arch/ive/ief (2000 - 2005)

AEL COMMEMORATES VICTIMS OF AMERICAN-ISRAELI TERROR ON 11th OF SEPTEMBER

Press release 11 September 2002

ANTWERP- the Arab European League (AEL) commemorated today in the Belgian city of Antwerp the millions of victims all over the world who fell as a result of American and Israeli policies. In front of a full conference room of mainly Arab Youth the speakers included testimonies of Souad Srour El Merhi a victim of Sabra and Shatilla and a lecture by Dyab Abou Jahjah the president of the Arab European League.

Brother Abou Jahjah told the public that "when you do not have a CNN and a McDonalds and a huge military next to another army of multinationals, you can not expect to be treated equally and with dignity and justice in our world today". He declared that we Arabs and Muslims "will not take part in the masquerade of the uniqueness of 11 September. Our People and other peoples have seen worse days on the hands of the Americans and the Israelis, in Sabra and Shatilla, in Iraq , everyday in Palestine but also in Vietnam , Korea and Indonesia ".

The event was strongly followed by the Media who saw in it an exception in the general atmosphere of lamenting the suffering of America . Later in an interview with the Belgian TV News Abou Jahjah expressed the indignation of Arabs and justice loving people that America could hypnotize the world and make it forget the death every month of 8000 Iraqi children according to Unicef figures, as a direct result of the American Embargo against Iraq, "This is every month almost 3 times 11 September" he said.

The Arab European League will be holding other actions and conferences during the month of September also to commemorate Sabra and Shatilla (15th September in Brussels ) but also to mark the second anniversary of the second Intifada on the week-end of 28-29 of September in Antwerp .

Hello,

I think it us right to critisize the selective compassion of Bush and other imperialist leaders. But wouldn't it be better for the AEL to include the ordinary Americans, working class people, who also suffered from the terroristic attack of 11 september? It is rather painful to see this being denigrated as "American suffering". As a tactic, by the way, the terrorist attacks only gave the opportunity to Bush to strenthen his hand internationally and internally: US workers and youth were rightly terrified and have been, temporarily, driven behind the war plans of Bush.

The statement also points to the might of the western multinationals. But what is the alternative for the AEL? An Arabic or "Third World"-capitalism? What is your position on the Arab regimes in the Middle East, which are all open or veiled dictatorships?

Don't you think workers and young people in the region have to unite against their common oppressors - often collaborators with US imperialism? Do you think that the free market has to be developed by local, Arabic leaders or do you think that this is impossible and we have to look beyond capitalism - to socialism? Would you support Arabic business men who financially might want to contribute to your organisation?

In short: don't you think we need class solidarity of European, Arabic and US workers and youth to fight the imperialist states and their puppets in the the Middle East? And don't you think that, to achieve this class solidarity, the statements of Abou Jahjah on for example homosexuality are extremely harmful (the bourgeoisie uses not only racism to divide the people, but als prejudices against other groups like women, sexual minorities, etc.)?

Dear Friend,
We never want to denigrate the suffering of the american ordinary people, not even those who work or lead multinationals out of their jheadquarters in the WTC. all we want to say is, this thing was blown out of proportion because a rich and mughty country was hit. Anyway, if you are asking if the AEL is Marxist, then the answer is NO. Ael is an Arab National, Moslim-Democrat and SOcially aware organisation. WE also despise Arab regimes and want to disma,tel all dictatorships. Our Alternative vision is stated on our web-side http://www.arabeuropean.org under the link "about us" on top of your browser.
We do believe in Solidarity among oppressed peoples, and we are aware of the class struggel but unlike the Marxists we do believe that it is only one aspect of relevant societal struggels. We reject Iseas as the dictatorship of proletariat we consider it to be against our fundamental believe in democracy. But we also reject the dictatorship of Capital, and definitely the globalisation of that dictatorship.We are for a good middel way. For a Marxist this would probably be considerd as a small-bourgeois pseudo-leftist position, but we se it as a realist position. If you want to use labels on us, go ahead we are used to it anyway.
Now about the position on familly values, as Moslims these things are determined out of our religion and we do believe in a natural order of things where all people are created equal but where not everything is relative , a man for a woman and a woman for a man is the norm, but no one should be obliged to follow the norm, that is a very important nuance that Abou jahjah ùmade and no one seem s to remember.
In Solidarity
N.S.