Category Archives: Terrorism Issue

Tuning into Tunisia

"Arab Spring", Anthropology/Sociology, Egypt, Journalism and Media, Terrorism Issue, Tunisia, Yemen

The recent revolution in Tunisia has exploded across the blogosphere, with pundits talking about a popular tsunami that may promote democracy out of the ashes of a lifelong dictatorship. In yesterday’s New York Times, Roger Cohen provided an optimistic view from his journalistic perch in Tunis: “These are heady days in the Arab world’s fragile democratic bridgehead.” Cohen, and others, are wondering aloud if Tunisia can become the new Turkey, a more or less secular democracy in which the “Islamists” are moderate members of a political mosaic. If so, then he warns that the “tired refrain of all the Arab despots that they are the only bulwark against the jihadists will be seen for the self-serving lie it has become.”

Perhaps, but one does not have to go far back into the regime of Saddam Hussein to realize that his Ba’athi party did not tolerate religiously motivated sectarian violence. Brutal as it was, his regime was a bulwark (if such a metaphor really makes sense politically) against the continual round in “liberated” Iraq of sunni killing shi’a and vice versa. But then Saddam was not brought down by a popular street uprising. Continue reading Tuning into Tunisia →

Guns don’t kill, neither do guns die

"Arab Spring", Ethics, Iraq War, Obama Administration, Taliban, Terrorism Issue


For the past week the American media has been fixated on an act of violence that has left six dead and wounded fourteen, including Arizona representative Gabrielle Giffords. Last night President Obama, in a stirring and emotional speech at a memorial service for the victims, urged Americans not to use this tragedy as a staging ground for the usual politics of blame:

But what we can’t do is use this tragedy as one more occasion to turn on one another. As we discuss these issues, let each of us do so with a good dose of humility. Rather than pointing fingers or assigning blame, let us use this occasion to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully, to sharpen our instincts for empathy, and remind ourselves of all the ways our hopes and dreams are bound together.

Beneath the brief aura of civility in this tragedy’s aftermath there lingers an ongoing current of uncivil rhetoric, fueled in large part by media pundits eager to gain an audience. The blame has already been assigned over and over again. In this particular case it appears that the killer, Jared Lee Loughner, was an emotionally disturbed individual who acted on his own. Thus, it is no surprise that a Tea Party icon like Kentucky’s newly elected senator Rand Paul would go on Fox News and remind us all: “But the weapons don’t kill people. It’s the individual that killed these people.”

It certainly is true that the Glock 9 mm pistol did not go off on its own, so obviously there is no need to punish the gun involved in this case, nor even the bullets used. The problem is that if we claim that guns don’t kill, we must also admit that guns don’t die either. Continue reading Guns don’t kill, neither do guns die →

Ablution Pollution

Afghanistan, Ethics, Islam and Christianity, Islamophobia 101, Taliban, Terrorism Issue


A report in yesterday’s Los Angeles Times is a chilling reminder of the utter absurdity of out-of-control sectarian violence in Afghanistan.

Reporting from Kabul, Afghanistan —
A suicide bomber blew himself up Friday at a public bathhouse in southern Afghanistan that was filled with men washing themselves before the main prayers of the Muslim week. At least 17 were killed and 23 injured, provincial officials said.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack in Spin Boldak, in Kandahar province. The district, a main crossing point to and from Pakistan, is a longtime nexus of drug and weapons smuggling. Continue reading Ablution Pollution →

Heroic, Female and Muslim

Development, Gender and Sexuality, Islamophobia, Somalia, Terrorism Issue



Dr. Hawa Abdi runs a hospital in Somalia and stands up to extremists there; photograph by Casey Kelbaugh for The New York Times.

By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF, The New York Times, December 15, 2010

What’s the ugliest side of Islam? Maybe it’s the Somali Muslim militias that engage in atrocities like the execution of a 13-year-old girl named Aisha Ibrahim. Three men raped Aisha, and when she reported the crime she was charged with illicit sex, half-buried in the ground before a crowd of 1,000 and then stoned to death.

That’s the extremist side of Islam that drives Islamophobia in the United States, including Congressional hearings on American Muslims that House Republicans are planning for next year.

But there’s another side of Islam as well, represented by an extraordinary Somali Muslim woman named Dr. Hawa Abdi who has confronted the armed militias. Amazingly, she forced them to back down — and even submit a written apology. Glamour magazine, which named Dr. Hawa a “woman of the year,” got it exactly right when it called her “equal parts Mother Teresa and Rambo.”

