August 29, 2011
Decades ago, while engaged in undergraduate and
graduate work in Middle Eastern Affairs and related
studies, the only way I learned of the struggles of
scores of millions of non-Arab peoples in the region
occurred solely via my own initiative. Of all the
hundreds of books in my library, hardly a jot or
tittle on such subjects. And even when, on rare
occasion, you might find mention of some of these
folks in a book, a discussion on the subject never
made it into the classroom.
In just one of many examples, only by becoming a
member of the London-based Anti-Slavery Society did
I learn of problems black Africans faced regarding
genocidal and 20th century slave trading Arab
tormentors. The struggles of the Anya Nya and other
black Africans in the south of the Sudan and
elsewhere were in full bloom, yet one would never
know anything at all about this stuff if the
academic syllabus and classroom were the sources of
information. If Israel was not the alleged villain,
the problem was left untouched in far too many
classrooms.
While I would frequently be exposed to such things
as alleged Zionist fascism, racism, colonialism,
imperialism, and dozens of other Hebrew sins, barely
a word was ever spoken about the subjugation
(largely by Arabs, but also by others such as Turks
and Iranians as well) and plight of folks like
Kurds, Imazighen ("Berbers"), Copts, Assyrians,
native Jews, and so forth.
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Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has done extensive
doctoral studies in Middle Eastern Affairs. He has created and
conducted counter-Arab propaganda programs for college youth, has
lectured on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has publicly
debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles and op-eds have been
published in dozens of newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. |
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And when mention of such
non-Arab people was made, it was about such things
as Berber rugs or musicians. To learn of Kurds back
then, the Little Miss Muffet nursery rhyme provided
more information than academia…and those were the
wrong curds.
Now, keep in mind that this was especially odd
because the sixties and seventies were very socially
conscious eras in history. But, I was young and
naïve and so gave the situation the benefit of the
doubt.
I know better now.
The situation was indeed nauseatingly shameful and
still remains so in far too many places where one
set of lenses is routinely used in the scrutiny of
an admittedly imperfect Israel in the classroom,
assorted media, United Nations, State Department,
and so forth, and a far different set--if any at
all--is used when dealing with the so-called "Arab"
world.
It turns out that while masses of students were
being exposed to the real and imaginary flaws of
Jewish nationalism--Zionism--in the attempt by Jews
to finally cast off their perpetual victim and
scapegoat existence in the resurrection of their
sole, minuscule state, the far worse sins that such
folks as Arabs and Turks were committing against
scores of millions of other native peoples in the
region were merely being swept under the rug. This
was no accident, and (among other things) a check of
foreign (and foreign related) sources of money
funding such programs is indeed enlightening,
Worse still, while the cause of Arabs to acquire
state # 22 was more often than not lionized, the
suppression of such facts and issues regarding
non-Arabs struggling for their own small semblance
of justice in the region goes even deeper than what
may already be suspected from above.
It is very likely that, right from the get-go over
six decades ago, there was a trade off with the
Arabs to promote the region as solely their own in
return for access to oil in those lands.
The Kurds had already lost their one best shot ever
at independence after World War I in such petro-political
games being played by the Brits in collusion with
Arab nationalism. After 1925, the oil of the Kurdish
north in the Mandate of Mesopotamia was tied to a
unified Arab Iraq instead of Kurdistan. Now, follow
some favorite excerpts on related subject matter
below…
In Algeria, Berbers were forbidden to use their own
language, Tamazight...riots erupted, reported in
France but ignored elsewhere in the West...America,
of course, had been sufficiently subject to ARAMCO
(the Arabian American Oil Company) propaganda, a
payoff to the Saudis by Big Oil, to allow the latter
to produce and market Arab oil. So, ARAMCO's message
to America was that there is just an Arab world in
this region in which there are no Copts,www.ekurd.netArmenians,
Assyrians, Chaldeans, Turkmen...and, of course, no
Berbers and no Jews--they all came to Israel, you
see, from Europe for everyone in this region is just
Arab ( New English Review, January 17, 2008)."
So, until relatively recently, while countless
volumes of print, classroom hours, United Nations
sessions, State Department briefings, and so forth
were devoted to the cause of the Arabs' proposed
22nd state (and second, not first, in the original
April 25, 1920 Mandate of Palestine…Jordan sits on
some 80% of it since 1922), Kurds, Berbers, black
Africans, Copts, and others were literally being
massacred, enslaved, displaced, forcibly Arabized
and such by the millions by Arabs--but with barely a
word being spoken in protest by a vast assortment of
practitioners of the double standard supreme.
Kurds, the Amazigh and Kabyle people (the real
majority population of " Arab" North Africa on lands
that Arabs refer to merely as "purely Arab
patrimony"), and others as well have had their own
languages and cultures outlawed--and those who dared
to protest were slaughtered or jailed. Yet, even
most experts in the Ivory Tower (let alone those
alleged voices of morality in the UN and elsewhere)
could only act deaf, dumb, and blind to all that was
going on.
Outside of academia, where have the editorials in
The New York Times been regarding the plight of all
of these peoples? What Quartet exists to promote
"roadmaps" and such for their basic human, let alone
political, rights?
