But seeing all the Arab countries participate is an enormous source of pride we should all share. I am especially excited that the Palestinian Athletic team continues to grow despite Israel’s oppressive occupation policies. Here’s a rundown of some facts that I was able to glean from the opening ceremonies and from my own research:

Boycotts:

1956 Games Melbourne, Australia Boycott: to protest the Israeli- planned invasion and occupation of the Sinai.

1976 Games Boycott in Montreal, Canada. Africa’s nation’s boycotted the game sin Montreal after New Zealand broke a world boycott of South Africa’s apartheid regime and participated in a rugby competition. South Africa was banned from Olympic games.

1980 Games Boycott in Moscow, Soviet Union, to protest the invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The boycott was initiated by the United States.

1984 Games Boycott. Citing terrorism threats against their team members, the Soviet led a boycott of the Los Angeles, United States games, also partly in protest to the boycott organized in the prior summer games by the United States.

Highlights:

The Arab Nations have hosted their own Olympics. The 11th Arab Olympic Games were held in Egypt in 2007. It was previously hosted by Egypt in 1965 when it was founded to promote Arab Nationalism by Egypt’s Gamal Abdel Nasser.

South Africa was banned from the Olympics between 1964 and 1992 because the nation prohibited Blacks from participating as athletes in its sports programs.

Islamic extremists have threatened to kill female athletes from Muslim countries that have participated in the Olympic Games.

The Arab Athlete to watch: Hicham El Guerrouj of Morocco won the 1,500 metres and 5,000 metres at Athens 2004, becoming the first male athlete since Paavo Nurmi, 80 years earlier, to succeed in that double. Prior to Athens, El Guerrouj had won 84 of his 89 races at 1,500 metres or a mile since 1996, At Atlanta 1996, he tripped and fell in the final, finishing 12th. At Sydney 2000, he placed second to Kenya’s Noah Ngeny. The sports pros believe he has a shot at Gold and was named by Time Magazine as one of the top 50 athletes at the Beijing Olympics.

The Olympic Torch in the Biejing Games made its way through only one Arab city and country, arriving in Muscat, Oman on April 14, 2008, the ninth leg of the torch relay that eventually opened the Beijing games in a spectacular display August 8, 2008. The international leg of the Olympic Torch Relay took 33 days and crossed five continents and visited 21 countries. More than 2,000 torch bearers participated in the relay. The 20-kilometer torch relay (of 137,000 total km) in Oman began at al Bustan Palace which features a wooden dhow used to make an eight month water voyage to Guangzhou, a harbor city in southeast China, in 1981.

The International Olympic Committee determines how many athletes a nation may enter into competition, not the athletes’ country.

Although China hopes to use the Olympics to soften the tarnished image caused by its oppressive policies and restrictions on civil rights, the country still is among the leaders in blocking web sites from foreign nations, mostly political or that feature news, opinion and information.

The official IOC Olympics web site is the worst resource for information on the games.

Arab Countries in the Biejing Olympics:

The Arab League was established in 1945 and it currently has 22 member nations defined as being Arab. Here’s a rundown of Arab countries and their Olympic histories:

ALGERIA – athletes. First competed in 1964. One of 26 nations led by African nations to boycott the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada. Competed in Moscow and Los Angeles, Atlanta and Sydney. Has won 12 Olympic medals, including three in 1996 and five in 2000.

In 1996, 1500m runner Noureddine Morceli and lightweight boxer Hocine Soltani won gold. The five medals it won in Sydney were the most ever at a single Games for Algeria. Its lone gold medal in Sydney went to Nouria Merah-Benida in the women’s 1500m. Hassiba Boulmerka won Algeria’s first gold medal in the 1992 Barcelona women’s 1500m. The prior year in 1991, Hassiba Boulmerka of Algeria scored a stunning upset victory in the 1 500m run at the World Athletics Championships. When she returned to Algiers, she was hailed as a national heroine and as a model for Arab women who wanted to break away from restrictive roles. But she was also condemned by Islamic fundamentalists and was forced to move to Europe to train.

