BY AYMAN S. ASHOUR
I woke up yesterday to morning papers and Internet news
showing pictures of angry people on the streets
of Cairo. A boatful of poor Egyptian labourers returning from Saudi Arabia
to the south of Egypt went down in the Red Sea.
A fire erupted on the boat some 90 minutes after it left
the Saudi port and for some unknown reason the boat did not return to
Saudi and it kept going farther out to sea. Some hours later, the reports
are still conflicting but most say two hours, the boat took in water and
15 minutes after that went down with some 1,400 people in the dark
shark-infested waters of the Red Sea. Rescue operations commenced some
eight to 13 hours later, again conflicting reports, and less than 400
people were saved and taken to hospitals in Egypt.
Poor Egyptian labourers from the south of Egypt often go
to work in the oil-rich countries; they often work in the construction
industry and many at relatively low-paying jobs that do not afford them
the luxury of annual trips home. Thus the workers stay away from home for
several years and finally return with their savings, carrying gifts to
their families. I expect some would use bank facilities to wire their
savings home but the vast majority would have carried all of their earthly
possessions back with them on board. So down went some 1,000 people and
the livelihood and hopes of some 1,400 poor families; all lost to the
bottom of the Red Sea. The War On The Poor continues to claims its victims
from New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico coast to Pakistani Kashmir and now
to the Red Sea.
So far I have not heard of people taken to hospitals in
Saudi or any Saudi participation in the rescue, perhaps the poor drowning
Egyptians lacked the necessary re-entry permits. Naturally I assumed that
the angry demonstrations on the streets of Cairo were against the Saudi
and the Egyptian authorities. I was mistaken; the angry mob was
demonstrating against …the USA for Iraq …no, no …Israel for Palestine …no,
no, the angry mobs on the streets of Cairo were demonstrating against
Denmark and the now infamous anti-Muslim offensive cartoons. Egypt was not
that bad, in Syria where self-expression without government approval is as
rare as balanced coverage on Fox News, the Danish and Norwegian
embassies were torched …not a word about the 1,000 or so Egyptians that
drowned!
The Danish cartoons were doubtless offensive. An attempt
to defy self-censorship and to reassert the freedom of expression is
somewhat more acceptable when lampooning one’s own culture or heritage but
attacking others, especially at a time of rising incidents of racism and
Islamophobia, is unacceptable behaviour. While the prime minister of
Denmark publicly expressed regret over the publication of the cartoons, I
am unaware that either Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, nor any of his
predecessors, has ever expressed regret over the much more offensive
portrayal of Prophet Muhammad by Dante.
If the Danes want to continue to portray themselves as a
forward-looking liberal egalitarian society yet support a newspaper (by
buying it and advertising in it) that promotes racism, I say let them.
Islam is not insulted by such bigotry any more than it was
by Dante centuries ago. Islam and Muslims, however, are insulted far worse
when we allow the extremists to steal the banner of Islam and commit
heinous crimes under its name and remain silent. Danish cartoons are a
bigger danger to Denmark and to what and how the Danes claim to see as
their values. Some have argued that it is up to Muslims of Demark to deal
with this problem. I would argue that it is up to non-Muslims of Denmark
to boycott the offensive paper and those who advertise in it. I would
argue that this needs to be done through discussions and dialogue and not
even a boycott of Danish products let alone violent demonstrations that
reinforce the negative stereotypes that we object to in the cartoons.
I wish that the sense of activism and outrage on the
streets of Cairo and Damascus and many other Muslim countries is
redirected towards more fundamental Islamic issues. "Mercy" and
"Compassion" and their linguistic derivatives are by far the most repeated
words of the Koran.
Where is the mercy and compassion towards the passengers
of El Salaam 98? Where is accountability or justice? Isn’t the seeking of
justice fundamental to Islamic belief or does that only apply when the
perpetrators of the injustice are non-Muslims??
February 7, 2006.
(This item is located at:
http://www.muslimwakeup.com/main/archives/2006/02/cartoons_ships.php)