Critics and Rebels: Older Arab Intellectuals Reflect on the Uprisings

AbstractMost Arabs, including intellectuals, agree that the recent uprisings have profoundly changed the realities they have known for decades since the independence of their states. The historical character of the moment, and the emergence of a youth capable of producing unprecedented changes, have together forced an older generation of Arab intellectuals, born roughly between the 1930s and the 1950s, to acknowledge the coming of a new generation of critics and rebels. This article looks at how thinkers of the older generation have written about the uprisings and its actors, by examining their public statements in the form of articles or interviews on television channels, in newspapers and journals, some of them newly launched. I focus on Lebanese poet Abbas Baydoun, Syrian philosopher Sadeq Jalal al-Azm, Lebanese novelist Elias Khoury, Egyptian novelist Baha' Taher, Bahraini thinker Muhammad Jaber al-Ansari, Syrian poet Adonis and Tunisian sociologist Taher Labib. While most of them value the importance of intellectual work in the struggle for human dignity and freedom, they also admit its limitations. They reflect on the significance of the popular and youth participation in advancing the causes they militated for in previous decades. AcknowledgementsThe author would like to thank Ewan Stein for his helpful editorial suggestions.Notes 1 Shafiq Nazim Ghabra, ‘Lahdhat Jil al-Thawra al-‘Arabiyya 2011’, al-Hayat, 25 August 2011. 2 See for instance the two collective author volumes on the topic published by Markaz Dirasat al-Wihdah al-‘Arabiyyah in Beirut: Al-Muthaqqaf al-‘Arabi: Humumuhu wa ‘Ata'uhu (2001) and Al-Thaqafah wa al-Muthaqqaf fi al-Watan al-‘Arabi (2002). 3 Abbas Baydoun, ‘Wujida as-Sha‘b’, as-Safir, 13 February 2011. 4 Developments after 3 July 2013 might indicate otherwise. 5 Abbas Baydoun, ‘Selmiyye, selmiyye’, as-Safir, 29 April 2011. 6 About six months after the beginning of the Syrian revolution, some people started taking arms to defend themselves in the face of brutal state repression, leading to the militarisation of the revolution. 7 Abbas Baydoun, ‘Al-Thawra wa al-muthaqqafun: La ahad yu‘allim al-‘asifa’, as-Safir, 20 May 2011. 8 Abbas Baydoun, ‘Al-Muthaqqafun’, as-Safir, 30 April 2012. 9 Abbas Baydoun, ‘Tilka al-Thawrat’, as-Safir, 11 May 2012.10 Abbas Baydoun, ‘Al-Muthaqqafun’, as-Safir, 28 June 2012.11 The interview was shown on the Rawafed programme run by Ahmed el Zein for the al Arabiyya channel, which plays host to prominent Arab intellectuals and artists. Since 2011 the interviews have been focused on the Arab uprisings.12 Sadeq Jalal al-Azm, Al-Naqd al-Dhati ba‘d al-Hazima (Beirut: Dar al-Tali‘a, 1968). The new edition (Damascus: Dar Mamduh li al-Nashr wa al-Tawzi‘, 2007) has an introduction by Faisal Darraj on the presence of the defeat and the contemporaneity of the critical book Rahin al-hazima/Rahiniyyat al-kitab al-naqdi.13 ‘An Interview with Sadik al-Azm’, Arab Studies Quarterly, 19(3) (1997), pp. 113–126.14 ‘Hiwar fi al-‘umq ma‘ Sadeq Jalal al-Azm: Fi Sha'n al-Thawra wa Dawr al-Muthaqqaf’ [Dialogue in Depth with Sadeq Jalal al-Azm: On the Matter of the Revolution and the Role of the Intellectual], al-Jamhuriyya [The Republic], the new electronic journal launched by young volunteers to support the Syrian revolution and to offer visions, analyses and studies for it: http://therepublicgs.net/2013/01/10/ The English translation of the interview can be found at http://therepublicgs.net/2013/04/27/interview-with-dr-sadiq/. Another good source of his views on the intellectuals and the Syrian resolution is his text entitled ‘’Al-Rabi‘ al-‘Arabi’ wa al-Intifada al-Sha‘biyya al-Suriyya. Al-Dimoqratiyya wa al-‘ilmaniyya/al-Islam wa al-Hadatha wa al-Muthaqqafun wa al-Thawra’ [The Arab Spring and the Syrian Popular