The TELY group (Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen) have won the first stages in their march towards democracy. Their populations were able to change the regional geostrategic map through toppling their dictators. We are now waiting for Syria and Bahrain to do the same: Syria, through collapsing the fascist system of the Baath party heady by a family business which may be called Al-Assad, Inc. That system was established in 1970 through a bloody coup. Bahrain, through modification of its system of governance, possibly a la Morocco, might enable its Shii majority to participate in a democratic system, while staying safe from the grip of a theocratic Iran.
The Arab Spring is a variety of seasons. Its most ominous chill is not in its variety of directions. It is in its most determined adversaries, namely, Russia, China, Iran, and Hezbollah. We may call this quartet the anti-democratic axis. An axis is a group of partners sharing the same objectives through a variety of methods. An axis is not a community of commonly-accepted values. It is a bundle of sinister objectives pursued through a diversity of national or sectarian policies.
The anti-democratic axis which is standing in the way of the Arab Spring cannot be victorious. The Arabs of Syria and Bahrain, together with the West assisting them in a variety of ways, cannot but ultimately prevail. For the anti-democratic axis is using the kind of obstructionist tools which are hopelessly outdated.
Examples: the double veto by Russia and China prevented the adoption earlier this month by the UN Security Council of a resolution intended to stop the grisly slaughter of protesters by the huge death juggernaut of Bashar Al-Assad. Arms from Russia, acquiescence from China, intervention on behalf of Al-Assad by Iran and Hezbollah are all necessary adjuncts of the most brutal suppression of the Syrians search for freedom. But the external supporters of Al-Assad reign of terror are bound to fail because they are on the wrong side of history.
Both Iran and its Lebanese proxy Hezbollah (the Party of God!!) are military, ideological and logistical supporters of a dying Syrian regime. Neither the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, nor the Iran-Syria mutual defense pact, nor the attacks by Hezbollah operatives on Syrian refugees in Lebanon are a match for the massive march for freedom by millions in Homs, Deraa, Aleppo, Hama, Lathakia, Idlib, Damascus and Ain Al-Zoor. It is a massive wave determined to bring the Assad regime to its pre-destined end. The Syrian National Council has been legitimated by 60 States which met earlier this month in Tunis. Even dictatorship has a shelf-life; the love of liberty is an eternal human quest.
How does the quartet of evil (Russia, China, Iran and Hezbollah) justify its unprincipled stand against the pro-democracy hurricane in the new Middle East? They say that the pro-democracy wave is engineered by both the West, some members of the League of Arabs States, and outside saboteurs and terrorists!! They say that the Libyan model has proven that the West is riding the crest of the Arab Spring to effect regime change. They say that Syrian sovereignty is under attack. They say that only through dialogue could the Syrian mess be taken care of, and that peaceful methods are the only means to reconciliation.
Let us briefly examine the hypocrisy of all these fake arguments. Like a sudden earthquake, the Arab Spring sprang suddenly through years of combustible suppression of dignity and human rights. Its engineers are the millions gathered, largely unarmed to demonstrate against totalitarianism. The West, through legitimation by the League of the Arab States and eventually by the UN Security Council, came to the rescue of Libyans when crazy Qaddafi was on the verge of slaughtering the Libyan masses in Benghazi. Better a change of regime which has lost its legitimacy, than a systemic and prolonged aggression against the principle of "rule by the people for the people", and not by a corrupt dictatorial cabal.
Regarding Syrian sovereignty, the anti-democratic quartet is following its own bankrupt ideology which puts the State ahead of the individual who is the true repositor of sovereignty. And what dialogue are they seeking? What kind of dialogue should we expect between a mass murderer and his Syrian victims?
