All posts by tabsir

US drone killing of Anwar al-Awlaki reinforces terrorists

Obama Administration, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


by Maajid Nawaz, The Guardian, October 1, 2011

As Anwar al-Awlaki became the first individual to be summarily executed by his own government in the “war on terror” on Friday, we are reminded of the dark side in this relentless pursuit for security.

Awlaki was an evil man who preached against humanity. As a counter-extremism adviser, I dedicate all my energies to discrediting his ilk. I am under no illusion of the danger that he posed. I live with such danger every day, through my work. Awlaki’s desire to arbitrarily kill, deny rights and bypass due process is what made him evil. In summarily executing him in this way, the US has just called the kettle black.

Just as achieving liberty takes years of bloody struggle, its violation is rarely brought about overnight. Arbitrary detention, extraordinary rendition, targeted killings and “enhanced interrogation” – otherwise known as torture – are but some of the measures that have slowly been re-introduced into human practice by the US. Now, add to that list the summary execution of a citizen. Continue reading US drone killing of Anwar al-Awlaki reinforces terrorists →

Somalia’s Famine

Development, Somalia, Teaching Resources


Severely malnourished child from southern Somalia sits in Banadir hospital… (Farah Abdi Warsameh/AP)

A Diplomatic Surge to Stop Somalia’s Famine

By Ken Menkhaus, Enough Project, September 21, 2011

[Ken Menkhaus is a professor of political science at Davidson College and a specialist on
Somalia and the Horn of Africa. He worked on famine response policy in Somalia in 1991
and served as a political advisor in the U.N. Operation in Somalia in 1993-94. He is author of
over 50 monographs, chapters, and articles on Somalia and the Horn of Africa, and has testified
five times before congressional committees on aspects of the Somali crisis.]

Somalia is dying. Three-quarters of a million people are at immediate risk of famine;
another 750,000 are refugees in neighboring countries, and 4 million – half the total
population – is in need of emergency aid. It is a calamity that could join the ranks of the
Rwanda genocide and the Darfur crisis in terms of scale and human suffering. And for
Somalia it is a terrible repeat of the 1991-92 famine that claimed 240,000 lives.

The international response to date has been shockingly inadequate – not just because
funds for humanitarian aid have fallen short, but because of the absence of political will
to take bold diplomatic action to remove impediments to the delivery of aid.

Unless this changes, the 2011 Somali famine will be to the Obama administration what
the 1994 Rwandan genocide was to the Clinton administration – a terrible stain, an
unforgiveable instance of lack of political will to push policy beyond incrementalism.
And for the Islamic world, al-Shabaab’s role in the Somali famine will be remembered as
the Islamic Khmer Rouge, in which an armed group with a deeply twisted interpretation
of the faith presides over the mass deaths of its own people. Continue reading Somalia’s Famine →

Tabsir Redux: Flipping through Yemen a Millennium Ago

Books You Should Read, Islamic History, Rasulids, Yemen


Mosque in Jiblah, Yemen

There was a time when books were hard to come by. Either they cost too much or were inaccessible in a private or exclusive university library. Whatever else the world wide web has done (and that is a mouthful), it now functions as an archive. More and more, the rare and out-of-print books I used to be forced to read in a library reading room are becoming available online. Mr. Gutenberg might roll over in his Grab at the very thought of a pdf file, but print has taken a new and universal turn. I especially enjoy the “flipbook”, which simulates turning the pages of images of the original. For an enjoyable read on the early history of Yemen, there is the flipbook version of Henry Cassels Kay’s translation called YAMAN, ITS EARLY MEDIAEVAL HISTORY, published in London in 1892. This has excerpts (not always trustworthy in their translation) from Umarah ibn Ali al-Hakami (1120/21-1174), Ibn Khaldun (1332-1406); Muhammad ibn Yaqub al-Janadi (d. 1332?).

The sad thing is that well over a century ago, Kay lamented that there was virtually nothing available on the history of Yemen, which had become of strategic interest to the British empire. Continue reading Tabsir Redux: Flipping through Yemen a Millennium Ago →

Salih’s Latest Speech

"Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Salih, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


[Over at Waq al-Waq, Greg Johnsen has a good read on Salih’s latest speech after his return to Yemen.]

Salih’s Speech (Instant Analysis)
by Gregory Johnsen, Waq al-Waq, September 25, 2011

Days after dramatically returning from Saudi Arabia, President Ali Abdullah Salih did what he does in these situations: he gave a speech.

The international media will likely lead with the fact that Salih called for early elections (in fact, here is an early al-Jazeera piece saying just that). But what this analysis misses is the caveat – that ever present out – that Salih gave himself, saying that elections would only take place in the context of the GCC deal.

The GCC deal, as those of you who read Waq al-waq frequently know, is worthless. Not only is it impossible to enforce – as Salih’s will-I, won’t-I dance illustrates – but there are so many loopholes in the plan that even if Salih did sign it he could easily manipulate the aftermath of the deal to ensure that a trusted ally or relative succeeded him as president, or find some excuse to continue in power.

