Letters to the editor
Plea for Iraq
Sir-- Nermeen Al-Mufti, 'In the rubble of Falluja' ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 2-8 December) has written a graphic description of the people's suffering in Falluja. There seems to be no end to the pain which the Iraqi people must endure. Saddam had been able to inflict torture on his people quietly in the dungeons of his police stations; now the Baathist and their co-conspirators must perpetrate their crimes in the streets.
There has been no change in the policy of the Baathists: kill and dominate Iraqis. However, only now they are being challenged by the Americans and their anti-fascist Coalition which includes brave Iraqis. I suffer with Iraq; I hate the pain which our nations must endure for freedom. One thing I know for sure is that when the streets of Falluja were quiet, silent screams echoed in the basements of the Baathist government buildings; blood clotted on cold corpses dumped into mass graves without any identification. Men, women and children are witnessing a slaughter in Falluja that had occurred daily since they were born; this time they are empowered to end it -- forever. Al-Mufti look at the devastation around you; it has always been there, the infection has broken the surface. Now it may heal. I support the Red Crescent; I urge everyone to give what they can to support the Red Crescent. We must do what we can to help to build a prosperous future for Iraq. Too many have suffered to allow failure.
Mel Gagliano
New York
USA
Dealing with Islamophobia
Sir-- Regarding Salama A Salama's article of this week, 'The Muslim ghetto' ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 2-8 December). I am a PhD student at the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World (headed by former American University in Cairo professor Asef Bayat), and as such I have been working for years on trying to understand and improve the relations between the various religious and ethnic communities in the Netherlands and beyond. The article is disappointing, for it contains some mistakes. Film director and columnist Theo van Gogh presented himself in his columns as a virulent Islamophobe, he was not a member of an extreme right party that calls Muslims "sheep-buggers". Theo van Gogh was murdered by Mohamed B, a fundamentalist youth of Moroccan descent. We know from the letter which the murderer pinned on Van Gogh's body, that Mohamed B committed the murder in the name of Islam, believing that God would reward him for this murder in the way of Jihad. The article mentions the harshness of the Dutch government reaction. In fact, reactions were much milder than what was expected. No more than ten Islamic buildings were set on fire (in the night: fortunately no one was hurt), many attackers have been arrested. The government has not closed down meeting places, and no-one has been deported. It appears that the writer is too eager to put Europe down, especially when he writes: "If anything, recent events show that for all their rhetoric about freedom of thought and belief the Europeans have consistently failed to allow minorities to integrate. The irony is that Europe has been lecturing us on the same topic, through the so- called 'dialogue of civilisations'." Is it really rhetoric about freedom of thought and belief? Are Muslims not free to believe what they want? Why then do radical Islamists go to European countries? Is that not because in the Arab world they would have to fear their governments? As for allowing minorities to integrate: until recently Europe (and certainly the Netherlands) followed a multiculturalist approach, which meant that immigrant communities were facilitated in their own cultural environment, where they would have the exact same rights as other citizens. The immigrants themselves wanted this, and indeed many still want this. The problem with multiculturalism is that if stretched too far, one is actually facilitating isolation from mainstream society. The governments of today will have to change that. That will be painful, but necessary.
Let me ask the writer these questions: When he mocks the European wish for a dialogue of civilisations, does he mean that he does not wish such dialogue? What does he want, if not a dialogue? War? Does he prefer the American approach?
Robbert Woltering
Amsterdam
Netherlands
Iraqi resistance?
Sir-- Fouad Zakaria in 'Is there a national resistance in Iraq' ( Al- Ahram Weekly, 2-8 December) compares the French Resistance to what is happening in Iraq. He writes: "The main targets of the violence are police and national guard servicemen. Fatalities among Iraqi servicemen exceed those among the occupation forces. No group with claims to patriotism could accept that. Attacks are often mounted against oil pipelines, Iraq's economic lifeline and an asset the country needs to rebuild itself. Again, no patriotic group would take such action."
With due respect, he is wrong to claim that French Resistance fighters did not kill French Nazi collaborators. They did. And they also sabotaged factories, rail-lines, and communication lines. (Just as South African anti-Apartheid activists worked to shut off South Africa's economy to bring it to its knees. How can Iraqis think of "rebuilding" when they are daily being destroyed by the American imperialists?! Surely as a respected professor he must know this.
