Afrux
28-02-05, 17:48
De regering van Libanon (of beter gezegd, de regering van Syrië in Libanon) is onder publiek druk uitgetreden.
Ondanks de militaire overmacht op straat vandaag en het verbod op demonstraties, zijn 10 duizenden mensen de straat op gegaan voor de treug trekking van de bezitter Syrië.
Een demonstrant verwoordde het als volgt: Laten we het bij Israel houden. De bezetting van Libanon moet door Syrië moet gestopt worden.
Ik vraag me af! Wat er zal gebeuren als morgen 100 duizenden Arabieren op straat komen ergens. Zal het regime op ze schieten of is er een kans dat er een einde komt aan de dictatuur na massale en langdurige demonstraties.
Ooit geloofde Syrië in de grote Syrië die een paar landen om zich heen erbij wilde hebben en als het kon heel de zogenoemde Arabische wereld. De breuk met Irak, die door een identieke ideologie werd geregeerd, volgde snel en ging om de macht. Saddam zag zich zelf als de enige echte leider van de grote en machtige Arabische rijk. Daarom heeft hij (beroemde beelden) alle sympatisanten van de Baath in Syrië als vijanden en heeft hij ze uitgemoord. De vijandigheid was geboren, zoals deze alle zogenoemde Arabische landen kende tegenover elkaar.
Dat het ARabische nationalisme heeft gefaald is een ding dat zeker is. Dat bewijst de geschiedennis en de huidige situatie van landen die door deze achterlijke ideollogie geregeerd zijn geweest. Sterker nog in de ARabische media lees je ieder dag over de grote nederlaag en vernedering. Daarbij komt het feit dat men veel schrijft over de Perzischesering (als je dat zo mag schrijven) en natuurlijk over de angst dat Irak zijn Arabisme verliest. Puur omdat de Koerden tegenwoordig beschermd worden door de wet. De koerden worden ook in nationalistische media beschuldigd van samenwerking met de zionisten (ook Iranwordt hiervan beschuldigd. maar gek genoeg is het niet tehran of Mosul waar de israelische vlag hoog waait, maar in Cairo en andere Arabische landen.
Wat is het standpunt van de ael beste Zbaq Rbaq, over de kwestie Libanon?
http://emazighen.com/IMG/arton70.jpg
Similarities between Amazigh and Kurdish movements
3rd February 2005, online by admin.
emazighen.com
Many Arab regimes and political powers believe that the issue of minorities in the Arab world is merely an imperialist conspiracy aimed to break up the Arab Nation. The Sykes-picot agreement of 1916, and the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 always ring a bell whenever the question of minorities is raised: “why now”, many wonder . Thus, claims by any minority are unconsciously associated with the disintegration and breakup of Arab unity and shattering of Arab national aspirations.
One way of abandoning political overstatement might be achieved however through the observation of facts and realities of today’s world.
In the light of growing democratic ideas, mounting human rights campaigns and calls to respect the rights of minority groups during the second half of the 20th century, minorities all over the world started to demand for recognition of their distinctive identity encouraged by the growing tendency of humanization of human relations. Currently the UN has 200 members, while the number of ethnic and religious minorities amounts to 7,000, but this doesn’t entail global social disintegration since there are two opposite global trends: the firs calls for maintaining minority rights based on special identity and right of self determination, while the second calls for more global integration based on economic, security and environmental interests rather than national or religious belongingness.
Minority claims is a global phenomenon and not restricted to the Arab World. In Britain for example, the Scottish and the Welsh gained their autonomy and their own parliaments after long and biter struggle, as did the Catalan in Spain. In Corsica, Corsicans were recognized their special identity and Britons their cultural rights. In Canada, the people of Québec gained autonomy and strived for independence (which was rejected in a national referendum). It is also very much in mind how various nationalities in the former Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia and former Czechoslovakia fought for independence, and some are still fighting such as Chechens in Russia. It is also very much in mind the struggle that led to the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan, and East Timor from Indonesia in addition to the numerous national and religious minorities who struggle for their rights in India, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, etc.
Can the custodians of Arab Nationalism and Islamic extremisms be convinced that they are not targeted by this global conspiracy to divide and split up the Arab and Islamic World, and can they turn their attention to find realistic and rational solution to the problem minorities in their respective countries?
Minority issues, although different in nature according to the regions involved, have many similarities.
The Tamazight language in Morocco, like the Mashrek Kurdish, is a spoken language verbally preserved from one generation to another and was recently recorded in Latin and Arabic, and has many different dialects. The Tamazight, like Kurds, have a distinctive history, customs and civilization that existed before the Arab-Islamic conquest.
Tamazight as well Kurdish was denied recognition, in which some attributed the Tamazight to pre-Islamic Arab tribes who came to North Africa from the Arab peninsula during the pre-Islamic era, while Kurds were considered “mountain Turks”.
