Not in the mood
This week, more than others, was time for the Arab press to lament the disunity of the Arab world. Dina Ezzat shares in the agony
With the advent of Ramadan, many commentators decided to dedicate their articles in the Arab press to criticising the current state of disarray in the Arab and Muslim world.
Many stories that appeared in Arab dailies and weeklies throughout the week spoke with one voice: why have we lost the real spirit of Ramadan, the spirit of togetherness? Why have we turned one of the holiest seasons in the Muslim calendar into an occasion of mere food and TV?
Signs of disunity were easily seen across the Arab world. As usual, commentators were highly critical of the failure of Arab countries to make use of modern technology to decide the beginning of the lunar month across the Arab world. Why can't Arab countries agree on the beginning of the holy month when they know that they must agree on the beginning of the last month of the Muslim calendar, Zul Hijja, when all Muslims from all over the world perform the pilgrimage at the same time.
On Monday, the first day of Ramadan for most Arab Gulf countries, the Bahraini Akhbar Al-Khalij dedicated its editorial to the issue. "Every year it's the same old story. The Arab countries prompt apathy when, in this age, they still disagree on the beginning of one of the holiest months of the Muslim calendar. Worse, we have managed to miss the whole point of this holy month when we insist on turning it into a month of cooking and watching soap operas."
Moreover, there was the failure of the peoples of one country to agree on the beginning of the holy month. On Monday, the Lebanese daily As-Safir reported the confusion that prevailed in Iraq when the religious leaders of the Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds could not agree on when the holy month should begin. Consequently, some Iraqis started to fast on Saturday while others considered the beginning of Ramadan to be Sunday.
Speaking to As-Safir, Iraqis admitted that disagreement over the beginning of Ramadan among the Sunni, Shi'ite and Kurdish clergy was not unprecedented. However, as one Iraqi put it, "Under Saddam, disagreement would occur, but the regime would make a decision and the entire nation would follow. All of us -- Sunnis, Shi'ites and Kurds -- began fasting on the same day and broke our fast at the same hour every day when the national TV broadcast the call for the maghreb (sunset) prayers. This is no longer the case."
This was not the first time, since the fall of Baghdad to the US on 9 April, that Iraqis were quoted in the Arab press comparing their lives today with the days of former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. Iraqis were also quoted in the Arab press this week as comparing the mood of Ramadan this year with previous years. For many, it was difficult to enjoy the Ramadan evenings this year because of the virtual collapse of security. Iraqis said that under Saddam and despite the harsh economic sanctions imposed on the country, they always managed to enjoy Ramadan by staying out late without fear of being attacked, kidnapped or raped.
Such remarks prompted many commentators to wonder whether Iraqis really wanted a ruler like Saddam, considered by many to be the ultimate in tyranny. The answer was often negative.
In the Kuwaiti daily Al-Ra'i Al-Am, Abdullah Al-Hamadi asked if the Iraqis were yearning for the iron fist rule of Saddam Hussein and whether they "missed the killing and torture under the reign of Saddam and his Ba'th Party". Al-Hamadi argued that Arab peoples, in any Arab country including Iraq, if given a choice, would opt for democratic regimes. "If a poll was to be conducted all across the Arab world on the kind of rulers the Arabs wanted, the results might be shocking to some," Al-Hamadi said. He suggested that the vast majority of the Arab population would probably indicate a desire to emigrate in order to escape the tyranny of their rulers.
But for those Iraqis who started their Ramadan on Sunday and those who began fasting a day earlier, for those who preferred Saddam and those who are happier with the current situation, there was one thing all had in common that the Arab press could not miss: increasing violence. "Ramadan starts in Iraq on a bloody note," reported the Kuwaiti daily Al-Watan. Like many other papers, Al- Watan was alarmed by the increasing rate of bomb attacks and killing in Iraq.
Indeed, it was on Sunday, the beginning of Ramadan, in the Sunni part of Iraq, that explosions were heard across the capital Baghdad as close to 30 missiles targeted Al-Rashid Hotel in an attempt on the life of US Assistant Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz who ironically was visiting the Iraqi capital to examine how Washington could lessen casualties among US servicemen and women.
