Walid al-Kubaisi explained

Walid al-Kubaisi
Birth Date:9 February 1958
Nationality:Norwegian
Awards:Fritt Ord Honorary Award
Skjervheim Award
Notable Works:Freedom, Equality and the Muslim Brotherhood

Walid al-Kubaisi (9 February 1958 – 31 July 2018) was a Norwegian-Iraqi author, writer, journalist, translator, social commentator and government scholar. He notably criticised the alleged influence of the Muslim Brotherhood in Europe in the documentary film Freedom, Equality and the Muslim Brotherhood in 2010.

Personal life and career

Al-Kubaisi was born in Baghdad, Iraq, and received a bachelor's degree in electronic engineering at the University of Baghdad. He fled Iraq as a political refugee in 1981 owing to war,[1] first to Syria and Lebanon, before he arrived in Norway in 1986[2] and gained Norwegian citizenship.[3] He had by then been imprisoned in Syria, and been attempted to be recruited for a suicide attack as a soldier in the Palestinian resistance,[4] while working as a journalist for newspapers controlled by the PLO.[5] While stating that he came from a Sufi tradition,[2] he regarded himself as an "apostate" shortly after his arrival in Norway, and was later on the record as an "atheist", but also a "secular Muslim".

In Norway, he was nominated to the Brage Prize for his debut book Min tro, din myte. Islam møter norsk hverdag in 1996, and won the Skjervheim Award in 2003 for his "fearless" cultural work.[6] He was known for his active participation as an intellectual in the Norwegian public debate about immigration and integration, and for his criticism of Islam, which sparked controversy.[7] [8] [9] While living in Arendal in the early 1990s, he was violently attacked twice after having a fatwa declared against him in 1993; he thereafter moved to Oslo.[8] [9] [10] He was appointed a government scholar in 2007, and received the Fritt Ord Honorary Award in 2016 for his "insightful contributions to the Norwegian public for two decades".[11]

Al-Kubaisi's literature included novels, nonfiction, essay collections and children's books.[12] In addition to writing books himself, he translated selected Norwegian literature by Erling Kittelsen, Håvard Rem, Jan Olav Brynjulfsen, Kirsti Blom, Camilla Juel Eide, Arnljot Eggen, Ingvar Ambjørnsen, Kjell Askildsen and Dag Solstad to Arabic.[13] He also translated Arabic poetry to Norwegian, including poems by Muhammad al-Maghut,[14] Muniam Alfaker,[15] Faisal Hashmi,[16] and Eftikhar Ismaeil.[17]

He worked as a journalist for the weekly newspaper Dag og Tid for the last fifteen years of his life. Like the written form used by the newspaper, he was very fond of the written standard Nynorsk.[2] He was also known for writing poetry,[18] [19] and from 2011 published his own anti-Islamist blog with support from Fritt Ord.[20] He was a board member of Ex-Muslims of Norway from 2016.[21]

In 2010, he wrote the script for and narrated the documentary film Freedom, Equality and the Muslim Brotherhood.[22] [23] He wrote the book Blekk og blod: ei familiekrønike fra Midtausten og Noreg, a part autobiography, in 2016.[24] He was working on a second film, about Norwegian values and identity at the time of his death.[2]

Al-Kubaisi died in 2018 of cancer.[2] [7] [11] [25]

Views on political Islam

Al-Kubaisi for a long time warned against political Islam in Europe.[26] He argued that the hijab was a political uniform for the militant Islamist movement, and maintained, that if Islamists were to be successful in making the hijab synonymous with Islam, they would have achieved a victory in the West which they had not been able to accomplish in Muslim countries. He also claimed that the hijab was only created in the 1980s after Ayatollah Khomeini's Islamic Revolution, and that it, unlike traditional national Islamic dresses, is a dress exclusively created for the universal political Islamist movement.[27]

He claimed that Tariq Ramadan was an Islamist, who "spoke with two tongues": smoothly and articulate in the West, yet purely Islamist in the Muslim community and the suburbs. He held that Ramadan sought to Islamise the West, but in a more patient manner than the likes of Osama bin Laden.[28]

He believed that the Muslim Brotherhood was the "mother organization" for the world's Islamist political ideology. He said that the Muslim Brotherhood has a plan to conquer Europe by the hijab, high birth rates and democracy; Islamists were exploiting Western democracy to reach their own anti-democratic goals.[27] His 2010 documentary Freedom, Equality and the Muslim Brotherhood discussed this, in which he also interviewed several Arab intellectuals who espoused his views.[29] He also claimed that notable Norwegian Muslims such as Mohammad Usman Rana, Lena Larsen and Basim Ghozlan represented the ideology of the Brotherhood in Norway, and that Abid Raja of the Norwegian Liberal Party was a "running boy" for Islamists.[30]

He has been described by social anthropologist Sindre Bangstad and Mohammad Usman Rana as a "propagator of Eurabia-views", and that his documentary echoed "Eurabia-literature".[31] [32] His documentary also proved very popular on counter-jihad websites.[33] In February 2011, al-Kubaisi participated in a meeting hosted by Stop Islamisation of Norway where he held a speech,[34] after having established contacts with the organisation since 2004.[35]

