Sunday, December 31, 2006


A Dictator Created Then Destroyed by America

By Robert Fisk for The Independent UK

Saturday 30 December 2006

Saddam to the gallows. It was an easy equation. Who could be more deserving of that last walk to the scaffold - that crack of the neck at the end of a rope - than the Beast of Baghdad, the Hitler of the Tigris, the man who murdered untold hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqis while spraying chemical weapons over his enemies? Our masters will tell us in a few hours that it is a "great day" for Iraqis and will hope that the Muslim world will forget that his death sentence was signed - by the Iraqi "government", but on behalf of the Americans - on the very eve of the Eid al-Adha, the Feast of the Sacrifice, the moment of greatest forgiveness in the Arab world.

But history will record that the Arabs and other Muslims and, indeed, many millions in the West, will ask another question this weekend, a question that will not be posed in other Western newspapers because it is not the narrative laid down for us by our presidents and prime ministers - what about the other guilty men?

No, Tony Blair is not Saddam. We don't gas our enemies. George W Bush is not Saddam. He didn't invade Iran or Kuwait. He only invaded Iraq. But hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians are dead - and thousands of Western troops are dead - because Messrs Bush and Blair and the Spanish Prime Minister and the Italian Prime Minister and the Australian Prime Minister went to war in 2003 on a potage of lies and mendacity and, given the weapons we used, with great brutality.

In the aftermath of the international crimes against humanity of 2001 we have tortured, we have murdered, we have brutalised and killed the innocent - we have even added our shame at Abu Ghraib to Saddam's shame at Abu Ghraib - and yet we are supposed to forget these terrible crimes as we applaud the swinging corpse of the dictator we created.

Who encouraged Saddam to invade Iran in 1980, which was the greatest war crime he has committed for it led to the deaths of a million and a half souls? And who sold him the components for the chemical weapons with which he drenched Iran and the Kurds? We did. No wonder the Americans, who controlled Saddam's weird trial, forbad any mention of this, his most obscene atrocity, in the charges against him. Could he not have been handed over to the Iranians for sentencing for this massive war crime? Of course not. Because that would also expose our culpability.

And the mass killings we perpetrated in 2003 with our depleted uranium shells and our "bunker buster" bombs and our phosphorous, the murderous post-invasion sieges of Fallujah and Najaf, the hell-disaster of anarchy we unleashed on the Iraqi population in the aftermath of our "victory" - our "mission accomplished" - who will be found guilty of this? Such expiation as we might expect will come, no doubt, in the self-serving memoirs of Blair and Bush, written in comfortable and wealthy retirement.

Hours before Saddam's death sentence, his family - his first wife, Sajida, and Saddam's daughter and their other relatives - had given up hope. "Whatever could be done has been done - we can only wait for time to take its course," one of them said last night. But Saddam knew, and had already announced his own "martyrdom": he was still the president of Iraq and he would die for Iraq. All condemned men face a decision: to die with a last, grovelling plea for mercy or to die with whatever dignity they can wrap around themselves in their last hours on earth. His last trial appearance - that wan smile that spread over the mass-murderer's face - showed us which path Saddam intended to walk to the noose.

I have catalogued his monstrous crimes over the years. I have talked to the Kurdish survivors of Halabja and the Shia who rose up against the dictator at our request in 1991 and who were betrayed by us - and whose comrades, in their tens of thousands, along with their wives, were hanged like thrushes by Saddam's executioners.

I have walked round the execution chamber of Abu Ghraib - only months, it later transpired, after we had been using the same prison for a few tortures and killings of our own - and I have watched Iraqis pull thousands of their dead relatives from the mass graves of Hilla. One of them has a newly-inserted artificial hip and a medical identification number on his arm. He had been taken directly from hospital to his place of execution. Like Donald Rumsfeld, I have even shaken the dictator's soft, damp hand. Yet the old war criminal finished his days in power writing romantic novels.

It was my colleague, Tom Friedman - now a messianic columnist for The New York Times - who perfectly caught Saddam's character just before the 2003 invasion: Saddam was, he wrote, "part Don Corleone, part Donald Duck". And, in this unique definition, Friedman caught the horror of all dictators; their sadistic attraction and the grotesque, unbelievable nature of their barbarity.

But that is not how the Arab world will see him. At first, those who suffered from Saddam's cruelty will welcome his execution. Hundreds wanted to pull the hangman's lever. So will many other Kurds and Shia outside Iraq welcome his end. But they - and millions of other Muslims - will remember how he was informed of his death sentence at the dawn of the Eid al-Adha feast, which recalls the would-be sacrifice by Abraham, of his son, a commemoration which even the ghastly Saddam cynically used to celebrate by releasing prisoners from his jails. "Handed over to the Iraqi authorities," he may have been before his death. But his execution will go down - correctly - as an American affair and time will add its false but lasting gloss to all this - that the West destroyed an Arab leader who no longer obeyed his orders from Washington, that, for all his wrongdoing (and this will be the terrible get-out for Arab historians, this shaving away of his crimes) Saddam died a "martyr" to the will of the new "Crusaders".

When he was captured in November of 2003, the insurgency against American troops increased in ferocity. After his death, it will redouble in intensity again. Freed from the remotest possibility of Saddam's return by his execution, the West's enemies in Iraq have no reason to fear the return of his Baathist regime. Osama bin Laden will certainly rejoice, along with Bush and Blair. And there's a thought. So many crimes avenged.

But we will have got away with it.

