Dar Al Hayat: "Denial of the Holocaust: Ailment is Seizing our Authorities"

This is from the Lebanese Dar Al Hayat site, and the author is Hazem Saghieh. How do you say "Yasher Koach" in Arabic?

Mahdi Akef has joined Khaled Mashaal, who, in his turn, had joined Mahmoud Ahmedinejad in denying the existence of a Nazi holocaust targeting the European Jews. The issue is no longer tackled or discussed, except in intellectually and educationally regressed milieus. When its relators are Arabs and Muslims, the issue takes another dimension, which is the inability to achieve any real progress, then proceed to contest history with myth . . . .

Most importantly, the "culture" of denying the holocaust - which is, among other things, the outcome of a defective education - has grown to occupy a dominant position in the life of the Arabs and Muslims. Although the issue was about to come to an end and be confined to narrow margins that gather utter extremism with utter retardation, the heavy poisoned Iranian rain blew on us and was welcomed, quite avidly, by the eager Arab Sahara.

The issue is now no longer restricted to narrow margins. The reason is that Nejad, regretfully and painfully, is the President of the Republic elected by millions of Iranians. As for Mashaal, he is one of the symbols of the organization that bit at Palestinian municipalities, and may now bite at its Parliament too, in case legislative elections take place, confusing the world over the way to avoid such a stalemate. As for Akef, he is the rising star in Egypt as his brethren have secured more than a quarter of the Parliament's seats. They could even have achieved more in better electoral circumstances.

Ushered by some writings of the former Syrian Defense Minister Mustapha Tlas, or some letters and discussions of Osama Ben Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the library of "Hamas", "Islamic Jihad", and "Hezbollah" abounds with long excerpts drawn from "Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion", "the Jewish Danger", and other yellow pages intermingled with mythical visions and dreams related to literary works on grave and martyrdom.

This means that we are not to be envied at all. The ailment is swelling up from the heart of the societies to the decision makers therein. It is not a coincidence that the elements of the bloc spreading and disseminating the said "ideas" are those same elements who promise us a way out of the tunnel dimmed with occupations and darkness to a brighter and more glowing horizon. It is also not a coincidence that the same bloc comprises cases that blend between the desertion of the modernity culture and the recurrence of its pre-enforcement era, in authorities as well as in opposition . . . .

As for the preachers of democracy in the US, they better draw lessons from what is going on. No matter how heedless they may be, they know how the societies vote, when they are ailing and once they do.

Some parts of the article display the vagueness and difficult-to-follow writing typical of other productions of the Arab press (What does that last paragraph mean, for instance?), but over-all this seems like a laudable effort. For an example of that "poisoned Iranian rain," see the following, dated today, on the Iranian Mehr News site: "Israel has created a real holocaust for Palestinians: Sindi." Parting question: Should we take seriously the author's assertion that "the issue was about to come to an end"?

Tags: Iran, holocaust denial, Arabs, Muslims