BAHRAIN – 15 athletes. Planned to attend the 1980 Olympics but boycotted along with many countries to protest the Soviet Unions invasion of Afghanistan, and attended its first Olympics in 1984. Has never won an Olympic medal, though Adel Darraj won a bronze medal in taekwondo when it was a demonstration sport at the Seoul Olympics.

COMOROS – 3 athletes. Founded its Olympic Committee in 1979 and was officially recognized by the IOC in 1993. Was one of 25 countries that made its Olympic debut in Atlanta. Never won a medal.

DJIBOUTI – 2 athletes. Made its Olympic debut in 1984, when it sent three athletes to Los Angeles in 1984. In 1988, Djibouti earned its first and only Olympic medal when Ahmed Houssein Salah won a bronze in the marathon. He returned this year to carry Djibouti’s flag in the opening ceremony for the competing athletes.

EGYPT – 104 athletes. First competed in 1912. From 1960 to 1968, competed with Syria as the United Arab Republic, but it is believed that most of the athletes were Egyptian. Boycotted the Moscow Olympics in 1980 because of the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Has won 21 medals. Mohammed Ali Rashwan’s silver in the open judo division in 1984 ended a medal drought since 1960.

Egypt was a weightlifting power in the 1930s and 1940s, dominating the lighter classes. Won five medals in Athens (one gold, one silver, three bronze). Karem Gaber won gold in men’s Greco-Roman wrestling (96kg/211.5 lbs) and boxer Mohamed Aly won silver in the men’s super heavyweight (91kg/201 lbs). No Egyptian woman has ever won an Olympic medal.

IRAQ – 4 athletes. Iraq made its Olympic debut in 1948 and has earned one Olympic medal: Abdul Wahid Aziz’s weightlifting bronze in 1960. In 2004, after the United States invaded and then occupied the country, the Iraqi men’s soccer team qualified for Athens.

JORDAN – 7 athletes. Made its debut in 1980 by sending four athletes to the contentious Moscow Olympics, breaking the Arab League boycott of the Soviet Union because of its invasion of Afghanistan. It has competed at each Olympics since. Has never won an Olympic medal.

KUWAIT – 8 athletes. Kuwait first competed in 1968, and has competed continuously since. Won its first Olympic medal at the 2000 Sydney Games – Fehaid Al Deehani won bronze in the men’s double trap shooting event. Danah Al Nasrallah became Kuwaiti’s first female Olympian in Athens, where she competed in the women’s 100m.

LEBANON – 6 athletes. Lebanon first competed in 1948. Boycotted the 1956 Games in Melbourne to protest Israeli occupation of the Sinai Peninsula. Has won four Olympic medals, none of them gold, and none since 1980. Three have come in Greco-Roman wrestling, the other in weightlifting.

LIBYA –7 athletes. In 1964, Libya’s only athlete in Tokyo was marathon runner Fighi Hassan, but he got sick and could not compete, delaying Libya’s entrance into the Games until 1968. Did not participate in the 1984 Games, although it was not part of the Soviet-led boycott. Did not have any athletes competing in Sydney though it did send a delegation. Sent eight athletes to Athens. Has never won an Olympic medal.

MAURITANIA – 2 athletes. Mauritania was to have competed at the 1980 Games in Moscow but boycotted. Made its debut at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Had two athletes in both Sydney and Athens. Has never won an Olympic medal. It’s athletes in Track & Field are Bounkou Camara and Souleymane Chabal El Moctar.

MOROCCO – 49 athletes. Has won 19 Olympic medals – six gold, four silver, and nine bronze. Thirteen of the medals have come in men’s track and field. First competed in 1960. Was one of four African nations to participate in the Opening Ceremony of the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada, before withdrawing from competition in solidarity with the 22 other African nations that had boycotted the Games. Boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow.

In 1984, Nawal El Moutawakel won the women’s 400m hurdles and Said Aouita won the men’s 5000m. Some consider Aouita, who was a world-class athlete at every distance between 800m and 10,000m, to be the greatest runner of all time.

Its most infamous medal came in Barcelona – Khalid Skah’s controversial win in the 10,000m. Skah’s lapped teammate, Hammou Boutayeb, interfered with Kenya’s Richard Chelimo, who held a slight lead over Skah. Skah won the race, but Chelimo’s initial protest was granted by officials and he was considered the winner upon Skah’s disqualification. The ruling was later overturned and Skah reinstated as the winner.