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

Sunday, December 10, 2006

Libanese connecties
In Beiroet gaan de demonstraties van Hezbollah en haar bondgenoten tegen de Libanese regering door...tot deze pro-westerse regering valt. Hoe bezien in Nederland en België wonende Libanezen deze ontwikkeling? In ‘Libanese connecties’ van VPRO's De Ochtenden een gesprek met:

  1. Arthur Blok, journalist, die van 2001 tot en met 2004 als correspondent in zijn geboorteland Libanon werkte.
  2. Dyab Abou Jahjah, de oprichter van de Arabisch-Europese Liga (AEL) in België, die sinds de Israëlische invasie in juli steeds meer tijd doorbrengt in zijn geboorteland Libanon, waar hij zich komend jaar definitief wil vestigen en
  3. Jihad Abousleiman, beeldend kunstenaar en dichter
Radio interview De Ochtenden

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

'Parking for Maronites only'

By Anthony Shadid, Washington Post Foreign Service, Tuesday, November 28, 2006

BEIRUT, Nov. 27 -- The evening was tense, as most are these days in Beirut, its Maronite Catholics, Greek Orthodox, Sunni and Shiite Muslims and Druze perched imprecisely between war and peace. Malak Beydoun, a young woman, pulled her car into a parking lot in the Christian neighborhood of Ashrafiyeh. She peered at a billboard overhead, alarmed and then indignant.
"Parking for Maronites only," it read.Beydoun recoiled. "How did they know that I was a Shiite?" she remembered asking herself.
Part provocation, part appeal -- with a dose of farce that doesn't feel all that farcical -- advertisements went up this month on 300 billboards across the Lebanese capital and appeared in virtually every newspaper in the country.

Thousands of e-mails carried the ads across th
e Internet to expatriates. Each offered its take on what one of the campaign's creative directors called a country on the verge of "absurdistan" -- cooking lessons by Greek Orthodox, building for sale to Druze, hairstyling by an Armenian Catholic, a fashion agency looking for "a beautiful Shiite face." At the bottom, the ads read in English, "Stop sectarianism before it stops us," or, more bluntly in Arabic, "Citizenship is not sectarianism."
The campaign, designed for free by an ad agency and promoted by a civil society group, has forced Lebanon to look at itself at a time when the country is spiraling into one of its worst political crises in years. The timing was coincidental, the message universal, in a landscape with ever dwindling common ground: The forces that dragged Lebanon into one civil war are threatening another.

Many have praised the ads for asking uncomfortable, even taboo questions about a system in which sectarian affiliation determines everything from the identity of the president to loyalty to sports teams. Some have mistaken the campaign for reality. Across the capital, one in six billboards was torn down, prevented from being put up or splashed with paint, usually the tactic of choice for conservative Muslims irked by lingerie ads.
"They didn't get it," said Fouad Haraki, a 53-year-old shawarma vendor, idly dragging on a cigarette next to a kerosene tank, across the street from billboards that had been defaced. "They just read what was written on top, not what was on the bottom." The result in his neighborhood, he said, was "a sectarian clamor."
It is almost a cliche that Lebanon is home to 18 religious sects -- from a tiny Jewish community to Shiite Muslims, the country's largest single group. The system that diversity has inspired has delivered minorities a degree of protection unequaled anywhere else in the Arab world. But it has left Lebanon a country where individual rights and identity are subsumed within communities and, by default, the personas of their sometimes feudal leaders, who thrive on that affiliation.
By tradition, the president is Maronite, the prime minister Sunni, the parliament speaker Shiite. Other posts are reserved for Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Druze. Boy scouts are organized by community, not country -- the Mahdi Scouts for the Shiites, for instance. Television stations have their own sectarian bent -- the Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. for Christians, Future for the Sunnis. Christians are partial to the Sagesse basketball team, Sunnis the Riyadi team.

There are even two Armenian soccer teams -- Homenmen and Homenetmen -- one faithful to Armenian leftists, the other to the community's right wing. Before this summer's war, Sunni soccer fans loyal to Ansar brawled in a stadium with Shiite youths loyal to Nijmeh.
The system, known as confessionalism, dates to long before Lebanon's independence in 1943. But there is a growing sense that the decades-old principles underlying Lebanese politics have grown obsolete. In some ways, today's crisis is about the assertion of power -- a coup to its critics -- by the long-disenfranchised Shiite community led by Hezbollah. Hardly anyone can forecast with certainty how the struggle will end, but almost everyone sees it as a turning point, a crisis that intersects raw ambition with ideology, foreign policy, perspective and history, all awash in sectarian combustion.
"This is today a very explosive situation where you have all those sects being triggered, teased and hammered by all their leaders," said Bechara Mouzannar, the regional creative executive director for H&C Leo Burnett in Beirut, which authored this month's ad campaign. He calls himself "a little dazed and confused."
"Something is about to explode, unfortunately," he said.Added his colleague, Kamil Kuran: "If we keep thinking like this, the future is going to look like this."The inspiration for the campaign came almost by coincidence in their cramped offices, its walls cluttered with ads for L&M cigarettes, a poster for the film "Reservoir Dogs" and memorabilia from last year's protests after the assassination of former prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. Those protest signs appear a little dated; " Independence '05" and "All of us for the nation." On one window hangs a handwritten quote: "The greatest thing to be achieved in advertising, in my opinion, is believability."

Manal Naji, a 27-year-old senio
r art director, had glanced at a r?sum? tucked underneath another piece of paper. "Christian," it read. "We were so shocked," she recalled. In the end, it turned out it was the name of the applicant's father, but it gave Naji an idea. "What if it actually existed," she said. "What if it reached the point of putting it on your job application." "We wanted the same shocking effect," added Reem Kotob, a 25-year-old member of the creative team.
This weekend, the two sat with another member of the team, 26-year-old Yasmina Baz, in the agency's conference room, looking over the ads they designed in a burst of energy on that first night and a later session at a nearby bar, Club Social.

One is a doctor's plate: "Dr. Mohamed Chatila, Muslim Sunni." Another is a three-story banner that reads, "For Druzes, Building for Sale ." A license plate is pictured: "A Shiite car," it says in Arabic, "Shiite" in English. And an ad for a car: "2000 model, in near perfect condition. Owned and maintained by a Maronite. Never driven by non-Maronites."
The team took the ads to Amam 05, a grass-roots group that grew out of last year's protests. The name means "ahead," an acronym of the Arabic for civil society. It states its mission, admittedly ambitious, as "a modern, sovereign state built on non-feudalism, non-confessionalism and non-clientelism." But even its leaders admit to being a little glum, given today's crisis. "Very frustrated," said Nicole Fayad, one of the activists.