The hypocrisy of the anti-democratic quartet is manifest: Both Russia and China fear an equivalent of the Arab Spring ripping through their oppressed Muslim and non-Muslim populations. Iran and Hezbollah are blind to the reality of their isolation in a progressive Middle-East.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Saturday, February 18, 2012
The Domino Theory in the Arab Spring
On February 11, 2011, Mubarak as the Pharaoh of Egypt, fell. Before that, the former President of Tunisia, Ben Ali, had fled to Saudi Arabia, and the fall of Mubarak was shortly followed by the bloody end of the reign of Qaddafi of Libya. A few weeks ago, the former President of Yemen relinquished power, and now the President of Syria, Bashar Al-Assad is trying, in the most brutal fashion, to destroy his people and his country in a hopeless attempt to stay in power. The Arab Spring is proving the existence of a domino theory which is expected to apply in short order to Bahrain. The rest of the Gulf oil rich countries may soon follow.
We therefore pose the question: What makes the domino theory work its magic in all these Arab countries? The answer lies in monolinguality -the Arabic language and its rich culture, more than in Islam as a faith, or history as a shared tradition. The Arabs adhere either to Islam or Christianity.
The Arabic language, the language of the Quran, in its highest classic form, is the lingua franca of nearly one third of a billion population. Its cadence and rhythm are nearly hypnotic. Its intonation is gripping. Its poetry and prose have galvanized populations from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf to rise up in war or to follow the lead even of unworthy tyrants.
It is sung in recitation of the Quran, and through the lovely voices of great singers like Umm Kalthoum and Abdel-Wahhab and Fairooz. It is used in all Arab Courts and from pulpits in mosques and churches. It is even known to Arabic-speaking populations as the "language of the DHADH" - one of the 26 letters of the Arabic alphabet. Like another semetic language, Hebrew, it is written from right to left.
Regarding the origin and dominance of the Arabic language, the great Egyptian philosopher, Taha Hussein has a theory. In his seminal book in Arabic entitled "About the Pre-Islamic Literature," he says: "The Arabian Tribe of Quraish located in the Hedjaz (western Arabian peninsula) possessed a form of Arabic which then became the Classic Arabic Language. Quraish (from which the Prophet Muhammad descended) imposed its Arabic on all other tribes, not by the sword, but through the intersection of mutual relationships, religions, political, economic. Quraish in whose midst Mecca is located also used the Pilgrimage (Al-Hadj) to make its Arabic dominant."
It will be noted that the cry of the millions in Tahrir Square, Egypt, resulting in collapsing the Mubarak regime, was "The People want the Regime to Go" (Al-Shaab Yorred Issqat Al-Nizam). For the other Arab revolts that slogan became the equivalent of the Marseillaise to the French Revolution. That unity of language has been at the heart of the domino within the Arab Spring.
An Iraqi celebrated poet, Maaroof Al-Russafi, once wrote (in Arabic) about Arabic as a harmonizing inter-faith factor:
Absolutely correct!! In Arabic, God (Allah) is known by 99 names. A cry for freedom in the west of the Arab world quickly reverberates in many synonyms throughout that vast area which is now being forever transformed. That domino for dignity works.
As a student of the psychology of education in Egypt in the late 1940's I was offended by a decision taken by a Deputy Minister of Education regarding teachers' salaries. As head of the student teachers union at that time, my criticism of that decision, which denigrated the status of teachers, was swift. During that period, since I wrote songs and poetry, my attack was in poetry which brought about a general strike for higher salaries. The Deputy Minister expelled me from the Teachers Institute, thus causing the prolongation of the strike. That strike was eventually settled by various measures including bringing me back from my village to my seat at the Institute, fully rehabilitated.
Ah!! For the power of classic Arabic which has moved millions to action and caused dictators to disappear!!
We therefore pose the question: What makes the domino theory work its magic in all these Arab countries? The answer lies in monolinguality -the Arabic language and its rich culture, more than in Islam as a faith, or history as a shared tradition. The Arabs adhere either to Islam or Christianity.
The Arabic language, the language of the Quran, in its highest classic form, is the lingua franca of nearly one third of a billion population. Its cadence and rhythm are nearly hypnotic. Its intonation is gripping. Its poetry and prose have galvanized populations from the Atlantic Ocean to the Gulf to rise up in war or to follow the lead even of unworthy tyrants.
