Through Abu Aadvark, I discovered that one of my favorite Arab columnists, Mona Eltahawy, has been banned from writing for the Saudi-owned Al-Sharq Al-Alawsat daily. The reason is unclear, says Abu Aaadvark, who also wondered if it could be Egyptian pressure. "Perhaps she offended the wrong Saudi? She wasn’t officially told she was banned nor given any reason, but there you go. She’s just gone," he said.
I’m assuming she was banned simply because of her enlightening, yet unorthodox opinions. It is too bad, really. Until when are we going to be stuck with writers babbling the same old rhetoric that we grew up listening to? It really is sad and very frustrating. Her writing renewed my hope in Arab media.
I feel lucky that this past March I had a chance to meet her when we both took part in a panel discussion on reporting in the Middle East that was organized by the University of Wisconsin. In person she is just as impressive as she is in print. She is very smart, very articulate and extremely passionate. I will reiterate now what I said back then: The Arab world definitely needs more Mona’s.
The good news, though, is that she is still writing for a number of international publications. You can also read her articles on her website. She’s also writing for Jordanbased Maktoob. She will never be silenced. Al-Sharq Al-Awsat really made a very poor decision.
ANON” “I don’t want muslims to devote their lives to Palsetine. I wish they would leave it alone actually. It would be much much better. Palsetine is not a relegious problem. Hell its not an Arab problem either unfortunatly seeing how certain Arab nations screwed the Palestinians just as much as Israel did.”
Your true colors are shining thru. All you care about is helping israel and shifting attention away from israeli brutality. let the palestinian rott alone, right? and palestine IS A RELIGIOUS PROBLEM. Those doing the killing and invasion are ALL JEWISH. Those protecting jewish brutality, trading with them, arming them ARE WHITE CHRISTIANS!!! and yes, it’s not religious, IT’S RACIAL AND RELIGIOUS, the worst form of cruelty all committed by liberal, western ,democracies against Arabs in Palestine, the cursed chidren of Ishmael.
Actually one more thing…I think Natasha was trying to show some solidarity and condemning the silencing of free voices(whether you agree with this voice or not). But sadly the discussion turned into a bashing fest of Mona Tahawi.
“But rather than dwelling endlessly on these issues, we would do well to spend time encouraging our young people to become more active members of their communities and to not live caught between two worlds: a Muslim one at home and in the mosque, an “infidel” one outside.”
anon, while i agree with some points that you made earlier but i would like to point out that after reading the whole article i think that ms.tahawy was refering to Muslims living in Britain and not to Palestinians here. What i concluded from this article is that she just touched up on the Palestinian issue because people who are blew up themseleves in London use the iraqi and palestinian issue as a reason for their frustration…i would like to note here that these people who committed this crime ARE actually living in the comfort of the west just like tahaway herslef.
abu fatoush
I don’t want muslims to devote their lives to Palsetine. I wish they would leave it alone actually. It would be much much better.
Palsetine is not a relegious problem. Hell its not an Arab problem either unfortunatly seeing how certain Arab nations screwed the Palestinians just as much as Israel did.
So leave the problems alone
that’s funny. your post proves a theory i’ve had for quite some time: that, by and large, reading comprehension has been neglected in most school systems in the middle east. if you ever find yourself in the west there are a number of reading programs i can suggest for you. please let me know.
please explain the “stupid question in the article” or must all muslims devote their lives to palestine?
thanks for posting the article that proves my pint ta ta
merry christmas:
After London, Tough Questions for Muslims
By Mona Eltahawy
Sunday, July 24, 2005; Page B07
The July 7 London bombings did it for me. Perhaps it was because my parents moved us from Cairo to the British capital when I was 7 years old, and so London was my childhood “home.” Or maybe it was because our route to work and school every morning crisscrossed those same Underground stations that were targeted.
I’m sure it was also those dog-eared statements that our clerics and religious leaders read out telling us that Islam means peace — it actually means submission — and asking us to please forget everything they had ever said before July 6, because as of July 7 they truly believe violence is bad. Their backpedaling is so furious you can smell the skid marks.
