When Emile Zola said ‘J'accuse' in 1898, he accused the highest echelons of the French army of obstruction of justice and anti-Semitism, in the case of Captain Alfred Dreyfus, who was convicted unjustly of leaking information to the German Embassy, and was banished to Devil's Island. Personally, I accuse the entire nation; - I accuse the nation of being anti-democratic, nay the antithesis of democracy. No one in our countries is democratic, from the secularists who talk about the other opinion then reject it, to the fundamentalists who consider democracy to be a heresy, and the terrorists who emerged from our midst to murder Muslims in the name of religion of which they are the true enemies. Arabs are against democracy as much as they are fervent in calling for democracy. Their version of democracy has no room for others, and accuses regimes and their political opponents of harboring the same faults they have within them. Arabs, whether they are secular or religious, are opposed to U.S. policies in our countries, but fail to see that they pursue the ugliest aspect of these policies, i.e. George W. Bush's ‘Either you're with us, or against us”. Every Arab is a George W. Bush, as he believes that those who are not with him are against him. - I accuse every Arab of being unjust. I never excuse him of this, because the Arab knows that injustice has dire consequences, and yet, the Arab says “Your day will come, Oppressors” but then the Arab oppresses others. The Arab revolutions of rage have provided me with conclusive evidence regarding Arab injustice that I already knew of. From the two ousted regimes in Tunisia and Egypt, to those regimes gearing up to be ousted, all people are thieves, murderers and torturers. But is it possible that there are no honest men, even if they were few, in Egypt and Tunisia, or Libya and Yemen and elsewhere? Democracy that the Arabs preach but do not practice, justice, which is the basis of any rule, and sheer humanity all stipulate that every person is innocent until proven guilty. There are thousands and thousands of Arabs, who now know every detail of the fortune of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's wife and her family, up to the fractions of the dollar, and also the fortunes of Hosni Mubarak and Mrs. Suzanne and their two sons, Muammar Gaddafi and his sons or his gang, and Ali Abdullah Saleh and his son and nephew who is also his son in law. Since Arabs have a limited understanding, an accusation that I shall elaborate, I want to put it on the record that the above does not exonerate anyone at all. I am aware that there is rampant corruption, but I leave it to the courts to convict or acquit, and I accept their judgment either way, because these courts know more than I do, and they alone have the right to say that this man is a thief and this man is honest. To explain further, I live in the West, which is democratic in practice not just in lip service. I learned from the Western press that the defendant, even if he were arrested with a smoking gun, remains ‘the alleged killer' until the court issues its verdict and convicts him, at which point he becomes the killer. But if the defendant appeals, then he is described as ‘the alleged killer' again, until the final verdict is issued. In our countries, however, every passerby near a place where a young girl was raped is arrested, and called a ‘sexual predator' in the newspapers even before the indictment is issued, let alone the conviction. He may indeed be acquitted, but only after his reputation is tarnished with the worst possible charge. - I accuse the nation of the lack of comprehension, which originally stems from its ignorance. However, I want to be specific and focused today. Half of the nation can now read, but the majority of the ‘educated' read but doesn't understand. I had been the target of a lot of misunderstanding, to the point that I accused myself. I feared that what I wrote, or what I said in conferences and televisions, was incomprehensible by virtue of my long stay abroad. I thus started asking colleagues, writers and academicians about this, and each came back to me with a story about their own suffering with this problem, to the extent that I am now thinking about writing a book on the subject together with a colleague of mine. Recently, I wrote an article attacking 36 Jordanian tribal figures and a statement they had issued, and I was accused as a result of attacking tribes even when I was praising them in the article. I was also accused of insulting the women in the tribes, even when I was defending them because their fathers gave them ugly names (incidentally, the Qabiha [Ugly woman] is the name of Al-Mutawakkil's slave, Umm al-Mu'taz, and it is not my fault that some men still live in the third century AH, and it seems that the stones of Arabia Petra have seeped through into some hearts and minds). Perhaps we need another thousand years to move from the stage of reading to the stage of comprehending what we read. - I accuse the nation of cowardice, especially with regard to the United States… “Your orders, Uncle Sam”, and Israel, the state of six million thieves that occupies Arab and Muslim land, and yet 300 million Arabs and 1.3 billion Muslims are unable to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque. - I accuse the Arabs of hypocrisy. They are always on the side of the victors. I have an example for this from journalism, my profession: The same journalists, who made Saddam Hussein or Muammar Gaddafi heroes, began calling them tyrants when they were defeated. Finally, I accuse but do not convict, because the verdict belongs to history. I accuse the nation of which I am part, and along which I am also accused. [email protected]