Iraq was not the only example used by the Arab press to argue their case about the state of disunity in the Arab world. Lebanon, too, was used as another case in point. In that country, however, disunity showed itself not just among the many factions and religions of the tiny Lebanese population but in the usual squabble among the ruling troika: the president of the state, Emil Lahoud, the prime minister, Rafiq Al-Harriri, and the speaker of the parliament, Nabih Berri.
The high-level power play has been playing out in the Arab, particularly the highly liberal and vocal Lebanese, press for weeks. With the advent of Ramadan, however, it was a good opportunity for many commentators, particularly the Lebanese, to call on Lahoud, Al-Harriri and Berri to put aside their differences at this crucial juncture in which Israel seems to be fast pursuing its plans for regional hegemony behind strong US support.
"Ramadan would be great this year if it offered us an opportunity to settle the political crisis that has gripped the highest echelons of this country," wrote prominent commentator Talal Salman on Monday. According to Salman, the political and economic price of this troika battle was too high for Lebanon to pay especially at this time when much of the Middle East, particularly Syria and Lebanon, has been blacklisted by the US and has come under Israeli military provocations. "The divisions within the political leadership in a country like Lebanon is a very serious matter and could lead to the division of the Lebanese people themselves in what may start looking like civil strife," Salman warned.
Salman was not alone in expressing serious concern over the increasing tension among Lahoud, Al-Harriri and Berri. Also on Monday, the London-based daily Al-Hayat quoted the Lebanese mufti as warning against such a political struggle and its potentially explosive consequences on the Lebanese people. "The unity of all Lebanese factions is essential for the unity of the Lebanese people. Such unity would serve the higher objective of overall Arab unity," Sheikh Mohamed Qabani was quoted as saying in Al- Hayat.
According to Qabani, it is "precisely now that the Arab world needs its unity in the face of the aggressive military occupation that is attacking us in Iraq and Palestine".
From the occupied Palestinian territories, the Arab press was not at all short of images and stories of how the Israeli army turned the holy month of Ramadan for hundreds of thousands of Palestinian men, women and children into "another nightmare". Pictures of women fleeing from their crumbling houses that were being brought down by Israeli bulldozers, with the blood of their young ones splattered over their clothes and the signs of horror on their faces, were all over the Arab press this week. So were photos of elderly Palestinian men and women kept waiting for hours on end at Israeli checkpoints.
Unfortunately, as Satei Noureddin observed in his daily column in As-Safir on Wednesday, "the images and stories of Israeli massacres have become so commonplace they no longer catch any particular attention beyond a few seconds of sympathy or anger from anyone."
For many commentators, Arab rights could not have been so brutally violated had it not been for their failure to put their act together and speak in one unified voice. "The Arab nation has reached a shocking state of weakness and disunity... We have diverted from the path of unity that God and His Prophet Mohamed ordered us to follow... Every Arab country has become too obsessed with its immediate interests and alliances... As a result Arab dignity is being violated when many an Arab ruler is only worried about his remaining in power," Adel Al-Muzaal wrote on Sunday in Al-Watan.
On the same say, the dailies Al-Rayah of Qatar and Al-Bayan of the United Arab Emirates addressed the same issue -- the lack of unity among Arabs and Muslims. "This year, the Arab and Muslim world observe Ramadan while facing the most difficult moment in their recent history as they have failed to deal with any of the pressing matters: the increasing Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people; the US occupation of Iraq and the continued state of instability in Afghanistan," Al-Rayah wrote in its editorial.
For its part, Al-Bayan stated, "It is with much pleasure that we celebrate the beginning of Ramadan... but it is also with much sorrow that we recognise the depressing state of disunity across the Arab and Muslim world after we have failed to observe the orders of the Holy Qur'an: Thou believers should stick to the cord of unity."
Al-Ahram Weekly Online : 30 October - 5 November 2003 (Issue No. 662)
Located at: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2003/662/pr2.htm