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Last update - 21:07 18/09/2008 Nightmare before Ramadan By Yoav Stern Tags: Balad party, Fasal al-Makal "Instead of it being a month of abstinence, asceticism and breaking the fast with dates, it has turned into a month of cooking, fat paunches and frying. The month of Ramadan is the month of sycophantism, hypocrisy and lies, the month of squandering and appetite, a month of slavery for women." These words were written around a month ago by Ala Hlehl, the editor in chief of the Balad party newspaper Fasal al-Makal. They forced him to resign and provoked a stormy debate about freedom of expression in Arab society. Hlehl, a playwright and translator, is one of the most prominent artists in Israeli Arab society, an important Balad activist. He is considered loyal to the party's founder Azmi Bishara, and is well known for his courageous stands. Advertisement This time, however, he has touched a particularly sensitive nerve. Writing under the headline, "A nightmare by the name of Ramadan," his words were phrased in a style that was partly blunt, partly mocking and mainly haughty. "The month of Ramadan in its present form is a burden on the shoulders of the heads of the families. Sheikh al-Azhar should publish an urgent religious decree that would bring punishment on any father or mother who serves more than one helping of food at the hour of breaking the fast, so that the nation can be saved from itself and from its fat paunch," he wrote. Reactions poured in. The first didn't come from the Islamic Movement, as might have been expected, but from Balad itself. A member of the party's political bureau, Tamim Mansour, wrote an article in the newspaper Hadith al-Nas entitled "A nightmare by the name of Allah." In it, he accused Hlehl of being ignorant, lacking morals and trying to distort the significance of one of Islam's basic principles, just as non-believers do. Balad's secretary, Awad Abdel Fatah, was more reserved. He said the party was proud of Hlehl, but wrote in the Haifa newspaper Al-Medina that it was a mistake to print those remarks in the party paper. "The writer presented the subject in a style that does not help bring about the social change we and the writer believe in," he said. Hlehl left his job after the party published a clarification saying that the statements do not represent its views. But his resignation did not end the affair. The deputy head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch, Sheikh Kamal Khatib, directly attacked Hlehl in the newspaper Al-Sinara. He described Hlehl's remarks as "unprecedented insolence" and compared him to the Danes who had published caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed, and to the Jewish settlers in Hebron and Kiryat Arba who "attack the Prophet." The controversy was not left merely to the newspaper articles but became part of the public debate. A resident of the Little Triangle area of Arab towns, who had sworn that he does not fast and admitted that he has difficulty doing his food shopping during the fast month, said Hlehl had crossed the line. "It is true that I don't fast, but it is forbidden to speak in that way about Islam," he said. "Let Allah punish him." The articles and counter-articles gave rise to a debate on the limits of freedom of expression. The I'LAM Media Center for Arab Palestinians in Israel and an Arab journalists' forum published a call "to respect freedom of expression as a basic human value" and demanded that Hlehl be reinstated. A number of writers supported him. Nawaf Athamneh, editor of the Web site Machsom, wrote: "The content or style of Hlehl's article is not important; no one is permitted to demand that he be crucified and his skin ripped off. This is not a defense of the freedom to publish but rather a defense of the freedom to think." Coming to his defense Arab writers from other religions came to Hlehl's defense and spoke out against religious zealotry. Raji Bathish, a writer and advertising agent who described himself as secular, wondered why people are always worried about believers' hurt feelings, as if other people don't have feelings. "The religions and what goes along with them did not merely hurt the feelings of people but even trampled on them and threw them into the garbage," he wrote. Marzouk Halabi added: "We did not expect anything else of religious fundamentalism, or whatever name it goes by, but that it would force its point of view and beliefs on those who are not religious." Hlehl himself has hardly responded to the issue. He declined to be interviewed for this article, calling it an internal Arab affair with which the Hebrew-language media and Jewish sector are not directly involved. Nevertheless, there is a feeling in Balad that Hlehl was forced to pay a price for his remarks because the upcoming local and national elections are in the air. They point out that another article written by him that accused the Islamic Movement of fear of sex did not cause any reactions when it was published a year ago. "Balad has always led in its social criticism and has demanded that an enlightened, advanced and democratic society be set up. After our demands on nationalist issues started to be shared by all the parties, how can we continue to differentiate ourselves from them if not in that way?" a source in the party said. Similar arguments take place in every Arab society, to a larger or smaller degree. In Israel, observers say freedom to discuss them is greater because this is a democracy not threatened by debate of that type. "It is clear that in Israel the margins for maneuver of those involved in the controversy are wider, and the fuss that is created is also bigger," one observer said. "That is because inside the Green Line the Arabs also have space for democratic activity. But Israel must not attribute that to itself. This is a democracy that is limited to within the Green Line, and beyond that there is an apartheid regime." Bookmark to del.icio.us   Criticizing the world Desmond Tutu suggested the West does not admonish Israel because of the Holocaust. Ahmadinejad attack Ahmadinejad lashes out against Israel again, saying it won't survive in any shape or form.   1.   pal reasoning: Israel has democracy thanks to the arabs 01:29  |  Absolute Sweden 19/09/08   2.   Similar to the Christmas critiques in December 02:35  |  Aphemia 19/09/08   3.   now its israels fault no democracy, appartide exist in arab lands 03:44  |  ralph 19/09/08   4.   A Farce. 11:08  |  J 19/09/08

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