For anyone interested in following the rapidly situation on the ground in Syria, check out the blog “Syria in Crisis” by Aron Lund at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Category Archives: Arab-Israeli Conflict
Free Reads from U. California Press
Brinkley Messick’s 1992 book on Yemeni legal reasoning, one of the many books available to read online at the U. of California Press website
The University of California Press is offering online viewers the opportunity to read online 770 of the books it published between 1982 and 2004.
Some 36 selections on the Middle East published between 1982-2004 are available to read online by clicking here.
Brotherhood, Brotherly Hate, Brotherly Love
Egyptian drink seller near al-Azhar in 1983; photography by Daniel Martin Varisco
Egypt faces an ethical dilemma, one that affects anyone who has ever visited or carried out research in the country. My first experience in Egypt was in early 1981 when I conducted research in Asyut on rural sanitation for a USAID project, my first development assignment. This was still Sadat’s Egypt, open to American aid and seeking to end the bitter taste of unwinnable war with Israel. I felt safe no matter where I traveled. The only time I winced was when I visited the Pharaonic ruins in Luxor and stayed in one of the lesser hotels. Striking up a conversation with the young man at the hotel desk, he asked me if I could tell the nationality of another guest’s passport. The passport was in Hebrew and the guest was the Israeli consul. I calmly explained this to the clerk, who took it in stride – another paying customer. In 1983 I was able to spend a year in Cairo studying Islamic manuscripts at Dar al-Kutub, the Egyptian National Library. I could walk from my apartment in Zamalek on Ahmet Hishmet Street across the kubri to the library with my only fear being how to dodge the insane traffic crossing the corniche. I literally walked everywhere, enjoying the kebab, falafel and Groppi sweets. And everywhere I was welcomed with a hospitality and humor that anyone who has lived in Egypt can attest. This is the Egypt I have fond memories of, but this is now the Egypt that is exploding from within.
Egypt’s problems have always been forced upon the people by conquest after conquest from the Hyksos to the Greeks to the Arabs to the French to the British. The Arab Spring that seemed to bring the modern era of pseudo-Mamluk dictators to a close was heralded as a new beginning. The election, despite doubts of its validity, of Ibrahim Morsy as president with the obvious blessing at the time of the military was seen by many pundits as a hopeful sign. Would the Muslim Brotherhood, long in opposition but with a wide following, manage to meld their Islamic fervor with a stable and tolerant democracy? Whether this experiment might eventually have worked is now a moot point. The military coup that deposed Morsy last summer has now declared the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization. Continue reading Brotherhood, Brotherly Hate, Brotherly Love
Charlie’s Speech
In Charlie Chaplin’s marvelous satirical response to Hitler in The Great Dictator there is a profound speech, available with Arabic subtitles and quite relevant to the fighting currently going on in the Middle East and everywhere. And there are dictators who are not called dictators… Here is a copy of the speech.
Lebanon: Comments on “Communities of Suffering”
The artificial polarization of “communities of sufferingâ€: when political violence paves the way to a common ground
by Estella Carpi
I still remember when the Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Sayyid Hassan Nasrallah, in the speech he held on occasion of the Martyr’s Day on 12th November 2012, used the term munafis (rival) to indicate the Lebanese opposition parties, instead of ‘adu (enemy), which is only used by the party to point to their enemy par excellence, the Zionist entity. This detail helps create a picture of the Lebanese political scenario of the last two years, in the constant attempt of local parties to maintain relative stability within the country’s boundaries, in spite of the aging bloodshed in neighbouring Syria.
In the currently increasing insecurity of life in Lebanon, community as an interpretation grid – and specifically the “belonging†to a given community – seems to be, again, a sine qua non of any understanding of local suffering, historical scars, and individual worldviews. Community, meant as a primordial notion, has always been used as a protective identity shelter in time of crisis: Lebanon constitutes the perfect historical case in point. As such, community is imagined by all of us as a comforting source for empathy and solidarity, particularly in the chronicity of a fragmented and flimsy state sovereignty. After the bombing in Dahiye – as the southern suburbs of Beirut are locally called – last 15th August, and in Tripoli, in North Lebanon, last 23rd August, all residents apparently have come to reshape two separate communities of suffering. Continue reading Lebanon: Comments on “Communities of Suffering”
‘Muslim antisemitism’ and Al-Andalus: a historical perspective
by Ed Swan, Research Intern, Quilliam Foundation
The phenomenon of antisemitism in Muslim-majority societies is usually explained in one of two ways. Either it is seen as something innate to Islam, constituting a core element of Islamic thought and scripture, and exemplified by centuries of persecution and conflict, or it is presented as a reaction to Zionism, and a break with a history of interfaith cooperation. The debate is influenced by absolutist viewpoints, which hold, for example, that the reaction to Israel in the Islamic world is purely antisemitic, or that pre-Zionist relations between Jews and Muslims constituted a utopian ideal of coexistence. The Islamic Caliphate of Al-Andalus, which existed in various forms in Iberia from the eighth to the fifteenth centuries, is often held up as the example par excellence of this coexistence. A closer look at the society of Al-Andalus helps to demonstrate that, while perhaps it was no utopia, the phenomenon of ‘Muslim antisemitism’ as we recognise it today does not have its roots in Islamic history.
