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June 2007 Archives
June 30, 2007
When the Guardian goes all Biblical...
...things are getting critical:
The attacks are something that say: what we are engaged in is far bigger than politics. This is about a battle between good and evil. The timescale is long, the cause is far greater than the arrival or departure of a Prime Minister or even a single war, even those in Iraq or Afghanistan. The threat will remain high for the foreseeable future.
Continue reading "When the Guardian goes all Biblical..."
Posted by secretdubai at 07:50 PM
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Filed Under: Terrorism
UK apes Saudi Arabia, fears for your health
Maybe inspired by how there are no pubs in Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom decided to join this prestigious league and ban shisha, de facto sentencing shisha shops to closing business. The gullible souls could argue that while the UK government is motivated by public health concerns, the Saudis are trying to enforce some liberticidal moral code. The truth though is, alcohol does a lot more damage than shisha, and if the concern is really health, then alcohol should be banned in UK pubs and white baby milk should be served there instead. Don’t take my word for it; stand in an emergency department for a little while.
The opponents to this ban have approached it under the cultural angle so far. They miss the point. First, being perceived as a Muslim tradition, they shouldn’t expect much to be granted to the protection of this custom. Second, cultural or not, exceptions on public health issues aren’t made for cultural reasons. Try arguing for heroin on a cultural basis. Now, it should be demonstrated how the health concern is a fallacy, at least when other equally or more dangerous substances like alcohol are not banned.
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Posted by Shaheen at 06:24 PM
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Filed Under: Op-Ed
, Society & Culture
June 24, 2007
Foregoing their Commission? Saudi Virtue/Vice Cops on Trial
D'apres this Washington Post story, it seems that the Saudi Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, the morality cops, are on trial. Some of Saudi's finest face charges for brutality, including killing, of suspects detained for, I don't know, flirting, willful shimmying, being within six meters of unbearded non-familial genitals, or whatever it is they arrest folks for. But whatever may be the foibles and popularity of enforcement of extremely conservative mores, there does seem to be a popular line in the sand (MENA stereotype imagery, sorry) being drawn against arbitrariness and in favor of due process. Procedural due process is a good thing in itself. {Note to the over-self-righteous: Of course, (adopting superior cultural tone here), we never have such things here as "vice squads", general alcohol bans, or police killing old ladies in places where consenting informed adults are merely alleged to be consuming or distributing a vice-inducing product.}
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:20 PM
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Filed Under: Gender Issues
, Gulf
, Islam & Politics
, Islam General
, Islamism
, Political Development
, Society & Culture
June 21, 2007
Lebanon: a security archipelago
Jim Quilty has an excellent overview of the current situation in Lebanon at Middle East Report Online, weaving commentary on the security situation in the Palestinian camps into an analysis of Lebanon's overall security and state system.
In particular, he critiques the emphasis some parties put on the Palestinian camps' exceptional character as "security islands" where the state has been historically unable to exert authority:
Finally, speaking of the camps as “security islands” reinforces the fiction that the Lebanese state has forever yearned to assert full sovereignty over the entire country. In practice, the decentralized administration of the Palestinian camps has been just one variation on a theme of rule whereby the Lebanese state effectively outsourced its responsibilities and prerogatives. By this system, confessional politicians dispense services like health care and garbage removal to their constituents as patronage. In the period of Syrian hegemony over Lebanon, local security was delegated to different political groups on a case-by-case basis depending on their relationship with Damascus. In areas where Damascus' allies held sway -- from Druze lord Walid Jumblatt (before he shifted to the “Syria out!” side in 2005) to Hizballah (Jumblatt's present bête noire) -- groups minded their own turf, with or without the cooperation of the state security apparatus. Where banned “anti-Syrian” groups held sway, Syrian secret police were particularly overbearing. Far from exceptional, then, “security islands” like Nahr al-Barid were, and are, simply part of the archipelago that is post-civil war Lebanon.
Continue reading "Lebanon: a security archipelago"
Posted by tomscud at 03:35 PM
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Filed Under: Levant
June 18, 2007
Ayaan Anti-Hirsute Ali: Son of Deuteronomy of Gath
Monty Python's Life of Brian meets real life as this woman gets to speak in public as if she knows what she is talking about. Saracen-slayer Ayaan Hirsi Ali was speaking at the National Press Club and I accidentally heard it on the radio. At first I didn't know who it was until a stream of simple-minded inanities about Islam versus the West narrowed it down fast. No transcript available, only memory, but I had to belly-laugh and nearly spew as she explained Islam's rigidly came from the fact that it takes its Scriptures as literal and divinely authored unlike, um, Christianity. In the Christian Scriptures, she explained, the books are not fixed as being written by God, but are said to be written "by people . . . like Paul . . . and Deuteronomy." (That's exactly what I heard, folks.) What an expert guide for us on religion and progress! O, why did I have to be a Monty Python fan?
