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September 11th 2001 will leave its bloody mark on History: two civil planes were changed into human bomb. They attacked both the World Trade Center in New York, which is the symbol of the American capitalism, and the Pentagon, which is the headquarters of the American Army, the most powerful army in the world. Another plane which target was said to be the White House (the seat of the American Presidency) crashed in an inhabited zone.
For some hours, the US experienced a state of total confusion, and fears arose concerning the security of the President, who was in Florida for a visit and, who was sent to a safe place instead of going back to the White House.
A few days after the shock, hurt in its pride, the first power of the world set the war process in motion and declared "the war against terrorism". All the Americans lined up behind their President, George W. Bush, especially since the attack of September 11th, which caused the death of more than 3000 people, was the first attack of this stature perpetrated by foreigners against the US, on the American territory.
All the investigations lead to M. Oussama Ben Laden, a rich Saoudian of Yemenite extraction living in Afghanistan, a country he had taken hostage thanks to his close relationship with Mollah Omar. Mollah Omar was the spiritual and political leader of a regime oppressing the population and especially the women. M. Oussama Ben Laden is not a stranger to the Americans: he is actually one of their monstrous creations.
In 1979, when the Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, the US decided to oppose Islam to communism by supporting the Moudjahidines both financially and military. The Moudjahidines were religious militants ready to start the Holy War, the Djihad, against the atheist Soviet empire.
Oussama Ben Laden studied at the University of Riad. He is the heir of one of the richest families of Saudi Arabia. His father, who is of Yemenite extraction, was a friend of the man who founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and he decided to engage his personal fate in the conflict with the Soviet "infidels".
Ben Laden's family got involved in a partnership with most of the biggest American companies and with many important persons such as President Bush the father and President Bush the son as well as many persons of their staff. Thanks to this, Oussama Ben Laden rapidly became a central element. He was in charge of recruiting Arab and Muslim volunteers, who would go and help the Afghans to fight against the Soviets. Thanks to the American Stinger missiles, the Afghan combatants succeeded in putting an end to the aerial superiority of the Soviets and they liberated the country in 1989. After the war, Ben Laden went back to business but also created an international Islamic organization named Al-Quaida, which Arab meaning is the basis.
In 1991, the US attacked Iraq, in order to oblige this country to leave Kuwait. Ben Laden seized this opportunity to free himself from his American masters, about whom he had already learnt several secrets and weaknesses. He settled in Sudan, which was run by an Islamic regime, and he denounced the presence of the American armies in Saudi Arabia, the Holy Land of Islam. In Afghanistan, after the Soviets had left, a war more deadly than the Soviet occupation broke out between the different factions of the resistance. The American and the Pakistani secret services lined up behind a marginal group of students in religion called the Talibans, which ended up occupying 90% of the country in 1996. Their leader Mollah Omar, who was a close friend of Ben Laden pulled himself up to the head of the country. The consequence was that Ben Laden became the real leader of the country, especially since he supported his friends financially.
Ben Laden declared the Holy War to the US from Afghanistan, and he opened training camps for Islamists from all over the world. In 1998, his troops attacked an American military base in Saudi Arabia. Some people were killed. In 1999, they destroyed the American embassies of Kenya and Tanzania in West Africa. It is also believed that in 1992, Ben Laden provided the Somalian militiamen with the means to shoot down American helicopters and to kill American soldiers. Furthermore, he recruited the Algerian Islamists who came back to their country to found a movement, which produced a civil war. This civil war still has pockets of resistance as well as allies in the Palestinian extremist movements, which are opposed to the peace agreements with Israel.
In Africa, there is another fanatical war leader called Kagame (the President of Rwanda), who also enjoyed a determining American kindness, just like Mobutu before him.
In 1990, the Rwandese Patriotic Front attacked Rwanda. The RPF was composed of tutsi refugees, whose parents were the leader of a federal regime toppled in 1959 by a popular revolution which had helped M. Museveni (coming from an ethnic group related to their own) to take power in Uganda in 1986. The RPF was repelled by the Rwandan army, helped by a Zairian contingent and by French military advisers. The leader of the RPF was even killed. When he came back from an internship he had made in the US, Kagame took leadership of the RPF in the name of the Ugandan army of which he was the chief intelligence officer. After the American elections in 1992, Bill Clinton and the democrats stopped listening to him, especially since Kagame appeared to fight against dictatorship, for freedom and for the rights of minorities, a number of themes that were dear to the democrats, whose electoral basis was composed of several members of ethnic minorities.
Although President Habyarimana had just accepted to share power with the RPF, it actually decided to shoot down his plane on April 6th 1994. The government in place was unable to muster his forces in order to fight, but it began to have civilian tutsis killed. For the US, this legitimized the RPF's claims even more.
In front of this situation, France, which was experiencing a period of cohabitation , reacted with difficulty. The President of Zaire Mobutu, who was France's ally in the region and whose tutsi mercenaries had given a lot of money to the RPF, allowed France to pass through his country for a humanitarian mission in Rwanda only after the RPF had conquered the capital named Kigali. France made the mistake to let the Rwandan army and government take refuge in Zaire with more than 2 millions of refugees.
In 1996, Kagame and Museveni created a new movement of opposition called the "Alliance of Democratic Forces for the Liberation (ADFL) of Congo-Zaire". Laurent Kabila, an unemployed ex-member of the resistance became its leader. In order to avoid the worst, for both the Congo-Zairian and the Rwandan refugees, France managed to convince the Security Counsel of the United Nations to send a multinational force on the boarder between Rwanda and Congo-Zaire.
