The Cartoon Controversy

A lot of water has passed under the bridge following the tasteless stereotypical and shocking ‘Danish cartoons’ and the not less shockingly violent response in the Islamic world. I haven’t really broached this topic as I was waiting for things to cool down and also too much ink ( or for that matter megabytes) has already been devoted to it.

This is not an Islamic-Christian conflict because Christianity in the West is just as badly handled as Islam ( in terms of caricaturing etc…). Even in so called ‘democratic’ countries, freedom of expression is not absolute but is governed by laws. Claiming the right to publish Islamophobic caricatures in the name of democracy is the best and shortest way to discredit this very democracy in the eyes of millions of Muslims and to pit peoples against each other.
Neither society nor civilization can live without freedom but at the same time they cannot live without interdictions . Hence, the West is currently living in a crisis - a spiritual crisis; while the Muslim countries -characterized for years by failure and impotence would still be deserving of respect despite the reactions. Maybe we would like to make the West ponder about its own society?

However, does that mean that one of the two camps should concede, abandon freedom of expression or accept to be insulted in the wave of such a ‘freedom’? A freedom which if not properly guided can hide the greatest intolerance of all. We have to think deeply of the significance of this crisis. If the cartoons have hurt it is a demonstration of an ignorance of the multiple complex reality of the Middle East.
If the calls for censorship have shocked , they show ignorance of the history and values of the West.

So the clash is that of ignorance on both sides and NOT of civilizations. The solution is not in mutual renunciation of our identity, but lies in discovering each other in hearing each other in understanding what brings us together but also what distinguishes us from each other. Knowing each other is UNDERSTANDING, understanding means ACCEPTING each other.

Aleppo , the centre of Islamic culture

"Aleppo has been chosen as the capital of Islamic culture considering its status as a bridge between the western and eastern cultures".

click to read more.

Syrian chemist discovers Pharaoh's secret


According to alarabonline , a Syrian chemist succeeds in decoding the composition of the mummifying techniques used by the Pharaohs. I can't find a link in English yet on Azam Zahrawi's discovery even though it seems to have been quoted originally by Reuters.
Maybe this guy is simply of Syrian origin?I'll update if I find more.
Well many people have searched for the elixir of eternity


If you want to read all about mummies check this cool website: Mummy tomb.

The Islamists in Syria

Well thanks to the changed balance in the ME, we have now increased prospective terrorists and terror. Yes Islamism is on the rise in Syria.

Dear All,

I have been busy helping my sister who has recently returned from Iraq. It was hectic trying to settle her and the kids again after she and her Iraqi husband H left everything behind them in Baghdad. Now they need to start a fresh life. Her husband who survived the Iran-Iraq war ran away during the invasion of Kuwait in 1991. Following years of hardship in foreign lands he decided about 10 years later to take his chance and return voluntarily home because he was fed up of being constantly on the run. H was hoping for a presidential pardon but instead he was court marshaled as a deserter and sentenced to seven years of prison by Saddam’s men . Once in prison, a similarity in names between a wanted political dissident served to send him -a soft spoken professor of music- to the torture chamber and places which make Abu Ghraib seem benign in comparison

My sister spent a harrowing time trying to find him and prove to the authorities that he was only an army deserter not a political dissident plotting Saddam’s downfall. Her tales of journeying from one government official to another and from building to another and from one known prison to another would break your heart. She did not disappear simply because she was not Iraqi and had made her presence known at the Syrian embassy in Baghdad. My sister tasted hunger, fear and humiliation. She felt the bitter cold and the searing heat, She gave birth in unhygienic circumstances and her baby boy is a living testament to God’s will. When she recounted those episodes to me, I felt like I had stepped into a movie scene or a novel. Those things could not happen in this day and age. Or could they ?

She has aged beyond her years and her one time red hair is now mostly grey. Her sparkling eyes seem whitewashed to me from crying and I am left wondering how long she would need to recover. I will not recount how she got her husband out of that tight spot because that would jeopardize many people’s lives and anonymity especially with occupied Iraq and despite Saddam no longer being boss. But I will say one thing that she managed to clear his name and he was brought to prison where he could be visited at least, and serve his desertion sentence. In October 2002 , he was set free along with about 10 000 others through a Presidential amnesty.

By then it was the countdown to the invasion of Iraq, the tales of the UN inspectors and the famous WMD ( which incidentally have not materialized).

Still the family struggled to make a life in these circumstances, what can a music composer, or teacher do ? He took to singing at weddings. Better than starve right ? It was kind of ok. But this respite was short lived the day a US bomb was dropped on their home and the roof collapsed missing the baby’s crib by a fraction. There was no home left, no belonging and no weddings to sing at , who wanted to hire a band under the B52 sorties ?

Under those circumstances my sister could not stand the constant nerve wracking especially after the fall of Baghdad and she asked him to return to Syria . Their journey to Damascus is an epic. Suffice it to say that leaving Iraq has left them penniless, and with an elder son who walks on crutches, while the youngest son thinks that tea is milk. I felt that blogging throughout the past six months was silly and petty compared to what they have been through. However, I owed an apology to whoever is still reading this blog and hence the explanation.

On another note, the current situation with the fingers increasingly being pointed at Syria leaves me in an unenviable space. Both Lebanon and Syria are mine and I can’t think of one without the other. I will attempt to be balanced and fair but I’m not sure Lebanon remembers all those Syrian young men who died to let it keep its democracy.

Syrian-Lebanese border woes

Mr. Abdul Rahman al-Rashed of Ashaq-al -Awsat newspaper and also General Manager of Al-Arabiya TV , has spearheaded some 'anti-Syria' rhetoric. So when Syria - which has left Lebanon after popular demonstration in Beirut and International pressure ( and rightly so anyway as I said in an earlier post it is about bloody time they did) - has started to implement tougher stances on its borders and sovereign waters, since Lebanon is a 'liberated' country now, Al-Rashed has suddenly changed his tune, and states 'Syrian behaviour is appropriate' .

In this article full of hardly hidden venom, he can only agree that Syria has the right to regulate its borders and to request from Lebanese fishermen not to fish without permission from its waters. Well why not would I ask ? The special relationship is over, let Lebanon solve its own problems especially that now it is within the range of interest of US, Israel and the West again. I expect they will give it more loans to do something about that huge deficit run by none-other than dear 'martyr' Hariri. As much as I deplore this guy's death we Lebanese know who and what he was exactly. Being half Lebanese myself gives me full right to criticize both my countries . Message to my Lebanese brothers , sovereignty runs on both sides !

Al-Rashed in his own words says :
"It may even benefit both parties to go through a period of a freeze in relations so the governments in Beirut and Damascus can analyze the leverage they possess and understand the importance of their neighbor. Bad neighborly relations can therefore be helpful in the sense that each party could reform itself without pressure from the other. The question remains as to who will pay the price in the upcoming weeks and months?
The Lebanese will need to swallow their pride and their fruits whilst patiently awaiting a resolution to the current crisis. Until relations are normalized, I advise Arab tourist and Lebanese visitors to avoid traveling to Lebanon by car, given that Damascus might shut its borders on their way back and they might have to sell the car for scrap by the end of the summer. "

Al-Rashed 's tone both in the Arabic version here and the badly edited/translated English version ( note to Asharq -al Awsat please do something about bad English as foreigners do read our media) above mentioned seems to suggest though that he is coming to this conclusion reluctantly.

Missiles

That is not the most brilliant idea, but somehow I wish it landed somewhere else....