The Tamazight scatter in many areas, such as Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Mali and others. The Tamazight were the first to struggle against the French colonizers, and many of them were amongst the founding members of the National Liberation Front, such as Didouch Murad, Krimm Belkacem and Hocine Ait Ahmed. On the Kurdish side, there were Yusuf Al Admah and Ibrahim Hanano who fought for Syria’s independence. Both sides suffered repression at the hands of the successive post-independence governments, and both sides intensified their protest against discrimination.
In Algeria, protests erupted in many occasions demanding recognition. One of the biggest protests was erupted in April 1980 when the authorities banned a lecture about early Tamazight poetry; the movement was eventually quashed and was since then called the Tamazight spring and is being commemorated annually. In 1998 a huge violent protests erupted following the assassination of the popular singer “Matoub Lounes” who was an enthusiast of Tamazight culture and language.
The biggest protest at all was erupted in April 2001 following the killing of a Tamazight young man in a police station due to torture. A nationwide uprising erupted claiming 100 lives and causing thousands of injuries. The protestors were only demanding recognition of Tamazight culture, identity and language next to Arabic, and to bring to justice those responsible for shooting at protestors.
Observers may sense the similarity with Kurdish protests elsewhere, especially those at Qamishli last spring which was triggered after provocations following a football match.
Moroccan Tamazight movement is less noisy due to the availability of broader freedom margin. Tamazight there are just calling for constitutional changes to recognize the Tamazight as an official language next to Arabic and commit to develop it. Those are the same issues demanded by Kurds in Iraq in which the Iraqi constitution acknowledged the Kurdish distinctive identity and adopted Kurdish as an official language, and since any constitution is the legal framework for acknowledgement of multilingualism and multiculturalism. The South African constitution for example acknowledges the existence of 11 official languages and commit to their development, and yet the state did not disintegrate.
The cultural claims were correlated with developmental demands aimed at improving living standards and combating unemployment since cultural injustice went hand in hand with social injustice where Tamazight and Kurdish areas were less developed than others. Cultural and social demands were correlated also with a struggle against authoritarian and corrupt regimes without detriment to the country’s sovereignty and integrity since both the Tamazight and Kurdish movements are parts of the comprehensive democratic movement in heir respective countries.
The two movements may seem sometimes similar and sometimes not according to their political constituents. The Tamazight democratic agenda is also secular, and some even accuse the Tamazight of being superficial Muslims since the customs and conventions they are striving to be officially recognized and practiced are anti-Islamic and have idolatrous roots. The leader of the radical Moroccan Justice and Charity Group accused the Tamazight as being a devilish trend and the Tamazight as disbelievers in the Arabic tongue, and consequently disbelievers in Allah. This doesn’t differ much from what goes on in the minds of some Arab extremists who think that Kurds did not entirely rid oneself of Zoroastrianism.
Maghreb regimes were forced to recognize some Tamazight rights after a failed campaign to blot out and marginalize the Tamazight culture. In Algeria, the Tamazight language was recognized in the constitution as one of the nation’s official tongues, nowadays there are news bulletins and prints in the Tamazight language. In Morocco, the King set up a special institute for Tamazight culture and recognized Tamazight as part of the Moroccan identity and allowed the teaching of Tamazight language in primary education.
The Tamazight movement however considered the Royal declaration not enough unless fixed in the constitution and demanded also to fix secularism, administrative decentralization equalization the two languages in the constitution and consider Tamazight a source of legislation. This particular issue resonates since Iraqi Kurds got constitutional recognition of their national identity and language, ad they were given autonomy. In Syria however, official recognition was limited to a reference to Kurdish distinctive identity in a recent presidential interview, but this did not go further than that.
Arab regimes usually fear democratic reforms since their authorities may be undermined, and they resist recognizing minority rights for fear of making more concessions in the future. The situation in Maghreb, as in Mashrek, confirmed that overlooking this issue along with hesitation will only heighten tension and lead to disasters, and possibly will spawn more separatist movements. The Movement for Autonomy in Kabylia, headed by Ferhat Mehenni, and which has little impact so far, is demanding a special government, a local parliament, special laws and security forces and also a referendum to vote for autonomy.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, calls for an independent Kurdish state are intensifying as Kurdish rights are being neglected, since the majority of Kurds accepted federalism as a solution.
Digging deep into history to find roots proving each part’s claims are of no use since minority groups in both Mashrek and Maghreb believe they are distinctive and different from others.
The humane and democratic solution would be to acknowledge that diversity and dissimilarity are no flaws, and that the other is not an enemy and answering the other’s demands is the easiest and most economical way as to maintain the nation’s unity with the consent and general concurrence of all concerned.
