Debating Islamo-Fascism

Gender and Sexuality, Islam and Christianity, Islamophobia, Terrorism Issue

[The message below was written by Marieme Hélie-Lucas, long time coordinator of the European Bureau of Women Living Under Muslim Laws, and was originally posted to the Women in Black (WIB) international list and reposted to ISLAMAAR, the discussion group on Islam of the American Academy of Religion, on September 6, 2007. Following her commentary is a response by Mohammed Fadel, who is on the faculty of the University of Toronto Faculty of Law. Both are commenting on the call by David Horowitz for an Islamo-fascism Awareness Week in October, posted upon earlier on Tabsir.]

Dear friends in WIB,
In response to the mail alerting us about this event against ‘islamo fascism’ led by conservative forces, I think there is a need for clarification from us, who lived under ‘islamo fascism’ :

First of all, let me say that the term ‘islamo fascism’ has been initially coined by Algerian people struggling for democracy, against armed fundamentalist forces decimating people in our country, then later operating in Europe, where a number of us had taken refuge. For us, it has never been equated to Islam, but it points at fundamentalists only : i.e. at political forces working under the cover of religion in order to gain political power and to impose a theocracy ( The Law – singular – of God, unchangeable, a-historical, interpreted by self appointed old men) over democracy ( i.e. the laws – plural – voted by the people and changeable by the will of the people). Continue reading Debating Islamo-Fascism →

Another Debate (Debate?)

Iraq War, Islam in America, Luke R. E. Publican, Terrorism Issue

Watching the Fox News comedy-not-so-central Republican debate last night, it seemed to me that the gentlemen (and they were, of course, only men) behind the podiums were more intent on smiling through their election-year platitudes than engaging with the messy realities of the government each seeks to head. Apart from Ron Paul, the interloping libertarian, each candidate apparently (a word that John McCain stubbornly refuses to use in his vocabulary) hoped that supporting the troop surge would lead to a surge (even a blip for those hanging on only by their televised sound bites) in their respective pre-season ratings. There was a lot of puffing and fluffing about family values, with Hizzoner begging (the question) to have his private life left private (‘fat chance’, as they say in the Big Apple) and another don’t-remember-the-name tossed out the Pottery-Barnyard we-broke-it-so-we-gotta-fix-it mantra that treats premature evacuation (Iraqis Interruptus) as one of the seven deadly sins. Mercifully, there was no gay bashing and one candidate (does it really matter who said what at this stage?) insisted that Republicans or better than Democrats because they ‘come clean’ and resign after a scandal. I wonder if Larry Craig was taking notes. Fox News should have stationed an embedded reporter in a stall in the Minneapolis airport just to be on the safe side. Continue reading Another Debate (Debate?) →

Sahara, My, My but it’s Dry

Humor and Satire, Music and Dance, Orientalism

Vaudeville loved Orientalism. By the time Valentino played The Sheik, images of Middle Eastern scenes were well represented on stage and in music. Some of the lyrics from this time period are very clever. My personal favorite is a prohibition song from 1920 called “Sahara, We’ll Soon Be Dry Like You,” sung by the great comic singer Billy Murray. To hear this original Edison Diamond Disk recording in a digital format, click here.

Here are the words. Why not click above and sing along…


Sahara (We’ll Soon Be Dry Like You)
Words by Alfred Bryan, Music by Jean Schwartz

Verse 1: King Rameses went to pieces seven thousand years ago,
And pass’d a law that Egypt must go dry.
He took the liquors from the “shickers” all the way to Jericho,
But kept his little toddy on the sly.
The desert of Sahara flow’d with honey so they say,
Till prohibition came along and dried it up one day. Continue reading Sahara, My, My but it’s Dry →

Pazuzu, Inc.: On the Movie Syriana

Film and Video, Iraq, Iraq War, Terrorism Issue

By Gregory Starrett
UNC Charlotte

“Now, the characteristic feature of mythical thought. . .is that it builds up structured sets. . .by using the remains and debris of events. . . .Mythical thought for its part is imprisoned in the events and experiences which it never tires of ordering and re-ordering in its search to find them a meaning.”
Claude Levi-Strauss, The Savage Mind

In a previous post, Desiree Marshall faulted director Thomas Gaghan’s recent movie Syriana, implying that a combination of bias and ignorance spoiled what might otherwise have been a useful exploration of identity and politics in the Middle East. While her misgivings are likely shared by others, she and most of the film’s other reviewers have missed its point entirely. Syriana is not at all “about” the Middle East except in the sense that it uses the debris of current events to reveal larger truths and tell much older stories. In fact, Syriana is what French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss would recognize as a structural transformation of another tale: director William Friedkin’s 1973 screen version of novelist William Peter Blatty’s The Exorcist. The two films are variants of the same myth. Continue reading Pazuzu, Inc.: On the Movie Syriana →

This Should Make You Quake

Apocalypse Watch, Turkey


[A mosque still stands amidst the rubble of collapsed buildings in this aerial view of a neighborhood in the western Turkish town of Golcuk, 60 miles east of Istanbul, August 19, 1999.]