Dr. Hawa, a 63-year-old ob-gyn who earned a law degree on the side, is visiting the United States to raise money for her health work back home. A member of Somalia’s elite, she founded a one-room clinic in 1983, but then the Somalian government collapsed, famine struck, and aid groups fled. So today Dr. Hawa is running a 400-bed hospital. Continue reading Heroic, Female and Muslim →

Iraq, Islam and Sweden

Anthropology/Sociology, Immigration Issues, Iraq, Islam in Europe, Terrorism Issue


Swedish-Iraqi immigrants protest in central Stockholm, where a car bomb exploded two days ago December 13, 2010. The placard on left reads, “Swedish Iraqis against terrorism”. REUTERS/Bertil Ericson

The recent bomb attempt in Sweden has been linked to an Iraqi who grew up in Sweden. Not much has been written about the influx of Iraqis to Sweden, whose open door policy in the past has led to it being a haven for refugees. However, one of my students, Sarah Skiold-Hanlin conducted an ethnographic project on Swedish reactions to the Iraqi community in the summer of 2008. Her research paper, an Honor’s Thesis in the Department of Anthropology at Hofstra, is available online and I recommend it for anyone wanting more information on the subject of Iraqis in Sweden.

I attach Sarah’s introduction below, but encourage you to read her entire paper:

“One place where many Iraqis have found refuge from the war is Sweden,” stated Renee Montagne, the host of NPR’s Morning Edition. This was her opening line as she introduced the news story titled: Sweden Begins Sending Iraqi Refugees Home. The story aired March 25, 2008. Renee goes on to explain how the “many Iraqis” numbered somewhere in the range of 20,000. A momentary flash of elation followed this opening as my mind began turning over the meaning, estimating its possible weight. Perhaps Sweden, a nation with which I have close family ties, could help rectify the political actions of my country of birth. But like trying to dam the Mississippi River with a box of pop sickle sticks and a bottle of Elmer’s Glue, the flow of refugees fleeing the war in Iraq is far to numerous for one small Scandinavian country to hold. Renee’s voice fervently interjected as she continued washing away my melodic dreams of relief and solution to the persistent humanitarian crisis plaguing so many civilians. “The Swedish government is stopping that flow of Iraqi refugees and sending some back home against their will,” she reported. Continue reading Iraq, Islam and Sweden →

Loving Yemen

Afghanistan, Development, Journalism and Media, Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


Yemen is not quite the desert journalists dream up

The journalistic war talk on terror took a sidestep over the past week or so as commentators sought to tweak the Wikileaks for all they could be imagined to be worth. Here was cable-ready proof that diplomats do not believe exactly what they say in public, that rulers are not always stable and “secret” communication may be secret for a reason. Ah, yes, diplomats with no clothing. But now it’s back to Al Qaeda. In a recent commentary for The Christian Science Monitor, a former senior international correspondent for CNN, Walter Rodgers, weighs in on Al Qaeda in Yemen.

The result is a prime example of run-of-the-treadmill sinthetic (spelling intended) reportage. All the right people are quoted, those who actually know something about Yemen. This includes a former ambassador, Barbara Bodine, a historian, Bernard Haykel and a young political scientist, Gregory Johnsen. Each is granted a short quote, although the reader has no idea what the full context of each comment was. So Ambassador Bodine at some point said “The issue is geography,” which clearly needs explanation. Unfortunately Rodgers flunks his geography lesson. Yemen is not “nearly all mountainous desert.” The only true desert areas in Yemen are along the coast and entering the Arabian desert, not in the mountain valleys and plateaus.

The journalist’s geographical blunders are equaled by his historical ignorance. Continue reading Loving Yemen →

Bin Who? Bin Laden?

Afghanistan, Humor and Satire, Osama Bin Laden

Two protracted wars drag on as the so-called “War on Terror” seems to be winding down in theory. In another year our hunt for the infamous Osama Bin Laden will be almost a decade old. The detour into Iraq, toppling a brutal dictator and ensuring a far more Iran-friendly government in Iraq, is reaching a deadened end, if you do not count the numerous advisors who will remain in and out of uniform. Then there is Afghanistan, which was the bane of the Brits in the 19th century, the Soviets in the 20th century and most probably the Americans and NATO in the 21st century. Billions of dollars and thousands of lives later the reason the United States originally got involved in the region, specifically to capture Bin Laden and bring him to justice, remains unfulfilled. Whether cooling his heels in a Pakistani border cave or a Swat safe house, the suspected mastermind of the 9/11 bombing is still out there somewhere.

Imagine if Bin Laden could be captured? Well, if you read German, you have a guide. While in Vienna earlier this fall I picked up a copy of Bin Laden Enthüllt, a comic book by Mohamed Sifaoui and Philippe Vercovici (Frankfurt: Eichborn, 2009). Continue reading Bin Who? Bin Laden? →