At the beginning of the book, the young man is humiliated and tortured by the Western appearing and speaking judicial committee. Then, further demonstrating the levels of control and command over their citizens, the committee attempt to impinge upon the ways that young man thinks. He is told that he must write about the 20th century's most important achievement and the greatest Arab figure, to demonstrate his loyalty to the state. Although one would think that there could be no correct answer to the open-ended questions posed by The Committee, clearly there is, in their eyes, as when he makes a choice that could damage their reputation, they track him down to 'correct' his selection.
The young man's choice, that of a doctor who is famous for his works of global outreach and philanthropy, shows that the apparently noxious ideology of globalization has already penetrated even his consciousness. The reason the doctor is seen as evil in the book is because he is an international figure, and globalization is deemed to be harmful. The committee is afraid that if the young man selects this doctor, the regime's true ideology will be revealed, and the Westernized control of the Middle East will make itself known to the general population. The ideology of the supposed diversification of interests of modern economic life masks the real, controlling presence of the West that is manifest even on the Carter buses that run through the streets. This demonstrates that the nation is in the grips of a consumption ideology that only results the people consuming things against their own true nation's interests. Rather than Coca-Cola, Ibrahim suggests, better to drink in the ideology of true anti-capitalist nationalism.
The tone of the work suggests that the author...
The Middle East is seen as too fragile and impinged upon by Western interests in the past to truly become part of the global community without being literally consumed by American interests.
If this view persists, it is quite likely that Gelvin's despairing assertion that there can be little hope that the future of the Middle East will look different from the present will become a reality.
Ibrahim's book helps the reader understand how many persons of the Middle East resist the influence of the West, and why pro-Islamic militant groups still have an attraction, even for wealthy or middle class, educated residents of the Middle Eastern region. However, the emotional texture of The Committee, if not the symbolic logic, suggests that the writer Ibrahim views totalitarianism of any kind with some amount of fear, even though he views the West as the greater threat than Islamic militancy. Ibrahim's his use of Kafka's The Trial shows that much as the author despises Coca-Cola, he does not view the entire intellectual legacy of the West as evil. There are, in the individual, if not corporate expression of the arts, perhaps some hopes for greater toleration between the West and the Middle East, although such hopes, after reading both Ibrahim and Gelvin's works, seem few and far between.
Works Cited
Gelvin, James. The Modern Middle East: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 2004.
Ibrahim, The Modern Middle East: A History, Oxford University Press, 2004. The Committee. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2001.
