#Haidar Haidar | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

gregor-samsung · 12 days ago

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" Nell'aprile del 2000, il quotidiano “al-Shaab”, organo del Partito laburista islamico egiziano e, dal 1987, quando il partito optò per una linea clericale, portavoce degli islamisti, pubblicò un clamoroso articolo di prima pagina dal titolo Rimarrai fedele fino alla morte?. Questa frase faceva riferimento a un’usanza praticata nella storia dai soldati delle armate musulmane prima di scendere in battaglia, quando giuravano al capo che avrebbero combattuto “fino alla vittoria o alla morte”. Il quotidiano chiedeva in pratica ai lettori di giurare lealtà perché era appena uscito un romanzo che, secondo il giornale, conteneva un affronto all'Islam. Il libro in questione, scritto dal siriano Haidar Haidar, s’intitolava Una festa per le alghe, ed era uscito originariamente a Damasco nel 1982 senza suscitare grande scalpore. Ma quando fu ripubblicato diciotto anni dopo dal ministero della Cultura egiziano, “al-Shaab” protestò con forza contro certe frasi messe in bocca a un protagonista del romanzo, un membro del Partito comunista iracheno che scappa in Algeria dove ha una relazione con una donna del posto. Essendo l’iracheno ateo, mi sembra più che naturale che esprima opinioni antireligiose. Eppure questa “blasfemia” scatenò una possente ondata di proteste e la popolazione si scagliò sia contro il romanzo sia contro il ministero, perché pubblicava libri che offendevano l’Islam.

Una festa per le alghe diventò la massima preoccupazione nazionale: i parlamentari dei Fratelli musulmani esternarono la loro rabbia, e gli islamisti dell'Università Al-Azhar organizzarono imponenti manifestazioni in altri atenei egiziani. I predicatori nelle moschee di tutto il paese richiesero a gran voce che le masse egiziane facessero prevalere la propria religione sul protagonista ateo del romanzo, e altre voci ancor più stentoree pretesero che fosse sequestrato il libro e venissero processati i responsabili della sua pubblicazione. Il Gruppo di ricerche islamiche dell'Università Al-Azhar arrivò addirittura a rilasciare una dichiarazione secondo la quale “questo romanzo incita a infrangere la sharia e rappresenta un distacco grottesco dalla pubblica morale perché incoraggia al sesso fuori dal matrimonio ed è di per sé un’offesa a Dio e al suo Profeta”. Dopodiché il comunicato passava a condannare il ministero della Cultura per aver pubblicato il libro, che fu subito ritirato dal mercato. Il responsabile della sua pubblicazione fu licenziato e addirittura mandato a processo. La cosa strana di tutto questo pasticcio è che nessuna delle persone così scandalizzate dal romanzo capiva, o forse preferiva rifiutarsi di capire, che il romanziere non è responsabile delle opinioni dei suoi protagonisti. Uno dei primissimi insegnamenti della teoria letteraria è che ogni personaggio agisce in base a una propria logica, e un ateo esprimerà pertanto sentimenti antireligiosi proprio come un credente parlerà in maniera positiva della fede. In ogni caso, non compete ai lettori ritenere responsabile il romanziere delle opinioni dei suoi personaggi fittizi. Ma forse l’aspetto più assurdo è che quasi tutti coloro che infierirono contro il romanzo non l’avevano nemmeno letto. I conduttori dei talk show ebbero un’infinità di curiosi battibecchi con il pubblico. I telespettatori inferociti chiamavano per ripetere a pappagallo le parole del dittatore ed esigere che il libro fosse immediatamente sequestrato, ma quando il conduttore chiedeva a chi telefonava se avesse letto il libro, quest’ultimo di solito rispondeva che non avrebbe mai letto nulla che offendesse la sua religione. Un caso del genere evidenzia, per tornare al gergo medico, la grave esacerbazione di una malattia cronica. "

ʿAlāʾ al-Aswānī, La dittatura. Racconto di una sindrome, traduzione di Giancarlo Carlotti, Feltrinelli (Collana Serie bianca), ottobre 2020. [ Libro elettronico ]

[ Edizione originale: The Dictatorship Syndrome, Haus Publishing, London, U.K. (December 29, 2019) ]

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rattlyglitch1 · 3 months ago

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Protector of the Beasts Ch 2: Secrets Hidden and Forests explored

Wild Kratts Fanfic

Chapter Summary: The Tortuga Crew find out about secrets that the government was keeping from them and the Kratt Brothers visit a forest.