The recent earthquake in Peru, although not resulting in massive deaths, still has fallout which is more than nuclear. Turkey, Iran and Pakistan routinely have severe earthquakes, often resulting in the deaths of thousands. By an accident of sacred history, most of these victims are Muslim. In a number of ways these tragic events could be could be styled “an act of God.” To an insurance agent this would merely mean that it was one of those natural events which happen from time to time and are not covered in a standard policy. To Evangelical Christians, at least those who read KJV biblical prophecy as a Fox News documentary, it can easily become a special kind of act of God, not unlike the fire and brimstone that destroyed the wicked lot of Sodom and Gomorrah. But apocalyptic rhetor can boomerang, especially when the walls do not come tumbling down at the blasting away of the self-righteous. Continue reading This Should Make You Quake →

Egyptian Cosmology and the Grand Canyon

Archaeology and Antiquities, Egypt


[Isis Temple of the Grand Canyon]

In mid August, this year, I traveled to the Grand Canyon in Arizona. I was stunned by the views of spectacular buttes and rises, some of which are named after Egyptian gods, goddesses and kings such as “Isis,” “Osiris,” “Horus,” “Set” and “Cheops” (the Pharaoh who built the Great Pyramid of Egypt). This exposure triggered substantial questions concerning the relationship between ancient Egyptian culture and Native Americans inhabiting the Grand Canyon recognizing that anthropological and historical studies of archaic cosmologies of ancient societies are still open for further development. I found a very interesting article on the subject of “Ancient Egyptian Treasures in the Grand Canyon: Suppressed Archeological Information and Metaphysical Paradox?” written by Barry McEwen in which he refers to an article written by David Hatcher Childress who reveals deep concern about the Smithsonian Institution cover up of important findings of G.E. Kinkaid and Professor S.A. Jordan. To quote Childress, “Perhaps the most amazing suppression of all is the excavation of an Egyptian tomb by the Smithsonian itself in Arizona. A lengthy front page story of the PHOENIX GAZETTE on 5 April 1909… gave a highly detailed report of the discovery and excavation of a rock-cut vault by an expedition led by a Professor S. A. Jordan of the Smithsonian. The Smithsonian, however, claims to have absolutely no knowledge of the discovery or its discoverers.” Continue reading Egyptian Cosmology and the Grand Canyon →

This Split within Islam Must End

Qur'an, Shi'a, Sunni, Terrorism Issue

by Abdullah Al Rahim

What is it that makes people slaughter one another in the name of religion? Which among all these warriors can claim the integrity to dictate the terms by which God is to be venerated and who is to be slaughtered in God’s name? They call these sects Sunni and Shia. So I ask, which one of these post-Prophet innovations called sects did the holy Prophet Muhammad belong to? Which of these slaughters will he approve of, should he come back today?

We hear in mosques every time the word Bida’a [innovation] which is used to fight anything new we come up with, even if it is positive. So let me ask both, Sunnis and Shias: what are these sects? are they not innovations [Bida’a]? They are the most dangerous of all innovations which have never united but always divided the house of Islam. Continue reading This Split within Islam Must End →

A New Old Damascus

Anthropology/Sociology, Books You Should Read, Syria, Travel

by Christa Salamandra
Lehman College, CUNY

If you enter the Old City of Damascus at Bab Sharqi (the Eastern Gate), walk a few yards along a Street Called Straight, and turn down the first narrow alley on your right, you will find, jutting out from among the inward-looking Arab-style houses of this quiet residential quarter, a sign advertising “Le Piano Bar.” Enter through the carved wooden door, walk along the tile-covered foyer, under the songbird’s cage, past a display case strung with chunky silver necklaces, and step up a stone platform to the raised dining room. Here well-heeled Syrians sit at closely spaced tables, drinking arak and Black Label whiskey, and eating grilled chicken or spaghetti. The walls around are decorated, each in a different style. One features a collection of Dutch porcelain plates set into plaster. In another, strips of colored marble hold a series of mosaic-lined, glass-covered displays of wind instruments. A third wall features two floral wrought-iron gated windows draped in a locally produced striped fabric. Wrought-iron musical notes dance on the last. At the from of the long, arch-divided room is a huge mother-of-pearl-framed mirror. Set into the top of the mirror is a digital billboard across which Le Piano Bar’s menu and opening hours float repeatedly. Patrons listen politely as the proprieter sings “My Way” and other Frank Sinatra favorites to a karaoke backing tape. When he finishes, video screens tucked into corners feature Elton John song sing-alongs. Some nights a pianist and clarinetist play Russian songs as patrons clack wooden catanets. Continue reading A New Old Damascus →