24 juillet 2009
5
24
/07
/juillet
/2009
07:35
Reçu d'Amina, présidente de SPARE EGYPTE http://www.sparealive.org
Parce qu'il y a un étroit lien avec la souffrance des animaux...
Parce qu'il y a un étroit lien avec la souffrance des animaux...
----- Original Message -----
From: Tarek Heggy
Sent: Friday, July 24, 2009 12:11 AM
Subject: Re: An Interview with Tarek Heggy - The Ausralian magazine ( Rhapsody ) issue of July 2009.
FACE TO FACE WITH TAREK HEGGY
by : DAN GOLDBERG
Q Why is your moderate voice such a minority in the Arab world? Where are all the other liberals?
A I accept that I represent a minority but Iwouldn’t at all accept that I’m the only one.There is a sizeable minority of Egyptians whoadmired [former Egyptian president] AnwarSadat, and who thought very highly of hisvision. As far as the Israeli-Arab conflict isconcerned he thought it was high time to gofrom a military handling of this conflict to apolitical one.I am not the only believer in this schoolof thinking.There are hundreds of thousands of menand women who follow the same path, whoare fully convinced this is very good forhumanity, for Egypt, for the region.
I accept that I belong to a minority but I assure you there are hundreds of thousands who bought the Sadat dream.
Q To what degree do you place the blameon the media for fanning the flames ofincitement, extremism, hatred of Israeland the Jews?
A I would blame very much the media and theentire intelligentsia because they exploitedthat these people are 50 per cent illiterate,they exploited the fact that these people haveno access to the international media. Al-Jazeera is an ally of the Muslim Brotherhoodideas plus Arab nationalism. It’s like acombination between Saddam Hussein, Hafezal-Assad and Osama bin Laden. If you putthe three of them in a mixer you can imaginethe type of media you get. The Arab citizenis inclined to like al-Jazeera, it talks to himfrom the right perspective, from an emotionalperspective, it talks to him from the pan-Arabist and Islamist standpoint.
Q Why is Arab culture so obsessed with theso-called ‘Zionist conspiracy’ when theyhave so many domestic issues. Is it aform of escapism?A I accept this fully with regard to the Arabregimes. The regimes, the media, theintelligentsia and the religious institutionsare united – they made the Arab peoplebelieve that the only problem in life is Israel.Israel is a challenge, but there are variousways to respond to it. The option for themwas always to cry and scream that life wasso dark because of the presence of Israel.But I blame the intellectuals more thanreligious institutions and political regimes.Sadat was ready to accept the consequencesof peace with Israel – the domestic politicaland economic challenges – but these are thetwo questions most of the Arab regimes don’twant to face.
Q Why has Wahhabism taken root sostrongly in the Arab world as againstmoderate Islam?
A This is one of the most important realities inthe Arab world. Islam witnessed a moderatemainstream for 12 centuries. Islam has beenaround for 14 centuries but over 12 centuriesit had a mainstream that could be describedas moderate and progressive even, and theseare the words of [British-American historian]Bernard Lewis, who said by the standards ofthe Middle Ages Islam was progressive.Since 1744 – when Wahhabism got itshistoric opportunity near Riyadh – it andmany other marginal, hardline interpretationsof Islam have gone from being a smallminority towards the mainstream.What made it capable of taking the drivingseat from moderate Islam was oil production.In a survey of Islamic centres in America, Ifound that 92 per cent were built by Saudimoney, so Wahhabi Islam was in a positionwith oil revenues not only to rule Saudi Arabiabut to go out to the rest of the world.Wahhabism is an interpretation of Islamthat has been since day one the most rigid,inhuman, aggressive, isolated, impossible tointegrate interpretation of Islam.Wahhabism has been since day one the most rigid,inhuman, aggressive, isolated, impossible to integrate interpretation of Islam.
by : DAN GOLDBERG
Tarek Heggy : is a leading political thinker and liberal intellectual in the Arab world who has written more than 20 books in three languages and was described by Professor Bernard Lewis as the most courageous and distinctive voice in Egypt’.
Q Why is your moderate voice such a minority in the Arab world? Where are all the other liberals?
A I accept that I represent a minority but Iwouldn’t at all accept that I’m the only one.There is a sizeable minority of Egyptians whoadmired [former Egyptian president] AnwarSadat, and who thought very highly of hisvision. As far as the Israeli-Arab conflict isconcerned he thought it was high time to gofrom a military handling of this conflict to apolitical one.I am not the only believer in this schoolof thinking.There are hundreds of thousands of menand women who follow the same path, whoare fully convinced this is very good forhumanity, for Egypt, for the region.
I accept that I belong to a minority but I assure you there are hundreds of thousands who bought the Sadat dream.
Q To what degree do you place the blameon the media for fanning the flames ofincitement, extremism, hatred of Israeland the Jews?
A I would blame very much the media and theentire intelligentsia because they exploitedthat these people are 50 per cent illiterate,they exploited the fact that these people haveno access to the international media. Al-Jazeera is an ally of the Muslim Brotherhoodideas plus Arab nationalism. It’s like acombination between Saddam Hussein, Hafezal-Assad and Osama bin Laden. If you putthe three of them in a mixer you can imaginethe type of media you get. The Arab citizenis inclined to like al-Jazeera, it talks to himfrom the right perspective, from an emotionalperspective, it talks to him from the pan-Arabist and Islamist standpoint.
Q Why is Arab culture so obsessed with theso-called ‘Zionist conspiracy’ when theyhave so many domestic issues. Is it aform of escapism?A I accept this fully with regard to the Arabregimes. The regimes, the media, theintelligentsia and the religious institutionsare united – they made the Arab peoplebelieve that the only problem in life is Israel.Israel is a challenge, but there are variousways to respond to it. The option for themwas always to cry and scream that life wasso dark because of the presence of Israel.But I blame the intellectuals more thanreligious institutions and political regimes.Sadat was ready to accept the consequencesof peace with Israel – the domestic politicaland economic challenges – but these are thetwo questions most of the Arab regimes don’twant to face.
Q Why has Wahhabism taken root sostrongly in the Arab world as againstmoderate Islam?
A This is one of the most important realities inthe Arab world. Islam witnessed a moderatemainstream for 12 centuries. Islam has beenaround for 14 centuries but over 12 centuriesit had a mainstream that could be describedas moderate and progressive even, and theseare the words of [British-American historian]Bernard Lewis, who said by the standards ofthe Middle Ages Islam was progressive.Since 1744 – when Wahhabism got itshistoric opportunity near Riyadh – it andmany other marginal, hardline interpretationsof Islam have gone from being a smallminority towards the mainstream.What made it capable of taking the drivingseat from moderate Islam was oil production.In a survey of Islamic centres in America, Ifound that 92 per cent were built by Saudimoney, so Wahhabi Islam was in a positionwith oil revenues not only to rule Saudi Arabiabut to go out to the rest of the world.Wahhabism is an interpretation of Islamthat has been since day one the most rigid,inhuman, aggressive, isolated, impossible tointegrate interpretation of Islam.Wahhabism has been since day one the most rigid,inhuman, aggressive, isolated, impossible to integrate interpretation of Islam.
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