It is sung in recitation of the Quran, and through the lovely voices of great singers like Umm Kalthoum and Abdel-Wahhab and Fairooz. It is used in all Arab Courts and from pulpits in mosques and churches. It is even known to Arabic-speaking populations as the "language of the DHADH" - one of the 26 letters of the Arabic alphabet. Like another semetic language, Hebrew, it is written from right to left.
Regarding the origin and dominance of the Arabic language, the great Egyptian philosopher, Taha Hussein has a theory. In his seminal book in Arabic entitled "About the Pre-Islamic Literature," he says: "The Arabian Tribe of Quraish located in the Hedjaz (western Arabian peninsula) possessed a form of Arabic which then became the Classic Arabic Language. Quraish (from which the Prophet Muhammad descended) imposed its Arabic on all other tribes, not by the sword, but through the intersection of mutual relationships, religions, political, economic. Quraish in whose midst Mecca is located also used the Pilgrimage (Al-Hadj) to make its Arabic dominant."
It will be noted that the cry of the millions in Tahrir Square, Egypt, resulting in collapsing the Mubarak regime, was "The People want the Regime to Go" (Al-Shaab Yorred Issqat Al-Nizam). For the other Arab revolts that slogan became the equivalent of the Marseillaise to the French Revolution. That unity of language has been at the heart of the domino within the Arab Spring.
An Iraqi celebrated poet, Maaroof Al-Russafi, once wrote (in Arabic) about Arabic as a harmonizing inter-faith factor:
"If we(the Arabs) are one national unity.Al-Russafi penned that poem in the early 20th century. When I asked a modern Iraqi woman, Dr. Hend Shnayen, my Executive Assistant: "What do you like most in Classic Arabic?" Without hesitation, she said with deep conviction: "Its multiplicity of synonyms."
What does it matter that we adhere to various religions.
Our people are bound together through three values
One tongue, various countries and a belief in God."
Absolutely correct!! In Arabic, God (Allah) is known by 99 names. A cry for freedom in the west of the Arab world quickly reverberates in many synonyms throughout that vast area which is now being forever transformed. That domino for dignity works.
As a student of the psychology of education in Egypt in the late 1940's I was offended by a decision taken by a Deputy Minister of Education regarding teachers' salaries. As head of the student teachers union at that time, my criticism of that decision, which denigrated the status of teachers, was swift. During that period, since I wrote songs and poetry, my attack was in poetry which brought about a general strike for higher salaries. The Deputy Minister expelled me from the Teachers Institute, thus causing the prolongation of the strike. That strike was eventually settled by various measures including bringing me back from my village to my seat at the Institute, fully rehabilitated.
Ah!! For the power of classic Arabic which has moved millions to action and caused dictators to disappear!!
Sunday, February 5, 2012
In the Midst of the Arab Spring: A Russian-Chinese Deep Winter
An Occasional Commentary by the Blogger
February 2, 2012
Around the horse shoe table of the UN Security Council, a deep cold winter wind blew from the seats of Russia and China in the face of the Western and Arab representatives attempting to have the Council adopt in early February a resolution to slow Al Assad’s killing machine deployed for the past ten months against the Syrian uprising for dignity and democracy. Having closely observed the tumult in Tahrir Square in Cairo since early 2011, there is little doubt in my mind that the winds of the Arab Spring are destined to destroy that family business, the Al-Assad dynasty, which has endured since the early 1970s. The game of the Syrian dictatorship, supported by Iran and politically sustained by strange bed-fellows like Russia and China, is doomed to come to a tragic end. It is only a matter of time.
The fiction openly advanced by Russia at the UN Security Council and elsewhere that “regime change” shall be the result of a resolution demanding that violence against peaceful protesters all over Syria should stop is laughable.
Such a stance ignores several vital facts. Too much blood has already been shed all over Syria, sucking the oxygen out of the lungs of any legitimacy left for the Syrian butcher regime. The regional organization, the League of Arab States, exercising its legitimate role under Chapter 8 of the UN Charter had intervened. It has suspended the offending regime; it has dispatched a monitoring team, though ineffectual, to Syria; it has submitted, through Morocco, a draft resolution for a peaceful transition in Damascus akin to the Yemen model. The Libyan model has very little resemblance, if any, to the Arab League’s plan for Syria as it does not provide for military intervention. The Syrian masses are demanding, at the cost of their blood, that Al-Assad should go.
