In a nutshell, the Arabs and shoes thing is a bigger deal to Americans than it is to most Arabs. In all my involvement in Arab culture I, personally, have never witnessed a serious incident involving shoes until today. I have heard stories - always from American sources - about Arabs being thrown into a tizzy by seeing the soles of someone's shoes, but I have never seen it happen with my own eyes. It is just not something Arabs think about a lot, at least not in the circles I move around in.

It is true that Arabs may sometimes use shoes as a weapon, and the word shoe can be used in various contexts as an epithet, but to suggest that anything to do with a shoe is the "ultimate insult" in Arab culture ignores several classes of insults that are far more serious than anything you can suggest or do with shoes.

And while we are at it, let's compare the negative use of footwear in American versus Arab culture. There is a very serious American tradition of using footwear as a weapon and an insult. The idea of using a shoe as a projectile, or an in-hand weapon may be more prevalent in the Middle East than in the West. However, the main cultural difference regarding shoes-as-symbolic-weapon seems to be that in Arab culture the shoes are usually removed from the feet before being used, whereas the American cultural norm is to use the foot and the shoe together.

And I cannot for the life of me think of an Arabic example of a type of shoe that is both named after and sometimes used as a weapon as is the stiletto heel. And then there is the common American insult that they will "kick the crap" out of someone, or "stomp someone to death", which presumably involves some sort of footwear as it would be difficult to do with the bare foot. And I have also noticed an American obsession with the "steel toed boot" as a threat.

And isn't it kind of insulting to say you are going to stick your boot up someone's - well, you get the picture.  And Americans even have popular songs about the insulting use of shoes. Isn't there a song about a pair of boots that was custom made to walk all over someone? That might not be the ultimate insult, but it sure doesn't sound like a nice thing to say.

And the bottom line for today's incident is that it just seems to me that throwing a shoe at someone like George Bush is a pretty clear insult in any culture, which brings us back to our commonality as human beings.

I am particularly sorry that I gave the impression that I blame you for anything you did not do, and that I seemed to discount your cultural awareness. Nothing I said was intended to be personal, and I absolutely understand why it seemed that it was.

I apologize for getting absorbed with what was in my head and generalizing without remembering that there was a real person on the other end of the conversation. That is, unfortunately, all too easy to do in this medium. I was very insensitive, and it is my bad.