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Shame
Means Arab
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An
Egyptian child’s hand seen from the window of Al-Azhar
mosque during protests in Cairo
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As
America plunges into its lowest of moral grounds, Arab governments
join it. The fear of the sounds, smells and images of bombardments
disturbing the already Hobbesian and short and life of the Iraqis is
no different from what people feel in the Arab world. The Arab
despotic governments, exceeding in shame and indignity, have
divorced all self-respecting values and sympathy, not only for Iraq,
but for their own infuriated people.
Arab
Decay… A Question of Dignity
Arab
regimes have let American sway shape their foreign stands and
domestic agendas only for the sake of their personal survival in
power. The world is polarized between those who are with or against
America in its gratuitous and immoral War. Why did not the Arab
League warn Qatar and Kuwait – the same way the EU warned Turkey
that any involvement of Turkish troops in Kurdistan would jeopardize
its EU membership – against their undignified involvement in the
war on Iraq? Why has Jordan been, alas, glove-puppetted into
expelling Iraqi diplomats in the midst of it all?
The
answers are clear. In fact, it is not finding answers that would
answer the heart aching questions. It is the noncompliance to those
very regimes that can save the still-folded future. It is the need
to evade the bravado of simplistic rhetoric like “the importance
of the territorial integrity of the Iraqi soil,” in which one
finds apathy towards the annihilation of civilian Iraqis. It is in
the “we stand against the American war” that we find the open
doors for the American-led pathological campaign. It is in the sheer
“we hope the war is swift and short” that we find the elasticity
needed for the bullying folly of the preemptive.
Street
Pulse and Street Bullets
In
the Arab world there is a war between authority and will.
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The
heartfelt shout around the globe: in New York, London, Paris, and
throughout Latin America, connecting “Stop the War” to “Free
Palestine,” is the best expression coming from the unsophisticated
mind of the street. The unmatched numbers of enraged protesters
before and during the war make it clear; the future is not for the
American Imperial majesty to dictate its will on the world. George
W. Bush said the war was not about authority but about will. But
America simply does not control the will of the world.
But
for the Arab world there is another war between both authority and
will. As Arab protesters march their bodies and align their command
to save the remains of Iraq, they have also demonstrated their
simple minded future vision; “today Iraq, tomorrow us.” Right.
The simple man in the Arab street sees his coming destiny in this
flux. Whether directly or indirectly, giving approval to
ostentatiously supercilious America will make things only worse; be
it for Iraq, Palestine, or whatever Arab or Muslim country that will
put its head in the sand.
The
Tangent
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Lebanese
protesters try to remove razor wire set up by police to
block them from reaching US embassy. |
So
by killing Yemeni protesters security will prevail? Or is arresting
more than 1500 Egyptians a sacrifice for peace in Baghdad? Is it the
orders to beat, fire tear gas and capture the innocent marchers that
will close the gates of mayhem and confusion that have struck the
region? Haunted as we all are with the intensity of the present
moment in Iraq, we cannot obey orders to stay calm. The anarchic
anger of the people should not be hushed by tokenized slogans of
Arab governments; at least until things, and meaning things on all
levels, change.
The
present and future of Iraq do not mark the end of it all. It is a
mere lesson to Arabs who have the dignity and spirit to live the
life of the honorable and free, and above all to those who have the
“will” and who will not allow “authority” to rob their
vision or conscience.
No
fatalist passivism should crack the platform of marching for
justice, and no barricades should, or even can, stop the scream for
a better future of determination and freewill.
Tarek
A. Ghanem is an Egyptian freelance writer based in Cairo,
Egypt. He is specialized in comparative politics and is currently
assistant to the English section in Al-Siyassa Al-Dawliya
(International Politics), a quarterly journal published by Al-Ahram
Foundation, Cairo, Egypt. You can reach him at t.ghanem@islam-online.net
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