bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 4 (2016), pp. 37–38
We put the question to the late Jim Gould, who was among Global Affairs’ best-known experts on Arab and Islamic affairs, and Judith his spouse and life’s partner.
No surprise to those who knew him, Jim’s bio is a classic outline of focused diplomatic tradecraft. Raised in Woodstock, Ontario he liked to say that he “fell in love with the Middle East in High School history class, never knowingly having met an Arab or a Muslim”. He received B.A., M.A., and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Toronto, American University in Cairo and Edinburgh University, respectively — all in Islamic History. He specialized in the early centuries, the Prophet Muhammad and the rise of the Islamic Empire. His doctorate examines a religio-politico faction in 7th century Medina known as the “Munafiqun” or the “Hypocrites”. It deals with the era and its historiography, or how “history” changes in passing decades and centuries. His thesis remains pertinent to the debate on what is “true” Islam and what happened long ago in its specific cultural context.
Jim “was clever enough”, as he put it, to marry Judith in 1968. Their partnership thrived in the Foreign Service … as have their two children. He joined External Affairs in 1975 “primarily as a way for the two of them to return to the Arab world”. A “great career”, Jim said, having met kings, presidents, terrorists, spies and holy men. He represented Canada in far-flung corners such as Sana’a, Aceh and Guantanamo Bay.
SH: What were some of the most memorable moments in your diplomatic lives?
JUDITH G: There were many of them: camping in Medain Saleh (cities inhabited by the Thamud, mentioned in the Qur’an, that later became part of the Nabatean civilization of Petra fame); visiting Dar St Catherine in Sinai (the remote Greek Orthodox monastery famed for its early Byzantine mosaics and pre-Iconoclastic icons); scuba diving in the Red Sea with its amazing coral and fish life; visiting archaeological sites in northern Iraq; exploring every inch of the Smithsonian in Washington… and hosting and making friends with nationals from almost every country in the world.
SH: “Behind every successful man comes a surprised woman”, (says an old joke), but being an FS spouse itself can be seriously challenging. What was your experience? JUDITH G: It all began with that leap of faith I made as a very young and naive twenty-two-year-old (who really had not strayed far from Concord, Ontario) when I married Jim… and left for Cairo two days later! The further leap of faith was that he said that we would be away for ten months and we returned seven years later when he joined the Foreign Service. I should have known what I had “signed up for” as we basically spent the next twenty years on posting.
Jim always knew the right things to say to get my agreement to move again (often through a little trickery, but that’s another story). Happily, our two children, Saara and Matthew, “bought into” Jim’s passion for travel, learning, adventure and intrigue.
It all began with that leap of faith
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we returned seven years later whi I should have known what I had “si the next twenty y
Their great ability to adapt made my job I easier to support Jim as he turned his passion for Islam and all its intricacies into a career that spanned almost all of the Middle East and the areas of academics, diplomacy, security, and intelligence. SH: What is an “Arabist”?
JIM G: For me it is nothing less than a specialist in the language, politics, culture, history, religion and economics of the Middle East. Of those, language is key because without it you can’t get beyond the surface in most things, notably politics, culture and religion. Much of what you need is not available in English or French. For example, some Islamists — usually speaking or writing in a Western language — argue that “Jihad” is badly misunderstood in the West and that it refers most importantly to the struggle for personal spiritual improvement. There is truth in that, but if you read the Qur’an in the original Arabic, as I did, you’ll observe that in almost all cases “jihad” refers to a physical struggle, a holy war. It’s an important distinction if you want to understand the region and its tensions.
SH: Do “Arabists” matter?
JIM G: Yes, and more than you might think. Take Iraq. Gertrude Bell was from a great British steel making family. Born in the second half of the 19th century she became a famous alpinist, archaeologist and explorer. Her daring travels in Ottoman Arabia together with her unparalleled linguistic and cultural skills made her the pre-eminent British expert on the Arab world (despite the claims made about T.E. Lawrence). Ms. Bell was the principal architect of modern Iraq in
the aftermath of WWI. She was a builder.
I made as a very young and naive iad not strayed far from Concord, ft for Cairo two days later! The further > would be away for ten months and en he joined the Foreign Service. gned up for” as we basically spent fears on posting.
One wonders, if she had still been alive, whether Iraq would have become what it is today. It will take many more of her ilk to help stop today’s terrible cycle of violence and mitigate the damage done. SH: What do people mean when they condemn the behaviour of extremists as not the “real” Islam?
JIM G: That’s like asking Catholics, after two thousand years of debate, to explain the Holy Trinity in couple of paragraphs! I am not sure there is such a thing as “real” Islam, but rather the many varied interpretations of what the Qur’an and the Prophet actually said (and intended). Religions live and breathe, and Islam is no exception.