To that end, Salih reaffirmed that his vice president Hadi is authorized to negotiate and eventually sign the GCC deal. This is worthless. And Salih knows it.

Numerous high-level Yemeni figures have already signed the deal, the signature that is missing is Salih’s. This is yet one more evasion from a president who sees his strategy of duck and delay starting to pay-off. Continue reading Salih’s Latest Speech →

يا قاتل الأطفال يا مهدم الحياة والديار

"Arab Spring", Poetry, Yemen


عبدالعزيز المقالح: ذهبت مثلما أتيت ملعون المساء والنهار .. يا قاتل الأطفال يا مهدم الحياة والديار

Yemen Press, Saturday, 24 September, 2011

ذهبت مثلما أتيت ملعون المساء والنهار…
أيامك الطوال عار..
وعهدك القصير عار..
أكبر منك نملة..
أشهر منك ريشة على جدار..
يا أمسنا الذبيح..
يا فأرنا القبيح..
يا قاتل الأطفال يا مهدم الحياة والديار..
ظننت أنك الإله .. أننا العبيد..
تفعل ما تريد..
تعبث في مصائر العباد..
فخانك الظن وخانك الرشاد..
أصبحت كومة من الرماد..
تنام في انفراد..
تصحو على انفراد..
تسألك الريح ، يسألك الجماد..
ماذا صنعت قل ..
ماذا صنعت للبلاد؟,,
ماذا تركت من ذكرى على ضميرها ومن أمجاد؟..
لا شيء يا صغير..
لا شيء غير لعبة المزاد..
رفاقك القرًاد والقوًاد..
وعاصف الفساد..
ماذا تركت للذين يقرأون؟..
ماذا سيكتب الأطفال عنك حين يكبرون؟..
سيكتبون .. مر من هنا منتفخا..
فأر صغير يرتدي ثوب مغامر جلاد..

Are you Whiggish?

Books You Should Read, Ethics, Scholars, Teaching Resources


[One of my favorite works on the philosophy of history is Herbert Butterfield’s prescient 1931 The Whig Interpretation of History. While most people today probably have no clue what a “Whig” is, his reflections on how we look at and write about history are as relevant today as when he wrote them eight decades ago. The whole text is available online, but I provide some excerpts from the Introduction here to whet your appetite.]

1. INTRODUCTION

It has been said that the historian is the avenger, and that standing as a judge between the parties and rivalries and causes of bygone generations he can lift up the fallen and beat down the proud, and by his exposures and his verdicts, his satire and his moral indignation, can punish unrighteousness, avenge the injured or reward the innocent. One may be forgiven for not being too happy about any division of mankind into good and evil, progressive and reactionary, black and white; and it is not clear that moral indignation is not a dispersion of one’s energies to the great confusion of one’s judgement. There can be no complaint against the historian who personally and privately has his preferences and antipathies, and who as a human being merely has a fancy to take part in the game that he is describing; it is pleasant to see him give way to his prejudices and take them emotionally, so that they splash into colour as he writes; provided that when he steps in this way into the arena he recognizes that he is stepping into a world of partial judgements and purely personal appreciations and does not imagine that he is speaking ex cathedra. But if the historian can rear himself up like a god and judge, or stand as the official avenger of the crimes of the past, then one can require that he shall be still more godlike and regard himself rather as the reconciler than as the avenger; taking it that his aim is to achieve the understanding of the men and parties and causes of the past, and that in this understanding, if it can be complete, all things will ultimately be reconciled. It seems to be assumed that in history we can have something more than the private points of view of particular historian; that there are “verdicts of history” and that history itself, considered impersonally, has something to say to men. Continue reading Are you Whiggish? →

History of Islamic Cartography Online

Environment, Islamic History, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Maps, Miniatures, Teaching Resources


Al-Idrisi’s map of the world, 1154 CE

A very useful volume on Islamic cartography is now online. Below is the table of contents, each chapter available in pdf.

Volume Two, Book One
Cartography in the Traditional Islamic and South Asian Societies
Edited by J. B. Harley and David Woodward

Volume 1

Front Matter
Gallery of Color Illustrations (Plates 1–24)
Gallery of Color Illustrations (Plates 25–40)

Preface
J. B. Harley and David Woodward

Part One – Islamic Cartography

Chapter 1. Introduction to Islamic Maps
Ahmet T. Karamustafa

Chapter 2. Celestial Mapping
Emilie Savage-Smith

Chapter 3. Cosmographical Diagrams
Ahmet T. Karamustafa

Early Geographical Mapping

Chapter 4. The Beginnings of a Cartographic Tradition
Gerald R. Tibbetts Continue reading History of Islamic Cartography Online →

Lively action at the Dead Sea

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Art, Israel, Photography

Palestine and Israel are back in the news. As Abbas prepares to request recognition for Palestine from the U.N. and Israelis themselves stage protests following the “Arab Spring,” the installation (sans clothing) photographer Spencer Tunick has returned to the legendary site of Sodom and Gomorrah to unclothe the political tensions in the area. I think he is on to something by having his subjects take everything off. Forget about turning swords into plowshares, just strip and dive in. And here is one part of the region where you are guaranteed not to sink.