we are?'
'Not exactly.'
'That is another one of our problems. We are very emotional people. Look at the reaction to those cartoons which appeared in the Danish newspaper earlier this year. We get upset and angry and it takes us down interesting paths, but further and further away from the point,' said Diouri. 'But I must behave and get back to why the Americans invaded Iraq.'
'The half of my Moroccan family that doesn't think it was about oil,' said Falcon, 'thinks that it was done to protect the Israelis.'
'Ah, yes, another notion that seethes in the minds of the tea drinkers,' said Diouri. 'The Jews are running everything. Most of my work force thinks that 9/11 was a Mossad operation to turn world opinion against the Arabs, and that George Bush knew about it all along and let it happen. Even some of my senior executives believe that the Israelis demanded the invasion of Iraq, that Mossad supplied the false intelligence about weapons of mass destruction, and that Ariel Sharon was the commander-in-chief of the US forces on the ground. Where the Jews are concerned, we are the world's greatest conspiracy theorists.
'The problem is that it is their rage at the Israeli occupation of Palestine that blinds them to everything else. That fundamental injustice, that slap in the face for the Arab's sense of honour, brings up such powerful emotions in the Arab breast that they cannot think, they cannot see. They focus on the Jews and forget about their own corrupt leadership, their lack of lobbying power in Washington, the pusillanimity of almost all dictatorial, authoritarian Arab regimes…Ach! I'm boring myself now.
'You see, Javier, we are incapable of change. The Arab mind is like his house and the medina where he lives. Everything looks inward. There are no views or vistas…no visions of the future. We sit in these places and look for solutions in tradition, history and religion, while the world beyond our walls and shores grinds relentlessly forward, crushing our beliefs with their interests. People will look back on the twentieth century and gasp. How was it, they will say, that a race that held the world's most powerful resource, oil, the resource that made the whole system run, allowed most of its people to live in abject poverty, while its political, cultural and economic influence was negligible?
'You know the last people in the world who should be sent to talk to the Arabs are the Americans. We are polar opposites. In becoming an American, part of the pact is to walk away from your past, your history, and totally embrace the future, progress, and the American Way. Whereas, to an Arab, what happened in the seventh century or 1917 is still as vivid today as it was when it first occurred. They want us to embrace a new future, but we cannot forsake our history.'
'Why is it that, when you talk about the Arabs, sometimes you say 'we' and sometimes 'they'?'
'As you know, I have one foot in Europe and the other in North Africa, and my mind runs down the middle,' said Diouri. 'I perceive the injustice of the Palestinian situation, but I can't emotionally engage with their solutions: the intifada and suicide bombings. It's just a terrifying extension of throwing stones at tanks-an expression of weakness. An inability to draw together the necessary forces to bring about change.'
'Since Arafat has gone, things have been able to move forward.'
'Stagger forward…lurch from side to side,' said Yacoub. 'Sharon's stroke signified the end of the old guard. The vote for Hamas was a vote against the corruption of Fatah. We'll see if the rest of the world wants them to succeed.'
'But despite all these misgivings, you still have no desire to live in Spain.'
'That's my peculiar problem. I've been brought up in a religious household and I've benefited from the daily discipline of religious observance. I love Ramadan. I always make sure I am here for Ramadan because for one month of the year the workings of the world drift into the background and the spiritual and religious life becomes more important. We are all joined together by it in communal fasting and feasting. It gives spiritual strength to the individual and the community. In Christian Europe you have Lent, but it has become something personal, almost selfish. You think: I'll give up chocolate or I won't drink beer for a month. It doesn't bind society like Ramadan does.'
'Is that the only reason you don't live in Spain?'
'You are one of the few Europeans I can talk to about these things, without having you laugh in my face,' said Diouri. 'But that is what I have learnt from my two fathers, the one who forsook me, and the one who taught me the right way to be. That is the difficulty for me in both Europe and America. You know, there's been a big change here recently. It was always the dream to get to America. Young Moroccans thought their culture was cool, their society much freer than racist-bound Old Europe, the attitude of Immigration and the universities more open. Now the kids have changed their minds. They were attracted to Europe, but now, after the riots in France last year and the disrespect shown in Denmark, their dreams are of coming home. For myself, when I'm alone in hotel rooms in the West and I try to relax by watching television, I gradually feel my whole being dissipating and I have to get down and pray.'
'And what's that about?'
'It's about the decadence of a society consumed by materialism,' said Diouri.
'To which you yourself make a considerable contribution, and from which you derive great benefit,' said Falcon.
'All I can say is, if I lived anywhere other than Morocco, I would be drained of will within a few weeks.'
'But then you rage against the lack of progress and the inability to change in the Arab world.'
'I rage against poverty, the lack of work for a young and growing population, the humiliation of a people by-'
'But if you give a young guy work, he'll make money and go out and buy a mobile phone, an iPod and a car,' said Falcon.
'He will, once he has made sure that his family is taken care of,' said Diouri. 'And that is fine, as long as the materialism doesn't become his new God. A lot of Americans are profoundly religious whilst being driven by materialism. They believe it goes hand in hand. They are wealthy because they are the chosen people.'
'Well, that's confused everything,' said Falcon.
'Only the extremist polarizes through simplification,' said Diouri, laughing. 'Extremists understand one thing about human nature: nobody wants to know about the complexity of the situation. The invasion of Iraq was about oil. No, it wasn't. It was all about democracy. The two extremes are a long way from the truth, but there's enough in both statements to make people believe. It is all about oil, but not Iraqi oil. And it is about democracy, but not the strange beast that will have to be cloned in order to hold Iraq together.'
'I think we've come full circle,' said Falcon. 'We must be close by now.'
'Oil, democracy and the Jews. There's truth in all of them. It was part of the brilliance of the plan,' said Diouri, 'to create such a colossal diversionary arena that the world would look nowhere else.'
'The problem with most conspiracy theories is that they always award phenomenal intelligence and foresight to people who've rarely exhibited those qualities,' said Falcon.
'This action didn't require huge intelligence or foresight, because it simplified all complexities down to a single perpetual interest. There's also a terrifying logic to it, which conspiracy theories always lack,' said Diouri. 'I told you that it was all about oil, democracy and protection, but none of it was to do with Iraq.
'For the Americans to maintain their world domination they need oil in a continuous supply at a competitive price. Democracy is a very fine thing, as long as the right person wins, and that means the person who will look after American interests most ably. Democracy in the Arab world is dangerous, because politics is always bound up with religion. It is only promoted in Iraq because the installation of another, more pliable, despot than Saddam Hussein would not be acceptable to the outside world.'
'At least it introduces the concept of democracy.'
'There have been attempts at democracy in the Arab world before now. It breaks down when it becomes clear that the winners in the elections would be the Islamic candidates. Democracy puts power in the hands of the most numerous, and for them Islam will always come first. That doesn't offer much security to American interests, which is why the democratically elected Iraqi assembly and their constitution have had to be…wrestled into position.'
'Do you think that's the case?'
'It doesn't matter whether it is or not. It's the common perception in the Arab world.'
'So who are the Americans seeking to protect with all this activity in the region, if it isn't the Israelis?'
'The Israelis can take care of themselves as long as they have American support-which they are guaranteed,
