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		Al-Ahram Weekly Online 16 - 22 May 2002 Issue No.586
Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875		Current issue \| Previous issue \| Site map

Remembering Eqbal

Sir- I am a Pakistani postgraduate student in the UK, and I wish to remember the late Eqbal Ahmad, arguably Pakistan's greatest intellectual, who passed away on 11 May three years ago. Of course, Eqbal Ahmad is no stranger to the readers of your newspaper, but I wish to share my personal impressions of him. Eqbal Ahmad was a unique person because, exiled from his own land, where the country's ruling elite had no use for his ideas concerning socio-economic justice, he lent his support to one of the great national liberation struggles of Africa -- in Algeria against the French. It was a war which claimed one million Algerian lives, though thankfully not his own. And from there he started a long and distinguished career in the service of the Palestinian cause, and for the cause of oppressed people, wherever they were in the world.
I believe that as a life-long campaigner against the evils of nationalism, Eqbal's thoughts are particularly relevant in the current conflict in the Middle East, where a colonial state, drunk with its endless support from US power, is dispossessing millions of Palestinians in the name of Zionism. Zionism is an utterly racist and exclusive ideology which denies the very existence of the Palestinian people. As Eqbal so passionately expressed, the only solution to this conflict is the democratisation of Israel and the right of return for all the Palestinians dispossessed from their land.
In our world of bloody civil wars, which has seen the sudden emergence of quasi-fascist fundamentalist movements, Eqbal steered clear of the fundamentalist agenda and in fact sought to understand the roots of these movements. His secularism must not be only associated with him personally, but it should be kept in mind that the way he lived his life as an exemplary Muslim showed to us what is best in Islam -- it's tradition of eclecticism, democracy and rational thought. Whether it is manifested in puritanical Wahhabism or the rational reason of the Mutaazalites, whether it is Sunni orthodoxies or the refreshing tendency of Ashaarite thought, Islam is a unique religion without the monolithic world view which Islamic fundamentalists from the Jamaat-e-Islami in South Asia to the Nahda and FIS in the Maghreb want to impose on the Muslim world. And it is disheartening to see that the bloated state of education in the Muslim world is seeking to foster this very obscurantist non- spiritual current rather than the one which portrays Islam for what it really is.
Thus, Eqbal Ahmad's life and thoughts offer a unique alternative to many of the educated young people in the Muslim world today, who -- very regrettably -- choose to identify more with Osama Bin Laden than people like Eqbal Ahmad, Edward Said or Noam Chomsky.
I hope that as we celebrate the amazing life and achievements of Eqbal Ahmad this week, we also remember that all his life he sought to have a better understanding of the world around him and to use his abilities to move the oppressed to rise against oppression and injustice, whether it be in Algeria or for the Palestinian cause, or in his own native Pakistan, where he stands almost banished from public memory today.
Eqbal Ahmad's life truly reflected the influence of two sages, the great German philosopher Karl Marx and the great Arab historian Ibn Khaldun.
It would be a great honour to Eqbal's memory were we in the Muslim world to produce somebody like him or at the very least embody the same values that he stood for.
Viva Eqbal!
Raza Naeem
UK

