The Arabs: Journey Beyond the Mirage

The Arab world167 million people in 18 countriesis, as Lamb (The Africans reminds us, full of contradictions that seem to defy a Westerner's logic. Here he goes a long way toward sorting them out, stripping away stereotypes to reveal the extraordinary degree to which Arabs are misjudged in the West. He demonstrates, for instance, that Arab societies are the most crime-free on earth, that premarital sex is a rare occurrence in the Arab world, that Islam is closer to Christianity than to any other major religion, and that Islamic extremism has replaced Israel as the prime enemy of most Arab governments. Lamb argues that one of the primary reasons why the Arabs are singled out for media-bashing is that, unlike most other Third World peoples, they have resisted assimilating Western ways or capitulating to Western values. We need to get to know the Arabs better, he warns, ""because in the end the destiny of the Arabs will affect the destiny of us all.'' Photos. Major ad/promo. (March 30)