Goodbye Ahmed who?

A few days ago, on March 28, Ahmed Kathrada, the great political and human rights activist, passed away. 

For those among us who have not read the obituaries, Kathrada was active in the passive resistance movement against apartheid in South Africa from the age of 12. 

He received a number of jail sentences, the last of which was a life sentence in 1964. He was sent to serve his sentence along with Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Andrew Mlangeni, Billy Nair, Elias Motsoaledi, Raymond Mhlaba and Denis Goldberg on the famous Robben Island.

After his release 18 years later, he wanted Robben Island to be remembered not as “a monument of our hardship and suffering… [but as a] triumph of the human spirit against the forces of evil; a triumph of wisdom and largeness of spirit against small minds and pettiness; a triumph of courage and determination over human frailty and weakness”.

His belief that: “Hatred, revenge, bitterness… are negative emotions [and] the person harbouring those emotions suffers more” is particularly relevant to us in the Middle East. 

But let us be honest, how many of us in Jordan knew about Ahmed Kathrada? 

Do we teach about people like Kathrada in our schools? Do we name streets after them? Do we encourage our children to seek inspiration from contemporary heroes and to model themselves after people like Kathrada?

Sadly the answer is no.

We are careful to highlight the glorious distant past of the Arabs, which, in all fairness, is a good thing. But we also need to open our minds to the fact that good things have happened in the 1,400 years since the Da’wa.

There are many contemporary people who can teach us a great deal with their humanity. A personal favourite of mine is Jonas Salk who led the medical research team that discovered the polio vaccine, changing polio from a deadly epidemic to a disease which is nearly extinct.

Salk refused to patent the vaccine, insisting that medicine should be free, like the air we breathe, not exclusively for the rich.

Many of these inspiring role models who merit recognition are also Muslims.

A notable example is Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim to become mayor of a major Western capital. Elected mayor of London in 2016, he attracted venom and death threats from the far right, who describe him as an “occupier”, and from extremist Muslims, who have already passed a fatwa against him.

This did not stop him during Ramadan, while observing the fast, from organising iftars at synagogues, churches and mosques, to use the holy month to break down the mystique and suspicion surrounding Islam in Britain and to help build bridges between communities.

Then, in celebration of Eid, he endorsed religious freedom and lambasted “criminals who do bad things and use the name of Islam to justify what they do”.

This also the Message of Amman; so why not make common cause with good people who think like us?