The attitude of refusal and revolt adopted by someone like Elmandjra,
with all his weight as a scientist and militant prompted us to seek an
explanation from him in an interview in Algiers, on March 5, 1991. We asked
him why he refused to take part in the international symposium on "The
Gulf War and diversion of international law". Here is his answer:
M. ELMANDJRA: I am not participating in that symposium for several reasons which have nothing to do with Algeria itself. I left my post as an international official 15 years ago and decided to devote myself to scientific research work and to non-governmental activities. That is why I turn down any invitation from any country to participate in a symposium directly organized by a ministry.
Scientists should meet with scientists and should enjoy total independence. I therefore turned down the invitation of the Prime Minister as a way of expressing my conviction that, in the field of science and learning, governments should confine their contribution to fostering specialized non-governmental associations. The latter should enjoy full scientific autonomy without government interference whatsoever.
The recent symposium on "The Gulf war and diversion of international law" is a good example of the negative impact of government meddling in academic affairs. The participants' profile was generally poor, and most of them had no particular standing in their own countries. It is natural therefore that the academic value of the findings, recommendations and other documents of the symposium should come short of meeting the expected results!
Considering the disastrous role played by the United Nations Secretary General, it is truly regrettable that the symposium sent a "recommendation" to this so-called "official" thereby granting him a totally unjustified credibility. He is nothing more than a tool in the service of the United States and of the West. It is sad to see such things happening in Algeria.
Thank God, I did not have to listen to people who came here at the expense
of the Algerian taxpayer to lecture us on the country's revolution and
make us believe that independence was kindly granted to it as a present
from General de Gaulle and not as the fruit of the Algerian struggle!
The lesson to be drawn from this is that in holding academic fora, the role of ministers and government officials should be restricted to providing material assistance. Algeria, like all other Third World countries has scholars and academics who are perfectly capable of organizing such meetings. I have been stressing this fact in Algeria as well as in Morocco and elsewhere. I do not consider this as interference in the domestic affairs of a country.
AS-SALAM: On the meeting about "Islam and the West" which is to be held to be held shortly by the Ministry of Higher Education and on the significance of the forthcoming struggle, Elmandjra had this to say:
ELMANDJRA: I do not like playing with words. In the current circumstances, organizing a meeting of this kind is a form of unintentional betrayal. We have already reached 300,000 casualties in Iraq. Over 3 million Arabs have been killed, in different armed conflicts, since the end of World War II. This is indeed a genocide.
Yet, in spite of all this, we still do not want to build our collective memory. We are talking about "dialogue" whereas those whom we invite to this dialogue are waging war against us. We are sending invitations to people who are assailing us with daily insults in their newspapers. I fail to understand how we still continue to deal with crises by merely gathering journalists and indulging in propaganda work. I think that the least we could do is to reallocate the funds earmarked for such meetings to analyzing and better understanding our problems so that we may be better prepared in the future.
The world of Islam, which is the subject of the meeting proposed by the Minister of Higher Education, is one billion two hundred million people strong. Arabs represent less than 20% of the Muslim population in the world. Most invitees are from France. What weight does France have in the West? We are still dragging out an inferiority complex via-à-vis our former colonizers. They are therefore right to act as they did in Algeria, in the Gulf... and to get ready for much more in the future.
I fear for three countries which adopted a courageous stance: Yemen, Jordan and Algeria. They are also the only Arab countries in which a genuine democratic process is under way. The best evidence of this is that I am criticizing, here in Algeria, the stances of some Algerian ministers, including the Prime Minister.
The West, with which we seek to engage in dialogue, represents a threat for us because it aspires for hegemony and seeks to defend its narrow interests. I also fear for the Palestine Liberation Organization. I dread an Israeli-Syrian conspiracy against Jordan. I am, likewise, afraid of what might happen, in one or two years, to this country (i.e. Algeria), this cradle of new democracy. That is why I do not admit, and I am entitled to this, that such meetings be convened with so much improvisation and without any serious preparation.
I have here the invitation as well as the programme of the symposium on "Islam and the West" which you mention in your question. I would like the officials in charge of the symposium to tell us what is "islamology" and whether such concepts as "judaiology" and "christianology" exist. Why do we remain prisoners of this French ethnographic, imperialist schools.
Civilizational war against Islam started in 1985. The reason is well-known and quite simple. According to the statistics of the Vatican, the number of catholics in 1985 stood at 850 million, that of Muslims, 865 million. The campaign against Islam is raging and we have started hearing about religious extremism. I personally praise the Almighty for any liberation movement which derives inspiration from our Islamic value system. Such movements are our only defense against this new hegemony.
I cannot accept that these values and the civilization wherefrom they emanate may be denigrated. Let us be serious! A symposium of this kind cannot be prepared in two weeks, with no working paper and without specific objectives. The fact that a ministry should sponsor such a symposium means that it confers upon it a specific political character of international dimension; given the circumstances prevailing in the Gulf and in Iraq, I believe that this is a mistake.
I am asking, through you, as I did before through the Algerian Ambassador to Rabat, through the Cabinet of the Minister concerned and through Mr. Sahnoun, Diplomatic Advisor to the President of the Republic, that the symposium be at least postponed, if not cancelled altogether.(2) In the current circumstances, we stand in much greater need to engage dialogue among ourselves. It is hardly sensible to seek advice ("fatwa"), in the present conditions, from people who have proven their new imperialist dash during the Gulf war.
Finally, I must admit that I refuse to sit next to most of the people invited to this symposium, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, because of their stance during the Gulf war. I hope that Algeria will not repeat , in less than a month, the mistake it made by organizing the first symposium on "Diversion of the law," to which you referred in your first question. The true diversion is that of our minds, not of law.
Algiers, March 4, 1991
(interview by Mohamed Halloub)
* As-Salam, Algiers, March 7, 1991
* Al-Alam, Rabat, March 9, 1991
* Al-Khadra, Tangiers, March 15, 1991.
2. 2 The symposium was finally cancelled by the Minister of Universities.