With the election going on in the US, a school shooting, and an election in Pakistan, why should we pay attention to a seemingly trivial story, Mohamed Al-Fayed's courtroom performance at the Diana inquest?
While many of the "theories" Al-Fayed espoused in the courtroom may be part of this aggrieved parent's imagination, there was an underlying truth and wisdom below some of his comments, which, on the surface, seemed to be a lot of crazy rant. In some ways this was like "tabloid truth." The story on the surface is a lie, but the underlying emotion may reflect a common wisdom. It sounded like rant when Al-Fayed called Philip a Nazi, but his accusation that the royal family didn't want a princess marrying someone with dark, curly hair and tanned skin began to reveal Al-Fayed's real sentiment, and it is quite political. By referring to hair and skin characteristics and using the word Nazi, Al-Fayed is placing the Muslims and the Jews in the same class. In opposition to terrorists and extreme fundamentalists of both religions, Al-Fayed is uniting the Jews and the Muslims. Now examine his statement, impossible to prove, that Diana told him she was pregnant and that she and Dodi were getting engaged. Isn't that the ultimate rejection to extremist religious laws repressing women. He is really saying, "she got pregnant out of wedlock, and I still love her as a daughter and want to take her into my family." No stoning, no prison, no death sentences. It all makes me wonder: Al-Fayed worked his way up and became a sophisticated, accomplished businessman. His son got killed in an accident with Diana. Did any of Diana's relatives, especially from the Royal Family, console him and treat him as a grieving parent? Or did he get the cold shoulder, his humanity ignored. We should think of Al-Fayed as expressing a deeper wisdom, one of equality, peace and tolerance. He is telling the snobs to get rid of their class bias and the extremists to get rid of their outdated views on women.