Yemeni Women find their Voice - Women and the Revolution

The following article by Afrah Nasser examines the role of women in the Yemeni Revolution. It also points out the problems women are facing in contemporary Yemen, as well as the way in which their social position is reflected in their political consciousness.

Women in Yemen are an awakening power, and with every day of the revolution their determination to break out of the chains of present-day conventions grows.

Women will and must be in the forefront of the revolutions to come.

Their views and concerns will be at the core of the revolutionary ideologies of the future. Their strength, determination and growing self-awareness will be the force that drives the wheel of the Middle East's national and cultural rebirth, and of the spiritual awakening that will lead Islam to a restoration of the revolutionary message that lies at its core.

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Protests have given female activists a rare opportunity to express their views.

                                                                                
                                                                                       

Traditionally in Yemen, women are – literally – not allowed to raise their voices. In peaceful circumstances, even calling out in the street to attract someone’s attention is considered unacceptable behaviour. But now, in the protests, it is very much welcomed and there is an amazing response when we raise our voices.

Everybody acknowledges that yes, we do have a voice, and the role of women in this uprising is increasing day by day as we enter a new time of freedom for everyone.

Women’s participation in this revolution started on a very small scale. There were only about ten women in Sana’a’s Change Square when the pro-democracy protests started. But with each day, it has been noticeable how the numbers of women grew as female protesters brought their sisters, cousins, friends. The number multiplied incredibly. Women are treated with grace and respect in the square. When I go there, I am treated like a VIP. Usually in Yemen, women get harassed all the time, but in Change Square nobody touches me. It is the safest place in Sana’a for women.

And life is indeed challenging for Yemeni women, every day. We constantly fight to claim our rights at home, in the street, at work. In any kind of field, a woman has to increase her efforts hugely to succeed. For instance, a 19-year-old cousin of mine won a scholarship to study in Germany and her brother refused to let her go. After a big fight, she had no choice but to give in.

If a man makes one per cent effort, a woman needs to make 200 per cent effort to get the same result. I work as a journalist and I am the only woman in the newsroom. Even there my colleagues find it hard to accept that I do go to places dominated by men to report.

There is some political participation by women but it is very timid - women still live in a prison of their own fear. We are not very politically aware. It is a process and we are still at the very beginning. There are a few women politicians and about 18 months ago President Ali Abdullah Saleh instituted a 15 per cent quota of seats for women – but there aren’t enough women politicians to fill it.

But despite this women have been participating in the protests to an unbelievable extent. The female protesters come from all sectors of Yemeni society - women who do not have their faces covered, like me, and others are much more conservative. They are coming to an awareness that they have to be a huge part of building this country. We gain in confidence and women begin to think that they have to have a voice, a place in this new society - something that has never happened before.

Talking to other friends of mine, we feel we are revolting against our parents too. It’s a double revolution, inside our homes as well as in Change Square. Each one of us faces resistance from our parents, who demand to know why we think change is so important. Many of our parents are devoted to the president and the old regime, and they are opposed to us taking part in the demonstrations. So we face oppression both at home and in the public sphere.

The extremism and violence Saleh predicts will sweep Yemen without him is just propaganda. None of that will happen and I don’t see the danger of a civil war. I would like to see a peaceful transfer of power and the beginning of a new, democratic process, to have the same result here as in Egypt and Tunisia.

I am not worried that there will be violence like there is now in Libya – our president is not as crazy as Muammar Gaddafi. There is no way things will deteriorate here to that extent. The violence last week in which more than 50 people were killed won’t be repeated, I don’t think.

I am worried about what the future holds – not because of the fear of violence, but because of the uncertainty. But when I go to Change Square I see the harmony and tolerance between the different protesters, a sign that a peaceful change is possible.

Afrah Nasser is a 25-year-old Yemeni journalist and blogger from Sana’a.

As told to Daniella Peled, an IWPR editor.

(Courtesy of Miss Afrah Nasser and the Institute for War and Peace Reporting [IWPR])

APIC(APICONG) Statement regarding the Syrian Revolution

The Afro-Asian People's Democratic Islamic Congress wishes to express its solidarity with the Syrian Revolution.

We whole-heartedly support the demands of the Syrian people, Arab and Kurdish, Muslim, Christian, Sunni, Shi'i, Druze.

We condemn the inappropriate and inadequate response of the Syrian government to these demands and the brutal repression of our brothers' and sisters' legitimate protests.

A government that is unresponsive to the will of the people has forfeited its political legitimacy. A state whose only means of enforcing public order is Emergency Law, a regulation that has been in place in Syria ever since 1963, is a state caught in an irresolvable contradiction, a state so deeply alienated from its own population that no common language can be found.

The people of Syria have risen to end the antagonism between themselves and the political institutions meant to represent them. They have risen to take control of these institutions and thereby to make their rich and ancient country truly their own.

Every support should be given to the people's revolution and to their democratic endeavours.

We wish to warn our Syrian brothers and sisters that, apart from an inner opponent, there is an external enemy as well. An enemy who eagerly seeks to manipulate the revolutionary uprisings in the Middle East in order to implement its interests on Arab and Middle Eastern soil, pursuing a neo-colonial and imperialist agenda. An enemy who does not shy away from direct military intervention, determined to install pro-Western governments in the Middle East.

This enemy too needs to be tackled. In Syria, in Libya and elsewhere. Our message to the revolutionary peoples is: do not allow yourselves to be used but make sure it is you who dictates the conditions and sets the pace!
Do not be fooled by the imperialist nation's "humanitarian' pretense. Their interests are economic and strategic interests solely.

Brothers and sisters, speak for yourselves, and for yourselves alone! Pursue your own interests and nothing else! The people owe their oppressors no loyalty. The wolf disguised in a lamb's fleece remains a wolf.
No pro-Western government must rise on Syrian or Libyan soil. To allow this to happen would be the ultimate betrayal of the people's revolution.

Our allies are the people. Our irreconcilable foe are the imperialist governments worldwide.

For freedom, people's democracy and national rebirth!

APIC(APICONG)

Gaza under continuous Israeli attack (article by Omar Ghraieb and APIC[APICONG] statement)

http://gazatimes.blogspot.com/2011/03/ongoing-israeli-air-raids-on-gaza-for.h

                                                                                                                    Gaza, March 24 Thursday, 

In Gaza City, Israeli F16 warplanes bombed an intelligence headquarter named "the ship", using at least five missiles, also raided the al-Rayes mountain with one missile and a room that belongs to “Gaza” sporting club,also “Badr” security HQ belonging to the Qassam Brigades, Hamas militant wing, with three missiles.