Uprising. Democracy and Secularism/Islam and Modernity and the Intellectuals and the Revolution], in another newly launched magazine called Dimasheq [Damascus] edited by Syrian writer Nouri al-Jarrah, March 2013, pp. 135–161. The journal presents itself as a free forum for a free Syria. It also appears electronically. Al-Azm's article can be found at http://www.dimasheq.com. For television interviews with al-Azm on the Syrian revolution, see, on Dubai Television, http://vod.dmi.ae/media/200101 on Orient News, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = WC3D7fl-zAE; on France 24 Arabic, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = SbKp1gUw4xs.15 In his interview on France 24 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = SbKp1gUw4xs).16 For a brief presentation of the Damascus Spring, see Alan George, Syria:Neither Bread nor Freedom (London: Zed Books, 2003).17 See his interview with Mona Naggar entitled ‘A New Spirit of Revolution’, Qantara, http://en.qantara.de/content/interview-with-sadiq-jalal-al-azm-a-new-spirit-of-revolution.18 Michel Kilo, ‘Muthaqqaf al-taghyir’, al-Doha, 56, March 2013.19 A video recording of the speech can be found at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = NIvQdXifKho. The talk was in Arabic. It was published in Bidayat, the magazine edited and launched by Lebanese historian and leftist thinker Fawwaz Trabulsi in Beirut in 200, under the title ‘Nahwa shur‘a akhlaqiyya fi zaman al-thawrat al-‘arabiyya’ [Toward a Moral Code in the Time of the Arab Revolutions], Bidayat, 3–4 (2012–2013), pp. 8–17. A few weeks later he delivered an English version of the speech at the Beirut Orient Institute during a conference entitled ‘Inverted Worlds’ (see http://vimeo.com/57689837). The Cairo talk was reviewed by a number of articles in the Egyptian press. I will be referring to some of them below.20 ‘Al-Riwa'i al-lubnani al-kabir Ilias Khoury: Al-sha‘b a‘tana darsan balighan fi al-thawra…fa hal fahimna?’ [The Great Lebanese Novelist Elias Khoury: The People Taught Us an Eloquent Lesson in Revolution … Did We Understand it?], Akhbar al-Adab, 1004, 21 October 2012.21 ‘Al-mufakkir al-lubnani Ilias Khoury: Al-thawra al-suriyya matruka fi al-ara’’ [The Lebanese Intellectual Elias Khoury: The Syrian Revolution Left in the Open], Al-Ahram, 7 October 2012.22 ‘Elias Khoury: Intellectuals’ Worst Challenge to Justify Islamists in Power’, Al-Ahram English, posted on 19 September 2012. http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/18/0/53290/Books/0/Elias-Khoury-Intellectuals-worst-challenge-to-just.aspx23 For an elaboration of this moral bankruptcy in Arab societies under dictatorship, see the article by Ghassan Salame (born 1951), Lebanese political scientist, former Lebanese Minister of Culture and special advisor to Kofi Anan on Iraq, published at the very beginning of the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings and entitled ‘An Tunis’, Al-Mustaqbal al-‘Arabi, 384 (February 2011), pp. 9–14.24 See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = EU3fIsik4Lw.25 See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = Tup6jBBFS_A.26 ‘Fi sira‘ al-muthaqqaf wa al-wa‘idh sarit al-ghalaba ba‘d 1967 li al-wa‘idh. Baha’ Taher: Al-ikhwan a‘da’ al-tafkir’ [In the Battle between the Intellectual and the Preacher, the Preacher Won after 1967. Baha Taher: The [Muslim] Brothers Enemies of Thinking], as-Safir, 14 June 2013.27 Taha Husayn, Mustaqbal al-Thaqafa fi Misr [The Future of Culture in Egypt] (Misr: Matba‘at al-Ma’arif wa Maktabatuha, 1938).28 Baha Taher, Ayyam al-Amal wa al-Hira [The Days of Hope and Perplexity] (Cairo: Dar Dawwin li al-Nashr wa al-Tawzi‘, 2012). To hear him speak about the book, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = lKArPROdee0a.29 Muhammad Jaber al-Ansari, Al-Fikr al-‘Arabi wa Sira‘ al-Addad. Kayfa