I read this novel at the beginning of the year before I knew it would become a drama, I seem to love Drama Shiqi way more, its making it harder for me to like Xuan (as of episode 17)
I like your attitude. Especially that you marked the comments as spoiler and explained what is will be about for…
And the answer would be, I don't think anyone knows everything, even about things they are well versed in. I live in the United Kingdom and have been exposed to multiple religions while growing up including Christianity, Hinduism, Sikhism, Judaism etc, and from those I probably know about christianity the most because of how much exposure, and how it is also an abrahamic faith. One thing encouraged in my religion is to not accept it blindly - in the Quran it says, do not follow Islam just because, but follow it because you have done research about it and accepted it. So I have dabbled in reading more about christianity, however, I yet probably do not know more than 10%.
I can only speak for myself, but personally, If I know something is not true about something I will voice my opinion, based on my personality I cannot handle it when things come to extremes. I don't think ignorance is the entire issue, I think there will always be other factors, even in this situation, but you can only assume the best in others - that they don't know, or else you will start to view everything negatively and have the certain attitude that "they won't bother knowing about this, so why should I care to know about them/their situation". And even in this age of social media, when we have the internet, and access to tons of information, you will find people don't use it to gain more knowledge, like you said, I admit I have not in every situation used it too, but usually before I take sides, I always do a bit more research, from people I know first then myself on the internet analysing from different sides. For example, I wouldn't know about the situation in places such as Kashmir, if I didn't have a friend who told me about her family having to run away and generational sexual abuse. And I have only developed this out of habit because my religion is also viewed negatively - being associated with t3rrorism on the media, and that is not true to me. Negative media is a real thing, that is also a huge factor - and maybe the way Arabs were acting on this situation it just made it look even worse.
I would say that there was hypocrisy in this situation. I don't support the way they approached it, but the outcome was JTBC said they will research in the future before including other cultures, which should have happened sooner instead of providing an opportunity of their actors being harassed. Something as small as research prior to using such a character could have prevented all of this, and it shows how important it is. American shows don't research either, especially Disney and even with all their money do they hire or gain the opinion of people before using their culture - Aladdin, Mulan being big examples, and I think it should become more normalised to research and as for an opinion to be respectful to other cultures, and help others learn about them.
This message might be a whole of nothing considering Im running on two hours of sleep and no food, and I apologise for that, but I always love having the opportunity to discuss with others about things - because it always brings new perspective which is beneficial to grow. Btw Pashtunwali is not an islamic concept, it's more of a cultural thing, but Islam promotes most of it, such as hospitality. Like most abrahamic religions, Islam has things that the world will not agree with, but most of the time, the religion looks bad when culture is intertwined in it. For instance, forcing of wearing certain clothing, forcing people to act a certain way, actually although our religion prescribes certain things, it also says that you cannot force people into the religion, and cannot force them to do certain things - everything should be done according to ones will. So if you ever see something being forced, I assure you its not the religion at that point, it's the people - and humans are filled with imperfections.
Also there are tons of Christian Arabs, and churches in Arab countries. Actually during the time of Muhammed the prophet, muslims went to seek help from christians, and because our religions are similar, the king of Ethiopia back then helped the muslims with shelter back then. And muslims share a lot of prophets with Christians, so I assure you although there are some differences, the educated Arabs wouldn't take slander for Christianity that well - like how we get mad when people slander Jesus etc.
I think this is all comes to a matter of whether an individual wants to know something or not, both coming with consequences, most people might only agree with what they have been fed with, but some venture out. But I think at the end of the day it's important to be respectful and acknowledge what is right morally and act from that.
I aspire to see your reaction when they insult your country
White people are privileged even abroad, you guys are the beauty standard, and this is because white people colonised most of the world, and them being rich back then, everyone associated being pale and having Eurocentric features to be rich. Even if you are the minority, you will never face as much prejudice as an ethnic person.
I aspire to see your reaction when they insult your country
You're white. Practically at the top of the food chain. You will not understand something like this because you are not the minority. Instead of being ignorant try to understand others a bit more
This is about the Arab Muslim stuff. Respectfully skip if you do not want to read it.