Won two medals in Atlanta, both track and field bronzes – Khalid Boulami (men’s 5000m) and Salah Hissou (men’s 10,000). Added five medals in Sydney (one silver, four bronze). The biggest shock was the performance of Hicham El Guerrouj in the men’s 1500m – Kenya’s Noah Ngeny upset the favored Moroccan, who, for the second time, entered the Olympics as a favorite and left without gold.

In Sydney, El Guerrouj managed to hang on for the silver. In Athens, he settled for nothing less than gold, winning both the men’s 5000m and 1500m. He became the first man to do since Finnish great Paavo Nurmi accomplished the feat in 1924. Hasna Benhassi won Morocco’s other medal in Athens, a silver in the women’s 800m.

OMAN – 4 athletes. Made its debut at the 1984 Games in Los Angeles. Has not won a medal. Buthaina Yaqoubi is Oman’s first female athlete to compete in an Olympic game. Buthaina Yaqoubi will compete in the women’s 100m sprint, as well as the long jump or the triple jump. Oman won its first gold medal in the Asian Games held in Beijing in 1990 by 400-meter runner Mohammed bin Amer Al Malky. Other athletes include shooter Dad Allah Al Balushi, and athletes Abdullah Al Sooli, and swimmer Mohammed Bin Nassib Al Habsi.

PALESTINE – 4 athletes. Made its Olympic debut in Atlanta. Palestine was so excited about the possibility of competing in the Olympics that a Palestinian Olympic Committee was one of the first things established after the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and Arafat signed a peace agreement on the White House lawn in October 1993. Even though the Palestinian Authority is not a state, its status as an independent territory makes it eligible for the Olympics.

Sent just two athletes to Atlanta and one of them competed. Majdi Abu Marahil, who had a full-time job in Force-17, Arafat’s secret service, finished last in the first round of the men’s 10,000m.

Sent two more athletes to Sydney – swimmer Samar Nassar and men’s 20m race walker Rami Deib Abdel Hami. The Athens delegation consisted of three athletes, including a female flag bearer: Sanaa Abu Bkheet, a 19-year-old 800m runner.

For years, Israel blocked any recognition of “Palestine” arguing it was not a sovereign nation, yet non-sovereign nations like Puerto Rico, for example, which is an American territory, have a tradition of participation.

QATAR – 22 athletes. Qatar boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow. First competed in 1984. In 1992, Mohamed Sulaiman finished third in the 1500m to win Qatar’s first Olympic medal.

In Sydney, weightlifter Saeed Saif Asad (one of eight former Bulgarian weightlifters who Qatar bought for a reported $1 million) won bronze in the men’s 105kg/231 lbs division. He was formerly known as Angel Popov.

Many nations attract foreign athletes and give them citizenship, but Qatar is often singled out by the mainstream American media, which has an anti-Arab and anti-Muslim bias, as having “bought” eight Bulgarian weightlifters prior to the 2000 Sydney games, resulting in one bronze medal. In 2004, several African runners applied for and received Qatari citizenship and competed. One of its best gold medal prospects would have been Saif Saaeed Shaheen, the 2003 world champion in steeplechase, a Kenyan who became a Qatari citizen two weeks before the 2003 World Championships. But Shaheen did not receive clearance from the Kenyan National Olympic Committee to run for Qatar in Athens.

Doha bid to host the Games of the XXXI Olympiad in 2016, but was eliminated in June 2008 as a result of a negative Western media campaign.

SAUDI ARABIA – 17 athletes. Debuted in 1972 and has since missed only the 1980 Moscow Games. Was the first country to announce it would boycott the 1980 Games in response to the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan; the declaration came two weeks before Jimmy Carter announced the U.S. boycott.

After sending just nine athletes to Barcelona, Saudi Arabia had a team of 35 competitors, all male, in Atlanta. Won its first Olympic medals at the 2000 Sydney Games. Hadi Souan Somayli won the country’s first medal, a silver, in the men’s 400m hurdles. Khaled Al Eid later won bronze in equestrian’s individual jumping competition. Did not win a medal in Athens.

