The first journalist to bring the plight of Palestinians living in Jerusalem and the Occupied Territories to the attention of the British media was honoured at a ceremony in Dundee today.
(Monday Feb 6 2006) The late Michael Adams was working for The Guardian in 1967 when he wrote a prophetic article after the six-day war calling for the Israelis to make peace and not take control of the Occupied Territories.
He predicted then that this would lead to Arab extremism and the instability that still describes the area today. Michael Adams wrote extensively about the situation in the Middle East as well as producing radio programmes for the BBC about the region.
He then went on to become the first director of the Council for the Advancement of Arab-British Understanding (CAABU). To mark the first anniversary of his death Al-Maktoum Institute for Arabic and Islamic Studies, based at Blackness Road, Dundee invited his widow Celia and son Paul, Chief Diplomatic Correspondent for BBC News 24, to officially open a seminar room that is named in his memory.
The Michael Adams Seminar Room houses a large collection of journals and articles written by him that were donated to the Institute by CAABU. Professor Abd al-Fattah El-Awaisi, Principal and Vice-Chancellor of Al-Maktoum Institute, first met Michael Adams in the early 1980s when he was studying for a PhD at Exeter University.
He described his former tutor as “a man of great principle and one of the kindest I have ever known.”
Professor El-Awaisi said the decision to name the seminar room after Michael Adams was a recognition of the great work he’d done during his lifetime to promote greater understanding between the Arabs and the Western world and to promote peace in the Middle East.
He added: “The Institute is also delighted to receive so many books and articles from CAABU and Michael’s family. I’m sure our students will find them a great source of inspiration.”
Only last week Professor El-Awaisi published his own book calling for the area of Islamicjerusalem that covers the region Michael Adams wrote so extensively about, to be designated as a “global space” where people of all religions and none could live together in peace.
Also attending the naming ceremony was Mr Ernie Ross, the former MP for Dundee West and another lifelong campaigner for the Arab cause.
