FreeArabs.com supports democracy, freedom and secularism but some people don't want the site to exist. Picture: FreeArabs.com Source: Supplied
A GROUP of activists, journalists and free thinkers has launched a new website promoting democracy and freedom of speech in the Arab world, which has been met with controversy from both Westerners and Arabs.
FreeArabs.com is meant to be the next extension of the revolutionary wave Arab Spring where corruption and "authoritarianism" are exposed and "the full spectrums of democracy and secularism are reclaimed".
But despite this, some people do not want the site to exist.
FreeArab's editor and co-founder Ahmed Benchemsi told news.com.au that he and his band of writers are using journalism and satire to show that the values of democracy are universal and fit for all people, including Arabs.
"The unsaid consensus in the Arab world is that 'liberal democracy' (including individual freedoms) is fit for the Western world, not for the Arab world; because of our cultural heritage we are simply not fit for freedom of thought, freedom of speech," he said.
"This is an essentialist vision that we strongly oppose. Arabs are entitled too to full human rights, including individual freedoms, full gender equality, freedom of conscience, etc. And this will be achieved, we believe, through secularism. Meaning: separation of religion and State."
Benchemsi said that since the Arab Spring, organised Islamists have stepped in to quash debate and stifle freedom of expression, but FreeArabs.com doesn't have a postcode or a state or even a country. Its contributors come from all over the world, so it makes it more difficult to stop ideas from spreading.
Still, one of the site's contributors, Josh Shahryar told News.com.au that he received emails, phone calls and messages on social networks from people urging him to disassociate himself from the site.
"The answer is no," he tweeted defiantly yesterday.
Even some of Shahryar's friends do not want him writing for FreeArabs.com.
"I was a bit taken aback…" he told news.com.au. "I think writing about Islam, especially attempting to challenge prevailing conservative ideas perpetuated by fundamentalists is sure to provoke outrage. It's the amount of outrage and goal of the outrage.
Much of it wasn't addressed as, "They should fix A, B, C." It was more of a, 'You should get out because this place needs to be shut down'."
Source: Supplied
Shahryar had been writing about issues such as how to challenge the patriarchy, defending homosexual rights, religious freedoms and free speech but he said much of the debate was not centred around how the site should be fixed but why it should even exist in the first place, he said.
The journalist who has written for publications like Al Jazeera and the Huffington Post said he can't help but think some of the outrage is thinly veiled prejudice.
"I sense that to gain legitimacy, some want to see FreeArabs be backed by a major think tank or foundation run primarily by white Americans or Europeans. So yes, I do see some veiled prejudice, perhaps bordering on racism here," he said.
He tweeted yesterday: " It's surprising/embarrassing that the very people who claim to be fighting for free speech are after my use of that freedom."
"Deal with the fact that I'll be writing for FreeArabs. I will associate myself with it. I'm proud of our work. And I won't back down," he added.
It's not all bad, though. Mr Shahryar said he also received a lot of messages of support.
"I think besides the ludicrous drivel by trolls, I have seen all sorts of opinions from positive, to negative, to cautiously optimistic to lethargically pessimistic to tepid endorsements and polite rejections," he said. "However, I think the general feeling is that it's good to have a new voice added to the debate and that FreeArabs will need time to prove itself. "
Source: Supplied
For a task the size of what FreeArabs is trying to achieve, Mr Benchemsi told news.com.au that he expected the attacks.
"We are basically challenging the paradigm that Arabs are essentially defined by their cultural and religious heritage, and that there is no way out of the values conveyed by this heritage (or rather, the way it is interpreted by the dominant political forces)," he said.
"For some people, changing paradigm is a very painful thing to endure and they will do whatever they can to not allow that to happen. This is normal, in the course of things."
He also says that the attacks are good publicity and a sign that what he and his band of writers are doing is working.
"It also indicates that we are asking the good questions and do not leave people indifferent," he said. "Thirty-six hours after the launch of the website, and with zero promotional budget, we were hitting the bar of 25,000 page views."
Some of the criticism has been valid, he acknowledged. For example some people have taken umbrage with the fact the site is predominantly published in English.
"The criticism about the site being in English rather than Arabic is a very valid criticism," he said. "We didn't choose to do it in English because of any kind of ideological or political stand, not at all.
English was simply the working language of most of our team of contributors (which by the way, doesn’t make us less Arabs), so we decided to start with it, that’s all."
Source: Supplied
"There is some Arabic content on the site, and more and more Arabic content will be featured on FreeArabs as the site grows and we recruit more contributors."
Eventually Mr Benchemsi said he would like to launch two versions of the same site, one completely in English and another in Arabic.
He even has plans to launch another site in French later down the line.
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