Newscasters make a point of always saying its team is “all male.” Women are prohibited by Saudi Arabia’s government from participating, but many other nation’s also have teams that are also only all male.

SOMALIA – 2 athletes. Somalia has never won an Olympic medal. Boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow. The country’s best hope in Atlanta, Abdi Bile, the 1987 world champion at 1500m, finished sixth in the final. Somalia sent two athletes to the Biejing Olympics, Samiyo Yusuf, a young teenaged woman who competes in the 800 meters race for women, and Abdinasir saeed, a young man in his early twenties who will compete in the 5000 meters race for men.

SUDAN – 9 athletes. Sudan has never won an Olympic medal since first competing in 1960. It first participated in a team sport at the 1972 Games, when the men’s soccer team qualified. Boycotted the 1980 Games in Moscow.

SYRIA – 7 athletes. Syria made its Olympic debut in 1948, sending a diver to the London Games. It first participated in a team sport at the 1980 Games, when the men’s soccer team competed in Moscow.

Syria has won two Olympic medals. The first was a silver earned by freestyle wrestler Joseph Atiyeh at the 1984 Los Angeles Games. Atiyeh, a student at Louisiana State University at the time, was pinned by American Lou Banach in the final.

The second medal was by heptathlete Ghada Shouaa, Syria’s only female athlete in Atlanta. Shouaa won the gold medal in Atlanta – her country’s first Olympic title. First competed in 1948. From 1960 to 1968, competed with Egypt as the United Arab Republic, but it is believed that most of the athletes were Egyptian. Has never boycotted.

TUNISIA – 4 athletes. Has won six medals in the Olympics, four of them by distance runner Mohamed Gammoudi – in 1964, a silver in the 10,000m; in 1968, a gold in the 5000m and a bronze in the 10,000m; and in 1972, a silver in the 5000m. Gammoudi is in some select company. He is one of six men who have won multiple medals in both the 5000m and 10,000m, joining Flying Finns Paavo Nurmi, Ville Ritola and Lasse Viren, Sweden’s Edvin Wide, and Czechoslovakia’s Emil Zatopek.

Was one of two Arab nations and four African nations to participate in the Opening Ceremony of the 1976 Montreal Games and then join a 22-African-nation boycott of those Olympics. Boycotted in 1980. After failing to win a medal in Barcelona, Tunisia won a boxing bronze in light welterweight thanks to Fathi Missaoui. Its last Olympic medal came in 1996.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES – 8 athletes. 1980, but did not compete in Moscow. Made its Olympic debut in 1984. In 2004 in Athens, shooter Ahmed Almaktoum won the nation’s first medal, a gold in men’s double trap. Maitha al Makthoum will compete in taekwondo, and Latifah al Makthoum will compete in show jumping (equestrian). Maitha is the daughter of Mohammed bin Rashid al Makthouhm ruler of Dubai and Prime Minister of the UAE and Latifah is a niece. NBC sports reporters said that both are al Makthoum’s daughters.

YEMEN – 5 athletes. Until 1990, Yemen was divided. Yemen made its Olympic debut as a unified country in Barcelona. South Yemen boycotted the 1984 Los Angeles Games and made its first appearance in Seoul with six athletes. North Yemen made its debut by sending two athletes to Los Angeles in 1984 and it sent 11 athletes to Seoul, where one of them made headlines.

Abdallah Alizani, a Greco-Roman wrestler, was believed to become the first Arab athlete to follow through on the Arab policy of not participating in head-to-head competition with Israelis. Alizani failed to appear at his first-round match against Israel’s Dov Grobermann, who was awarded a victory by forfeit.

(Compiled by Ray Hanania from numerous broadcast and online sources. Contact Ray with any updates at www.TheMediaOasis.com and by email at rayhanania@comcast.net.)

The Maghreb Union for me doesn’t really exist. In name it does and there is an institution called Maghreb Union, but for me it is useless and a hassle.
All the Maghreb countries are still little children fighting over their toys and pulling each others hair out. Just like your normal dysfunctional family.
The Union will do nothing to solve that.

