Fadi Dabboussi
By Francis Kwarteng
“The poisonous Western propaganda has turned almost every head around in much the same way as the fictional movies of cloned people who submit to a single leader’s commands. In fact sinister plots and ominous ploys against minorities, Islam and coloured folks, are rife in Hollywood movies, yet we do not see the significance in the traces that are left in our minds…
“If anyone has ever practised syncretism, it is the neo-Christians of the USA who have mixed the doctrines of Judaism with that of Christianity to create a concoction of malice. Their general belief is that with the vanquishing of Islam, the second coming of Christ would be nigh” (Fadi Dabbousi)
Fadi Samih Dabbousi and the politico-moral sins of his vulgar pen
Fadi Dabbousi’s controversial vulgar pen threw up these apocalyptic indictments of the West and its War on Terror in the secular face of the Republic of Ghana.
That Dabbousi’s living obituary of selective indictment, of all things, bespeaks his own politics of secular terrorism which, in other words, takes after the Charlie Hebdo satirical piece that, among other things, led to the eventful terrorist massacre of persons associated with the magazine.
His politics of secular terrorism is appropriately descriptive of what he has rather indirectly also called “a concoction of malice.”
In fact, this “a concoction of malice” may have contributed to his being detained by the National Bureau of Investigations (BNI).
And this ironic phrase “a concoction of malice,” supposedly has, or rather should have, something to do with press freedom and freedom of speech, both of which Dabbousi disingenuously appeared to have denied the folks at Charlie Hebdo in the said article of his, “I Am Not Charlie and I Am A Proud Muslim.”
This position of ours does not, however, imply any intentions on our part to endorse the lampooning or satirizing of religious figures.
The question gets complicated somewhat when Dabbousi cries wolf because, from the standpoint of his deluded and opinionated perspective press freedom and freedom of speech are exclusively his to have but not for the folks who lost their lives at the Charlie Hebdo when they exercised theirs.
In other words “what is good for the goose is bad for the gander,” a radical point of departure from any sense of journalistic equity and fairness, apparently a laughable feature of troubling contradistinction evocative of Dabbousi’s subtle denial of press freedom and freedom of speech to the Charlie Hebdo folks and his egoistical disapproval of the tactics of the BNI.
His unique brand of journalistic sophistry says it all as his extremely partisan political pen ignores the basic tenets of journalistic ethics in the matter of due diligence, and here, we are talking about the question of rigorously verifying or cross-checking one’s sources. It is as basic as that.
Yet his malicious agitprop publications, one of which reportedly got him trapped in the BNI’s tightening loop, make him an ideal candidate for the nominal line “I Am Charlie.”
The frightening prospect of anyone, principally Dabbousi, bringing his or her sagging baggage of ideological conflicts between the Christian West on the one hand and on the other hand, Islam and Arabs and Muslims, if you may, to the intra-duopolistic ideological fissure between the National Democratic Congress (NDC) and the New Patriotic Party (NPP) is dangerous for our politics.
This idea of transplanting a foreign geopolitical conflict from without to Ghanaian politics is not quite a good concept at all, given that it has potential negative implications for inter-faith amity in the country.
In fact, such ideological grafts should be resisted at every front by all peace-loving people from the angle of the unitary status of our body politic, founded by the visionary Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah.
It is the same problem we identify with Akufo-Addo’s divisive rhetoric “Yen Akanfuo” and with other irresponsible ethnocentric statements by Kennedy Agyapong, Mr. Yaw Osafo Marfo, Ursula Owusu-Ekuful, etc. Not one to be outdone, the outspoken Dabbousi would also write elsewhere:
“Contrary to the label of terrorism tagging Muslims, Islam means peace…”
Yes, the opposition NPP which Akufo-Addo currently heads also means peace, the same as his genocidal phrase “All-Die-Be-Die.”
Even so we are not certain why Akua Donkor said Akufo-Addo was more dangerous than the Gitmo 2. This perception of Akufo-Addo may partly have stemmed from his violent rhetoric “All-Die-Be-Die,” his divisive phrase “Yen Akanfuo” and finally, his tacit or underhanded support for violent ethnocentric elements within his ethnocentric party.
Also, the secret importation of Serbian and South African mercenaries into the country against the national security laws, by the NPP under the leadership of Akufo-Addo may have also contributed to the perception of him as a dangerous and subversive character.