Ihtawat al-Tawfiqiyya al-Sira‘ al-Mahzur Bayn al-Usuliyya wa al-‘Ilmaniyya wa al-Hasm al-Mu'ajjal Bayn al-Islam wa al-Gharb: Tashkhis Hala li al-la Hasm fi al-Hayat al-‘Arabiyya wa al-Ihtiwa’ al-Tawfiqi li al-Jadaliyya al-Mahzura [Arab Thought and the Struggle of Opposites: How Conciliatory Thought Contained the Forbidden Struggle between Fundamentalism and Secularism and the Postponed Settlement between Islam and the West: Diagnosis of the No-Settlement Situation in Arab Life and the Conciliatory Containment of Forbidden Dialectics] (Beirut: Al-Mu'assassa al-‘Arabiyya li al-Dirasat wa al-Nashr, 1999).30 For more on this, see the section in my book devoted to this book: Contemporary Arab Thought. Cultural Critique in Comparative Perspective (New York: Columbia University Press, 2010), pp. 253–264.31 22 September 2011; 6 October 2011; 1 December 2011; 15 December 2011; 14 June 2012; 9 August 2012; 18 October 2012; 29 November 2012; 3 May 2013.32 For an insightful examination of the impact of the Arab revolts on the Gulf countries, see Abdulkhaleq Abdulla, ‘In‘ikasat al-rabi‘ al-‘arabi ‘ala duwal majlis al-ta‘awun al-khaliji’ [The Impact of the Arab Spring on the Countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council], Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, Doha, April 2012. See also, from the same author, ‘Contemporary Socio-political Issues of the Arab Gulf Moment’, The Centre for the Study of Global Governance, Paper no. 11, September 2010.33 This echoes the title of a book he published first in 1980 and then as a new edition in 1998, Fatiha li Nihayat al-Qarn [Overture to the Century's Endings] (Beirut: Dar an-Nahar, 1998), including comments on the essays published in the first edition. The book dealt with issues of culture and politics in the Arab world. For more, see my Contemporary Arab Thought, pp. 128–133. As to the article, it appeared in al-Hayat on 17 February 2011.34 See his interview on France 24 in February 2013: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = Geh7dMZ0Ktc.35 Both were published in the Lebanese daily as-Safir. The first was on 14 June 2011, entitled ‘(Risala maftuha ila al-ra'is Bashar al-Asad) Al-Insan, huququhu wa hurriyyatuhu, aw al-hawiya’ [(Open Letter to President Bashar al-Asad) The Human, His/Her Rights, Freedom, or the Abyss]; the second was on 13 July 2011, with the title ‘Ab‘ad min al-Nidham, wa awsa‘ min al-siyasa. (Risala maftuha ila al-mu‘arada hawl al-taghyir fi Suria, wa bikhassatan taghyir al-dustur)’ [Beyond the Regime, and Wider than Politics. (Open letter to the Opposition about Change in Syria, Especially Change in the Constitution)].36 Referred to hereafter as the Dubai TV interview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = WTCch52s4Gs.37 Stated in an excerpt from an interview on Rawafed: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = 0esrwytBjF0.38 Dubai TV interview.39 Khalida Sa‘id, theatre and literary critic and wife of Adonis, defended her husband's positions regarding the Iranian and Syrian revolutions in an article entitled ‘Raddan ‘ala Sadeq Jalal al-‘Azm … fi Sha'n Adonis’ [In Response to Sadeq Jalal al-Azm … Regarding Adonis]. Al-Azm responded in turn with a piece entitled ‘Fi sha'n Adonis … Ta‘liqan ‘ala radd Khalida Sa‘id’ [Regarding Adonis …Commenting on Khalida Sa‘id's Response]. Both articles were published in al-Hayat, and then reproduced in the new journal launched by the Association of Syrian Writers (Rabitat al-kuttab al-Suriyyin) and edited by its elected president, Sadeq Jalal al-Azm, al-Awraq, 1 (2013), pp. 362–366 and 367–372.40 Abbas Baydoun, ‘Ta‘qib ‘ala risalat Adonis … “an amal la shifa’ minhu”’, as-Safir, 17 June 2011.41 Ahmed Baydoun, ‘Basatat Adonis wa marja‘iyyat “al-Sayyid al-Ra'is”’, as-Safir, 17 June 2011.42 Ridwan Sayyid, ‘Al-Muthaqqaf al-‘arabi wa harakat al-taghyir wa