Uncle Ramadan is back

"Arab Spring", Egypt, Islamic Rituals


Traditional Ramadan Lanterns displayed on Egyptian streets

by Karim Adel, Open Democracy, 23 July 2012

It’s safe to say Uncle Ramadan is not going to sleep while he’s with us this year…

Uncle Ramadan is back and to Egyptians he’s back after what seems like a long while…

Although it’s an annual event this is the first time in two years that we celebrate without any turmoil and under a civil president… so it’s just safe to say Uncle Ramadan is not going to sleep while he’s with us this year…

Tunis Traditional Ramadan Lanterns displayed on Egyptian streets

You can see him walking down the old ancient alleys in the Al Hussein area in Islamic Cairo making sure all the colourful lights are hung well from building to building, he’s making sure all the giant colourful [12] lanterns [13] are hanging on every balcony…

He’s passing from home to home to make sure everyone, poor or rich gets a chance to eat after sun set…

He makes sure all those who have money have gathered some to give out to the poor and that every area and street has at least one charity group meal, set up for the poor and homeless every day of the 30 days of fasting… Continue reading Uncle Ramadan is back →

The Weakness of Romney’s Right

Bible and Holy Land, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Obama Administration


If one thing is clear in the build-up to the 2012 presidential election, it is that the Republican candidate Mitt Romney is less someone most Americans want to vote for than Barack Obama is someone that many people do not want to vote for. The elephant in the debate room, or at least one of the herd that has swelled with the ramping up of polemical rhetoric on all sides, is Islam. Not the real Islam, which most Americans would have a hard time recognizing anyway, but two prominent distortions. The most conservative born-again, Bible-believing Christians, often lumped together in the loose term “Evangelical,” have long viewed Mormonism as a dangerous cult modeled after Islam. Some of these same folk, including those less devout who drink a redneck portion of beer and say they belong to a tea party, have decided that President Obama is really a Muslim. So for the conspiratorial fringe, this election boils down to voting for one Muslim (or should I say Mohammedan) or another.

No doubt many of the Bible-believing saints are praying for the Rapture before November. Let’s face it: what would Jesus do if his choice was between voting for a Mormon (that born-againers say are heretics) or a stealth Muslim (as the birthers contend)? I suspect few would quote the biblical passage (Matthew 22:21) where Jesus says “Render, therefore, unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s,” since taxation is obviously Satanic. Besides, Caesar died a long time ago. And I imagine that the Sermon on the Mount mantra of not smiting back, when someone is cheeky. and not resisting evil would also not be quoted. If you happen to be a Mormon, of which there are over 6 million in the United States, then you would expect Jesus to vote for Mitt, since Mormons teach that Jesus has returned to visit various Mormon leaders here in America, as recently as 1918. Muslims are not very likely to vote for Romney because the Mormon church borrowed several ideas (like a divine book delivered by an angel and polygyny) from Islam. So the right wing that has come to vote Republican without thinking is really between the Rock of Ages and a hard place. Continue reading The Weakness of Romney’s Right →

Pew on Muslim Extremists

"Arab Spring", Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Terrorism Issue, Tunisia, Turkey

The Pew Foundation has recently released a report entitled Most Muslims Want Democracy, Personal Freedoms, and Islam in Political Life on July 10, 2012. Click here to read the overview and gain access to a free pdf of the full report.


Here is what they say about Muslims views of extremists…

“Extremist groups are largely rejected in predominantly Muslim nations, although significant numbers do express support for radical groups in several countries. For instance, while there is no country in which a majority holds a favorable opinion of the Palestinian organization Hamas, it receives considerable support in Tunisia, Jordan and Egypt.

The militant Lebanese Shia group Hezbollah receives its highest overall ratings in Tunisia, where nearly half express a positive opinion. Sizable minorities in both Jordan and Egypt also have a favorable view, but Hezbollah’s image has been declining in both countries in recent years. In its home country, views about Hezbollah are sharply divided along sectarian lines: 94% of Shia, 33% of Christians, and 5% of Sunnis give the group favorable marks.

Across all six nations, less than 20% have a positive opinion about al Qaeda or the Taliban. In Turkey and Lebanon, support for these groups is in the single digits. However, fully 19% of Egyptians rate these extremist organizations favorably.”

Travels with Ibn al-Mujabbir #4

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, Folklore and Proverbs, Islamic History, Yemen


Gold dinar of the Rasulid sultan al-Malik al-Mansur ‘Umar b. ‘Ali

Sailing Seasons in the Red Sea and Indian Ocean:
The View from Rasulid (13th-14th Centuries) Aden

by Daniel Martin Varisco

[This is a lecture presented at the Red Sea Trade and Travel Study Day of the Society for Arabian Studies at the British Museum, October 5, 2002, and subsequently published in Yemen Update. For Part 1, click here; for Part 2, click here; for Part 3, click here.]

