All posts by tabsir

Hark! The Herald Angels Didn’t Sing

Anthropology/Sociology, Bible and Holy Land


by Tanya Lurhmann,The New York Times, December 14, 2012

We are in Advent, but over the transom has come the sobering news that Image Books has just published a book written by the pope, “Jesus of Nazareth: The Infancy Narratives,” in which he observes that there was neither an ox nor a donkey in the stable where Jesus was born. Nor did a host of angels sing. They spoke.

Is “Hark! the Herald Angels Sing” doomed?

In fact, the news is not so grim. This is not an encyclical; the pope is writing as Joseph Ratzinger. It turns out that he tolerates, even encourages, the presence of lowing animals in the manger. He writes: “In the Gospel there is no reference to animals at this point. But prayerful reflection, reading Old and New Testaments in the light of one another, filled this lacuna at a very early state by pointing to Isaiah 1:3: ‘The ox knows its owner, and the ass its master’s crib, but Israel does not know.’ ” A few pages later, the pope explains that “Christianity has always understood that the speech of angels is actually song.” Continue reading Hark! The Herald Angels Didn’t Sing →

How Ecumenical Was Early Islam?

Conferences and Talks, Islamic History, Scholars, YouTube Watch


“How Ecumenical Was Early Islam?” is the title of a lecture by Fred M. Donner, Professor of Near Eastern History, University of Chicago, in celebration of Roy P. Mottahedeh, Gurney Professor of History, Harvard University, at Harvard’s conference entitlted”Law, Loyalty and Leadership: Roy P. Mottahedeh’s Contribution to Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies at Harvard.” The lecture is available for viewing online at http://cmes.hmdc.harvard.edu/node/3252

Poison Gas: Does it cut mustard?

"Arab Spring", Obama Administration, Syria, Terrorism Issue


British planes bombed Iraqi Kurds after World War I; Churchill once said “I do not understand this sqeamishness about the use of gas. I am strongly in favour of using poison gas against uncivilised tribes.”

[Editor’s Note: The issue of Syria’s chemical weapons overshadows the continual loss of life in the current uncivil civil war. Below is a journalistic take by Robert Fisk, who debunks the notion that Syria has stockpiles of gas ready to unleash. A more sophisticated view of the problem is presented by Syrian writer Rime Allaf in a New York Times commentary on December 6; she notes that drawing a “red line” over the blood already spilled only encourages Assad to do everything but use gas. The thought of chemical weapons added to the already toxic mix is, of course, deplorable, but meanwhile the more conventual slaughter goes on and on…]

Bashar al-Assad, Syria, and the truth about chemical weapons

by Robert Fisk, The Independent, December 8, 2012

Bashar’s father Hafez al-Assad was brutal but never used chemical arms. And do you know which was the first army to use gas in the Middle East?

The bigger the lie the more people will believe it. We all know who said that – but it still works. Bashar al-Assad has chemical weapons. He may use them against his own Syrian people. If he does, the West will respond. We heard all this stuff last year – and Assad’s regime repeatedly said that if – if – it had chemical weapons, it would never use them against Syrians.

But now Washington is playing the same gas-chanty all over again. Bashar has chemical weapons. He may use them against his own people. And if he does…

Well if he does, Obama and Madame Clinton and Nato will be very, very angry. But over the past week, all the usual pseudo-experts who couldn’t find Syria on a map have been warning us again of the mustard gas, chemical agents, biological agents that Syria might possess – and might use. And the sources? The same fantasy specialists who didn’t warn us about 9/11 but insisted that Saddam had weapons of mass destruction in 2003: “unnamed military intelligence sources”. Henceforth to be acronymed as UMIS. Continue reading Poison Gas: Does it cut mustard? →

What do Ordinary Egyptians want?

"Arab Spring", Anthropology/Sociology, Egypt, Islamic Law


[Editor’s Note: The following commentary is a post originally submitted to the Sociology of Islam listserv about the current debate over the proposed new Egyptian constitution. There has been an active discussion of the pros and cons of the constitution, both in Egypt and among academics abroad, as evidenced in Dr. Bamyeh’s comments.]

by Dr. Mohammed Bamyeh

I think we have been constantly losing track of, or at least are not sure about, the right question to ask. For me, the primary question has always been: what ordinary Egyptians wanted? I know that “ordinary” is a construct, but there are ways to either measure that when you can, or at least sense with reasonable evidence where the prevailing sentiments may be heading. The revolution was made by those “ordinary people,” not by professional “revolutionaries.” It would never have succeeded any other way. But within the revolution there has always been a hardcore self-identified “revolutionary camp” (which in fact was the minority) that had an inflated sense of self-importance, and thus a propensity to be easily and deeply frustrated when it did not get its way (beginning with the March 19, 2011 referendum). Out of that they developed a strong suspicion of ordinary Egyptians, but outwardly that suspicion appeared as a strong resentment of what to them appeared as a monolith called the Brotherhood. The fact that they did not afterwards hesitate to use the Supreme Constitutional Court, that bastion of the counter-revolution, as their main weapon against popular will, and do so precisely in the name of the revolution(!) is simply shameless.