Continue reading "Ayaan Anti-Hirsute Ali: Son of Deuteronomy of Gath"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:30 PM
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Filed Under: Gender Issues
, Islam & Politics
, Islam General
, Islamism
, Levant
, MENA Region General
, Media
, North Africa
, Political Development
, Religious Minorities
, Society & Culture
, US Foreign Policy
June 16, 2007
Gaza Stripped: Two Demi-Quasi-States, One People
It appears the folks who rather justly complain of having no country, now appear to have two. Well, three, if you count the old Likudnik view of Jordan. Or in the negative numbers, if reality functions as a point of reference.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:59 PM
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Filed Under: Ethnic Minorities
, Islam & Politics
, Islam General
, Levant
, MENA Region General
, Political Development
, Society & Culture
, Terrorism
June 12, 2007
Desperately Seeking Sudan: Key War on Terror Ally
This Baltimore Sun story is not too much of a surprise for those who connect the dots and are somewhat informed. "Sudan has secretly worked with the CIA to spy on the insurgency in Iraq . . . . The relationship underscores the complex realities of the post-Sept. 11 world, in which the United States has relied heavily on intelligence and military cooperation from countries, including Sudan and Uzbekistan, that are considered pariah states for their records on human rights. "
Now does anyone know of any Hariri connection?
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:42 PM
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Filed Under: Foreign Policy & MENA
, Iraq War
, North Africa
, Terrorism
, US Foreign Policy
June 05, 2007
USS Liberty: Error? Probably. Reinvestigate? Certainly.
Among the Mideast Six-Day War's 40th anniversary issues will be the June 8, 1967 attack by Israeli military forces on the USS Liberty, an American naval intelligence ship. In international waters near Egypt's Sinai peninsula, the vessel was torpedoed by Israeli Navy vessels, following repeated strafings/napalmings by Israeli Air Force planes. A special remembrance was held at the Navy Memorial (7th and Penn) in DC on June 8. Despite my own newer conclusion that the incident was indeed a result of Israeli errors, rather than an assault with foreknowledge of the ship's American nationality, I do think the incident should receive long overdue U.S. public investigation and hearings .
Continue reading "USS Liberty: Error? Probably. Reinvestigate? Certainly."
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:43 AM
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Filed Under: Foreign Policy & MENA
, Levant
, MENA Region General
, Media
, Op-Ed
, Society & Culture
, US Foreign Policy
June 03, 2007
New Month Open Discussion
Someone should create a readers abuse generator like this one for new month open discussion threads...
Posted by Shaheen at 11:18 AM
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Filed Under: Site News
June 02, 2007
How Do You Say "Chutzpah" in Arabic?
The Department of Homeland Security, in a nod to the U.S.' long tradition of aiding those huddled masses who yearn to breathe free (or at least yearn to refrain from having their heads blown off), has announced that a whopping total of 60 Iraqis will shortly be admitted to the U.S. as refugees - but only if they pass the required security checks, of course.
Continue reading "How Do You Say "Chutzpah" in Arabic?"
Posted by evaluna at 12:00 PM
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Filed Under: Foreign Policy & MENA
, Iraq War
, Op-Ed
, Terrorism
, US Foreign Policy
Skool's out
At a time when the interpretation of Islam is a key issue worldwide, this seems a strange and even worrying development:
ABU DHABI — Applicants for the posts of imams and muazzens in the mosques across the country will be exempted from the requirement of academic qualifications in Shariah and Islamic Studies if they are found to have memorised the Holy Quran.The Authority issued the decision after discovering that many applicants for these posts in the mosques do not have degrees in Islamic Studies and Shariah but have memorised all the chapters of the holy book, Dr Mohammed Matter Al Kaabi, Director General of the Authority told Khaleej Times.
Surely a more sensible approach would be to run some kind of training or diploma course for those without degrees? Memorising a text does not make one a scholar of it. I could memorise the Quran, given enough time and a Romanised transliteration, but I still wouldn't understand a word of it.
Posted by secretdubai at 05:15 AM
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Filed Under: Islam General
