How did this Mauritanian experience the aftermath of "Weddady’s Free Arabs, American Islamic Congress and the pro-Israel funders who helped them rise" by Max Blumenthal?
"After reading the well detailed Max Blumenthal's article "Weddady’s Free Arabs, American Islamic Congress and the pro-Israel funders who helped them rise," I concluded that Nasser Weddady is conversely guilty until proven innocent. Regarding Weddady's status as a public figure, Mauritanian intelligentsia living in the USA are however, expected to enlighten the public opinion about what is exactly happening over there. In spite of Mohamed El Mokhtar's article "Unfortunate and Disturbing Report: Weddady Has Some Explaining to Do" and its translation by Dr. Elycheikh Ahmed-Tolba, the issue is still obscure."
I wrote the following reply to his post.
Selam Zeindane Brahim, I will say something here since your post appears on my wall, which leads me to assume--although I am technically challenged--that you purposefully wanted to know my take on this issue. First, I wanted my reply to be in Arabic, the language I feel more at home with and more readily understood by the greater majority of Mauritanians, but since the post is in English, it seems appropriate--albeit perhaps unnecessary--to write in English as well. Second, before I do so I would like to put forth the following disclaimer: I don’t consider myself to be part of the ‘Mauritanian intelligentsia’ in the US and don’t frankly associate with them. This is in part because I don’t know who truly qualifies to be part of that group. So my reply would be that of a simple Mauritanian Muslim living in the US in a small city, about an hour drive from the Mexican border. Last, my contact with the Mauritanian community in general is quite limited.
So here is my attempt to bring to light the little I know.
I didn't meet Nasser Weddady before Max Blumenthal's articles or the follow up article that was also posted on the same website came out, and I have yet to meet him. I was extremely excited when I learned while surfing the web that he was chosen to speak before the president at a nationally–covered event in Boston. When the video of the event became available, I took a few minutes of the time of the class I taught in the Spring here at the University of Arizona to play the video for my students. I also posted a link to that video on my facebook wall. Of course, I had my questions at the time because of the not-so-good reputation of the Islamic Congress amongst ordinary well-meaning Muslims here in the US. Just before I saw the video or around that time I learned that Suhaib Webb, the extremely popular American-born Muslim imam, was replaced as a representative of the Muslim community in Boston and that the decision to replace him was made by the governor, not the leaders of the Muslim community therein.
Two months or so earlier, I had a conversation with a Mauritanian friend who knows Weddady in person and who extolled him as a rising activist. He mentioned, inter alia, his activism on twitter and his work with the Islamic Congress (IC). I recall making the comment that the Islamic Congress is made of individuals who are not exactly trusted in the Muslim community, as their views do not represent the mainstream voice of the community. I explained that these are individuals who are either too liberal or otherwise too controversial. I named a few. My interlocutor doubted the veracity of my assessment and said that he thinks they are just another Muslim organization. Knowing that we have extremely divergent views on the topic, we closed the conversation on that issue. Within weeks of that conversation, I received a link shared by a Mauritanian facebooker urging Mauritanians to vote in large numbers for Weddady for some online prize. This will be followed by another link to vote for Ahmed Jeddou. I shared both links and casted my vote. A relatively short piece by Weddady (in NY times I believe) was forwarded to me by an American friend as well.
This is the extent to what I knew about Weddady before the article. Although I knew something about the organization (IC), I was extremely shocked to know the extent to which this presumably Muslim organization was in cahoots with such anti-Islamic organizations and individuals. I posted the link then with a partial Arabic translation of the introductory paragraphs, and held on to a long translation that a friend made of the article in hope that Weddady will respond and clear the matter. I asked his close friend that I know here to ask him for his views. I was hoping that he would provide some form of explanation. I asked his friend at least once about Weddady’s reply and he told me he was still trying to reach him. Although we met several times, he never brought the topic again, which tells me that he was either unable to reach Weddady (which would be unusual because they used to talk very often) or that Weddady has really nothing of value to say. Days passed by and Weddady was still silent.
