotomy or binomial opposition between we and them, where them
is realized as less civilized people with a negative connotation. According to critics of orientalism, it is a grip which makes the rela52
Clash of Civilizations, Orientalism And Cultural Awareness
tionship between Europe and the Orient more complex, especially
from its virtual institutionalization in the era of collonialism. Edward Said in his book Orientalism15 is very passionate about proving
the fact that imperialist European decision makers and politicians
have too often thought that they had understood the essence of relevant non-European societies (and their cultures) and have acted
according to this understanding, when they actually were acting
referring to indirect assumptions and opinions. Definitely, assimilative approach of the recent decades towards Muslim immigrants
in Europe is the expansion and the application of the same orientalist perspective in a new context.
Said would try to prove that Europeans in general are imprisoned
by their own stereotypes related to Orient, and in many cases they
subconsciously apply phantom images of Orient and the oriental
people to nowadays non-Europeans. Renewal and preservation of
this image definitely prevents from acquiring a new and non-biased
approach to ‘others’; in Europe’s case, these are Muslim immigrants.
Indeed, inability to understand and to recognize the differences of
other cultures is one of the main aspects of ever-lasting, often latent nowadays orientalism. Let alone the remark about the superiority of Western civilization over Islam which was said by Italian
ex-Prime Minister Berlusconi.16 Berlusconi was simply the one who
said something that most people, if not all Europeans, would like
to say; Europeans consider their civilization (which is considered
to be Christian or liberal post-Christian) to be a benchmark for all
civilizations. However, probably the most obvious proofs of abundance of orientalism and lack of cultural awareness even in multicultural European societies are recognized in a provocative film
Submission, which was filmed by a Dutch director Theo van Gogh
in 2004, and in the cartoons of Muhammad, which were published
15. Said, Edward. Orientalizmas, Vilnius: Apostrofa, 2006.
16. EU deplores ‘dangerous’ Islam jibe, BBC, September 27, 2001, http://news.bbc.
co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/1565664.stm.
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in a Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten in 2005.
A major problem is that knowledge that is acquired during studies of foreign (oriental) cultures too often means not the existing
reality of these cultures, but the realization of that reality. To put it
in other words, there is a gap between something that is there and
something that we think is there. Thus the main difference is between
non-biased interest in faraway cultures to better familiarize ourselves with them, and on the other hand, looking for preconceived
proofs of stereotypes of these cultures, which once more confirm
our preconceived knowledge and expectations related to those cultures. In this case, the entire learning process does not lead to real
cultural awareness and literacy but instead becomes the spreader of
the orientalist attitude and the transmitter. Therefore it is essential
to beware of open (conscious – malevolent) and even hidden (not
perceived) orientalism which has an inclination to preclude realization of cultural realia. It is essential to improve the effort to raise
cultural awareness and literacy to make it as unbiased as possible
without prejudices and stereotypes. Only non orientalist cultural
training would finally bear fruit. Hence the short term (but also
the long term) goals should be to spread structures of non oriental
cultural awareness raising.
Unfortunately, until now cultural awareness, not to mention
cultural literacy, has been one of the least considered elements in
cross-cultural communication of Europeans and immigrant (especially Muslim) communities. Its deficiency may be considered to be
one of the main obstacles for Muslim integration in Europe. Moreover, without cultural awareness we can hardly expect any kind of a
new, extensive and all-embracing European identity, part of which
would be Islam and Muslims. Recent scandalous events (films
Submission, Fitna, Muslim Innosence and Muhammad’s Cartoons)
demonstrate that, unfortunately, most Europeans are inclined to
go the opposite direction – that is a tendency that may revive and
strengthen oriental sense of Europeans.
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Miscommunication
Wiio’s laws17
1. Communication usually fails, except by accident.
Communication fails for many reasons:
• Language differences. Nowadays, the lingua franca is badly written and poorly
understood English. Some people use it as their native language; other learned
some of it from various sources. In any case, whatever you say will be interpreted
in a myriad of ways, whether you use idiomatic English or not.
• Cultural differences. Whatever you assume about the recipients of your message, the wider the audience, the more of them will fail to meet your assumptions.
What you intend to say as a neutral matter of fact will be interpreted (by different
people) as a detestable political opinion, a horrendous blasphemy, and a lovely
piece of poetry.
• Personal differences. Any assumption about the prior knowledge on the subject matter fails for any reasonably large audience. Whatever you try to explain
about the genetics of colors will be incomprehensible to most people, since they
have a very vague idea of what “genes” are (in written communication you might
just manage to distinguish them from Jeans), and “dominance” is just Greek or sex
to them.
• Just having some data lost. The listener does not pay attention at a critical moment, and he misses something indispensable. In the worst, and usual, case he
does not know he missed it.
1. 1. If communication can fail, it will
The factors that can make human communication fail might not be very serious,
when each of them is taken in isolation. However, there are so many risks and they can
interact in so many ways that it is statistically almost certain that communication fails.
1. 2. If communication cannot fail, it still most usually fails
Even if you pay great attention to make your communication unambiguous, effective, and understandable, there will still be too many risks you haven’t taken care
of. Moreover, your measures are at best functional most of the time, which means that
the combined probability for your communication to fail in at least one of the ways in
which it could fail is higher than you dare to imagine.
1. 3. If communication seems to succeed in the intended way, there’s a misunderstanding
When communication seems to be simple, easy and successful, it’s probably a
total failure. The recipient looks happy and thankful, because he understood your
message his way, which is what he likes, and very different from what you were actually saying.
17. Professor Osmo A. Wiio is a famous Finnish researcher of human communication. This text is reprinted from http://www.cs.tut.fi/~jkorpela/wiio.html.
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1. 4. If you are content with your message, communication certainly fails
Being content with the formulation of your message is a sure sign of having formulated it for yourself.
2. If a message can be interpreted in several ways, it will be interpreted in a
manner that maximizes the damage
This Murphyistic remark is a warning about the very real possibility that ambiguities will be resolved in just the way you did not mean. Notice that this does not mean
the worst misunderstanding you can imagine; rather, something worse - an interpretation you could not have imagined when you formulated your message. misunderstanding you can imagine; rather, something worse - an interpretation you could not
have imagined when you formulated your message.
3. There is always someone who knows better than you what you meant
with your message
People who understand you can be a real nuisance. It might take some time before you see that they completely failed to see what you meant, but that does not
prevent them for propagating their ideas as yours.
4. The more we communicate, the worse communication succeeds
There’s a widespread superstition that the more you communicate the better. In
reality, increasing the amount of communication most probably just causes more misunderstandings.
4. 1. The more we communicate, the faster misunderstandings propagate
In addition to reformulating law 4, this refers to the fact that repetition strengthens false ideas. When people see the same message repeated over and over again,
they usually start believing it. Even if your message happened to be true, they misunderstood it, so what they actually believe is not what you meant. And since the
message has been presented so strongly, they tell it to their friends, who propagate it
further, etc. Naturally, in that process, it gets distorted more and more.
5. In mass communication, the important thing is not how things are but
how they seem to be
Mass communication creates a world of its own, and people orient themselves in
that virtual world rather than the real one. After all, reality is boring.
6. The importance of a news item is inversely proportional to the square of
the distance
Even more remote to our main topic, this simply states that events close to us look
much more important to us than remote events. When there is an aircraft accident, its
importance in Lithuania newspapers basically depends on whether there were any
Lithuanians on board, not on the number of people that died. It is however relevant
to law 1 in the sense that it illustrates one of the reasons why communication fails. No
matter what you say, people who receive your message will interpret and emphasize
in their own reference framework.
