A “no fly” in the ointment

"Arab Spring", Libya


For days we have been watching the ebb and flow of frustration protests in Libya, echoing but not matching the overthrow of long-time despots in Tunis and Egypt, but seemingly less capable of driving the longest terminator of all into an exilic tent (though probably outside one of Berlusconi’s mansions rather than above a madrasa in Saudi Arabia). A week ago it looked like “rebel” forces might march on Tripoli; such was the rhetoric of liberation on the lips of those who took back the streets east and west of the capital and rattled the very tent pegs of the leader’s Tripoli holdout.

Last night, amidst reports of an escalating disaster alert at a Japanese nuclear reactor, the U.N. Security Council met to deal with Qaddadi, the colonel not known for fried chicken wings but with a distinct love of his female guard’s hidden charms. To no-fly or not to no-fly: that was the dramatic question debated. Would Russia and China resort to Cold War negativism or embrace pragmatic realpolitic and let French planes scramble to destroy the older planes the French probably supplied Qaddadi with at some point? Would international involvement lead to a land invasion? Another Iraq or Afghanistan? The pundits were all over the map. Many had their predictions; none of the crystal balls seemed very trustworthy. Continue reading A “no fly” in the ointment →

The Arab Spring

"Arab Spring", Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bahrain, Egypt, Ethics, Islamophobia 101, Libya, Orientalism, Tunisia, Yemen

By Rashid Khalidi, The Nation, March 21, 2011 and Institute for Palestine Studies, March 3, 2011

Suddenly, to be an Arab has become a good thing. People all over the Arab world feel a sense of pride in shaking off decades of cowed passivity under dictatorships that ruled with no deference to popular wishes. And it has become respectable in the West as well. Egypt is now thought of as an exciting and progressive place; its people’s expressions of solidarity are welcomed by demonstrators in Madison, Wisconsin; and its bright young activists are seen as models for a new kind of twenty-first-century mobilization. Events in the Arab world are being covered by the Western media more extensively than ever before and are being talked about positively in a fashion that is unprecedented. Before, when anything Muslim or Middle Eastern or Arab was reported on, it was almost always with a heavy negative connotation. Now, during this Arab spring, this has ceased to be the case. An area that was a byword for political stagnation is witnessing a rapid transformation that has caught the attention of the world.

Three things should be said about this sea change in perceptions about Arabs, Muslims and Middle Easterners. The first is that it shows how superficial, and how false, were most Western media images of this region. Virtually all we heard about were the ubiquitous terrorists, the omnipresent bearded radicals and their veiled companions trying to impose Sharia and the corrupt, brutal despots who were the only option for control of such undesirables. In US government-speak, faithfully repeated by the mainstream media, most of that corruption and brutality was airbrushed out through the use of mendacious terms like “moderates” (i.e., those who do and say what we want). That locution, and the one used to denigrate the people of the region, “the Arab street,” should now be permanently retired. The second feature of this shift in perceptions is that it is very fragile. Even if all the Arab despots are overthrown, there is an enormous investment in the “us versus them” view of the region. This includes not only entire bureaucratic empires engaged in fighting the “war on terror,” not only the industries that supply this war and the battalions of contractors and consultants so generously rewarded for their services in it; it also includes a large ideological archipelago of faux expertise, with vast shoals of “terrorologists” deeply committed to propagating this caricature of the Middle East. These talking heads who pass for experts have ceaselessly affirmed that terrorists and Islamists are the only thing to look for or see. They are the ones who systematically taught Americans not to see the real Arab world: the unions, those with a commitment to the rule of law, the tech-savvy young people, the feminists, the artists and intellectuals, those with a reasonable knowledge of Western culture and values, the ordinary people who simply want decent opportunities and a voice in how they are governed. The “experts” taught us instead that this was a fanatical people, a people without dignity, a people that deserved its terrible American-supported rulers. Those with power and influence who hold these borderline-racist views are not going to change them quickly, if at all: for proof, one needs only a brief exposure to the sewer that is Fox News. Continue reading The Arab Spring →

