New representative PRESIDENTIAL spokesman Maged Abdel-Fatah was named Egypt's new permanent representative at the United Nations in New York this week. Abdel-Fatah, who has been chief of the information cabinet at the presidency for five years and recently also assumed the responsibilities of the presidential spokesman, is a career diplomat in his mid-50s. Abdel-Fatah served as the deputy permanent representative in New York in the mid-1990s under Nabil El-Arabi. The permanent representative position became vacant in July when Ahmed Abul-Gheit -- its previous occupant -- was promoted to foreign minister. It is considered one of the most important posts for any Egyptian career diplomat, as it almost automatically opens the door to a ministerial post. Former foreign ministers Esmat Abdel-Meguid and Amr Moussa both served as Egypt's permanent representatives in New York before taking on the top diplomat job. Several career diplomats at the ambassadorial level are currently being nominated to take over Abdel-Fatah's roles at the presidency. Presidential sources suggest the job will be split in two: a chief of information cabinet and a presidential spokesman. Abdel-Fatah should be off to New York as of January 2005. An editor's horror THE EXECUTIVE chief editor of Nasserist Party mouthpiece Al- Arabi -- Abdel-Halim Qandil -- was kidnapped, beaten and dumped, naked, onto the Suez Desert Road early Tuesday. Although the identity of the culprits is unknown, Qandil officially accused Interior Minister Habib El-Adli in a complaint sent to the prosecutor-general. Qandil told Shaden Shehab the horror story. "I was dropped off by a colleague on Tuesday dawn, blocks away from my home in Haram, Giza, when a car suddenly sped towards me. Four well- built men, two of them in suits, got out of the vehicle and tied my hands and blindfolded me. I struggled and screamed, but they quickly shoved me into the car. The first thing they told me was, 'This is a lesson so you stop talking about your betters'. I was then pummelled from both sides, and a sharp knife was placed against my neck. First my glasses, bag, and mobile phone were taken away from me, and then they began to take off my clothes. I was then dumped onto the Suez Desert Road. I had to walk -- naked and unable to see clearly without my glasses -- for about 300 metres until I found a military police checkpoint. They gave me clothes and stopped a car to take me home." Qandil linked the incident to this week's issue of Al-Arabi, which suggested that the real culprits of the Taba attacks were not the ones arrested and identified by the Interior Ministry. "This will not make me retreat in any way," he said. "It will make me even stronger." The Press Syndicate condemned the attack on Qandil in a statement that said, "this is a vicious crime that we all condemn in the strongest terms, as we see it as a demonstration of how degrading the handling of political disputes has become in this society." The statement added that, "it is a horrific and telling example of how some powers have exceeded all considerations and nationally- drawn limits in such a foolish, criminal and hostile way. "The way this crime was committed, unfortunately, leads to strong suspicions that it was in connection with attitudes and views which [Qandil] has expressed in Al-Arabi newspaper, and perhaps in connection with the attitudes of this [opposition Nasserist] publication itself. "The syndicate, on behalf of all of its journalist members, will not allow such a grave incident to pass unnoticed, without exposing or severely punishing those behind the attack," the syndicate statement said. The syndicate also called for a two-hour sit-in at its headquarters beginning at noon today to protest against the assault. Locust attack SWARMS of locusts have been observed on Egypt's southern and western borders with Sudan and Libya, amid reports warning that the voracious insects could invade the country in larger numbers and on a more dangerous scale. Egyptian officials were quick to soothe fears, saying the situation was under control thanks to stringent alert levels put out by national locust-control units. "Locust-control teams are deployed on the borders to monitor the area for locust activity driven by the winds," Agriculture Minister Ahmed El-Leithi told the press. El-Leithi underlined that President Hosni Mubarak and Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif were monitoring these efforts. The official Middle East News Agency had reported on 31 October that swarms of locusts heading north towards Libya, Algeria and Tunisia had changed direction, and were veering into Egypt's western borderline city of Salloum. The Wafd Party mouthpiece also broke news of the insects' arrival in Sharq Al-Ewaynat in southern Egypt. The opposition daily cited an Agriculture Ministry report warning that the situation could worsen in the winter, when rainfall would provide ideal breeding grounds for locusts. That was unlikely to happen, officials said, due to precautions that had been taken to guarantee early detection and immediate response. The threat to agricultural production is the chief reason why a locust invasion might send countries into a panic. A mature locust can eat one to two times its body weight per day. A large swarm -- weighing tens of thousands of tonnes -- can cover several square kilometres. The swarm could fly 3,500 kilometres in a month. In 2003, locusts were seen on the shores of Lake Nasser, in Toshka in southern Egypt, as well as in the Western Desert. The situation was far from calamitous despite press warnings. Egypt's worst locust invasion in modern times occurred between 1986 and 1989, when at least 20 swarms covering 400 kilometres reached southern Egypt. Victim mentality criticised MUSLIMS should stop "excessive emphasis on the religious dimension" of their political, economic and social issues, and use the media in a better manner to convey the true meanings of Islam, concluded a seminar organised by Egypt's International Economic Forum (EIEF) last week, reports Mustafa El-Menshawy. "There is no general tendency to target Islam in the West, as many Muslims wrongly believe," said Mustafa El-Feki, the chairman of parliament's Foreign Affairs Committee, "but rather fears that Islam could be exploited for justifying more acts of violence there." While warning that self-victimisation and overused conspiracy theories could leave Muslims "with a feeling of being outcasts", El- Feki also blamed Western countries for pushing forward that kind of description by stereotyping Muslims. Businessman Mounir Fakhri Abdel-Nour, a Wafdist MP, agreed, going even further to urge that the levels of Muslim scholars and preachers needed upgrading, "They don't even speak a second language in order to open up links with the other, and stop preaching to the converted, as they have always done," he said. Abdel-Nour, a Coptic Christian, said that non-Muslims who live in Muslim countries were also affected by the image of Islam abroad. As the seminar moved closer to its "Islam and the Media" theme, some of the speakers urged Muslims to use new means to stem the vicious campaigns and unfair judgements that had descended upon them after 11 September. Abdel-Moneim Said, the director of Al- Ahram's Centre for Political and Strategic Studies, lamented that Arab media outlets do not make solid moves to denounce, or distance themselves in the least, from terrorists, citing those launching attacks in Iraq as a case in point. "Most people in the West trust what is broadcast about Islam and Muslims since they have not found other media outlets of equal credibility to tune in to," said EIEF Board Chairman Shafiq Gabr. He suggested setting up a panel of scholars and politicians to produce a unified position paper to be presented at international forums on Islam. Election-night at home FOR THE first time in years, the American Embassy in Cairo chose not to sponsor the traditional late-night electoral fete for the American community and others interested in following the results of Tuesday's US presidential elections. The popular event has usually been held on election night at a downtown five-star hotel, where hundreds gather to watch election coverage on wide screen televisions amidst a festive atmosphere featuring plenty of food and drink. An embassy spokesman told Al-Ahram Weekly that US Ambassador David Welch would be hosting an Iftar on Wednesday instead to discuss the results. No particular reason was provided for the decision not to hold the Tuesday night event, which usually lasts until the early hours of Wednesday morning, when it becomes clearer -- based on the time difference between the US and Egypt -- who the winner might be.
