[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
Dear
members of the list,
Assalamu
Alaikum.Please see the ordeal of Nadia El-Awady at BUdapest airport.
She is IslamOnline.net’s deputy editor in chief and managing
science editor. She is an award-winning journalist and is frequently
invited to international conferences to speak on issues related to
science journalism. El-Awady is also the chair of the World Federation
of Science Journalists’ program committee and the president of the Arab
Association of Science Journalists. She may be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED].
Shah
Abdul Hannan
Anatomy of a Rioter: A Personal Account
By Nadia El-Awady**
Deputy Editor in Chief – IslamOnline.net
|
December 02, 2005
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It’s easy to sit down on a couch in front of one’s
television set and pass down judgments of ignorance, lack of education,
hooliganism, or just plain “they’re scum” on the youngsters who had
caused so much unrest recently in France. It’s especially easy if you
haven’t previously experienced social injustice.
I’ve had it easy most of my life. Opportunities for
upward mobility—socially, financially, and career-wise—knock on my door
on a semi-regular basis. My family’s financial situation has always
been more than satisfactory. Coming from a multi-cultural background,
I’ve managed to fit in almost anywhere I go in the world, despite the
fact that I am obviously Muslim from the way I dress. For a long time I
also had dual American/Egyptian citizenship until I renounced my US
passport in 1998 to protest against US policies in Iraq at the time.
Since then, traveling has become more and more
difficult. There was no way on earth I could have foretold the
terrorist attacks of 9/11 that would lead to, among other things,
extensive and terribly long background checks before granting visas to
anyone from the Middle East wishing to travel to Europe or the United
States in particular. There was no way I could have foretold that
renouncing my US citizenship would turn me into a second-rate citizen
of the world.
Stage One: Excuses
|
I had never conceived that I
would be treated as a second-rate citizen of the world simply because
of where I come from.
|
On November 9, I was exposed to my own dose of social
injustice. I was on my way from Cairo to Budapest to attend the World
Science Forum, where I was invited to speak on science journalism. My
journey took me to Milano, where I normally would have had an hour and
a half of transit time. Due to a fog at Milano Airport, my flight from
Cairo was delayed. Airline staff in Cairo insisted that I had nothing
to worry about and that my flight from Milano to Budapest would be
informed to wait for me. Instead, and for the first time in my long
experience of air travel, this particular flight to Budapest decided to
leave the gate minutes before its departure time, leaving behind not
only me, but at least 10 other passengers from other connecting flights.
Needless to say, when something like this happens,
it’s a bummer. But it happens. I have been able, in my mind, to find
many excuses for the airline to explain why it left earlier than
scheduled, leaving behind those passengers. Maybe it was the fog that
plagued Milano airport for days—as I discovered when I returned from
Budapest four days afterwards on my return trip to Cairo. Perhaps the
fog had suddenly let up and the pilot was anxious to leave under the
safest conditions possible. Perhaps the airline just likes to be very
prompt in sticking to its departure times (which I can assure you is
not the case since not one of the flights I took with them left on
time—far from it). Maybe the flight attendants wanted to get this
flight over with as quickly as possible and just go home. I can even
understand that.
I can’t understand, however, the differentiation of
treatment between me and the other passengers who missed the plane that
followed. All the other passengers happened to be either American or
European. All were provided a night’s accommodation at the airport
hotel. Since I did not have a visa that would allow me to leave the
airport, and there was none to be bought, I was told that my only
solution was to spend the next 12 hours in the airport until the next
flight to Budapest departed.
Dawning Realizations
|
“One day you will come to
Egypt and see how we treat foreigners.”
|
I asked for any sort of compensation: using one of the
airline’s lounges, having my ticket upgraded to business class, or just
getting directed to a decent transit lounge to stretch out and rest.
None of these options were available. I asked who to go to in order to
lodge an official complaint. “Complain to the company,” they replied.
“Tell me who I can speak with now,” I requested. “Unfortunately, there
is no one,” I was told. All they could provide me was a voucher for
dinner from the snack bar, which had closed by the time all of this was
done. The whole airport in Milano shuts down at 11pm, with absolutely
no services available until 6am the next morning.
I must ashamedly admit that I broke down in tears when
I realized what was happening to me. I had never conceived that I would
be treated as a second-rate citizen of the world. I had never conceived
that I would be treated differently than others simply because of where
I come from. I had heard about things happening to other people, but
had distanced myself from thinking that it could happen to me.
The last thing I told the woman from the ground staff,
who was telling me that there was absolutely nothing she could do for
me, was, “One day you will come to Egypt and see how we treat
foreigners. We take complete strangers into our homes and stop our cars
if we see a foreigner having trouble with a taxi.” I sobbed. A man who
I assume was European, who also missed his flight but was lucky enough
to be able to go to the airport hotel, tried to calm me down by saying,
“This is typical Berlusconi politics.” What the heck Berlusconi has to
do with me having to stay in an airport for 12 hours without a decent
chair to stretch in is beyond me, but at least the man had the
sensitivity to try to make me feel better. I could not say as much for
the airport staff.
