few years ago exactly I was in
Afghanistan I was covering the war in
Afghanistan and I witnessed as a
reporter for al-jazeera the amount of
suffering and destruction that emerged
out of a war like that then two years
later I covered another war the war in
Iraq I was placed at the center of that
world because I was covering the war
from the northern part of Iraq and the
war ended with a regime change like the
one in Afghanistan and that regime that
we got rid of what actually dictatorship
authoritarian regime that for decades
you know created great sense of
paralysis within the nation within the
people themselves however the change
that came through foreign intervention
created even worse circumstances for the
people and even the sense of paralysis
and inferiority in that part of the
world for decades
we have lived under authoritarian
regimes in the Arab world in the Middle
East these regimes created something
within us during this period I'm 43
years old right now for the last 40
years I have seen almost the same faces
for kings and presidents ruling us
old-aged authoritarian corrupt situation
regimes that we have seen around us and
for a moment I was wondering are we
going to live in order to see real
change happening on the ground a change
that does not come true for an
intervention through misery of
occupation through you know nations
invading our land and and deepening the
sense of inferiority sometimes the
Iraqis yes they got rid of Saddam
Hussein but when they saw their land
occupied by foreign force
they felt very sad they figured that
dignity has suffered and this is why
they revolted this is why they did not
accept and actually other regimes they
told their citizens would you like to
see the situation of Iraq would you like
to see civil war sectarian killing would
you like to see destruction would you
like to see foreign troops in your land
and the people thought for themselves
maybe we should live with this kind of
authoritarian situation that we found
ourselves and instead of having the
second scenario that was the one of the
worst nightmares that we have seen for
10 years unfortunately we have found
ourselves reporting images of
destruction images of killing of
sectarian conflicts images of violence
emerging from a magnificent piece of
land a region that one day was the
source of civilizations and art and
culture for thousands of years now I am
here to tell you that the future that we
were dreaming for has eventually arrived
a new generation will educate it
connected inspired by universal values
and the global understanding has created
a new reality for us we found new way to
express our feelings and to express our
dreams these young people who have
restored self confidence in our nation's
in that part of the world who have given
us new meaning for freedom and empowered
us to go down to the streets nothing
happened no violence
nothing just step out of your house
raise your voice and say we would like
to see that in the very dream this is
what happened in Tunisia over a few days
that there is a regime that invested
Lien's of dollars and the security
agencies billions of dollars and
maintaining trying to maintain you know
its presence collapsed disappeared
because of the voices of the public
people who were inspired to go down to
the streets and to raise their voices
they tried to kill the intelligence
agencies wanted to arrest people they
you know found something called
Facebook's they found something called
you know Twitter they were surprised
what all these kind of issues and they
said you know these kids are mislead
therefore they are their parents to go
down to the streets to collect them
bring them back home this is what they
were telling this is their propaganda
bring these kids home because they are
mislead but yes these youth who have
been inspired by universal values who
are idealistic enough to imagine
magnificent future and at the same time
realistic enough to you know balance
disc and imagination and the process
leading to it not using violence not
trying to create chaos these young
people they did not go home parents
actually went to the streets and they
supported them and this is how the
revolution was born in Tunisia we in Al
Jazeera were banned from Tunisia for
four years and the government did not
allow any Al Jazeera reporter to be
there but we found that these people in
the street all of them are our reporters
feeding our newsroom with pictures with
videos and with news and suddenly that
newsroom in Doha became a center that
receive all this kind of input from
ordinary people people who are connected
and people who have ambition and who
have liberated themselves from the
feeling of inferiority and then we took
that decision we are on rolling news we
are going to build the voice for of
these voiceless people we are going to
spread the message yes some of these
young people are
to the internet but the connectivity in
the Arab world is very little it's very
small you know because of many problems
that we are suffering from but
al-jazeera took the voice from these
people and we amplified we put it in
every setting room in the Arab world and
internationally globally through our
English English Channel and then people
started to feel that there is something
new happening and then they in labid in
Banali decided to live and then Egypt
started and Hassan Mubarak decided to
leave and now Libya as you see it and
then you have Yemen and you have many
other countries trying to see and to
rediscover that can-do feeling of how
could we imagine a future which is
magnificent and peaceful and tolerant I
want to tell you something that internet
and connectivity has created new mindset
but this mindset has continued to be
faithful to the soil and to the land
that it emerged from and what this was
the major difference between many
initiatives before to create change
before we thought and governments told
us and even sometimes it was a true that
change was imposed on us and people
rejected that because they thought that
it is alien to their culture always we
believed that change should spring from
within that change should be you know
reconciliation with culture cultural
diversity with our faith in our
tradition and in our history but at the
same time open to universal values
connected with the world tolerant to the
outside and this is the moment that is
happening right now in the Arab world
this is the right moment and this is the
actual moment that we see all of these
meanings meet together and they create
this magnificent at the beginning of