7. The more important the situation is, the more probably you forget an
essential thing that you remembered a moment ago
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Similarly to law 6, this illustrates one of the causes of failures in communication. It
applies both to senders and recipients. The recipient tends to forget relevant things,
such as items which have been emphatically presented in the message as necessary
requirements for understanding the rest of it. And the sender, upon receiving a request for clarification, such as a question during a lecture, will certainly be able to
formulate an adequate, easy to understand answer - afterwards, when the situation
is over.
Despite being entertaining, Wiio’s laws are valid observations about all human communication. For any constructive approach to communication, we need to admit
their truth and build upon them, instead of comfortably exercizing illusionary communication.
What do you think about these laws? Do you agree or disagree? Why?
4. 3. A
n example of accidental miscommunication?
Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses as
something between art and provocation
Source: Salman Rushdie The Satanic Verses
12. Task:
a) compare the history of Islam that is rendered in the book with conventional history
of Islam; b) evaluate Rushdie’s actions in the context of normative/ legalistic Islam; c)
evaluate adequacy of the reaction of Muslim countries and societies with regard to
international law and intercultural communication
More than twenty years ago the world was shocked by the fatwa issued
by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, the Supreme Leader of Iran, on 14
February 1989, which was a death sentence made against a British Indian writer Salman Rushdie due to his novel The Satanic Verses that
was published in 1988: ‘the author of the “Satanic Verses” book, which
is against Islam, the Prophet and the Quran, and all those involved in
its publication who were aware of its content, are sentenced to death’.
1989 was the year of universal indignation and tension – when Europe and North America were indignant due to the disgrace of the
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last dying Iran’s Supreme Leader to the civilized world, the Muslim
communities were extremely violent and desired to kill the apostate
(that is how he is called in the famous fatwa). After the publication
of the death sentence Rushdie hid himself from possible executors
of fatwa, the book became popular, the translators of the books and
the publishers were threatened to be killed (and in some cases violence was used against them), the diplomatic relationship of Iran
and the United Kingdom was broken. After ten years, when the
cult of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei became weaker in Iran, the Iranian
government oficially disassociated itself from the fatwa, formally
eliminating the threat to the writer’s life. The affray was seemingly
over. But the threat to Rushdie’s life remained; a private organization has declared that it would pay a big amount of money to people
who would kill the writer, and there are still some Muslims who
want Rushdie dead.
Two of the topics discussed in Rushdie’s book are directly linked
to the history of Islam: one of them is related to prophet’s Muhammad’s activity from the first revelation in 610 until his death in 632;
the second one is the revolution of Iran that took place in 1978 to
1979. Both of these topics are rendered by the author in a very extraordinary way – by putting emphasis on the possible historical
aspects and factors which are absolutely unacceptable or even blasphemous to Muslims.
One should probably start with the title of the book. Satanic
Verses in the Islamic tradition (especially in the comments of the
Quran) is an unambiguously used term meaning several expressions that Muhammad at the beginning allegedly presented to his
followers as a complex part of revelations (which later became a single text, the Quran) but after several days he removed them himself,
and explained that these verses were dictated to him not by God’s
messenger Gabriel, through whom God would send revelations, but
by Satan himself. Certainly, these lines are not in the canonized
text of the Quran, but they were preserved by Muslim commenta58
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tors of the Quran. In the text, these lines would have been lines 21
and 22 of Chapter 53, The Star, and the text would have looked like
this: „19. Have ye thought upon Al-Lat and Al-‘Uzzá, 20. and Manāt,
the third, the other? 21. These are the exalted gharāniq,, 22. whose
intercession is hoped for.“
In pagan Mecca, where in 610 prophet Muhammad started his
activity as a prophet, al-Lat, al-Uza ir Manat were some of the most
important local deities. Therefore the lines suggesting that these
three deities have a power and could plead the soul which is facing God on the day of the Final Judgement, sap the most fundamental of Islamic dogmas - the belief in the only omnipotent God,
the Creator and the Governor (in Arab tauchyd); according to the
Quran, he is the only one to worship, and he is the only that has to
be addressed (1:5). The Quran (112:4) states ‘And none is like Him’,
whereas The Satanic Verse compare the three Deities to God and
legitimate their worshipping hoping that they would plead at the
necessary moment.
In general, how could this verse be published as part of the manifestation? According to researchers of Islam’s history, at the beginning Mahammad had problems attracting pagan Arabs on his side
and converting them to the new (monoteistic) creed, therefore he
could have agreed to compromise: by accepting Muhammad’s God,
Arab pagans would not be forced to recede their Gods and would
have been able to still worship them in the framework of the new
creed. But it is still unclear who forced Mahammad suddenly make
his decision and to recede from the published compromise.
Even though Rushdie dedicates a significant amount of attention to Satanic Verses, the verses are still not the pivot of the work.
However, these lines are specifically related to the biggest blasphemy of the writer’s interpretation of the holy history of Islam: Rushdie upgrades satanic verses to possibly divine verses, since in the
text of his work archangel Gabriel confesses that these verses were
dictated not by Satan, but by himself, archangel: ‘from my mouth,
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a statement and a denial, lines and contra-lines…’ Therefore, in the
writer’s version of the history of Islam the prophet’s decision to revoke the lines is not the outcome of God’s will, but the outcome of
the human decision. For Islam it is a major blasphemy since according to Islam’s doctrine, prophet Muhammad was an Indian who
God used exclusively to transfer his revelations, and Muhammad
did not change anything in it.
But deifying of satanic verses is not the only crime against Islam
that Rushdie is accused of. The writer deconstructs the entire life
of Muhammad, as pioneer of the new religion, in his book. First of
all, Rushdie renames the prophet as Mahound. This name, which
is as innocent as any other name from the first sight, is actually an
insult of the highest grade for Muslims, since precicely this humiliating name was used to call the pioneer of Islam in the Medieval
Europe. The English hound that was used by Europeans as the Islamic prophet’s nickname, could not be tolerated by Muslims. The
writer places Mahound in Mecca which is renamed as Jahiliyyah.
The term jahiliyyah is used in Islam with the meaning ‘darkness,
days of ignorance’, therefore people who profess Islam would not
be able to agree with downgrading of the holy Muslim city. Mahound in Jahiliyyah manifests the religion of Devotion and Obedience, depending on how the word Islam is translated from Arab.
The prophet invites people to accept God al-Lah, whose name is
‘improved’ by Rushdie (Arab allah). This writer’s invented variation
would not be a problem, but the writer’s decision to contrapose God
al-Lah and Goddess al-Lat who are both worth each other is obvious. On Mahound’s deathbed he is revisited by al-Lat, who he once
renounced, and not al-Lah, whom the prophet believed.
Rushdie depicts the life of Jahiliyyah’s inhabitants and guests
as an endless orgy. Mahound is trying to resist such an indecent
lifestyle, but he wakes up in bed with one of the most salacious
women in town, which destroys the illusion of his holiness. In
conventional history of Islam there is a radical division between
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amorality of Arabian pagans and morality of people professing Islam. Rushdie rejects this dichotomy in the pages of his book – the
converts become even more lascivious. In the book, Mahound has
a dozen wives, as did historic Muhammad. Muhammad’s biographers calculate that Muhammad married 14 times, and he had up
to 12 wives at the same time. Mahound also has 12 wives. In the
chapter of the book Return to Jahiliyyah the action is transfered
to a huge brothel of Jahiliyyah, which Mahound has no courage
to destroy, when he returns to the city in triumph, in fear that
the townsmen would uprise against such an action. To get agitated, the visitors of the brothel identified the features of behaviour
and appearance of the prophet’s wives in the prostitutes, and the
workers of the brothel first for commercial grounds, and then for
real completely identified themselves with the roles of Mahound’s
wives, and each of 12 prostitutes working in the brothel took an
identity of one of the wives. Certainly, the Muslims were indignated by such a discourse of the writer, since adultery is incriminated
by the Muslim jurisprudence, and the severest punishment may be
imposed for that.