The original idea was to actually hang the signs in the city: "Maronites only" in a parking lot, "For Druzes" on the side of a building. But when Asma Andraos, one of the group's leaders, approached the owners, they cringed.
"They called me back, and they said they loved it, that I was crazy, and that there's no way they could do this," she recalled. She shook her head. "If I had a building, I wouldn't have done it, either," she said.

They went instead to newspapers, placing the ads in eight papers for two weeks this month. One printed them for free, the others at a 50 percent discount. A billboard agency agreed to post 300 for free for a week. In all, it cost the group $40,000; Mouzannar estimated it would have cost more than $500,000 commercially.

But before the billboards went up, they had to go through the formality of getting permission from the intelligence branch known as General Security. At first, officials refused; one compared the ads to Nazi-era segregation. It took two hours of face-to-face meetings to reach a resolution, by convincing the officials that the campaign was intended to be ironic.When the billboards went up, 50 were defaced or torn down. Some residents stopped them from going up in the first place. In Lebanon and abroad, e-mails flitted back and forth, some of their authors believing the messages were real."People were seriously panicked," Andraos recalled. "Are there really signs like that in Lebanon now? The mere fact that people think it's possible, that there might be signs like that in Lebanon now, means we're not really that far off."

Members of the group say people have criticized the timing, and the group delayed the campaign's next step after the assassination last week of a government minister, Pierre Gemayel. But they plan to distribute as early as this weekend 15,000 business cards with the same theme at bars and restaurants in Beirut. Each card lists a person's name and religious affiliation. Next, they will send copies of the cards to Lebanon's 128 legislators.

"We want it to be raised as an issue," Fayad said, "but we don't have the pretension to say we have the answer."At a cafe near downtown, Randy Nahle, a 21-year-old student, wondered about the way out. His father is Shiite, his mother Maronite Catholic. The neighborhood he sits in, like virtually every one in Beirut, has its markers: the posters and religious symbols on walls, the muezzin or the church bells that identify its affiliation.

For once, he said, something organized spoke to his rejection of being "categorized or oversimplified."He smiled at his favorite ads, the ones that identified doctors by their sect. "It has infiltrated our fabric so much, almost indelibly," Nahle said. "If I have an earache, an Orthodox doctor will understand it better. It's an Orthodox ear."

He recalled sitting with a Shiite woman at a cafe near the American University in Beirut. She treated him as a fellow Shiite until he revealed his mixed background. She looked at him disapprovingly. It's bad for the children, she said. "They're going to come out confused," she told him.

"I said, 'You know, the problem of this country is we don't have enough confused
people. The problem is we have too many people blindly convinced by their political orientation, by their religion, by their community's superiority.' " She smiled, he recalled, and then laughed a little uncomfortably.

Monday, November 20, 2006

Say Cheese ...Arab style?
Got this picture through my cousin in Surinam.
Looks like it was taken in Downtown Beirut or,
a serious case of Adobe Photoshop.


Friday, November 03, 2006

Hikmat Mahawat Khan, derde op de lijst EenNL

Wat beweegt de Surinaams-Hindostaanse moslim Mahawat Khan om zich aan te sluiten bij een partij als EénNL; een partij die dicht aanschurkt tegen het gedachtegoed van Pim Fortuyn? U weet wel, de man van ‘de islam is een achterlijke cultuur’. Ook zijn huidige partijgenoten als Marco Pastors en Ronald Sörenson zijn regelmatig beticht van racisme en xenofobie. Esther Prade en ik besloten het hem zelf te vragen tijdens een seminar georganiseerd door de Ahmadiyya Anjuman Isha'at Islam (Lahore) Nederland waar Mahawat Khan een inleiding hield met als thema 'de islam terug van risicofactor naar aanwinst'.

Hikmat Mahawat Khan: een bevlogen moslim die ervoor past om als excuus-allochtoon van de partij te worden versleten,
die vindt dat moslims voor een belangrijk deel zelf verantwoordelijk zijn voor de negatieve beeldvorming rondom de islam, die er niet voor terugdeinst om de manco's van zowel allochtoon als autochtoon Nederland te benoemen:

Videofilm Hikmat YouTube of hieronder op de play button van het screenshot klikken.



Hikmat Mahawat Khan werd op 15 juni 1960 in Suriname geboren. Als 18-jarige verliet hij zijn geboorteland om in Nederland Luchtvaart- en Ruimtetechniek en Business Administration te gaan studeren. Hij vervulde diverse functies in de luchtvaart, onder meer bij Air Holland, debis Airfinance en KLM. Momenteel is hij Business Consultant in de luchtvaart.


Sinds 1999 werd Mahawat Khan voorzitter van de Haagse Lahore Ahmadiyya moskee en later ook van landelijke koepel Unie van Ahmadiyya Lahore moskeeën. In 2004 zat hij de Contact Groep Islam (CGI) voor, waarvan hij mede-oprichter is. Vanuit deze organisatie voerde hij overleg met de regering over onderwerpen die met moslims in Nederland te maken hadden. Gedesillusioneerd door de ‘oeverloze discussies’ met de overheid hield Mahawat Khan het in september 2006 als voorzitter CGI voor gezien. Vlak daarna werd bekend dat hij een derde plek had gekregen op de kandidatenlijst van de nieuwe partij EénNL voor de Tweede Kamerverkiezingen 2006.

Foto links boven: Twalieb Hassenmahomed
Video: Esther Prade

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Politics of fear and control

Conference War & Peace: all talk…?