this magnificent era that will emerge
from the frontal region how did the
elite deal with
the circled political elite in front of
the Facebook they bought the camel in a
Tahrir Square in front of Al Jazeera
they started you know creating tribalism
and then when they failed they started
speaking about conspiracies that emerge
from Tel Aviv and Washington in order to
divide the Arab world they started
telling the West be aware of al Qaeda al
Qaeda is taking over our territories
these are Islamic states trying to
create new Emirates you know be aware of
these people who is coming to you in
order to ruin your aggress civilization
unfortunately you know or fortunately
people right now cannot be deceived
because this corrupt in need and in that
region has lost even the power of
deception they could not and they cannot
imagine how could they really deal with
this reality they are they have lost
they have been detached from their
people from the masses and now we are
seeing them collapsing one after the
other and Jazeera is not a tool of
revolution we do not create revolutions
however when something of that magnitude
happen we are at the center of the
coverage we were banned from Egypt and
our correspondents some of them were
arrested but most of our camera people
and our journalists they went
underground in Egypt voluntarily to
report what happen in a Tahrir Square
for 18 days our cameras were
broadcasting live the voices of the
people on a Tahrir Square I remember one
night when someone phoned me on my cell
phone ordinary person who I don't know
from a Tahrir Square he told me we
appeal to you not to switch off the
cameras if you switch off the cameras
tonight there will be a genocide
you are protecting us by showing what is
happening at a tener square
I felt the responsibility to form our
correspondence there and to fund our
newsroom and to tell them make your best
not to switch off the cameras at night
because the guys there really feel
confident when someone is reporting
their story and they feel protected as
well so we have a chance to create a new
future in the in that part of the world
we have a chance to go and to think of
the future as something which is open to
the world
let us not reveal the mistake of Iran of
Mosul de-evolution let us free ourselves
especially in the West from thinking
about that part of the world based on
oil interest or based on interest of
step illusion of stability and security
security and the stability of
authoritarian regimes cannot create but
terrorism and valueless and destruction
let us accept the choice of the people
let us not pick and choose who we would
like to rule to rule the future the
future should be ruled by people
themselves even sometimes there are
voices that might now scare us but
values of democracy and the freedom of
choice that is swimming the Middle East
at this moment in time is the best
opportunity for the world for the west
and the east to see stability and to see
security and to see friendship and to
see tolerance emerging from the Arab
world rather than the images of violence
and terrorism let us support these
people let us stand for them and let us
give up our narrow selfishness in order
to embrace change and in order to
celebrate with the people of that region
a great future and hope and tolerance
the future has arrived and the future is
now and thank you very much
I just have a couple of questions for
you thank you for coming here how would
you characterize the historical
significance of what's happened is is
this in a story of the year a story of
the decade or something more actually
this is maybe the biggest the story that
we have ever covered we have covered
many wars we have covered a lot of
tragedies a lot of problems a lot of
conflict zones a lot of hot spots in the
region because we were centered at the
middle of it but this is story there is
great it is great story it is beautiful
it is not something that you only cover
because you have to cover a great
incident it is something you are
witnessing change in history you are
witnessing a birth of a new era and this
is what the soul is all about I mean
there are a lot of people in the West
who are still skeptical think this may
just be a an intermediate stage before
much more alarming chaos you really
believe that if there are democratic
elections in Egypt now that a government
could emerge that espouses some of the
values you've spoken about so
inspiringly and people actually after
the collapse of the hustla Mubarak
regime the youth who have organized
themselves in certain groups and and
councils they are guarding the
transformation and they are trying to
put it on a track in order to satisfy
you know the values of democracy but at
the same time also to make it reasonable
and to make it rational not to be to go
out of order in my opinion these people
are much more wiser than not only the
political elite even the intellectual
elite even opposition leaders including
political parties at this moment in time
the youth in the Arab world are much
more wiser and capable of creating the
change than the old including the
political and cultural and ideological
old you know regimes so we are not
we are not to get involved politically
and interfere in that way what should
people hear here at Ted here in the West
do if they want to connect or make a
difference and they believe in what's
happening here I think you know we have
discovered very important issue in the
Arab world that people care people care
about this great transformation you know
Mohammed Nana bhai who's sitting with us
the head or gesture on it he told me
that two thousand five hundred percent
increase of accessing our website from
various part of the world's 50 percent
of it is coming from America because we
discover that people care and people
would like to know they are receiving
they're receiving the stream through our
internet unfortunately in the United
States we are not covering but
Washington DC adverse moment in time for
Al Jazeera English but I can tell you
this is the moment to celebrate through
connecting ourselves with those we will
invest rate and connecting and
expressing our support to them and
expressing this kind of feeling
Universal feeling of supporting the weak
and the oppressed to create much better
future for all of us well what a group
of numbers of the Ted community TEDx
Cairo a meeting as we speak
they've had some speakers there I
believe they've heard your talk thank
you for inspiring them and for inspiring
all of us thank you so much
you