Friendly fire

By Salama A Salama

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Farouk Hosni, our minister of culture, is fighting a rearguard battle yet again. Those who should have stood by him are letting him down, and those who oppose him are not letting up. It all started when we nominated him as a candidate for the top post in UNESCO. It is an honour that he couldn't resist, but probably should have resisted.

Needless to say, Hosni has all it takes for the job. He has no shortage of international connections. The whole world acknowledges his extraordinary contribution to the preservation of historical sites in Egypt. And there is hardly a blemish on his record as an advocate of culture and a lover of arts. But some people didn't want him to win. They looked for the chink in his armour, and they found one.

For a while everything looked good. Hosni stood shoulder high over the competition, a man with incredible qualifications and a track record of consolidating cultural ties in the Arab world and around the Mediterranean. But Israel and its friends didn't want him in the job, and they didn't like the fact that he was an opponent of cultural normalisation. To be fair, this particular political stand has less to do with Hosni's choices and everything to do with the obscure and muddy standards that govern relations between the Arabs and Israel.

To exonerate himself from any accusations of cultural discrimination or intellectual bigotry, and also banish any charges of anti-Semitism, Hosni thought of something. Years ago, the late Palestinian thinker Edward Said formed an orchestra from Arab and Israeli musicians, including the world-renowned conductor Daniel Barenboim. So Hosni decided to host Barenboim in Egypt to give some concerts. As soon as the word went out, all hell broke loose. Hosni was lynched in the independent press and maligned by friend and foe, government and opposition.

It is in times such as that that one knows who one's friends are. And time after time, our government proved that it could sell anyone down the river whenever it seems the most convenient thing to do. True, the government fought tooth and nail for its right to sell gas to Israel. It also stood firm in defence of the QIZ (Qualified Industrial Zone) agreement, which favoured more trade with Israel. And it would do anything to make sure that its favourite businessmen keep making money by selling cement to the Israelis. But it wasn't going to stick its neck out for Hosni, not even when this was the right thing to do. After all, Muslims and Arabs have had enough being depicted as bigots across the world. The Palestinian cause is being diminished by charges of fanaticism on our side. So breaking a taboo or two could be in our favour, but no one saw it this way.

At the end of the day, Hosni managed to pull off a concert or two for the great composer. But he failed in deflecting the assault on his person by enemies as well as friends. It wasn't the first time the culture minister was let down by those who should have stood by him. Not long ago, an Egyptian court ordered a magazine, Ibdaa, closed down because it republished an old poem that some consider sacrilegious. The poem, called "Layla Murad's Balcony", has the kind of symbolism that we used to see in Sufi poetry. It is a spiritual song that mixes the human and the divine in a way that puritans found objectionable.

We have let Hosni down so many times, we have no one but ourselves to blame should he lose the UNESCO bid.