Let us first grow up before we decide to marry into an union. Seriously, that union came way too quick and was actually more part of this low self-esteem of our elites who desperately tried to model everything to European standards. In the mean time they forgot that an union needs basic things like a working judiciary, healthy economies, good democracies etc.

Anyhow, the fact that Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria have a lot in common is hard to deny. (I’m skipping the other 2 members, Libya and Mauretania, because of my lack of knowledge)
All 3 countries are immigrant countries with a schizophrenic identity (the latter not so in Tunisia but still)
Are we Moroccans/Algerians/Tunisians first? Or maybe muslim or perhaps north-african? But maybe Berber, Arabs, Arabized or Europeanized?
It is hard to decide for the ones still looking to decide. Especially for the Maghrebis in Europe. Millions of people from the Maghreb live in Europe and other parts of the world, and most of them have an almost holy ritual of taking their summer-holiday in the Maghreb.

We know that we have Raï in common. And amazigh-music. And don’t forget the marabouts either!
Algerian and Moroccan-Arabic (and Tunisian a bit) are both alien languages for most of the people in the Arabic world. So there you go, another thing we have in common.
If you come to think of it, we have more in common than we think. We are more alike than we think. Unfortunately, personal vendettas between our “leaders” prevent us from sharing and celebrating that.

But we need to realize that there are factors that separate us. History, borders and political ties. We have to cherish those factors as well in order to cooperate together.
Cooperation isn’t only based on things we have in common, it would be a delusional cooperation. Cooperation is succesfull if we consider our divides and treat each other in a mature way (and not the bitch-fights we often see between Algeria and Morocco)

To conclude my rantings, here are 4 videos from Youtube. All 4 of them are traditional music from North Africa, and for me that’s the second best thing that has come out of that region (Cheikha Rimitti, Aicha Tachinouite, couscous and Moroccan kaftans share the 1st spot)
the first 2 are Moroccan.

Morocco: (Aicha Tachinouite rocks! Seriously, she’s one fierce lady who knows how to shake it!)

Dakka Marrakchia in Holland. There should be an universal law that every wedding should have one of these of bands:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b12-1J27TIA

Algeria:

Tunisia. Thats always a bit strange. I always associate Tunisia with the beautiful movie of Satin Rouge where a Tunisian widow takes up bellydancing. So therefore this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMqaYbKlEus

(I looooove the accent)

PS: This post was cross-posted on my blog Maghrebism because of the Maghreb Union Blogging Day.
If you want to read more Maghreb Union Blogging Day-posts, go visit these aggregators:
Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia

However, nothing really interesting came out of this agreement. Summits are always blocked because of old tensions between countries, especially Morocco and Algeria about the Western Sahara,and no useful results have been obtained for years now. People from the region barely know each other, and the Union doesn’t really exist.

Many young people in the Maghreb are longing to get rid of their rivalries and disagreements and create an efficient unity based on economic agreements that would be beneficial for these countries and later on a political union to give the region a real power.

As official politics failed to do more than speeches and nice words, bloggers have decided to ask for better actions.

This is why tunisian blogger Big_Trap_Boy launched a one-day campaign on the blogosphere and asked bloggers from Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Mauritania and Libya to join and make June 1st a blogging day around the Maghreb Union.

The idea is to have a large number of bloggers from the region write something about the Union, whatever they want, even if it is to criticize it. The important thing is to talk about it and have a starting point to discuss the issue.

In the last few months, events in Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria told us that “Al Qaida for an Islamic Maghreb” is not a joke. We may not know the exact truth about the links between well-known terrorist organizations figures, but what we do know today is that the danger is right here, all around.

Tunisian people didn’t even know they could be targeted. They thought everything happens … everywhere else. Then they were told about rockets and gun fire for weeks in the quiet suburbs of Tunis.

Moroccan people thought that after the Casablanca episode a few years ago, everything will be done to stop it quickly. Now Moroccan police is still hunting suspects, some of them preferring to kill themselves and other people around when they are trapped.

Algeria was still hardly trying to get out of the memories of violence and the horrible experience of the 90′s. And now explosions are back. Death is back. Fear is back.

