Passion before politics

The Passion of the Christ stirred up much emotion in the Egyptian press, writes Aziza Sami

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The redundant mantra of the yet-to- convene Arab summit finally receded on Tuesday when headlines gave way to pressing events, this time fighting in Iraq between Shias, led by the cleric Muqtada Al-Sadr, and the US-led occupation forces.

On Tuesday, the two national dailies Al-Ahram and Al-Akhbar published news of the bombing by Apache gunships of Shia neighbourhoods in Baghdad. Al-Ahram wrote in commentary: "The persistence by occupying forces to confront peaceful demonstrations with weapons may push the situation to unprecedented levels of violence, imbuing the confrontation with a sectarian and religious nature whose consequences cannot be anticipated, threatening to extend beyond Iraq's borders." The press also reported the US placing of Al-Sadr on its "Wild Wild West" list of most wanted on the premise that he had plotted to assassinate the Shia cleric Abdul-Majid Al-Khoae a year ago. It was left to the reader to mull over the typically pragmatic US exercise of procuring arrest warrants only when it is politically opportune. The reader must also have been struck by the ludicrousness of a culturally ethno-centric George W Bush "warning" Al-Sadr -- a man hailing from the fiercely independent Shia tradition -- to "fall in line".

In much the same spirit, US Ambassador to Cairo David Welch was quoted by Al-Ahram also on Tuesday as saying during a visit to the Middle East News Agency that while it was true that the US was not very popular in the region at the moment "our role is not to seek popularity but to defend our country's interests." Al-Ahram did not mention whether the habitually patronising Welch pointed out if his country was also seeking to redress the reasons for its current intense "unpopularity".

Up until Tuesday when the headlines were shaken out of their stupor of speculation over the palpitating Arab League summit, writers had a field day with seemingly endless pages of analyses (synonym for gossip) on what had really happened at the now-defunct event. Adel Hammouda, the editor-in-chief of the independent weekly newspaper Sawt Al-Umma on Monday put forth a detailed prognosis for the reasons resulting in the summit's cancellation, writing that "Arab League Secretary- General Amr Moussa had refrained from including in the agenda a letter written by the late Sheikh Ahmed Yassin demanding that Arab countries clarify their position on whether Palestinian armed operations against Israel are to be termed terrorist." Moussa decided not to read the letter "out of consideration to Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat who would consider this a siding with Hamas at the expense of the (PA)". This analysis appears to contradict Arafat's statement made to a French newspaper and relayed by the Arabic satellite channel Al-Arabiya on Tuesday. According to Al-Arabiya, Arafat said he had demanded that a delegation representing Hamas and Islamic Jihad attend the summit because he wanted that they be considered "partners" in the future of the Palestinian occupied territories.

The oft-irreverent Sawt Al-Umma could not resist making fun of the tenacity of Moussa who has kept insisting that there are "no major differences between the Arab countries". Evoking Mel Gibson's blockbuster The Passion of the Christ, reporter Mohamed El-Baz wrote under the headline "The Passion of Amr Moussa": "What does Mr Moussa tell himself when he looks in the mirror before he goes to bed at night? Is he satisfied with himself, his image? We are not asking him to resign but a resignation might, in the end, send a message to the Brothers Karamazov (Arab states) that something is wrong, that things are not okay. What is he holding on to? Mr Moussa, you are tired and have tired us out with you. We will not believe you when you talk once again about illusory projects and raising the dead. It's a deception and you know it."

Alluding to President Mubarak's upcoming visit to Washington, scheduled 10 to 14 April, Al-Ahram on Saturday published on its front page the statement by Egyptian Ambassador to Washington Nabil Fahmi to the Middle East News Agency that "President Mubarak's visit to America this time is of a special nature... a primarily political nature as opposed to dealing with bilateral ties including economic ones." The reason, Fahmi was quoted as saying, is that "the visit comes during difficult circumstances in the Middle East." The ambassador added that the president's visit will be "restricted to the State of Texas and President Bush's Crawford ranch in which he has received few leaders; only the heads of states which are America's strongest friends and allies."

As to why the president would fly directly to Texas and not go to Washington, Fahmi said, "both sides give great importance to direct dialogue, elevating it from details to strategic objectives." The ambassador added that another reason the president will not go to Washington was because "Congress is in recess".

There was a message here to be gleaned between the lines. The president was not going to Washington to promote habitual economic ties but to redress the rapidly deteriorating Arab regional situation. This was a most perceptive response to the voices in the opposition and independent press which had, following the assassination of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, and the cancelled Tunis summit, questioned the validity of the timing of the visit. Capturing the mood of trepidation while proffering positive proposals, Mustafa Bakri, editor-in-chief of the independent weekly newspaper Al- Osbou, on Monday addressed Mubarak, writing, "this might be the most important and significant of all the visits you have undertaken to the US since you took office. This time, Bush will present you with his demands in a manner more aggressive than ever, on the Arab summit, regional crises and the so-called Greater Middle East Initiative. The US press will be ready with its campaign against Egypt, so, too, the Zionist lobby and Congress will be ready to cut economic aid to Egypt. We await what you will say in Washington and your position that Egypt will not relinquish its role as a regional player."

Respite from the usual political coverage was provided when the press gave sizeable coverage to Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ which debuted in Cairo. The weekly newspaper Al-Arabi came out on Palm Sunday with its banner reading, "Egyptians weep for Jesus". An inside two-page spread was heralded by a politically correct assessment by the paper's critic Said Shuaib. "Regardless of the debate on whether the film is anti-Semitic, I believe that it alludes to a definite group of Jews at a certain time and place in history, not implying all Jews by extension," Shuaib wrote. "Moreover, it is not right that we, be it Christians or Muslims, hate all Jews. Our issue is a specific one related to Zionist Jews who occupy land and exterminate an Arab people: the Palestinians."

On Saturday, Al-Ahram columnist Salama Ahmed Salama published the response of the Catholic Church in Egypt to a column he had written claiming that Zionist pressure had induced the Catholic Church to "re- write the Bible". The church's spokesman, Father Rafik Greiche, wrote a detailed reply providing proof to the opposite. Asserting that the Bible had not been re-written, the statement reminded the writer of "the positions the Catholic Church has undertaken in defence of the Palestinian cause, and in condemnation of the invasion and occupation of Iraq".

This Salama published in full, thanking the church for its clarification, without further comment.