Interestingly, the phrase “All-Die-Be-Die” is not a new concept to Islamic terrorists. It will not come as a surprise to us if Dabbousi is a member of Akufo-Addo’s inner circle responsible for religious affairs, specifically Islam and Muslims. After all, he deserves profuse praise for his yeoman’s efforts on behalf of Akufo-Addo and the opposition NPP.
Beyond all these paralyzing sentiments, Dabbousi recounted a funeral service he attended during which the presiding pastor ranted and raved against non-Christian religions. He wrote to that effect:
“I do not know if the priest administering the service was high on drugs or totally drunk but his offensive sermon was quite unacceptable, especially where he ranted about the need to be consumed by the belief in Jesus Christ otherwise all would go to hell continuing to say, ‘All other religions are bogus.’”
All religions including Islam have presents this apologetic indictment of other religions outside their own, which is that “All other religions are bogus,” a generalization to which Dabbousi took strong exception.
Yet, in the said article Dabbousi tried but failed woefully to present a formidable if sophisticated apologetics for Islamic exceptionalism.
Notwithstanding, to the likes of Akufo-Addo, Kennedy Agyapong, and Yaw Osei-Marfo however, “All other ethnic groups besides Akans are bogus” and that only Akans are the providentially appointed rightful imperial overlords of these bogus ethnic groups.
Thus, the backgrounds of Dabbousi and Akufo-Addo have a lot in common. Dabbousi’s religious exceptionalism translates to Akufo-Addo’s ethnic and political exceptionalism.
The violent background of Dabbousi’s Lebanon reflects the background of violent terrorism and subversive environment Akufo-Addo’s close relative, C.I.A. asset or agent J.B. Danquah and his colleagues created in pre- and post-independent, otherwise referred to here as the Gold Coast and Ghana respectively.
In fact, talk of Islamic terrorism brings back tragic memories of the political terrorism of Danquah.
Perhaps, in more ways than one the martial and violent rhetoric of the opposition NPP offers a nostalgic reminder of the violent and subversive activities of Danquah and his colleagues.
Dabbousi’s Lebanon as one of the world’s major hotspots of political and social instability and of terrorism is not in question, which is not to say he is a potential terrorist or to imply he is a terrorist although his defense of the perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo terrorism may give the impression that he is sympathetic to Islamic terrorism, namely a closet sympathizer of jihadists.
A defender of a cause is not the same as being a perpetrator of that cause, much like saying correlation does not imply causation.
Clearly, Dabbousi’s agitational propaganda does not augur well for the corporate stability of our body politic.
This is primarily because the corpus of his agitprop writings reinforces bad, uncritical journalism which is mostly emotional and divisive.
In another context, the invidious subtexts of some of his feature or opinion pieces are just as provocatively repulsive as the questionable circumstances which culminated in the unfortunate deaths of the folks at Charlie Hebdo.
Regrettably, the state of journalism in the country is on a steep declension. Some of Dabbousi’s write-ups, of course underscore this major concern of ours.
Though he writes exceptionally well with artistic finesse and astonishing clarity, actually doing so is not necessarily a translatable substitute for forensic factual approximation as he does not appear to come across as a competent investigative journalist who takes great pride in due diligence in the general context of fact-finding engagements.
This critique is not unlike our critique of those Charlie Hebdo satirists who drew a caricature of Prophet Muhammad without a forensic photographic prototype of his physical image.
For instance, Iranian filmmaker and screenwriter Majid Majidi’s epic film “Muhammad: The Messenger of God,” the first in the trilogy on the prophet parts of which were shot on location in South Africa, does not show the prophet’s face. Yet the film and its director came under fierce criticism from mostly Sunnis, reigniting the tensions between the Saudis and the Iranians.
A fatwa has even been issued against Majid Majidi. This is what the religious decree says in part:
“In the fatwa, they cite as the reason the Prophet’s word that no visual or picture of him be created or kept. The fatwa claims the film makes a mockery of Islam, and professional actors, including non-Muslims, have been cast in the key roles.
“The fatwa adds that the Muslims working on the film, especially Majidi and Rahman, have thus committed sacrilege and will have to read the kalma again and also solemnize their marriage again. Despite repeated attempts, Rahman remained unavailable for comment.”
Allah-Rakha Rahman (born A.S. Dileep Kumar) was the award-winning composer who wrote the film score for the controversial movie. Dabbousi’s article did not foresee these intra-faith conflicts within his religion.
