Thinking out of the box in a culture of conformity

The last few weeks’ chaos over the anti-Islam film showed how sensitive and fragile the Arabs are when matters touch their belief and culture. Although the film was disgusting and insulting and show how much hatred certain groups have for Muslims and their religion, many Muslim scholars have called on people to refrain from acting violently. Arabs’ fury proved how they are confined to their belief and culture. Even if Muslims and Arabs want to express their dissatisfaction and anger against insults and disrespect, they must be aware that there are outside forces that want them to stay in the same dilemma. This dilemma started more than one hundred years ago, after the fall of the Ottoman Islamic empire and during the colonisation of the Arab countries, which led to high illiteracy and poverty rates and created a society that was less productive and innovative.

The Arab culture is a culture of conformity. This means that individuals submit to the popular norms, customs and beliefs. This kind of submission usually creates perceptual and mental sets that constrain the individual’s ability to think out of the box. For example, conforming culture sees it shameful to break the norms and the customs or taboo to question religious issues. The essence of innovation and creativity is to generate novel and unfashionable ideas that challenge the society’s prevailing norms, customs and beliefs. As Robert Sternberg and Todd Lubart, in Defying the Crowd: Cultivating Creativity in a Culture of Conformity, argued that a creative person develop ideas that may be unfashionable or misunderstood at first, but gain currency over time as the public catches on it. The extent to which a person becomes creative and the extent to which a society accepts unfashionable ideas depend largely to the ecologies, social structures, religion, norms and educational systems that shape the culture of the individuals and the societies. As a result, the Arab world, in general, and the GCC, in particular, is reaping today the consequences of what their cultural attitude imposed towards creativity and innovation.

We may repeat the same question which Prof Ng Aik Kwang had in his book: Why Asians are Less Creative than Westerners? This question is actually the title of the book. He asserted that Asians are less creative than westerners mainly because of their cultural background.

Why Arabs, in today’s world, are not creative as much as westerners and Asians? There are many variables involved in answering this question, such as individuals’ quality, education, government policies or supporting institutions. However, culture cuts through all these variables.

Culture has an important role to play in defining, promoting or limiting creative and innovative thinking and behaviour. Culture provides point of reference and aspiration for new and novel ideas through its social norms and environmental cues. Nevertheless, in many circumstances, culture may also impede novel ideas. In the Arab and Muslim world, culture played both roles.

The root of the Arab culture comes from their norms, customs and Islam. Over centuries, Islam, as well as Arabs, has shown great tolerance in coping up with other societies, thoughts and norms. For this reason, Arab Muslims were able to spread Islam to different parts of the world. They were able to transfer their beliefs and culture and at the same time live and accept others. As a result, Muslims thinkers and scholars blossomed in different parts of the world. For example, Ibn Khaldoun, a Tunisian historiographer and sociologist, acted as an adviser in the 14th century for Tamerlane, also known as Timor Lang, a Muslim military warrior from Samarkand, located in today’s Uzbekistan. Sibawayh, a Persian influential linguist who pioneered the grammar of the Arabic language in the 8th century and Al Razi, a physician, chemist and philosopher of the 9th century who, first, to draw the distinction between smallpox and chicken-pox and provided treatment for it. Jamal Adin Al Afghani, a political activist and Islamic ideologist during the late 19th century, was from Afghanistan. Finally, Ibn Battuta, a 14th century Moroccan explorer who worked as a judge in the court of Sultan of Delhi in India. He called Delhi “the greatest city of Hindustan and indeed all of Islamism in the East” (Time, August, 1, 2011, p.32).

By the late 19th century and beginning of 20th century, Arab Muslims’ culture had undergone tremendous social and political changes. This was due to a series of political, economic and social disappointments such as the fall of the Ottoman Islamic empire, the colonisation of the Arab countries by European countries, the rise of authoritarian governments and the escalation of international conflicts over the region. This, in turn, resulted in the gradual deterioration in the quality of life, education, health care and the rise of illiteracy and poverty levels. People in the region felt that the forces of change were intending to weaken them by altering their beliefs, culture and values. So they started building up defence mechanism which led them to gradually become more:

• Reserved: To their daily norms, culture, values and beliefs.

• Protected: From external forces which may affect their beliefs and culture such as foreign ideas, inventions and media.

• Islamic centrist: Where they see themselves as protective of Islam from unpopular ideas of foreign influence.

As a result, Arab society in general started to view change as either:

• Shameful: If it touches the social norms.

• Taboo: If it touches Islamic issues.

• Suspicious: There may be a conspiracy in accompanying the change.

As these attitudes became pervasive features of the culture, it started hindering creativity and innovation. Generally, innovation and creativity start with the idea of questioning certain behaviour, phenomena or thought in the society and driving solutions from new perspectives. The type of attitude toward new perspectives, which the Arab developed, limits the individual’s ability to think and create.

By staying away from shamefulness, taboo and suspicion, Arabs can accomplish both — purify and maintain their belief and values and move a step forward towards creating an innovative society. There are two promising signs that can contribute to this purification and creation. First, is the Arab Spring, which by itself is a movement to break up the box of the status quo. Second, the social and economic development of the GCC countries. The GCC already is one of the world’s most culturally diverse society. People with different cultural backgrounds, values and religions live and work in harmony. This type of diversity makes people accept new ideas, behaviour and thoughts. The modern business environment of the GCC leads people to be risk-takers and not to frown upon failure.

Finally, as these changes are taking place in the Arab world, it is the responsibility of its creative citizens to push their novel ideas into the society’s norms. The originality and novelty of an idea are often measured by the extent to which its creator believes it and is willing to fight for it. Instead of reacting to the behaviour of others who want the Arab to stay in the same old dilemma, they must have the confidence to initiate positive actions and fight for what they believe in.

Dr Khalid M. Alkhazraji is a UAE academic and former undersecretary of labour. He is the chairman of Al Kawthar Investment. You can follow him on Twitter at www.twitter.com/DrAlkhazraji. This article is the third of a six-part series.