Fouad Ajami Dies at Age 68

/fouad-ajami-dies-at-age-68-1403477695

  • Fouad Ajami est mort

    Et maintenant nous nous sentons tous un petit peu orphelin, parce que comme le rappelle le WSJ :
    http://online.wsj.com/articles/fouad-ajami-dies-at-age-68-1403477695

    The scholar helped explain the Arabs to America in the Journal for nearly 30 years.

    (l’idée qu’on puisse « expliquer les Arabes à l’Amérique » ne semblant pas une idée choquante.)

    Plus sérieusement, évidemment, l’« hommage » d’As‘ad Abukhalil dans le Akhbar : Fouad Ajami and his legacy
    http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/fouad-ajami-and-his-legacy

    The Zionists loved Ajami and he became a sought-after media guest and congressional and government expert. This is a man who once told a congressional committee that the “Sunnis are homicidal and the Shia are suicidal.” I was watching the event on C-Span and I was struck that everyone in the room laughed. If one is to replace the word “Jewish” with “Arab” in all the rhetoric and analysis of Ajami, one would rightly be accused and condemned as an anti-Semitic.

    But Ajami’s name and accent served him well. He was “one of them” but testifying to their brutality, “atavism” and “culture of terrorism.” Ajami was willing to express views that Westerners were, at that time, reluctant to say publicly. He gave a respectable cast to the racist discourse about Arabs and shared inside views about “their culture.” Ajami was incapable of speaking for a few minutes without reminding viewers that he is a proud American — he would always preface his remarks by, “We Americans.” Ajami is like the one Jewish person who gets invited to anti-Semitic conferences to attest the views about Jews held by anti-Semites.

    […]

    Ajami left a harmful legacy for Arabs. He charted a new course in Middle East analysis in the US (and the West in general): people should not be shy about expressing bigotry and hostility to Arabs anymore. The field is wide open. He also left many questions unanswered with his death. His bitterness toward Arabs and his need (in every statement and every interview) to remind people that he was an American spoke of a psychological condition. We will never know why somebody would have such deep contempt and hatred for his people and the culture in which he was born. His avowed Zionism was only an expression of that condition.

    • Elah a l’air sincèrement orphelin :
      http://www.elaph.com/Web/Culture/2014/6/916637.html

      بدأ في مرحلة شبابه ناشطاً أساسيًا في النضال من أجل القضية الفلسطينية، لكن بأسلوب دبلوماسي مرن وحاذق، أي دون استفزاز الإعلام الصهيوني المسيطر.

      ويعتبر كتابه الأول “المحنة العربيّة” (1981) فتحًا في دعوة العرب إلى القيام بنقد ذاتي، وإلى أن يتخلصوا من عقلية أن مؤامرة غربية وراء صراعاتهم التي كان عليهم أن يحلوها بأنفسهم. وتبعه بكتاب ثانٍ هو “قصر أحلام العرب”.