Constructive anger

Sir- Last week I finished the beautiful novel, The Autobiography of Malcolm X by the late Alex Haley. When Malcolm X described the state of the blacks in the 1960s, it was as if I was reading about the Arabs in the 1990s and the 2000s. Exploited resources, scattered human energies, and brainwashed people are things we share today with the black Americans back then. What Malcolm X did, however, was to unite the blacks together -- their efforts, their resources -- and wisely direct their anger to become a constructive power where hundreds of thousands of his black followers changed for the better.
Malcolm X described himself as the angriest black man in America and what I see today makes me angry as well. Every time Israel performs a military operation in Palestine we get angry too, destructively angry however. We yell, curse, burn flags, and destroy KFC restaurants, but when this is over, and our anger is over too, we go back to where we started -- laziness, corruption, ignorance, and irresponsibility. The same plagues Malcolm X was fighting among his black brothers.
Our real fight is neither against the American products nor the Israeli flag, it is against ourselves. It is against the ignorance, the laziness, and the dishonesty that we live in day by day.
I am very angry with my fellow Arabs because they are scattered, and hate is tearing them apart. I am very angry with the rich Arabs whose money is invested abroad. I am very angry with the Arab governments who let the most talented and brainy people go to the Western countries to pursue their dreams. I am angry because we perceive every failure in our life as a conspiracy. I am angry because when it comes to religion a woman's veil is the sole and most important issue we care about. I am very angry because we have no clue as to where to direct our massive resources, our valuable time and our enormous anger.
Our greatest enemy is our actions, and when we decide to do something about it, only then the likes of Sharon and Bush will think a thousand times before they do anything that aggravates the Arab masses.
Ahmed El-Ashram
Cairo
Egypt

Israeli cowboys

Sir- The US has proved itself incapable of being an honest broker in the Palestine problem. From Bush's weak demand of Sharon that the IDF should withdraw, to his incredible assessment of Sharon as "a man of peace," to his constant carping about Arafat (as if Arafat was a major part of the problem), to his invitation to Sharon to Washington, to his failure to ensure that Resolution 1405 is enforced. But the rest of the quartet is much more sympathetic to Palestine and to the world's interpretation of what Resolution 242 means -- all settlements must be given up, East Jerusalem must be given up, refugees must be compensated.
Arafat has already conceded too much, including all the land lost in 1948. The Arabs must stick together, and the US must be forced to be seen to use its UN veto to defend the indefensible. The American people are not evil, they are just ignorant of how abusive Israel has been. The Israelis are the cowboys and the Palestinians the Indians. Don't trust US. The coalition is nearly dead. Europe will not join in any more.
Christopher Leadbeater
Hailey
UK

Food for thought

Sir- The US intends to attack and invade Iraq and install a puppet regime there. There is no legal basis for this -- absolutely none. After deliberately starving an Arab and Muslim nation for over 10 years, it is still not enough, more killings must take place as the United States, with British support, has decreed.
Yet the Arab regimes sit on the sidelines as another Arab nation is about to be crushed by military means by the US/British Axis. These rulers claim that there is nothing that they can do to stop the US attack. An astonishing viewpoint.
There is plenty that they can do practically, effectively and all within the Arab rulers' direct control. This is a partial list to begin the process:
1. Every Arab ruler states publicly and unequivocally that he opposes any military operations or invasion of Iraq.
2. Each Arab ruler [of a country] that has American military bases on its territories, orders that the Americans/British evacuate all of their military personnel from the base within 30 days, and remove all stores and equipment there.
3. Each Arab ruler [of a country] that has territorial waters (Kuwait, Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt) that can be used by American and British naval units, declares those waters closed to US/British military vessels.
4. Each Arab ruler suspends direct military cooperation with the US/Britain (joint manoeuvres, etc.).
5. The Arab rulers propose a joint inquiry before the UN General Assembly on the killings, economic and social destruction, destabilisation of the Arab/ Muslim peoples caused by great power military operations in the Middle East by the US, Britain, Israel and Turkey. The inquiry would be wide- ranging and open to all.
Most of all, the Arab rulers have to stop collaborating with the three countries that are the de facto enemies of Arabs and Muslims: the United States, Britain and Israel. They are collaborating with the enemies of the Arab peoples and Muslims, like the Vichy French government did with Nazi Germany during World War II. This collaboration has led not to peace, but further inducement to war by these three Western powers. And as these Western powers wage war against the Arabs and Muslims, the collaborating Arab rulers have to wage war against their own people -- who oppose not only the US/British/Israeli tri-partite Axis, but increasingly the Arab collaborators themselves.
H S Weiler
Cairo
Egypt

