[Editor: Only one side of the story was heard. The article provides distorted information].
Only Ismail De Coursac is sailing
against the stream. He is a French journalist living in Cairo since six years. He is working as a
correspondent for a magazine called France-Pays Arabs Magazine, and he is the deputy secretary-
general of the Foreign Press Association (FPA). His first name is Arab Muslim, but his last name
is an original French name.
Before I met him, I expected that he embraced Islam to marry
an Egyptian or Arab Muslim. I know a lot of foreigners register themselves as Muslims only
administratively to be able to marry Muslims. When I met him, I was not interested a lot in the
question of his motives to embrace Islam, because the religion of people does not concern me a
lot. But I knew that he was not married [he is divorced], and thus, that meant that he chose
Islam by his free will and not obligatory. It was then that I realized that I am sitting in front
of someone different, someone who does not do anything unless he believes in it even if that
means losing everything.
He is simply a person who is looking for his psychological
peace and has found that in Islam. He could have found that peace in other religions. In the end,
he is free and not obliged to do anything. His deep sense of being free motivated him to defend
with all his strength what he believes is right. He learnt that whoever does not speak up against
evil is a mute devil.
And he does not want to be that, and that is why he is facing so
much trouble. And that is why he insists on swimming against the stream, in which the rest of the
board of directors of association, and the 600 members of the association are swimming. There
are 300 Egyptian members in the association and one member in the board of directors that
consists of nine members.
This percentage of representation [Egyptian members] is
contradictory to the percentage outlined in the new law of the NGOs, Law no. 84 of 2002, which
was issued to regulate the activities of NGOs in Egypt. The law gave one year for NGOs to apply
the law, but the year is over and another year is almost over without the FPA organizing its
condition. The continuing of the situation could only be explained by that the FPA does not want
to apply the law. When De Coursac asked for applying the law, he was ignored. He did not receive
any replies except that “he is a bad foreigner.”
You could ask yourself: what do we
Egyptians have to do with the FPA? Or what is the importance of talking about this association?
This association is considered the fourth most important press association in the world after New
York, London and Paris. Its importance is linked to the importance of Egypt as a key country in
the Middle East.
In brief, this association is the association that draws the image of
Egypt in foreign media outlets. That is why what happens inside of the association impacts, in
one way or another, my life and your life and perhaps the life of my children and your children
in this country.
The future as you know, is not only drawn by the local authorities, but
geo-politics now is like one dish that is cooked and eaten by the influential powers in the
world, and whatever does not fit into the dish is thrown into the garbage. Perhaps it is the FPA
that shapes public opinion in the countries from which its members come. The importance of the
FPA in the international politics should not be downsized. Perhaps it is not an exaggeration or
an Arab illusion when we say there is a conspiracy.
The association could be an interest
for all intelligence services around the world. From here comes the importance of Egyptians
getting their fair share of positions in the general assembly, as outlined by the new NGOs law.
Of course demanding this does not imply any discriminatory or racist attitude, but it is rather a
demand for applying the law under which the association is currently working.
Ismail De
Coursac is not demanding anything more than applying the law, which is something all foreign
correspondents do in their country with due respect. De Coursac never gets bored from repeating
his demands before the meeting of the general assembly on April 6.
The board of
directors did nothing more than asking the chairman of the association Volkhard Windfuhr
(correspondent of Der Spiegel) to ask the information authority whether the association needs to
adapt its condition with the new law or not. This is a ploy that is meant to waste time. This
question resembles the question of whether water is for drinking or clothing!
The FPA is
registered in the Ministry of Social Affairs on 24 January 1977. It is an NGO working under the
Egyptian law and any modifications to the law applies to it. But Daniel Bernard sees it
differently. He says in an electronic message e-mailed to De Coursac on 15 March in response to
De Coursac’s demands “NGOs have to be independent from the government, but you say that the law
gives these NGOs their independence, thus, they can do what they want, by being told what to do,”
Bernard’s words seem logic until we know who Bernard is and the aim of his words is. De
Coursac tried to reply to Bernard but could not because the e-mail address on the message was
false. But he searched for him on the Internet. It turned out that his personal web site stated
that he is an American journalist, in spite of his French-sounding name, working for US Aid. He
also worked as a counselor and wrote letters to the American ambassador in Cairo. He also worked
for many other different organizations.
Welcome, Mr. Bernard to Cairo and you do not
have to hide your e-mail any more. If you feel afraid, then you have to erase your residence
address and your home telephone number from your personal Web site. Or you have to reduce the
sharpness of your racist sentiments against the people who host you. He ironically protested in
his e-mail to De Coursac: Do you want Egyptians to control the FPA? Is not the FPA supposed to be
representing foreigners? Why do you not go and form an association for Egyptian journalists?