According to witnesses in the northern Gaza Strip, the shelling caused enormous material damage in the homes of civilian citizens in Maqqousi residential buildings which are located near the “Badr” security HQ, which was bombed with two missiles by Israeli warplanes.

According to Adham Abu Salmeyah, Health ministry official, one citizen got injured by shrapnel in the face, he is 10 years old and his name is Raid Afifi. More injuries reported to have reached Al Shefa hospital for treatment.

The loud bombing triggered a massive panic that hit women and children.

In northern Gaza, Israeli artillery pounded the lands of the citizens with two rockets without reported injuries or damage.

The Israeli artillery also bombed earlier the vicinity of the “Karni” crossing east of Gaza City with two rockets.

The missile landed in an empty agricultural area without causing casualties among the citizens. The Israeli Air Force launched today two separate raids on northern Gaza and central Gaza City, wounding three civilians till now.

To be Continued ……

For continued update please view www.gazatimes.blogspot.com


Statement of the Afro-Asian People's Democratic Islamic Congress:
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True to its political creed, the Zionist state uses both real and fabricated incidents in order to advance its expansionist aims.
Yesterday's Jerusalem bombing, however, has shown that all their strategy of intimidation, land grabbing and continued aggression is able to achieve is further escalation and, in its tow, a deterioration of their own inner security.

Israel's vicious war against  Palestine's civilian population has revived a feature of the Mid-East conflict that had been overcome  almost a decade ago.

It should be clear to all of us that no one has anything to gain from a further escalation. This is not in the interest of Palestine nor is it in the interest of the Israeli civilian population.  Yet, it is the direct and inevitable result of the Zionist state's policies of ethnic cleansing, occupation, illegal land annexation and sustained merciless bomb raids on a people who, logistically, are in no position to defend themselves.

We wish to make it clear that we deeply regret every loss of life, regardless on which side. Every life lost is a wound in the face of the world. It is a possibility un-lived, a hope extinguished, a unique potential wasted. We are and have always been for an end to the bloodshed, for a rapprochement of our two peoples and for a political understanding between them beyond the war propaganda of the Zionist leaders and the power greed of the two warring factions of the PA. But we also wish to make it clear that the state of Israel, by its actions, bears the full moral responsibility for the Jerusalem attack. And we wish to tell the Israeli population in all frankness that their true enemy is not us but the corrupt and ruthless apparatus of the Zionist regime.

This apparatus, who, against its often repeated propagandist mantra, has proven in numerous cases that in pursuing its power-political designs it is as indifferent to Jewish lives as it is to Palestinian ones, is covering the road to peace with mines. The only way to make this road safe is to defuse them by democratic revolutionary action of the people.

Let us understand that if both peoples realise their true interests and are standing up for them against the machinations of a self-serving and inhuman regime a  comprehensive solution of the present conflict will come naturally, as a logical result.

Against Mahmoud Abbas' condemnation of the Jerusalem attack, we wish to ask where is Netanyahu's condemnation of the Gaza raids? You reap what you sow. As long as the Israeli government does not condemn the Gaza raids (which are a thousand times more lethal than anything that happened in Jerusalem), the Afro-Asian People's Democratic Islamic Congress refuses to condemn the Jerusalem attack.

Muhammad A. Al Mahdi
(APIC[APICONG]), March 24

Israel bombs Gaza in an over-night air raid (as usual) Gaza heading towards a new war?

Article by Omar Ghraieb

Gaza, March 22, 

Israeli warplanes (F16s) launched a vast air raid on different targets in the Gaza Strip which led to the injury of 19 civilians. Medics spokesman, Adham Abu Salmeyah, reported that all of them were minor injuries, adding that among those who got injured were7 children and two women.

He added that 10 injuries reached “Shefa” hospital in Gaza City, while 9 other injuries arrived at the Kamal Odwan hospital. He also pointed out that "Hijazi" clinic, north of Gaza City, was heavily hit by one of the raids and got really damaged, pointing out that it’s the only clinic that provides health services for more than 10 thousand in the north-west area.

IOF spokesman claimed that the Israeli army launched its attacks last night on several targets in the Gaza Strip in response to the rockets launched by the resistance forces in Gaza, which fell recently on the sites and surrounding towns near Gaza.

He claimed in a statement published by the website of "Yediot Ahronot" Hebrew newspaper, that the raids targeted two tunnels of the resistance, and two sites for manufacturing explosives and one weapons storage, the same lame excuse that they always use to raid Gaza as if they need a reason to bomb us.

A series of air raids by Israeli "F-16" warplanes bombed the site of the Palestinian police that belongs to the De-Facto government in Gaza in the area of "Al Twam" north-west of Gaza City, but it was empty at the time of bombing. They also bombed a plastics factory east of Gaza City, wounding three civilians, including two children sustained minor injuries.

In addition, they also bombed a metal workshop in Gaza City, causing severe damage, Israeli warplanes also targeted with two missiles a location near the residential buildings of “Maqqousi”, west of Gaza City.

Israeli armed drones fired a missile on a free land east of Khan Younis, but it did not explode, so after about three minutes they fired another missile on the same location which led to a huge explosion. They also fired more missiles on other empty lands in Khan Younis.

The Apache armed helicopter targeted early yesterday an auto repair shop east of Gaza City, causing a huge material damage in it.

Gaza’s sky has recently experienced a heavy presence of Israeli different aircrafts and warplanes, Gaza also has been regularly bombed recently. Also an extensive militant activity was witnessed by Israeli tanks near Gaza’s borders, with sporadic shooting every now and then.

What awaits Gaza? A new war? Or only daily militant operations? I guess only time will tell.

We sharply condemn the murderous Israeli air strike on Gaza March 21,2011

Tonight's air strike launched on Gaza by the Zionist regime in response to the protests of the Palestinian youth for democratic rights is a heinous and barbaric crime against humanity. We condemn this despicable act of state terrorism in the strongest terms.
To the regime in Israel, this is merely one more in a series of continued systematic violations of the most basic human rights of the people of Palestine; a campaign of institutionalised abuse, repression and genocide that rivals the holocaust.

These crimes are committed in the name of a state entity that is referring to itself as "the only democracy in the Middle East", and hence in the name of "democracy" itself.
We are calling upon every person with as much as  flicker of political responsibility and with as much as a  flicker of human conscience to oppose this abominable charade. Let us speak out openly, as human beings, as daughters,sons, fathers, mothers against the merciless persecution of an entire people on grounds of their ethnic, religious, cultural and political identity by a state founded on terrorism and upholding terrorism as its governing principle.