George Ketten-tharwaproject
Ondanks de militaire overmacht op straat vandaag en het verbod op demonstraties, zijn 10 duizenden mensen de straat op gegaan voor de treug trekking van de bezitter Syrië.
Een demonstrant verwoordde het als volgt: Laten we het bij Israel houden. De bezetting van Libanon moet door Syrië moet gestopt worden.
Ik vraag me af! Wat er zal gebeuren als morgen 100 duizenden Arabieren op straat komen ergens. Zal het regime op ze schieten of is er een kans dat er een einde komt aan de dictatuur na massale en langdurige demonstraties.
Ooit geloofde Syrië in de grote Syrië die een paar landen om zich heen erbij wilde hebben en als het kon heel de zogenoemde Arabische wereld. De breuk met Irak, die door een identieke ideologie werd geregeerd, volgde snel en ging om de macht. Saddam zag zich zelf als de enige echte leider van de grote en machtige Arabische rijk. Daarom heeft hij (beroemde beelden) alle sympatisanten van de Baath in Syrië als vijanden en heeft hij ze uitgemoord. De vijandigheid was geboren, zoals deze alle zogenoemde Arabische landen kende tegenover elkaar.
Dat het ARabische nationalisme heeft gefaald is een ding dat zeker is. Dat bewijst de geschiedennis en de huidige situatie van landen die door deze achterlijke ideollogie geregeerd zijn geweest. Sterker nog in de ARabische media lees je ieder dag over de grote nederlaag en vernedering. Daarbij komt het feit dat men veel schrijft over de Perzischesering (als je dat zo mag schrijven) en natuurlijk over de angst dat Irak zijn Arabisme verliest. Puur omdat de Koerden tegenwoordig beschermd worden door de wet. De koerden worden ook in nationalistische media beschuldigd van samenwerking met de zionisten (ook Iranwordt hiervan beschuldigd. maar gek genoeg is het niet tehran of Mosul waar de israelische vlag hoog waait, maar in Cairo en andere Arabische landen.
Wat is het standpunt van de ael beste Zbaq Rbaq, over de kwestie Libanon?
http://emazighen.com/IMG/arton70.jpg
Similarities between Amazigh and Kurdish movements
3rd February 2005, online by admin.
emazighen.com
Many Arab regimes and political powers believe that the issue of minorities in the Arab world is merely an imperialist conspiracy aimed to break up the Arab Nation. The Sykes-picot agreement of 1916, and the creation of the Jewish state in 1948 always ring a bell whenever the question of minorities is raised: “why now”, many wonder . Thus, claims by any minority are unconsciously associated with the disintegration and breakup of Arab unity and shattering of Arab national aspirations.
One way of abandoning political overstatement might be achieved however through the observation of facts and realities of today’s world.
In the light of growing democratic ideas, mounting human rights campaigns and calls to respect the rights of minority groups during the second half of the 20th century, minorities all over the world started to demand for recognition of their distinctive identity encouraged by the growing tendency of humanization of human relations. Currently the UN has 200 members, while the number of ethnic and religious minorities amounts to 7,000, but this doesn’t entail global social disintegration since there are two opposite global trends: the firs calls for maintaining minority rights based on special identity and right of self determination, while the second calls for more global integration based on economic, security and environmental interests rather than national or religious belongingness.
Minority claims is a global phenomenon and not restricted to the Arab World. In Britain for example, the Scottish and the Welsh gained their autonomy and their own parliaments after long and biter struggle, as did the Catalan in Spain. In Corsica, Corsicans were recognized their special identity and Britons their cultural rights. In Canada, the people of Québec gained autonomy and strived for independence (which was rejected in a national referendum). It is also very much in mind how various nationalities in the former Soviet Union, former Yugoslavia and former Czechoslovakia fought for independence, and some are still fighting such as Chechens in Russia. It is also very much in mind the struggle that led to the independence of Bangladesh from Pakistan, and East Timor from Indonesia in addition to the numerous national and religious minorities who struggle for their rights in India, China, Iran, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkey, etc.
Can the custodians of Arab Nationalism and Islamic extremisms be convinced that they are not targeted by this global conspiracy to divide and split up the Arab and Islamic World, and can they turn their attention to find realistic and rational solution to the problem minorities in their respective countries?
Minority issues, although different in nature according to the regions involved, have many similarities.
The Tamazight language in Morocco, like the Mashrek Kurdish, is a spoken language verbally preserved from one generation to another and was recently recorded in Latin and Arabic, and has many different dialects. The Tamazight, like Kurds, have a distinctive history, customs and civilization that existed before the Arab-Islamic conquest.
Tamazight as well Kurdish was denied recognition, in which some attributed the Tamazight to pre-Islamic Arab tribes who came to North Africa from the Arab peninsula during the pre-Islamic era, while Kurds were considered “mountain Turks”.