Kagame heard from Mobutu's illness, thanks to his Tutsi mercenaries, as well as from the weakness of his army. He sent an army against refugee-camps, the majority of which did not have any other solution than to go back to Rwanda. Madelaine Albright, the US secretary of State, decided to cancel the intervention of the United Nations' force, arguing that it had become useless. The incompetence and the corruption of the Zairian political class were so important that it became impossible to quickly replace Mobutu and to defend the territory. Therefore, the way to Kinshasa remained wide open for the Kagame and Kabila's ADFL. Once at the head of the country, Kabila decided to get rid of the Tutsi leaders, who had tried to throw Kabila out of power thanks to airborne operations. These operations had failed thanks to the intervention of Angola and Zimbabwe. The Tutsi invaders withdrew from Kinshasa into the eastern provinces, and especially into Kivu, which Kagame's government had been trying to annex for ever. Kagame and Museveni's troops have made the eastern part of the Congo-Zaire a living hell where it is asserted that more than 3 millions died. Kagame and Museveni have actually caused the death of one hundred times of Ben Laden's victims. Therefore, if the US want to be taken seriously by the rest of the world, they will have to inflict to M. Kagame and M. Museveni the same punishment as the one inflicted to Ben Laden. They will also have to admit that in this case, as in many others, Bill Clinton's government committed monstrous mistakes, while seeking an acceptable solution for the Palestinians in the Middle East.
General Colin Powell, the first Afro-American to be in charge of the American diplomacy, should put an end to the tragedy of Congo-Zaire, unless he wants to be remembered by History as the accomplice of the greatest genocide (after the slave trade) against the people of Africa. Next June, the Prime Minister of Canada, Jean Chretien, will lead the G7 summit devoted to Africa. He should agree with France to make the US, as well as the other members, understand that any kind of development in Africa requires peace in the region of the Great Lakes, as well as in Congo-Zaire, which is the second French-speaking country in the world, and which could potentially be the richest country of the African continent if it was integrated to the world economy.
Our issue wants to contribute modestly to reduce the trauma linked with the events of September 11th, the main consequence of which was an increase of the prejudices against people of Arab or Muslim extraction. When asked if he was ashamed to be of the same religion as Ben Laden, Muhammed Ali wittily answered that it was not more honorable to be of the same religion as Hitler.
We want to present the attitude of the black Americans who represent the greatest Muslim community of the country.
We will also insist on how the members of Muslim or Arab communities contribute to Canadian life, and on the relationship between Canada and the Muslim world, which enabled the development of several Canadian firms.
During one of her visits to Canada (where she received a prize from the organization named Right and Democracy), Dr Sina Samar learnt that she had been appointed Vice President of the government of Afghanistan, and Minister of the feminine condition. In order to underline this happy circumstance, we will put Dr Samar's picture on the cover of our magazine, and we will reproduce the discourse she made when she was given her prize.
On most of the western television, we have seen several specialists in the Arab and Muslim world since September 11th. Some of them only have an elementary or eurocentric knowledge of an actually very complex reality.
Very few specialists talked about the important role of the black Americans in the conflict, although Ben Laden addressed the millions of American Muslims, whose only deeply rooted community in the country is the black American's. The black Americans constitute more than half of the 6 millions of American Muslims. The other American Muslims are often newly arrived immigrants, coming from Africa, the Middle East, or other parts of Asia. It is commonly thought that the progressive integration of African-Americans to the American society (with which they identify more and more) has made it possible for the US to avoid this population (which has long been deprived from the beneficial effects of the American prosperity) responding to Ben Laden's claims.
In the 16th century, a large part of East and West Africa had already Islamized when the shameful triangular trade (which is the greatest crime in human history) began.
The Empire of Mali was created in the 13th century by Soudjita Kerta, who created one of the best Islamic Universities of the time in Timbuktu. It is commonly believed that during his pilgrimage to Mecca, Kausa Mousa distributed so much gold that the price of the metal fell down for almost a century. We can also notice that Emperor Kensa Mousa had sent vessels in order to explore the limits of the Atlantic Ocean. None of them ever came back. This episode is used to argue that Africans had come to America before Christopher Columbus, especially since in 1992, the same kind of vessel left the island of the Cape Verde, off the coast of West Africa, and easily reached the Brazilian coast. We estimate that at least 30% of the African slaves that arrived to the US were Muslims. They were baptized, became Christian and were obliged to give up their religion, as opposed to the slaves in the West Indies, who managed to secretly retain their voodoo religion coming from the Gulf Of Benin. The American slaves took advantage of the freedom allowed by Protestantism to create autonomous churches which produced several ministers, who first led the fight against slavery and then, the fight for the Black's civil rights. At the end of the 19th century in the US, movements were created, which claimed the independence of African countries and the possibility for black Americans to go back to the country of their ancestors. This is how countries like Liberia or Sierra Leone were created. At the beginning of the 20th century, William Dubois, whose father was white and whose mother was black, wrote "Black Souls". He wanted to ask for dignity for all Blacks. He also founded the Association for the promotion of colored people, which remains the most important organization for the defense of the African-Americans' interests at the moment. Having adopted the African cause, William Dubois settled in Ghana after it became independent in 1957, and he became the advisor of President Kwane N'Khruma. He died there in 1963. Like William Dubois, Marcus Garvey, a Jamaican immigrant, founded in New York a wide movement for the return to Africa, and advocated the independence of the continent in creating the slogan "Africa to the Africans". In 1930, M. Garvey created a spiritual movement, which deified Haile Selassie, who had just become emperor of Ethiopia (the only African country which had not been colonized). The movement was named Rasta, in reference to the name Rasta Fari, which was Haile Selassie's name before he became the emperor. The Rasta movement gave birth to reggae music, which conquered the whole world, especially thanks to the genius of Bob Marley, who managed to set political claims to catchy rhythms.
At the same time, in the 1930's, Elijah Muhammad decided to introduce Islam to the black Americans, considering that it was the religion they were born into. He created the "Nation of Islam", which is nowadays run by Louis Farrakhan, and which counts more than 2 millions of faithful. The Nation of Islam preaches an Islam that focuses on the Blacks and that uses the Bible while getting away from certain practices of a more traditional Islam. The rehabilitation of young delinquents from poor areas arose its popularity. This movement gave birth to charismatic leaders such as Malcolm X (whose Muslim name was Malik Shabbaz) and the boxer Mohammed Ali, whose life story was recently adapted for a movie with Will Smith in the leading role.