Rushdie, in his work deconstructs the mission of the angels. In
Abraomean creeds angels are creations of God, who are not free to
choose, and only have to submissively fulfil his orders. In the Islam tradition, archangel Gabriel is seen as an ambassador of God to
people, who God uses to render his revelations and his Word. In the
meantime, in the Satanic Verses, Archangel Gabriel (Jibreel) is uncertain, undecisive, undetermined; moreover, he is literary fighting
with the prophet who appears to be stronger and imposes his will
on him. This way the revelation becomes a fight between a human
and an angel, and God does not have any active role and practically
remains behind the scene. As a result, the writer recreates Islam’s
history – the religion encouraged by prophet Muhound is the result
of the human will. With this, Rushdie gives a basis to be accused by
Islam of apostasy.
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In Islam’s criminal law, apostasy (Arab rida) is one of the severest crimes against God. For this crime, the severest punishment –
death penalty – is imposed. Salman Rushdie was born in a Muslim
family therefore at least officially he is (or used to be) a Muslim. The
most obvious form of crime is the one when a person who used
to be a Muslim officially declares renouncing his former creed. A
more difficult case is when a Muslim shows disrespect or even contempt to Islam – the prophet, the Quran or other symbols, dogmas
and rituals. Did Rushdie consciously try to desecrate Islam when
he was writing The Satanic Verses? Even if he did not have such an
intention, the writer’s work was understood by some Muslims as
an open outrage upon the holy history of Islam. Some people think
that this is enough for a sane Muslim who understands the possible
consequences of his actions, for which he has to be responsible, to
be pronounced an apostate. Therefore, from the perspective of the
normative/ legalistic Islam, Rushdie may be suspected of having
committed a crime which, according to the criminal law of Islam, is
to be punished by imposing sanctions. However, going deeper into
the question, the problem seems to be more complex. For passing
a sentence, an offence has to be undeniably proven, there has to be
a legal proceeding, with witnesses who would witness, the accused
would have the right to defense, and the judge would pass the sentence having regard to the legislation and the subject matter of the
case. In Rushdie’s case, there was nothing like that. There was no
investigation, no proceedings, no judge. There was a book, a popular reaction to the book, and finally, a fatwa declared.
Clash of Civilizations, Orientalism And Cultural Awareness
4. 4. E xample I of intentional miscommunication:
Theo van Gogh – an artist or an instigator of
hatred?
Source: Theo van Gogh, Submission. Part 1 (http://www.youtube.
com/watch?v=aGtQvGGY4S4)
13. Task:
To analyze the cultural stereotypes in the film and explain the mechanisms and intentions of their repetition
In autumn 2004 there was a wave of indignation and hatred in Europe, which followed the assassination of a Dutch film producer,
Theo van Gogh, on 2 Novemeber 2004. The Dutch law enforcement bodies immediately started large-scale anti-terrorist operations, during which tens of Muslims of Islamistic views, who are
suspected of a ‘terrorist conspiracy’, were arrested. A young radical Islamistic Muslim, a Dutch-Maroccan citizen, was arrested and
later sentenced.
Then the radical part of the Dutch society vented their indignation due to the assassination by setting on fire the schools and
mosques of Muslims in the Netherlands and exploding them. However, the majority of the Dutch society were concerned about this
news and took it seriously – thousands of people went on the streets
with candles in their hands, and this way expressed their protest
against any kind of extremism.
Most of Dutch Muslims probably did not justify this assassination either. But this does not mean that they agreed with van Gogh’s
point of view and his activities. But how is Theo van Gogh’s point of
view specific and how can his activity be considered unsuitable by
Muslims or at least extremists?
Van Gogh’s point of view, which led him to violent death, is revealed in his film Submission. Part I, which was broadcasted on a
Dutch TV channel in August 2004. The title of the book is an al63
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lusion to Islam, since the Arab word islam means submission. Certainly, such an innocent allusion of the film title could not hurt
Muslims’ feelings so that they would start using illegal violence.
Violence was provoked by another, more direct meaning of the
word submission, i. e., the alleged total woman’s submission to a
man, which is required by the Muslim God Allah, which is as if
canonized in his book, the Quran. By the way, van Gogh’s artistic
fellow, the British writer Salman Rushdie, in his novel The Satanic
Verses, which was published in 1988, and which brought upon him a
universal Muslims’ hatred, renamed Islam as submission.
Indeed, it was not van Gogh who wrote the script for the film
but a Somalian refugee Ayyan Hirsi Ali, who having received an
asylum in the Netherlands and a Dutch cizitenship, also became a
member of the Dutch Parliament, and represents the Liberal party.
Having resisted her father’s will to marry a man she was completely
unfamiliar with, who lived in Canada, Hirsi Ali arrived in Europe
(firstly to Germany and then to the Netherlands), where she renounced not only her parents’ culture, but also their religion, Islam,
and created a new life for herself. However, her personal wounds
and venom remained and were finally vented in a film script.
There is a single actress in the film which lasts for mere 11 minutes. One could say that it is a filmed and mounted mono-play. The
naked body of the actress is covered with lines of the Quran, and
she is wearing a transparent wrap. Most of the audience, especially
in Europe, would not be surprised by this. It could even be evaluated as non-originality of the creator since a naked body with tattoos
has been used in Europe’s visual arts for several decades. But in this
film, a naked body is not just a poorly presented artistic figure – it is
an expression of a personal and political protest.
As most people probably know, Muslims (both men and women)
must cover their bodies – it is almost universally agreed that uncovered may remain only hands, feet and the face (men are advised
to wear a head cover, but their hair, ears and neck may remain un64
Clash of Civilizations, Orientalism And Cultural Awareness
covered). Indeed, women would also often cover their faces in most
Muslim cultures. The heroine is wearing an Islamic veil, which covers her entire body. But she is not wearing anything underneath.
Such an outfit of the actress is a well-considered action – the appearance of a naked heroine would cause less discontent among
Muslims. Apart from this, the body is covered with the holiest
words for Muslims, i. e., lines from the Quran. To reinforce the
impression and to show their attitude towards the female Islamic
outfit and the Islamic holy scripture, a provocative way was chosen,
by simultaneously scorning the Muslim cultural and religious-legal
traditions. But what is even more blasphemous according to pious
Muslims, is that a half-naked heroine is carrying out a ritual prayer
which is one of the basic duties of Islam. This action is a scorn of
prayer, which, by the way, is the best visual expression of a person’s
submission to God.
However, more than the ritual or the outfit, the intention (or the
message) of the film is revealed by the words of the heroine. The
narrative reveals the heroine’s, who in the film is reincarnated into
several different young women, sexual expectations, and the physical and the sexual coercion that she experiences from her husband
and other men of the family. But the narration of the life stories of
the hypothetical women is intermingled with the quotations from
the Quran, and God himself is considered to be directly guilty
of the problems of these young women. As if God is guilty that
the men of their environment treat them indecently, and not only
amorally, but also feloniously. Finally, in the final scene of the film,
the heroine openly condemns God for this (and so indirectly she
renounces her creed).
The creators of the film, as many other irresponsible poorly educated non Muslims, confused Islam, as ideal and aim, and practice
that appears in some Muslim communities. And exactly religiously
engaged, and often politically active Muslims are against vicious
Muslims’ practice that was formed during ages and are against the
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Islamic law and its spirit. Improper behaviour in Muslim societies
and families has been long realized as a vice. But contrary to van
Gogh, pious Muslims suggest returning to religious values, which
are fixed in Islamic law, and not to distort or reject them, as a big
part of non-conscious Muslims do.
