Edward McMillan-Scott in Cairo [/caption]Historical perspective is a funny thing.
In common with other countries, the British government likes to rear its students on a cherished educational canon.
The Romans, tithes and 1066 often take up a sizeable chunk of classroom time, while later on it’s the English Civil War and Cromwell’s failed republic.
By the time we reach the 20th Century, the Nazis are performing their inevitable goose-step onto centre stage.
But like one of those ruff-wearing Elizabethan explorers setting foot in the New World for the first time, a couple of years in the Middle East is enough to open one’s eyes to an entirely new passage of human time and perspective.
Over here it’s not the date of the Battle of Hastings which is lodged in every schoolchild’s mind, but 1917 – the year in which the Balfour Declaration was signed by Britain’s then Foreign Secretary, and half a century of Israeli-Palestinian hatred was sewn.
A year earlier, in what was then part of the United Kingdom, Irish nationalists were revolting against British rule during the Easter Rising.
But in the Arab world, 1916 is more likely to be remembered as the year of the Sykes-Picot Agreement, the treacherous plot between France, Britain and Russia to carve up former Ottoman territories across the Middle East.
One man who registered his dismay over Sykes-Picot at the time was T.E Lawrence, better remembered – thanks in no small part to Peter O’Toole – as the totemic Lawrence of Arabia.
A strident proponent of Arab independence, he was dismayed that the British had undermined his promises that the Arabs would gain their independence in return for fighting the Turks during World War One.
[inset_left]“I think if there is one area of discourse which needs to take place it is on the rights of women and minorities.”
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Almost a century later, millions of people across the Middle East have once again begun to experience the taste of freedom, this time during the Arab Spring.
And according to one man who should have a reasonable claim to know, Lawrence of Arabia would have been thrilled.
“I think he would have loved it,” said Edward McMillan-Scott, one of the EU’s top foreign envoys – who also happens to be a distant relative of T.E Lawrence.
Arriving in Cairo this week to help launch the Arab Leaders for Freedom and Democracy, a pan-Arab network of politicians working to promote human rights, Mr McMillan-Scott spoke to The Majalla of his hopes that the Arab Spring would lead to improvements for ordinary people.
“In 2002 the United Nations published its human development report,” he said, “and it showed that there was an appetite for democracy in the Arab world that is higher than most other regions around the globe.”
As Vice President of the European Parliament, Mr McMillan-Scott is responsible for the democracy and human rights portfolio.
Yet recent events across the Middle East have given rise to concerns about the safeguarding of rights throughout the region. Moreover, there appear to be concerns in the West that “our” concepts of human rights will never be compatible with those of Muslim-majority countries.
The furore over the recent Prophet Mohamed film, extravagantly overblown by the Western media, was a case in point.
For McMillan-Scott, there are more pressing concerns. “I think if there is one area of discourse which needs to take place it is on the rights of women and minorities.”
In Egypt, the ruling Muslim Brotherhood has often been criticised by marginalised liberal and secular parties over its historical aversion to women and Coptic Christians.
Followers of the more fundamentalist Salafi parties have been known to voice even more conservative views.
McMillan-Scott indicated that he sympathised with those critics who were concerned about how much the Muslim Brotherhood would do to safeguard human rights.
“The values that are held by the European Parliament are at variance with the aspirations of the Muslim Brotherhood,” he said, drawing particular emphasis under the issues of women’s and minority rights.
Yet he expressed his optimism about the potential for a fresh start – and suggested that the European Union was in a good position to help. “The key thing is, let’s help give them their freedom,” he said.
“They are trying to take it back, but it needs systematic involvement by the West to make sure it sticks.”