In 1964, when he was 22, Cassius Clay became the champion of heavyweights. Under the influence of Malcolm X, he converted to Islam, took the name of Mohammed Ali and started a life of campaigns for the rights of the Blacks and of all the oppressed people. He lost his title after refusing to go to Vietnam. When he was authorized to box again, he demanded that the fight took place on the land of his ancestors. He met Mobutu, who was then at the peak of his fame, in the United Arab Emirates. Mobutu accepted to cover up all the financial risks of a project of such a scale in Africa. Thanks to Mobutu, Don King thus became an important boxing promoter who organized a fight in Kinshasa (in Zaire) in 1974, where Ali won against George Foreman.
The 60's and the 70's were turbulent for the black Americans, especially after Martin Luther King was murdered in 1968. He had won the Nobel Peace Prize
in 1963, and he had been preaching non-violence his entire life. At that time, the Black Pathers emerged. This group wanted to defend the Blacks even at the cost of a civil war in the US. Angela Davis was their muse. We will remember the Olympic games of Mexico, in 1968, where black athletics champions decided to brandish their right wrist (which was the Black Pathers' way of saluting) instead of saluting the American flag. The Black Pathers were supported by the greatest so-called progressive African countries, like Algeria, Nasser's Egypt, and Sekou Toure's Guinea. Most of them were Muslims. If any event similar to the events of September 11th had occurred during the 60's and the 70's, the Black Pathers would have seized the occasion to set the US on fire. In the 70's, Mohammed Ali would probably have been on Ben Laden's side.
In the 80's, the political and economical leaders of the US understood that the possibility of a civil war would be harmful to the business world, which needs calm to expand. They decided to go back to the roots of the problem, and to get rid of it by integrating the Blacks to the American political and economical system.
After slavery was abolished in 1860, President Lincoln had a black adviser named Frederick Douglas. Later on, he became the American ambassador to Haiti. In the 20th century, M. Ralph Bunche became general undersecretary of the United Nations and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1952 for being a mediator between the Jews and the Arabs. Apart from these exceptional cases, from the abolition of slavery until the mid 60's, the Blacks remained second-class citizens. When he was elected in 1960, President Kennedy promised to pay attention to the problems of the black people, who had contributed to his success since they had abandoned the Republican Party (Abraham Lincoln's), which did not come up with their expectations anymore. President Kennedy appointed some Blacks in his staff, like for example, the assistant of his press attaché. But it is President Johnson (who replaced Kennedy when he died in 1963), who most worked on the Blacks' promotion. In 1965, he passed a law on Civil Rights, which forbade any kind of racial discrimination. He appointed the first black minister, and in 1968, he appointed the first black judge to the Supreme Court. His name was M.T. Marshall. It is also in 1968 that the first black deputies were elected in the American Parliament and that the first black maire of a big city was elected in Cleveland. In the 70's-80's, most of the biggest American cities were ruled by black maires. It was the case in Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago, and even New York in 1990. We must remember that in most cases, the Blacks were in the minority and thus, in order to get elected, the maires had to show leadership and diplomacy.
In 1979, a black man of the Republican Party was elected depute, and in the 90's, Douglas Widler became the first black governor of Virginia. In 1976, Andrew Young, who was the maire of Atlanta, was appointed by President Jimmy Carter to represent the US at the UNO. He was obliged to resign in 1979 after meeting the representant of the PLO.
Under Regan's presidency in 1986, and after the scandal of the Irangate (weapons had been sold illegally to Iran to finance the Contra, a group of rebels in Nicaragua), a young black general named Colin Powell was appointed special adviser of the president for security issues. His mission was to sort out the different American secret services, It was the first time in the American history that an African man had such a power.
It is said that after he was elected in 1988, president George Bush (who had to work with President Regan's staff since it had helped him win the elections) offered Powell to become President of the CIA, which Bush had run himself. Powell's mentor, Frank Calucci, former secretary of Defense would have advised him to rather ask for the command of the army, which is considered to crown the career of any solider. Colin Powell thus became the first black General of the US army. He brilliantly orchestrated the Gulf War in 1991, and the whole world got to know him. Under G. Bush's presidency, a black woman was in charge of the Russian file at the national security counsel, and thus she contributed to the fall of communism. Her name was Condoleezza Rice, and she had become a doctor in political sciences when she was 26.
When Clinton became President, Powell refused to prolong his term of office and he wrote his autobiography, which made him a millionaire. At the same time, Mme Rice also became a millionaire when she became part of Chevron's board of directors, one of the oil-tanker of which was named after her.
Bill Clinton, who's sometimes said to be the "first black president of the US", since he is the first president to have spent his poor childhood in the same suburbs as the black people (among whom he has made a lot of friends), appointed 5 black ministers in his administration. Among them, Ron Brown was appointed to the ministry of Commerce, an important position. However, we wish Clinton had had the courage to appoint him to the office of Secretary of State, especially since Brown, who then was the president of the Democrat Party) had directed Clinton's winning campaign. The Monica Lewinsky case also enhanced the importance of the black lawyer Verdon Jordan, who was Clinton's confident and who was called the most powerful "non-elected" person in Clinton's administration.
Despite everything that was achieved by Clinton, we are forced to admit that it's with the Republicans that black people have reached the higher political functions. In 2001, when he became Secretary of State in the administration of G. Bush the son, Colin Powell became number 3 in the American government. He is now determining the US foreign policy, which rules the world. This represents a power that no other black had had before him. Condoleezza Rice now being a special adviser on security issues, there are 2 Blacks occupying key-offices, which influence the military and foreign policy of the US. This is not unrelated to the fact that the Blacks felt solidarity with the other Americans after the events of September 11th. We must also underline that the economical emergence of the Blacks over the past 20 years makes them feel closer and closer to the preoccupations of the whole American population, especially since they now influence music, sports, and even television throughout the country, which enables them to win millions of dollars.
Jazz was the first music emerging from the black ghettos to become famous. Its promoters did not make a lot of money because the market was not really organized and because jazz still remains a music for the elite.
As for Rock, it spread, benefited from a rapidly growing market and created several multimillionaires such as the well-known Michael Jackson.
Rap, an anti-establishment music, which appeared in the 80's, was then taken over by the music industry, and its authors grew wiser as they began to earn millions of dollars.
