During a recent TV interview, former Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D’Alema pragmatically expressed the bitter need for Western countries to talk to some of the autocratic regimes in the Arab world, in the absence of a democratic alternative, also so as to avoid the risk of an emergence of new groups inspired by religious extremism. Better the autocratic but “moderate” (in the eyes of the West) Arab leaders than a confused scenario with the risk of fundamentalism, whether or not this is the result of free elections (as happened in Algeria after the elections held in the early Nineties).

It is a drastic and controversial interpretation, a thesis representing a first restraint on the development of dissent in the Arab world, far from religious manipulations or post-nationalist ideologies linked to a now declining pan-Arabism. Incoherence among Western leaders, especially the United States, and the use of different standards in judging and then establishing relations with Arab countries on the basis of personal economic and geopolitical interests, has effectively weakened and delayed even more the emergence of an élite of really democratic Arab reformists. And hence, when listening to some of the voices of Arab dissent, one perceives the sense of frustration and disappointment experienced, especially regards to Western governments, incapable of listing respect for human rights and individual freedom in first position in their agendas concerning relations with Arab countries. Thus, in the eyes of the Arab people, they appear as co-responsible for, and accomplices to, the many abuses of power addressed at the population and especially at political opponents.

Compared to the past, Arab dissent appears to be more mature and ready to challenge regimes, no longer taking refuge in European capitals as happened in the past. There is a new generation of opponents and dissidents, that, also thanks to the airtime provided by Al Jazeera in recent years and support from European and American civil rights movements, feels better protected and ready to challenge regimes, even risking jail and the tragedy of torture, as still happens in some Arab countries. A new generation of Arab dissidents who dialogue with their western peers thanks to the internet, all sharing their unease with this new world, where everyone appears dissatisfied with a globalization benefitting upper classes while weakening the poorer, both in the Western and the Arab worlds. To a certain extent this new generation of Arab dissidents is no longer satisfied with messages of solidarity, at times veiled with an old-fashioned degree of Third-Worldism. Instead, this generation wants to make itself heard autonomously, exploiting technology and rejecting all forms of self-pity.

The Lebanese dissident group lead by Samir Kassir, murdered in Beirut in June 2005 and author of the enlightening collection of essays entitled “Glances at Arab Distress”, dreams of an Arab world finally free from the disease of ideology and demagogies addressed at concealing regimes’ responsibilities in the name of Western aggression and an “American-Zionist” plot. A movement willing to abandon past conflicts between secularism and Islam, and ready to try and create a new perspective of a liberal Arab society, respectful of differences as well as political and religious pluralism. Samir Kassir, as well as Tunisian Sihem Benzedrine and Egyptian Saad Eddine Ibrahim, are only few of the well-known Arab dissidents who have turned their backs on Western hypocrisy, to personally assume responsibilities and run the risk of being tried in military courts as well as suffering detention without trial in order to pursue one ideal: freedom.

Khalid Chaouki, journalist, and a member of the Council for Italian Islam, also editor-in-chief of Minareti.it

Translated by Claudia Durastanti