It takes a special connoisseur to appreciate the slinky grace of a cat, especially if the cat is a notorious predator on the savannahs of sub-Saharan Africa. The cheetah is a curious mixture of an indolent luxurious living room cat and a wild and dangerous hunter. Seeing a family of these spotted felines gently licking their paws after a sumptuous meal of impalas, you would find it hard to imagine the scene that was played beforehand.

Yet perhaps the most interesting fact about cheetahs is that despite their ferocity and hunting prowess, they simply don’t roar. Cheetahs, I believe, are above roaring, which is for the common lion family. They don’t need to roar – they can get their message across in other more civilized ways. The noise these cats make is more like a mix between a high-powered purr and a low growl. They sound like someone you would not want to mess with.

If only Arab leaders were more like these cool cats – quiet, but assertive. Unfortunately, the prevailing mode of posturing adopted by Arab leaders is one of two positions: 1) they are either quiet because they are too weak, or 2) they bluster and shout and condemn. They can, on their better days, when they feel up to the job, even blame, censure, and denounce.

At first, I believed they had just gotten used to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They had, I thought, run out of original statements and genuine feelings and rather given up – some of them were born after the occupation of Palestine and probably think that this is the normal state of affairs. Sort of like a traditional stand-by conflict that they couldn’t do without – what else would they discuss in their summits? The price of tomatoes?

Then, when Bush and his cohorts attacked Iraq earlier this year, I thought – now they definitely will take a unified stand and show the world their stuff. To my surprise, they had all apparently taken a few courses at Hogwarts’ School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and did a magical disappearing act! They told Bush that they wouldn’t play along with the laughably named “coalition allies” this time, held an even more laughable Arab Summit where there was as much bickering as there was wringing of hands, and then they simply vanished.

According to Islamic tradition, as Muslims, we should find 70 excuses for people when they make mistakes or let you down, but I found it very difficult to believe that they had suddenly come down with amoebic dysentery or were having family problems at the time when Iraqis were being pounded daily by American and British bombs.

The most outspoken leader, Syria’s Bashar Assad (whose family name translates to mean “lion”), was the only one who adopted a position and held on to it, at the risk of provoking America’s anger and displeasure. Clearly, the Syrians were on edge as the word was out that they are on Bush’s hit list.

Now that Saddam himself has vanished, his name is rarely mentioned in the media – out of sight is out of mind. Iraqis are still being killed by American troops, Iraq has become a camping ground for the US military, and Iraqis are beginning to feel more and more like the Palestinians. And the Arab world remains silent.

What will it take, I wonder, for the Arab leaders to take a stand against Israeli and now American occupation? What will it take for them to defend their countries against threats of invasion and occupation? Are they so weak that they cannot defend their basic rights as sovereign nations, or do they bask in the false security that Bush is not setting his dogs on them (yet) and that Sharon’s missiles are not falling on their heads?

The Arab leaders never fail to trot out their decades-old formula for dealing with tough situations: get red in the face and do some shouting, then lie down for a nice afternoon siesta. And they don’t look like they are willing to learn from the past. However, at the rate America is going – attack and occupy a country per year – it looks like our leaders better change their attitudes fast.

I wish our leaders were cheetahs. Come to think of it, I’d even settle for a lion.

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Marwa Elnaggar is staff writer and editor for IslamOnline. She holds an MA in English and Comparative Literature and occasionally writes poetry. She is currently the editor for IslamOnline’s future page “Introducing Islam.” 

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