The Tamazight scatter in many areas, such as Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Niger, Mali and others. The Tamazight were the first to struggle against the French colonizers, and many of them were amongst the founding members of the National Liberation Front, such as Didouch Murad, Krimm Belkacem and Hocine Ait Ahmed. On the Kurdish side, there were Yusuf Al Admah and Ibrahim Hanano who fought for Syria’s independence. Both sides suffered repression at the hands of the successive post-independence governments, and both sides intensified their protest against discrimination.
In Algeria, protests erupted in many occasions demanding recognition. One of the biggest protests was erupted in April 1980 when the authorities banned a lecture about early Tamazight poetry; the movement was eventually quashed and was since then called the Tamazight spring and is being commemorated annually. In 1998 a huge violent protests erupted following the assassination of the popular singer “Matoub Lounes” who was an enthusiast of Tamazight culture and language.
The biggest protest at all was erupted in April 2001 following the killing of a Tamazight young man in a police station due to torture. A nationwide uprising erupted claiming 100 lives and causing thousands of injuries. The protestors were only demanding recognition of Tamazight culture, identity and language next to Arabic, and to bring to justice those responsible for shooting at protestors.
Observers may sense the similarity with Kurdish protests elsewhere, especially those at Qamishli last spring which was triggered after provocations following a football match.
Moroccan Tamazight movement is less noisy due to the availability of broader freedom margin. Tamazight there are just calling for constitutional changes to recognize the Tamazight as an official language next to Arabic and commit to develop it. Those are the same issues demanded by Kurds in Iraq in which the Iraqi constitution acknowledged the Kurdish distinctive identity and adopted Kurdish as an official language, and since any constitution is the legal framework for acknowledgement of multilingualism and multiculturalism. The South African constitution for example acknowledges the existence of 11 official languages and commit to their development, and yet the state did not disintegrate.
The cultural claims were correlated with developmental demands aimed at improving living standards and combating unemployment since cultural injustice went hand in hand with social injustice where Tamazight and Kurdish areas were less developed than others. Cultural and social demands were correlated also with a struggle against authoritarian and corrupt regimes without detriment to the country’s sovereignty and integrity since both the Tamazight and Kurdish movements are parts of the comprehensive democratic movement in heir respective countries.
The two movements may seem sometimes similar and sometimes not according to their political constituents. The Tamazight democratic agenda is also secular, and some even accuse the Tamazight of being superficial Muslims since the customs and conventions they are striving to be officially recognized and practiced are anti-Islamic and have idolatrous roots. The leader of the radical Moroccan Justice and Charity Group accused the Tamazight as being a devilish trend and the Tamazight as disbelievers in the Arabic tongue, and consequently disbelievers in Allah. This doesn’t differ much from what goes on in the minds of some Arab extremists who think that Kurds did not entirely rid oneself of Zoroastrianism.
Maghreb regimes were forced to recognize some Tamazight rights after a failed campaign to blot out and marginalize the Tamazight culture. In Algeria, the Tamazight language was recognized in the constitution as one of the nation’s official tongues, nowadays there are news bulletins and prints in the Tamazight language. In Morocco, the King set up a special institute for Tamazight culture and recognized Tamazight as part of the Moroccan identity and allowed the teaching of Tamazight language in primary education.
The Tamazight movement however considered the Royal declaration not enough unless fixed in the constitution and demanded also to fix secularism, administrative decentralization equalization the two languages in the constitution and consider Tamazight a source of legislation. This particular issue resonates since Iraqi Kurds got constitutional recognition of their national identity and language, ad they were given autonomy. In Syria however, official recognition was limited to a reference to Kurdish distinctive identity in a recent presidential interview, but this did not go further than that.
Arab regimes usually fear democratic reforms since their authorities may be undermined, and they resist recognizing minority rights for fear of making more concessions in the future. The situation in Maghreb, as in Mashrek, confirmed that overlooking this issue along with hesitation will only heighten tension and lead to disasters, and possibly will spawn more separatist movements. The Movement for Autonomy in Kabylia, headed by Ferhat Mehenni, and which has little impact so far, is demanding a special government, a local parliament, special laws and security forces and also a referendum to vote for autonomy.
In Iraqi Kurdistan, calls for an independent Kurdish state are intensifying as Kurdish rights are being neglected, since the majority of Kurds accepted federalism as a solution.
Digging deep into history to find roots proving each part’s claims are of no use since minority groups in both Mashrek and Maghreb believe they are distinctive and different from others.
The humane and democratic solution would be to acknowledge that diversity and dissimilarity are no flaws, and that the other is not an enemy and answering the other’s demands is the easiest and most economical way as to maintain the nation’s unity with the consent and general concurrence of all concerned.
George Ketten-tharwaproject