مقال عبد الله بولا عن التجديد في فكر الأستاذ محمود محمد طه

Dear Elnour,
With all due respect, I don't think I was wrong in comparing your handling of Osama's utterly "unacceptable intellectual behavior" to THAT OF ABDALLA BOLA'S -in his wonderful piece about our frame of reference. Please rest assured that I have not done this to score a point. I just wanted to tell Nagat that she was "utterly" unfair to me, as she was to you, by insinuating a sense of incrimination for the wonderful job you have done to give Abdalla himself a wider reading, in a good forum. I am sure that he will be happy, if he is more concerned with the dissemination of his ideas, more than he is with copy right laws! I hope that, he and Nagat, will not disappoint us by leaning toward petty concerns over the nobler goal of having free thinking, and free ideas take have their natural flow, in a natural direction.

But I have to tell you, my dear mentor and friend, no "weird" behavior from "any" Sudanese intellectual surprises me any more. I have seen enough in this world not trust intellecutal dishonesty. And I am deeply sorry to say that I have seen a lot of this dsihonesty, even among the best of the best of intellectuals in the Sudan. I have seen it among the Repblican men and women of the Sudan, as I have never seen it before. So, I am not going to be surprised to see it in this forum, where most have not had the privillege and good fortune of being disciples, and sons and daughters, of the greatest man who ever lived on this planet.

As for my language with Osama, I strongly 'still' think that he deserved it, for he is not just an individual, he "represents" a widely spread phenomenon among Sudanese intellectuals that need to be "squarely" dealt with. I 'strongly' think that we have let this phenomenon "sweep" us by the side. And I 'strongly' think that we have 'hidden" ourselves behind the "faulse niceties" of intellectual discourse for so long!! This, in my judgement, is in itself a form of intellectual honesty that deforms any serious intellectual discussion.

You may disagee with me on this one! I know you did, and I know that you sitll do. But I am not willing to budge to the likes of Osama any further. Becuase doing so is giving up the gauntlet of the intellectual scene for those who don't deserve to be part of it in the first place, unless they clean up their act. Entering into intellectual discussion should, in no way, be unlike entering a temple, no matter if we are religious or not!!
This will be the guiding rule with which I will abide to protedt my absolute individual freedom, and that of others around me, who want to enjoy fair and honest intellectual discussion!

Intellectual discussion demands honesty, self effacement, decency, self sacrifice -as you brilinatly said to Osama. If these values are absent, then the discussion is only self promotion, and self inflation. This, I am tired of seeing in this board. And I am not going to tolerate anyone who tries to 'poison' our tools of discussion, because I have pledged to be a positive force in this Free Forum, not a PASSIVE ONE!!!

(عدل بواسطة Haydar Badawi Sadig on 06-30-2004, 04:32 PM)
(عدل بواسطة Haydar Badawi Sadig on 06-30-2004, 04:35 PM)
(عدل بواسطة Haydar Badawi Sadig on 06-30-2004, 05:05 PM)