Now the Maghreb is already bleeding, and there’s nothing to hide anymore.

They are telling us how great heroes they are, because they are “attacking corrupt governments or foreign interests”. But can they tell us about the civilian victims, the destruction, the fear they are spreading? … Collateral damage maybe? Can they tell us how exactly they are helping us live better and be free?

“Every Jew in Palestine is a bit of an Arab, and no Arab in Israel can deny that he’s a little Jewish.” – The Attack

It is hard to know how to address Yasmina Khadra. It sounds silly to call a 50-year-old religious Muslim Algerian with a moustache “Ms. Khadra.” But the man born as Mohammed Moulessehoul insists I refer to him by his wife’s name. “I gave her my name at our wedding, and she gave me hers forever,” he says in a telephone interview from France.

For Khadra, adopting his wife’s name as his pen name is not just a gesture of love.

“When a Muslim-Arab man chooses a woman’s name, it’s a revolution,” he says. “If you address an Arab man as a female, he usually will kill you. But I am proud of it. I use the name to celebrate the names of all Algerian women – they were always at the forefront of their people’s battle. If women prevail in centers of power, the attitudes of entire peoples may be changed. Women can move things – just as I write precisely because of my wife.”

The Hebrew translation of his book “The Attack,” published by Pandora and Libros and translated by Dan Shorer, first appeared on local shelves last week. Khadra insists on writing in French, even though it is not his mother tongue. That choice became a subject of debate when the book first appeared last year, in France. Most critics praised the book, which sold 350,000 copies. However, some newspapers, including “Le Monde,” questioned whether the book should be displayed on shelves devoted to French literature given that the author is Algerian.

This polemic, which took place against the background of the riots in the French suburbs, is another example of anti-Muslim racism in France. Khadra maintains that he does not remember this discourse.

“So many things were written,” he says, after several seconds of silence. “I am an Algerian. I live in France as an immigrant, because France grants me the maximal freedom to bring my books into the world. If the French are proud to place my books on the shelves for French literature, that’s superb. But I will always remain Algerian.”

“Whoever told you a man mustn’t cry doesn’t know what it means to be a man,” my father declared when he came upon me, weeping and distraught, in the Patriarch funeral chamber. “There’s no shame in crying, my boy. Tears are the noblest things we have.”

The book’s main character, Dr. Amin Jaafari, is a Bedouin who lives in Tel Aviv. He is married to Siham and works as a senior surgeon at Ichilov Hospital. When a terror attack takes place in the city, wounding dozens, Dr. Jaafari cares for some of the casualties.

“I don’t want an Arab to touch me,” says one of the wounded, spitting at the surgeon. When Jaafari tries to return home, police detain him. But his life really changes only when he is called back to the hospital to identify his wife’s body. “From the first evidence at our disposal,” the chief investigator tells him, “it appears that your wife’s severe wounds match wounds sustained by suicide bombers.”

Khadra has never visited Israel or Palestine. That makes his profound familiarity with Tel Aviv’s streets even more surprising. The book includes precise descriptions of the city like, “I choose Shaul Hamelech Street, turn left at Ibn Gvirol, and find that I must go up Dizengoff.” He also paints a faithful picture of people who live on both sides of the separation fence and of their way of thinking.

“It’s my imagination,” Khadra says in the interview. “I taped televised reports of the area. Not necessarily about the war and atrocities, but about daily life, the colors, the language. I watched it over and over, and tried to imagine myself in your city.”

The book describes, perhaps for the first time, atrocities and the feelings of those whose loved ones have carried out suicide attacks. Khadra does not focus on police investigations into the doctor, the harassment from neighbors, the lynching of Jaafari in the middle of the street or his rejection at work. He focuses on Jaafari’s internal tribulations and his journey to understand what caused his wife, who lived with him in what he believed was an ideal world, to carry out this act.

Khadra notes that when he sat on a panel sponsored by “Le Figaro,” a Jewish speaker took him to task for writing the book and told him it was disgraceful to glorify suicide attacks and terror. Later, the speaker admitted he had not read the book. “The Attack” is a fair book. At times it is even a bit too didactic – for example, when a friend of the doctor tells him, “Nineteen dead and dozens wounded is not a private matter. It was a suicide attack, and a suicide attack is the sole jurisdiction of the police. Leave investigation in the hands of those who are trained.”

