Category Archives: Countries

Daily Death

Iraq War, Terrorism Issue, United Arab Emirates

People die everyday. It is hard to imagine a greater “life and death” issue than death, not only on the one who dies but for those who mourn. Today’s news, so new it did not make today’s edition of the New York Times, is full of death. The front page of the New York Times titles a headline “12 Miners Are Found Alive, Family Members Say,” but the hazard of deadlines prevented the newer news this morning that in fact 12 were found dead and only one found barely alive. On today’s Al-Jazeera it is announced that the ruler of Dubai died. On NPR this morning there was a report of a suicide bomber blowing himself up during an outdoor funeral in Muqdadiya, north of Baghdad, taking more than 30 mourners with him. And imagine all those people, thousands to be sure, who died in the last 24 hours but did not make the news.

The deaths in Dubai and Muqdadiya, Iraq could hardly be different to those left alive to think about them. Continue reading Daily Death →

When Kidnapping is not International Terrorism

Terrorism Issue, Tribalism, Yemen

The following news item just came across the wires from Arab News, an English language daily based in Saudi Arabia. Think of your gut reaction as you read…

SANAA, 3 January 2006 — Tribesmen holding five Italian tourists hostage in northeastern Yemen yesterday threatened to kill them if troops encircling the area move to rescue them, a local official said.

The five Italians, three women and two men, were snatched from Marib, some 195 km northeast of the capital Sanaa on Sunday and taken to the Serwah district, about 30 km away. Continue reading When Kidnapping is not International Terrorism →

What Would Jesus Ride

Bible and Holy Land, Israel

In The Guardian yesterday reporter Conal Urquhart wrote about “Plans for Holy Land theme park on Galilee shore where Jesus fed the 5,000.” Several evangelical Christian groups under the spirited guidance of Rev. Pat Robertson are negotiating with the government of Israel for land to build a 50 ha (125 acre) theme park tentatively called the “Galilee World Heritage Park.” If this seems like a joke, I note that “Sea of Galilee & its Ancient Sites” is listed on the online wish list of world heritage sites. It is no joke to righteously motivated investors trying to raise 60 million dollars. Nor to Syria, which disputes the take-over of its territory along the Sea of Galilee in the 1967 war. Nor is it likely just a joke to Jews, who Pat Robertson and his followers think are about to suffer the worst persecution ever as soon as a soon-to-be Rapture transports all Bible Believers to meet their Lord in the air. But I can’t help but wonder, in this biblically based theme park what would Jesus ride? Continue reading What Would Jesus Ride →

Yemen Bashing Needs a Reality Check

Anthropology/Sociology, Journalism and Media, Yemen

Most Americans know little about the country of Yemen, located beneath (geographically and metaphorically for many foreign policy makers) America’s oil-friendly ally Saudi Arabia. I have been going to Yemen since 1978, when I lived for over a year as an ethnographer in a highland tribal village northwest of the capital Sanaa. Since that time my academic career has focused largely on the history and culture of Yemen. I edited a bulletin (Yemen Update) devoted to all aspects of Yemeni Studies for a decade, and I have returned frequently as researcher and development consultant. Over the years there have been very few news articles about Yemen by American correspondents. The few that have appeared are generally so full of stereotypes and misinformation that I often turn the paper aside in disgust. The major 3-part article begun last weekend (Dec. 18, 19, 20) by David Finkel on a democracy development project in Yemen for the Washington Post is sadly yet another ignorant and dangerous posting that needs a reality check. Continue reading Yemen Bashing Needs a Reality Check →

Human Waist

Jordan, Terrorism Issue

The picture that flashed around the media world this morning was of a Muslim woman opening her abaya to reveal a midriff fixed with a failed explosive device. It was also one of those rare tabloid days when both the New York Post and Daily News ran the same exploitative headline: “Dressed to Kill.” American audiences are more used to seeing an “Oriental” woman dressed to thrill, a belly dancer or an odalisque. Muslim women are enjoined in the Quran to be modest and cover their adornments. But it is hard to imagine that such advice from above covers an incendiary device rather than the body parts that immodest men look to for vice. Continue reading Human Waist →

The Incomplete Terrorist

Indonesia, Terrorism Issue

How do you profile a Muslim Terrorist? Some leave clues, a few even record video epitaphs. For the last two years a day has probably not gone by without a suicide bomber pulling a string and blowing himself and those around him to bits or driving a car to explode the lives of innocent bystanders. Is there a way to predict who such a bomber might be, or who builds the bombs and plans the operations? Logic fails, at least the logic that says something has to be very special to die for and even more special to make other people die for a cause just because you believe in it. Continue reading The Incomplete Terrorist →

Burning Bodies, Burning Bridges

Afghanistan

Reports have recently surfaced that a few frustrated American soldiers in Afghanistan may have desecrated the bodies of two dead Taliban fighters by burning them. Beyond this they are accused of taunting nearby villagers to be “lady boys” (which I take to be a militarized cognate of Arnold’s conventional “girly men”) for not coming out to retrieve fellow Muslim bodies purposely set on fire facing the West. Perhaps the soldiers doing this thought it silly that Afghan men do not wear Western pants and at the same time believe in resurrection of the dead.

Continue reading Burning Bodies, Burning Bridges →

Trial by Ordeal

Iraq, Iraq War

The headline of the October 20, 2005 New York Times says a lot: “Defiant Hussein, Lashing out at U.S., Goes on Trial.” Everyone involved in this scene, from the defiant defendants to the many victims under Saddam’s brutal dictatorship, knows what the verdict will be. We are trying Saddam Hussein in a televised court of legal process not to determine if he is guilty but to remind the world of his crimes against humanity. There is no innocence to presume. Nor is there a Johnny Cochran waiting in the wings with too-tight, blood-stained gloves.

All indications are that this trial will be an ordeal. Continue reading Trial by Ordeal →