So a while ago, I finally got around to reading the New York magazine article about Dubai that people had brought up in class. Not going to lie, that article made Dubai sound like the chosen land. I’m literally ready to pack my suitcases right now and blow out of this country. Economic opportunity for college grads, networking left and right, beautiful weather, and awesome nightlife that the article details are pretty much all a girl like me can ask for. Thinking back to when Muhammed visited our class, we discussed a little bit about the authenticity of the city. How it was built on a barren expanse of sandy wasteland so recently, as opposed to every other major city in the Western world that has roots dating back hundreds upon hundreds of years. Muhammed questioned if this made Dubai any less authentic as a city, even pointing out that there were replicas of ancient structures to enhance the city’s atmosphere of legitimacy. I have to admit that this approach is pretty bizarre, I really just don’t know where they were going with that one.
But today, while I was at my internship, I came across this user post in response to the New York magazine article “Doha, Qatar is the New Brooklyn:”
“ Hah, Islamic art...what an oxymoron. It's just an amalgamation of artistic styles from places the Muslims ransacked in the Middle Ages. And doesn't Islam forbid representation of living things in art? You can't call something art if its constrained by a series of arbitrary rules created by the clergy. Also, can everyone please get off Dubai's nuts? The place is a tradition-bound shit hole posing as a tacky shrine to consumerism.”
FIRST OF ALL, I'm pretty sure, at least from the research that I did, that portraying living things in art is another one of those issues where some people who are very devout are against it, while others see no problem with it. I can't be sure about this, but at least that's what I uncovered, and I'm pretty sure from this person's comment that they aren't Muslim either, so how can they be SO sure about this assertion? They also has a very specific criterium of what consists of art, which I won't get into, but definitely elevates them to asshole status. As far as Dubai, yes it is based on consumerism, but so is Western culture, if this person would just take a look around.... And so what if it's tacky??? Las Vegas is tacky, and similar in many ways to Dubai, and as far as I'm concerned they may not be built upon ancient cities but that doesn't mean that they don't have their own histories of modern times - they are manifestations of business booms and progressive thinking, which are shared as aspects of modern cities such as New York City.