Arabs and West Retreat into Parallel Worlds

Published on Sunday, October 26, 2003 by the Toronto Star

Arabs and West Retreat into Parallel Worlds

by Haroon Siddiqui

A tiny but vocal minority of my readers dislikes Arabs. I hear from such readers often. Some of what they have to say is unprintable.

They are happy whenever anyone points out Arab weaknesses, of which there are plenty. They are especially delighted when Arabs criticize Arabs.

This was so with the first Arab Human Development Report, done for the United Nations and released last year. This is so with this year's report, released last week. Both are highly critical, rightly so, of the Arab world of 270 million in 21 nations and the Palestinian territory.

With less hostile intent, our media, too, want their prejudices confirmed. Thus the favorable coverage of and commentary on the two documents. This isn't surprising. But the selectiveness of the reporting is.

North American media have been mostly mum on what the 40 experts from 10 nations who wrote the 2003 report have to say about Israel; and about the post-9/11 West, in particular America and its invasion and occupation of Iraq.

Noting that many Western democracies have adopted "extreme security measures and policies as part of the `war on terrorism,'" the report says: "These, however, exceeded their original goals and led to the erosion of civil and political liberties in many countries, notably the United States, often diminishing the welfare of Arabs and Muslims living, studying or traveling abroad."

Due to strict U.S. visa requirements and Arab disenchantment with America, the number of Arab students in the U.S. has dropped 30 per cent, "interrupting cultural exchanges between the Arab world and the West and cutting off knowledge acquisition for young Arabs."

That's the very group America ostensibly wants as a future buffer against anti-Americanism (which is growing well beyond the Arab world, as George W. Bush was shocked to discover Thursday in Indonesia).

Suspension of civil liberties in Western nations, says the report, conferred a carte blanche on autocratic Arab regimes to further curb civil and political freedoms — the exact opposite of what Washington espouses.

The invasion of Iraq further radicalized Arabs.

End the American rule, says the report. Turn power over to the Iraqis.

On the Arab-Israeli dispute, the report says: "Israel reoccupied Palestinian territories, inflicting horrifying human casualties and material destruction, thereby committing what one well-respected human-rights organization called `war crimes.' (Human Rights Watch, 2002).

"From September, 2000, to April, 2003, Israeli occupation forces killed 2,405 Palestinians and injured 41,000. Most of those killed (85 per cent) were civilians. A large proportion (20 per cent) were children. UNICEF estimates that 7,000 children were injured and 2,500 persons, of whom 500 were children, suffered permanent handicaps."

The report's main targets, however, are Arabs.

They still lag in most intellectual and cultural endeavors: education, communications, science and technology. Their women remain second-class citizens, despite some progress toward empowerment.

Child rearing and education continue to emphasize obedience, not critical thought.

Universities are overcrowded, have old labs and poor libraries. They lack autonomy. Their standards are falling.

Fewer than one in 20 university students studies science, versus one in five in South Korea.

There's little advanced research in such areas as molecular biology and information technology.

One-quarter of the 300,000 university graduates of 1995-96 have emigrated. So have 15,000 doctors, between 1998 and 2000.

There are 18 computers per 1,000 people, versus a global average of 78. Only 1.6 per cent of the population has access to the Internet, versus 59 per cent in Canada.

At 5 per cent of the world's population, Arabs publish only 1.1 per cent of the total number of books. The sale of 5,000 copies constitutes a bestseller, and the average print run is between 1,000 and 3,000 copies.

There are few literary and artistic books. Those with religious content constitute an unusually high percentage.

Many schools don't teach literature. Five times as many books are translated in Greece as in all Arab lands.

Even Arabic language is "facing a real crisis."

Hindering everything is "the dead hand of the state censor" — books to media to movies to theatre to literature to the Internet.

Journalists face "harassment, intimidation and even physical threats." Artists face "unending social, political and ideological frameworks that treat innovation and change as signs of disintegration and unrest."

While there has been an explosion of Arab media outlets, especially television with 120 channels, the majority are government-owned and offer little independent local journalism.

There is some political improvement. Morocco held legislative elections, with a quota for women. Bahrain held its first elections after two decades and may allow political parties. Qatar held a referendum on a constitution.

Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah unveiled a charter recommending reforms for all Arabs and has since liberalized his kingdom's religious curricula and committed himself to municipal elections.

But, overall, the picture remains bleak — a recipe for "a real explosion," in the words of Clovis Maksoud, long-time Arab diplomat and now a professor at American University in Washington.

In short, there are two things to be depressed about: the sad state of Arabs, and the fact that they and we are increasingly retreating into parallel worlds, each hearing and seeing only what it wants of the other.

Haroon Siddiqui is the Star's editorial page editor emeritus.

###