Judging
by some of the papers penned by a few Arab
scholars and academics, it appears that
some of those erstwhile ‘experts’ have
put the West and its so-called democracies
on a pedestal.
At the same time, in an apologetic
tone they dredge up reports, which paint
the Arab world in a sorry light and sound
almost apologetic as to their own culture
and traditions.
Instead of condemning those who seek to
diminish the achievements of the Arabs and
who want to turn Arabs into American
clones, they seek to prove to Americans
that ‘we Arabs are really nice guys’
by advocating cultural exchanges and the
ushering-in of Western-style
‘democracies’.
Well, I’ve got news for you. Arabs are
the good guys here. It is outrageous that
just because a group of fanatics ran with
their hatred and committed a cruel
criminal act last September, some three
hundred and fifty million Arabs have come
under America’s microscope and are being
held up for scrutiny.
These elevated Arab intellectuals, basking
in the benefits of dual nationality, often
describe Arab countries as technologically
backward; their citizens on the poverty
line and condemn the restrictions imposed
on women in their societies. Clutching
their diplomas from Western educational
institutes, they adopt a superior tone and
unashamedly kowtow to their Occidental
masters. Enough already!
Firstly, the Arabs have nothing for which
to apologise. If anything, it is the West
that should be doing the apologising.
Britain
,
France
and
Italy
have jointly
and separately raped the
Middle East
and
North Africa
, while greedily
lusting after the rich mineral deposits of
Iran
and the Gulf.
Today, the
US
has adopted a
new style of imperialism, consisting of
the spread of an insidious viral pop
culture, threatening traditional mores,
along with unconcealed self-interested,
geopolitical designs on the oil-rich
region. To do this, it isn’t even
bothering to court the region, preferring
to use the more expedient method of
‘might is right’.
Riddled with double-standards,
America
points its
self-righteous finger at
Iraq
for daring to
ignore UN Security Council Resolutions,
while its president regularly sneers at
the UN, threatens to ignore its rulings
while exalting the virtues of the
world’s most proliferate resolution and
international law-breaker
Israel
.
And
while the
US
spouts about
the lack of human rights in the Arab
world, it sees little contradiction in its
having imprisoned thousands of Arabs, post
9-11, under the pretext of visa
violations.
It
is perfectly content with Defense
Secretary Rumsfeld’s statement that some
of the hundreds of Moslem prisoners who
were taken to
Guantanamo Bay
,
Cuba
, blindfolded, chained and gagged, will
never be freed, and has no problem with
discriminating against Arab visitors to
the
US
.
Even
America
’s democratic
neighbour
Canada
has recently
advised its Arab-born citizens not to
travel to or transit through the
US
, adding that
its entry policies are discriminatory.
This after Syrian-born Canadian citizen
Maher Arar was deported to the land of his
birth, even though he held a Canadian
passport.
Such learned Arab pundits, who pontificate
in their climate-controlled offices
basking in the material fruits, which
Western societies have to offer, appear to
have short memories. Instead, of queuing
up to become a talking head on a
television chat show, or positioning
themselves for election to exalted
committees, they might be better employed
delving once more into their history
books.
Better still, they should travel to the
Occupied
Territories
for a refresher
course in just why much of the Arab world
is materially lagging behind. As I write,
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is
actively pursuing a Likudist-Right Wing
coalition due to Labour’s refusal to put
yet more shekels into the coffers of the
illegal settlers, the same settlers who
are stealing the olive harvest and forcing
Palestinians from their homes. This
52-year old dispute has crippled the
region.
Do
these wise quislings really want to see
the Arab world emulating the West? Do they
puff up with pride when they read how the
Mid-East was peremptorily carved-up by
Messrs Sykes and Picot in a back room of
the House of Commons?
Do they consider Britain’s
70-years’ occupation of Egypt a proud
achievement when it profited from an
inexpensive labour force, cheap cotton and
the canal, representing a gateway to
India?
Have they forgotten France’s
stranglehold of Algeria for centuries?
Let’s remind them shall we?
Once known as the Granary of Rome,
that resource-rich North African country
was colonized by the French in 1830 and in
1948 became a French department.
Its
indigenous Berber and Arab peoples were
treated little better than slaves, forced
to bury their languages along with their
religion. They were deprived of education
and stripped of their dignity until they
decided enough was enough.
The
Algerian revolution, strongly backed by
Gamal Abdul Nasser of Egypt, began as a
trickle and ended in victory on July 5,
1962. The Algerians had emerged as experts
at guerilla warfare setting up encampments
in the Atlas Mountains from where they
made the cushy lives of the colonists as
difficult as possible.