Professional sport also enabled the Blacks from the ghettos to make a career and to earn a lot of money. Boxing, for example, can make small delinquents become multimillionaires (like Mike Tyson), and it can also lead many rascals to contain their energy and to use it not to destroy society but to make money. Sports like baseball, basketball, soccer, and even golf (with figures such as Michael Jordan or Tiger Woods), as well as tennis with the Williams sisters, have created millionaires and make a lot of the young people born in misery dream.
The Blacks now also influence television, which is the main vehicle for the American way of life. For about 10 years, the Cosby show has been the most popular TV show of the 80's. Today, Oprah Winfrey has become the queen of the American television, and it has been so for 10 years. She actually wins more the 50 million dollars a year. And soon, AOL-Time Warner, the most important company of communications in the US and in the world, will have a black leader named Richard Parson.
Black Americans remain the poorest persons in the US, but from now on, they will be part of the American dream and they will know that the color of their skin is not an obstacle to wealth anymore.
For the media coverage of "the war against terrorism", the administration of G. Bush has been willing to show the rest of the world that the black people were part of every stage of the American policy. At the beginning of the war, we have often seen the President give press conferences surrounded by the Secretary of State Powell and by the adviser Condoleezza Rice. Both of them also gave interviews to the television channel Alghezira, which tends to be called the Arab CNN.
M. Tom Ridge, who has been appointed secretary of the domestic security swore an oath in front of the black judge Clerence Thomas from the Supreme Court. During the first official ceremony in memory of the victims of September 11th, in New York, the presenter Oprah Winfrey was the mistress of ceremony and she assisted by a black actor. For the ecumenical prayer said on the occasion, the Muslim part was left to the care of a black imam.
We must also keep in mind that before the landing in Afghanistan while they were on the ship, the American troops were given a patriotic sermon by a black lieutenant called Chris Burne. The American government made everything to prevent the black community from following Ben Laden's advises. Indeed, it's among the black community that we find the most important Muslim community, which is also the better organized and the more deeply rooted community in the country. So far, the government has succeeded in this serious task, and the evolution of the American society has certainly been useful.
Since September 11th, everywhere in the western world many people have been trying to understand the Arab and Muslim world. Several of its nationals have been living in several western countries for a long time, including in Canada where nobody paid attention to them for a long time, while they were bringing significant contribution to every field of the country. It is important to underline this contribution to avoid some of the prejudices born on September 11th.
Islam was founded in 622 after J.C. by the prophet Mohammed in Mecca, in the current Saudi Arabia. With more than one billion of faithful all over the world, Islam is the second most important religion in the world, and it is based on a Judeo-Christian system. Some even attempt to see in the events of September 11th a real shock between civilizations. The Islamic religion imposed itself in the Arab world. Nevertheless there still remain pockets of Christianity. In Lebanon, for example, the Christians represent 40 % of the population, in Egypt, they represent more than 10 % of the population and they have produced important personalities such as M. Boutros Boutros-Ghali, former secretary of the U.N. and actual general secretary of the International Organization of the French-speaking world. Christian minorities also exist in Syria, Iraq and Palestine where President Arafat has always respected the Christian minorities to which his wife belongs. As soon as it was founded, Islam spread all over the Arab world and North Africa, where a population of Arab extraction had immigrated. These populations mingled with Berber natives, who converted to Islam after they had given many Saints to Christianity, like, for example, Saint-Agustine one of the greatest father of the Catholic Church, and his mother Saint-Monique, as well as Saint-Catherine of Alexandria.
The Berbers came from a Hannibal and Jugutha, who terrified the roman Empire, and who gave it emperors like Septine Severe, born in the actual Lybia. Once converted to Islam, the Berber played a very important role in the expansion of this new religion in the actual Spain, which was then called Andalusia. In Andalusia, a brilliant Islamic civilization, which was tolerant towards the Jews and the Christians, developed. The new religion also expanded Islam in Black Africa until Timbuktu in Mali where a great Islamic university developed.
In Asia, as well as in other parts of Europe, Islam was exported by the Ottoman Empire (ruled by converted Turks), which has been the greatest empire in the world for 800 years. It reigned over Asia, North Africa and a part of Europe. Some people, like Ben Laden, for example, consider this empire as the symbol of the Golden Age of the Islamic civilization. As a result of this openness to the world, nowadays, the biggest Muslim countries are not Arab countries. The first non-Arab Muslim country is Indonesia with 200 millions Muslims. Then comes Pakistan with 140 millions Muslims, and India, with 100 millions Muslims whereas the biggest Arab Muslim country is Egypt with 62 millions inhabitants.
The first Arabs to arrive in Canada at the beginning of the past century were actually Christians coming from Egypt, Lebanon or Syria. Many of them knew the French language and they settled in the Province of Quebec, and especially in Montreal. There, other Christian and Muslim immigrants joined them after the second World War, to the point that Bernard Landry, the Prime Minister of Quebec said that Montreal was the first Arab city in Canada. It is only in the wave of Algerian immigrants of 1990 that we find some Islamic immigrants.
Lately, Muslim immigrants mainly coming from India and Palestine settled in several other Canadian provinces, especially in Ontario, British Columbia, and Alberta, the richest province of the country. Before September 11th when the Arab and Muslim communities of Canada came to be in the spotlight, these communities had often contributed to the development of Canada in various fields.
The members of the Arab community of Canada integrated the country so well that several became ministers, deputies or senior civil servants, and nobody ever paid attention to their origin. Under M. Trudeau's regime, Pierre de Bane, the depute of Gaspesie, became a minister, and today, he is a senator. Very few people can imagine that a representative of a provincial Quebec county might come from Lebanon and therefore be an Arab. George Farah is in the same case. He is the federal depute of the Magdalene islands and the previous provincial minister of Commerce and Industry. His family settled in the region a long time ago. We must also remember M. Sam Ellas, who was a minister in Quebec, Mme Fatima Houda-pepin, the only Muslim depute in Canada and member of the Quebec National Assembly. There are also other politicians in Quebec who are married to Arab men and women, like, for example, Louise Harel, the minister of Quebec and Yvon Charbonneau, a depute in the federal Parliament.
M. Joe Ghiz, of Lebanon extraction was the Prime Minister of Prince Edward Island in the 90's, and today, he is a judge in the federal system. Judge Maalouf at the Supreme Court of Quebec, who is another magistrate of Lebanon extraction, became famous after a public inquiry he led on the organization of the Olympic Games of Montreal in 1996. He also revealed the other side of a community, whose members drew attention on them in the business world.