The hypocrisy of the Russian-Chinese position towards the present Syrian civil war is transparent. In essence, both Moscow and Beijing are trying to protect their fire walls against an Arab Spring-like somersaulting over their backyards. These protective walls are built around their own oppressed minorities and hyper-sensitive monolithic regimes. This is not to mention their considerable economic interests, including the sale of armaments and the purchase of energy from Syria.
A so-called regime change in Damascus could beget a regime disarray inside the Russian-Chinese protective walls. While touring Asia, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov has recently told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that “we are not friends or allies of President Assad.” Really? If so, then who are the beneficiaries of Russia’s blatant obstruction at the UN Security Council?
At this very moment the Syrian National Council, Syria’s government in Turkish exile, is describing the Moroccan draft resolution before the Security Council as “extremely important.” Why? Because as Qatar’s Prime Minister told the Security Council on behalf of the Arab League: “The Syrian government failed to make any serious effort to cooperate with us."
Out of this historic re-alignment of friends and alliances resulting from the Arab Spring, through the Syrian upheaval, the West, especially the US, the UK, France and Germany, are occupying the high ground. Russia and China are fast becoming the enemies of the Arab masses which are searching for the three Ds: Dignity, Democracy, and Development. It was historic to see the US and French flags unfurled by the masses in Libyan squares in recognition of the NATO campaign against Qaddafi.
Both Moscow and Beijing, whose icy winds are blanketing the Arab Spring in Syria, seem to ignore the changes in the concept of sovereignty. Since the tragic Holocaust of the late 1930s and 1940s, human rights have steadily grown through international humanitarian intervention. This recent doctrine provides that when a government is killing its people, who are the real sovereign, domestic jurisdiction must give way to international intervention.
This doctrine has in fact trumped Article 2(7) of the UN Charter which has given the State the right to define what domestic jurisdiction, is except where international peace and security are involved. The main purpose of this international law evolution is to save that sovereign from its insane government. The Assad regime continues unabashedly to manifest its insanity. And the League of Arab States, whose present Secretary-General is the venerable jurist, Dr. Nabil al-Araby, a former Justice of the International Court of Justice, is pleading with Moscow and Beijing to heed the calls for mercy from every corner of Syria, across all sectarian divides.
Appeasing Russia and China through watering down the Moroccan draft resolution before the Security Council is not likely to stop the bloodbath caused by Al-Assad dynasty's iron-fisted dictatorship. Better force Russia and China to veto the original Arab League proposals, on which Morocco's draft is based, than to drop references to the urgency of having the Damascus butcher surrender power. A watered-down resolution by the Council may avoid a Russian and a Chinese possible double veto. But it will end the traditional obfuscation by both Moscow and Beijing that the West, not they, are the enemies of liberal democracy.
The exact opposite is true. It is patently ironic to have the Global Times, a Chinese publication, extol the virtues of Russian and Chinese open opposition to democracy. On December 5, 2011, it editorialized that "The West doesn't really have an interest in promoting democracy to the world... Its scheme is to expand its interest hidden behind that process."
A weakened UN Security Council resolution could not fail to provide Al-Assad, supported by the enemies of the Arab Spring, with a renewed license to go on killing the oppressed Syrian masses.
It behooves free Syria and the rest of the Arab world to remember who stood with them in their darkest hour and who stood with their tormentors.
The fiction openly advanced by Russia at the UN Security Council and elsewhere that “regime change” shall be the result of a resolution demanding that violence against peaceful protesters all over Syria should stop is laughable.
Such a stance ignores several vital facts. Too much blood has already been shed all over Syria, sucking the oxygen out of the lungs of any legitimacy left for the Syrian butcher regime. The regional organization, the League of Arab States, exercising its legitimate role under Chapter 8 of the UN Charter had intervened. It has suspended the offending regime; it has dispatched a monitoring team, though ineffectual, to Syria; it has submitted, through Morocco, a draft resolution for a peaceful transition in Damascus akin to the Yemen model. The Libyan model has very little resemblance, if any, to the Arab League’s plan for Syria as it does not provide for military intervention. The Syrian masses are demanding, at the cost of their blood, that Al-Assad should go.