Works

Bibliography

Documentary film

Further reading

Notes and References

  1. News: Walid al-Kubaisi. Morgenbladet. 3 December 2010. no. 17 July 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110717135156/http://www.morgenbladet.no/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101203/OKULTUR/712039957/0/KULTUR. dead.
  2. News: Forfattar, målmann og samfunnsdebatant Walid al-Kubaisi er død. 2 August 2018. Dag og Tid. Framtida. no. https://web.archive.org/web/20240225121439/https://framtida.no/2018/08/02/dag-og-tid-skribent-walid-al-kubaisi-er-dod. 25 February 2024. live.
  3. News: Våger ikke å juble. Klassekampen. Tarjei. Leer-Salvesen. 12 April 2003. no. https://web.archive.org/web/20110929232128/http://www.klassekampen.no/25834/article/item/null. 29 September 2011.
  4. News: En tid for alt. Line Madsen. Simenstad. Klassekampen. 20 August 2016. no. subscription.
  5. News: En fabel fra Bagdad. Aftenposten. 24 October 1998. 39.
  6. News: Al-Kubaisi fikk skjervheimprisen. Utrop. 18 September 2003. no.
  7. News: En gjennomført tenker. Torbjørn Tumyr. Nilsen. Klassekampen. 2 August 2018. no. https://web.archive.org/web/20180802002836/http://www.klassekampen.no/article/20180802/ARTICLE/180809994. 2 August 2018.
  8. Book: Ytrehus, Line Alice. 2004. Intellektuelle i eksil: integrering og ekskludering i et livsverdenperspektiv. 8249702166. University of Bergen. 159–165. no.
  9. News: En stemme fra to kulturer. Gitte. Johannessen. 30 March 1996. Framtid i Nord. 14–15. no.
  10. News: – Redd, ikke feig. Kristin. Haug. Klassekampen. 12 November 2004. no.
  11. News: Den norsk-irakiske forfatteren og journalisten Walid al-Kubaisi er død. Journalisten. NTB. 31 July 2018. no.
  12. News: Walid al-Kubaisi døydde tysdag. Den norske Forfatterforening. 1 August 2018. no.
  13. Web site: Walid al-Kubaisi: forfatter/jornalist/skribent. https://web.archive.org/web/20140725201919/http://www.volapuk.no/litt/Al_Kubaisi_W/AlKubaisi_W.html. Volapük litteratur- og kulturforum. 25 July 2014. 26 February 2024. no.
  14. Web site: Gleden er ikke mitt yrke. Deichman. 3 May 2024. no.
  15. News: Tankevers i sufiens spor. Bettina A.. Sagedahl. Vinduet. 13 May 2002. no.
  16. News: Pakistansk drosjesjåfør internasjonalt kjent poet. Majoran . Vivekananthan. 13 November 2008. Utrop. no.
  17. Web site: De første dråper. https://web.archive.org/web/20120314051228/http://ask.bibsys.no/ask/action/show?pid=101767366&kid=biblio . 14 March 2012. BIBSYS. no.
  18. News: Diktet: Walid al-Kubaisi. Ronny. Spaans. Dag og Tid. 6 January 2023. no.
  19. News: 26 June 2003. «Vorspiel» med poesi. Tvedestrandsposten. 9. no.
  20. News: Blogger mot islamister. Uzma. Rana. Utrop. 17 March 2011. no.
  21. Web site: Presentasjon av Ex-Muslims of Norway (EX-MN). 17 November 2016. Litteraturhuset. no. https://web.archive.org/web/20230902142040/https://litteraturhuset.no/arkiv/presentasjon-av-ex-muslims-of-norway-ex-mn/. 2 September 2023.
  22. Web site: Walid al-Kubaisi. Store norske leksikon. 3 March 2013. no.
  23. News: Kommentardokumentaren. Stian. Bromark. Dagsavisen. 29 November 2010. no.
  24. News: Dannelsesreise på liv og død. Ola. Hegdal. NRK. 5 December 2016. no.
  25. News: Walid al-Kubaisi (60) er død . Hans O.. Torgersen. Aftenposten. 31 July 2018. no.
  26. News: - Norge har ingen erfaring med integrering . Nettavisen. Trond. Lepperød. 18 June 2016. no.
  27. News: Den sanne historien om slør og skaut i islam. Aftenposten. Walid. al-Kubaisi. no. 3 February 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20100304133105/https://www.aftenposten.no/meninger/kronikker/article722052.ece. 4 March 2010.
  28. News: - Ikke glem de sekulære. Klassekampen. Åse. Brandvold. no. 12 February 2010. https://web.archive.org/web/20100413072758/http://www.klassekampen.no/57085/article/item/null. 13 April 2010.
  29. News: Muslimleder: – Vi vil danne en samlet islamsk stat. TV 2. Kjell. Persen. 28 November 2010. no. https://web.archive.org/web/20131211120431/http://www.tv2.no/nyheter/utenriks/muslimleder-vi-vil-danne-en-samlet-islamsk-stat-3349772.html. 11 December 2013.
  30. News: Vil spre "sunn frykt". Morgenbladet. 19 December 2010. no. Anders Breivik. Bisgaard. 3 December 2010. 17 July 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20110717135238/http://www.morgenbladet.no/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20101203/OKULTUR/712039959. dead.
  31. News: Norway: terror and Islamophobia in the mirror. 22 August 2011. opendemocracy. Sindre. Bangstad.
  32. News: Norges Eurabia-ideolog. 2 September 2011. Mohammad Usman. Rana. Morgenbladet. no.
  33. Book: Bangstad, Sindre. Anders Breivik and the Rise of Islamophobia. 155–159. Zed. 2014. 9781783600106.
  34. News: Olsen . Asbjørn . 28 February 2011 . PST frykter ekstrem anti-islamisme . no . TV 2 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110302085547/http://www.tv2nyhetene.no/pst-frykter-ekstrem-antiislamisme-3429763.html. 2 March 2011.
  35. Eurabia Comes to Norway. 15. Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations. July 2013. 10.1080/09596410.2013.783969. Sindre. Bangstad. 24 . 3 . 145132618.

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