Bern, 17.11.2011

(HS) “Well done Hannah that looks lovely!” Smack. Shocked and taken aback, I wondered where that overpowering force had come from leaving an imprint on my right cheek. Daniel. He was sat behind me on the carpet of “Red Room” our tiny, little sanctuary otherwise known as my primary school classroom. I’d used the same colour paints as he had and painted what appeared to be more of an apple, like the teacher had told us to, rather than last night’s dinner regurgitated the next morning in the bathroom: cue Daniel’s picture.

Primitive Daniel, full of jealousy, couldn’t wait to show his admiration for my work of art.  Green with envy, Daniel was hauled to the headmaster’s office, signalling an end to our two year friendship and his art career.

Memories of Daniel came flooding back when I sighted a copy of November 15^th’s copy of Le Matin reporting of a recent visit by ICCS President Nicholas Blancho to Tunis to meet with Ennahda leader Rachid Ghannouchi entitled as “Nicolas Blancho joue à l’ambassadeur en Tunisie” (“Nicolas Blancho plays the ambassador to Tunisia”).

The title of course says it all. Worse yet, to be accused of being egoistic, followed by layman comments that the ICCS is possibly thinking about a copy-cat scenario of the Tunisian revolution in Switzerland, is simply laughable and quite frankly ignorant. Asides from obvious sensationalism or lack of effort into getting ground-breaking stories, the question arises as to why has Mr. Pomey of Le Matin, who quite obviously agrees that the meeting was made to appear bigger than it was, come across so blatantly envious and, in fact, having added to the so-called “inflation” by featuring the story, missed the more profound significance of what the meeting actually stood for?

It was Socrates who once said, “The only good is knowledge and the only evil is ignorance.” The Arab Springs will have many implications for relations across the world. From a small  band of government and army defectors in Libya who rose to become a Transitional Council, this has in turn had a knock on effect in Syria where the Free Syrian Army are now picking up ground in their fight to topple the corrupt and brutal regime of Assad. But it’s not simply a case of guns equal freedom. Participants in these revolutionary Arab Springs and Transitional Councils also come with interesting ideological bases. Their thoughts have often answered quite timely questions regarding the legal rulings and social implications of Muslims and their participation in secularist governments. It might bode well in the future for the likes of Mr. Pomey to contemplate more on such engagements, which work towards gaining knowledge on the benefits of integration and cooperation of Muslims in the West as opposed to a mere photo opportunity to inflate egos.