Some are not even bothering to put their feet on the pedals, such as the 22 imams and scholars who met at London’s largest mosque to condemn the bombings but who would not criticize all suicide attacks.
Sayed Mohammed Musawi, the head of the World Islamic League in London, insisted “there should be a clear distinction between the suicide bombing of those who are trying to defend themselves from occupiers, which is something different from those who kill civilians, which is a big crime.”
In a classic example of laying blame everywhere but at our own door, Musawi actually criticized the Western media (for supposedly confusing frustrated young Muslims) rather than those scholars who had blessed suicide bombings as long as they targeted Israelis.
Suicide bombings are the Muslim weapon of choice not only in London and Israel but in Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Turkey. They are killing Muslims and non-Muslims alike, and yet our imams and scholars cannot condemn them.
As I said, the London bombings did it for me. Or maybe it’s the knowledge that the more these faceless cowards strike, the more Muslim men in the West like my brother are pushed onto the stage of suspicion. After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Ehab — who spends virtually all of his time caring for his cardiology patients or fulfilling his role as husband and father — was one of the 5,000 Muslim men questioned by the FBI; two years later he was among the thousands more who had to submit to being fingerprinted and photographed as part of a special registration.
But most of all, the London bombings rid me of all patience with the excuse that “George Bush [or Tony Blair or take your pick of Western leaders] made me do it.” We don’t know who was behind Thursday’s explosions, but an Arab analyst told a satellite channel that if Blair hadn’t learned the mistake of the Iraq war, these new attacks were a firm reminder.
I never bought the explanation that U.S. foreign policy had “brought on” the Sept. 11 attacks, and I certainly don’t buy the idea that the Iraq war is behind the attacks in London. Many people across the world have opposed U.S. and British foreign policy, but that doesn’t mean they are rushing to fly planes into buildings or to blow up buses and Underground trains in London.
I was against the invasion of Iraq and would not have voted for George Bush if I were a U.S. citizen, but I’m done with the “George Bush made me do it” excuse. We must accept responsibility for this mess if we are ever to find a way out.
And for those non-Muslims who accept the George Bush excuse, I have a question: Do you think Muslims are incapable of accepting responsibility? It is at least in some way bigoted to think that Muslims can only react violently.
We all must ask a host of difficult questions. How about beginning by acknowledging once and for all that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a Muslim issue? It is a dispute over land that too many clerics and religious leaders, radical or otherwise, use to flesh out the victimized-Muslim scenario.
Yes, Palestinians deserve a state, and, yes, Israel must end its occupation of the West Bank and Gaza.
But rather than dwelling endlessly on these issues, we would do well to spend time encouraging our young people to become more active members of their communities and to not live caught between two worlds: a Muslim one at home and in the mosque, an “infidel” one outside.
And what about assimilation? It is not bigoted to ask Muslims if they are integrating into the societies they are living in. Just as the British government has responsibilities toward its citizens, immigrants included, so too do those immigrants. Muslims ask for time off work for prayer, for example, and they often get it. But are they truly living in Britain or are they perpetuating an existence that even their relatives “back home” long ago left behind? Domestic policy is too often ignored by many Muslims who are more concerned with Palestine, Iraq or any other place where Muslims are believed to have suffered injustice.
I raise these questions because London might have done it for me, but I’m not done with Islam. The clerics and the terrorists will not take it away from me. God belongs to me, too.
Mona Eltahawy is a New York-based columnist for the pan-Arab newspaper Asharq al-Awsat.http://
Also as far as bylines from Palestine could have been written from the West as she could have been getting her info. via phone lines. I’ve seen it happen with Reuters. I’m not saying she hasn’t been there, I’m questioning if she has because if she has then she should be smart enough not pose stupid questions as the ones she does in that particular article.
actually in the article I’m refering to, Ms. Eltahawi was addressing the Palestinian people in Palestine and that are under occupation. I ddn’t put the link of the article maybe I should have. I’ll see if I can google it again and post it.