Shafeeq Ghabra
Dr. Shafeeq Ghabra, president of the American University of Kuwait who is both a classical liberal scholar and an electrifying speaker, has become a regular columnist for the Lamp of Liberty. His columns are in Arabic, but readers of English can find some of his excellent writings in English online, including “Toppling the Arab Berlin Wall”. His latest column (”Arabic Violence and Self-Destruction“) on www.misbahalhurriyya.org starts with the following:
Since independence the Arab countries have been living in a world of violence. It goes without saying that the origin of violence in this part of the world comes from the Ottoman period and western imperialism. But after that independence that came after long sacrifice, most Arabic countries moved toward violenceÃÂââ?ìÃÂæ The new Arab regimes installed by military coups in the 60’s and 70’s (e.g., Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Libya) initiated socialism, meaning the nationalization of private property and the confiscation of land. With that, a kind of violence was initiated against wide groups within society. At the same time, violence was initiated against the foreign communities which had come to Arab lands decades and centuries ago. Thus, the Arab world lost the Italian, Greek, and many other communities that were vital for the national economy.*
Dr. Ghabra offers a powerful voice in the Arab world for freedom, for toleration, for peace, and for justice.
*A quick and rough-and-ready translation (not, I hasten to add, by me).
UPDATE: My colleagues are working hard to improve the site. It should soon have a number of new scholarly articles on the relationship between economic freedom and prosperity that include numerous charts and other graphic devices, as well as footnoted scholarly articles. So far there are 28 articles or books on the site. The authors include Adam Smith, Voltaire, Ibn Khaldun, Leonard Read, John Stuart Mill, Hernando de Soto, Frederic Bastiat, Ludwig von Mises, Fareed Zakharia, Reuven Brenner, Raja Kamal, F. A. Hayek, Shafeeq Ghabra, Mario Vargas Llosa, and myself (with two short essays in defense of globalization through free trade and of individualism). A substantial number should be added in the next week.
{ 52 comments }
David Rossie 10.16.05 at 12:58 am
Sounds exciting! Let’s hope liberalism becomes widely accepted in Iraq.
Belac 10.16.05 at 10:11 pm
“It goes without saying that the origin of violence in this part of the world comes from the Ottoman period and western imperialism.”
I’m a bit worried about that quote. Can he really mean that the land that saw Ayn Jalut, Hattin, Siffin, Yarmuk, Ajnadayn, Qadisiyya, Nihavand, plus many other battles and wars I’ve missed after 622 AD and still more before then only became violent in 1517 with the Ottoman conquest of Syria and Egypt?
I’m not sure whether that reflects anything in particular on Dr. Ghabra’s other writings, but it’s disturbing to find something so obviously false in the first few lines of the quote. What did he really mean to say?
Tom G. Palmer 10.18.05 at 12:02 am
I’m afraid that Belac is missing the context. Dr. Ghabra was pointing out that one can blame the Ottoman oppression of the Arabs for their problems, or European imperialism, but both of those occupations have been over for some time and blaming them for the problems of the Arab world does no good. Belac’s comparison is a bit like blaming World War II (a relatively recent and astonishing outbreak of violence that makes what the Arab world has experienced recently pale in comparison) on Charlemagne. The sentence seems a poor candidate for the label “obviously false.” (I should also point out that it was a very quick-and-on-the-fly translation of what could also be phrased as “one could trace back the violence to….”)
Belac 10.19.05 at 12:54 pm
My apologies. I didn’t notice the “rough and ready translation” note. I’m sure it makes much more sense in the original. (However, the second sentence, out of context and in English, does sound questionable).
Tom G. Palmer 10.21.05 at 12:19 am
Understood. In context (I have been assured) it makes much more sense.
I will work at some point to get carefully done translations of Dr. Ghabra’s essays published in English, a language that he does speak, read, and write, but not, perhaps, as quickly or as elegantly as in Arabic.
Brian Macker 11.06.05 at 4:51 pm
“At the same time, violence was initiated against the foreign communities which had come to Arab lands decades and centuries ago.”
… or as in the most common situation had been there prior to the initial Muslim invasion. Why doesn’t he mention this? The entire area occupied by the Muslims, including Saudi Arabia had Christian and Jewish communities that had been living there for Centuries prior to the existence of Islam. In some cases upwards of a millenium. That includes the Greeks. So why does he call them foreign?
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