Since time immemorial, Arabs have been considered as good shopkeepers. It is thanks to business that the Islamic religion first spread. In Canada, the members of the Arab or Islamic communities developed small traders and others used their genius to create companies of national or international scope. Rene Angelil, who was born in Montreal and whose parents were of Syrian extraction, married the singer Celine Dion and became his manager. He succeeded in making her a huge international star without any equivalent in the Canadian history. The creator of the brand of mineral water Naya is also of Arabian extraction. And M. Fouad Farhah, owner of the optical company Farhah has succeeded in making his company the most important of its field in Quebec.
Being a member of a commercial Canadian Delegation in Algeria and Marocco in 2000, I have been able to notice how many people of Arabian or Muslim extraction, are living in various Canadian provinces. This proves that several Canadian companies have understood how important it is to use the people that live in a region they know in order to make businesses. M. Zacaria Fellah, for example, who is of Algerian extraction, is responsible for the African sector at SNC-Lavalin.
Other companies have put persons of Arab or Muslim extraction in charge of important positions. The Banque Royale, one of the most important in Canada, is in that case. Dr Ibrahim Dia, of Mauritanian extraction, is one of its vice-presidents in Quebec. Like the Royal Bank, the concrete of Saint-Laurent has a vice-president, M. Filali Baba, of Moroccan extraction. And EXFO, a company of optical fibers in Quebec, also gave a position to Mme Farida, of Algerian extraction. Like many other professionals, Mme Farida gives her own contribution to the country, which welcomed her.
There are many members of the Arab and Muslim community in the professions, and especially among doctors, pharmacists, and lawyers. Dr Ayoub, of Lebanese extraction, remained with Bourassa, the Prime Minister of Quebec, until he died. M. Omar Aktouf, of Algerian extraction, who is a Professor at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales of Montreal, and his compatriot the political scientist Zabouri, whom we have seen quite often on television lately, are very respected in their respective fields. Mme Afifa Maninou, of Moroccan extraction, is one of the leaders of the educational commission of Montreal.
All the immigrants also remember Mme Lily Tasso, of Lebanese extraction, who is now retired but who was a journalist in the magazine "La presse". For years, she wrote a column on the achievements of the immigrants and the members of cultural communities. She showed the way to Rima Elkouri (born in Montreal of parents of Senegalo-Lebanese and Armenian extraction), who is now a columnist in the daily "La Presse".
We must also remember M. Akli Ait Abdallah (of Algerian extraction), who works at Radio-Canada, and who make a lot of reports in the Middle East. As far as culture is concerned, we must underline the contribution of the young playwright Wadji Mouawad, who leads the Theatre de Quatre Sous, one of the most important in Quebec. This proves that the Arab and Muslim communities continue to enrich the Quebec and Canadian landscape in every field.
Andrée Dubois
As I speak today, the future of Afghanistan is at a crossroads, particularly the future of women. With the removal of the Taliban from control, women finally may be able to regain our rights and Afghanistan may at long last have a chance for a peaceful future. But none of this is a certainty.
Finally the world is becoming aware of the plight of Afghan women. The media is now paying attention to the suffering that women have endured under the Taliban's restrictions. More people now know about the starvation and disease that have come from the drought, the fighting, and the overall lack of humanitarian assistance. The situation of women in Afghanistan has been deteriorating for the past two decades. It could not get much worse.
Under the Taliban, women in Afghanistan were banned from attending school, prohibited from working outside their home, and not allowed to leave their homes without the company of a close male relative or without wearing the full burqa. The punishment for violating these decrees has been harsh and included among other punishments public beatings, imprisonment, and even execution.
We hope with the new situation in Afghanistan that these restrictions will quickly become history and will never be repeated again.
Afghan women warned that what was happening with the Taliban and terrorism would not long stay within Afghanistan's borders. But our warnings were ignored and the tragedies of September 11 occurred. And, now the Afghan people are paying for a crime that they did not commit.
Afghanistan is a small very poor and underdeveloped country that has been at war for the last 23 years. Women in Afghanistan historically have had extremely low and secondary status to men because much of Afghan society still follows the patriarchal system of families. Dictatorship and misinterpretation of religion have further restricted the rights of women.
However, 35-40 years ago partial democracy was introduced into the country and a constitution was drawn up in which women were given limited rights. Under this constitution, women were granted the freedom of obtaining all forms of education. They could participate in elections as voters and as candidates. Despite the poverty, women had the same wage as men. In the 1960s, Afghan women made some progress in politics, education, and employment. We could choose what we wore, and we could move about freely. I, myself, went to coeducation schools from first grade school through medical school. Unfortunately, the majority of women living in villages saw little change in their daily lives, but women in the cities did.
After the invasion of the Russians in the country, the constitution lost its efficacy and a state of war, havoc and destruction prevailed over the nation. Countries with political and economic stakes in Afghanistan began to fight a proxy war between each other in which some emerged as winners at the expense of the Afghan people. With the sole aim of defeating communists in Afghanistan, than none took exception to the trampling of the rights of Afghan women. Men victimized women even further with the claim of upholding Afghan culture and traditions and observing Islamic values. Even the UN and the so-called democratic countries indirectly supported this horrific maltreatment of women.
Women have been the main victims of the continuing human rights crisis in the country. Although neither of the warring sides respects the human rights of women, the actions of the Taliban were the most extreme. The exclusion of women from public life under the Taliban has taken its toll not only on women whose lives were destroyed, but also on society as a whole. Before the Taliban took over, women were the majority of teachers and the majority of health care workers. With the restrictions on women, the education system collapsed and the healthcare system was severely damaged, and the whole population suffered.
Despite the Taliban's restrictions, my organization - the Shuhada Organization, which I founded in 1989 - continued to provide health care services and educational opportunities to girls. I run 45 schools in Central Afghanistan, currently educating some 20,000 students. My high school for girls is the only formal girls' high school that continued to function under the Taliban. Because of our dedication and support within the community, the Taliban could not close the girls' schools in this part of Afghanistan. Their harassment was constant, but we kept the schools open and kept teaching the girls math, science, and other courses.