Even an essential segment of his views on slavery lacks the corrective oversight of historicity, in that that segment is not rooted in the ascertainable facts of both oral and recorded history, perhaps a gloss meant to tip the scales against Christianity while covering up the historical sins of Islam.
Some readers took him up on this, bringing his attention to the fact that both religions and their purveyors were and are morally culpable insofar as the institution of slavery in Africa goes.
These discerning readers were able to read through his astonishing journalistic clarity and political and Islamophilic apologetics, teasing out his intellectual lapses and sloganeering bullying in a way that would easily have bypassed the uncritical reader.
Still, that astonishing clarity can also be a stash of fictive revisionism and outright lies.
In other words clarity becomes a political and ideological metaphor for fictive grandstanding, typical of an agitprop tabloid writer such as Fadi Samih Dabbousi.
Also, granted that our part of the world is mostly an aliterate public, uncritical minds are more than likely to find themselves trapped in the dazzling forestry of Dabbousi’s non-academic or non-intellectual journalism, in spite of the appealing thrust of his formulaic journalistic clarity.
As a matter of fact he seems to address or tailor his brand of yellow journalism to that segment of uncritical, sycophantic outlier in the Ghanaian body politic, mostly made up of vultures and hacks of extreme partisan politics.
It is possible agitational propagandists such as Dabbousi may have been promised a mouth-watering share of the loot should his behind his efforts win political power.
That crushing narrowness of thematic and analytic focus on topical issues makes for poor and un-educative, un-didactic journalism.
Critical topical issues are not looked at from a dialectical perspective of the national interest, comparative advantage, regional or continental geopolitics, development sociology and so on, but rather largely from the disabling standpoint of political ethnocentrism, party politics, egos, schadenfreude partisan politics and the raw drive to rape or plunder the national coffers dry.
The other undeniable fact is that readers, journalism students and professors do not appear to approach journalism with the critical focus of a scientific mind.
Party politics does not make the situation any better. For instance, a once-respected paper such as the Daily Graphic now panders to tabloid scoops bordering on schadenfreude political buffoonery.
Of all things, Dabbousi’s vulgar pen and its trademark journalistic emotional incontinence do appear to be none other the schizophrenic tabloid tongue of Kennedy Agyapong.
“The True Statesman” paper reportedly attributed the following genocidal comments to Kennedy Agyapong:
“Today I declare war in this country, Gbevlo-Lartey and his people, IGP should know this. Voltarians in the Ashanti Region will not be spared. If anyone touches you, butcher him with a cutlass…
“‘He issued similar threat at the NPP regional rally at Mantse Agbonna in Accra earlier this year. At the said rally, he categorically declared war on the police insisting that the security agencies will be lynched if they dare prevent the NPP from carrying out their all-die-be-die attack on lawful citizens…’”
Akufo-Addo once respectfully referred to this incendiary bigot as “the redoubtable Kennedy Agyapong”!
We shall return with Part 2.
Reference
Fadi Dabbousi. “I Am Not Charlie and I Am a Proud Muslim.” Ghanaweb. March 12, 2015.
Express News Service. “Fatwa against A R Rahman and Iranian filmmaker Majid Majidi for film on Prophet.” September 11, 2015. Retrieved from http://indianexpress.com/article/entertainment/entertainment-others/fatwa-against-a-r-rahman-majid-majidi-for-film-on-prophet/
The True Statesman. “Kill All Ewes in The Ashanti Region—Kennedy Agyapong.” April 16, 2012. Retrieved from http://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/Kill-All-Ewes-in-The-Ashanti-Region-Kennedy-Agyapong-236095
Ghanaweb. “Akufo-Addo More Dangerous Than Gitmo 2—Akua Donkor.” January 15, 2015.
Ghanaweb. “Fadi Dabbousi’s Write-ups on Mahama Hugely Offensive—Kweku Baako.” October 1, 2016.
Ghanaweb. “Nana Begs Kennedy Agyapong To ‘Shut Up.’” September 10, 2016.
“Akufo-Addo’s Regret of All-Die-Be-Die Comment ‘Hopeful’ for His Political Career.” April 20, 2015. Starrfmonline.com
Ghanaweb. “My Articles about Mahama Were Without Malice—Daboussi.” October 2, 2016.
Katakyie Kwame Opoku Agyemang. “Call Hon. Ken. Agyapong To Order; He's Our Bane To Victory.” Ghanaweb. September 14, 201.
Ghanaweb. “Who Is A Comedian Than You—Agya Koo Fires Akua Donkor.” October 4, 2016.
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