The hypocrisy of the Russian-Chinese position towards the present Syrian civil war is transparent. In essence, both Moscow and Beijing are trying to protect their fire walls against an Arab Spring-like somersaulting over their backyards. These protective walls are built around their own oppressed minorities and hyper-sensitive monolithic regimes. This is not to mention their considerable economic interests, including the sale of armaments and the purchase of energy from Syria.
A so-called regime change in Damascus could beget a regime disarray inside the Russian-Chinese protective walls. While touring Asia, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov has recently told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that “we are not friends or allies of President Assad.” Really? If so, then who are the beneficiaries of Russia’s blatant obstruction at the UN Security Council?
At this very moment the Syrian National Council, Syria’s government in Turkish exile, is describing the Moroccan draft resolution before the Security Council as “extremely important.” Why? Because as Qatar’s Prime Minister told the Security Council on behalf of the Arab League: “The Syrian government failed to make any serious effort to cooperate with us."
Out of this historic re-alignment of friends and alliances resulting from the Arab Spring, through the Syrian upheaval, the West, especially the US, the UK, France and Germany, are occupying the high ground. Russia and China are fast becoming the enemies of the Arab masses which are searching for the three Ds: Dignity, Democracy, and Development. It was historic to see the US and French flags unfurled by the masses in Libyan squares in recognition of the NATO campaign against Qaddafi.
Both Moscow and Beijing, whose icy winds are blanketing the Arab Spring in Syria, seem to ignore the changes in the concept of sovereignty. Since the tragic Holocaust of the late 1930s and 1940s, human rights have steadily grown through international humanitarian intervention. This recent doctrine provides that when a government is killing its people, who are the real sovereign, domestic jurisdiction must give way to international intervention.
This doctrine has in fact trumped Article 2(7) of the UN Charter which has given the State the right to define what domestic jurisdiction, is except where international peace and security are involved. The main purpose of this international law evolution is to save that sovereign from its insane government. The Assad regime continues unabashedly to manifest its insanity. And the League of Arab States, whose present Secretary-General is the venerable jurist, Dr. Nabil al-Araby, a former Justice of the International Court of Justice, is pleading with Moscow and Beijing to heed the calls for mercy from every corner of Syria, across all sectarian divides.
Appeasing Russia and China through watering down the Moroccan draft resolution before the Security Council is not likely to stop the bloodbath caused by Al-Assad dynasty's iron-fisted dictatorship. Better force Russia and China to veto the original Arab League proposals, on which Morocco's draft is based, than to drop references to the urgency of having the Damascus butcher surrender power. A watered-down resolution by the Council may avoid a Russian and a Chinese possible double veto. But it will end the traditional obfuscation by both Moscow and Beijing that the West, not they, are the enemies of liberal democracy.
The exact opposite is true. It is patently ironic to have the Global Times, a Chinese publication, extol the virtues of Russian and Chinese open opposition to democracy. On December 5, 2011, it editorialized that "The West doesn't really have an interest in promoting democracy to the world... Its scheme is to expand its interest hidden behind that process."
A weakened UN Security Council resolution could not fail to provide Al-Assad, supported by the enemies of the Arab Spring, with a renewed license to go on killing the oppressed Syrian masses.
It behooves free Syria and the rest of the Arab world to remember who stood with them in their darkest hour and who stood with their tormentors.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Happy Rebirth to Egypt: Her Sphinx is Rising!!
News from the Egyptian Street and Media Translated Without Comment from Arabic into English As a Public Service
***************************************
January 26, 2012
The list of revolutionary demands goes on and on.
In the meantime the SCAF, through Field Marshal Tantawi declared on the first anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution the rescission of emergency laws, except from thuggery (baltagah).
If sculptor Mokhtar was still alive, his Sphinx would have fully risen on its four legs.
