As'ad AbuKhalil: "I would rather be known as the angry Arab than the docile Arab" � The Journal

11.2.12

As'ad AbuKhalil: "I would rather be known as the angry Arab than the docile Arab" � The Journal: Popularly known as the 'Angry Arab', As’ad AbuKhalil told me it was a name that was meant to be taken ironically.

“The name doesn’t bother me, I would rather be known as the angry Arab than the docile Arab, the submissive Arab and all these terms that do apply to some of the Arabs who live in the West who are so intimidated.”

AbuKhalil is a distinguished and controversial Professor of Political Science from Stanislaus University, and I meet him amidst the preparations for the fourth leg of his UK university tour.

He has come to Edinburgh to speak out for the rights of the Palestinian refugees who live in close proximity to his birth town of Beirut, and elsewhere. He is vehemently against the state of Israel, a nation he compares to apartheid South Africa (“What is the difference? I see absolutely no difference”). He has long called for it to be replaced by a non-religious nation that gives equal rights to the Palestinians. “The fact that there exists American support or British support should in no way obscure the extent and the magnitude of Israeli war crimes. It should be de-legitimised and that is why I am doing this tour”.