“No child is completely safe if it has no country.”

Dr. Jaafari travels to the occupied territories, to places he has not visited in years since becoming a doctor in Tel Aviv, and he tries to track down people who met with his wife, including Sheikh Marwan of Bethlehem. Jaafari is beaten by the sheikh’s disciples, and engages in a theological discussion with Marwan. “I cannot understand how a man who is supposed to be so close to his God can be so far from man, so apathetic to his suffering,” Jaafari tells him.

Khadra, a devout Muslim who prays five times a day, adheres to that approach.

“Religion is supposed to unite rather than separate people,” he says. “But the believers preferred the prophets over the one God of all three monotheistic religions. When we choose a prophet – an imam, a rabbi or a pope over God himself – it creates distance. People forget they are only human, and they distance themselves from God. The land you live in united all religions. Jerusalem is a city blessed by God’s generosity, but larger powers divide you.”

For years, Khadra served as a senior officer in the Algerian army. At first he wrote under his real name. Some of his most successful books were highly esteemed thrillers. He chose to use his wife’s name after the army began censoring his books.

He says his military career did not influence his opinions.

“I hate no one,” he says. “I have Jewish and Palestinian friends. I fought in wars, and I know that wars are comprised of moments of shame – not moments of pride. Humanity suffered terrible things and was always able to rise above them, time and again. Yet, you continue to wage war for 60 years. That proves to me that you are only soldiers in a war that external forces, larger than you, are directing.”

Despite the fact that the film rights to Khadra’s book were recently acquired by Universal Studios, he is not afraid to identify those “larger forces.”

“America is not Israel’s best friend, like you think,” he says. “In my mind, a good friend is one who tries to help you out of trouble and doesn’t provide weapons and advise you to continue to fight and sacrifice. The world always needed a sacrificial lamb. Now there’s no better lamb than Israel and Palestine, because the conflict involves the religious question that divides the world. The Jews are in favor of Israel, the Muslims are in favor of Palestine, and the rest of the world rejoices. But when both sides understand why they are still fighting after so many years and understand they are not masters of their own fate, perhaps something will happen to create change.

“The Jewish people suffered throughout human history,” he adds. “They always blamed you for the bad things that happened in the world. In France, they now blame the Muslim immigrants for every problem: poverty, unemployment, etc. Two peoples that the entire world hates are fighting each other rather than standing united.”

“Standing in front of the Wailing Wall, I felt the same thrill as I did before the Dome of the Rock, and I couldn’t remain unmoved by the serenity emanating from the church of the Holy Sepulcher.”

Dr. Jaafari always strove to achieve a lofty status. His father dreamed of becoming a painter when everyone considered him crazy for it.

Khadra explains that he chose the Bedouin hero because of “the tradition, the authenticity and the philosophy that accompanies their lives.” Foremost in Khadra’s mind, Jaafari represents an example of what Palestinian Arabs could be if the world let them stop fighting.

“He is my image for all Arabs,” he says. “If they would only let them realize their dream, they would fulfill themselves. For now, they are merely an angry people, because they constantly live in humiliation. The moment they are given an opportunity to prove they are a major and honorable people, they will prove they know how to do things other than war.”

Wow. That’s all I can say right now. It’s what happens whem I’m VERY impressed and interested. We need more men like Ms. Khadra in this world.

According to the article, over 13,000 prisoners are continuing their education, and 52 prisoners participated in college exams, 22 of whom succeeded. About 4,218 prisoners are currently registered for long-distance learning, and 270 prisoners completed their college degrees while in prison.

Quite impressive and promising figures, I must say. Though I’m sure that if you consider the total amount of prisoners these stats will seem worthless. But the point is that the number of Algerian prisoners enrolled in higher education is increasing.

