How to cure a fanatic

“Internationally acclaimed novelist Amos Oz grew up in war-torn Jerusalem, where as a boy he witnessed first-hand the poisonous consequences of fanaticism. In two concise, powerful essays, the award-winning author offers unique insight into the true nature of extremism and proposes a reasoned and respectful approach to resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The brilliant clarity of these essays, coupled with Oz’s ironic sense of humour in illuminating the serious, breathes new life into this old debate. Oz argues that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not a war of religion or cultures or traditions, but rather a real estate dispute—one that will be resolved not by greater understanding, but by painful compromise.

Fresh, insightful, and inspiring, How to Cure a Fanatic brings a new voice of sanity to the cacophony on Israeli-Palestinian relations—a voice no one can afford to ignore.

An Arabic language recording of the author’s work, read by Isa Aouifia:

How To Cure A Fanatic:

How-to-cure-a-fanatic

Between Right And Right:

Between-right-and-right

Thomas Lunderquist:

We had just finished producing a great Egyptian novel, The Yacoubian Building by Alaa Al-Aswany, as a National Swedish Radio series, when Isa got the idea of translating How To Cure A Fanatic into Arabic and making it into an audio book. He wanted his father to be able to hear the work in Arabic, and asked me to help him with the production. How could I refuse?

I had really enjoyed working with Isa, whom I had come to know as a talented and inspiring theatre actor, with a great sense of humour. And Amos Oz is a long time literary favorite of mine. Not only is he one of the greatest fiction writers, he also has the ability to translate his literary themes – the touching complexity of our human nature and our petty conflicts of interest – into thought-provoking essays. In his novels and short stories, Amos Oz presents his characters as multi-faceted individuals. At once like you and me and at the same time very different. We might be shaped by our specific circumstances in space and time, and have different ways of trying to reach our goals and fulfill our desires, but fundamentally, our interests are shared, we’re all humans. We shouldn’t classify each other as either good guys and bad.

In his essays, like How To Cure A Fanatic, Amos Oz says this directly. And he does so with a humane and warmly comical touch. There is no conflict in which the enemy is evil and deserves to die, the conflicts are usually between right and right. A first step in acknowledging this is to not kill each other.

This, I think, is a great idea that should be spread to as many people on earth as possible. Including of course Arabic speakers. I am Jewish and Isa Arab, and together we have worked on this recording to make the words of Amos Oz resonate.

Thomas Lunderquist, journalist and radio producer

Isa Aouifia:

I was born in Lebanon and grew up there during the entire civil war, so I have always had my own personal relationship to the military power of the state of Israel. As a child seeing news reports not only from the streets of Beirut but also of Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, I’ve learned the simple way to distinguish what comprises injustice in the fight between the Arabs and the Israelis. Simple because the picture of heavily armed soldiers shooting towards stone-throwing children trying to protect their homes gave me as a young boy the idea that the strongest can act like an unjust beast. For me that was the face of terror. Years passed and I now live in a peaceful part of the world but the war I lived through is still replaying in my head. I’m still struggling to humanize the enemy I encounter in my nightmares. I need to look him in the eyes and understand his point of view. I need a voice, a face, a word. I don’t want to love him, and I don’t think I can ever fully understand him, but I want to make peace with him. I don’t want to see him as a threat nor do I want him to see me as a threat.

When you work in a creative field, whether it is painting, writing, acting, singing, or playing a musical instrument, you tend to look at fellow artists as brothers and sisters. You feel connected in spirit. We possess the ability of creating the existing and the imaginary worlds, and most importantly we are expert in imagining other human beings. We are able to step in the shoes of others. Even our enemies. We have the power of connecting with people from the “other side”. That is what makes us free. Our freedom is provocative and sometimes highly threatening to those in authority.

I came across the book How To Cure A Fanatic by Amos Oz and I laughed just reading the title. Without knowing anything about the book or the author. I laughed at the ironic attempt to accomplish the impossible. I also laughed at the contradiction in the task because only a fanatic is willing to cure someone from his beliefs. My feeling after reading these pages? I wished someone had given me this book when I was much younger and spared me many years of heavy burden of anger and hate and bitterness.

Now with this project I want to try to give my younger self a chance to think independently. And I see my younger self is in every young Arabic man and woman, in all of us, in fact.

Isa Aouifia, theatre actor, producer and director.

CREDITS

Translation and reading: Isa Aouifia
Recording and production: Thomas Lunderquist
Audio processing: Mattias Nilsson.
The drum piece that accompanies the reading is written and performed by Kai Engel.