I have only realised now it's impossible to actually understand why the Arab muslims are complaining, unless you are a muslim. So I will lay it down.
First of all, why bother even complaining to JTBC when misrepresentation is so common? Personally I think it's not cool to even include a character from a specific culture/ whatever representation you are trying to achieve, unless you do research. This is something dramas for a long time have been failing to do. In Backstreet Rookie, Penthouse, Shooting Stars, they had some really racist scenes. Generalising Africa to have no water? Making fun of how a black American person looks like, making fun of africans and carribeans? I will also speak about this because I am half African. This is all WRONG, and South Koreans need to start researching better. Arab misrepresentation was also seen in The K2 and Man who lives to die (Which was apologised for).
Something common I've seen is people saying, oh yeah well, Ive seen lots of Arabs drink, be womanisers etc - well 90% of Arabs (which is a total population of like 400 million) are muslims. And muslims are followers of the religion of Islam. And those things are totally forbidden in our religion, but it is not to say that muslims will not do it, but the 90% who take our religion seriously, do not want these to be our representation in foreign shows. People who have no idea about our culture or religion will think this is the norm for us. Muslims aren't supposed to judge others, and believe that only God can do that, so we accept that some of us will not be perfect - but this Is not the image we want to show.
How do we know the prince is a muslim? First of all, they didn't mention which country he is from, but the only country which signed a deal with SK for warplanes is Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the most important country for muslims cause thats where most of the religion was established, and the prince is an important figure as he is very respected there, and helps out at the religious sites (imagine how much of a big deal this is, when 1/5 of the goals of a muslim is to go there as a pilgrim). Second of all, all Arab princes are muslim.
If they just said a random Arab man this would have not been the reaction at all.
I think it's very ignorant of people to make assumptions of our religion without actually researching it, and based on what you might have seen on the internet. The islamophobia with some people is actually peaking through - this actually does not make you any better, and wouldn't like if you were in a similar position.
I do not agree with any of the hate the actors are getting, and think that the insults being thrown back to them is not any more right. I purposefully put this on spoiler cause I understand not everyone would want to see this. And it is flooding the chat. I hope you can understand why this is causing an uproar.
Im glad they apologised, however I hope they actually do take the time to research in the future before representing other peoples cultures.
little did you know, lots of people were with you since the very beginning? but what makes it worse is when people…
'Your people' seems a bit ignorant. This is not the first time this has occurred. Every Ethnic culture excluding South Koreans have been offended at least once because of some poor written script. From making fun of Indian culture in sitcoms to this on Netflix for the whole world to see. Please be a bit more understanding that this goes way beyond just Arabs.
little did you know, lots of people were with you since the very beginning? but what makes it worse is when people…
Similarly, you can't tell everyone who was making the situation worse, acting on racism and islamophobia on my dramalist to stop. It won't work. But the problem can be reduced if everyone stopped for a moment and understood what was going on instead of hushing people - maybe JTBC would have apologised and calmed down the situation a bit better. I can't tell people how to feel.
Oh and my comments to this will all be a spoiler, to remain respectful to this work.
K-Drama 
I can only speak for myself, but personally, If I know something is not true about something I will voice my opinion, based on my personality I cannot handle it when things come to extremes. I don't think ignorance is the entire issue, I think there will always be other factors, even in this situation, but you can only assume the best in others - that they don't know, or else you will start to view everything negatively and have the certain attitude that "they won't bother knowing about this, so why should I care to know about them/their situation". And even in this age of social media, when we have the internet, and access to tons of information, you will find people don't use it to gain more knowledge, like you said, I admit I have not in every situation used it too, but usually before I take sides, I always do a bit more research, from people I know first then myself on the internet analysing from different sides. For example, I wouldn't know about the situation in places such as Kashmir, if I didn't have a friend who told me about her family having to run away and generational sexual abuse. And I have only developed this out of habit because my religion is also viewed negatively - being associated with t3rrorism on the media, and that is not true to me. Negative media is a real thing, that is also a huge factor - and maybe the way Arabs were acting on this situation it just made it look even worse.