Let us speak out in unison against one of the most repressive regimes of the entire Middle East!

The atrocities committed by the state of Israel have reached a dimension that does no longer justify forbearance on account of the Jewish people's own troubled history. A crime perpetrated by the victim of a crime remains a crime, and if we are upholding any moral standard at all, we ought to condemn it.

The state of Israel does not represent the Jewish people, nor does it represent their true interests. It represents a ruthless imperialist elite holding two peoples hostage to their greed for power. It represents a corrupt and merciless clique involved in one political scandal after another misappropriating the reparations paid to the victims of the holocaust to wage a war against civilians in Palestine, erect settlements in Gaza and the Westbank and cover the entire Middle East with wars.

We are saying to the people in Israel: the interests of the Arab working class and the interests of the Jewish working class are the same. They are: food and clothing, a place to stay, respect and dignity, peace, justice and a decent life. No people is the enemy of another. It is their governments who are deceiving them, and who, when they see no way out of their economic crises and political bankruptcy, are pushing for war.

Do not allow yourselves to be misused for the dirty war of the imperialists that advances neither your interests, nor ours! Do not allow your name to be abused to stand for the merciless oppression and extermination of people like you!

The peoples, fighting for democracy and human rights, can stop their misery and, together, solve the problems that are making their lives hell.

We are calling upon you to rise with us against the Zionist delusion and work toward the creation of a state in which Jews, Muslims and Christians can live together in peace and equality.

How can you, descendants of Abraham, survivors of Auschwitz, Dachau, Treblinka, insurgents of the Warsaw Ghetto look into the mirror when your name, which your fathers held dear, stands for militarist aggression, political corruption and crime?

In your own interest, let us resist inhumanity together so a better tomorrow can be built, so yours and our children will not suffer the way we do!

What honour is there in war in which these are your enemies:




It is not necessary to point out the sheer hypocrisy of the US, UN and NATO who are bombing Libya in an unsolicited invasion in order to gain control over her oil and natural resources while they remain silent and indifferent to the brutal military aggression of the Gulf Shield Forces in Bahrain and the assault of Israel's corrupt ruling elite on children like this.

No, no word speaks stronger than their actions.

It is not for them to save anyone. It is for us, the people, on both sides -and this we are saying even now when our civilian casualties are multiplied by the minute- to liberate ourselves by our own revolutionary action so past mistakes be rectified and peace and justice may prevail.

Muhammad A. Al Mahdi
APIC (APICONG), March 21, 2011

Fatima and Sakina on the Referendum in Egypt

We as rank-and file members of this organisation feel that it is necessary to comment on the referendum even if our secretary general has decided that we should not. We understand his policy is not to give credibility to the referendum because it is a mockery of parliamentary democracy and that whether you vote yes or no, the result will be the same. The old regime is using this as a legitimation of their power. It will help them to cling on to it and say it was democratically sanctioned. What Egypt needs is a new constitution, not a constitution with a "restored virgnity" (as girls and women we say that those who made this comment are spitting in our face, demonstrating to everyone who they are and what they really think).
Having said that, many of us believe that a no-vote is the stronger way of showing disagreement. Because of this, we supported the no-vote. With all this, we believe strongly that the old regime and the old constitution must go. And we want to say this too: that it is a disturbing thing how everyone in Egypt is discussing elections and referendums while the army has turned the National Museum into a torture chamber, as if that was perfectly normal. People, it is not! They are conducting virginity tests on girls protesting! How can anyone allow this disgrace to happen??????!!!!! Virginity tests here and patronising machoist virginity talk there too, from the army and from those in parliament. Are you not seeing that they are all saying and doing the same thing?
Why do we pretend the revolution is in control and the democratic process is on the way when the only one in control is the army? That does not help. And why? Because they have no intention to let Egypt go democratic. There are some evidences to suggest that they are even supplying arms to Gadaffi. That is tell-tale enough to show us what to expect.
Excuse me to say but it appears the revolution is being conned and sure, it is not going far enough.

You must excuse that our resources are limited. Sakina, for instance, is a seamstress and I am a bead maker.
We are not politicians. Our mothers were illiterate but we are learning. We do what we can.
We are in this organisation because we believe that we must stand up for ourselves. We, the people, must fight for our rights. We must not be afraid. Even if it is very difficult, we must never give up.

When we were children APIC was more powerful because its leaders were professional politicians. They all had degrees and connections. But they betrayed us, so our mothers and elder brothers and sisters asked our secretary-general to expell them. He took our side and helped us to do that. This is why we have some problems today. But better to be weaker and fight for the people than to be mighty and oppress them.

They have done everything to silence us but now we can speak again and we are glad. We want to promise today that we will overcome the obstacles. We will learn and we will become stronger every day.
Thank you, all those who helped us to believe in ourselves.

We are so sad about the suffering of the people in Yemen. We want them to know we love them and we believe in the revolution. We are feeling like this for Libya, for Bahrain, for Palestine, for Algeria, for all people who are fighting for their rights today, in Egypt, in Saudi Arabia, everywhere.

People, help yourselves to become free and empowered by the revolution. If you feel like us, build your local branch of APIC-APICONG and let us join hands. We shall overcome. We shall win.

As-Salamu alaikum,

Fatima and Sakina

(APIC[APICONG])

Gaza March 15 - HAMAS and FATAH join forces in cracking down on pro-democracy protesters calling for unity

Yesterday Gaza has seen the first joint action of HAMAS and FATAH ever since the division that has politically paralyzed Palestine - the quashing of a powerful rally of the youth for democratisation and national unity.
If the two rival factions of the PA are unable to settle their differences in the face of Israeli incursions, occupation, illegal appropriation of Palestinian land, economic boycott, Israeli state terrorism and unconcealed oppression - they are united in suppressing the voice of the people.
This is a bitter lesson that shall not be forgotten.
What has been demonstrated by this step, apart from their inadequacy and political helplessness, is that the vendetta that has strangled the country, has never been about Palestine but about spheres of influence, control over autocratic fiefdoms and the politics of power. The division, which at this crucial stage in the history of a sorely tried nation, when unity is of the essence, is nothing but suicide out of cynical calculations, has been a mere strategy in the power struggle between two parties, both of which are equally to blame for the current defenselessness of the Palestinian people toward accelerated Israeli aggression.