Text and photos by Sharida Mohamedjoesoef for the Amsterdam Weekly

You are either with us or against us’. In these unequivocal terms US president George W. Bush made it quite clear in September 2001 that he expected full support for his so-called War on Terror. Five years on: fierce fighting in Afghanistan, a full-out (civil) war in Iraq, an upsurge of violence in Israel and the Occupied Territories, not to mention the piles of smoking rubble in Lebanon after the drums of war between Israel and Hezbollah.

Only three weeks ago General Richard Dannett of the British forces sparked a row, saying that UK troops were making matters worse in Iraq and should withdraw soon. Would the same be valid for Dutch troops in Afghanistan fighting off the Taliban instead of rebuilding the country? The question is reason enough for organisations like Stop the War Coalition and political party GroenLinks to initiate the national conference War & Peace that was held at Felix Meritis last Sunday.

The circular neo-classical hall was packed with some 150 people who had come to listen to a great number of speeches of, for instance, Hajo Meijer, Auschwitz survivor and secretary to A Different Jewish Voice, and Tariq Shadid, Dutch-Palestinian representative of the Palestinian Community Netherlands.

First-rate crowd-puller, however, was Dyab Abou Jahjah, the charismatic, articulate Lebanese-born president of the Arab European League (AEL). Jahjah is known for his fierce defence of Muslim migrant interests in both Belgium and the Netherlands.

This time he decided to take his captive audience for a stroll through history, illustrating recurrent patterns when it comes to the erosion of civil liberties in favour of the so-called the greater good. Jahjah intones: ‘During the Red Scare communists and sympathisers were victimised in a way that is comparable to the criminalisation of Muslims now. And let’s not forget about one of Europe’s most notorious terror groups: the German Baader Meinhof Gruppe. The German government felt compelled to adopt a series of anti-terror laws that seemed to clash with the democratic principles of post-war Germany in the same way as the anti-war measures are imposed now. The Red Scare has swapped places with the Muslim Threat.’

‘Quite right,’ says Ben Hayes of Statewatch, a British organisation that has been documenting UK laws on policing since 1991. According to Hayes, the British government is taking all kinds of measures under the pretext of security, varying from phone taps to fingerprinting pupils at some 5,000 schools throughout the country: ‘politics of fear and politics of control, two sides of the same coin, and now a complete generation is growing up with the notion that all this surveillance is totally normal.’ Both Hayes and Jahjah feel that Muslim – Arab migrants in particular are bearing the brunt of anti-terror measures after 9/11. The end is nowhere near in sight, Hayes points out, as ‘the UK police model is gradually being rolled out in the rest of Europe.’

‘Don’t expect the Dutch government to turn the tide,’ says senator Anja Meulenbelt with disappointment. She is one of the few politicians present and is not afraid of apportioning blame to all left-wing political parties, including her own Socialist Party. ‘We have failed to stand up against the victimisation of fellow Muslim citizens.’

‘What on earth can we do to bring about change?’, was a frequently heard question in the audience. Surprisingly enough, few, if any, clear-cut answers were given. Jahjah firmly stuck to his guns saying that grassroots activism should do the trick, while Hajo Meijer stressed the importance of exercising maximum pressure on ‘our American puppet government’.

Although their statements were sounding off to an overall sympathetic audience, some dissonant cords were heard: ‘all talk, no action’ and ‘no opposing views from the right-wing camp’. Whether this was due to an unwillingness on the part of the organisers to invite them or ‘typical ostrich behaviour on the Right,’ as some claimed, remained unclear.

Yet, while some speakers did not seem to mind the absence of the Right, others like Tariq Shadid did, Shadid even quoted legendary US president Roosevelt:

‘We have to face the fact that all of use are going to die together,

or we are going to live together.

And if we are going to live together, we have to talk.’

Thursday, October 26, 2006

Mijn zoektocht in Libanon

Van een kale hotelkamer met kakkerlakken naar een gezellige familielunch op zondag; van dichte archiefdeuren naar de open Libanese media; van een chaotische wereldstad naar een rustig dorp in het groene Chouf-gebergte.

Mijn zoektocht in Libanon is een fascinerend verslag waarin Arthur Blok vertelt over de bewogen tijd die hij doorbracht in zijn geboorteland. Op zoek naar zijn wortels. Er blijkt een schaduw te liggen over de eerste zes maanden van zijn leven en over de adoptieprocedure. Arthur vertelt over zijn psychische strijd in een ontwrichte en corrupte samenleving, maar ook over het vinden van rust en verzoening met zichzelf.

Mijn zoektocht in Libanon is een betoog over verdriet en pijn, maar ook humor en toeval spelen een belangrijke rol. Tot en met het allerlaatste moment blijft het spannend waar en hoe Arthurs wonderlijke avontuur zal eindigen.

Het boek , ISBN: 9059113756 (prijs 17.95 euro) , is een zoektocht naar zijn eigen geschiedenis en schetst een beeld van de complexe samenleving in Libanon. Meer weten? Stuur dan een email naar: s.mohamedjoesoef@planet.nl

Bravo Arthur! Hope to write many more articles with you on our favourite country Lebanon, Lubnan, Libanon.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006


Cinéma Arabe 2006

Cinéma Arabe is back. From 1-15 November you can enjoy a great selection of films from young, promising filmmakers. This second edition of the Arab film festival centres around two specials, the first one being ‘Cinema & Religion’, containing a number of classical Egyptian films in which religion and the portrayal of the prophet Mohammed play a central role. The second is ‘Al Jazeera Uncensored’, showing various uncensored documentaries from the well-known Arab news channel Al-Jazeera. To top it all, Cinéma Arabe presents ‘Film in de buurt’; taking a beautiful selection of films to several Amsterdam neighbourhoods; no admission fee! The festival kicks off at Film museum Cinerama on 1 November with La Última Luna (The Last Moon), an intriguing story about a complicated friendship between a Jew and an Arab in Palestine, during and after the First World War. For more information, please visit the website: www.cinemaarabe.nl.

