Hoffman: "Will the situation in Tunisia ever become like what's happening in Egypt? Why or why not?"
Jday: "Speculating about the future is a hard task in the Tunisian context. It might get worse than Egypt, but a military intervention is not a possibility, mainly because the Tunisian army is not as powerful as the Egyptian army, the comparison between both is not even coherent."
Hoffman: "Should the U.S. launch a military strike against Syria? Why or why not?"
Jday: "Of course I believe that the US shouldn't intervene. I am generally against the intervention of any country in any other country's affairs, and if the pretext is the crimes committed by the Assad regime, I don't think the crimes committed by Assad's enemies are more tolerable. The Syrian revolution was aborted at the moment foreign intervention took place. The only fact that thousands of foreign terrorists, including thousands of Tunisian terrorists sent by Nahdha's associations, are fighting in Syria is enough to stop calling it a "revolution". And finally, yes Assad is a dictator and a criminal, yet he is a dictator and a despot who believes in Syria as a nation, not as Sunnis against Shiites, Muslims against Christians, etc., so what's the use of replacing him by theocratic armed groups? I believe, a revolution should be a patriotic revolution without foreign intervention and with as slogans and ideals "Universal Human Rights", "Individual Freedoms", "Secular Democracy", otherwise it is not "a revolution" but just a struggle for power."
Hoffman: "What would you like me, as a peace activist in the United States, to communicate to U.S. elected officials about the situation in Tunisia? to the American public about Tunisia?"
Jday: "The message that I wish to convey to American officials and to the American people in general as a Tunisian secular activist is that the Tunisian people is as friendly and as humane as the American people. It aspires to be free, to live in a society in which the dignity of all citizens is recognized regardless of their religion, their sex, their race or the geographical region to which they belong. Questions of who's a believer and who's an infidel in a "nation of believers" rather than in a nation of citizens were introduced after the Tunisian Revolution to spoil and blur its spirit. I believe that America has to support and help people who share the universal and humanistic values on which America itself is based and not the opposite."
Hoffman: "If you would like, please tell me your political affiliation in Tunisia."
Jday: "Well, as for my political affiliation, though I have one, I strongly believe that political parties should only be mere tools that help you build the Tunisia which you dream of. A political affiliation should never become more important than the nation itself. This may seem too axiomatic to be told, but experience shows that nothing is to be taken for granted. I belong to Al Massar party which can be described as a left-of-center social party."
Hoffman: "Thank you for your time and for your thoughtful answers"
Jday: "It is my pleasure indeed."
*This interview was conducted by Madelyn Hoffman, the Executive Director of New Jersey Peace Action, an American organization working "to eliminate nuclear weapons, reduce military spending, support global peacemaking and restore the well being of our planet."
Website: http://www.njpeaceaction.org
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