Issue No. 599
Opinion
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15 - 21 August 2002 Issue No. 599 Opinion |
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 | Recommend this page | ||
On anti-Semitism
I was pleased to hear of the French examining magistrate's decision to postpone the trial of Ibrahim Nafie. The decision to try him in the first place was rushed and irrational. No doubt it occurred under pressure. Had there been time to consider the issues at stake, it would have been immediately obvious to everyone that, in principle at least, the Egyptian points of view Nafie represents have a great deal of respect for all religions and ethnic groups.
Campaigns against parties who belong to one or another ethnic or religious group are invariably undertaken for a reason, in the context of a particular issue, and they die out as soon as that issue is resolved. For many years, for example, Egyptians attacked the British, but no one in his right mind would accuse Egyptians of anti-Christian or anti-British sentiments. If a British party had appealed against us at the time, claiming that our criticism of the occupation amounted to a campaign against the Anglican Church or the Anglo-Saxon race, the British courts themselves would not have responded in favour of a trial.
As for Israel, what is at stake is the occupation of Palestinian land -- a state of affairs that is intrinsically out of step with the times. There are many Jews, even Israelis, who share this view. And if we go back to Muslim-Jewish strife during the rise of Islam, we will find that too was an essentially political dispute -- nothing to do with ethnicity or religion. It is well-known that any criticism of Israel in the West tends to be considered a form of anti- Semitism. That this is so must never be allowed to obscure the difference between the two.
Based on an interview by Mohamed Salmawy
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