Category Archives: Countries

The Middle East’s oldest dictatorship

"Arab Spring", Arab-Israeli Conflict, Israel, Palestine


Israel’s resolute occupation of Palestinians in not just historic Palestine, but in the West Bank and Gaza Strip specifically, can be considered the oldest quasi-dictatorship in the Middle East, Bishara argues [GALLO/GETTY]

by Marwan Bishara, Al Jazeera, April 21, 2011

As the conventional wisdom goes – especially in the West – Israel is the “only democracy” in the Middle East. And that is so, particularly for its Jewish citizens. However Israel has been anything but democratic for the indigenous people of the land, the Palestinian Arabs.

By nature and precedence, foreign military occupation is temporary. Colonialism on the other hand, and more precisely civilian colonisation, is a socio-political system of ruling over another people.

Since its inception at the end of the 19th century, Zionism preached self-determination for the Jewish people in “their” homeland. In reality, Israel has directly or indirectly driven Palestinians out of their homeland, confiscated their properties, rejected their right to return to their homeland despite UN resolutions, and occupied and colonised the rest of their homeland for the last four decades.

Throughout, Israeli military and security services ruled over another people against their will. They oppressed, tortured, exploited and robbed the Palestinians of their land, water and most importantly, their freedom. There has been more political prisoners in Israeli jails than any of its neighbours.

In denial over their predicament, Israeli leaders have taken shelter in the illusion of surplus morality. Continue reading The Middle East’s oldest dictatorship →

Yemen after Ali Abdullah Salih

"Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Salih, Yemen


Ali Abdullah Salih, from 1978 to 2011

From the latest news reports in the region it appears that President Ali Abdullah Salih has agreed to step down within a month in an agreement brokered by the GCC. The plan calls for Salih to hand over power to his Vice President one month after the opposition signs on to the agreement, which they have reportedly done. Although, as I write this Salih’s decision to step down has not been broadcast in the state-run Yemeni newspaper al-Thawra or on his personal website. Two months later a national election is to be held. A possible sticking point is the immunity that this agreement provides President Salih and his family. The U.S. administration has already blessed the plan and it seems likely that it will be finally resolve Salih’s departure.

The protests against Salih have left the country divided and the economy, weak as it was to begin with, has basically ground to a halt. The poorest country in the Middle East is even poorer after three months of protests across the country. So what happens now?

The removal of President Salih will not solve the range of economic, ecological and social problems facing Yemen. Unemployment will continue, as the oil production nears an end; water tables will draw down even more drastically; imported Salafi conservatism will divide the population even more. In a sense Salih has been out of power for the past three months, simply hanging on as the protests gained more and more momentum. Unable, and apparently unwilling, to stop the street protests militarily (as Qaddafi is desperately trying), Salih deftly tried to garner his own supporters as a counter to those who wanted him to leave. But the hand writing was on the wall all along, given the wide coalition of groups who had grievances against his regime. The opposition seemingly united in its primary goal of removing Salih, but there is no single leading opposition party or leader waiting in the wings. Continue reading Yemen after Ali Abdullah Salih →

History repeats itself: The case of Egypt

"Arab Spring", Architecture, Contemporary Art, Egypt


Ruling families not fondly remembered in Egypt

The history of divine kingship and dictatorial hubris has a consistent theme: elevating a ruler’s name above all others and stamping that name on just about everything in sight. In Saddam Hussein’s Iraq his image was everywhere, at times in the heroic proportions of a Babylonian king; visit Syria and you will find Assad and son lionized in every nook and cranny; Timur is resurrected in Uzbekistan. Then there is Hosni Mubarak, whose fall from power is now accompanied by an erasure of his public visage. As reported in Al Jazeera:

An Egyptian court has ordered the names of Hosni Mubarak, the country’s former president, and his wife Suzanne, to be removed from all public places, including streets and parks. Judge Mohammad Hassan Omar ordered on Thursday that Mubarak’s name and picture be removed from sport fields, streets, schools, libraries and other public establishments, according to the state-run al-Ahram newspaper. Currently, various public spaces, including squares, streets and about 500 public schools bear the names of either Hosni, Suzanne or Gamal Mubarak.

