Cairo Anti-war Conference - Second Conference - 2003

2003

Held 13 and 14 December 2003, at the Egyptian Journalists' Union headquarters. This had 800 attendees. Conference final declaration available here. Anti-war MP George Galloway, Tony Benn, Salma Yaqoob, and former US attorney-general Ramsey Clark were among the international speakers. Prominent Egyptian campaigners taking part included Nasserist MP Hamdeen Sabahy, Galal Aref, head of the Egyptian Journalists' Union, and Ma'mun al-Hodeiby, leader of the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Egyptian novelist Sonallah Ibrahim and human rights activist Aida Seif-al-Dawla were among the conference organisers.

The presence of Muslim Brotherhood leader Ma'mun al-Hodeiby brought a large number of Islamist activists into the conference. The Muslim Brotherhood, although officially banned, is by far Egypt's largest opposition organisation. However, some delegates were critical of the Muslim Brotherhood's cooperation with the government in a series of stage-managed anti-war rallies held before the invasion of Iraq.

German journalist Harold Schuman who attended the conference expressed frustration that most speeches did not analyse the role of Arab governments but rather took the easy way out by placing all the blame on the US. He also expressed his feelings that the conference should defend the people of Iraq but not the regime. Representatives of the Iraqi government were attending the conference, though also the Iraqi opposition had a presence in the form of Abdel-Amir Al-Rikabi who described himself as a member of "the honest opposition" in contrast with those who met at a US-sponsored event in London.