Antisemitism in Muslim majority countries is well documented: a recent survey reports that large majorities of respondents in countries such as Egypt (95%), Turkey (76%) and Pakistan (76%) have an ‘unfavourable opinion of Jews’ (Pew Research Global Attitudes Project, 2008). Focusing specifically on the Arab World, where the largest majorities reported unfavourable opinions, there are a number of examples in local media that demonstrate the form of this antisemitism. European narratives play a prominent role, for example, Mein Kampf and the fabricated Protocols of the Elders of Zion continue to this day to be widely published and distributed in Arabic translation, and the latter formed the basis of a 2002 Egyptian television series syndicated across the Arab World.
These European-inspired antisemitic ideas can be seen employed as a response to the two overwhelming perceived threats to Islam: Western imperialism and Zionism. Continue reading ‘Muslim antisemitism’ and Al-Andalus: a historical perspective
Hezbullies
ebanese Hezbollah supporters hold a picture of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah (L), Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) and his late father President Hafez al-Assad (C) in Bint Jbeil on September 22, 2012 (AFP)
[This post was first written a month ago and recently published in Middle East Muddle on Anthropology News.]
The bullet and bomb-blast battle of the bullies is raging in Syria. The biggest bully is Bashar al-Asad, son of Hafez al-Asad who in February, 1982, sent his troops into the city of Homs and slaughtered between 10,000-40,000 civilians who dared to oppose his dictatorial rule. Hafez has slain his thousands, Bashar his tens of thousands. One estimate, reported by Reuters, estimates that between 94,000 and 120,000 Syrians have died in the wake of the Arab Spring that toppled other long-standing dictator regimes. Over a million and half Syrians are refugees who have fled the fighting to neighboring countries, where many do not find even the most basic humanitarian aid. Millions within Syria are in desperate shape, victimized by all sides. But the bully of Damascus hangs on, with Russian backing and Iranian duplicity.
There are other bullies in this fight, from a small faction of radical Muslims intent on reinstalling a caliphate where the Umayyads once ruled to seemingly secular-minded opponents of Asad’s brutal policies. And recently a new bully has arrived, the Hezbollah Hezbullies who control southern Lebanon and thrive as a thorn in the side of Israel. Israel, thus far, has mainly watched from the sidelines, no doubt content to see a bloodbath not directed at them. There was a sharp military response a couple of weeks ago to what appeared to be stockpiles of weapons from Iran on the Damascus road to Hezbollah. Continue reading Hezbullies
The right barnamaj for Egypt
“If your regime is not strong enough to handle a joke, then you don’t have a regime.” Such was the sentiment of satirist Jon Stewart, who made a surprise appearance on the popular Egyptian television comedy show, al-Barnamaj, starring Bassem Youssef. If the Arab Spring protests were not simply an exercise resulting in one kind of intolerance replacing another, then this may be one of the most important lessons to be learned from the prevailing winds of post-people-revolution hopes. Obviously Moubarek did not handle jokes well, nor did Ben Ali, nor Qaddafi, nor Ali Abdullah Salih. Neither does Bashar al-Asad, who is desperately trying not to be the next ex-dictator in the Middle East. But then the ruling parties in the Islamic Republic are not exactly comedy-friendly. Bin Laden was the butt of millions of jokes, but it is hard to imagine him having success as a stand-up comedian.
The irony is that most of the people I have met in Egypt and Yemen are fond of jokes and have a rich tradition making fun of those in power, corrupt regimes and religious hypocrisy. Many have a sharp edge of “othering” one group or another, but some are self-deprecating. Satire has a way of getting to the crux of problems, which is probably why it is so irritating to those in power. Consider the following joke about the Syrian regime of Hafez al-Asad, a joke I heard from a Lebanese friend when Syria was basically in control of much of Lebanon.
The heads of the CIA, the KGB and the Syrian intelligence agency met at a conference and were bragging about their abilities to track down and find terrorists. Continue reading The right barnamaj for Egypt