Category Archives: CyberOrient

CyberOrient Call for Papers

"Arab Spring", Anthropology/Sociology, CyberOrient


“The Net Worth of the Arab Spring”

Call for Papers

CyberOrient: Online Journal of the Virtual Middle East
Editor-in-Chief: Daniel Martin Varisco

Guest Editor: Ines Braune

Submission deadline: 31 May 2012

Aim


As the first anniversary of the “Arab Spring” nears, several long-standing dictators have been toppled, protests still continue in other countries and new governments are being formed. Arguably, throughout this last year digital media have played an important, if not defining, role through Twitter, Facebook, blogs and the extensive news coverage in cyberspace. This is a call for papers across disciplines aiming for critical and evidence-based evaluation of the use of social media in the Arab Spring, the coverage of the Arab Spring in cyberspace and beyond, and the remediation and appropriation between social media and traditional media outlets, including satellite TVs and the press. First-person and ethnographic accounts are welcomed, but CyberOrient welcomes contributions from any field.



About CyberOrient



CyberOrient (http://www.cyberorient.net/) is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Middle East Section of the American Anthropological Association in collaboration with the Faculty of Arts of Charles University in Prague. The aim of the journal is to provide research and theoretical considerations on the representation of Islam and the Middle East, the very areas that used to be styled as an “Orient”, in cyberspace, as well as the impact of the internet and new media in Muslim and Middle Eastern contexts. The articles will be published online with free access in early autumn, 2012.

Submission

Articles should be submitted directly to Ines Braune (ines.braune@uni-marburg.de) and Vit Sisler (vsisler@gmail.com).

Best of the Blogs

"Arab Spring", CyberOrient, Journalism and Media, Teaching Resources


Cartoon source: http://www.trafficgenerationcafe.com/blog-website-faceoff/

Bassam Gergi and Mazen Zoabi unroll their guide to the Arabic blogosphere

Open Democracy, 12/30/11

Jadaliyya aims to shape the debate in the west by providing a window into regional scholarship and knowledge. Where others see data points, they see “living communities and dynamic societies.” The site currently publishes posts in both Arabic and English.

Mamfakinch is run by a group of young Moroccan activists who founded the #Feb20 movement calling for broad political, economic and social change. It aims to highlight information often ignored or distorted by official media sources. The site currently publishes posts in French, Arabic and English.

Nawaat, which means ‘the core’, was created to provide a platform for Tunisian bloggers and cyber-activists. It played a critical role in the Tunisian uprising and recognises that the “conquest of freedom is a battle to be fought every day. It currently publishes posts both in French and Arabic. Continue reading Best of the Blogs →

Lane’s Lexicon Online

CyberOrient, Languages

The indispensable, even though incomplete, Arabic-English lexicon of Edward Lane is available several places online. You can download online here. Or check out http://www.tyndalearchive.com/tabs/lane/ and http://www.studyquran.co.uk/LLhome.htm

I find it unfortunate that this Victorian era lexicon, valuable as it is, has never been completed in English. Many of the meanings that Lane provides are somewhat archaic and he is also quite arbitrary in what he chooses to record. So it is always advisable to use his text more as an index and then go to Lisan al-Arab, Taj al-Arus or one of his other important sources to see what the original says. The French variant by Kazimirski is also 19th century but at least is complete. Lisan al-Arab and several other lexicons are available and searchable online at http://www.baheth.info/ There are also several earlier Arabic-English lexicons available in pdf at archive.org. But the mother of all Arabic dictionaries, al-Zabidi’s Taj al-Arus is available either online or in pdf for the valuable Kuwait edition at http://www.archive.org/details/alhelawy09

Googling in Arabic (sort of)

CyberOrient, Gender and Sexuality, Languages

Let’s say you really do not know the Arabic language, but you want to Google in Arabic. Where there is a linguistic will, there is a digital way. Now you can simply turn to Yamli, a Google-like engine that allows you to type in English, choose the relevant Arabic term and search Arabic sites. There are other sites as well. So I typed in “mawt” and up popped the Arabic word for death. The problem is that the sites chosen are actually in Arabic, so what good does it do to search when the sites themselves cannot be read? Continue reading Googling in Arabic (sort of) →

