Monthly Archives: March 2014

Playing with Fire in Egypt

"Arab Spring", Egypt, Islamic Sects


Egypt’s President Mohamed Morsi (C) pose for photos between Defence Minister Abdel Fattah al-Sisi (centre L) and General Sedky Sobhi (centre, R), chief of staff to Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), and other military generals and members of SCAF (Photo: Reuters)

Playing With Fire: The Showdown in Egypt between the General and the Islamist President

by Ann M. Lesch, Foreign Policy Research Institute, March 2014

General Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, May 2013: “No one should think that the solution is with the army…. This army is a fire. Do not play against it and do not play with it.”[1]

El-Sisi: “The Army’s decision to intervene [on July 3] was dictated by national interest, national security necessities, and fears of a civil war breaking out… if the situation continued… We believed that if we reached civil war, then the army would not be able to stop it.”[2]

Last July 9, I commented in an FPRI E-Note on the vast public protests that had just swept Egypt, which culminated in General Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s arrest of President Mohamed Morsi on July 3.[3] A wide range of Egyptians demonstrated to restore the country to the path of political and socio-economic democratization longed for in January 2011 but delayed by seventeen months of military rule and then side-tracked by a year of the elected president’s increasingly divisive and authoritarian behavior. Even as the minister of defense seized power in July, he claimed he was acting at the request of the public and was following the road-map proposed by Tamarod (rebel!), the informal group of protest organizers who wanted the head of the Supreme Constitutional Court to be the (symbolic) interim president with a technocratic cabinet, pending elections for a new president.

In this essay, I focus on the indications before July 3 that El-Sisi was increasingly angry at Morsi’s policies. His perspective shifted from trying to manage a difficult situation, to threatening a putsch, to encouraging a popular uprising. It is possible to partly reconstruct those shifts because of the interviews and statements that El Sisi[4] and senior security officers made before and after July.

It is clear that the police never reconciled to serving under a president whose base of power lay in the Muslim Brotherhood.[5] Police never differentiated between the Brotherhood, which eschewed violence, and the jihadist groups operating in Sinai. Having been humiliated (from their perspective) during the January Revolution – and especially on January 28, when they lost control over the street, the police stations, and the prisons – they (inaccurately) blamed the revolution on the Brotherhood and vowed revenge. Indeed, a senior officer stated that lower and mid-rank officers agreed to perform routine duties only when senior officers assured them that they would find the right moment to depose the president. They refused to guard the offices of the Brotherhood’s political party or, notably, the Presidential Palace, when it was surrounded on December 5 by protesters against Morsi’s November 22 Constitutional Decree…

for the rest of this article, click here.

CUNY talk on Islam in Digital Humanities

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, CyberOrient, Folklore and Proverbs, Islamophobia, Yemen


Traditional Plow Agriculture in highland Yemen, for which there are many proverbs

When “Being There” is Here: An Anthropologist at Large in Digital Humanities

On Wednesday, March 5, I will be giving a talk at the CUNY Graduate Center for the Program on Religion, directed by Prof. Bryan Turner. Lunch will be served, and coffee too, of course. The talk will be in room 5307 of the Graduate Center at 34th St. and 5th Avenue, 12.30-2 (lunch served from 12.15), to discuss a topic pertinent to many disciplines.

Abstract:

The aim of this talk is to explore the role of traditional field-based ethnography in the rapidly evolving world of digital humanities. I look back on my original ethnographic fieldwork in Yemen in 1978-79, before there was an Internet or laptop computer. While technology has long been an important resource for anthropologists, the digital world allows for instantaneous contact in a way never available before. There is now a role for e-ethnography, analysis of representation and communication in cyberspace in which the field literally comes to the computer of the researcher. The talk will explore the implications of recent advances in the digital humanities on the nature and future of anthropological research.

Daniel Martin Varisco is President of the American Institute for Yemeni Studies. He is the founding editor of CyberOrient, an online journal co-sponsored by the American Anthropological Association and Charles University in Prague. His last book was Reading Orientalism: Said and the Unsaid (2007) and he is currently finishing a book titled Culture Still Matters: Notes from the Field.

