Baking Bread in Syria: The hearth is simply two stones raised on end, over which an iron plate is laid, on which the bread is baked. Source: National Geographic Magazine, XIX(3):171, 1908.
Despair Drives Suicide Attacks by Iraqi Women
By ALISSA J. RUBIN, The New York Times, July 5, 2008
BAQUBA, Iraq — Wenza Ali Mutlaq walked a bit uncertainly up the long street near the main government offices here on June 22, the hot wind stirring her heavy black abaya. She passed the concrete barricades put up to ward off suicide car bombers and made her way alone, almost haphazardly.
Suddenly, a police car zoomed in. A policeman got out to talk with her. And then their lives were over — torn apart, along with 14 other people, by the huge blast of fire from her concealed explosive vest.
Ms. Mutlaq, who was in her 30s and whose attack was captured on a security video, was the 18th female suicide bomber of the war to strike in Diyala Province, which has been hit by female attackers much more frequently than any other province of Iraq, according to Iraqi police records and the American military. So far, 11 of the 20 suicide bombings carried out by women in Iraq this year have occurred in Diyala. Continue reading Despair Drives Suicide Attacks by Iraqi Women
Virtual Vengeance
There are more online shoot-em-up games than a person can shake an MK-37 at. The enemies are always the ‘bad guys,’ including Muslim terrorists, who might as well be Nazi or Japanese kamakazi pilots. Of course, video gaming (unlike duck hunting) is all fantasy, I am told. Isn’t it better to shoot fake bullets and rip apart digital bodies online than harm real people (or ducks)? Surely it is. So, if you are interested in seeing the tables turned and are concerned about the usual representation of Palestinians as terrorists, you may find the following video of interest. And remember, it is of course only fantasy.
A Course on the Collision Course
[The aftermath of 9/11 has yielded a stream of books on Islam and violence, so much so that it is rare to find a book about Islam that does not tackle the issue one way or the other. Part of this is due to media promotion of books like Bernard Lewis’s What Went Wrong? and the neocon mantra borrowed from Samuel Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations thesis. A refreshing rejoinder to all this clash talk is provided by Gene Heck in his recent When Worlds Collide: Exploring the Ideological and Political Foundations of the Clash of Civilizations. Here is an excerpt from his Introduction. Webshaykh]
What are the Causes of Modern Middle East Terror?
5. That the so-called Wahhabi movement is often unjustly maligned for alleged doctrines and precepts that do not comport with the actual teachings of the movement’s eighteenth-century founder, Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, who advocated jihad by peaceful, not militant, means. Continue reading A Course on the Collision Course
Buns and Guns in Beirut
‘Buns and Guns’ Fast Food Eatery Opens in Beirut
Asharq Alawsat, 27/06/2008
BEIRUT, Lebanon, (AP) – At the “Buns and Guns,” the chefs wear military helmets, the food is wrapped in camouflage paper and the advertising slogan is “a sandwich can kill you.”
The fast food eatery with a tongue-in-cheek military theme opened three weeks ago in Beirut’s Hezbollah-dominated southern suburbs and is drawing in residents proud of the Shiite militant group’s battlefield successes.
Done up like a military outpost, the restaurant is located in the heart of a neighborhood heavily pounded by Israel during its 2006 war with Hezbollah, which fought the Israeli military to a standstill.
Neatly stacked sandbags cover the exterior, while the inside is festooned with camouflage nets, defused mortar shells and live ammunition. Employees in military uniforms serve meals to the taped sounds of gunfire as “background music.” Continue reading Buns and Guns in Beirut
Uncovering Evidence of a Workaday World Along the Nile
Parts of an administration building, above, and a large silo, top, at the site of an ancient provincial capital on the Upper Nile; Top, N.Moeller/Tell Edfu Project; above, G. Marouard/Tell Edfu Project.
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD, The New York Times, July 1, 2008
Archaeologists have long fixed their sights on the grandeur that was ancient Egypt, the pyramids, temples and tombs. Few bothered to dig beneath and beyond the monumental stones for glimpses into the living and working spaces of ordinary Egyptians.
That is changing slowly but steadily. In the last two or three decades, excavations have uncovered urban remains and swept aside the conventional wisdom that the Egypt of the pharaohs, in contrast to Mesopotamia, was somehow a civilization without cities.
“We can now confirm that this was not the case,†said Nadine Moeller, an Egyptologist at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago. Dr. Moeller was speaking of her own recent findings, as well as those of other excavators who practice what is known as settlement archaeology. Continue reading Uncovering Evidence of a Workaday World Along the Nile
Tribute to Professor Syed Hussein Alatas (1928-2007)
[The following tribute by Alvin Tay is more than a year old, but for those who were unaware of the passing of Prof. Alatas, it is a reminder of the value of his scholarly work, which remains unappreciated in many university settings. Webshaykh.]
23rd January 2007 was a sad day for sociology, Singapore sociology in particular, with the sudden passing of Professor Syed Hussein Alatas, former Professor in Malay Studies at University of Singapore and a pioneer of the kind of sociological theorizing that Singapore, and indeed the region of Southeast Asia, could truly call our own. I did not have the opportunity of the many sociologists before me who had passed through the doors of the department and were taught by him in the university, and so I speak only from the position of one who regrets deeply the loss of a formidable sociologist, and yet feels greatly blessed by the corpus of sociological knowledge which he has left behind. It is the imprint of his many works on me, ranging from religion to race to colonialism, amongst other substantive issues, which impels me to proceed with this modest tribute, albeit with a heavy heart and a prayer for love and peace. Continue reading Tribute to Professor Syed Hussein Alatas (1928-2007)
FGM, Early Marriage and Juvenile Delinquents
MPS say: no to genital mutilation, 18 is minimum marriage age, juveniles cannot be punished as adults
By: Kawkab Al-Thaibani For the Yemen Times
SANA’A, June 24 — A two-day workshop in Parliament concluded that the minimum marriage age in Yemen should be 18, and the sponsors of both brides and grooms should be punished if they allow them to marry under this age.
The workshop’s participants also concluded that juvenile delinquents between the ages of 15 and 18 are not equal to adult criminals. They further recommended laws banning female genital mutilation.
The workshop covered three main areas: the criminality of juveniles, female genital mutilation, and the minimum age of marriage. These three subjects were chosen because the existing laws concerning them are not specific enough and are often ignored.
This workshop was arranged by Parliament, the Higher Council for Motherhood and Childhood, and the Yemeni Network Combating Violence Against Women known as SHIMA, under the sponsorship of the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF), OXFAM International, and Save the Children, a worldwide children’s rights organization. Attendees included members of the Sharia Committee, who matches the constitutional laws with Islamic sharia law, Parliament members (MPs), doctors and human rights activists. Continue reading FGM, Early Marriage and Juvenile Delinquents