As long as there exist two camps with opposed agendas, the Zionist regime is free to choose with whom to negotiate and with whom not to - and to impose, as legally binding,
agreements signed by a fraction who does not represent the will of the people as a whole.
And it will inevitably come to that if the division is not firmly, forcefully and articulately opposed.

This is what is happening in Gaza now, and this is what will be happening all over the country. And no measure taken by an undemocratic government indifferent to the suffering and explicitly expressed demands of the people will be able to prevent this from happening, for the people of Palestine are tired of being pawns in a chess game. They have learnt their lesson and are willing and capable of enforcing their demands.

These are the people of a generation that has grown up without illusions. Finding no role models to emulate, they are forced to be their own role model. And in this, they shall not fail.
This is the generation that has grown up between the first intifada and the second, nourished by deprivation alone. This is the strongest generation our age has produced.
Our thoughts are birds, not prisoners. We have grown up with the most painful truth as our teacher. We shall not be blinded. Not by maneuvers. Not by political dogmata. Not by hypocrisy. Not by conventions.
We know that the ultimate intifada is the liberation of the people by themselves.

Today’s events are presenting us with a unique chance. The democratic revival of Arab and Middle Eastern unity opens the road to a new definition of the political landscape of the entire Middle East.
It is creating new facts on the ground to which West and East both must react.
Confronted by a united Palestinian national movement and a united Arab nation, together with the rebirth of democratic aspirations worldwide, the Zionist regime, for the first time in history, shall be forced to seek negotiations. For the first time in history they must negotiate on equal terms. And they must accept what they are offered. No one understands that better than them. This is why they are doing everything in their power to prevent such a development.
But their position is not an easy one, because the Zionist state itself is in a deep crisis.
Corruption, economic recession and political scandals are robbing it sore.
Even within that state itself there is, therefore, a growing dissatisfaction with the regime as it is and an increasing demand for democratisation and political new definition. No one can any longer afford ignoring the Palestinian question.
The Israeli leadership, internally, is attempting to counteract this powerful tendency by the promotion of fascist movements recruited predominantly from the ranks of new immigrants, who are at the lowest end of the economic scale. But there is a limit to the effectiveness of this strategy. They may be able to divert attention and capture the public imagination for a moment. But they cannot, in the long run, offer any real improvement, neither economically nor politically, to a nation already sick and tired of the corruption and social impotence of right-wing leaders. The Israeli population will in the end gravitate toward the pro-democracy movements of the Middle East by which they are surrounded. Seeing their success (which is our responsibility) they will with time become less susceptible to indoctrination and to the fallacies of Zionist propaganda- because it does not work.
Externally, their only chance lies therefore in manipulating divisions within the Palestinian camp. Hence, our call is for national unity beyond HAMAS and FATAH. If this is achieved, the last weapon of the oppressor has been knocked from his hand.

Global developments are thus in our favour. We must not fail to take advantage of them.
Whoever undermines Palestinian unity gives this historic chance away. Whoever sticks to political isolationism in the face of this momentous revival of pan-Arabic unity gives this historic chance away.

We must analyse, with great care, the Egyptian revolution, in its strong points as well as in its tactical mistakes. These mistakes, then, must not be repeated in Palestine.
The united revolutionary youth of Palestine must be better prepared for the moment when their first demands have been enforced than their Egyptian counterpart has been.
There must be a clear agenda and line of action for the moment when power has become within reach so as not to endanger 1) unity of action and 2) the ability of the revolution to hold on to, expand and effectively use its newly gained power.

Let us build our political agenda on points which are generally agreed, such as, I believe,

1) the cross-border, anti-sectarian and therefore politically secular character of this revolution

2) the focus on an improvement of the living conditions of the population

3) equal rights, integration and gender equality

4) an end to blockades, occupation and settlements

5) the end of illegal land appropriation by the sate of Israel

6) the annulment of the annexation of Arab Jerusalem

7) the need of a thorough and detailed review of the Oslo agreements and all successive accords (with view to territorial integrity, import-export regulations, legal and political status of Palestine etc.)

8) unconditional recognition of the sovereignty of the Palestinian people as a nation

9) the character of points 4 to 8 as pre-conditions for any negotiations with the state of Israel

10) the constitutional establishment of democratic control of the people as the sovereign supreme over the government and all state institutions


The people of Palestine reject and shall resist any attempt at intimidation. The people of Palestine are asserting their sovereignty and democratic rights. The people of Palestine shall lead their struggle to victory.

The united revolutionary youth of Palestine shall fulfill the legacy acquired by the blood of the martyrs, with love and with firmness, with body and spirit, with heart, with soul, and mind.

Peace and justice to Palestine.
Peace and justice to the world.


Muhammad A. Al Mahdi
APIC (APICONG)

APIC(APICONG) condemns the invasion of Bahrain by the allies of US and global imperialism

The current invasion of Bahrain by the Peninsula Shield Force under the leadership of the Saudi monarchy is to be seen in the context of the imminent Western invasion of Libya. They are two aspects of one and the same strategic move, and Libya and Bahrain are two fronts of one and the same war.

Bahrain is a US military base, the Saudi monarchy and the monarchic governments of the Gulf are key allies of US and global imperialism, whose importance is (slightly) surpassed only by Zionist Israel.
Libya, like Iraq, is a country that abounds in oil and vital resources.

Neo-liberal imperialism is enforcing its interests. It must be opposed by all means if the Arab Revolution is to survive.

We are warning against the misinterpretation of the Bahraini situation as a Shi'a-Sunni conflict. This is an intentional distortion of the facts, which serves the sole purpose of dividing the Arab Nation and the Ummah.
Sunnis and Shiites are united in their rejection of the undemocratic and grossly repressive rule of the Bahraini monarchy, which is a historical anachronism.

The rejection of Mu'awiya and Yazid is a question of pan-Islamic and universal relevance and exceeds the limits of denomination. This is not a Sunni-Shi'a question but a class question. Muslims are united in their condemnation of the Mu'awiya-Yazid dictatorship. Muslims are united in their rejection of the Bahraini monarchy and of the invasion of Bahrain by the united forces of Arab reaction.

The battle of Bahrain is not a battle of Shi'a versus Sunna. It is the battle of democracy against dictatorship.It is the battle of the people against their oppressors. It is the battle of the 21st century against medievalisation.
It is the battle of the forces of light and enlightenment against the forces of darkness and reaction.

People of Bahrain, people of Arabia, sons and daughters of the Ummah, we are calling upon you to resist this invasion. We are calling upon you to fight to the end, leading the Arab Revolution to victory.

