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An Egyptian child’s hand seen from the window of Al-Azhar mosque during protests in Cairo |
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
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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.
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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.
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