Certainly, one cannot deny the fact that in previous and nowadays
Muslim societies and communities there have been unethical, amoral
and criminal actions with regard to sexual relations. However, from
the complex legal, historical, social, psychological and anthropological perspective, one could draw a conclusion that it is not Islam, but
Muslims who are guilty for cases of violence and coercion in families
of their communities. Therefore what we have to change is not Islam
but Muslims’ attitude to it, by forming a deeper understanding of the
religion. Unfortunately, van Gogh’s film does not suggest this at all.
To the contrary, it indirectly suggests apostasy from Islam.
Such a plot, which is marked with a chauvinistic and racist approach could not have earned honour for van Gogh neither among
the Dutch, nor among the remaining Muslims in the world. Certainly, one cannot justify the assassination of the creator of the film, but
van Gogh’s open anti-Islamistic viewpoint is also as reprehensible.
4. 5. E xample II of intentional miscommunication:
Muhammad’s cartoons rage as the outcome of
malevolence and lack of education
Source: Jyllands Posten (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/JyllandsPosten_Muhammad_cartoons_controversy)
14. Task:
a) To find out the place of visual arts (especially painting and specifically depicting
of people) in Muslim history;
b) To find out what the reaction of the Danish government and the logic of its actions and their consequences in conflict management were in the context of
cross-cultural communication;
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c) To reveal the reasons of the Muslim (state governments and the societies) reaction and to find out how much it was influenced by cultural factors and how much
by political interests and reasons
A political cartoon as a type of art that has been acknowledged in
the world for more than one hundred and fifty years. It has long
become an integral part of mass media not only in Europe but also
elsewhere in the world, including the Middle East. Indeed, political cartoons that appear in the Arabian press are often extremely
sarcastic and critical with regard to both forein and domestic state
political figures. The English website of Al-Jazeera (http://english.
aljazeera.net/HomePage) also had a permanent section for cartoons. Even Islamists use political cartoons.
However, most Muslims, both artists and users of art still have
several taboos. First of all, the taboos refer to religion. Conservative
Muslims are in general critical about all artistic activities. Muslims
who do not appreciate art or at least some parts of it, their ill-feelings
are based not on their personal attitude or merely aesthetic reasons
but the comments on the artistic expression and artists that are found
in the Holy Scripture, the Quran, and the descriptions of prophet
Muhammad’s life. Indeed, artistic activities are hardly and indirectly discussed in the Quran. Islamistic prophet Muhammad’s ill-feelings towards some kinds of art may easily be found in his statements
and actions which are called Chadysais. Even though the authentity
of selections of Chadysais, which were written more than 200 years
after Muhammad’s death, has been increasingly questioned in recent decades even by more liberal Muslims, for more than one thousand years Chadysais were an unquestionable authority for Muslims,
which was as important as the Quran. From the point of view of a
pious Muslim, Muhammad was an ideal person and a role model for
all Muslims who seek for salvation, therefore he is attributed with
some statements and actions are to immitate. The conclusion is that
what Muhammad condemned, Muslims must avoid.
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In the Chadysais a lot of attention is given to ‘visions’ to which
holy Christian paintings of the saints and their images on a fabric
(paintings, decorations of curtains and pillows) refer to. Allegedly,
Muhammad had a very negative point of view towards these pieces of art. For example, several Chadysais tell about an event when
the prophet refused to enter his home, where one of his wives had
brought a curtain (in another version it was a pillow) with embroidered images of animals. He was so angry that he even tore the
curtain into pieces and explained that the people who paint such
images will be most severely punished by God (Sahyh al-Bukhari,
Good Manners and Form, 130 Chadysais etc.). To reinforce his position, Muhammad has allegedly said that none of the angels will
enter a house with ‘images’, he said that he had experienced this
when Archangel Gabriel, throuh whom Muhammad would receive
revelations and who taught Muhammad about the right Islamic life,
did not come to him as promised (Sachych al-Bukhari, Dress, 843
ir 844 Chadysais etc.). At least one of the Chadysais mentions that
angles do not enter home in which apart from images there are statues (Sahyh Muslim, The Book Pertaining to Clothes and Decoration,
5250 Chadysais). In several Chadysais the unfortunate destiny of
‘painters’ is further developed: on the Final Judgment Day God will
tell the painters to give life to their pieces, and they will not be able
to do this. Therefore, God will continuously punish the painters for
their pretence to the creator’s status.
Nonetheless, the prohibition to depict people was not obeyed
by Muslims. Indeed, during long lasting centuries of Islam Muslims themselves painted several hundred images of their prophet
with his open face, and numerous paintings of his images where
his face is covered with a white cloth. But contrary to the Danish
cartoonists, they did it out of deep love to their prophet who, as
has already been mentioned, was a perfect person (arab. al-insan
al-kamil) according to Muslims. Therefore, any irreverent action
towards him is universally reprehensible. One needs to remember
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writer Salman Rushdie’s story, in whose book The Satanic Verses
that was published in 1988, ‘deconstruction’ of Muhammad’s life
caused a universal indignation of Muslims, which killed half-dozen
people, and which forced the author of the book into hiding from
Muslim extremists’s revenge for an entire decade.
At the end of 2005 the cartoons that appeared in the Danish, and later other countries’ newspapers, were very insulting to
Muslims: some Muslims and their prophet are depicted as bloodsucking murderers oppressing women. Having regard to Chadysais
and prophet’s status among Muslims, hasty reaction of Muslims is
easy to understand. Religiously engaged Christians probably also
express their solidarity with Muslims and have repugnance to vicious mockery of religious feelings. However, the actions that some
furious Muslims took, cannot be justified even in the perspective
of the Islamic law, since any acts of vandalims and self-will are as
condemned by the Islamic law as by any secular European codes of
law. Indeed, a number of Muslim lawyers in the Middle East have
condemned any acts of violence arising out of indignation at the
cartoons.
However, mainly the burden of guilt and responsibility for the
current situation falls on the shoulders of the Danish and Norwegian newspapers, whose editors allowed to print the cartoons either
due to malevolent reasons or because of lack of education. Realising the difficult international situation – when Muslims and the
people ‘from the west’ are increasingly opposed – since they were
the ones who had to preclude the actions which might be harmful to their countries and citizens inciting hatred from happening.
Unfortunately, they did the opposite. And in a short term this cost
Denmark and Norway a lot of money, since they lost income from
trade with the countries from the Middle East, the buildings of diplomatic representations were damaged, citizens were evacuated, etc.
Moreover, Denmark’s image in the Middle East was unprecedently
impaired.
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4. 6. E xample III of intentional miscommunication:
Geert Wilders – the call of fire to himself?
Source: Geert Wilders,
view?i = 216_1207467783)
Fitna
(http://www.liveleak.com/
15. Task:
evaluate the documental/factual aspect of the film; b) reveal cultural stereotypes; c)
evaluate the intentions of Geert Wilders and the mechanism of their implementation
in the perspective of cross-cultural communication
4. 7. A
n example of unintentional
miscommunication: The US army in Iraq
16. Task:
find and explain cultural stereotypes and evaluate their possible consequences for US
soldiers in Iraq in the perspective of cross-cultural communication
Source: US Marine Corps, Intelligence Unit, Iraq Culture Smart Card (http://tarteaga.
weebly.com/uploads/8/3/8/9/8389608/iraqsmart-1104.pdf)
IV. Cultural Variety of Muslim
Societies and Communities:
Muslim Demography and
Different Aspects of Islam
In contrast to what most Lithuanian’s think, the demographic centre of Islam is not the Arabic peninsular and not even the Middle
East (the Arab world), but South and Southeastern Asia. Out of approximately 1,6 billion Muslims currently living in the world (i. e.,
approximately 22–23% of the population) live in South Asia, i. e.,
the territory which once constituted British India (currently India,
Pakistan and Bangladesh), there are approximately 450 mln. Muslims, and to add the most powerful Muslim state Indonesia with
its population of more than 200 mln. Muslim inhabitants, these
four states account for more than one third of the world’s Muslims.