Oil power

Sir- The Arab League needs a new strategy, to engage a sympathetic world opinion and jolt US public opinion through their pocket book.
I suggest a uniform rise in the price of all exported Arab oil. As a consequence, the American public will become aware that their country's Israel-biased policy is costing them personally.
I urge all those in power to take such a decision.
John Skliros
Toronto
Canada

Lynching the Weekly

Sir- You may think Americans are idiots who never read the Arab press but let me assure you that is not the case.
Al-Ahram Weekly has been inciting hate towards America and Americans for years. It is a sad joke that this is the national paper of Egypt, which is truly the sick man of the Middle East. If you think your elites and your people are going to escape paying a price for your continued incitement to murder and hatred, then you are deceiving yourselves.
Remember that after World War II, the first people the US tried and hanged were the fascist propagandists. I suggest that we not wait for this war on terror to conclude, before we hang the professional hate-mongers and poisoners at your publication.
Frank Kuti
New Mexico
USA

Fear of the other

Sir- It's clear from reading your newspaper that Egypt is every bit as much an obstacle to peace in Israel-Palestine as is Arafat. Egypt's protected- market oligarchs, rabble-rousing sheikhs, and small-time machos could not survive an open border with Israel. With one look at how Israelis live, no Arab would accept the backward ways of the Arab world again.
Egypt is not going to risk peace with Israel, because Egyptians fear commercial and market competition with Israel far more than they do a cold war. If ever there was an un-endorsement for Islam and the Arab way of life, this is it.
Jon Lenihan
Minnesota
USA

Balanced views

Sir- I just wanted to express my heartfelt thanks for the splendid articles found in Al-Ahram Weekly; it is the only publication that presents a balanced and well-thought out position.
I can finally find a current perspective on what is truly happening and factual basis for the bias and disinformation provided by our media.
Paul H Davallou
Harrisonburg, VA
USA

The cost of opinion

Sir- You are the real website [publication] which practices "freedom of speech." In the US and UK, no newspaper or magazine allows the people to express their opinions as freely as you do in your "Readers' Corner" section.
Sometimes they need a phone number and e-mail address in order to trace you if you post anti-Israeli terror opinions. The next day, you could find a pink sheet from your employer stating that "due to budget cuts, you are fired."
Khadeja Kfajee
Texas
USA

Cheers to good coverage

Sir- I am a constant reader of your newspaper online because of the quality of its writing and the thoroughness of its coverage, surpassing the New York Times, The Washington Post and CNN.
Al-Ahram Weekly has become my exclusive contact with events in the Middle East.
Congratulations and long life to you and your staff.
Donald Stewart
Rome
Italy

Suffer the children

Sir- I could never imagine that one day I would see, with tears in my eyes, all these scenes of horror and terror in Palestine. I could never imagine how these poor Palestinian kids and women live through this nightmare almost every second. How can these Palestinian kids be deprived of one of their most basic rights -- the right to live?
Those who survive have nothing to do except weep over their dead fathers, mothers, brothers and sisters. These innocent creatures should be playing, singing, sleeping and dreaming of a rosy future. Instead, they die at every moment and are terrorised at every second.
How can we expect such children to lead a normal life in the future?
But do they really have a future? Are they real kids like ours? What kind of stories do their grandmothers tell them to send them to sleep? Do they tell them fairy stories or the bloody shocking story of the monster "Sharon"? How long will these children have to suffer? What kind of people will these children be when they grow up? Do we really expect them to believe in tolerance, equality, freedom, accepting others and all the other principles the US claims to be defending?
Essam Hanna Wahba
Assiut
Egypt

Stop the killings

Sir- So much sadness and senseless killings of innocent lives. If Sharon and Arafat do not meet and work it out, all humanity will be lost. Sadly people from all countries, including mine, will oppose each other with their blind views.
Yes, I have always been a supporter of Israel, however, I also support any people's right to live in their respected countries, peacefully and with the hope to better not only their lives but also their children's.
We, the people of this world, must stop this ignorance of hate. We owe it to our children and their children after them. The time has come to stop the killings from all sides.
Philip A Gatti Jr
Arizona
USA

