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Delegates to the General Islamic Conference
held in Jerusalem in 1931 |
Beside the Arab and Islamic countries, Eltaher’s activities covered events of interest to the Arabs in the various African, European, North and South American countries to which Arabs emigrated. This worldwide activity prompted Makram Ebeid Pasha14, one of the senior Egyptian Wafd Party leaders to describe him as “Egypt’s ambassador to the Arab World”. It is important to point out here that, beside the well-known Lebanese Druze notable and pan Islamic nationalist, Emir Shakib Arslan, Eltaher was practically the only writer and journalist in the Levant who concentrated his efforts on events taking place in the North African Maghreb countries, such as the struggle for independence from France by Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, and by Libya, which had to endure an even harsher Italian colonial regime.
When “Ashoura’s” license was revoked and the newspaper was closed down by the Egyptian government working at the behest of British colonial authorities in 1931, Eltaher published the newspaper under other names such as “Al-Jadid” (The New), then “Al-Shabab” (i.e. Youth), which was published in 1937, then “Al-Alam Al-Masri”, (i.e. the Egyptian Flag) in 1939. The license authorizing publication of “Al-Jadid” and “Al-Shabab” belonged originally to Dr. Mahmoud Azmi Pasha, a well-known Egyptian nationalist and future Egyptian Representative at the General Assembly of the United Nations.
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Eltaher’s Egyptian press card 1939-1940 |
Azmi Pasha transferred the license of his newspaper free of charge to his friend Eltaher “… in order for him to publish it as he pleases, so that his voice defending Arab rights is not silenced”, as he wrote to him in a letter dated January 23, 1937. However the Egyptian authorities refused to reinstate the license to publish “Ashoura”, and proceeded to ban “Al-Shabab”. This led Eltaher to publish his paper under the name ”Al-Alam Al-Masri”, whose license was transferred to him also free-of-charge by its owner Abdelqader Al-Toumi as Azmi Pasha did with “Al-Shabab”. There were others too who had offered their papers to Eltaher free of charge to continue publishing whatever he wished, such as George Tannous, who offered his newspaper “Al-Raquib” (i.e. The Observer), followed by Hussein Shafiq Al-Masri, publisher of “Al-Nas” (i.e. The People), and Sheikh Ibrahim Tfayyesh,
publisher of “Al-Minhaj” (i.e. The Way), and Mahmoud Aboul-Fath, publisher of “Al-Goumhour” (i.e. The Public).
In 1936 Eltaher had edited a book for publication about the “Great Palestine Revolt” of 1936, entitled “Falastin Ard Al-shouhada” (Palestine Land of Martyrs), but police confiscated the printing plates (clichés) and whatever sections already printed. The book was never published.