My organization also has 11 clinics and 4 hospitals in Afghanistan. One hospital in Bamiyan was taken over by the Taliban. Another one of my hospitals in Yawkolang was bombed, months after the Taliban massacred hundreds of ethnic Hazaras, including three of my hospital staff, when they took over the area again in January. My clinics and hospitals continued to provide health services to women, including reproductive health services such as contraception, despite the Taliban's prohibition and at great risk.
In Pakistan, I operate a hospital, clinic, and 4 schools for Afghan refugees. I also run a co-educational Science Institute that provides post-secondary training to become physician assistants, paramedics, and science teachers. I began this program to prepare young women and men to go back to Afghanistan to provide desperately needed health and education services. I hope now that my students can aid in the rebuilding of our country.
One of the reasons for the chaos, destruction, and oppression that followed the Soviet withdrawal was that the United States and the international community abandoned Afghanistan after funding and training the most radical extremists.
We hope that the United States and the international community will not forget Afghanistan again. We hope the U.S. and other countries will keep their new promises and provide substantial relief and development assistance to rebuild the whole system and economy in Afghanistan.
Religion and culture have often been used as the justification for the denial of the rights of Afghan women. But in reality, the restrictions on women have nothing to do with the religion or culture of Afghanistan and everything to do with control and power. In fact, the first word of Islam was "Iqra" which means, "to read" and the first convert to Islam was Khadija, Muhammad's wife. Muhammad said himself that all Muslim women and men should be educated. Ayesha herself was allowed to ride camels and lead troops into battle.
In regard to dress, Islam does not specify a particular dress code to be observed by women. Afghan women usually do not have their faces covered. The burqa is neither Islamic nor is it an Afghan tradition.
Some humanitarian aid providers are of the opinion that we should not worry so much about girls not having access to education or we should not blame the Taliban because very few women were literate before the Taliban. The aid agencies use respect for culture and religion as an excuse for not supporting girls' education programs.
But, the reality is that the demand for education has always existed, but has gone largely unmet because of lack of resources or will power by the government.
My schools for girls in Pakistan and Afghanistan, for example, are over-enrolled because the hunger for education for girls is so great, but the resources are so limited. Very little money has been devoted to girls' education, and most of that only to primary education. Secondary and higher education are also desperately needed if we are ever to rebuild civil society in Afghanistan. We must also provide education for the boys. Unless real education opportunities are provided for boys the madrassas will continue to create generations of boys that know only the war mentality and the mentality of the oppression of women. The education of boys, along with the education of girls, is essential for the future of human rights, women's rights, and peace in Afghanistan.
To conclude, there is no acceptable justification for marginalizing Afghan women and violating our rights. Today, I am pleased to see that women have been given a role in the new interim government, and that the voices of women are at last to be heard in the country's decision-making process. The appointment of two women is a beginning, but it is not enough. I hope that I will be able to heal some of the wounds of Afghan women.
We have much work to do. We will not be able to do it alone. We need the support of the international community, including Canada. We need multi-national troops in order to disarm the different factions, to maintain stability and security, and to allow the government system to be re-established. Whatever government structure is in place, women'' rights must be restored. We need the commitment of Canada and the international community to make gender issues central in the reconstruction of Afghanistan.
I am honored to accept this prestigious award on behalf of the millions of Afghan women and children who are hungry, homeless, and traumatized. I will continue my work so that women's rights in Afghanistan will be counted as human rights and that girls will no longer be punished for having a notebook and pen in their hands.
Montreal, December 10, 2001
Geography
Egypt&emdash;bounded on the north by the Mediterranean Sea, on the east by Israel and the Red Sea, on the south by Sudan, and on the west by Libya&emdash;is mostly a desert nation. Only 5% of the country's one million square kilometres is arable and habitable. The Nile River and fertile Nile Delta are its most notable geographic features. Egypt's climate is mild to hot, with little rainfall. The country is susceptible to drought, flash floods, landslides, windstorms, and sandstorms.
Population
Egypt has about 66 million people, most of whom live in the Nile River Valley and the Nile Delta, north of Cairo. Most Egyptians are descended from the inhabitants of the ancient Nile Valley, and more than one-third of them are younger than 15 years of age. Islam is the country's major religious and cultural force: about 94% of Egyptians are Muslims, another 6% are Coptic Christians, and a small percentage are Greek Orthodox, Roman Catholic, and Protestant. Arabic is the country's official language.
Economy
Because of its geographic location straddling Africa and Asia, Egypt plays a strategic role in the Middle East. The country is also the cradle of one of the world's greatest ancient civilizations, with a recorded history that dates back to 3200 BC. Egypt is the most populated nation in the Arab world, and probably the most influential one. It has often assumed a leadership role on key global issues, such as the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, and the Persian Gulf crisis.
Almost the sole source of water in Egypt, the Nile River's flow is controlled by a complex network of dams and infrastructure, which are vital to the country's irrigated agriculture. Egypt's agricultural base is limited, since only irrigated land can be cultivated. Egypt has mineral deposits, such as gold and red granite, which have been exploited since ancient times. Egypt is self-sufficient in petroleum, and has some coal and natural gas deposits. Other mineral deposits include phosphate rock, manganese, salt, titanium, and iron.
Despite these assets, Egypt faces many challenges. Widespread poverty and pockets of religious extremism threaten the country's stability. A shortage of arable land, limited supplies of water, and a growing population make matters worse. Although more than half the population lives in rural areas, a shortage of jobs in the countryside has fueled rapid urbanization. Chronic unemployment affects one out of five workers. In the early 1950s, the Egyptian economy was based mainly on farming, and the country was self-sufficient in food. Now, it must import nearly half of its food. Experts point to population growth as the cause.
Like most of its neighbours, Egypt must cope with a serious ecological crisis that has been sparked by rapid population growth. Its greatest environmental challenges include desertification, the loss of agricultural land to urban development, and the proper management of its limited water resources.
For more background information on Egypt, see the Related links page.