Much of what we commonly understand to be “real” Islam (as it has evolved, deepened and developed over the centuries)
is based on both the Qur’an and the “Hadiths”, the later communal collections of sayings attributed to the Prophet. Whatever their spiritual value, in many cases these sayings reflected and served the political needs of a later time. For example, there is a Hadith cited by many extremists to the effect that “When you see a black flag coming from Khorasan (northern Persia), join them for the Muslims are coming, thereby declaring themselves the only Muslims”. That Hadith appeared about 750 CE when the Abbasids, with their emblematic black flags, conquered much of the Islamic world beginning with Khorasan. The green flag we usually associate with Islam belonged to earlier rulers. ISIS’ use of the black flag today reflects the political need to be seen as implementers of their own “real” Islam.
SH: To many in the West ISIS came from nowhere, criminals using the mantle of religion to justify their brutality. Would an Arabist share that view?
JIM G: That perception is understandable but it’s much more complicated than that. The appearance of ISIS, and their peculiar brand, are not new and the seed of their ideology, and that of others of their kind, goes back at least to the Crusades and the Mongol invasions of the Middle East. Ibn Taymiyyah was an influential Muslim scholar and theologian of the 13″ century and advocated a literal interpretation of the Qur’an and an absolute rejection of all innovation with regard to the faith — i.e. a return to traditionalist (some might say hardcore fundamentalist) Islam.
Ibn Tamiyyah’s beliefs were resurrected in the late 18th century by Abdul Wahhab. They were adopted by the Saudi royal family, giving rise to today’s archconservative Wahhabism. Many argue that ISIS is one of the apples that fell from that tree. But I also think we need to keep cultural differentiation very much in mind here. At different times and places interpretations of Islam have varied under the influence of separate groups. For instance, from our first arrival in Cairo in 1968 to the present day, Judith and I have noted that urban women wearing one or other variants of the veil has increased many fold. In my view, culture has changed and Islam has evolved as a result of a multiplicity of external and other forces (many of which we do not fully understand, at least not yet).
SH: Why did “Arabist” become code in some quarters for special pleader? JIM G: Difficult to say, but my sense is that it had a lot to do with the playing out of Western and perhaps more specifically American politics in the seemingly endless Arab-Israeli conflict, and with the zero-sum game mindset of so many of the players. It is a truism among those who have worked on conflict resolution that moderates on both sides are likely to have more in common with each other than they do with their own extremists. I tend to agree, but as we know, fundamentalists often control the balance of power in their own societies. I think, post 9/11, that short shrift for Arabists is unhelpful. It’s a needed role if we, the West generally, hope to extricate ourselves responsibly from what we helped create.
SH: What should Global Affairs Canada do?
JIM G: It’s very much part of a bigger picture, but three points are key:
° You can’t do much if you don’t have
the resources. If you want to have meaningful expertise — in any region or on any issue — you need to make it possible. Canadians need to look up
and look out.
¢ We need to better manage what we
already have — to take just one modest example: don’t send someone off to two years of language training only to discover on their first mission that they have no desire to develop their
careers in the region.
¢ We must rejuvenate relations between
political decision-makers and the people who generate policy options for Canada. Decision-makers need to take advice and give direction to the people who know and understand the region or issue, and senior diplomats need the skills to generate real foreign policy options. That means that our professionals need to be more than adept managers, they need to be
foreign policy experts.
SH: What are some of the issues potential Arabists need to address? JIM G: It is trite, but true: The Middle East is a region full of conundrums and puzzles. These may evolve and change, the names may differ, but ethnic, sectarian and political issues remain much the same. Lur tribesmen from the highlands of Persia invaded Mesopotamia early in the first millennium BCE and the Iranians and the Iraqis still have no neighbourly feelings for each other. A century after the fall of the Ottoman Empire the Kurdish issue in Turkey (and beyond) remains a hot one. The Arab/Israeli dispute seems destined to be with us forever, likewise the internal religious schisms among Muslims, Christians or Jews. Old political and economic issues also abound. Will the national borders drawn so haphazardly by the colonial powers continue to exist unchanged? Why do authoritarian regimes still dominate the landscape? Will petroleum continue to give Arab producers the leverage over the rest of the world they have today? Are Muslim states progressing or actually regressing from a democratic point of view?
There may be no definitive answers to such questions but they are all moving targets and must be addressed and understood if the West, Canada included, is to play a positive role in the region. Diaspora politics also plays an expanding role in our foreign policy and presents Western politicians and diplomats with plenty of diplomatic opportunities and challenges. The need for broad, specialized knowledge can only grow.
SH: What are the “lessons learned” most pertinent for a new generation of FS? JIM G: The core lesson is that acting out of ignorance — like engaging in misplaced wars — carries a terrible price. Similarly, developing expertise doesn’t make you an apologist, it’s usually the opposite… the more you know, the more you appreciate the need for wisdom and for nimble diplomacy. I believe that Canadians (and Global Affairs Canada) will always need their generalists — and great careers can be built around a very broad but relatively thin
Originally published in / Publié à l’origine dans bout de papier, Vol. 29, No. 4 (2016), pp. 37–38. Read the rest of this issue / Lire le reste de ce numéro →