It is true that victory does not come easy. But it is well that this is so. An easy victory is the wost of dangers, for it does not produce a strong and resistant revolutionary force.

If you find yourself doubting that Allah subhanahu wa ta'ala wills this revolution and has, by the power of Qadr, ordained its ultimate victory, we do not. The final victory of this revolution has been decreed from the first day of creation. You are invincible. You are our glory. You are the promise of the dawn. You are the first to walk on the roads of a new world. The people cannot be defeated.

We are Sunni in practice and Shiite in ideology. We are the unity of the Ummah. We are the Arab Nation revived and the East reborn. We are the new age struggling to emerge from the agonies of its birth.

Muhammad A. Al Mahdi
(APIC[APICONG])

132 Arab Intellectuals are in agreement with APIC(APICONG) on a categorical rejection of any Western intervention in Libya

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 مثقف وناشط عربي يؤكدون أن العرب هم الوحيدون المخولون بالتدخل لإنهاء العنف في البلاد التي يحكمها نظام القذافي منذ أربعة عقود  

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بيروت - رفض مثقفون عرب أي تدخل أجنبي في ليبيا بما في ذلك فرض منطقة حظر جوي على البلاد، مشيرين إلى أن العرب هم الوحيدون المخولون بالتدخل لإنهاء العنف في البلاد التي يحكمها نظام القذافي منذ أربعة عقود.

وأضاف البيان الذي أصدره 132 مثقف وناشط عربي "ان التغيير في العالم العربي مسألة عربية خالصة وليس لاحد غير العرب الحق في التدخل فيها. لذا ندين تخاذل الجامعة العربية التي تدعو الاجانب للتدخل في الشؤون العربية".

وبرزت دعوات غربية عدة لفرض منطقة حظر جوي على ليبيا بهدف منع قوات القذافي من قصف المدن الليبية، فيما اعلن الرئيس الفرنسي نيكولا ساركوزي الجمعة ان فرنسا وبريطانيا مستعدتان للمشاركة في توجيه "ضربات محددة الاهداف" ضد القوات الموالية لنظام القذافي خصوصا اذا قامت هذه الاخيرة باستخدام "اسلحة كيميائية" ضد السكان.

وقال ساركوزي "اعربنا، انكليز وفرنسيين، مع (رئيس الوزراء البريطاني) ديفيد كاميرون، عن استعدادنا، بشرط صريح ان تكون الامم المتحدة تريد ذلك، وتوافق عليه الجامعة العربية وترغب به السلطات الليبية التي نأمل في الاعتراف بها، لشن ضربات محض دفاعية محددة الاهداف، اذا ما استخدم القذافي اسلحة كيميائية او الطيران ضد السكان الذين يتظاهرون بصورة سلمية".

وأضاف بيان المقفين العرب "نرفض رفضا قاطعا اي تدخل عسكري اطلسي او اوروبي او اجنبي في ليبيا بما في ذلك فرض منطقة حظر جوي .لا شأن لاميركا واوروبا و للاطلسي في تغيير نظام الحكم في ليبيا فهذه مسألة يقررها الليبيون وحدهم وان ارادوا لطاغيتهم ان يذهب الى الجحيم فهذه قضيتهم. هم يسقطون نظام القذافي ان ارادوا وليس انتم".

وكان الزعيم الليبي حذر في وقت سابق من ان الشعب الليبي كله سيقاتل في حال فرض حظر جوي، مشيرا إلى أن انهيار الاستقرار في ليبيا سينعكس على أوروبا وعلى منطقة الشرق الأوسط ومن ضمنها إسرائيل.

وتابع البيان "لقد سئمنا من الحديث الاميركي عن 'الدكتاتور الذي يقتل شعبه' ومن ثم ارسال الجيش الامريكي او الاطلسي لقتل الشعب نفسه. اننا نهيب بالرأي العام الغربي ان يضغط على حكوماته حتى لا ترتكب حماقة غزو عسكري لليبيا وان تتعظ من الكوارث التي حلت بالغرب في العراق وافغانستان . فلتبق جيوشكم في بلادكم عندكم لا نريدها في العالم العربي".

وفيما يلي التواقيع التي تم تسجيلها الى الآن:

1) د. رمزي ابو عياش نائب رئيس اتحاد اطباء وصيادلة فلسطين ـ المانيا.

2) عبدالرحيم كتانة نابلس ــ فلسطين المحتلة

3) فيصل جلول ـ كاتب لبناني ــــ فرنسا

4) نضال حمد ـ كاتب فلسطيني مقيم في النروج

5) جمال اسماعيل ادريس ـ باحث واعلامي من مصر

6) جمال حلاوة ـ مترجم فلسطيني مقيم في اسبانيا

7) الوزير سامي شرف - مدير مكتب الزعيم الراحل جمال عبدالناصر في مصر

8) رشاد ابو شاور - اديب وكاتب فلسطيني في الاردن

9) سليم حجار - فنان تشكيلي سوري

10) محمد عبدالعزيز - عضو تنسيقية حركة كفاية في مصر

11) شوقي امين صحافي جزائري في فرنسا

12) عبيير عثمان - اعلامية سورية

13) د.منذر سليمان - باحث عربي في أميركا

14) وليد محمد علي - رئيس مركز باحث للدراسات الفلسطينية في لبنان

15) يحي ابو زكريا - اكاديمي واعلامي جزائري مقيم في لبنان

16) سعد المسعودي - كاتب واعلامي عراقي في فرنسا

17) رجاء الناصر - رئيس هيئة المؤسسين في الجمعية الاهلية لمناهضة الصهيونية في سوريا

18) احمد مناعي - رئيس المعهد التونسي للعلاقات الدولية

19) د.اسعد السحمراني - استاذ جامعي وامين الشؤون الخارجية في اتحاد الكتاب اللبنانيين

20) اسامة جابر - مهندس عربي في فرنسا

21) محمد حافظ يعقوب - كاتب وباحث فلسطيني في فرنسا

22) الناصر خشيني - استاذ جامعي في تونس

23) محمد خالد عمر - كاتب وباحث في سوريا

24) سمير عبيد - كاتب وباحث سياسي عراقي في النروج

25) حسن الرسام - فنان وموسيقي عراقي في الاردن

26) عزالدين خالد - صحفي في سوريا

27) اللواء المتقاعد امين حطيط - باحث في الشؤون الاستراتيجية في لبنان

28) خالد بن ققة - كاتب وصحافي جزائري في الامارات

29) شهرزاد العربي - كاتبة جزائرية في الامارات

30) د.عبدالله الجبوري - رئيس الجامعة العربية الاميركية للعلوم الإنسانية في السويد

