In a briefing about his plans for the Arab world guest-of-honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair this week, Ahmed Kamal Abul-Magd lent credence to the view that the event is as much about "rectifying Western misconceptions of Arabs" as anything else As one of the official representatives of contemporary Arab thought at the International Frankfurt Book Fair (6-10 October), prominent cultural critic and Arab League Commissioner for the Dialogue of Civilisations Ahmed Kamal Abul-Magd believes the event to be a rare opportunity for clearing up misconceptions about "people with Middle Eastern features". An expert on the dialogue between Arab-Muslim and other (mainly Western) civilisations, with many years of experience and a remarkable number of titles to his name, Abul-Magd will be among the panellists at two of the most significant seminars to be held at the fair, on Islam and the West. In common with many Arab and Western participants, he sees the occasion as an opportunity to communicate to the fair's vast, global audience the message that Arabs and Muslims, as well as being "normal human beings", have contributed much to human thought, creativity and science. Speaking at the Arab League headquarters this week, Abul- Magd announced, "It is naïve as well as erroneous of Westerners to reduce Arabs and Muslims to that image of the bearded terrorist." He reiterated one of the most recurrent notions in the Arab discourse building up to the fair, that the guest-of-honour presentation affords "a golden opportunity", pointing out that it is the objective of "making maximal use of this opportunity" that will inform his contribution as panellist and his statements to the media. "No one can deny that Arabs and Muslims have been perceived in a terribly negative light since the attacks of 11 September," Abul-Magd went on. "Even people, like myself, who do not subscribe to conspiracy theory -- they can't deny the attempt to tarnish the image of Arabs and Muslims, not just in the West but throughout the world. But at the same time, no one can deny that for their part, Arabs have tended to cocoon themselves in response, eschewing the necessary confrontation." Abul-Magd was emphatic with regard to this latter point. "This is my principal point of contention with those who have been opposing the Arab guest-of-honour presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair, one of the most significant forums in the West." The detractors, in other words, are in effect calling for missing the aforementioned golden opportunity." To Abul-Magd, besides, it seems pointless, if not completely absurd, that Arab intellectuals should be arguing among themselves about which of them will adequately represent Arab culture -- whether this or that figure will participate -- rather than worrying about the business of presenting a truthful and impressive image of the Arab-Muslim world to replace the one that has been perpetuated for three years. He feels that reports of Arabs and Muslims in the West being subjected to questioning, if not detention without trial, are far more of a concern than the relative importance of one or another intellectual or book. The most recent example of the kind of persecution that worries Abul-Magd concerns an incident of which he was informed by a US lawyer friend. One morning two Egyptians studying and working in Michigan were reportedly surrounded by over 100 policemen, who questioned them with the words, "Are you Arab? Speak up!" The two students, joint owners of an ice- cream stand in the vicinity, had been meeting regularly at a parking lot to discuss work when their "Middle Eastern features" prompted neighbours to contact police after suspecting a terrorist plot. Abul-Magd believes that such incidents, the frequency of which is disturbing, reflect not only post-11 September fear of Arabs and Muslims in Western capitals and on board Western airliners but, equally, the failure of Arabs to inform the West of their cultural status -- their contributions to art and culture in the past and at present -- and their often very friendly attitude towards Westerners and Western civilisation. "We have let down our culture to the point of sinfulness," Abul- Magd warned. "We let Western commentators spread the view that Arab- Muslim culture is but a swamp that harbours terrorism, and we let millions of people judge us by what remains, in the grander scheme of things, a very temporary pause in our historical progress, turning a blind eye to our relations with them. As a result we have become a nation that is misperceived and that misperceives other nations." At the top of Abul-Magd's list of pursuits is "the mission" of improving communication with the (Western) Other. "It's easy to give in to the cocoon, the tendency to screen ourselves out, which many intellectuals continue to promote," he concluded. "It is no way to live, whether for Arabs or Muslims. The minute we become isolationists we let others present us through their own distorted perspectives, we allow them to set their brainwashing machineries in motion. In effect, we condone the propagation of stereotypes." It is in this light that Abul-Magd fails to understand the position of intellectuals who, while complaining of the stereotyping of Arabs as terrorists, turn down an opportunity to participate in one of the world's greatest cultural events -- and only because they have reservations about the programme put together by the official organisation in charge [ie, the Arab League], or because they have a personal dislike for some of the official participants "'Withdrawalists'," a term coined by Abul-Magd to denote the intellectuals in question, "are as much of a threat to the status of Arabs and Muslims in the world today as the latter's most violent detractors, because they undermine their nation's capacity for communication. It would be very unfortunate indeed if we decided to miss this opportunity," Abul- Magd added, "especially at a point in time when the only words Arabs and Muslims seem to be associated with are 'Taliban' and 'Al-Qaeda' -- words that are in fact as alienating to the vast majority of Arabs and Muslims as they are to Westerners. And this," he repeated, "is why I take issue with the nay- sayers." By Dina Ezzat
