Document:
Scholars' statement
In our capacity as researchers, professors, documentalists, librarians, technical assistants and doctoral students who specialise on the Middle East and North Africa, we underline the fact that there is no war of religion or civilisation. Nonetheless, since the beginning of the 1990s, the configuration given to regional conflicts by their actors from North Africa to the Indo-Pakistan borders as well as the Korean peninsula has usually been seen in terms of clashes of civilisation which mask, in reality, shameful and scandalous strategies.
This observation does not deny the development of this representation but, rather, it should serve to think critically about the signification of terms which punctuate the discourse of all sides such as "democracy", "liberty", "justice", "Crusade", "unbelievers", "Evil", "jihad", "cultural identity", etc. in addition to the consequences of their instrumentalisation by imperialist or identity ideologies.
Current events, particularly those in the Middle East and North Africa, fall within the framework of the colonial scenario where the US hyper-power takes over the hegemonic policies put into place at the conclusion of World War I by the Allies which divided up the Arab provinces of the Ottoman Empire among themselves (i.e. Sykes-Picot Accords and subsequent ones). Pursued during the entire 20th century, these politics led the Western powers to constantly violate the values to which they themselves lay claim in favour of material interests and immediate policy gains.
This type of policy favoured authoritarian and dictatorial regimes which often resorted to violence to crush the aspirations of populations in the area. We have not forgotten of course that Saddam Hussein's regime was tyrannical and indefensible but the means employed to overturn it by the US-British-Australian forces without the support of the United Nations is completely unacceptable.
The unilateral action of the US government and its allies, which has neither taken into account the aspirations of the Iraqi people -- in all its components -- to plan its future as it sees fit, nor the opposition of world opinion, nor the opinion of certain European partners and especially disregarding the principles of international law which is supposed to regulate the international order of which the US and its allies see themselves as the champions or, at least, the police, constitutes an act of aggression as qualified by the Charter of the United Nations.
As human beings, we are deeply affected by the human carnage and as researchers and professors, we are particularly affected by the catastrophic destruction of the cultural and intellectual patrimony (Archaeological Museum and the libraries of Baghdad and other cities, in particular, the National Library and Archives [Dar al-kutub wa'l-wathâ'iq]) whose protection falls entirely under the responsibility of the troops of occupation.
In the present situation, we are deeply worried about the consequences of all types which result and will result from this war and its aftermaths. We cannot accept a normalisation of this situation in the Middle East neither to the detriment of the Palestinian people nor to be used as a new pretext to intervene in other countries in the area.
It is equally of the utmost importance to come to the material and political assistance of populations which have been inflicted with this war. Nonetheless, we insist that this assistance not be dispensed by the forces of occupation -- whatever the mission to which they assign themselves -- but that it be carried out under the aegis of the United Nations, the unique authority which can intervene, in times of crisis, in the name of the international community and under the control of independent international observers.
The statement has garnered some 400 signatures of researchers from different corners of the globe since its circulation in April. Among the supporters of the statement are: Igor Alekseev (Russia), Doris Behrens-Abouseif (UK), Salvatore Bono (Italy), Mounira Chapoutot (Tunis), Randi Deguilhem (France), Sylvie Denoix (France), Galila El-Kadi (Egypt), Suraiya Faroqhi (German), Jean-Claude Garcin (France), Sabry Hafez (UK), Nelly Hanna (Egypt), Jane Hathaway (USA), Raymond Hinnebusch (UK), Barbara Ibrahim (Germany), Robert Ilbert (France), Richard Jacquemond (France), Walid Kazziha (Egypt), Eberhard Kienle (France), Mohamed Madani (Morocco), Seyni Moumouni (Niger), Jean-Paul Pascual (France), Nasser Rabbat (US), Amina Rachid (Egypt), André Raymond (France), Alain Roussillon (France), Charles D Smith (USA), Jacqueline Sublet (France), Yoshilo Sugiyama (France), Ali Tablit (Algeria), Caroline Williams (USA), Engin Yildirim (Turkey).