After disappearing from Twitter for a few days, his first tweet was an attempt to deflect the attention from the issue. He spoke of a Bahraini activist, which was perhaps a worthy cause, except that it didn’t address the rather damning evidence that implicated him in working with a Zionist-funded organization whose main goal was evidently to undermine the efforts of organized Muslim groups to promote the interests of the Muslim community in the USA.
The article, which caused quite a stir here in the US in the Muslim community and beyond, didn’t seem for sometime to generate much discussion from what I can tell on the Mauritanian cyper-space. A week later, a Mauritanian activist here on the FB posted the article, and since most Mauritanians on the FB don’t speak English I posted an Arabic translation of the main parts of the article in the comment section.
A few days later, another article appeared on the same website explaining how the IC didn’t reply to the first article and how another Zionist-supporter organization came to their rescue, which if anything further blemished the already tarnished image of the IC in the eyes of the Muslim Community here
When I shared it, I received several calls from Mauritanian residents in the US who would like to know and share more information about Weddady. I had most to learn and little to offer. What I was told is not certainly helpful, and by no means vindicates Weddady. Although none of the information I was told provided any further evidence implicating him (nor exonerating him for that matter), it spoke nonetheless of his association with a lot of (what my informants described as) shady characters. Weddady remains silent as far as I can tell.
I had a short exchange with his friend, Ahmed Jedou, on Twitter. Ahmed Jedou defended Weddady and tried to downplay the importance of the article, mostly focusing on the segment that talks about how Weddady came to replace Webb. Ahmed Jedou seemed to believe that Weddady is being simply attacked because of his success, which Ahmed Jedou was all too keen on attributing to 'many years of hard work.' But he completely ignored the funding issue, which is well documented as the figures attributed to the IRS (Internal Revenue Services of the USA) show. It would be an understatement to say that IRS is a quite trusted source on matters of this nature.
Another Mauritanian Twitter activist by the name of Mint Intahah also entered the conversation on Weddady’s side. Her argument was “so what!” There is no difference between the Suadi-Qatari and the Israeli and Zionist money. I will leave to you and your friends here on the facebook the assessment of that.
In my humble opinion, although a great deal of time lapsed, which suggests that Weddady has really nothing to say about the matter, and which seems to corroborate the scathing information mentioned in the well-research article by Max Blumenthal, Weddady still ‘has some explaining to do’, as Mohamed El Mokhtar rightly put it
If the facts reported in the article are true, and in the absence of any evidence to the contrary they seem quite convincing; and if Weddady knew of the sources of his funding, he has indeed committed a treason—no word can sums it up better. If on the other hand, these figures are somehow fictitious, or if Weddady didn’t really know the source of his funding, and if what appears to be a deliberate exclusion of anything related to the Palestinian issue from the Free Arab website he manages along with others was simple happenstance, then Weddady is morally required to inform the public. He can still correct our take on this, if he so wishes. Although ignorance might provide defense, it is very implausible in this case. But let’s see Mauritanians say Lakhbar tabga fi iddar (the truth will eventually be known).
This is my impression. The Mauritanians I spoke with here except for one of his close friends, extremely deplored Weddady’s involvement with this shady organization. They are also worried, or cognizant of a possible backlash in the form of feelings of suspicion and distrust toward Mauritanians among the Muslim community here in the US, which of course reverse a rosy image of Mauritania as the land of scholarship and authentic Islam. Although I think some of these concerns are exaggerated, the reputation of Mauritania as that exotic, lovely place of true Islam and true Islamic scholarship is a little shaken—just for now—in the eyes of many American Muslims who were horrified to know the details of this matter. It certainly didn’t help that Weddady was identified in the article as a Mauritanian. So in short, the irony of all this is: Weddady’s appearance addressing the president of the US may have brought him fame in Mauritania, but also brought him infamy here in the US. It all happened in short order. May Allah protect us.
تعليقات
إرسال تعليق