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The walk back to The Tortuga was silent. Martin did his best to keep as quiet as possible and watch for anyone that may be nearby. Everything seemed to be back to normal. There was nothing abnormal about the forest and the animals that lived there seemed to be out and about not hiding from anything that may have caused them to feel fear and no jerky movements either.

He had been walking for about an hour when something grabbed his arm. That made Martin make a jerky movement. Within seconds he had grabbed the person and had them in a standing hammerlock hold. “Uncle. Martin. Uncle. It’s just me.” Martin quickly released Chris’ arm before checking over him and inspecting the used to be pinned arm. “I didn’t hurt you right?”

Chris carefully removed his arm from Martin’s hand. “I’m fine Martin, you didn’t hurt me.” A concerned look came over Chris as he looked at Martin.. “Are you though? We lost connection for a while. I came out here with Jimmy to search for you.” Martin gave Chris a reassuring smile and patted his shoulder. “I’m ok little bro. Promise.” Chris didn’t seem entirely convinced but let out a sigh of relief and hugged Martin.

“I’m so glad you’re safe. I was so worried. We couldn’t get a hold of you and when we flew back with The Tortuga whoever was there was already gone or somehow escaped underneath the building.” Martin was confused at what Chris had said. “There’s no way. I saw a bunch of people enter the building. I had to hide in the ceiling but I know there were at least twenty people that entered.”

How all the people who had entered the building escaped without being seen was impossible. None of them could have fit down the holes that the animals had been sent through especially since the building was attacked. No one was expecting a full on attack on the lab but thankfully had been prepared. “Wait Martin you saw them?! We have to tell the others!” Martin pulled at his gloves a bit fiddling with the tips of them.

“Yeah I did but I didn’t see their faces. Only masks..” Chris didn’t seem to care that Martin may have barely seen anything; the proud and happy look he had showed that Chris was glad there was at least something. “Doesn’t matter what you saw Martin, this is huge. Let’s hurry up and get back to The Tortuga.” Chris took Martin’s hand and quickly hurried over to the buzz bike he had brought with him. Within moments they were back at The Tortuga and safely inside.

All the animals that had been being taken care of by the crew were around the ship with the others taking care of them. They were put in their safety areas as soon as the others spotted Martin. The other three were quick to make sure both of the brothers were ok and ask Martin questions about what he had seen. Martin tried to answer them the best he could and in the end the masked people were of the most interest.

“Did those masked people by chance leave anything behind that you possibly saw?” Koki asked with a notebook in hand. She had searched through all the video footage and it seemed to stop as soon as the attack first began. “Like a sign or a message?” Martin was immediately reminded of the pixelated rat that had a saying underneath it. He hadn’t gotten a good look at it but it was much easier to think about how it looked when he wasn’t worried.

“There was something on one of the main screens. It was a pixelated rat. The way it was made was weird. The rat’s background was purple and the words beneath it was pink and said ’mouse trapped’. You think it could stand for whatever the person that enters the bases does? ” Koki hummed as she looked over her notes. “Possibly but then why hasn’t the government told us anything about it? They were supposed to keep us in the know how and all that. That’s gotta be the reason why we’ve never seen that before.”

The question brought up had sent Koki trying to get ahold of the government agent they had been in contact with. The agent was a tan fifty-year-old man with green eyes and black hair that had one of the sternest looks in existence while having the least serious name. Alvin DeVante. Martin had been the first to point out how the agent's first name reminded him of the talking chipmunk.