31) طلعت رميح - رئيس تحرير مجلة استراتيجيات في مصر

32) عبد الاله فؤاد - رئيس المركز العربي لمسرح الطفل والشباب في أصيلة بالمغرب

33) المنصف المرزوقي - طبيب وسياسي في تونس

34) رياض معسس - صحفي سوري في فرنسا

35) ياسر علي - كاتب فلسطيني في لبنان

36) ابو الفضل محمد بن هندة - استاذ جامعي في فرنسا

37) مازن عبد العزيز - صحفي في العراق

38) رجاء الناصر - رئيس هيئة المؤسسين للجمعية الأهلية لمناهضة الصهيونية في سوريا

39) محمود مرعي - رئيس المنظمة العربية لحقوق الإنسان في سوريا

40) انخيلس دييث رودريغيس - استاذة علم اجتماع في اسبانيا

41) زهير شمس الدين - المنظمة العربية لحقوق الإنسان في سوريا

42) ربحي احمد العسلي - صيدلي في اسبانيا

43) محمود كعوش - كاتب وصحفي فلسطيني في الدنمارك

44) حسن حامد - صحافي وكاتب في مصر

45) محمد خضر قرش - باحث ومحلل اقتصادي في فلسطين

46) د.فؤاد الحاج - صحفي عربي

47) محمد يوســف – كاتب في مصر

48) القس لوسيان جميل - محافظة نينوى في العراق

49) عماد فوزي شعيبي - كاتب ومحلل استراتيجي في سوريا

50) كمال خلف الطويل - طبيب ومؤرخ في أميركا

51) نمير الهنداوي - اعلامي في بريطانيا

52) حمدي قنديل - اعلامي في مصر

53) جميل هلسة - رجل اعمال في الاردن

54) سفيان الهلسة - مهندس في الاردن

55) د.قدري جميل - هيئة تحرير صحيفة قاسيون في سوريا

56) اللواء طلعت مسلم - باحث استراتيجي نائب رئيس حزب العمل الاشتراكي في مصر

57) عبد الوحد هواش تائب - امين سر حزب البعث العربي الاشتراكي قطر اليمن

58) هيام فتحي دربك - اعلامية ورئيسة المجلس الوطني للعدالة والتنمية الاجتماعية في مصر

59) منى النشاشيبي - مديرة الراصد الاعلامي في بريطانيا

60) اسحق احمد البديري - ناشط سياسي في فلسطين

61) خالد الناصر - طببيب استشاري ورئيس المؤتمر الناصري العام في مصر

62) زياد منى - باحث وناشر في فلسطين

63) د.اسعد ابو خليل - استاذ جامعي في أميركا

64) عمرو صابح - كاتب وباحث في مصر

65) محمد جبر - من شباب ساحة التحرير في مصر

66) د.يحى الشاعر - من قادة المقاومة في بور سعيد 56 في مصر

67) نافذ ابو حسنة - اعلامي في قناة المنار بلبنان

68) صفاء الصاوي - عضو المؤتمر القومي العربي والرئيس السابق للنادي العربي في بريطانيا

69) محمد نعمة فقيه - باحث وناشر في لبنان

70) د.منير العكش - استاذ الانسانيات ومدير برنامج الدراسات العربية جامعة سفك بوسطن في أميركا

71) د. بشير م نافع - مؤرخ في فلسطين

72) د.عبدالله الاشعل - نائب وزير الخارجية المصرية السابق

73) صالح مصلح الصيادي - الامين العام لحزب الشعب الديمقراطي في اليمن

74) اسماعيل حمادة - اداري في سوريا

75) سليم العاقل - باحث في لبنان

76) انمار حاتم - اداري في سوريا

77) جاسم الرصيف - روائي عراقي ورئيس منظمة كتّاب عراقيون من أجل الحرية في العراق

78) د.مصطفى مشعل - ناشط فلسطيني في اسبانيا

79) عبدالملك المخلافي - سياسي يمني ونائب الامين العام للمؤتمر القومي العربي في اليمن

80) الدكتور زياد ديب - طبيب اذن وانف وحنجرة في أميركا

81 ) مروان عبد العال - سياسي فلسطيني وفنان تشكيلي في لبنان

82) محمد كناعنة - امين عام حركة ابناء البلد في فلسطين

83 ) جميل خرطبيل – كاتب في فلسطين

84) د.بيسان ابو خالد - شاعرة فلسطينية في بلجيكا

85) سليمان نزال - شاعر فلسطيني في الدانمرك

86) حمدان الضميري - رئيس الجالية الفلسطينية في بلجيكا

87) يوف ابو دية - نقابي فلسطيني في أميركا

88) خالد بركات بركات - كاتب فلسطيني في اميركا

89) وليد رباح - رئيس تحرير صحيفة صوت العروبة في اميركا

90) د.عدنان بكرية - ناشط قومي في فلسطين

91) عمرو ناصف - اعلامي مصري في قناة المنار بلبنان

92 ) موسى حوامدة - شاعر اردني

93) سيف ابو كشك - رئيس شبكة الشباب الفلسطيني في اسبانيا

94) سعدية بن سالم - ناشط اجتماعي في تونس

95) منيرة البطاط - ناشط فلسطيني

96) سمير فخري - ناشط فلسطيني

97) خليل حجازي - ناشط فلسطيني

98) خالد بركات - ناشط فلسطيني

99) ماهر ابراهيم - صحفي في فلسطين المحتلة

100) د.محمد حمزة - حركة الناصريين المستقلين في لبنان

101) عبد الرحمن المحامي - رئيس اتحاد أصحاب المعاشات بمحافظة

الدقهلية في مصر

102) عماد يوسف محمد ابراهيم روائي سوداني في الامارات

103) خير الدين منصور - مهندس مدني في سوريا

104) احمد اراجة - فنان تشكيلي سوري في الكويت

105) عزت القمحاوي - اعلامي في مصر

106) د.عبد الغني الماني – طبيب عربي في النمسا

107) جمال الصباغ - طبيب في النمسا

108) جمال حرب - ناشط لبناني

109) نوال حلاوة - كاتبة واعلامية عربية في كندا

110) صبحي قحاوش - مستشار العمارة الخضراء في كندا

111) سميح جبارين - مسرحي وناشط سياسي في فلسطين المحتلة

112) حازم القواسمي - مستشار اقتصادي في فلسطين المحتلة

113) سيمون نصار - روائي فلسطيني بين استراليا وفرنسا

114) عبداللطيف مهنا - شاعر وكاتب وتشكيلي فلسطيني

115) علي قبلاوي - كاتب صحفي في فلسطين

116) سمير فخري خليل حجازي - ناشط سياسي في فلسطين المحتلة

117) حسين موسى طه - ناشط فلسطيني في سوريا

118) نداء ابو طه - منسقة مشاريع في فلسطين المحتلة.

