The following appeared in The New Republic online. I thought it was worth sharing as a reminder that not every voice from the Middle East is calling for jihad amd the destruction of the US. This piece by Egyptian playwright Ali Salem is a critical imagining of the terrorist mindset. (May require you to register in order to read it.)
IMAGINING THE INNER WORKINGS OF A TERRORIST'S MIND.
The War of the Hotels
by Ali Salem
In a culture of intellectual quiescence, the Egyptian playwright Ali Salem stands out for his courage, his willingness to break with the crowd. Born in 1936, in the time of the monarchy, he made his own way through life, and educated himself in the classics. Some years ago he provoked a storm by openly journeying to Israel and writing about his experience in that country. This led to virtual ostracism by his peers. But he stood his ground, and in the crucial years since September 11 he has written scathingly and satirically of the pathologies of the Arab world--the anti-Americanism, the animus toward modernism, the refusal of the Arab intellectual elites to face the burden of Arab history. Salem is fierce in his denunciation of radical Islamism, and of the evasions and denials that sustain it in mainstream Arab life. What follows is a piece occasioned by the terrorist attacks on the hotels in Amman that took place last November 9. It appeared in Al Hayat, the London-based pan-Arab daily, from which I have translated it.
--Fouad Ajami
TNR also offered a link to the trailer for 'Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World' - well worth a look, as is the accompanying interview with Albert Brooks. The film seems to be a variation on Victor Borge's old adage 'laughter is the shortest distance between two people.'
1 comment:
It's a short piece, but wow... powerful. Is this why you guys wasted all those years studying lit?
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