Laughs were had when he had said that after the call. It seemed though it took forever to get ahold of him like the character as well though. It took two hours to get a hold of him and he didn’t seem pleased. “If you are calling to inform us of the break in that happened at the faux lab we have already heard about it.” The man already seemed annoyed about something that happened at the lab.

“We actually have a question about something we witnessed at the faux lab and wanted to ask you about it,” Koki spoke up giving the agent a forced smile. “Martin said he saw something that looked like a digital footprint on one of the large computers. A pixelated rat. Do you know anything about that?” Agent Alvin’s face seemed to change from annoyed to unease. “So you’ve found out about The Edelgard huh?”

A look of realization came over Koki and Jimmy’s face while the others looked confused. “You mean that’s who's attacking the labs? Me and Koki saw a note left by them that had the directions to the lab we’re at but didn’t know that was the actual person.” Koki looked at Agent Alvin judgingly. “Secondly, you know who this Edelgard is?” Agent Alvin gave a solemn nod.

“Yes. The United States government has known about The Edelgard for some time. We just hoped you would help us take care of the problem since you didn’t seem to know about them yet.” Several articles popped up on The Tortuga screen titled but a prominent one was “The Future of Animal Protection.” The article was set in Florida and talked about new technologies.

The most talked about one was a computer and camera system that had been given to help wildlife preservation areas and national parks that could detect a certain animal that was named after having a drop of their blood put in its system. “So you’re saying that the government meant to hide this so we would help track down The Edelgard and not be against helping?” Aviva asked. She seemed to be heavily judging Agent Alvin and looked confused at the same time.

Everyone was judging what the agent had just told them. The Edelgard seemed to be helping wildlife and animals more than harming them. “Yes but there is a reason as to why. After the reveal of the labs happened, riots began and animal activists took to the extremes and started trying to break into police stations and try to get them to hunt down labs. Hundreds of people have been arrested for battery against officers and have damaged police property. We hoped if The Edelgard was caught the protests would settle down and people may start to calm down.”

Chris looked at Alvin with crossed arms. “So you’re trying to get us to catch a possibly innocent person? I mean maybe the animals they're taking are severely injured and they think they can help the animals because they have more resources. There has to be another reason you’re not telling us.”

Agent Alvin gave a sigh and another article was pulled up. On the front cover was a picture of a stocky man with straight blonde hair, green eyes, and a dashing smile wearing a suit with a wolf embroidered on his dress jacket. He would have looked normal if he wasn’t holding the head of a lion by its mane. Everyone had looks of disgust on their faces.

“The public doesn’t know but there is a man who we believe is responsible for the reveals of the labs. His name is Mordred Zepar and he is a well known animal poacher and trafficker. Not much is known about him but he has supposedly had some kind of project of his in the works for years. We believe it has something to do with the animal labs that are being hunted.

Either he is or is working with The Edelgard. Our best idea as to why is because The Edelgard as you can see is well trusted and can most likely get close to any animal he so desires. The fact as well that the information being taken from these labs seem to be about genetics leads us to believe he might be making some kind of advanced tracking animal like a dog. In his line of business it would make sense.”

“If we are only helping you with the labs then how do you plan to take down the leader of all of this?” Aviva questioned. “The Edelgard might not be able to give you any information on Mordred and might not even be him. Why haven’t you tried contacting them yourself?” A tired look came across Agent Alvin’s face.

“We have but they don’t seem to want to communicate with us. Nothing we have tried worked and so far it just seems like The Edelgard themself view us as an annoyance or an enemy. People who have taken cases against The Edelgard end up quitting only weeks after beginning because their computers catch the ‘Mouse Trapped’ virus or they keep getting false leads that go nowhere besides traps made by extremely angered animal protectors.

The best you truly can do is help us with tracking down these labs. Even I wish there was something more you could do. For now the only other way you would help us besides visiting and tracking down the labs is maybe seeing some of the protection areas in Florida. Scout out what technology The Edelgard has placed to help protect the wildlife and see if they’ve ever tried to harm or change it by chance. If they have then we’ll figure out how to go from there.”

