The Foreign Service Journal, October 2021

THE FOREIGN SERVICE JOURNAL | OCTOBER 2021 15 captured on Sept. 11, 1931, and then hanged several days later. In his biopic of Omar al-Mukhtar, “Lion of the Desert,” Akkad showed that fighting foreign occu- pation does not mean resorting to wholesale violence, that one can fight nobly. Even his Ital- ian adversaries would acknowledge that Omar el-Mukhtar had fought honorably. Algeria’s Abd el-Kader Arguably, the freedom fighter we can best cite as an example to Muslims is another North African: Algerian national hero Emir Abd el-Kader el-Jezairi, who opposed the French colonization of his country for 15 years (1832-1847) before surrendering, and being imprisoned in France and subsequently exiled to Tur- key and Syria. In biographer John Kiser’s estimation, Emir Abd el-Kader exhibited “true jihad” by fighting the French without resorting to fanaticism and terrorism ( Commander of the Faithful: The Life and Times of Emir Abd el-Kader , Monkfish Book Publishing, LETTERS-PLUS I am writing in response to your September focus with some thoughts on terrorism and Islam. Terrorism doesn’t differentiate. Everyone is a target. The Nov. 9, 2005, hotel bombings in Amman were indis- criminate terror attacks that followed the horrors of 9/11. Ironically, among the innocent victims was famed Arab Ameri- can movie director Moustapha al-Akkad, who was in the process of producing a film on Saladin, the 12th-century leader of the Muslimmilitary campaign against the Crusader states in the Levant. Akkad proposed Saladin as a model for young Middle Easterners, specifi- cally Muslims, to emulate when resist- ing oppression and injustice, rather than Osama bin Laden or Abu Mus’ab al-Zarqawi—the suspected mastermind of the bombing that killed Akkad and his daughter Rima. Renowned for his eight “Halloween” movies, Akkad sought to make American moviegoers aware of the many heroic figures among Muslims who fought high- mindedly for freedom and justice. One such hero, Omar al-Mukhtar, valiantly resisted the Italian fascist takeover of Libya for nearly 20 years before being Emir Abd el-Kader and Exemplary Muslim Fighters for Justice BY GEORGE ALDRIDGE RESPONSE TO SEPTEMBER FOCUS “9/11, TWENTY YEARS LATER” 2008). The emir epito- mizes the noble Muslim warrior-philosopher who is true to the virtues of his faith while respecting the religious convictions and beliefs of others. In the words of Jordan’s Prince Hassan: “Abd el-Kader’s jihad provides Muslims with a much- needed antidote to the toxic false jihads of today dominated by anger, violence and politics.” The emir’s displays of conscience, courage, chivalry and compassion toward his French adversaries won him acclaim, even in the United States. In our country, there are numerous cities and towns named after places in the Middle East (Palestine and Tunis, Texas; Bethlehem and Nazareth, Pennsylvania; Carthage, Tennessee; Carmel, California; Damas- cus and Bethesda, Maryland; and 47 towns named Lebanon!), but there is only one locality named after a person from the Middle East: Elkader, Iowa. The founders of this small town in northeast Iowa on the Turkey River, Timothy Davis, JohnThompson and Chester Sage, named their community Elkader in 1848 after learning about the exploits of Emir Abd el-Kader in oppos- ing the French. They simply admired him. Today, Elkader is home to the Abd el-Kader Education Project and fittingly hosts an annual conference on religious tolerance and coexistence. Among his nine overseas assignments as an FSO, George Aldridge served in four Muslim-majority countries (Morocco, Tunisia, Sudan and Lebanon) and in two countries with significant Muslim populations (Ethiopia and Kenya). Before Muslim and Arab audiences, he often sought to allay misconceptions of American society, especially in the aftermath of 9/11, by citing the contributions of Arab Americans such as Dr. Michael DeBakey, Ralph Nader, Helen Thomas, Danny Thomas and Philip Habib to America.