Without food, the Algerian freedom
fighters eat snakes and rats and when
caught, they were subjected to the worst
kinds of tortures.
In
recent years, a retired French general
Paul Aussaresses has boasted that he
personally supervised such inhumane acts.
His book ‘Special Services: Algeria
1955-1957’ talks of a secret torture
centre where the not-so-worthy general personally
oversaw the thousands of Algerians who
were brutalized by electrodes attached to
their ears, lips and genitals,
near-drowning, and mock executions.
Almost one million Algerians lost their
lives during their eight-year uprising and
mass graves are still being uncovered. No
senior French official has ever been
charged for these crimes against humanity.
Without the heroes of Setif and
Constantine, we can only wonder whether
the French would still be baking their
bread with cheap Algerian wheat, washed
down with the nectar of its grape. In
today’s apologetic climate, they would,
no doubt, be called ‘terrorists’.
When the French finally fled Algeria, the
true sons of the soil were left without
educators, judiciary, engineers and
architects. They spoke a bastardised
French and knew little about Arab history
and culture. Their economy was derelict
forcing many to immigrate, ironically, to
France, where they were herded into
virtual ghettoes and treated as
third-class citizens.
Those who remained set about learning the
Arabic language, building institutions of
learning and factories and more
importantly developed their
self-confidence and national dignity. Ask
any Algerian man, woman or child today
where he comes from and he or she will say
resolutely and proudly ‘Je suis
Algerien’.
Unlike America and Britain, however,
France appears to have learned from its
murky history that domination and force
doesn’t work in the long term. Instead,
it is now doing its utmost to courageously
avert war on Iraq, while engaging in trade
and culture activities with the Arabs.
If
the current American administration and
Britain’s Blairites have their way the
entire world would be saying ‘I am an
Anglophile or a wannabe American’.
It wants to impose the American way
of life, with all that entails, on the
rest of the world. Bearing in mind that
the US is a young country of immigrants,
isn’t this the epitome of arrogance?
It
would behoove both America and Britain to
put their own houses in order first before
they preach to the rest of the world.
These are societies where the family
structure has broken down, divorce is
rampant and, in the case of Britain,
violent crime and pedophilia is on the
increase. In the US some three to five
thousand children are abducted each year,
while drug and alcohol-related crimes on
the up-and-up.
In
the urban centers of these self-professed
bastions of Western civilisation few
people know their neighbours, and although
they may own a snazzy apartment, the
latest DVD player and an all-singing,
all-dancing microwave, many feel a gnawing
sense of isolation, emptiness and
purposeless.
Although we can trace Arab history back
through the centuries with names of such
luminaries as Ibn Battuta, Ibn Sina, Al
Ghazzali, Al Kindi, Ibn Rushd and Ibn
Khaldun passing our lips, modern Arab
cohesive states are relatively young. Only
83 years have passed since Saad
Zaghloul’s arrest and exile inspired the
uprising against the British, Algeria won
its independence in 1962, while Jordan
received its independence from Great
Britain in 1946.
It
is strange how Britain and the US demand
Swiss-like precision, American-style
economies and Danish human rights records
in fledgling Eastern states. Have they
forgotten that it wasn’t until 1928 that
women in Britain were enfranchised and the
southern US states boasted a policy of
apartheid until the heroic 1960s’
efforts of Dr. Martin Luther King?
Among the current discussions on Arab
culture, such words as ‘decency’,
‘humanity’, ‘warmth’ and
‘hospitality’ are strangely absent.
Only the negative is broadcast.
Where in the US
or Britain would friends and neighbours
flock to your home when you are sick
bearing reassuring words and hot soup? I
was the recipient of such kindnesses in
Alexandria.
Where in the West would a taxi driver
return an expensive camera, which you had
inadvertently left in his cab months
before? It happened to me in Bahrain.
When your vehicle breaks down on a British
motorway, see how many of your fellow
motorists come to your aid. None. In the
UAE you would quickly be inundated with
offers of assistance.
Human kindness and
compassion is surely worth more than
material goods and a fistful of dollars.
The Arab world has an abundance of the
former, commodities fast waning on the
streets of Western capitals.
We
Westerners have much to learn from our
Oriental cousins, if only we can set aside
our egotistical conceit long enough, to
pay attention. And instead of promoting
the Western ‘values’ to the Orient,
Arab-born intellectuals should, instead,
impart the wisdom of the Mid-East to the
Occident.
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