I was elated with the news that the US is planning to cut its aid to Egypt by $200 million for its bad human rights record.
Such a fortunate step should finally assure us – after years of anxiety – that the Bush administration is now seriously committed to the protection of human rights in its relationship with other nations.
It would then be safe to say that the US may also show a similar commitment to human rights within its own borders.
The American press now reflects a deep consternation felt by the American people – or at least the vast majority of those not belonging with the neo-cons – towards the Bush administration’s violation of human rights, not only in Guantanamo or in Iraq, but inside the United States itself.
The results of a poll published in the December 13 issue of the Washington Post showed that two thirds of Americans polled feel that the FBI and other agencies infringe on their privacy.
It’s strange that this deterioration in the US’s human rights record coincides with the boost in religiosity of its ruling elite.
In her book titled “The Last Crusade, American journalist Barbara Victor wrote that most of the neo-cons she met, whether men or women in the fields of politics, science or economics, were convinced they had “direct communication with Jesus Christ!
This would naturally make us wonder what exactly happened during these “direct communications.
It’s difficult to imagine how any human being who’s had the honor of “direct communication with Christ would not have noticed how Christ (Peace Be Upon Him) showed his utter grief over what happens in Guantanamo or Abu Ghraib – certainly so before mentioning human rights violations in Egyptian jails and police stations.
The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claims it receives at least 500 complaints each week (that is 26,000 a year) against racial discrimination. At the top of the list, needless to say, are Arabs and Muslims, usually referred to simply as “Middle Easterners .
How convenient it is to use such a “polite “non-racist term, which doesn’t single them out according to sex or religion, but discriminates against them for a combination of both.
Mind you, we’re not even mentioning what used to happen right after the events of September 11 because the “phenomenon continues till today.
The Associated Press (an American news agency) reported last November that six Muslims were handcuffed and removed from a flight from Minneapolis to Phoenix, not because there was any court ruling against them, but because another traveler complained to the crew that they were going to attend an Islamic conference!
Everywhere we go we hear the term “Islamophobia – that pathological fear of Islam. The term dates back to the 1980s but observers agree that it has never been as widespread as it is now in the US post-9/11. It has reached such an extent that even Salman Rushdie signed a petitions against Islamophobia, which he described as a blatant violation of human rights.
All that said, cutting US aid to countries that violate human rights is a great thing, even if in effect, it is punishment to those whose rights are being trampled on.
There are many other paths the US administration can take if it is truly committed to ensuring that its allies improve their record, the simplest of which is by setting an example. And if the power of the Bush administration’s imagination was unable to come up with other ways than cutting aid to safeguard human rights in Egypt, then what should we do about such violation in the US?
How about using the oil card? Should we start a program called “Oil for Human Rights modeled on the UN “Oil for Food program? Ah, but that would be blackmail. For indeed, cutting oil to America is blackmail, but cutting US aid to others isn’t.
Hence, I’m not at all for cutting oil to the US for its violation of the rights of Arabs and Muslims; but I am, of course, all for cutting US aid to Egypt for the very same reasons.
Mohamed Salmawyis President of the Writer’s Union of Egypt and editor-in-chief of Al-Ahram Hebdo. This article is syndicated in the Arabic press.
