Newsgroup: it.politica.internazionale
Titolo: angry arab da' fuori di testa

http://www.meforum.org/3123/asad-abukahlil-angry-arab
 
 
As'ad AbuKahlil—a political science professor at California State
University, Stanislaus—spoke last month at a day-long "teach-in" at
the University of California, Berkeley titled, "Building Solidarity
with the Arab Spring." It consisted of a number of "workshop sessions"
at the Valley Life Sciences Building, followed by a "plenary session"
at the Multicultural Center, and was co-sponsored by the Arab Resource
Organizing Committee, the Berkeley Muslim Students Association PAC,
the International Socialist Organization, and the Syrian American
Council.
 
AbuKhalil's workshop on "The U.S. and the Arab Uprising" was held in a
tiny, hot, windowless room filled with students wearing hijabs and
keffiyehs. Immediately visible to all who entered was a sign leaning
against the black board that set the anti-American atmosphere:
 
    Victory to the Arab Revolutions!
 
    U.S. Out of the Middle East!
 
AbuKhalil, author of the "Angry Arab" blog, was introduced as "the
most influential Arab blogger in English and Arabic." Wasting no time
living up to his self-caricature, he presented the demise of Israel as
his life's work, referred repeatedly to the "usurping Zionist entity,"
and characterized the U.S. as the source of all that ails the Arab
world. For instance:
 
    Obama and Hillary always pat themselves on the back and say they
are on the side of the Arab people. . . . They are on the side of
counter-revolution. . . . There is a tyrannical order in the Arab
world . . . in place since 1979 . . . the year Egypt was forced by the
United States to sign a peace treaty with Israel. A dictator Anwar
Sadat was conveniently armed, an unrepentant anti-Semite and Nazi.
 
He did not explain the origin of these descriptions of Sadat, but no
one questioned him or objected.
 
AbuKhalil was exultant over the latest bombing of the gas pipeline
from Egypt to Israel, a signal to him that the U.S. is no longer "all-
powerful":
 
    The United States wants to take our agency from us, they want to
convince us, as Israel has tried to do all these decades, that we are
incapable of changing the situation, the enemy is too strong . . .
invincible.
 
Displaying a lust for violence, AbuKhalil boasted:
 
    I am in favor of chaos because I'm really enjoying what's
happening in Egypt, especially what's happening against Israel [the
attack on the Israeli embassy]. I've played these scenes on YouTube
more times than I've played songs.
 
The audience laughed in agreement as he spoke.
 
AbuKhalil made his hatred of Israel clear in his description of
hearing Israeli soldiers screaming—so he claimed—as they retreated
from Hezbollah fighters in southern Lebanon in 2006. "It shows you if
Arabs are allowed freedom to fight Israel, this is the kind of
Palestine you will see," he bragged.
 
More shocking was his blithe dismissal of Hamas's constant barrage of
rockets into southern Israel, which he called, "those firecrackers
from Hamas [fired] at a town in occupied Palestine." He then belittled
the suffering the bombardment has caused:
 
    You will notice there were like ten injured and sometimes they had
shocks . . . they actually list the injured; they [listed] those whose
feelings were hurt; those who were startled. This war crimes thing is
for victimhood reputation.
 
Again, the audience laughed heartily.
 
Later, a member of the audience challenged him by asking about the
recently released International Atomic Energy Agency (I.A.E.A.) report
showing that Iran's nuclear program has military dimensions. AbuKhalil
dodged the question by raising Israel's alleged nuclear program and
what he called the "racist content of the notion that nuclear weapons
are dangerous in the hands of Muslims, but safe in the hands of
Christians and Jews." He apparently has no worries about the Iranian
regime's threat to wipe Israel off the map, its constant threat to its
neighbors, or the apocalyptic nature of the mullah's theology; only
Israel can threaten peace in the region.
 
During the plenary session that followed, AbuKhalil said he was
angered that the work of the Canadian-Muslim feminist and author
Irshad Manji, and "other Islam-haters" has been translated into
Arabic. Yet he describes himself as "secular" and a "feminist"—under
the right circumstances, one supposes, meaning that Western liberal
concepts don't apply to those who criticize Islam.
 
He also condemned the translation into Arabic of a tract on non-
violence aimed at the Arab uprisings. "Very boring," he declared:
 
    The United States wanted the revolution to be non-violent. They
started the myth in the New York Times. It's not. It's a violent
struggle by Arabs. And please, I am not making an apology. It's
justifiable. They want to bring down these regimes in any way
possible.
 
Whether glorifying violence, exalting in the death and misery of
Israelis, or blaming the U.S. for the ills of the Arab world,
AbuKhalil lived up to his moniker as an "angry Arab." Presumably, he
brings the same radicalism to the classroom, which is a frightening
prospect for his students. When anger replaces reason, there's little
hope for an education, no matter how many "teach-ins" universities
offer.

 wrote:
 
si chiama angry, mica pacato. A proposito , qualcuno sarebbe in grado
di spiegarmi il successo degli angry birds? Mai visto niente di così
scemo...