@ga1actic_muffin

1 month ago

Im muslim and I for one LOVE Frank Herbert's work. Because it's actually one of the only times i felt the west gave a genuine DAMN about our culture. And even Herbert himself said in interviews that he spent years researching, engrossing himself in arabic culture to learn everything he could and he had many arabic friends who guided him along his writing journey. That is something worth praising and protecting imo. If you understand the books, it's clear that the book is trying to tell a story that shows a possible fiction future for people who originated from arabic and muslim origins historically. infact this is LITERALLY the history of the fremin over the course of 40 thousand years: They're ultimately descended from Arabic peoples in and around the region of Egypt (they originally called themselves the Misr from the planet of Nilotic al-Orouba; this is Arabic for Egyptian and the area 8f the Nile and Arabia). They were originally the Zensunni Wanderers, who split from the Third Islamic Movement founded by Maometh, the so-called "Third Muhammed" whose followers went on to form the Maometh Saari, and ended up travelling from world to world, facing persecution and enslavement along the way. Their tradition gives 6 stops on the migration to Arrakis - Poritrin, Salusa Secundus whee they spent nine generations as slaves, Bela Tegeuse, Rossak, Thurgrod and Harmonthep. so i dont think Herbert is being racist here, he is simply imagining a future for a group of peoples that actually exist today on earth because thats what makes his books more believable as they are rooted in real history and our modern day. He doesn't just do this with the Fremin, its also done for every other house portrayed in the dune books; each of them can be traced back to a cultural, religious, or race origin on earth and aspectos of those 'anchient' groups' ancestry, language, religions, customs, and culture persist even 40,000 years later. what i think is more racist is the fact that the movies changed some of those aspects of the books like where the holy war is actually called by the arabic name Jihad in the books. they should have just kept it the way it was. Now that's my thought on the books, and as for the movies, i love them too. they change a lot of the books, yes. But they give us so much more in the means of a much needed and dire message especially considering what is happening to our muslim brothers and sisters in Palestine.

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