Center for a New American Security

I'm in DC and don't have the time to blog, but followers of the Angry Arab blog know all about his obsession with shoe-throwing in Arab culture. (He gets annoyed when Western media report how shoe-throwing is a grave insult in Arab culture -- as if it would not be in Western culture as well.) Complain as he may, though, the Arabic-speaking world does seem to give the lowly shoe some weird kind of punitive power. Even the lowest-ranking private in the U.S. Army understands, by this point, not to show the soles of his boots to his host while seated. And when those in the West or Far East protest, shoes usually don't figure into the demonstrations. In the Arabic-speaking world they sometimes do. I am not an "expert" on Arab culture, but I have lived in the Arabic-speaking world for about four years of my life and have certainly noticed this -- and don't fault Western reporters when they notice this as well. Despite it all, the best coverage of President Bush's encounter with a pair of shoes thrown by an Iraqi journalist is to be found on Angry Arab. He's got links to all the stories on Arabs and shoes in English, Arabic, German, Spanish, etc. Highly amusing.