al-zaman al-munqadi’, al-Hayat, 25 June 2011. For further strong statements in this sense, see for instance Iskandar Habash, ‘Tahdhirat adonisiyya’ [Adonisian Warnings], as-Safir, 18 June 2011; Hussam Itani, ‘Al-muthaqqafun al-suriyyun fi ‘isyanihim ‘ala al-ikhtizal’ [The Syrian Intellectuals and Their Rebellion against Reductionism], al-Hayat, 19 June 2011; Sinan Antoon, ‘The Arab Spring and Adunis's Autumn], Jadaliyya, 11 July 2011; Roger Awta, ‘Suqut jeneralat al-thaqafa’ [The Fall of the Generals of Culture], an-Nahar, 21 December 2012; and Subhi Hadidi, ‘Al-Muthaqqaf al-Suri wa al-intifada: mawaqif la tanfakk ‘an al-wadha'if’ [The Syrian Intellectual and the Uprising: Positions That Do Not Dissociate from Functions], Dimasheq, 1 (March 2013), pp. 163–174. It is interesting to note that some 10 years ago, on 31 October 2003, Adonis had again provoked a heated controversy among Lebanese writers by delivering a talk on Beirut as a city in the ‘City Theatre’ in Beirut (Masrah al-Madina), in which he attacked Beirut for not living up to its potential and ideal. The talk was published in as-Safir the next day under the title ‘Bayrut al-yawn. Ahiya madina haqqan am innaha mujarrad ism tarikhi’ [Beirut Today: Is it Really a City or Just a Historical Name?]. Adonis's judgements were severely criticised and rebutted by many, among them: Aql Awit, an-Nahar, 9 November 2003; Shawqi Bzai‘, 9 November 2003; Antoine Duwaihi, an-Nahar, 16 November 2003; Ahmed Bazzoun, as-Safir, 8 November 2003; Paul Sheoul, al-Mustaqbal, 8 November 2003; Hazem Saghieh, al-Hayat, 8 November 2003; Abbas Baydoun, as-Safir, 7 November 2003; Muhammad Ali Shamsuddin, as-Safir, 7 November 2003; Abdo Wazen, al-Hayat, 8 November 2003; Jihad Zein, an-Nahar, 7 November 2003; Waddah Sharara, al-Hayat, 8 November 2003. The recurring criticism against Adonis's statements about Beirut was their disconnect from the concrete lived realities, pains and challenges of the city.43 It was reported on al Jazeera television: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v = mtGVkMFuBUI. It was also covered in the Tunisian press (see, for instance, http://www.tunisia-live.net/2011/04/23/457/; http://www.tunipresse.com/article.php?id = 5925844 This was one of the main findings of my study of post-1967 critical Arab thought (see my Contemporary Arab Thought).45 The journal, founded in 1941 by Lebanese Marxist Antoine Thabet, had ceased to appear in 2003 due to financial reasons. It resumed in summer 2011 with an issue devoted to the particularities of the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions and the popular uprisings. It contained, among other pieces, essays by Egyptian Third World economist Samir Amin, Syrian philosopher Sadeq Jalal al-Azm and Taher Labib.46 I argue that critical Arab intellectuals echoed the discontent of their societies quite well, contrary to the claim that they were totally disconnected from them: ‘The Arab Quest for Freedom and Dignity: Have Arab Thinkers Been Part of it?’, Middle East—Topics & Arguments, 1 (2013), http://meta-journal.net/article/view/1038.47 Kassab, ‘The Arab Quest for Freedom and Dignity’, p. 28.48 Kassab, ‘The Arab Quest for Freedom and Dignity’, p. 39.49 Kassab, ‘The Arab Quest for Freedom and Dignity’, p. 41. A year after this article was published, Labib reflected again on these questions in a television interview, emphasising once more the important intellectual task of constructing a revolution discourse. The interview took place on 4 July 2012 on Ro'ya Television from Amman, Jordan, and is available on YouTube in three parts: http://www.firstpost.com/topic/event/booker-prize-video-wvshGSmnadU-67246-1.html; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = ZIGDDG33c5Y; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v = KHM6T4_OmGY.50 Kassab, ‘The Arab Quest for Freedom and Dignity’.