Why has Hikmat joined ranks with EenNL?

Want to know why Hikmat Mahawat Khan decided to team up with EenNL, a new right-wing political party which quite a few Muslims regard as racist, xenophobic? A video interview with the man himself will soon be available on this blog...!




Eid Mubarak

By Sharida Mohamedjoesoef, Ramadan Roundup V for the Amsterdam Weekly

Thirty days filled with an odd mixture of contemplation, devotion, will-power, partying and family get-togethers, and, this year, jazzed up with lively debates and lectures on a wide variety of topics related to Islam and Muslims in the Netherlands. In Amsterdam--home to some 120,000 Muslims--alone, over a hundred activities were organised, and those were just official events! All this came to an end last Monday, as Muslims all over the world, from Amsterdam to Zanzibar, took part in the Eid al Fitre celebrations, the feast marking the end of Ramadan, in Dutch better known as the Suikerfeest.

True, a few years ago, one would have needed a magnifying glass to spot any such activity. But then again, a few years ago there was no 9/11, no murder of Theo van Gogh, no reports on the radicalisation of young Muslims and so on. It is events like these that catapulted the Muslim community into action; and not just on the cultural and religious front either, as Dutch Muslims are also becoming increasingly active in the political arena.

Given the upcoming elections on 22 November, one the biggest Turkish organisations in the Netherlands, the Milli Gorus, decided to host an iftar coupled with a debate on the role of Muslims in Dutch politics. One of the speakers was Hikmat Mahawat-Khan. A Muslim of Surinamese descent, Mahawat-Khan knows what it is like to be the topic of debate. He is known for his spicy one-liners and speeches peppered with critical remarks on what he considers to be misbehaviour on the part of Muslims. When news got out that Mahawat-Khan had joined EenNL, a political offspring of Pim Fortuyn's legacy, his critics had a field day, labelling him a traitor serving a xenophobic and racist agenda. Well, you can say many things about him, but a racist he is not.

[For those of you who missed this part of recent Dutch history, the would-be politician Fortuyn called Islam a 'backward culture'. He was brutally murdered in May 2002 by an animal rights activist.]
With hotheaded Mahawat-Khan on the panel, you are usually in for a fiery debate on integration and participation. And sure enough, I was not disappointed. Loud grunts of disapproval rippled through the audience as he was off on his hobby-horse again, saying things like 'integration has failed' or 'Muslims themselves are in part responsible for the fact that they are being discriminated against on the Dutch labour market.'

Yet what would have been an absolute no-can-do a couple of years ago, finally seems to be taking root: criticism from within the Muslim community, from the new Milli Gorus foreman, Yusuf Altuntas to Mohammed Ousala, a prominent member of the Dutch Association of Imams. Truly unique, given the fact that those two organisations are all-Sunni, while Mahawat-Khan belongs to the Lahore Ahmadiyya movement and is thus considered a heretic by various Muslim groups.


Be that as it may, more and more prominent Muslims at least seem to have cottoned on to the fact that postmodern gibberish (read: politically correct remarks) or jihad-denial will not solve the problem of polarisation. They will have to address this issue in their mosques and Islamic cultural centres and make their fellow Muslims understand that they and they alone can change the image of Islam. During this year's Ramadan, Muslims more than ever seized the opportunity to counteract the message of violence and hatred spread by the Bin Ladens of this world. But it's only a first step comprising thirty days. What about the remaining 335 days? Now there's challenge for us, if ever you saw one...
From your Ramadan reporter: Eid Mubarak, Happy Eid!


Wednesday, October 18, 2006

'The greatest poverty is the lack of intelligence'

By Sharida Mohamedjoesoef, Ramadan Roundup IV for the Amsterdam Weekly


This time, no story from a stately canal house, a state-of-the-art glass terminal or some posh theatre. And no big wigs or cameras in sight either for, this time, your rambling Ramadan reporter set out for De Baarsjes, home to many Muslims and referred to by some as 'Casablanca aan de Amstel'.

The sun had already set when I finally arrived at my destination, a small community centre near Mercatorplein. Dozens of people of various age groups and ethnic backgrounds were merrily chatting away while waiting for the debate to start. Insofar as I'm concerned, the organisation deserves full marks for its choice of topic for the debate: religion and culture. True, it was noisy, if not chaotic, at times but at least there were hardly any politically correct speeches.

The panel consisted of five people, each representing one of the three main monotheistic traditions: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Hats off to the only woman on board, Maimunah van der Heide; without getting down to the theological nuts and bolts, she still made it quite clear that many Muslims often mix religion up with culture and that cultural practices are more and more being elevated to the level of religion. 'Don't be fooled by Koranic literates or people dressed in Islamic attire. That's just the outside and certainly no claim to sainthood,' she said.

Black-veiled Van der Heide knows what she's talking about. She converted to Islam when she was in her teens and began spending her life in the service of her new found religion. Eventually, Van der Heide set up an organisation called Stichting Vangnet [safety net], a centre for Muslim girls who are in some kind of trouble. Vangnet was first housed in a mosque, but was forced to relocate because the mosque was first and foremost a house of prayer, or so mosque leaders believed.

Van der Heide as well as the other panelists knew their religious ABC, but the fact is that ordinary believers often do not. Big deal, you might think, but it's a different story altogether when you're Muslim and find yourself and/or your religion subject to scrutiny. There is no denying that much of the current focus on Muslims and Islam was brought about by the events of 9/11. Overnight, the Koran became an instant bestseller. But the Koran, even in translation, is not an easy book to understand, so, if you want more information, it is only logical that you start looking elsewhere.