When will the UN session be scheduled that will vote
on independence for some 35 million truly stateless
Kurds? One is scheduled for the creation of the
Arabs' 22nd state just several weeks from now.
Having said all of this, there is some good news to
report…
A few years back, there was a revolt of sorts within
academia itself.
The duplicity, lack of freedom of fair academic
discourse, and intimidation in too many classrooms
led to the formation of a new organization, the
Association for the Study of the Middle East and
Africa (ASMEA), with two shining stars at the helm,
Professors Bernard Lewis and Fouad Ajami.
While it surfaced too late for some of us who were
victimized in too many MESA-dominated classrooms,
ASMEA's emergence is a blessing indeed.
Tied together with other such organizations as
Professor Daniel Pipes's Campus Watch and key
studies on the problems which my own book also gets
into (http://q4j-middle-east.com) like Professor
Martin Kramer's Ivory Towers on Sand: The Failure of
Middle Eastern Studies in America, students who
expect that the same lenses of academic scrutiny
will be applied to the "Arab" world as are routinely
used to only study Israel with can breathe a bit
easier today. While the duplicity and intimidation
still exist in too many classrooms, there are now
more ways to fight such nastiness and more
alternatives available.
And that brings us up to current news…
With all that's been happening in Libya since the
arrival of the "Arab Spring," it's time to
introduce, yet again, another favorite quote--this
one from MEMRI on May 3, 2007.
Follow Belkacem Lounes of the World Amazigh Congress
as he responded to Libya’s Mu’ammar Qaddafi’s denial
of the very existence of the Amazigh people, the
"Berbers"…
The people of whom you speak…speak their own Amazigh
language daily…every day live their Amazigh
identity…What worse offense to elementary rights is
there than denying the existence of a people…30
million in North Africa? You menace the Amazigh,
warning that whosoever asserts his identity will be
a traitor… There is no worse colonialism than
internal colonialism–that of the Pan-Arabist claim
that seeks to dominate our people. It is surely
Arabism–an imperialist ideology that refuses
diversity–that constitutes an offense to history and
truth…
Now, recent reports state that the Imazighen have
joined in the revolt against Qaddafi's rule.
The big question thus involves whether Qaddafi's
Arab successors will be any different when it comes
to granting rights and true freedoms to all of
Libya's people than Qaddafi or any of the other Arab
conquerors have ever been, or if the Amazigh people
can simply expect more of the same murderous
subjugation that they have been exposed to courtesy
of the Arabs for centuries?
Keep in mind that the likely Islamist groups who
will actually come to succeed Qaddafi are not
especially known for tolerance. Ditto for the folks
likely to take over in Egypt this fall after the
ouster, months earlier, of President Mubarak. Ask
Egypt's native, twelve million or more non-Arab,
pre-Arab Copts how they're feeling these days with
Hamas's older siblings, the Muslim Brotherhood, set
to win the Egyptian elections. Stop by a local
Coptic Church for a chat. I did…several times. Many
Copts have fled such Muslim "tolerance" in the
past--and many more will certainly be joining that
diaspora shortly.
As a footnote of sorts, there is some good news to
report related to this subject…
Another subjugated, non-Arab people finally gained
political rights in this general region when the
blacks of South Sudan finally gained independence
from the Arab/Arabized north. The bad news is that
it took the lives of literally millions over the
past six decades (and many more prior to that)
before that independence was finally achieved this
past July. And the black Nuba in the north and the
blacks in the western Darfur region of the country
still have no light at the end of their own
nightmarish tunnels.
As with the Berbers in Libya and elsewhere in North
Africa, if Assad should fall in Syria, will the
Kurds have it any better given the reluctance of the
West (especially the Obama Administration) to oppose
Assad in the first place--especially considering the
support such folks are giving to Islamist groups in
Syria as well?
Disturbing accounts are coming in which state that
more inclusive, democratic forces (such as theKurds)
opposing Assad are actually being left out of future
plans that the State Department has for a post-Assad
Syria.Think about that long and hard…and then
consider the need for a strong executive occupying
the White House independent of the State
Department's Arabists--like President Reagan, for
example.
Finally, while much attention has been focused upon
such things as Arab rights, the creation of a 22nd
Arab state, and on the Arab Spring (which may very
well wind up exploding in many of our faces), is it
not time for the world to enable such things as a
Kurdish or Berber autumn--allowing some other folks
in that region a small slice of the justice pie too?
Gerald A. Honigman is a Florida educator who has
done extensive doctoral studies in Middle Eastern
Affairs. He has created and conducted counter-Arab
propaganda programs for college youth, has lectured
on numerous campuses and other platforms, and has
publicly debated many Arab spokesmen. His articles
and op-eds have been published in dozens of
newspapers, magazines, academic journals and
websites all around the world. Visit his
website at
http://www.geraldahonigman.com/
Gerald A. Honigman, a longtime contributing writer
for ekurd.net. Honigman has published a major book,
"The
Quest For Justice In The Middle East--The
Arab-Israeli Conflict In Greater Perspective."
By Gerald A. Honigman for eKurd.net, August 29, 2011. You may reach the
author via email at: honigman6 (at) msn.com.
Copyright © 2011 ekurd.net.
All rights reserved
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