However, there are more than 50 states in the world where Muslims
constitute the majority of the population, i. e., almost one fourth of
all current sovereign states. The majority of them are in Western
and Central Asia and to the North from hemisphere in Africa.
Even though Islam is often associated with the Arabic ethnic
group and their living area (indeed, Islam came into being in the
Arabic Peninsular and is Arabic by nature), today Muslim Arabs
comprise less than one fourth of the world’s Muslims – there are
around 350 mln. of them. One should note that not all Arabs are
Muslims though (in the Middle East – in Syria, Liban, Jordan and
Palestina there are several millions of Christian Arabs); moreover,
not all Arab-speaking people identify themselves as Arabs (e. g. historic inhabitants of Egypt, Christian Coptics have lost their native
language and communicate in Arabic in their every day life).
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Table 2. States that have the biggest number of Muslims
State
Muslims , mln.
Percentage of population, %
Indonesia
203–207
86–88
Pakistan
171–174
96–97
India
156–161
13–14
Bangladesh
138–145
88–89
Egypt
75–78
90–94
Nigeria
75–78
50
Turkey
74–77
98–99
Iran
74
99
Prepared according to the data of Pew Research Center
With regard to Islam and Muslims, it is essential to understand the
difference between something that is Islamic and Muslim, and, in
other words, between Islam as religion, and the normative system
and the cultures of Muslim societies and communities, as parallel
to practical value systems of normative (legalistic) Islam: the religion and the culture do not necessarily coincide. In other words,
the things that are required of a believer in holy scripture and religious law, are not necessarily followed in every day life. It is often
the case that a person or a group belonging to a religious tradition
nominally / formally do not follow religious dogmas and requirements in their every day lives. More often the dogmas and norms
are reinterpreted so that something we actually follow is quite far
away from the original. External cultural influence, natural and
other circumstances estrange the lifestyle from religious ideals.
Therefore, in the case of Islam (as well as practically any other religion), Muslim cultures are not to be identified with the normative
Islam that is declared by teachers of Islam (ulama). Therefore, in
specific (often very different) Muslim cultures, though they cannot
be entirely separated from Islam, there is an obvious relation be74
Cultural Variety of Muslim Societies and Communities:
Muslim Demography and Different Aspects of Islam
tween Muslims’ everyday lifestyle and Islam’s norms, they cannot
be considered to be the representation of Islam.
Table 3. The division between Islamic vs. Muslim
‘Islamic’ vs. ‘Muslim’
Islamic
Muslim
Ideal (as it should be)
Reality (as it is)
Law (legal traditions)
Culture(-s)
Unfortunately, many western people who are not very familiarized
neither with the Islamic truth, nor with the Muslim point of view
and lifestyle, this division by no means has been and is obvious.
Therefore, most of non Muslim Europeans consider practically any
Muslim action to be determined by their religion (or even prescribed by it) and to be an integral part of it. But this is not merely
a vice of uneducated Europeans – Muslims themselves often are
unable to realize this incongruity between the reality and ideal that
has been historically formed. However, some Muslims recognize
this historical division in the societies and communities and are
very worried about it. These people are called revivalists in various
literary sources – they are supporters of Islam’s revival, who make
an alternative dimension for classic-historic dimensions of Islam:
for the legalistic, mystic and folk Islam.
The normative-legalistic and cultural-historic (folk) Islam are
the two dimensions of Islam that contradict or even disclaim each
other. The differences between these historic dimensions of Islam,
which are called High Islam (academic) and Low Islam (folk), are
convincingly shown by Ernest Gellner in his book Postmodernism,
reason and religion (Gellner 1993: 23-39). Indeed, Gelner attributed
the mystic dimension that has been researched by many Islamic
researchers and that has been considered to be independent, that
is called soofism, and the legalistic Islam has practically been iden75
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tified as fundamentalism. However, historically the relation of
legalistic and fundamentalist Islam has more often been marked
with hostility and tension rather than agreement and identification. Therefore to complement, and partially, correct Gellner one
should add that today Islam may be considered a multidimensional
religion, which apart from the aforementioned historic (legalistic,
fundamentalistic, folk and mystic) aspects there is some revivalist Islam in it (which consists of neo-fundamentalism and politicised Islam that can also be called Islamism), and as a consequence
of clash of all these aspects, in the second part of the 20th century
some hybrid aspects such as quasilegalistic Islam is especially specific to converters.
Legalistic Islam. The essence of the legalistic (normative) dimension of Islam is the Muslim theory of law (which is called fikh,
meaning jurisprudence) and practice. Muslim lawyers have raised
an aim to formulate concrete rules of behaviour for Muslim societies, which the societies might follow in their social and private lives.
However, even though they are in agreement with regard to their
jurisprudence – at the level of sources, positive law and branches
of law, Muslim lawyers still have chosen different paths – gradually they formed different legal traditions. The differences between
the legal positions became apparent in an early stage of Muslim
jurisprudence, when the most famous lawyers, referring to different and sometimes contradictory to each other epxressions, would
take different decisions at their own discretion in almost the same
situations. The scholars of these lawyers were following their progenitors, and this way increased the breakaway, until gradually a
dozen of legal traditions were formed, whose eponyms were early
lawyers. Indeed, only four Sunni legal traditions (chanafi, maliki,
šafi, chanbali) were established in the Muslim societies and have
remained until modern times. However, formally representatives
of all four traditions considered each other to be real (orthodox)
Muslims, and their differences not only were not considered to be a
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Cultural Variety of Muslim Societies and Communities:
Muslim Demography and Different Aspects of Islam
deficiency but also they considered them to be an advantage. Three
independent legal traditions were established among the Shia traditions that comprised the minority.
However, despite the fact the legal theory has been developed
and sophisticated and has been cultivated in Muslim centres of science and education (in a number of mardasa and university level
institutions of education), in reality practicing of the Muslim law
was historically limited. Practicing lawyers (kadi and mufti) had
most influence when deciding on family law, and they left other
branches of law (commercial, adiministrative, international and
often criminal law) at the discretion of regional administration or
local informal structure of government (tribes and clans) who were
practicing common law (urf, ada).
Mystic Islam. Parallel to the legalistic Islam, during the first
several centuries of Islam’s history a diametrically contrary dimension – tasavuf – was formed, which was Muslims’ mysticism established in European languages as soofism. The first Muslim mystics
were individual hermits who renounced earthly blessings and temptations and concentrated on contemplation on God (zikr). Soon the
mystics were surrounded by groups of followers which later (approximately from the 12th century onwards) turned into fraternities
(taryka). Members of fraternities would traditionally live together,
they would often be separated from people in their own separate
premises (zavija, ribat) from mosques, religious schools (madrasa)
and other religious buildings. Each fraternity was independent and
had its own ideology, initiation, spiritual perfectionism, meditative
(zikr, khalva) practice, rituals and rites and they consisted of several
hundreds or even thousands of initiated members, and it was led by
šeikh (who was also called pyr, muršid), who was related by uninterrupted chain of direct benediction (silsila) with the previous leaders
of the fraternity up to the founder of the fraternity (who was often
one of Muhammad’s associates). In soofism, the essential category
of relation between the believer and God is love, longing for some77
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one, the desire to approach God in this life or even to merge with
God. By longing for God and seeking to approach him, Muslim
mystics use various aesthetic meditation practices (zikr), by fulfilling which they expect to merge with God, to melt in him (fana)18.