Egypt, which has received Canadian development assistance since 1976, has consistently ranked among the major recipients of Canadian aid. At first, aid programs consisted of lines of credit for commodities and infrastructure projects. In the 1980s, the program focus shifted to providing technical assistance, mostly in the agriculture and energy sectors, supporting private-sector development and economic reforms, and restoring the environment.
Bilateral program
CIDA's bilateral assistance program delivers the largest portion of the Agency's assistance to Egypt. Specific projects, developed under signed agreements between the Canadian and Egyptian governments, are delivered through partnerships with Canadian businesses, non-governmental organizations, labour, educational institutions, and all levels of government. Egyptian counterpart organizations are full partners in these bilateral initiatives. See the Egypt-Canada: Country Development Programming Framework for details on CIDA's current strategic orientation in Egypt. For more detail on specific projects, see the Projects section.
Multilateral program
Egypt receives assistance from Canada through CIDA's support of multilateral organizations like the World Food Programme, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and the World Bank. In addition to providing funding, CIDA uses its influence within these organizations to improve their leadership and effectiveness in aid coordination, and to promote measures that meet Canada's development priorities. For details, visit CIDA's Multilateral Programs Branch page.
Partnership program
CIDA's partnership program provides financial support to projects undertaken in Egypt by Canadian institutions, associations, and non-governmental organizations, as well as by private-sector companies involved in development. For more information, visit CIDA's Canadian Partnership Branch page.
Canadian assistance to Egypt, 1998-99
CIDA objectives in Egypt
CIDA's overarching mandate is to support sustainable development around the world. Its specific policy objectives in Egypt are to:
promote the sustainable development of natural resources, especially water and soil; and support the transition to a modern society, based on a market economy and popular participation.
This approach focuses on supporting projects that encourage capacity-building at a national level and the transfer of Canadian technology. Priority is given to creating jobs for Egyptians. Maintaining the balance between population growth and the country's natural resources remains a crosscutting priority.
(Information from CIDA)
FOR THE PAST THREE YEARS, the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) has been working in the Palestinian Territories to help municipal government become more accountable, transparent and responsive. The Palestinian Municipal Management Project is now complete, but plans for a second phase are underway. In the wake of the terrorist attacks in the United States and the escalation of violence in the Territories, the work may become even more challenging.
The $2.5-million project, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), sought to increase both management capacity and the level of public participation in municipal management in the City of Rafah, one of five "Governorates" in the Gaza Strip. To that end, it developed an integrated strategy that focused on municipal government, the community, and the Ministry of Local Government.
The project identified 11 priority areas, including the development of a "master plan" for the city. During the past 20 years, Rafah has grown dramatically due to a high birth rate and an influx of refugees. Of the 130,000 residents, some 70 per cent live in refugee camps. Given its proximity to the Mediterranean Sea and the proposed Free Zone Industrial Estates, the city has vast potential. However, it needed a vision to exploit that potential and rise above the region's political uncertainty.
Rafah had developed its own preliminary plan, which focused on engineering issues such as land and transportation. The Canadian project, as it is called in Rafah, helped launch a new process, broadening discussions to include social factors such as culture and heritage. It also stressed the importance of process and community participation. In the highly centralized atmosphere of the Palestinian Territories, these concepts were initially slow to sink in. When the City of Rafah presents its master plan to the Ministry of Local Government, it will be the first municipality in the Palestinian Territories to have involved the public in long-term planning and decision-making process.
Indeed, leadership, management, and capacity building were other priority areas for the Palestinian project. During the first phase, the project held two workshops that focused on team building, strategic planning, and the relationship between city council and staff. In the first workshop, participants learned about business planning, public participation, budgeting, and priority setting. In the follow-up session, held during the summer of 2001, the trainers involved participants more fully in the workshop's design. By keeping the content as practical as possible, the workshop enabled participants to focus on issues relevant to their own work.
The project has given Rafah leaders and citizens concepts and tools to respond to development challenges and improve municipal governance. It has provided a healthy balance between tangible, 'hard' development (i.e. infrastructure and equipment) and intangible 'soft' development (i.e. training and capacity building). Equipment in high priority areas was purchased and community infrastructure and service projects were established.
Several Canadian municipalities were involved in technical exchanges with Rafah during the course of the project, including Hamilton and Waterloo, Ont., and Mt. Pearl, Nfld and Labrador. The technical assistance team consisted of highly qualified interdisciplinary municipal experts in a variety of field from solid waste management and water to financial management and municipal leadership, as well as cross-cutting issues like public participation and gender. The work of the Canadian team not only contributed to the transfer of knowledge and capacities, but it also helped strengthen Canadian-Palestinian municipal networks.
The people of Rafah are in survival mode and the progress achieved is remarkable and sustainable. The approach used by FCM in Rafah is a model for building capacity in other municipalities, including ones in Canada. FCM-ICMD's model emphasizes the partnership between civil society and the state, and presents a progressive approach to building municipal capacity through sharing knowledge, adapting best practices, and working with people in partnerships. This model and process could be reproduced successfully in other municipalities, as long as the content is designed to meet the specific needs of the host municipality.
The project has already generated a lot of interest. During the summer, papers were presented at urban planning conferences in Canada and China. "People are very interested in our approach to sharing expertise in support of urban governance in Rafah," says Brock Carlton, director of FCM's International Centre for Municipal Development. "It's a tribute to all the participants, both Canadian and Palestinian, who worked so hard to make this project succeed."
For more information, contact Amr Elleithy at FCM at (613) 241-5221, ext. 255; aelleithy@fcm.ca
Over the past decade, there has been a noticeable and welcome shift in the focus of international efforts supporting democratic development. The priority once was to help introduce democracy in states staging their first free elections. Today, the focus is on consolidating democratic procedures and institutions in the increasing number of countries that have already accepted democratic elections.
To a great extent, consolidating democracy means making the democratic process and institutions in a country independently sustainable, both politically and financially. International electoral assistance today is rightfully considered a temporary measure. The objective is that each state should become electorally self-sufficient.
This does not preclude long-term international co-operation and sharing. Even the longest-standing democracies seek to learn from the experience of others, as they continue to adapt their systems and institutions to the evolving needs of their electorates.