Ay, there's the rub: ever wondered what happens if clueless non-Muslims start taking their cues from the equally clueless young secular Mohammads and Fatimas from the local shop around the corner, or from radical Islamic websites? For one thing, you could end up with a teacher at an ordinary secondary school telling you that, according to Islam, only girls have to stay virgins or that according to that same religion, newly weds must show a bloodstained sheet after their wedding night to prove that the bride really was a virgin. Speculation? I wish... There's at least one school here in Amsterdam where the above is actually the case. Their handouts did not contain a single clue as to the source of such statements.Quite painful, given the fact that in the Netherlands we now have around 30 Islamic schools, two Islamic universities and even two advisory governmental bodies on Islamic issues. And still we are a far cry from having some kind of uniform quality code for comprehensive, reliable sources on Islam!

P.S. you can search the Koran all you want and still you won't find any verses acknowledging any of the above as proper Islamic conduct.

If you do charity, your house will always be rich.'

By Sharida Mohamedjoesoef, Ramadan Roundup III for the Amsterdam Weekly

True, I could have easily opted for a Turkish or Moroccan Ramadan event and, by God, there are plenty of those at the moment. Yet, this time, thrill-seeking me decided to head for Pakistan Day, if only to make it clear that birds of a Muslim feather do not necessarily flock together. Mind you, before I set out, I meticulously examined the programme and its organisers to make sure that your unveiled Ramadan reporter would not be kicked unceremoniously out by some lost Taliban sympathiser before she could say 'as-Salaam Aleikoum'. But it all turned out very Sharia--oops, Sharida-proof. Phew. Sigh of relief.

The event was organised by Sabra Bano, a Pakistani feminist who has lived in the Netherlands for 20 years, and now heads the Dutch chapter of Gender Concerns International. That name may not ring a bell, but if I told you that the Egyptian branch includes none other than prominent writer Nawal al Saadawi... Exactly. I rest my case.

'The reason for organising this Pakistan Day is twofold,' Bano says. 'Our primary aim is to commemorate the horrific earthquake that hit Pakistan on 8 October last year, leaving eighty thousand people dead and over three-and-a-half million homeless. This being organised by Gender Concerns International, it goes without saying that we also wish to raise awareness and funds to help relieve the plight of Pakistani women in particular.'

Bano's timing is impeccable--what better moment to organise such an event than in the holy month of Ramadan, a month which in essence is about charity, about caring for those who are less well-off. And with half a million Pakistanis still homeless, I'd say they definitely qualify as being in dire need.

As the day got underway, the big hall of the KIT Tropentheater gradually filled with what must have been hundreds of people, a large number of who were young Pakistani boys and girls blessed with dashing good looks. And not a burka in sight. (How else would I have known about the looks?).

Some had come for the debate on gender issues, which turned out a bit of a non-event according to Mohammad Amer: 'This was not a proper debate at all and there was no room for tricky questions, for instance about the role religious Muslim zealots played in denying female aid workers entry in the disaster-stricken areas.'

Most, however, had come to see Sheema Kermani and Khamisu Khan, two living legends in Pakistan, and Kermani not just for her classical dance, either--in her home country she is well-known for her outspoken feminist views.

Just before Iftar, the traditional breaking of the fast, we were treated to a virtuoso performance from alghoza player Khamisu Khan who was accompanied by a single tabla player. An alghoza is an instrument made up of two flutes of equal length joined together. One Pakistani man dressed in a smart business suit clambered on to the stage and danced around like a whirling dervish, going faster and faster, in sync with the applauding audience.

This was definitely a most enjoyable Ramadan gathering, showing a different side of Pakistan, with its informal character, spontaneity, and Bollywood-style music filling the marble hall. People queued to generously ladle steaming traditional food onto their plates. Let's hope that they were equally generous when putting money in the collection boxes...

Sunday, October 08, 2006

CLANCULTUUR FUNEST VOOR WEDEROPBOUW LIBANON

door Arthur Blok en Sharida Mohamedjoesoef

In nagenoeg alle landen in het Midden-Oosten maken al tientallen jaren dezelfde invloedrijke families de dienst uit. Vriendjespolitiek en corruptie zijn hierdoor aan de orde van de dag. In Libanon is het niet veel anders. Het zorgt ervoor dat de wederopbouw van het land net zo gefragmenteerd verloopt als dat de bevolking in religieus opzicht is samengesteld.

Eind augustus werd tijdens een internationale donorconferentie in de Zweedse hoofdstad Stockholm ruim 900 miljoen dollar ingezameld voor de wederopbouw van Libanon. Het land werd ruim een maand lang gebombardeered door Israel als vergelding voor twee ontvoerde Israelische militairen door Hezbollah. Vooral de infrastructuur vormde een belangrijk doelwit van het Israelische offensief. Volgens de laatste ramingen bedraagt de totale schade van deze blitzoorlog inmiddels tussen de 9 en 16 miljard dollar.

Waar de wederopbouw van een land in de meeste landen normaliter een overheidstaak is, ligt dat in Libanon gecompliceerder. Het Libanese sociale vangnet voltrekt zich voor een belangrijk deel langs confessionele lijnen. Zo was Hezbollah er als de kippen bij om in de rampgebieden de schade op te nemen en sjiietische families die huis en haard waren kwijtgeraakt ruim 10.000 dollar aan contanten te overhandigen.


Ook Saad al Harriri, die na de dood van zijn vader, de ex-premier van Libanon, Rafiq al Harriri, in diens voetsporen trad, liet weten samen mijn zijn vaders zus - parlementslid Bahia Harriri - vijf verwoeste bruggen in de buurt van Sidon te herstellen. Sidon is de geboorteplaats van zijn vader en de bevolking is er overwegend soennitisch.

Een dergelijke zorg voor de eigen achterban is voor een belangrijk deel geworteld in het feit dat familiewaarden en oude tradities in het Midden-Oosten uiterst belangrijk zijn. Nationale belangen vallen hierbij in het niet. Dat geldt ook voor Libanon, dat is opgebouwd uit een delicaat mozaiek van 18 verschillende religieuze sekten en stromingen. Enkele invloedrijke familieclans, compleet met eigen vlaggen, partijen en mediakanalen, maken hier al decennialang de dienst uit.