A Geography Lesson from 1879: #5: Turkey in Europe

Anthropology/Sociology, Lithographs, Orientalism, Ottoman Empire, Turkey


In a previous post I presented an account of the geography of Arabia and Turkey in an 1879 geography school text. Here is the discussion on the European part of the declining Ottoman Empire:

1. TURKEY, constituting the European dominion of the Ottoman Empire, comprises the middle portion of the great southeastern peninsula of Europe.
2. The Climate in some places is severe, but is healthful and favorable to the growth of all the common cereals.
3. The Soil is productive, yielding in abundance the useful grains, tobacco, and grapes, as well as the olive and mulberry. Much attention is given to the culture of plants yielding medicines and perfumes. Continue reading A Geography Lesson from 1879: #5: Turkey in Europe →

Review of “The Jew Is Not My Enemy”

Anthropology/Sociology, Arab-Israeli Conflict, Bible and Holy Land, Israel, Judaism


The following is a review of The Jew Is Not My Enemy: Unveiling the Myths that Fuel Anti-Semitism by Tarek Fatah, published by McClelland & Stewart
ISBN: 978-0-7710-4783-1 (0-7710-4783-5). The review is written by Ivan Davidson Kalmar and published in the Literary Review of Canada, March, 2011.

As Tarek Fatah, the author of this provocative book, puts it, “By all rational standard, Muslims and Jews should have been, and could be, partners. Their faiths are very similar (…). There were even times when Muslims and Jews prayed together around the tone covered today by the Dome of the Rock [in Jerusalem].” Certainly in the imagination of western Christians at least, Muslims and Jews were for centuries regarded as two of a kind.

From the medieaval theologians through to Hegel, Islam was considered to be a revival of Judaism (which Christians thought should have died with Christ). Though the attitude to both Jews and Muslims has generally been hostile, it was not always so. For example, Jews and Muslims were both admired by nineteenth century romantics as possessors of an eastern spirituality that inspired and could continue to inspire the Occident.

When Jews and Arabs were both classed as members of the same “Semitic” race, “Semite” was at first often meant as a compliment. It was partly in reaction to romantic accounts of the Semites that the term “anti-Semitism” was invented by a new breed of Jew-haters. And it was, in turn, largely a reaction to modern anti-Semitism that the old idea of “returning” the Jews to the Orient took hold in the form of modern Zionism. Zionism led to a long and still ongoing, bloody conflict between Jews and Muslims over the holy land of Israel/Palestine. Continue reading Review of “The Jew Is Not My Enemy” →

When in Paris

Anthropology/Sociology, Conferences and Talks, Food and Drink, Islamic Sciences, Qat (Catha edulis), Yemen


Qat market in Yemen; photograph by Pascal Maréchaux

For anyone reading this in Paris, I am giving a talk in the afternoon on qat in Yemen. Here are the details:

CONFÉRENCE
Prof. Dan Martin Varisco (Anthropologie, Hofstra university)
Qāt, Sex and Traditional Healing / Qāt, sexe et médecine traditionnelle

Abstract/Résumé
There is a substantial corpus of analysis about “Catha edulis”, or qāt in Arabic, both for Yemen and East Africa. Much of this focuses on the origin and distribution of the plant and its legality in an Islamic context. Prof. Varisco has previously published articles on both these aspects of the plant’s history. This talk will focus on the proposed medical benefits of qāt chewing in traditional Yemeni culture, with a focus on the issue of sexual
performance and libido. Although relatively late as an introduction into the medicinal and pharmacological literature, qāt was placed within the existing humoral system. Qāt was considered cold and dry, which explains why the recommended preparation for its use is eating a meal of ‘hot’ food like sorghum porridge or meat. Opinions differ about its impact on the libido. Prof. Varisco examine relevant historical sources (including legal
and medicinal texts), ethnographic accounts, poetry and contemporary scientific analysis of “Catha edulis” for his talk.