***************************************
January 26, 2012
It is one year old, when democracy was reborn in the ten thousand year old country. So on January 25 this year, I could almost see the great sculpture of Mokhtar rising. The sculpture is called “Egypt’s Renaissance” (Nahdhat MISR). Sitting majestically against the great dome of Cairo University, the black marble Sphinx is made by the Sculptor to rise with a peasant Egyptian woman placing her gentle hand on the head of the colossal Sphinx. With her lips slightly parted, you can almost hear her whispering to the rising Sphinx, “Rise up. Your awakening is overdue.”
And so it was with 10 million Egyptians rising in Tahrir and elsewhere in Egypt, wrapped in the Egyptian tri-colored flag, and shouting on January 25, 2011 "Leave" “IRHAL” to Mubarak. On February 11 of last year, he did, as an Egyptian young woman, holding aloft a crescent and a cross, ecstatically yelling in disbelief, “No More Fear!!!” The reverberations of those chants must have been pleasing to the ears of historic Egypt (the Sphinx), and of modern Egypt (the peasant woman). A phenomenal rebirth of the heart of the Arab homeland has finally happened.
Following Tunisia and Egypt, the Arab Spring sprang to Libya to end another dictatorship of long duration. Poetry is integral to the Arab psyche and oral history. Witness what the great Egyptian poet, Hafez Ibrahim, said in 1912 in his memorable poem regarding Fascist Italy’s invasion of Tripoli, now the proud capital of Libya.
The first 2 verses of his 45-verse epic poem is entitled “The War on Tripoli.” Translated from Arabic, that great Egyptian nationalist said,
"Greed has unmasked the West
O East, rise up and beware of sleep
O Sun, carry to everyone
Your rays of peace throughout the East"
Again the great theme of rebirth and renaissance. No more fear!! The first salvo in the rebirth of Egypt as a democratic State was the seating of Parliament. The members came to that historic Chamber, located near Tahrir, through free and fair balloting. The specter of one-party rule has mercifully disappeared. On January 24 of this year, as the members of the lower house of Parliament, both bearded and well-shaven, took their oath of office, the populace outside gave them upon arrival bouquets of flowers. Some of those parliamentarians were even hoisted over the shoulders of the Tahrir young demonstrators. Another graphic symbolism of the New Egypt rising.
Inside the Chamber, discord erupted. No surprise!! At birth, the newly re-discovered democracy was uttering its first cry. Democracy is not a tidy business. Its discord is a signal of vibrancy. January 25 has become the national day of the New Egypt. In this, I could discern another symbolism. On January 26, 1952, the so-called “Free Officers” whose leader was Nasser burned Cairo. It was the spark that ended democracy in Egypt and ushered in the Nasser coup of July 23, 1952. Sixty years later, Tahrir destroyed the 60 year old military dictatorship in Egypt, with the unceremonious toppling of Dictator No. III – Mubarak.
Yet, the Egyptian Revolution, the mightiest uprising of the multi-faceted Arab Spring, is not yet over. That unfinished symphony which is keen on ending the subjugation of Egyptian sovereignty to outside powers still has unfulfilled demands. The major demands of all the Tahrirs in Egypt are:
- Ending military rule and the handing over of power from the SCAF (Supreme Council of the Armed Forces) to a civilian government even sooner than the declared date of July 1, 2012;
- Speedy trials for Mubarak, his family, and their cohorts;
- Full accounting for the martyrdom of nearly 1000 demonstrators, and the injury of thousands;
- Acceleration of the rebuilding of the Egyptian economy, now threatened with collapse and reclaiming all public resources to which Mubarak and Company laid false claim;
- Speeding of the drafting of the new Egyptian Constitution through a yet to be chosen constituent assembly;
- The re-assumption by the police forces of their duties, assuring the safety of the Egyptian street;
- Cleansing of the judiciary and other institutions from corruption;
- Elimination of military tribunals for the trial of detained civilians.
The list of revolutionary demands goes on and on.
In the meantime the SCAF, through Field Marshal Tantawi declared on the first anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution the rescission of emergency laws, except from thuggery (baltagah).
If sculptor Mokhtar was still alive, his Sphinx would have fully risen on its four legs.
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