119) د.محمد البشاري - رئيس جامعة ابن سينا ورئيس الفدرالية الوطنية لمسلمي فرنسا.

120) راضية الشهايبي - شاعرة في تونس

121) احمد سعيد نوفل - استاذ علوم ساسية في جامعة اليرموك بالاردن

122) كاظم محمد - كاتب عراقي في السويد

123) نضال السبع - ناشط سياسي في فلسطين

124) لطيفة حليم - روائية وأستاذة الأدب العربي في المغرب

125)علي حمد - باحث و مدرس فلسطيني في اسبانيا

126) فتوح عبدالعزيز - ناشط في البحرين

127) نقولا صايغ - معلق سياسي في فلسطين

128) سليم نزال - باحث ومؤرخ فلسطيني في السويد

129) بثينة خوري - مخرجة سينمائية في فلسطين

130) زياد جيوسي - كاتب وناقد في فلسطين

131) ربحي أحمد العسلي - صيدلي في الأردن

132) ايهاب ابو زينة - رجل اعمال في فلسطين

Egypt in March - Analysis of a bloody week

Against the background of intensified demands for democratic change, the brutality of the military regime has increased to the level of unconcealed repression.
The strategy of the regime has manifested itself in the use of hired thugs to attack peaceful protesters complemented by the provocation of sectarian clashes at street level, and in the restructuring of the State Security Service, the re-deployment of Mubarak's police force and the presentation of Muhammad Al Baradei and Amr Musa as candidates for presidency at state level.
This is a spider's web of reaction carefully spun around the youthful, inexperienced and often dangerously politically naive forces of national rebirth and revolution.
The inacceptability of Musa is so obvious that it does not merit any further elaboration. He was put up as a candidate merely in order to fail. The entire purpose of his candidacy is to serve as a sparring partner to Al Baradei, who is a much more sophisticated pawn in the game.
Al Baradei embodies the type of the dynamic "progressive technocrat" we see exemplified in Barak Hussain Obama, the civilised version of George W. Bush, the master of charades with the aura of change, who may at times appear politically spineless but is strongly power-driven and enormously elastic. Being a ruthless (and willing) instrument to the aspirations of US- and global imperialism, he is yet never without one or two points to his credit. And this is true of both men. They can  indeed be expected to get along with each other extremely well.
This is why Al Baradei, for his part the civilised version of Mubarak, is the ideal choice for the United States political-economic establishment, who have forever tried to make him the "leader of Egypt's opposition".

No one single person has played a more decisive role in the preparation of the ground for the invasion of Iraq than Muhammad Al Baradei, America's nuclear watchdog.
A great many of today's revolutionaries and "revolutionaries" might be too young to have followed and analysed the developments that led to the imperialist aggression against the sovereign Middle Eastern nation of Iraq, at the time one of the major powers in the region and one among a mere handful of states who, for reasons of their own, declined to bow to the whip of Western domination and resist the aspirations of neo-colonial conquest.
Masterfully manipulating internal conflicts and territorial disputes (and let us remember that all borders in the Middle East are artificial), the imperialist powers prepared the destruction of Iraq in two phases, conducting what was a long and protracted campaign of systematically undermining, step by step, the nation's defense, political coherence and economic infrastructure, hence the entire fabric of its sovereignty. In the final phase of this campaign, alleged nuclear weapons were introduced on the scene so as to provide a justification for the eventual invasion. The task of finding these was delegated to the nuclear expert Al Baradei, who sought what did not exist in full knowledge of its non-existence.
He carried out this ridiculous operation over months during which he pursued the systematic demoralisation of Iraq by means of continuous inspections and searches for weapons of mass destruction, which were nothing else but a protracted internationally sanctioned smear campaign. No one knew better than Al Baradei that none of these ever existed and could therefore not be found. The nerve gas used in Halabjah was supplied, which is another open secret, by the imperialist powers themselves, at a time when that same Saddamist Iraq was their strategic ally.
Meanwhile Bush and his European satellites decided that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction were magic devices that could be rendered invisible and the existence of which did therefore no longer require verification. Thus, Al Baradei's efforts were no longer needed and the conscience-plagued socialist democrat was finally free to admit that he had failed to find any evidence for the existence of these. And mark you well, he did not say in his report that these weapons did not exist but merely that he had not been able to find them, nor did he explicitly say he was against the invasion. He merely stated that the evidence he found did not justify it.
This, in itself, was a well-calculated step, for these remarks were made at a time when they had already become entirely irrelevant. After his having prepared the ground for the invasion, they were a mere smoke screen intended to wash his hands of the bloodshed to follow. But blood sticks. It leaves traces. And the wounds of Iraq haven't healed.
Here stands the man responsible for a national catastrophe, and for a crushing defeat of the Middle East's aspirations for political independence, loosened on his native Egypt.
And worse than that: here stands the murderer of Iraq, cheered by Egypt's intelligentsia.

This raises the question of the role of the intelligentsia, as a whole, in the process of social revolution.
The privileged position of this class, in comparison to the vast deprivation and poverty suffered by the working classes, the rural masses and the tribesmen that make up the country's social identity, renders their needs for change minimal and therefore causes them to be satisfied with minimal changes. Their isolated, as it were, root-less, position as a class, as well as their Westernisation, do not promote firmness of position nor political clarity. And in this lie the limits of the idealist intellectual leaders of the Revolutionary Youth Coalition.
This is what made them cheer Shafiq's military government after the ouster of Mubarak. This is what rendered them entirely unprepared for the violence which this "honourable neutral army" was to unleash upon them at the moment they were out of the spotlights. This is what makes them cheer for the sycophantic Al Baradei now. This is what renders their political steps so groping, tipsy, uncoordinated- and increasingly inefficient.
It is to be feared that a few idealists coming straight out of the lecture halls are no match for a political empire built on cynical calculation. Even though this empire is shaken by a monstrous economic crisis  as well as by a series of revolutions against the neo-liberal system on which it relies (which came only partially as a surprise and which it is increasingly apt to contain), it has not lost its agility, nor its resourcefulness.
And let us be clear that neo-liberalism is merely one facet of an economic system the political expressions of which range from "social market economy", its mildest form, to fascism, which is its ultimate reaction to mortal inner crises (which is why we are seeing a rise of -increasingly "respectable"- fascist tendencies in Europe, the US and Zionist Israel).
We must not be deceived. The enemy is strong. The enemy is ruthless. The enemy is ready for everything.
The question is: where do we stand? What do we have to offer? How do we, nationally and internationally, consolidate our ranks in order to stand our ground?
We have seen 2 million at Tahrir, at the best of times. What is that more than a drop of water in an ocean within the vastness of Egypt, the most-densely populated country in the Arab world? There is indeed an ocean of people who are still silent, who cannot be reached by social media, who are a world apart from Egypt's intellectual elite.
The question is: how do we get them to speak? And most of all: when and how shall they rise to liberate themselves by their own action, to take their fate into their own hands and make this revolution their own?