Around fraternities of mystics there always were some non-initiative, but submissive inhabitants of the area, who were often allowed
to participate in a weekly zikr ceremony. Hence one way or another
most Muslims used to be associated with soofism. But due to frequent non-orthodox-like events both in belief and in practice, mystics used to be often not only disdained by the lawyers supporting
legalistic Islam and leaders of Muslim countries for having gone
astray, but they would also be persecuted. There were times when
mystics used to be imprisoned, judged and punished by death punishment as apostates from Islam (murtad).
Folk Islam. Close to soofism and often coinciding with it but
still not identified with the soofism dimension is a folk (popular,
cultural) Islam dimension, which goes right through the lifestyle
of all Muslim communities and societies. To speak objectively, historically, the absolute majority of Muslims have been practicing one
or another form of folk Islam. Folk Islam is comprised of various
creeds and practices of Islam that do not conform to the norms of
legalistic Islam (that have been formed after distorting them or having taken them from other religious traditions), which are supported in communities by a cultural tradition (custom and common
law). Since folk Islam was commonly practiced by the lower class,
often hardly literate, society, the superstitions, magic words, incantation and the magic of numbers, astrology, on all of which folk
medicine is based, take the place of theology, jurisprudence and
other disciplines. Folk Islam has a distinctive feature – sincretism –
Muslims practicing various varieties of it managed to combine various creeds of different religious traditions and rituals, by in a way
18. Soofism is probably best presented in Annemarie Schimmel’s book Mystical
Dimensions of Islam (Schimmel 1975).
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Cultural Variety of Muslim Societies and Communities:
Muslim Demography and Different Aspects of Islam
making Islamic non Islamic religious practice. Beside this, in folk
Islam the cult of saints which is strictly forbidden by legalistic Islam
flourished in folk Islam, where next to dead saints living saints are
in action (marabouts). In some places (e. g., Central Asia, Malai Archipelago) folk Islam was even balansing on the border of idolatry,
when objects found in nature (trees, bushes, rocks) used to be covered with glory of holiness and magic powers. Due to their alleged
going astray (as-sirat al-mustakym) folk Islam, as well as soofism,
was despised by many Muslim lawyers who confess legalistic Islam
as the only right Islam, and the rulers often persecuted it.
Revivalist Islam. In the second half of the 19th century reacting
revivalist movements that were the result of imperialism, colonialism, the industrial revolution and other sociopolitical processes
of the modern age that took place in the Muslim societies whose
representatives were neofundamentalists that are also called scripturalists and literalists, by aiming at re-islamization of the Islamic
community (uma) that, as they think, has gone astray, were requiring to apply (to return) to Muslim communities’ religious law. Muslim neo-fundamentalists in the societies of their times miss following the right religious norms both in personal and social life, and
accuse Muslims of having accepted many unjustifiable innovations
(bida) such as mysticism (tasavuf), folk beliefs, the cult of the saint,
etc. throughout centuries in religious matters. By seeking to islamize the Muslim societies, Muslim neo-fundamentalists are taking
care of raising the level of religiosity by developing religious education (tarbija) and intercommunity missionary activity (dava) which
should lead to creating religious (Islamic) state from the bottom.
Through this activity neo-fundamentalists expect to re-convert, to
their mind, co-believers who are only nominal believers of the real
Islam, which can be found by neo-fundamentalists in the Quran
and the Chadysais (the statements, actions and adventures of Muhammed), whose pronunciations, according to neo-fundamentalists, are to be applied literary, without any interpretation.
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Even though they have similar aims as neo-fundamentalists
(i. e., to re-islamize the Muslim societies), the representatives of
the worldwide Islamistic movement controvert to partially neofundamentalist movement that was formed in the first half of the
20th century and became worlwide widespread in the second half of
the 20th century. For Islamists, contrary to traditionalist Muslims
(who practice folk Islam), whom they accuse of non-compliance
with religious duties, religious negligence and even apostasy of the
real creed, Muslim neo-fundamentalists who are accused of political idleness, are characteristic of selective application of religious
imperatives and political activism. According to Islamists, religion
and politics are inseperable from each other, and the latter has to be
led by the former. In other words, Islamists try to create a religion
(Islam)-based managed society and state, and they expect to reach
this aim by overtaking the authority by the means of a revolution.
In summary, one could state that the social Muslim society’s lifestyle in general, and the relations of genders and generations (i. e.,
in families) separately are determined by the body of various factors, including the following factors that are certainly important
and might be the most important:
– the influence of religion on political surroundings and the
legal system;
– officially encouraged (legalistic Islam) and unofficially practiced religious forms (both of folk, and revivalist Islam);
– the pressure of the society (division between regularity/nonregularity);
– collective memory (experience of collonies) and a national
vision;
■ Natural conditions.
80
Even though
they are religious,
they subordinate
religion to politics
Do not consider
religion to be very
significant and
even despise it
Separate religion
from politics
absolutize religion
by ignoring politics
Neofundamentalists
(apolitic revivalists,
reactionary
scripturalists)
Liberal wing
Modernists
(westernized
reformists)
Seculiarists
(agnostics, atheists)
Traditionalists
(people practicing
historical-cultural
forms of Islam)
Table 4. The spectrum of religious engagement
radical wing
subordinate
politics to religion
Islamists
(politically
engaged
progressive
revivalists)
absolutize armed
fights
Jihads
(destructive
nihilists)
Intercultural Communication
17. Task:
Find some examples of differences of Muslim culture lifestyle differences in interpersonal communication (of genders, generations, relations with representatives of
other religions, etc.) and present them
Sources: Geertz, Clifford. Islam Observed; (auto)biographies, ego-documents, online interviews
V. Integration of Muslim immigrants in Europe as a case of intercultural communication
5. 1. Globalization and migration to Europe
From the historic point of view, immigration in Europe is not something new – people would migrate to Europe and through it before
the Ancient times. One can see the processes of immigration in the
second half of last century as another surge of migration. On the
other hand, the last surge was different from the qualitative point of
view– it challenges the alleged cultural identity of Europe. Indeed,
the actually unified comprehensive European identity has never existed and most likely was (or still is) an aim, the creation of which
was enshrined in the European Treaty establishing a Constitution
for Europe that was signed in 2004 but was not ratified (in 2005 it
was even rejected in referendums of France and the Netherlands).
The creators of the common European identity faced a number of
challenges. Next to inner European political, economic and cultural obsticles, a contemporary group of migrants – Muslims – are
among those problems. Another aspect of the widely realized possible threat to European identity is a possible Turkey’s entry into
the European Union, even though it is foreseen for distant future.
Part of the Muslim immigrants were successfully integrated by European societies and even partially assimilated. But harmonious
co-living of the majority of nominal Christians and a minority of
Muslims is just a dream, fulfilment of which was impossible in any
of the European regions. One of the main obstacles for this used to
be and still are the vices of cross-cultural communication.
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Cultural Variety of Muslim Societies and Communities:
Muslim Demography and Different Aspects of Islam
For the last two decades of the 20th century, the interest in European Muslim communities has increased in the academia. Even
though, as we know, Muslims have lived in Europe for more than
a century, and their mass migration to the old continent and living
in it started in the 1950s, this is largely associated with the speed
of globalization, which in its turn was caused by the technological
advance, especially in the area of communication, which enabled
information, goods, services, finances and people to travel around
the world very fast. This way, due to the technological development,
in the second half of the 20th century the representatives of different
societies started unprecedented close communication and collaboration, and the world started turning into a ‘global city’, in whose
rhythm new communities of people were involved. The Internet
and satellite phones increased the speed of the process. The centres
of globalization in North America, Oceania and Western Europe
have unceasingly been attracting inhabitants of peripheries and
Muslim areas. At the beginning of the 21st century there were up to
25 million19 of Muslims in Europe (Russia not included), and in the
EU (EU 27) alone – up to 20 million.
