Saudi Arabia: Yes To Cleaning Up! No
Place For Defamation And Inciting Hatred In Academia!
18 November 2012
By Tariq Alhomayed
An insulting campaign was launched on twitter in
response to my article "Saudi Arabia: Time to clean up
the education system?" The most prominent participant
in this campaign was the ever-critical Dr. Abdullah
Algazami, who let fly with tweets showing that he had
not read my article in the first place, or that he
wanted to distort it. Because Algazami seems to have
something of a cultural "aura", I will now use him as
an example for discussion.
Dr Algazami, a well-known Saudi intellectual, former
university professor and author of a number of books,
laid into my article on Saudi academics who defame and
incite. He said that what I wrote was culturally
immature, adding: "how could an individual carrying
such a name, and heading a newspaper, call for my
institution to be cleaned up?" He went on to say "If
you want to clean up everything you don't agree with,
then you will be the only thing left on earth!" My
question to Algazami is: Did you even read my article?
I was not talking about political or ideological
disagreements; rather I merely said that there is no
place for defamation and inciting hatred in academia!
Now I will simplify the whole story for Dr. Algazami,
just as he simplified it to us on television that day!
So Doctor, imagine you decided to invite a group of
academics to your house to discuss regional issues,
Gaza and the Arab Spring for example, and you invite a
group from a variety of trends, Islamists and
liberals, those who are for the Arab Spring and those
who are against it, Sunnis and Shiites and so on, in
order to understand the bigger picture. Would you
accept it if some of your guests responded to those
who disagreed with them by insulting their honor,
labeling them as Zionists, and threatening them with
violence and death? Would you invite people like that
into your house Doctor? If the answer is yes then this
is another story, but I believe you are above that; I
assume you would act like any normal person and not
allow individuals like this into your home. So how can
you allow them to teach in a respected university?
What is worse than that is that in my article, whilst
referring to a certain abusive academic in particular,
I did not object at all to his political stances. Yet
this same academic then tweeted that the Minister of
Information should dismiss a certain Saudi
editor-in-chief because he wrote an article
disagreeing with his views about Gaza! So what is your
position on that, Doctor?
I did not touch upon politics at all in the article in
question; I spoke about ethics. Yet while we are on
the subject, I will simplify the matter again for Dr.
Algazami, who incidentally has long fluctuated in his
stance towards the Arab Spring. So Doctor, who put a
stop to the war in Gaza, ensuring that Hamas would
guarantee Israel's security? Not me, but rather
President Mursi has taken the plaudits for that. When
the Egyptian President issued his recent decrees to
seize power, you tweeted: "Personally I expect
President Mursi to go back on some of his decrees to
break the tension". So why not direct your anger
towards this instead? Likewise [following the Gaza
truce] the Israeli President and his Foreign Minister
did not praise me, but rather President Mursi because
he had ensured Israel's security, so why not label him
a Zionist instead?
Dr. Algazami, the crux of the story is that I said yes
to ridding our universities of academics who incite
hatred, and what is wrong with that? Is that not the
basis of teaching around the world, or are you
satisfied for our children to be taught by such fools?
If you accept there are scholarly and professional
ethics and codes of conduct, and you respect that,
then you cannot accept this!
Tariq Alhomayed is the Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Al-Awsat,
the youngest person to be appointed that position. He
holds a BA degree in Media studies from King Abdul
Aziz University in Jeddah, and has also completed his
Introductory courses towards a Master's degree from
George Washington University in Washington D.C. He is
based in London.
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EsinIslam.Com
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