Agent Alvin gave the Tortuga Crew an empathetic smile. “You have helped us much and truly we thank you. For everything.” Agent Alvin signed off the call leaving the crew to figure out however they wanted to go about the situation.

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It was decided that the next day Martin and Chris would go down to one of the national parks to look over the technology they were using. It was the most they could do at the moment because Chris had the only working creature power suit. Martin's suit had gone completely out of whack after the lab and Aviva was tasked with fixing it and Jimmy knew a couple who owned a national park in Florida called Holly forest that had accessed some of the new tech.

There was another task besides looking at the technology that the brothers had though. Aviva had made a hard drive that could hopefully be plugged into whatever ran the tech and hopefully may provide a lead to The Edelgard. Martin and Chris were welcomed to see the area happily by the caretakers of the area and had spoken to one of the park rangers named Susan Bryony beforehand.

The brothers entered theough a metal gate and were greated with two thing. The first was a large trees and several trails that led into the woodsThe seciond was a a four wheeler that came driving up to them from inside with someone dressed all in camo and with a helmet on it. The person hefted themself off and gave a friendly wave before walking over to the brothers. “I’m guessing your Mrs.Susan?” Chris asked the masked rider.

The person nodded and took off their motorbike helmet. A elderly woman in her seventies smiled at the brothers happily. She had dark brown skin and kind green eyes with round gold glasses and curly grey hair that she wore in a bun and wore a full forest camo outfit that had a matching t-shirt and pants with brown boots.

“My name is Susan Bryony it's nice to meet you both. I’m so excited to show you brothers around Holly forest. My husband, Haidar Nasir, would love to be here but he’s currently out in one of the deer stands. He wanted to do some bird watching and headed out before we knew about you two visiting. We’ll see him for sure though as we go around the trails.” Mrs.Susan looked around and then back at the brothers.

“Did Jimmy not come with you?” she asked, a sliver of disappointment in her voice. Martin gave her an apologetic look. “I’m sorry to tell you he didn't. He stayed behind to help Koki and Aviva back on The Tortuga with the animals we’re keeping watch of at the moment.” Mrs.Susan gave a smile to Martin and patted his shoulder.

“Thanks for telling me. Now though boys, let's get looking around these trails. I have some four wheelers in that garage to your left you can use unless you want to run with me and the wheeler. I personally like to ride around the trails on a four wheeler. It helps me and my husband to get around easier.” Mrs.Susan said, patting her wheeler. The brothers shrugged.

“Sure we’ll take one. I’ll go get one that me and my bro can ride” Chris replied before heading off to the garage. “There’s keys on the wall to the right of the four wheelers!” Mrs.Susan called out. She turned towards Martin and smiled. “I’m truly am so excited to show you boys around. I can tell you’re both going to love looking around the area.” Not long after Chris left he was back with a four wheeler and Mrs.Susan and the brothers took off into the forest.

The trails were amazing to ride on and along the way Mrs.Susan told Chris and Martin interesting facts about the park such as that it was a ten mile radius not including the land Mrs.Susan lived on. There was also a large mile big lake inhabited by crocodiles and a smaller lake that was half a mile. The last fact the Kratt Brothers heard was that the most looked at animals were birds, deer, wolves, and the rare fox sighting that came about. A yell interrupted Mrs.Susan as she was telling a story about one time she had gone fishing.

“Susan, is that you?!” a man’s voice called up from above. Mrs.Susan looked up with a smile and waved towards the trees. The Kratt brothers looked up as well and sure enough there was a man in the trees with a deer stand next to the branch he was on. “Stay there, I'm coming down!” Quickly the man hurried down from the trees. He was around the same age as Mrs.Susan and had a round build, blue eyes, dark olive skin, and a white beard and mustache.

“Hello sirs, it's a pleasure to meet you. My name is Haidar Nasir and I see you’ve already met my wife Susan. It’s a pleasure to meet the both of you” The man spoke, giving a smile to Martin and Chris before shaking their hands. “It’s a pleasure to meet you as well Mr.Haidar. My name is Martin Kratt.”