Monday, 19 Sha‘ban, 691 (August 5, 1292)

Most travelers that I know complain of the lack of fresh water here in Aden, but I think the more serious omission is basic intelligence. Perhaps the unbearable heat drains their brains as well as their bowels. Instead of unloading our ship on the third day, we were kept waiting a full extra day before finally being allowed into customs. One would think their interest in picking our pockets would speed up rather than prolong this unpleasant process. I was under orders to take the gift directly to the sultan, and I am half tempted to write a letter immediately to the master of this land and apprise him of the inattention that seems to plague his servants in the port. After all, I represent the Karimi, not some cheap junk from Serendib! Continue reading Travels with Ibn al-Mujabbir #4 →

Michele Bachmann, VIP

Election 2012, Islamophobia


The great thing about America is that in theory (and mainly in theory) anyone has an equal opportunity to become a VIP in the usual sense. Certainly a President, no matter what the party, is a Very Important Person. So, in theory, is a representative from the U.S. House of Representatives. But Michele Bachmann, who ran for the Republican nomination and briefly led the lackluster field, is another kind of VIP: a Very Ignorant Pariah. Not just ignorant, but very ignorant, as she demonstrates almost every time she makes a public statement. And now it is increasingly clear that she has reached Pariah stage, even in her own party (at least the part that doesn’t get drunk on tea). In finding a few other out-there representatives, she has written a letter (which you can see here) demanding an official investigation of a Muslim American senior official, Huma Abedin, in the State Department. Before any prominent Muslims could cry “Foul,” the news media (like CNN’s Anderson Cooper) and fellow Republicans (like John McCain) leveled blistering attacks on her tactics. Even Fox News has turned its guns inward, publishing a commentary by Ed Rollins, a former campaign advisor for Bachman, comparing her to Joseph McCarthy. Add to this mix Scott Brown and Marco Rubio.

The tragedy is that Bachmann sits on the House Intelligence Committee. How oxymoronic is that: the queen of un-intelligence sits on this powerful committee of the United States government. Continue reading Michele Bachmann, VIP →

Habari Ya Lamu, the Story of Lamu

Immigration Issues, Travel, Yemen


Lamu; Photograph by Daniel Martin Varisco

by Irena Knehtl, Yemen Post, April 15, 2012

One of the city-states founded by Yemeni Hadhrami Arabs was Lamu, an island off the present Kenyan coast, a world heritage site

Throughout its history Yemen has been a seafaring nation, famed for boat building and its mariners navigation skills. While the Yemeni sailors harnessed the monsoon winds to reach distant ports, inland its farmers harnessed water to develop life-sustaining agriculture adopting to a harsh and often formidable environment.

Archaeologists are still investigating these long gone civilizations that have played a major role in transforming global history. These ancient civilizations introduced deep-sea sailing vessels capable of long distance travel and trade. At this time writing, banking, shareholding were established and developed societies were formed for perhaps the first time over.

Linen, cotton, wool and metal were taken to China, where cargoes of silk, camphor, musk, spice were exchanged and Yemen acquired ceramics. Southern Arabia was on cross roads on the trade routes between China and India to the East, and the Red Sea and East Africa to the southwest providing merchants with a huge and lucrative markets. One of the city-states founded by Yemeni Hadhrami Arab travelers was located on the island just off the northern coast of present day Kenya called Lamu. Continue reading Habari Ya Lamu, the Story of Lamu →

More beauty in Yemen

Architecture, Photography, Travel, Yemen


http://www.free-syria.com/

The constant news about fighting and violence in Yemen obscures the extraordinary beauty in the country. Here is a short video with spectacular views, the pristine nature being sold somewhat soiled by the appearance of tourists. If you ignore this aspect, especially the rather distorted account of tourism amenities, it is worth watching.

Confessionalization fundamentalism

"Arab Spring", Anthropology/Sociology, Syria


Bracketing Realities in Lebanon; photograph by Estella Carpi

Confessionalization fundamentalism: commodifying religious identities in the Middle East

by Estella Carpi, Open Democracy, 16 July 2012

Middle Eastern revolutionaries and spectators alike, deprived in the media of any representation of their own agency and denied the chance of producing their own new life chances, end up commodifying the identities they are exposed to within their social pattern.

As Maya Mikdashi has argued in an interview released to Istituto di Studi Politici Internazionali (ISPI), published on Jadaliyya on June 21, the uprising in Syria itself is becoming more sectarian now, packaged in a way such that ‘sect’ seems to be the political marker that matters the most.

This development could be taken as a starting point to point to a more widespread arbitrary confessionalization of Middle Eastern conflicts, and of the Syrian revolution in particular. “Crisis”, “sunnization of the revolt”, “new balance between Sunnis and Shiites” and “civil war” are key terms used by the media in reporting the current events.

Voices from think-tank and news analysts actually unfamiliar with the Arab world have largely contributed to portraying a patchwork image of the Middle East composed of ethnic and religious groups that do not fight each other only thanks to the power of dictators that discipline and guide these irrational individualities. Continue reading Confessionalization fundamentalism →