The use of social media as well as the absence of a leadership structure has been a strength of the revolution in its initial stage because it rendered it resistant to the suppression and infiltration techniques of the Mubarak regime. But with the initial stages of the revolution behind us, they have become a liability. They have become the haven of an increasingly disoriented exclusivist elite and a hindrance to the revolution's gaining new momentum and new ground. What is needed now is an organised apparatus to disseminate information, analysis and revolutionary propaganda in the form of a news service created by the revolution for the revolution, providing reliable, structured information in written form as well as oral transmission.
The revolution, at this stage, must shed its urban image.
The revolution, at this stage, requires an organised and disciplined party of the masses that is effective nationwide and cross-border.

It is for the Coalition of Revolutionary Youth to support, by all means at their disposal, the formation of such a party or movement, to affiliate with it and, in the face of the candidacy of Mousa and Al Baradei, put forward a presidential candidate of its own.

Forward, workers and peasants of Egypt! Forward, women of Egypt! Forward, revolutionary youth! Forward to the consolidation of the revolution by all means necessary! Forward to the organised defense of the peoples' revolutionary achievements!

Muhammad A. Al Mahdi
APIC(APICONG), March 12, 2011

APIC (APICONG) marks International Women's Day

Let us extend, on this day that marks the courage, the social commitment, the strength and inviolable dignity of the women of this world, our revolutionary greetings to our sisters everywhere.
Let us remember, on this day of pride and determination, the decisive role women have played -and are playing- in the recent revolutionary events in Tunisia, Egypt, Lybia, Yemen, Algeria, Bahrain, Oman, Jordan, Palestine, Mauritania, Morocco.
Let us remember the great and eminent female leaders in the history of Islam. Let us remember that is was women who were the first to follow the call of the prophet (s.a.w.s.) for the creation of a society built on the foundation of truth, justice and social equality for all. Let us remember that it were our mothers and sisters who made the triumph of this social concept possible.
Let us then remember the heroines and countless female martyrs of the 20th century's revolutionary socialist movement and of the worldwide struggle for women's liberation.

And let us reiterate today a slogan we have coined in the days of the Egyptian Uprising which was the clarion call for the 21st century's Arab and wordlwide social revolution, a call that is true in a context far wider than Egypt herself: Al Masr Oum al Dunya. An-Niswan umahat al Masr.

The revolution of our century, indeed, is a revolution that must have the vision and the liberation of women at its core, for the liberation of the woman is the liberation of the human race.

Our sisters who today are still finding themselves prisoners of a system based on repression and degradation, of a system in which the exploitation of one class by the other corresponds to the exploitation of one people by the other and, finally and consequently, to the exploitation of one gender by the other, represent a vast, limitless submerged potential that is the key to everything the future of our culture and nation is about.

We are urging them to wake up to the awareness of the boundless universe that lies within them. We are calling them to be guided, in their thoughts and actions, by this awareness, which will lead them to the realisation that the liberator of the woman is the woman alone.

We wish to extend our solidarity to our Saudi sisters who have risen against the degradation to which their lives are subjected under the rule of the reactionary misogynistic abomination which is the House of Sa'ud.
We wish to extend our solidarity to our sisters in Afghanistan who are forced to lead a power-consuming struggle on two fronts: against extremist enemies within and, simultaneously, against one of the most aggressive foreign invasions modern history has known.
We wish to extend our solidarity to our sisters who are subject to abusive marriages, violence and crime within their own communities.
We wish to extend our solidarity to our sisters worldwide who are the victims of wages-inequality and gender discrimination.

To throw off all these shackles that paralyse the human creative potential and ties men and women to the yoke of a system built on inequality, dominance, repression and conquest requires militant and organised resistance, as well as the preparedness to question everything we have been taught to accept as unquestionable truths.
The mind that comprehends the phenomena of the world surrounding it, understanding that there is movement even in the stones, the mind that has learnt to see in its mirror the pure, inalienable reflection of the DIVINE,
will not be afraid to trust itself.

It is not the nature of women and men that creates a contradiction between them but their relationship with one another within the social and economic realities of the system by which their lives are determined.
The true natures of women and men are complementary. Together, they form the two components of an inseparable oneness, and that oneness is the mirror of tawhid. The alienation of this holistic existence (the water that nourishes the rivers of Al Jannah) leads to a distortion in the perception of both, and thus to a society permeated with distortions. A society in which the intellectual leaders of Islam have been able to propagate tenets as alien to the Islamic concept as the exclusion of women, on whose shoulders our society was built, from this very society's key positions, or the acceptance of tyrannic rule for the sake of "social stability"; a society in which those who claim to represent Islam have disowned the greatest Muslim intellectual the 20th century has produced and whose invaluable research work has once again opened us the gates to the core of the Islamic system of thought, its history and proper context: Dr. Fatima Mernissi.

The raison d'etre of any given stage of history on its path toward surmounting itself, however, lies in its preparing the ground for the next stage to be reached. It is the question and the quest for its answer that drives the wheel of time.

Let us quote, in conclusion of this brief address, the words of Maulana Jalalad-din Al Balkhi:

The manner and bearing of the prophets,
Our secret origins,
All these are preserved in a woman
Who lives within us
Though she is hiding
From what we have
Become.

To this we add: May every eye that seeks the truth of which its vision has sprung be opened and may every heart that has seen the light and chooses to remain in darkness be disowned by the very breast in which it beats!

Forward to a century that shall see women and men liberated! Forward to a century that shall see our hearts, our minds and our inner knowledge reborn!

APIC (APICONG)