The fact that they did not want to accept was that the Ikhwan won not because of any manipulation, nor because of a deal with the military, but simply because they deserved to win. I am certainly not an Islamist–in fact I would describe my political leanings as anarchist. However, the real question for me is not one of ideology, but of sociology. The force that will have most resonance after the fall of a dictatorship would naturally be one that is most organically embedded in the deep, deep fabric of society, that exists in every Egyptian village, that for more than 80 years has been doing what ordinary Egyptians have felt to be useful, practical, everyday, non-revolutionary work–mostly. In contrast, what have the leftists/secularist/liberals ever done other than issuing pamphlets and grand declarations? What have they ever done for anyone, so as to cultivate the conviction that they should be the natural leaders of a society in which they had little roots and to which they spoke as vanguardist strangers–and before the revolution, often with contempt? Continue reading What do Ordinary Egyptians want? →

خارطة طريق لحل مشكلة المياه والقات في اليمن

Development, Qat (Catha edulis), Yemen


Qat tree in the highland valley of al-Ahjur; photograph by Daniel Martin Varisco

محمد فارع محمد الدبعي
بروفيسور الموارد المائية – جامعة صنعاء
الأحد, 25 نوفمبر, 2012

التفكير جدياً في استيراد القات من دول الجوار على مراحل حفاظاً على الإنسان في اليمن.

لماذا كل شيء يمكن استيراده في بلادنا (كل شيء) ما عدا القات؟؟

منع استخدام المبيدات في زراعة القات لما تشكله من أضرار على صحة المواطنين

توطين تكنولوجيا تحلية المياه في المناطق الساحلية باعتبارها الحل الذي لا بديل عنه لمجابهة الحاجة المتزايدة لهذا المورد على الدوام.

العمل على أن تكون عبوة قنينة الماء المعبأة نصف لتر فقط، حفاظاً على كثير من الماء المهدور.

استيراد القات الخالي من المبيدات أصبح ضرورة للحد من الاستنزاف الحاد للمياه الجوفية والعبث بالمواطن اليمني صحياً ومادياً

المشكلة في غاية الأهمية والخطورة بالنسبة لنا ولأجيالنا القادمة وعلى الجهات المسئولة إيجاد الحلول والمعالجات بدلاً من عقد المؤتمرات والندوات وورش العمل المغلقة التي تستهلك معونات وهبات المنظمات الدولية ويستفيد منها منظموها فقط وبدون مردود على الصعيد الوطني. إن ما يتم القيام به لحل مشكلة المياه والحد من التوسع في زراعة القات لا يلامس حل المشكلة ولا يعطي الاطمئنان لتنمية مستدامة تبشر بمستقبل واعد.

لليمن تاريخ طويل في إدارة الموارد المائية والحفاظ عليها. وما بناء سد مأرب التاريخي قبل ثلاثة ألف سنة، وصهاريج عدن التاريخية، وكذلك بناء السدود الصغيرة في المنحدرات الجبلية، إلا شاهداً على ذلك، لقد اختفى الكثير من هذه السدود الصغيرة وأصبحت في ذمة التاريخ، وما تبقى منها لا يعمل، لقد عملت هذه السدود على حفظ الماء من أجل الري الزراعي والشرب والاستخدامات المنزلية المختلفة، وساعدت في تغذية الخزان الجوفي.
Continue reading خارطة طريق لحل مشكلة المياه والقات في اليمن →

Notes from Algeria and Turkey

Algeria, Conferences and Talks, Islam: Introduction, Teaching Resources, Turkey


Notes from Algeria and Turkey — Charting the Modern Face of Islamic Civilization and Democracy in a Global World

by Bruce Lawrence, Transcultural Islam Research Network, November 30, 2012

What can we learn from an aging Turkish Imam with a pan-Turkish cultural movement to his name and a deceased Algerian philosopher — both of whom command attention as devout Muslims and men of science — about civilizational rebuilding in the modern era?

Scholars gathered in Algiers from Nov 21-22 at the College of Islamic Sciences at the University of Algiers to find out.

“The Philosophy of Civilizational Rebuilding, according to Malek Bennabi and Fetullah Gülen: Guidelines for Creative Thinking & Effective Action” was the theme for the conference, and I was invited to give a paper on this weighty subject.

I had been teaching in Istanbul during Fall 2012. My assignment there had been to train graduate students, both Turkish and non-Turkish, in theories and methods that apply to civilizational studies.

I had also been traveling and giving lectures elsewhere in Turkey, including a memorable lecture to 400 students at Mustafa Kemal University in Antakya — where the topic was Islam and Global Civilization and included a survey of constitutionalism, citizenship and cosmopolitanism, along with numerous approaches to Islamic civilization in the crowded marquee of world civilizations that claim to be both global and universal.

Just who were Fethullah Gülen and Malek Bennabi? Why was their thinking paired to address the topic of civilizational rebuilding, and how would their views advance an initiative that spanned centuries and engaged some of the best minds, from Ibn Khaldun in late 14th century North Africa to Arnold Toynbee in mid-20th century Britain? Continue reading Notes from Algeria and Turkey →

The Soccer Stadium that was

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel, Palestine


Gaza’s war-damaged Palestine Stadium

Israeli measures fuel international anti-Israeli soccer protests

By James M. Dorsey

A series of Israeli measures against Palestinian soccer culminating in an attack on a stadium in Gaza during last month’s confrontation with Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian group that controls the heavily populated strip along the Mediterranean, has fueled growing international soccer opposition to the Jewish state’s policies.

In the latest expression of discomfort, 62 professional players have called for depriving Israel of the right to host European soccer body UEFA’s 2013 Under-21 championship. Israel has already employed the championship to counter the image of being an area dominated by war and conflict that was reinforced by last month’s hostilities with Hamas that killed more than 150 Palestinians and five Israelis.

“In June we have the Under-21 here in Israel. I hope that everything will be quiet until then and we can show the different sides of Israel,” said Maccabi Tel Aviv defender Omer Vered in a BBC interview.

The statement by the players follows protests earlier this year by world soccer body FIFA, UEFA and players’ group FIFPro against Israel’s handling of a hunger strike of an imprisoned Palestinian player, Mahmoud Sarsak, accused of being a member of militant group Islamic Jihad, and the arrest of two other players suspected in involvement in violent anti-Israeli actions. Continue reading The Soccer Stadium that was →