Nevertheless, as a predominantly Arab and Muslim country, Algeria’s politicized classes have their opinions and do voice them. This goes for wages, benefits, healthcare and international relations. Algerians have held a few protests against the Israeli assault on what seems to many to be all of Lebanon. While Israel and the United States may claim that the IDF is strictly attacking Hezb Allah “strongholds” and trying to avoid as many civilian casualties as possible, many Arabs, Algerians included, are not buying it. Aside from the numerous scenes of civilian carnage being reported to them daily by numerous television stations, there is a great suspicion of Israel’s motives that arises anytime Israel launches a military offensive. Add to this traditional Algerian cynicism and one finds that the hearts and minds of Algerians are hard to appease, regardless of who you are.

This weekend there will be protests in the nation’s capitol of Algiers. “American citizens are advised to avoid these demonstrations”, the words of India Daily, not mine. Algerian protests have been rowdy in the last few years, often resulting in the deaths of youths at the hands of the gendarmerie and mass riots. It was unclear from the report as to what groups exactly would be attending the protest, but I would not be surprised to find that it is made up mostly, if not almost entirely, of young unemployed men and male students.

Ali Belhadj: Fashadoo! Give Me Attention!There always seems to be a reason for Ali Belhadj to come out of his lair just briefly enough to show the world that uncivilized men do still exist. The last time was last summer to “congratulate the mujahedeen in Iraq,” for having kidnaped and murdered two Algerian diplomats in Iraq. As the nation mourned, Belhadj, true to his terrorist roots, pointed and laughed. He was jailed for a short time and then released.

Now he’s done it again. This time by showing his inner crack pot by standing outside the American embassy shouting anti-American/Zionist/war slogans. Lameen Souag at Jazairana summarizes:

Ali Belhadj got arrested for demonstrating in front of the American Embassy with banners saying “Oh rulers of the Arabs, close the embassies of Zionist terrorism” and “Stop the flow of oil to Bush’s bloodthirsty government, and kick the petrol companies out of the land of the 1.5 million martyrs.” He allegedly received a sympathetic reception from the police, who agreed with him on the Lebanon issue (his opinions are scarcely controversial on this point, after all!) but were legally required to prevent unauthorised demonstrations. He was released later that day, and placed under close security observation.

Belhadj sould be locked up for good. He shouldn’t have been released. What the police ought to have done is charge him with treason for the crimes against many, many Algerians over the years, that he has defended and encouraged, toss him into a cell and throw away the key.

But his opinions on this matter are not really all that much out there, they are rather common, popular and, as Lameen notes, not considered controversial by most Algerians. He did break the law though. If had done the same while shouting pro-American or anti-Bouteflika slogans, I’d have been thrown in the pen too, for not having a permit to protest.

Judging from newpaper headlines and the sentiments expressed to me by relatives in Algeria (via telephone and email), I don’t see a major difference in the way Algerians are regarding the conflict from the way that others in the Arab world are.

The major difference in opinion is among Imazighen, Berbers, from what I can tell. I talked to a friend of mine who hails from Tizi-Ouzou, earlier this week, who asked me “Why should Algeria care about the Arabs’ war with the Jews? What’s the point? Let them move to Lebanon if they want to be mad about it!”

Are these sentiments typical? Probably not, but they are widely held among a segment of the Algerian population, especially younger men that come from minority backgrounds. My experience does not lead me to believe that minorities are as involved in the battles of the Arabs. For instance, I have never met an Egyptian Copt who genuninely cared about Palestine, and I have never met an Amazigh man that was all that interested in pan-Arab causes fervently (I have met several women who were though). There is always the question, “What about our country?” There are no Imazighen in Palestine, save for the few Berber Jews that fled Algeria after independence. I think Chaouia Berbers are more likely to give a damn about the Middle East, having more connections to the Arab culture than the Kabyles (the other major Berber group in Algeria), mainly for Islamic reasons. I would expect a similar reaction of indifference from Iraqi Kurds and other non-Arab Middle Eastern minorities. What’s their beef with Israel? But whatever these sentiments, they are minority opinions, and dominated, like the minorities themselves, by more widely held Arab oriented sentiments.

I am very excited to be a part of MideastYouth.com. I think this is a really unique and special idea that will have positive results. I look forward to productive discussions, debates, etc. I will make posts weekly, sometimes cross posted from my blog, The Moor Next Door, and other times written especially for this blog.

Cheers,
K. Nouri Lumendifi