Thank you Mr. Bernard. The racist attitude is very apparent in your words, and it is not
acceptable. The Egyptian journalists have a syndicate whose location is very well known by the
American ambassador whom you write letters to, and you know well the American policy in the
Middle East. It is clear that your constant presence behind the fence of the embassy totally
separates you from the reality of Egypt. That is why I feel pity toward the newspapers and the
Internet sites that pay to write information and reports on Egypt. You are probably giving them
wrong information and imprecise reports. You surely know that such a racist sense with which you
talk about Egyptians could not produce an objective investigative journalist, but rather produces
a speech writer who expresses the opinions of the American ambassador in Cairo. These opinions
are not looked upon with respect by the Egyptian public, as you know.
Now the American
Embassy is in the picture. But before the embassy, there was the American university [in Cairo].
The honorary chairman of the association is Abdallah Schleifer. He works as a professor at the
American University in Cairo. He provided the idea of holding a press conference to host Radwan
Al-Masmoudi, the president and founder of the Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy in
Washington. The press conference indeed took place on August 2, 2003. This press conference
exploded a crisis in the association.
The press conference was organized hastily because
of time constraint. The conference coincided with the association’s trip to Sharm el-Sheikh in
which many of association members participated. This made the conference turn-out small, then why
did the conference take place in the first place? Why did they insist on holding it?
What is even more important is that the board of the association agreed to hold the
conference based on invalid voting. Ismail De Coursac objected to the holding of the conference
and he backed his objection by referring to item 2 of the association charter that states “the
association should not engage in any political activity.” But this is a point of debate. Some
might see that holding a conference inside the association is not a political activity, but is
rather a service the association is giving its members. But the rules that might seem right are
not always right. The center that is run by Radwan Al Masmoudi is not far from being a suspect.
Ismail De Coursac said, “The center that is run by Masmoudi funds and organizes
workshops in the Islamic countries, including Egypt. These workshops are held in the framework,
of what is called by America ‘the democratic agenda’ which is something that distances the press
conference away from being merely a press conference. It is rather a political activity that does
not comply with item 2 of the association charter. But it was clear there was insistence on
holding the conference by any means.” According to Kees Hulsman, general secretary of the
association, five members voted for the holding of the conference, three abstained [not true –
they were not present] and one objected, Ismail De Coursac who doubts the validity of the vote.
He said that Windfuhr Volkhard was not among the five who agreed because he was on his way to the
airport. De Coursac also said that the evidence is that Windfuhr sent a fax to De Coursac on
September 18 titled “Highly Personal,” in which he said, “The president is on his way to the
airport, leaving the country for someone. He has the right to look at any work over the phone and
that is why he has to transfer the matter to the general secretary of the association to look
into the matter according to the charter. These kinds of proposals should not be commented on by
an absent president, but by the present board members. An opinion that expressed by one of the
absent members has no value.”
It is clear that Windfuhr did not vote for the holding of
the press conference. Therefore, there were four votes against four votes. But Windfuhr changed
his opinion five months after the press conference when he said, “It was clear that I did not
object to holding the conference that Dr. Schleifer suggested, and that my vote added agreement
to the situation. It was clear that one member was against. The matter is closed.”
Thus,
the situation changed in opposition to Ismail De Coursac, who continued to object to other
activities and decisions by the association. He objected to the press conference for Hoshyar
Zebari, the foreign minister of the Transitional Iraqi Governing Council. He also objected to a
free trip organized by the association to the monastery St. Anthony at the Red Sea on August 11.
On that day the demolishing of an illegal-built fence in the monastery was due to take place.
That is why the foreign media were covered with photos of bulldozers to tear down the fence. This
intensified the crisis at the time. De Coursac also objected to changing the accountant of the
association on the pretext that this decision should be taken by the general assembly, regardless
of the fact that the new accountant is the representative of the International News Corporation
(INC), an American company in Egypt. Amid all of these objects, the board decided to suspend
Ismail De Coursac from his position, and this decision is considered a violation against one
basic right of the rights of the general assembly.
The association is in an illegal
status, organizing conferences and activities that are suspicious. It suspended the deputy
general-secretary illegally. Its general assembly would hold an unusual meeting on April 6 in
preparation for holding the usual meeting at the end of the same month. What does the association
decide concerning De Coursac? What are the procedures that could be taken in order to prevent the
association from turning into a puppet used and benefited from by American hands?
[See the
comments on art. 3 and 4 in art. 1, 39 and 40]
• See art. 14: The Ibn Khaldoun Center is
an outlet for the dissemination of American ideas that go against our reality and our
society.
• See art. 34: Arab governments responded to American demands for changing educational
curricula and eliminate anti-Semitic materials