Table 5. Muslims in Europe
Country
Muslims
Percentage of inhabitants
Russia
16,482,000
11.7
Germany (EU)
4,026,000
~5
France (EU)
3,554,000
~6
Albania
2,522,000
79.9
19. In southeast Europe there are approximately 6 million of Muslims, in Norway, Switzerland and Eastern Europe taken together there are additional 2
million. Savage provides these figures: that in 2003 there were 15,5, mln. of
Muslims in expanded EU (EU 25), and acroos the EU – additional 7,7 mln.
people. The overall number of Muslims on the continent was 23,2 mln. Cf.
Savage, Timothy M. Europe and Islam: Crescent Waxing, Cultures Clashing,
The Washington Quarterly, Summer 2004, P. 26.
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Country
Muslims
Percentage of inhabitants
Kosovo
1,999,000
89.6
The United Kingdom
(EU)
1,647,000
2.7
Bosnia-Herzegovina
1,522,000
~40
The Netherlands (EU)
946,000
5.7
Bulgaria (EU)
920,000
12.2
The Republic of
Macedonia
680,000
33.3
The rest of Europe
3,814,000
1.1
Entire Europe
38,112,000
5.2
Prepared according to the data of Pew Research Center20
Even though some European Muslim communities are to be considered autochonous (the Pomacs in Bulgaria, the Bosniaks in Bosnia, the Albanese in Kosovo and Albania, the Tatars in Lithuania,
Poland and Belarus), the Muslims in the EU mostly settled down
in three different ways: as emigrants from former colonies, as temporary workers and as immigrants (including refugees). Muslims
have been treated differently in Europe in different periods. Since
the beginning of the 20th century people started building mosques
and educational-religious centres of Islam in European countries
for the benefit of emigrants and colonies (for example, in Paris and
London). The requirements for Muslims at that time were limited
to creating conditions for religious rituals. Mosques would create
such conditions. After World War II Muslim workers from Turkey,
South Africa and other Muslim regions considered themselves to
be temporary residents of Europe therefore they did not have any
specific, religious practice or any requirements related to everyday
lifestyle – they were ready to temporarily sacrifice their Islamism
20. The Future of the Global Muslim Population, Pew Research Center, January
2011, at http://features.pewforum.org/muslim-population-graphic/.
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Cultural Variety of Muslim Societies and Communities:
Muslim Demography and Different Aspects of Islam
and culturally sanctioned lifestyle for the sake of welfare of their
countries. However, the situation changed radically after the 1970s
when new workers became immigrants, brought their families to
Europe and started raising their children there. The number of
immigrants was increased by the political and economic refugees
from Muslim regions. When the scope of legal, and especially, illegal immigration expanded, the governments of European states
started implementing a two-sided policy towards the Muslim minority. On the one hand, they limited the possibilities of legal immigration, and made the laws regulating illegal immigration stricter. On the other hand, they started considering possible options of
treatment of current Muslim communities.
When Lithuania regained its independence, and especially
after its accession to the EU (and the Schengen area), migration
flows became more intensive. Apart from emigrants and tourists
visiting Lithuania, a tendency of immigration is becoming more
apparent in migration processes. Though it is not noticed by the
grassroots for the time being, in the near future the number of
immigrants will definitely grow in Lithuania. Most probably, a
big part of immigrants will be composed of emigrants from Muslim countries. By integrating immigrants to the Lithuanian society, people will inevitably face cultural differences which will
be of an ethnic, religious origin, determined by values related to
their education, social status and their lifestyle. To successfully
integrate immigrants in Lithuania, it is essential to preliminary
become familiar with common features of the social lifestyle of
immigrants and in this way to create a basis for successful crosscultural communication of integrated immigrants and the local
society.
People’s interpersonal communication is largely determined
by their attitude towards the interlocutor. Therefore correct access is necessary for fruitful communication and collaboration.
Prejudices and stereotypes that are created due to lack of educa85
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tion or unsuccessful interpretation, are among the most common
obstacles for interpersonal understanding (and especially under
conditions of cross-cultural communication), without which understanding, and especially collaboration, is impossible. This was
proved by many European societies’ experiece in integrating (or
rather unability to integrate) immigrants, especially those from
Muslim regions. Therefore, cultural awareness is necessary as an
offset to a negative Europeans’ attitude to ‘the other’ that has been
formed for centuries (including Muslims and nowadays immigrants) – Orientalism.
5. 2. Integration of Muslim immigrants into
European societies: a bitter experience
18. Task:
To find and show (illustrate) the influence of cross-cultural (mis)communication (cultural awareness and Orientalism) on Muslim integration policy and its implementation measure in various European countries
Retrospectively, one can state that European countries (both the authorities and the societies) were caught totally unprepared to accept
immigrant communities in the 1970s and 1980s21. Most European
countries then created and started applying programmes of integration. Olivier Roy distinguishes two perspectives of immigrant
treatment in European countries: he claims that Europe historically
was using two models in solving the problem of immigration: assimilation (France) and multiculturalism (Northern Europe)22.
21. This is very well argumented by J. Nielsen. Žr.: Nielsen, Jorgen. Muslims,
Christians, and Loyalties in the Nation-State, Nielsen, Jorgen (sud.). Religion
and Citizenship in Europe and the Arab World, London: Grey Seal Books,
1992, P. 1–6.
22. Roy, Olivier. A Clash of Cultures or a Debate on Europe’s Values?, ISIM Review
15, Spring 2005, P. 7, http://www.isim.nl/files/Review_15/Review_15-8.pdf.
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Muslim Demography and Different Aspects of Islam
With regard to assimilation, Muslims were treated as a tabula
rasa, which can be inscribed with western models of thinking and
behaviour, which in their turn would be compatible if not identical with the alleged (ideally understood) models of local inhabitant thinking and behaviour. At that time (in the 1970s and 1980s)
most people expected that having created favourite conditions for
Muslim communities, they will gradually become an integral part
of Europe and will accordingly be able to participate in the social
and political life of the country. In other words, it was expected that
Muslims would be turned into Europeans – once they are taught local languages, by teaching them to professionally implement valuebased orientation with European behaviour. This attitude is very
well revealed by Lang who successfully notices (although in another
context) that ‘we are certain that we understand how those people
have to live and that we may deal with them with minimum effort
because they really want to be like us’23. Duffey describes this even
more briefly: ‘This attitude is acquiring a rather imperious tone: we
know what is best for them.’24
However, for the most part, this kind of treatment has not
proved adequate – large Muslim communities in Europe were not
successfully integrated into European societies. On the contrary,
in most cases they turned into half-closed islands of alternative
culture, practically, ghettos. To go deeper into the question, it is
obvious that through the programs of social integration, which are
meant for Muslims, European governments were seeking assimilation rather than integration. Most of the programs applied were
created very improperly since they were based on the principles of
human co-existance which were formed exclusively in European
societies. Unfortunately, these principles could not be combined
23. Byman, D., Scheuer, M., Lieven, A., Lang, W.P.. Iraq, Afghanistan and the
War on “Terror”, Middle East Policy, XII: 1, Spring 2005, P. 10.
24. Duffey, T., Cultural Issues in Contemporary Peacekeeping, International
Peacekeeping, VII: 1, Spring 2000, P. 152.