Islamophobia in the Russian Federation

Islam in Europe, Islamophobia


The domes of a Russian Orthodox church (right) share the skyline of Kazan, Tatarstan’s capital, with the minarets of a Muslim mosque, a reminder of the city’s history of peaceful coexistence between Christians and Muslims. Corey Flintoff/NPR

The current conflict over Russian involvement in the Ukraine overshadows the extent of Islamophobia in Russia. For a recent article (“Cycles of Violence: Dangers of Islamophobia in the Russian Federation”) on this in the Georgetown Journal of International Affairs, click here. The article is by Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer, a Research Professor in the Center for Eurasian, Russian, and Eastern European Studies (CERES) and the Department of Anthropology at Georgetown University.

Islamic Medicine at Yale

Animals, Food and Drink, Gender and Sexuality, Islamic Sciences, Islamic Texts, Miniatures, Orientalism, Scholars


Ibn Sina’s (d. 1037 CE) Qanun, copied in Shiraz in 1645 CE

For anyone interested in the history of Islamic medicine, there are some rare editions of texts by famous Muslim scholars like Ibn Sina (Avicenna), Ibn Masawayh, al-Antaki, al-Damiri, and others, including a few 19th century French translations published in North Africa. These are available to view or as pdfs at Yale University’s library. Below is the press release about the collection:

YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS RELEASE

This digitized collection of selected volumes of medical books and manuscripts, dating from 1300 to 1921, is drawn from the Medical Historical Library, Cushing/Whitney Medical Library. This collection reflects the Arabic and Persian intellectual efforts that translated, augmented, and transmitted Greek and Roman medical knowledge to Western societies during the Renaissance. It includes iconic works by authors such as Avicenna and al-Razi.

The Medical Historical Library, originally formed by the joining of three collections by bibliophiles Harvey Cushing, John Fulton, and Arnold Klebs, has over 120,000 volumes dating from the 12th to the 21st centuries. While primarily composed of works in Western medicine and science, a smaller selection of Arabic and Persian books and manuscripts are a “hidden collection” in the Library. Through the support of the Arcadia Fund, the Medical Historical Library was able to digitize Arabic and Persian books and manuscripts, as well as early translations in Latin, French, and English. Continue reading Islamic Medicine at Yale →

Europe and the Challenge of Islam

Conferences and Talks, Islam in Europe, Islamophobia, Literature, Orientalism

by Anouar Majid, Tingitana, March 1, 2014

With the intriguing illustration above, Afternposten, the largest Norwegian newspaper, published my article titled “Europe and the Challenge of Islam.” This is the opening salvo of a three-day event called Saladin Days that starts Monday in Oslo’s House of Literature, when I will give a keynote address by the same title. We will, in the course of the conference, discuss and debate issues related to religion, secularism and reflect critically on the legacy of Edward Said, the great literary and cultural theorist.

Saudi women and the illusion of opportunity

Gender and Sexuality, Journalism and Media, Saudi Arabia

by Abdullah Hamidaddin, Al Arabiyya News, February 21, 2014

A few days ago, Sumayya Jabarti was assigned editor-in-chief of the Saudi Gazette. This makes her the first woman in Saudi Arabia to hold such a position. Sumayya is a dear friend whom I’ve known for many years, and I always believed that her talent was underutilized and her potentials were continuously being stifled because she was a female. Men with half her talent reached higher positions in the media in a much shorter time. I am indeed happy for her. This is a well-deserved reward for her efforts and talents, and was long overdue.

One woman’s success, not every woman’s success

Women have had various senior positions in the media, but never the like. In Saudi Arabia, this is not only seen as a rise to a position in a corporate media sector; rather also as a government endorsement. To become editor-in-chief of a daily newspaper usually requires the approval of the Ministry of Information and Culture. As is the case in other cases where a woman takes on a position usually reserved for men, Sumayya’s appointment is seen as a small step in the journey towards equal treatment of women.

I had always wondered about the idea that assumes the success of one woman is a small success for all women. It seemed so unnatural to me. How is one woman connected to another? Why do we talk about women as belonging to one camp; hence considering the victory of one woman in that camp a victory for every woman in the same camp? I understand that many societies have drawn lines according to the physiological structures of our bodies; and have limited the entitlements of people with certain biological features – women – but that does not mean that we should do the same. Foundations of suppression and causes of oppression go much deeper than physiological differences; and proponents of rights should avoid looking at the world through a physiological lens; no matter how appealing and easy it is. One giant step for a womAn is NOT a step for womEn; not even a small step. Continue reading Saudi women and the illusion of opportunity →