Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, July 2009, pages 36-37

European Press Review

Pope Is “Tap Dancing in a Minefield,” Says France’s Le Figaro

By Lucy Jones

“THE POPE...will have to tread carefully,” warned Tobias Buck in the May 9 Financial Times published in Britain, the day after Pope Benedict XV1 touched down in Jordan for the first leg of his Middle East tour. “Palestinian Muslims have not forgotten the pope’s controversial 2006 speech, which included a quote describing Islam as a ”˜cruel and inhuman’ religion,” he noted.

The pope is “going tap dancing in a minefield,” editorialized France’s Le Figaro of May 8.

“Not only is he heading toward one of the world’s political hot-spots,” the newspaper noted, but “he won’t be popular with Jews because of his support for the beatification of the wartime pontiff Pius XII,” who critics say was silent in the face of Nazi atrocities against the Jews during World War II.

“The pope’s trip to Jerusalem must not be about damage control but humility and penitence,” the UK’s Guardian of the same day quoted theologians and academics as saying. “They urge Benedict to be humble when he visits key Jewish and Muslim sites,” the newspaper said.

By the second day of the trip, Muslim clerics were expressing disappointment at the pope’s failure to offer a new apology for remarks seen as targeting Islam, Agence France Presse reported on May 9. “We wanted him to clearly apologize,” Sheikh Yusef Abu Hussein, mufti of the Jordanian city of Karak, told AFP following an address by the pope.

Pope Benedict did not remove his shoes during the keynote address at a mosque, as is customary in Muslim shrines, but a spokesman insisted he had not been asked to do so because he used a special walkway, according to AFP.

“Benedict XVI was ready to take them off but his escorts led him down a special walkway and did not ask him to do so,” Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi told the news agency.

Ahmadinejad Slammed for Callling Israel “Totally Racist”

“Iran sabotages world conference on racism,” charged Le Figaro on April 21. The French daily’s editorial referred to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s speech at the U.N. summit the previous day, in which he described Israel as “totally racist.”

According to columnist Dominic Lawson in Britain’s April 26 Sunday Times, there was an inevitability about the whole affair.

“Ban Ki-moon’s expressions of injured surprise were unconvincing.”

“The U.N. secretary-general had specifically invited the Iranian president to make the keynote address to the conference in Geneva. Given that a number of nations—the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Holland, Germany, Poland, Italy and Israel—had boycotted the event, in part because they had a pretty good idea of what the keynote speaker would make of his opportunity, Ban Ki-moon’s expressions of injured surprise were unconvincing,” argued Lawson.

German newspapers universally praised Berlin’s decision to boycott the meeting.

“Those who provide the Iranian president with an audience do not automatically agree with him. However, they do risk allowing the tirades to be perceived as just one legitimate opinion among many. Many delegations, therefore, felt compelled to leave the hall,” opined Süddeutsche Zeitung on April 21.

“The German government spared itself this and sent out a clear signal with its first ever boycott of a U.N. conference. That was necessary, not just because of its responsibility to Israel. Anyone who is searching for dialogue with Iran also has to prevent misunderstandings and draw a red line,” it added.

Will Obama’s “Extended Hand” Foreign Policy End Like Carter’s Did?

“President Obama marked his first foreign trip by including Muslims in the ”˜extended hand’ foreign policy that he has launched as phase one of his presidency internationally,” reported the BBC’s Paul Reynolds on April 6.

Obama told the Turkish parliament in Ankara that day that “the United States is not and will never be at war with Islam.” He also said that U.S. partnership with the Muslim world was “critical...in rolling back a fringe ideology that people of all faiths reject.”

His administration “will listen carefully, bridge misunderstanding,”Obama pledged. “We will be respectful, even when we do not agree.”

In the opinion of Reynolds, “The speech contained signals of interest to Muslim listeners. For example, the president emphasized that he was committed to a two-state solution for an Israel and Palestine living side by side.

“It is however only the first phase of his foreign policy, because it is as yet unclear what happens if there are no results,” Reynolds warned.

“President Jimmy Carter also began like this,” he recalled, “but ran into the realities of world politics on several fronts—Iran seized hostages at the U.S. embassy in Tehran, the Soviet Union invaded Af­ ghan­ istan. Jimmy Carter’s days in office were ended when Ronald Reagan took over and switched foreign and defense policy toward seeking American safety not through negotiation but through power,” concluded Reynolds.

Egypt Uses Swine Flu to Restructure Pig-Rearing Industry

Egypt’s decision to slaughter the country’s 300,000 pigs, in what was originally described as a precaution against swine flu, is “highly controversial,” Radio Netherlands reported on May 2.

“The World Health Organization says the virus did not originate in pigs nor is it transmitted by pigs,” the Dutch station pointed out. “The owners of the pigs are furious. They have been told they will receive compensation, but have so far seen no sign of this.”

It will take both slaughterhouses 125 days to cull the country’s estimated pig population, according to an Agence France Presse report the same day.

According to the BBC, officials have said the move is aimed at restructuring Egypt’s pig-rearing industry so that they are raised on proper farms instead of trash sites.

BBC correspondent Christian Fraser reported on May 2 that Cairo has been criticized for overreacting to the swine flu threat, but it also was criticized for responding too slowly to the bird flu crisis two years ago. At least 22 people died of the disease.

Imam Has no Place in Dutch Army, Says NRC Handelsblad

“The Dutch parliament usually doesn’t interfere with individual government appointments, but it made an exception with the controversial appointment of a Muslim chaplain for the Dutch army—and with good reason,” editorialized the Netherlands newspaper NRC Handelsblad on April 10.

The Moroccan-Dutch imam, Ali Eddaoudi, is controversial because of views he has aired in newspapers. In one article, he said Dutch soldiers have no business in Afghanistan, although he subsequently distanced himself from the statement.

“That may be,” said NRC Handelsblad. “But it doesn’t make him any more suited to give spiritual care to a troubled Dutch soldier in Afghanistan. An imam like Eddaoudi has no place in the Dutch army,” the newspaper concluded, saying officials weren’t paying attention when they appointed him.

Egypt: a World-class Call Center Hub?

Egypt is on track to become home for international call centers, the London Times reported April 14.

A recent London School of Economics report which assesses the potential of 14 non-BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India or China) countries, finds that plenty of other countries score highly as locations for offices overseas, an option often considered in times of recession, the newspaper reported. “Egypt, Vietnam and Morocco scored as the top locations in terms of cost, including labor, infrastructure and corporate taxes. Egypt also scored highly for skills availability,” it said. For market potential, Egypt was among the top three countries, the newspaper reported.

Lucy Jones is a free-lance journalist based in London.