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with the ones that were preserved by most Muslim immigrants in
Europe. Despite this, at that time the local government was hardly
trying to familiarize itself with the basis of Muslim immigrants’
culture. It proved correct that it was a fatal mistake.
Probably the greatest deficiency of the integration programs was
their atheism, non-existence of any religious dimension – a secular individual and his personal rights, freedoms and duties were
encouraged at the expense of the individual’s relation to God. As
Nielsen emphasizes, ‘well into the 1970s there seemed to be an expectation that communities of an immigrant origin would quickly
follow a course characterized by privatization of religion’25. However, most Muslims saw their lives in the perspective of religion, and
the thesis ‘Sumbission to the divine will, his law and order’ (however they understood it and practiced it) which became a means of
measuring and evaluating oneself and the entire world. Secularized Europeans could not understand this therefore programs of
integration, which were meant for assimilation of Muslims into the
European societies, were actually destroying Islamism – their partly realized comprehensive sacrifice to Islam. The things that were
offered to these programs were not what most Muslims could accept. Beside this, these programs provided hope to climb the social
ladder, the hope that would not justify itself in an individual’s life.
It appeared that integration programs that were prepared without
thorough consideration and hastily were mutually more damaging
than beneficial: most immigrants considered these programs to be
destroying their nature and culture, and the governments did not
prepare local inhabitants of Europe to overcome the possible prejudices and stereotypes related to Muslims.
A multicultural approach that represented a maximum Live
and let live was also unsuccessful. Even though ideally a multicultural lifestyle is based on the horizontal tolerance of ‘the oth25. Nielsen, Jorgen. Muslims in Western Europe, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1995, P. vii.
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Cultural Variety of Muslim Societies and Communities:
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ers’, in Europe this was usually equal to vertical tolerance of ‘the
others’, but only to the extent that ‘the others’ were in line with a
conventional though extensive framework. Instead of becoming
a conglomerate of equal cultures, Europe turned into a composition that was partly formed by a dominating (local) culture with
some attached subcultures (ethnica and other subcultures) and,
on the other side, multiple subcultures (immigrants) which were
often considered as anti-cultures hence a threat. In other words
to say, the result of ‘a multicultural’ approach was contrary to the
expected one due to a fragmentation of the European societies.
Moreover, as it appeared, racism, xenophobia and chauvinism
that had come from the past were hiding behind the publicly declared European multiculturalism.
Eventually it became apparent that liberal European values, freedoms, social and economic well-being do impress most of the Muslims in Europe – though they physically live in the European continent, mentally they live in another dimension – resignation full of
anxiety which more and more often turns into violence against the
general public. A difficult co-existence incited an isolation policy
and isolationism that later turned into turning into ghettos in urban conglomerates of Europe. Even worse, most (even assimilated)
immigrants felt to be second-class citizens who have fewer rights,
civil liberties and even fewer possibilities to use them. Recent riots
in France, considerations and actions related to prohibition of hijab
(Muslim head cover) in allegedly liberal countries like the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany – all this illustrates that even after
people realized that for some decades people in Europe were wrong
about Muslims, European governments did not undertake any or
undertook only minimal measures to involve Muslims into the
process of creation of a new, more universal European identity and
value system. The need for such a new identity obviously appeared
in the last decade of the 20th century, since, according to Nielsen,
‘Across Europe, the consequences of immigration (multicultural
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societies, ethnic and religious pluralism, etc.) and the relativisation of the nation state (supra-national sovereignty in the EU and
NATO, and supra-national requirements of autonomy) mean that
everyone has to agree on the understanding of the new oneself, as
an individual and part of a collective. The relation between a state,
a nation / Volk, citizenship, religion, community and transnational
loyalty is not as we thought it would be’26. For a change to take
place, we still need will which we are still short of, as the resonance
events of the recent years show.
5. 3. Muslims in Lithuania
19. Task:
evaluate, by using some specific examples, the relation of the Lithuanian state and
the society with Lithuanian Tatars and ‘new’ Muslims in the perspective of the new
cross-cultural communication
From the historic perspective, Muslims in Lithuania is not something new – Tatar Muslims have been living in eastern Lithuania
for more than 600 years. Lithuania has successfully integrated
them, and even partly assimilated. In either way they do not strike
our eye and do not shock us. However, in the last decade, the idyl
of co-existence of the Christian majority and Muslim minority has
been changed by a perspective of a different, more complex co-existence. The most important component of it in the newly developing Lithuania is and will be Muslims arriving to Lithuania from
various traditionally Muslim countries. This phenomenon is often
called the ‘New Muslim Presence’ (NMP) in anglo-saxon academic
literature. On the one hand, the evolution of the relationship of the
26. Nielsen, Jorgen. Muslims and Christians in Europe – from Immigration to
Dialogue, Schmidt-Behlau, Beate (composed.). Building Bridges for Dialogue
and Understanding, Institute for International Cooperation of the German
Adult education Association (IIZ/DVV), 2005, P. 23, www.iiz-dvv.de.
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Cultural Variety of Muslim Societies and Communities:
Muslim Demography and Different Aspects of Islam
ones arriving here with the Lithuanian authorities, the majority
(Christian) society and autochtonic Muslim communities, reminds
of the evolution of the relationships of Muslims in other European
areas, and, on the other hand, it is rather unique.
The number of immigrants (especially those from Asia) in Lithuania has not reached a critical point yet so that we might talk about a
statistically significant percentage. Therefore, Lithuanians’ attitude
towards foreigners (immigrants), or ‘the others’, can so far be called
a theoretical (or hypothetical) one. However, now we can already
notice some tendencies. For example, opinion polls of the Institute
of Ethnic Studies show that malevolence towards Muslims (who are
among other things seen as threat causers) is increasing: in 1990,
31% of the Lithuanian population evaluated them negatively, and in
2006 already 58% of the Lithuanian population accused Muslims
of criminal activities, and ignoring of universally acknowledged
norms of behaviour.
Citizens of foreign countries who arrive in Lithuania are to be
divided into two categories – those who come and live here legally
and illegal immigrants. Arabs and other Muslims constitute only a
minor part of the first category27. An absolute majority of the second category are Chechen, even though until 2000 more than half
of the arrested illegal immigrants were from three Muslim countries - Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh (51% of all arrested
people who crossed the Lithuanian border illegally)28. However, so
far Lithuania is far from experiencing real challenges of immigration – it has not reached a critical limit of numbers of immigrants
so that, on the one hand, they could be considered to be part of
terrorist organizations or networks, and, on the other, that they
27. The development and the tendencies of the migration processes in the Republic
of Lithuania (in 2000 to 2003), a website of Migration Department under the
Minitry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania http://www.migracija.lt/.
28. Information of the Foreigners‘ registration centre in Pabradė, http://www.
pasienis.lt/units/r_urc.htm, 2002 10 20.
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Intercultural Communication
would not be so distinct in the local population29. However, since
Lithuania became the EU Member State and joined the Schengen
Agreement and the standard of living is rising, the number of immigrants, including the number of Muslim immigrants, is subject
to inevitable increase.
29. Since 1997 approximately 3,000 persons have applied for asylum in Lithuania.
Approximately 100 persons have acquired a status of a conventional refugee,
and most of them have already left Lithuania. A status of a humanitarian refugee has been granted more than 1,000 times (for some persons, it has been
renewed several times). See data of the Vilnius Department of the United Nations Board of High Commissioner for Refugees and the Migration Department under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, http://
www.migracija.lt/MDEN/Statistics/uzs_pras_1997_2003.htm; http://www.
migracija.lt/MDEN/Statistics/spr1997-2003.htm, 2004 11 08. There are approximately 30,000 of foreigners permanently residing in Lithuania; a third
of them are citizens of the Russian Federation.
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