Continue reading History repeats itself: The case of Egypt →

Viewing the Shanamah in Manhattan

Calligraphy, Conferences and Talks, Iran, Languages, Literature, Miniatures, Poetry, Qur'an, Scholars, Sufism


Portrait of the infant Rustam shown to Sam (folio 30b)

On Thursday night I had the privilege of attending a reading of portions of the Shanamah by Iraj Anvar.
The reading was held as part of the superb series called “Illuminated Verses: Poetries of the Islamic World,” which is a series of readings and events that began in March with a lecture by Bruce Lawrence on the Quran and continues through May 7. This is an extraordinary opportunity to hear and learn more about the variety of poetic production in Islamic cultures worldwide.

While the reading of the Shanamah is over, you can still see the exhibit of the mid 15th century Muhammad Juki’s manuscript of the Shanamah at the Asia Society through May 1.

The Legacy of Donny George Youkhanna

Archaeology and Antiquities, Conferences and Talks, Iraq, Scholars


A memorial conference entitled “Cultural Heritage Now – The Legacy of Donny George Youkhanna” will be held Wednesday, April 27, 2011 from 4:30 – 6:30 at the Rutgers Student Center in New Brunswick , New Jersey. Details below.

Cultural Heritage Now:

Iraq and Beyond
The Legacy of Donny George Youkhanna

Wednesday, April 27, 2011
4:30-6:30

Rutgers Student Center
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey
126 College Ave
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

The event is open to the public, but pre-registration is required. Those wishing to contribute remarks must indicate this at the time of registration.

Presentations by:

John Russell
“Preserving Iraq’s Past”
John Malcolm Russell teaches the art and archaeology of the ancient Middle East and Egypt at the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston, Massachusetts. He is the author of numerous articles and four books on ancient Assyria, one of which, The Final Sack of Nineveh (Yale), investigates the destruction of Sennacherib’s palace in Iraq by looters in the 1990’ s. Professor Russell has conducted archaeological excavations at Nineveh, Iraq, and Tell Ahmar, Syria. In 2003-2004 he served with the Coalition Provisional Authority as an advisor to the Iraqi Ministry of Culture in Baghdad, Iraq, where he focused on renovating the Iraq Museum and protecting archaeological sites. Continue reading The Legacy of Donny George Youkhanna →

Yemen beyond the protests

Architecture, Photography, Tihama, Yemen


The recent protests that have shaken the Middle East from North Africa to Yemen so dominate the news these past couple of months that it is almost as though we see nothing else. Whether pictures are worth a thousand and one words, or even more, here are some superb photographs of Yemen by Raiman al-Hamdani, taken with his permission from his Flickr account.


One of the important mosques in the coastal town of Zabid

If Salih read the Qur’an

"Arab Spring", Ali Abdullah Salih, Gender and Sexuality, Yemen, Zaydi


The rhetorical standoff in Yemen continues with only a limited amount of violence even while hundreds of thousands of people have been protesting, mostly against the decades-old regime of President Ali Abdullah Salih. Yesterday the New York Times commented that the protests in Yemen remain remarkably peaceful, with isolated cases of individual violence (mainly by those who support Salih) but no major clashes with the army or between tribal groups. President Salih holds a weekly rally of his supporters (some of whom have clearly been paid to come to the rally, as reporters note) as a counterpart to the far greater numbers protesting all over the country against his continued rule. He is holding on to power with a very thin string; indeed it is hardly even ‘power” any more given that much of the country is basically ignoring him and he is diplomatically isolated.

The only thing more incongruous than dictators (a military man installed in a coup after an assassination of the previous leader and who has remained in power for over three decades is at least an honorary dictator) talking about democracy is when dictators start talking about religion. Unlike Yemen’s Zaydi imams, whose millennium long rule was abolished in 1962, none of the military leaders of Yemen are noted as Quranic scholars; some could barely read and write when they came into office. Continue reading If Salih read the Qur’an →