What Syrians want …

"Arab Spring", Arab-Israeli Conflict, CyberOrient, Syria


What do we want?

by Amina A., A Gay Girl in Damascus, May 9, 2011

The regime claims that they have no idea what we in the opposition want. I find that hard to believe … haven’t they been watching us, listening to our slogans, reading what we write? Do they have facebook? Seriously, it’s spelled out there: “The solution is simple: Stop shooting at demonstrators, allow peaceful demonstrations, remove all your photos and those of your father, release all political prisoners, allow political pluralism and free elections in six months.”

And for Asad? “You will be the pride of contemporary Syria if you can transform Syria from a dictatorship into a democracy. Syrians would be grateful for that, and it is possible to do”
But maybe they do not get it. Maybe it is too simple. Didn’t Emma herself claim in that awful Vogue article that they practice democracy inside the royal household?
Well maybe more specifics would help …

We want an end to dictatorship. We want free and fair elections. We want freedom. Continue reading What Syrians want … →

Streaming Revolution, Screaming Revolution

"Arab Spring", CyberOrient, Egypt, Journalism and Media, Tunisia


Al Jazeera offers live coverage of events in Egypt on the internet

Not even Rupert Murdoch, the media mogul who I suspect lies awake at night (just as many of his news outlets lie throughout the day) thinking of new ways to manufacture news, could have imagined the current crisis streaming live on the cable channels and over the Internet for well over a week. America has had its tea party and birthers with Fox gobbling up Sarah Palin to supplement the loonies already on the payroll. I suppose the Israel/Palestine issue was getting too stale, so why not a domino fury across North Africa and the Middle East? No, Murdoch did not cause the overthrow of Ben Ali, the massive anti-Mubarak protests in Egypt, the ripple effect of less virulent protests in Yemen, Jordan, Syria, and Sudan. There are very good local reasons why the streets are filled with angry people from all walks of life (well not the corrupt elites who benefit from dictatorial spoils).

It is not about hating the United States, not when the signs spell out freedom and democracy instead of “Death to America.” It is not even about Islam, certainly not the silly rantings of Glenn Beck that a new chalkboard caliphate is in the making. It is about frustration that reached the boiling point, the astronomical rises in food costs, the lack of jobs, the growing income gap between the average person and friends of the regime. When you have a president alleged to be worth 40 billion dollars, you get the picture of why there has not been an end to the takeover of Tahrir Square in Cairo. Continue reading Streaming Revolution, Screaming Revolution →

Those Yemeni parcels

Anthropology/Sociology, CyberOrient, Islamophobia, Journalism and Media, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


Armed Yemeni police stand guard next to the closed UPS office Thursday, Nov. 4, 2010, in Sanaa, Yemen

[Webshaykh’s Note: The latest from Greg Johnsen, one of the most informed commentators on AQAP and one who needs to be much more widely read.]

Initial Notes on AQAP’s statements
by Gregory Johnsen, Waq al-Waq, Friday, November 5, 2010

I have just finished a first reading of the three statements AQAP posted to jihadi forums earlier today. The one that is getting the most attention – not surprisingly – is the one that takes credit for two parcel bombs and the downing of a UPS plane in Dubai in September.

But for me, by far the most interesting statement is #27, which denies that AQAP had anything to do with two bombs outside a sports club in Aden on October 11. I will return to this below, and talk about why I think this statement is so significant. but first a couple of notes.

Note 1: Statement #28 talks about the fighting in Mudiya on October 14, 2010. I wrote about this fight here, in which the brother of the governor of Abyan was killed. Now we have AQAP’s version of the fighting, interesting details, but probably only to me. So I’ll save you the full discussion.

Note 2 : Another thing that I have noticed is the change in references to President Ali AbdullahSalih now and in the pages of Sada al-Malahim back when it was under the editorial guidance of al-Qahtani, who was killed in an airstrike. Continue reading Those Yemeni parcels →