As an independent agency of Parliament, Elections Canada's participation in international activities reflects both elements of the equation: electoral support and electoral sharing and co-operation. The agency supports Canada's position in seeking democratic progress around the world. Canadian policy in this arena is directed by the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA). Elections Canada is essentially the implementing partner of this policy, at their request and with their funding. DFAIT and CIDA requests typically involve organizing electoral work abroad and hosting foreign visits in Canada. Elections Canada also participates actively in international organizations promoting electoral democracy, and has developed bilateral and multilateral links with various countries' electoral organizations. Over the years, the agency has sought the involvement of Canadian provincial and territorial electoral bodies in international activities.
While Elections Canada's international participation supports Canadian foreign policy objectives, the experience is a two-way street. International activities are also a means of further developing the agency's own expertise and improving electoral management in Canada.
In recent years, Elections Canada has been an active participant in various international forums, including: the International Foundation for Election Systems (IFES) &endash; where the Chief Electoral Officer of Canada, Jean-Pierre Kingsley, is a member of the board and co-chairs the international advisory committee; the International IDEA (Institute for Democracy and Electoral Assistance) &endash; where Elections Canada's Assistant Chief Electoral Officer for International Services, Ron Gould, is a senior executive; the Council on Governmental Ethics Laws (COGEL); the Association of Central and Eastern European Election Officials (ACEEEO); the International Association of Clerks, Recorders, Election Officials and Treasurers (IACREOT); the Commonwealth Secretariat; La Francophonie; the Unión Interamericana de Organismos Electorales (UNIORE), or Inter-American Union of Electoral Organizations, and its Center for Electoral Promotion and Assistance.
Elections Canada has organized three trilateral conferences that brought together representatives from the United States, Mexico and Canada &endash; and hosted one of the conferences in Ottawa, in 1995. In 1998, it hosted the fourth UNIORE conference of the heads of electoral bodies from South, Central and North America. In April 1999, it staged the first conference of the Global Electoral Organization (GEO) Network, which served to launch the Partnership for Electoral and Democratic Development (PEDD), of which the agency is a founding member.
Electoral assignments in other countries are carried out by an inventory of experienced individuals who have expressed an interest in democracy-building activities. They include Elections Canada staff, election workers and officers from different jurisdictions across the country, and members of the academic community. The assignments are always interesting, according to those who have participated, but rarely easy. They often take place in conflict or post-conflict situations.
Since 1990, country-to-country support initiatives have resulted in more than 300 observation or support missions abroad. The agency's mission mandates included electoral observation; advising on constitutional and election law provisions; advising on all aspects of electoral process administration; conducting pre-election evaluations; providing technical aid and advice; preparing election documents and materials; training election officials; developing and conducting voter education or information programs; working directly with other electoral bodies to assist in democratic elections; organizing briefing sessions for visiting foreign delegations and providing information on various aspects of the Canadian electoral process; and assisting other countries seeking to facilitate voting in their elections by their citizens residing in Canada.
In recent important missions, Elections Canada assisted in the first post-conflict elections in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Cambodia, and played a significant role in the transitional elections in South Africa. The agency participated in a Guatemalan project with the United Nations and IDEA, and was significantly involved in designing voting systems and materials in Nicaragua's first democratic election. During an intensive engagement in Guyana, Canadian specialist observers advised on media relations and election operations, and Canada provided all voting materials.
In future, Elections Canada intends to further develop its consultative role through ongoing joint initiatives with electoral organizations in other countries. The agency considers this avenue to be an excellent means of exchanging information based on knowledge and experience. Participation in long-term projects with a strategic value provides the opportunity to establish new partnerships with various organizations and the private sector.
The technical co-operation agreement between Elections Canada and Mexico's Instituto Federal Electoral (IFE) is a model in this respect. It facilitates exchange programs and projects in the area of election administration. Elections Canada will also continue to develop its international contacts, for example with IFES, the UN, the Organization of American States, and International IDEA. Its consultative role will, perhaps, be best expressed through its work within PEDD.
The PEDD initiative &endash; sponsored by IFES, IDEA, the United Nations Electoral Assistance Division, Mexico's IFE and Elections Canada &endash; illustrates the new direction of international efforts to help sustain the development of democracy. Its rationale is to take advantage of the respective strengths of each partner, combining them into a uniquely effective pool of resources to address the emerging challenges of elections and democratic governance.
Elections Canada aims to promote the exchange of knowledge and experience related to organizational and technological developments in the field of electoral procedures and democratic governance. To this end, it will foster participation in technical co-operation projects and high-level seminars or courses. It will also encourage international, regional and bilateral forums and discussions for sharing democratic knowledge and values as they relate to free and fair elections.
This approach ultimately helps support electoral activities in a way that responds to the changing needs of democracy within each country, respecting its culture and its history. In the long term, that is what matters above all. Elections Canada is proud to be engaged in this type of action.
(1) Based on the article "Consolidating Democratic Progress" by F. Demianenko in Electoral Insight, Vol. 1, No. 2, November 1999, and additional material.
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Dear Readers,
In my role as President of the Treasury Board of Canada, the Employer of the Public Service, I would like to take this opportunity to share my thoughts on a matter that I personally believe is crucial to the future of the Public Service of Canada. We must uphold hope, freedom, democracy and equality. The men and women of Canada's Public Service, who serve this great multicultural country, simply must continue to reflect these ideals.
We need only look around us to realize the rich diversity of Canada. We want the Public Service of the 21st century to be innovative, dynamic and reflective of this diversity.
Canada's Public Service is recognized internationally as one of the world's best and is one of our country's most valuable resources. The challenge before us is to have a workforce that is drawn more from diverse ethnic, linguistic, cultural and educational backgrounds because such a workforce is much better prepared to offer Canadians the exceptional service they expect and deserve.
The tragedy of September 11 has demanded a greater sensitivity to varying emotions in the workplace such as fear, sympathy, hostility, suspicion of differences and concern about backlash. A key element of the effectiveness of our Public Service is maintaining a positive working atmosphere for all employees. We need to hold fast the values of justice and equality by demonstrating respect and understanding towards all our colleagues.
In closing, I would like to reiterate that, in a difficult period such as this one, it is imperative that we energetically defend the value of diversity and the right to be both different and equal.
Yours sincerely,
Lucienne Robillard
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