“And I’m his Brother Chris Kratt.” Mr.Haidar gave a small nod. “So why are you young men here? Were you hoping to camp out in these forests for a few days?” Mr.Haidar seemed as happy as his wife to share all the wonders about the Holly Forest. “Me and my brother were actually hoping to learn some about the forest and the new tech that you have. We’ve heard a bunch about it and thought it would be neat to check out.”

Mr.Haidar let out a chuckle. “Well boys I sure can tell you a bunch about the forest but I’m not big on the tech part. I know how to make it work and what it does and how to read that but I know many deeper details on it like how the scanning and storing process works. I do have a granddaughter around here somewhere who knows all about tech things that was especially. Wait a moment and I can get her for you.” Mr.Haidar looked around for a moment before facing his left and yelling out. “RILEY!” Within seconds the sounds of leaves crunching and someone quickly running through the forest was heard and out from the forest a teenage girl with glasses emerged, a bow in her left hand and a worried look on her face.

She was short and stout with fair skin, blue eyes, and medium length curly blonde hair with a beauty mark on her right cheek. “Jeddo I heard you yell? What do you need?” It took a moment before the girl noticed the Kratt brothers. “Oh you have visitors?” the girl replied, relieved. “Next time please just call me. Yelling is quicker but it’s better than having me worry.”

Mr.Haidar let out a chuckle and patted Riley’s shoulder. “I promise to call next time. It’s just these young fellows here were hoping to learn some about the tech we have around the place. Do you think you could show them?” Riley looked at the brothers judgingly before giving a nod. “I can. Do both of you want to come or does one of you want to stay here?” she asked, plucking at her bow string a bit.

“Martin, do you want to go and I’ll stay here with Mrs.Susan and Mr.Hairdar? I wanted to learn a bit more about the trees.” Martin got the hint that Chris was trying to point out. He had the hard drive and it would be much easier if only one person was to go with Riley than the both of them. “I’ll go with you while my brother stays here if you and Mr.Haidar and Mrs.Susan don’t mind.”

Riley looked at the elderly couple. “Do either of you want to come? And are ya both gonna be ok without me here right?” Mrs.Susan gave Riley a reassuring smile. “Me and your Jaddi will be just fine here. You go now though and have fun showing off the tech we got.” Riley grinned and gave Mrs.Susan a quick hug. “Alright Memaw. I’ll go get my four wheeler and be back here soon.” Riley headed off quickly into the forest where she had come from and came back from down the trail a few minutes later.

“Get on one of the four wheelers dude. We’re heading back to the gates."

After Notes:

Just in case anyone is wondering I did find out four wheelers are allowed depending in a National Parks rules and for this on because of how big the park is I think the paths would be wide enough.

Mrs. Susan and Mr.Haidar can also use the four wheelers because they own the area where the National Park is because they work as the rangers and they had a large amount of area and the government was interested in making it a park, the trails were made years before they arrived most likely, and they are elderly so the wheelers make it easier to move around.

The reason I’m saying this is because I did research to figure out about four wheelers and they aren’t the best for the wildlife because they can harm areas that aren’t trails such as messing up the soil and killing the plant life there but they can be ridden on trails.

It would be so cool if the buzz bikes were widely available and not just to the Kratts because with those it would be so much easier to get around areas without harming the plant life because they levitate.

Also please let me know if I used the right name for grandfather. I searched as best I could and found Sido, Jeddo, Jaddi, and Ajadaad as Arabic names for grandfather and in the end simply chose one that I wanted to use. Jeddo was said to be a term used for grandfather so I decided to use it.

There's also an ao3 link to my story and comments on Tumblr and ao3 are appreciated.

ao3 WK fic

other chapters: Chapter 1, chapter 2, Chapter 3, chapter 4, chapter 5

#martin kratt #chris kratt #jimmy z #wild kratts aviva #koki wild kratts #Susan Bryony #Riley #Haidar Nasir #original character #Agent Alvin #Mordred Zepar

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