I would say that there was hypocrisy in this situation. I don't support the way they approached it, but the outcome was JTBC said they will research in the future before including other cultures, which should have happened sooner instead of providing an opportunity of their actors being harassed. Something as small as research prior to using such a character could have prevented all of this, and it shows how important it is. American shows don't research either, especially Disney and even with all their money do they hire or gain the opinion of people before using their culture - Aladdin, Mulan being big examples, and I think it should become more normalised to research and as for an opinion to be respectful to other cultures, and help others learn about them.
This message might be a whole of nothing considering Im running on two hours of sleep and no food, and I apologise for that, but I always love having the opportunity to discuss with others about things - because it always brings new perspective which is beneficial to grow. Btw Pashtunwali is not an islamic concept, it's more of a cultural thing, but Islam promotes most of it, such as hospitality. Like most abrahamic religions, Islam has things that the world will not agree with, but most of the time, the religion looks bad when culture is intertwined in it. For instance, forcing of wearing certain clothing, forcing people to act a certain way, actually although our religion prescribes certain things, it also says that you cannot force people into the religion, and cannot force them to do certain things - everything should be done according to ones will. So if you ever see something being forced, I assure you its not the religion at that point, it's the people - and humans are filled with imperfections.
Also there are tons of Christian Arabs, and churches in Arab countries. Actually during the time of Muhammed the prophet, muslims went to seek help from christians, and because our religions are similar, the king of Ethiopia back then helped the muslims with shelter back then. And muslims share a lot of prophets with Christians, so I assure you although there are some differences, the educated Arabs wouldn't take slander for Christianity that well - like how we get mad when people slander Jesus etc.
I think this is all comes to a matter of whether an individual wants to know something or not, both coming with consequences, most people might only agree with what they have been fed with, but some venture out. But I think at the end of the day it's important to be respectful and acknowledge what is right morally and act from that.
I have only realised now it's impossible to actually understand why the Arab muslims are complaining, unless you are a muslim. So I will lay it down.
First of all, why bother even complaining to JTBC when misrepresentation is so common? Personally I think it's not cool to even include a character from a specific culture/ whatever representation you are trying to achieve, unless you do research. This is something dramas for a long time have been failing to do. In Backstreet Rookie, Penthouse, Shooting Stars, they had some really racist scenes. Generalising Africa to have no water? Making fun of how a black American person looks like, making fun of africans and carribeans? I will also speak about this because I am half African. This is all WRONG, and South Koreans need to start researching better. Arab misrepresentation was also seen in The K2 and Man who lives to die (Which was apologised for).
Something common I've seen is people saying, oh yeah well, Ive seen lots of Arabs drink, be womanisers etc - well 90% of Arabs (which is a total population of like 400 million) are muslims. And muslims are followers of the religion of Islam. And those things are totally forbidden in our religion, but it is not to say that muslims will not do it, but the 90% who take our religion seriously, do not want these to be our representation in foreign shows. People who have no idea about our culture or religion will think this is the norm for us. Muslims aren't supposed to judge others, and believe that only God can do that, so we accept that some of us will not be perfect - but this Is not the image we want to show.
How do we know the prince is a muslim? First of all, they didn't mention which country he is from, but the only country which signed a deal with SK for warplanes is Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia is the most important country for muslims cause thats where most of the religion was established, and the prince is an important figure as he is very respected there, and helps out at the religious sites (imagine how much of a big deal this is, when 1/5 of the goals of a muslim is to go there as a pilgrim). Second of all, all Arab princes are muslim.
If they just said a random Arab man this would have not been the reaction at all.
I think it's very ignorant of people to make assumptions of our religion without actually researching it, and based on what you might have seen on the internet. The islamophobia with some people is actually peaking through - this actually does not make you any better, and wouldn't like if you were in a similar position.
I do not agree with any of the hate the actors are getting, and think that the insults being thrown back to them is not any more right. I purposefully put this on spoiler cause I understand not everyone would want to see this. And it is flooding the chat. I hope you can understand why this is causing an uproar.
Im glad they apologised, however I hope they actually do take the time to research in the future before representing other peoples cultures.
Oh and my comments to this will all be a spoiler, to remain respectful to this work.