Humanity lost

Sir- I am grateful for Mr Edward Said's recent comments in the article "What Israel has done" (Al-Ahram Weekly, 18-24 April).
Israel should be ashamed and mortified by its actions against the Palestinians. It is not possible to do this without first abandoning God, and without God there can be no real peace or justice.
There is a great need for Israel to rediscover its humanity by reaching out to the pain and suffering of Palestinians, but also of other peoples in the Middle East.
How can we forget that we are all God's children? Sharon is trapped by an almost indescribable hatred and fear. He will lead Israel to ruin. I wonder who will save Israel?
Matthew Moriarty
Virginia
USA

Serving their interests

Sir- We have become very annoyed with your daily remarks that the USA must play an effective role in the peace process to protect its interests in the Middle East, forgetting that the US administration is totally aware of its policies and their consequences. The American administration is doing what serves American interests and maintain its economic stability.
You must think of another solution for the false peace process and ask yourself the following question: "When has the USA exerted any remarkable effort to save or solve any crisis in the world?"
Emad Mohamed
Giza
Egypt

Smarten up

Sir- A note sent to the US president:
Mr President,
Yes, there are people and governments opposed to aggressive and domineering US policies, but your administration's talk of "axis of evil" is transparent nonsense.
Please stop insulting the intelligence of the American people by constructing such silly rhetorical scarecrows.
Sincerely,
Dr Zeljko Cipris
Stockton, CA
USA

Ashamed to be an Arab

Sir- Why do Arab leaders show no outrage at the never-ending attempts by American politicians like Dick Cheney, Dick Armey and many others (spurred on partially by the Jewish lobby and partially by their bigotry against anything Arab) to insult Arabs. Have you taken a look at all the resolutions being passed in the US House of Representative and Senate? Aside from the typical unconditional support of Israel, they are trying to pass sanctions against Syria and commit numerous other hostile acts towards Arab nations at the request of Israel.
Why the Arab silence? Why do Qatar and Bahrain encourage the Americans to attack Iraq from their own bases? Why do Gulf states have $600 billion in holdings and investments in the US when impoverished Arab countries are withering away? Why not boycott companies like Philip Morris and Estée Lauder whose profits go to Israel?
Do you honestly think flag burning will work? And please don't resurrect the oil weapon argument. It would hurt the Europeans more than anyone else. Why don't you tell your leaders to stop investing in the American stock market?
When I see the Arab acquiescence in this whole mess, I feel ashamed to be an Arab. Remember, silence is complicity.
Leila Hassen
California
USA

On equal footing

Sir- I believe that most Americans do not address Arab or Arab cultural matters from an equal point of view, but are more interested in lecturing. Someone once asked me what the Arabs really want. From my many travels to the region I simply said, "respect." When you are respected as equals your dialogue has value.
Dr Charles W Stewart
Hannibal, MO
USA

Palestinian heritage

Sir- If there was no diversity of opinion, this letters page would not exist. Having said that, one has to reply occasionally to published and uninformed letters which border stupidity. I refer to the letter sent by Daryl Robertson "Poison pen" (Al-Ahram Weekly, 9-15 May) To suggest the American constitution as a basis of future security for the Arab world is quite absurd. First and foremost, the so-called Americans are a nation of immigrants put into a melting pot, with a history of no more than 200 years. The Arabs can boast a civilisation of a few thousand years.
But coming back to the point which many seem to selectively miss -- there was a Palestinian state up until 1948, and the inhabitants of that land are called Palestinians, dislodged from their homes into exile and refugee camps. In their struggle to regain a portion of what they originally had, they are fighting the way they do, due to lack of armour and F16s. The world should admire that courage and determination of these oppressed people, who like the Kurds, should govern themselves the way they see fit, within their own secure borders.
Mark Johnson
London
UK

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