I think that Arab progressives must ,all of them,  have to first define their attitude towards Africa and the African people given the historical racism and colonialism the Arabs  have practised  against the African people over the centuries . They were the first enslavers of the African people before the West succeeded them as enslavers.  They cannot be living in the African continent, and while fighting for their own  emancipation, which I fully support,( and here I refer to the Arab masses not the rulers) they must condemn  their racism and colonialism towards Africa and the African peoples. It is still going on. That for me is a touchstone. Samir Amin writes exhaustively about capitalism and imperialism but I have yet to read from him a condemnation of Arab racism. He has condemned Islamic fundamentalism as a tool of imperialism. He has the authority to lead the charge against Arab racism and colonialism towards the African people. Some Arab rulers wanted to Islamize the whole of Africa.

 I had great admiration for Ben bella when he led the Algerian Revolution. When he was put into prison and came out he embraced Islam. I am not against that but for me it marked a derogation of his politics. I think that the whole Islamic religion has politically disoriented the Muslim world, many of their rulers are actually the fullest  collaborators with imperialism in the name of Islam –Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states amongst them. Their attacks on Africans in Libya, racism against Africans in Lebanon reported in the Guardian two weeks ago, massacres I Darfur, the whole North Sudan situation - its sickening racism and colonialism. I have not read anything by Ben Bella condemning this. Not even by Gaddafi. There is a violent destructive element in Islam from its origins. It was spread by the sword. While Islam as a religion did give rise to a great islamic civilisation there is this dark side to it, as with Christianity and now Zionism (Judaism).This fundamental Islam is a danger to its own people. Fortunately  Islamic scholars have spoken out against this fundamentalism.

Unfortunately our own African rulers and leaders are too afraid or  timid to confront this racist reality of the Arabs. But it will come in time and we must bring it to the fore. We must call upon the Arab progressives to speak o out against this. They  must take the lead. Here in S.A. the Muslims support the Palestinian struggle but they don't condemn what is happening in Darfur.

Our era now is one in which the whole world is in turmoil. It will last until the end of the century. If we are going to put things right we must condemn what is happening in our own backyard. I can see both  the good and bad side of things, and political positions, but the bad must be condemned. Islamic fundamentalism is a great danger to Africa and the current events in Mali, Somalis and Nigeria bear this out  bear this out. Arab racism against Africans runs as deep as white racism against Africans. Its almost as if it is written in their DNA. We can regard them as fellow fighters of the South countries against Western imperialism but we cannot let them get away with the brutal atrocities they commit against African people. They destroyed the largest  statue of Budda in Afghanistan. Now they are destroying the great monuments in Timbuktu. They are worse than fascists. They are barbarians.