It began with Saddam, say Iraqis Sunday,
30 January 2011 02:37
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BAGHDAD: Iraqis yesterday welcomed the revolt in Egypt that threatens to topple President Hosni Mubarak, with some claiming the tremors shaking Arab rulers had begun with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein.

“Saddam was their teacher, and all of these dictators are his little pupils,” declared Hussein Mohammed, taking a break from loading boxes of imported toys into a truck.

“The dictator (Mubarak) must leave — all dictators must go,” the 55-year-old added, noting that he stayed up until 4.00am listening to the radio for news from Cairo.

“From Morocco to Saudi Arabia, we Arabs want all dictators out.”

Other Iraqis remained glued to their television sets throughout the day, with electronics store owner Maher Minjal tuning four televisions to different Arabic news channels reporting events in Egypt.

“The fuse was lit by Iraq, because we became the first Arab country to achieve democracy and get an elected government,” said Minjal, 28, from his store in Baghdad’s commercial Karrada district.

“If the regime in Egypt falls, all other Arab regimes will fall, because Egypt is the biggest and most powerful country in the Arab world.” Anti-regime riots that raged yesterday for a fifth straight day in Egypt, inspired by the overthrow of Tunisian strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali earlier this month, have sent shockwaves across the region.

At least one Iraqi political analyst agreed with the assessment that Iraq had begun a process that seemed to be spreading across the Middle East.

“It is absolutely true that (former US president George W) Bush was right when he said that democracy in Iraq would sweep through the Arab world,” Baghdad-based analyst Ihsan
Al Shammari said.

“In fact, Iraq was the first democratic regime in the region, but we are different from Egypt and Tunisia in that we were changed by foreign forces (the US-led coalition) and they are being changed by popular uprisings.

Iraq’s Al Mashriq newspaper pejoratively referred to Mubarak as a “Pharaoh,” and said the day of reckoning had come for a leader who had been a friend to the enemies of Arabs, which it said were Israel and the United States. “The American ally and the friend of Israel has been ruling Egypt since 1981, but the ground is shaking beneath the feet of the Pharaoh,” the Arabic-language newspaper said in an editoria. AFP

ANTARA THE LION: FATHER OF HEROES

By RUNOKO RASHIDI

Archaeologists have long shown that African people were the first people to occupy the Arabian Peninsula, and there has always been a substantial population in Arabia of people of African descent. Indeed, probably the most illustrious single figure in pre-Islamic Arabia was Antara the Lion--called the "father of heroes." Antara had an Arab father and an Ethiopian mother, and became in time Arabia's national hero. There was no individual equal to the valor and strength of Antara. He has been compared to King Arthur in the English tradition but was considerably more important because he was a more historical figure.

The name of Antarah ibn-Shaddad al Absi (ca. 525-615), evidently a Christian, has lived through the ages as the epitome of heroism and chivalry. Knight, poet, warrior and lover, Antara exemplified in his life those qualities greatly cherished by the sons of the desert. His acts of gallantry, as well as his love episodes with his lady, Ablah, whose name he immortalized in his famous Mu allaqah, have become a part of the literary legacy of the Arabic-speaking world.

Antara was the father of knighthood. He was the champion of the weak and oppressed and the protector of women. He was the impassioned lover and poet, and the irresistible and gallant knight. Antara's magnificent deeds spread across the Arabian Peninsula and throughout the world. In time these deeds, like the legends of Homer, were compiled in literary form. They are known today as the Romance of Antar, and have taken their place among the great national classics. The Romance of Antar, in its present form, probably preceded the romances of chivalry so common in twelfth century Italy and France.

SOURCES:
World's Great Men Of Color, Volume 1, by J.A. Rogers
African Presence In Early Asia, Edited by Runoko Rashidi & Ivan Van Sertima