Michael de Socio
Cincinnati, Ohio
United States
Rebuilding Iraq
Sir-- I was recommended to your site and editorial by the New York Times. I have carefully considered the tone and ideas of your 'Last chance' editorial, ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 25 November -1 December). Let us think about rebuilding a house, a house damaged by an earthquake, which we have a lot of here in Japan. As you know a lot depends on the quality of the house foundation. A beautiful house that seems, to the casual eye, in almost perfect condition, may have a crack running down into its foundation which only expert inspection can discover. No matter what the condition of every other part of the house; the walls may be otherwise perfectly preserved however a crack that travels up from the ground will mean big trouble eventually. As I see it, this is the case with Iraq. It has experienced an earthquake, shall we say, and many homes and mosques have been destroyed. However, we cannot rebuild yet because the foundation contains a flaw. The crack is between the two communities, Sunni and Shia. Until those two communities find a way to reconcile their differences Iraq will not stand. It will collapse upon itself as soon as a minor shaking occurs.
Thomas Asada-Grant
Sakado
Japan
Global hypocrisy
Sir -- Regarding your editorial 'Last chance', ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 25 November - 1 December), interesting piece. But I can't understand why you seem to be placing hopes for Iraq's future on the UN, Chinese, and Russians, the same people who were being bribed by Saddam via the Oil-For-Food programmes. I agree it would be great if they would help, but realistically, I don't see that happening, except perhaps from the UN once the security situation improves. Honestly, any hope for Iraq depends on the security improving, and the only ones who seem to want to do that are the Americans, Iraqis, and their allies. What the rest of the world doesn't seem to understand is that Americans don't want to stay in Iraq, they want to come home to their families; but at the same time, they want to fulfil their mission, which is to help the Iraqi people. And yes, the soldiers on the ground do care about improving the lives of the Iraqis. But what is resisting the occupation doing? It is only prolonging the amount of time American troops remain in Iraq and most importantly wrecking havoc in the lives of ordinary Iraqis. You say the situation in Iraq won't improve until the occupation is over. Well what if it were to end right now, this very day. Tensions in that country are so high there is still the chance of civil war, and won't the terrorists continue with their murderous deeds? You are giving far too much blame to the Americans and their allies, and practically none to the terrorists, who are killing the very people who came to try and help the Iraqi people and intentionally massacring innocent people; where is the sense in that? The only way for all to come out of this satisfied is for the Iraqis and Americans to try and work together to solve that nation's problems. The more that happens, the more will get done, the less the Americans will have to do, and the sooner they will leave; it's common sense.
Jaime Perez
Austin, Texas
USA
National delusions
Sir-- Regarding 'Last chance', ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 25 November - 1 December), I applaud your stand for justice and community. For many of us here in the United States, our "leadership" choices are far more limited than elsewhere in the world, irrespective of the illusion of true representation here. Forget democracy -- the US. is a constitutional republic based on representation, not on the rule of 49 per cent by 51 per cent: but those who would limit, rather than promote, freedom race to democracy because it enables control without justice or dealing with related core issues, including human rights for all people (not just US). We need the force of world opinion, as strongly as it can be voiced, to wake up people here to the erosion of our basic rights and to the desertion of our responsibilities to all those with whom we come into contact.
I appreciate the New York Times including a link to your editorial and look forward to help from abroad.
Peter Atkinson
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
United States
Support for Massad
Sir-- I wish to offer my support to Professor Massad and Columbia University, 'Intimidating Columbia University', ( Al- Ahram Weekly, 20-27 November) for their efforts to resolve the slanderous media campaign waged against them for alleged intolerance and anti-Semitic remarks in the classroom. It's unfortunate that this slanderous campaign is being spear-headed by mostly students who were never in Professor Massad's class -- except one student who seems to have taken things out of context. Perhaps the allegations might have had some bearing if it weren't for the scholarly works recently published by Professor Massad on anti-Semitism and anti-Semites both in English and Arabic. From my own experience in writing -- I have found many people misinterpret criticism of Israel as being anti- Israel or anti-Jewish. It seems to me what people need to understand is that this kind of criticism about countries or states is perfectly acceptable around the world. It is not placed along personal lines but rather governmental lines. So criticising Israel or America does not mean being anti-Israel or anti-Jewish or anti- American. I wonder if this wasn't where the students at Columbia University became confused in their thinking? Now it is unfortunate that some unscrupulous individuals and groups may try to capitalise on this incident to discredit Professor Massad and Columbia University. I hope we all will support Columbia University and Professor Massad with our letters and e-mails. I feel the university has a great opportunity to build bridges rather than to put up a wall to this dispute. Dissent and the freedom of speech remain the hallmarks of our democracy and higher education. For anyone to try and silence them would be unconscionable in my mind. They are very important to our checks and balances.
Doris Cadigan
Massachusetts
United States
Travel snap shot
Sir -- I would like to congratulate you on the Snap Shot section in your Travel Supplement ( Al-Ahram Weekly, 2-8 December). It is short, but interesting and informative.
Ghada Kabesh
Cairo
Egypt
Al-Ahram Weekly reserves the right to edit letters submitted to Readers' Corner for brevity and clarity. Readers are advised to limit their letters to a maximum of 300 words.
Recommend
Comment
Printer-friendly