The Best in Us
|
Social injustice hurts one’s
pride and sense of dignity, pushing one to the brink of illogical
reaction sometimes.
|
I lugged my bags around the airport to see what my
options were. No open snack bars, no chaises longues to make myself
semi-comfortable in, no water that I could find. Only the bathrooms
were open, which I thanked God for. I looked around me and found about
30 other people in my same predicament—all of obvious Middle Eastern
origin with the exception of maybe one couple who might have been
Russian or something.
I slumped into one of the airport chairs and tried to
make myself comfortable. I couldn’t. The chair hurt. I cried a little
more. Eventually I convinced myself that crying wouldn’t get me
anywhere. Something must be done, I told myself. I have to be
proactive. No problem is ever solved by crying.
Ideas raced through my head. A hunger strike! I was
already hungry anyway and was forced, due to the circumstances, to fast
the night. A demonstration! I could gather all the Middle Easterners in
the airport and hold a protest at one of the gates. Or better yet, we
could all stand on the tarmac in front of one of the planes and prevent
it from taking off!
I took my wonderful ideas so seriously—they had
actually given me hope in spending an exciting evening and actually
getting my voice heard—that I looked around me to choose who would be
the first lucky people for me to approach and conspire with. I had
already met a young Turkish couple who went through all the arguments I
had with the ground staff and failed as I did. I decided to approach
them first. I didn’t have enough courage to ask them to go on a hunger
strike with me or to hold a demonstration, but I did suggest that we
think of some kind of group action. “But we’ve already spoken with
everyone we can speak with,” was their basic argument against. “Who
else is there to go to to voice our grievances?” They did have a
point—if you want to think civilly and logically that is. I still
wanted to make a commotion at the airport though.
I decided to try speaking with two Arab men, an
Algerian and a Jordanian. The Jordanian continuously smiled—rather
smirked—as I told them of my idea of having some sort of group action.
I could just see him saying to himself, “What a crazy veiled woman! Go
back to your family where you belong!” The Algerian was kind enough to
go through all my arguments with me. He had also spoken with every
single person possible to try to solve his own predicament. In the end,
the only solution was, “Complain to the company.” He invited me to
spend the night on the makeshift bed he was using and explained that he
would find somewhere else to sleep. I declined explaining that I was a
sturdy woman who could hold her own quite well, thank you.
Not to go into more details on how I eventually
managed to make my own makeshift bed out of airport chairs, my point
here is that social injustice hurts. It hurts to the bone. It hurts
one’s pride. It hurts one’s sense of dignity. It pushes one to the
brink of illogical reaction sometimes. And other times, perhaps the
only reaction possible is the illogical. I can hardly begin to imagine
what it would be like to be treated this way every single day of my
life. One injustice and I was ready to stop airplanes from flying. What
kinds of riots would I be behind if I was repeatedly treated
as a second-class citizen in France as a result of my ethnic
background? What kind of mayhem would I cause if no matter how
hard I tried, every door was shut in my face? I truly do not want to
know the answers to those questions. God has clearly saved the world
from the likes of me being unjustly treated on a regular basis.
**Nadia El-Awady is IslamOnline.net’s deputy editor in chief and
managing science editor. She is an award-winning journalist and is
frequently invited to international conferences to speak on issues
related to science journalism. El-Awady is also the chair of the World
Federation of Science Journalists’ program committee and the president
of the Arab Association of Science Journalists. She may be reached at: [EMAIL PROTECTED].
Hi/SALAM
I wish to thank you for sharing this exceedingly insightful, engaging,
and thoroughly inspiring article by Nadia El-Awady.
Nothing can be more hurtful and insulting to human dignity than
injustice. If I recall correctly, one of the profound sayings of the
Prophet is that the main mission of all prophets is to establish
JUSTICE on earth. He did not mention FREEDOM because with justice,
freedom can be guaranteed but not the other way around.
Sister Nadia, thank you for exposing the hypocrisy and injustice that
are the daily diet of many, many peoples, especially if they happen to
be Arabs and/or Muslims. What is equally painful and frustrating is the
fact that most, if not all, Arab and/or Muslim governments don't seem
to take these issues seriously, and the main reason for that is: these
governments themselves have no self-respect and, therefore, have no
respect for their own peoples. It is almost a truism: You don't expect
respect from governments that have lost their own self-respect. What an
ugly vicious circle! In order to break this vicious circle we need,
among other things, more people and voices like sister Nadia's. What a
splendid piece!
Regards,
Ibrahim Hayani
***************************************************************************
{Invite (mankind, O Muhammad ) to the Way of your Lord (i.e. Islam) with wisdom (i.e. with the Divine Inspiration and the Qur'an) and fair preaching, and argue with them in a way that is better. Truly, your Lord knows best who has gone astray from His Path, and He is the Best Aware of those who are guided.}
(Holy Quran-16:125)
{And who is better in speech than he who [says: "My Lord is Allah (believes in His Oneness)," and then stands straight (acts upon His Order), and] invites (men) to Allah's (Islamic Monotheism), and does righteous deeds, and says: "I am one of the Muslims."} (Holy Quran-41:33)
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: "By Allah, if Allah guides one person by you, it is better for you than the best types of camels." [al-Bukhaaree, Muslim]
The prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) also said, "Whoever calls to guidance will have a reward similar to the reward of the one who follows him, without the reward of either of them being lessened at all."
[Muslim, Ahmad, Aboo Daawood, an-Nasaa'ee, at-Tirmidhee, Ibn Maajah]
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