Bij Libanese christenen zijn dat vooraanstaande maronitische en Grieks-orthodoxe families zoals Gemayel, Frangie en Murr. Deze families hebben in de afgelopen decennia verschillende presidenten geleverd. In het Choufgebergte, iets ten zuiden van Beiroet, is het de invloedrijke Druzenfamilie van Walid Jumblatt die zorgt voor orde en gezag. Vroeger leidde Kamal Joumblatt de Druzendelegatie in het parlement. Nu doet zoon Walid dit.

Een andere belangrijke naam in het Libanese clanlandschap is die van Nabih Berri, die als sinds de jaren zeventig met harde hand regeert over de sjiietische Amalpartij. De oud-militieleider bekleedde verschillende politieke posten en is sinds 1992 voorzitter van het Libanese parlement, de hoogste post die een sjiiet volgens de Libanese grondwet kan bekleden.

Grote families werden in de tijd dat Libanon nog een Ottomaans mandaatgebied was, beschouwd als een "clan" en als zodanig behandeld. Deze zogenaamde familieclans staan tot op de dag van vandaag geregistreerd onder een bepaalde religie. In feite overheersen deze clans de Libanese samenleving nog steeds: op zowel het economische als het politieke front. De absolute hoofdregel is dat men altijd trouw blijft aan de eigen familietak en religie; met andere woorden: je verraadt je eigen clan nooit!

Zo is het de normaalste zaak van de wereld dat iemand uit het Libanese choufgebergte zich totaal niet verwant voelt met iemand uit de noordelijke havenstad Tripoli. Men voelt zich vooral verbonden met mensen van de eigen geloofsgroep of clan.

Een kwalijk neveneffect van een dergelijke clancultuur is dat er nauwelijks sprake is van nationale controle als het gaat om overheidsuitgaven. Geen geld, geen hulp is het motto in deze regio. Deze "voor wat, hoort wat" cultuur begint bij de slager om de hoek en eindigt ergens acter de schermen in het nationale bestuur. Het is dan ook niet verwonderlijk dat corruptie en nepotisme in de Libanese politiek schering en inslag zijn.

Nabih Berri, Walid Jumblatt, Michel Murr, het zijn namen die keer op keer in verband worden gebracht met corruptieschandalen. De moord op Harriri noch de "Cederrevolutie" die daarop volgde, bracht hierin verandering. Sterker nog, in Libanons beste feodale traditie werd Harriri's politiek onervaren zoon Saad als troonopvolger naar voren geschoven.

Of Libanon in staat zal zijn dit sektarische karakter van de samenleving te doorbreken, is zeer onwaarschijnlijk. Enerzijds is de verzuilde samenleving verankerd in de Libanese grondwet op basis waarvan zowel de regering als het overheidsapparaat zijn samengesteld. Anderzijds is ze vervat in een familie- en clancultuur die inherent is aan de regio zelf.

Bovendien is de kans erg groot dat het stopzetten van (politieke) privileges van familieclans in Libanon, een landje zo groot als de provincies Noord- en Zuid-Holland samen, een uiterst destabliserend effect zal hebben, wat in het slechtste geval kon uitmonden in een burgeroorlog. Reden genoeg voor de Libanese regering om niet te tornen aan de huidige sektarische machtsstructuren, ook als dat ten koste gaat van een efficientere aanpak van de wederopbouw van Libanon. Familie en religie eerst, dan pas het land van de ceder.

Eerder deze week gepubliceerd in het Reformatorisch Dagblad en het Nederlands Dagblad.

Thursday, October 05, 2006

'The spiritual warrior is he who breaks an idol;
and the idol of each person is his ego.'

Ramadan Roundup, Part II, by Sharida Mohamedjoesoef for the Amsterdam Weekly and the Ramadan Festival

Which of the following three statements is true?

1. Ramadan is the Arabic word for fasting.
2. Muslims, great and small, must fast.
3. Muslims are not allowed to eat or drink for 30 days in a row.

Last week, your Ramadan reporter set out for the stately canal house Felix Meritis to attend lectures on Judaism and Islam, the reason being that this year the Jewish New Year--Rosh Hashana--and Ramadan coincided. Little did I know that I was going to be in for a kosher Ramadan dinner party and interesting talks surrounding both of these religious events. Had you been there, it might have helped dismiss the above statements as absolute rubbish. (Unless of course you already knew...)

Still, the magic of the spoken word should not be underestimated, especially in the case of Saoed Khadje. Well-versed and very down to earth, this Islamic teacher had his audience spellbound while covering the do's and don'ts of Ramadan.

Regrettably, Khadje's speech sounded off to the people who needed it the least. Come on: city councillor Ahmed Aboutaleb, former MP Mohammed Rabbae, Hadassa Hirschfeld, vice-president of CIDI (the Centre Information and Documentation on Israel), and Rabbi Soetendorp of the Liberal Jewish Community in The Hague aren't exactly morons when it comes to Islam and Judaism--and all are advocates of dialogue with a capital D. Unfortunately, it was an invitation-only event for, quite frankly, I could think of a few people who could really do with a lesson or two from Khadje to get rid of some false notions regarding Ramadan. And I'm not just referring to non-Muslims here.

One such misconception is that people have come to believe that Ramadan is the Arabic word for 'fasting'. FYI, it is the name of the ninth month in the Islamic lunar calendar, commemorating the revelation of the Koran to the Prophet Muhammad.
The fast during the month of Ramadan is laid down in the Koran and has to be observed from dawn to sunset. In other words, my dears, the evenings and nights are yours to do as you please, provided of course your activities remains within the boundaries of decency. And when you're sick, pregnant, travelling or having your period, you are not even supposed to fast.

Explaining the spiritual realm of Ramadan is less straightforward, as Khadje pointed out. For more than any other month of the year, Ramadan is a period in which most Muslims endeavour to connect to God 24/7 by putting their devotion to God first and foregoing primary needs--as well as egos.