Un corpus est déjà constitué sur le qāt ou Catha edulis, aussi bien pour le Yémen que pour l’Afrique de l’Est. Il porte essentiellement sur l’origine et la distribution de cette plante, ainsi que sur son caractère légal en Islam. Ces deux aspects ont déjà fait l’objet de plusieurs publications du Prof. Varisco. Dans sa conférence de Paris, il s’intéressera plutôt aux vertus médicales du qāt, selon la culture yéménite, en particulier aux performances sexuelles et l’accroissement de la libido qu’il est considéré procurer. Bien que le qāt ait été introduit dans la théorie médicale et pharmacologique de manière tardive, il n’en fait pas moins partie du système des humeurs. Il est classé parmi les matières froides et sèches, ce qui explique qu’il doive être absorbé avec des mets Ë‹chaudsËŠ, tel que brouet de sorgho ou viande. Cependant, les opinions varient à propos de son effet sur la libido. Pour les besoins de sa communication, le Prof. Varisco aura donc recours à des sources historiques variées, incluant les textes légaux et médicaux, à des relevés ethnographiques, à la poésie et, enfin, aux analyses scientifiques contemporaines de « Catha edulis ».

La conférence se tiendra le 10 mars 2011 entre 15h et 17h, à l’Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art (INHA), en salle Vasary, Paris, France

Mubarak did not get the message

"Arab Spring", Anthropology/Sociology, Egypt, Journalism and Media


In 1993 Anthropologist Fadwa El Guindi wrote a provocative call for President Mubarak of Egupt to resign. This was almost two decades before events forced him out of office. I post the 1993 commentary by El Guindi here, courtesy of the author.

Mubarak Should Call an Election and Step Aside

Egypt: The country is a wreck; before radicals force a bloody change, he should allow open elections for a successor.

By FADWA EL GUINDI, Los Angeles Times, FRIDAY MARCH 26. 1993

If President Hosni Mubarak is smart, he will take a hard look at the shambles Egypt has become and step down, before he is overthrown or assassinated. An honorable exit might earn him forgiveness for his otherwise disgraceful record.

Egypt had its revolution in 1952, yet it remains a dependency. For example, Egyptian cotton, the highest-quality cotton in the world, is marketed in the United States as towels and bed sheets made in Israel, Britain and America. Egypt’s only part is to provide the natural resource produced by the sweat and labor of peasants living under substandard conditions. This is how it was for Egypt under British colonialism. If Egypt cannot use its very fine cotton to also make and internationally market towels, after 40 years of the revolution that promised industrialization, and if most of its income comes from Westerners visiting the accomplishments of Egyptians of millennia past, something is fundamentally wrong. And it is not fundamentalism, as the government wishes to believe or portray. Continue reading Mubarak did not get the message →

Pete King, America’s new McCarthy

Immigration Issues, Islam and Christianity, Islam in America, Islamophobia 101, Terrorism Issue


by Seema Jilani, The Guardian, March 3, 2011

As our new chairman of the House homeland security committee, I see that you have established congressional hearings on Muslim Americans to investigate the threat of homegrown terrorism, starting on 10 March. Just so I can rehearse, exactly how American would you like me to be? Can I just lip sync the Toby Keith lyrics at my hearing, or do I actually have to don the American flag as a bandana, too? After all, my family and I need to prepare for our big day in court.

Since your hearings have been set up to demonstrate that Muslim Americans are, as you say, “uncooperative with authorities”, might I direct you to the new study by the Triangle Centre on Terrorism and Homeland Security? It found that tips from Muslim Americans provided information that helped authorities thwart terrorist plots in 48 of 120 cases. The report further notes that: “Muslim Americans have been so concerned about extremists in their midst that they have turned in people who turned out to be undercover informants.” Don’t take my word for it, though. The director of the National Counterterrorism Centre, Michael Leiter, FBI Director Robert S Mueller III and US Attorney General Eric H Holder Jr have all praised the American Muslim community for playing an instrumental role in assisting law enforcement agencies. A little strange, then, that apparently, you won’t be calling any law enforcement officials. Continue reading Pete King, America’s new McCarthy →