'But what if you are a very devout person who feels that this craving for food and drink only prevents you from focusing on God?' Hirschfeld asked. Khadje seemed at a loss here, which I thought was rather odd, because to my knowledge the Koran is very clear on that: if you cannot sustain the fast, then do good deeds, for instance, by feeding the poor.

Khadje was saved, however, by wafts of mouth-watering smells of food, heralding the moment of Iftar, the traditional evening meal to break the fast. After the recitation of a brief prayer, Muslims and Jews alike were finally able to sink their teeth in dried dates and apples covered with honey before moving on to the other courses. I guess the way to dialogue really is through the stomach. Shana Tova and Ramadan Mabrouk.

Monday, October 02, 2006

'A house divided cannot stand'

Ramadan Roundup Part I for the Amsterdam Weekly By Sharida Mohamedjoesoef

Dates, pasta, a succulent piece of chicken with lots of garlic, soy sauce, onions, tomatoes and olives. Last night's dinner, if you must know. And I'm telling you--it was simply delicious. I am not a great cook or anything, but the fact is I didn't eat all day, as Ramadan has begun, the holiest month in the Islamic lunar calendar. For 30 days I am not supposed to eat, drink, smoke or have sex between dawn and sunset and stay away from impure thoughts, sights and sounds. You should also know I'm a real push-over when it comes to food, so I'm not sure whether I can keep up all this self-restraint for a whole week, let alone a month. But for now, at least, all went well.

Before your reporter was able to go home and have dinner, however, she was at the Passenger Terminal Amsterdam, where mayor Job Cohen, together with Minister for Administrative Renewal and Royal Relations, Atzo Nicolai, opened the Ramadan Festival. It was a success last year and, judging from the high turnout and the fact that more major cities like Rotterdam, The Hague, Utrecht and Maastricht decided to tag along this year, Ramadan Festival 2006 has all the makings of another success story.


Admittedly, I did see some frowns at the very deft organisation and the richly set dining tables, and hear someone calling it 'a commercialisation of Ramadan'. A teacher from the Islamic primary school As Soeffah felt it was 'a far cry from the idea behind Ramadan, which is about frugal living.' I guess they do have a point. That said, over 150 activities have already been registered on the Ramadan Festival website and it seems as if the Netherlands is finally getting to know its Muslim communities.

And it's about time. After the brutal murder of Theo van Gogh, it had become painfully clear that for decades Muslims and non-Muslims had hardly bonded due to sheer lack of knowledge about the other. It was then that the idea of having a Ramadan Festival was born. And what better place than to kick off the Festival at the modern glass Passenger Terminal--I mean, how transparent can you get?
Hundreds of smartly dressed people, most of them Muslim--and like me probably fairly hungry--were raptly listening to mayor Cohen's speech that underlined the importance of proper dialogue as a way to achieving 'peace'. The mayor lashed out at his opponents, saying 'that dialogue is not something that should be taken lightly or be confused with nice chit chat'.

Given the way the organisers set up this year's activities, there is no getting away from 'dialogue'. For starters, there are the Caravan of Lectures on a variety of topics such as Islamic banking and gender issues. Second, there is the Iftar Estafette, where people can enjoy a traditional Ramadan dinner and participate in a debate. Here, too, the topics are diverse and sometimes even sensitive, like the one on homosexuality in the Netherlands only gay Arabic bar, Cafe Habibi Ana, on 29 September.

On a lighter note, you might one to check out the so-called Hospitality Dinners, where Muslim families treat non-Muslims to a typical Ramadan meal. Ramadan Nights make up the last pillar. It is a definite must if you like comedy, live music and theatre.
Even though this was only day one of Ramadan, the send-off at the Passenger Terminal was great. But ask me again in 30 days' time, with numerous debates, lectures and Ramadan dinners under my belt. That and two or three kilos, I'm afraid.

Sunday, September 24, 2006

Ramadan Kareem



Want to know more about all the Ramadan activities in the Netherlands, do check out www.ramadanfestival.nl. Kick off today in Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Wednesday, September 20, 2006



Go Hikmat Go


En nog een nieuwtje, vandaag werd bekend dat Hikmat Mahawat Khan derde staat op de lijst van Pastors en Eerdmans: EenNL. Huh. Eh Ja. Mahawat Khan past er overigens voor om als excuusallochtoon van de partij te worden versleten. Zijn keuze voor EenNL is onder meer ingegeven door het feit dat hij vindt dat de gevestigde partijen niet van aanpakken weten als het gaat om de problemen van multiculti Nederland. Hij schroomt niet om de manco's van zowel allochtoon als autochtoon te benoemen. Straks is ie bij Nova.

Tuesday, September 19, 2006


LAFFERBOOIJ

Today I have something special for you guys. A play called: Lafferbooij. This is not an ordinary play, it was written by two very dear friends of mine, Anouk Bekker and Daniela Tasca (am trying to post their picture, but blogger is not very helpful today). So far the play has been performed in schools and youth centers mostly, but this coming Sunday 24 September Lafferbooij hits De Balie.

Sixty minutes filled with rap music and a no-frills storyline. You will either want to dance along with the enticing raps or remain glued to your seat because of the gripping story. That's Lafferbooij for ya. The play is about Fannana and her best friend Faye. What Faye does not know, however, is that Fannana is head over heels in love with Booij. Only when it's too late, does Fannana realize that she has ended up in the clutches of a so-called loverboy, a ruthless young man who, through shrewd manipulation, seduces young girls and eventually leads them into prostitution.

So do me a favour and go and see this play. It starts at 13.00 hrs. Afterwards, there are workshops and an interview with the authors. Tickets: EUR 10 for the entire programme. After 15.30 you only pay half.

For more info, pls contact Brit Arp (06 - 224 36660) or www.debalie.nl/programmabalie.jsp

Photography: Nicolien Zuijdgeest