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March 07, 2012
On Israel & its American tropes, re Iran
The Economist Blog on America has a wise comment, in Israel, Iran and America: Auschwitz complex | The Economist that is rather more intelligent the normal idiocy that is written about Israel
But Israel has even less control over its own destiny than Portugal or Britain do. The main reason is that, unlike those countries, Israel refuses to give up its empire. Israel is unable to sustain its imperial ambitions in the West Bank, or even to articulate them coherently. Having allowed its founding ideology to carry it relentlessly and unthinkingly into what Gershom Gorenburg calls an "Accidental Empire" of radical religious-nationalist settlements that openly defy its own courts, Israel is politically incapable of extricating itself. The partisan battles engendered by its occupation of Palestinian territory render it less and less able to pull itself free. It is immobilised, pinned down, in a conflict that is gradually killing it. Countries facing imperial twilight, like Britain in the late 1940s, are often seized by a sense of desperate paralysis. For over a decade, the tone of Israeli politics has been a mix of panic, despair, hysteria and resignation.
No one bears greater responsibility for the trap Israel finds itself in today than Mr Netanyahu. As prime minister in the late 1990s, he did more than any other Israeli leader to destroy the peace process. Illegal land grabs by settlers were tolerated and quietly encouraged in the confused expectation that they would aid territorial negotiations. Violent clashes and provocations erupted whenever the peace process seemed on the verge of concrete steps forward; the most charitable spin would be that the Israelis failed to exercise the restraint they might have shown in retaliating against Palestinian terrorism, had they been truly interested in progress towards a two-state solution. Mr Netanyahu believed that the Oslo peace agreements were a mirage, and his government's actions in the late 1990s helped make it true.
Having trapped themselves in a death struggle with Palestinians that they cannot acknowledge or untangle, Israelis have psychologically displaced the source of their anxiety onto a more distant target: Iran. An Iranian nuclear bomb would not be a happy development for Israel. Neither was Pakistan's, nor indeed North Korea's. The notion that it represents a new Holocaust is overstated, and the belief that the source of Israel's existential woes can be eliminated with an airstrike is mistaken. But Iran makes an appealing enemy for Israelis because, unlike the Palestinians, it can be fitted into a familiar ideological trope from the Jewish national playbook: the eliminationist anti-Semite.
I believe this hits the current situation head on - and also highlights the madness that this dead-end might pull in the last super-power into a mad bit of co-enablement and suidice pact (not nuclear holocaust, but security over-reaching touching off a Gulf region war that is not needed or useful, spiking oil prices into a deadly range)
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:55 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 03, 2012
American politics, non-existence of Arab Xians
Worth a read, came across by accident
Extract
They also demonstrated their ignorance of a crucial part of the world. The Middle East isn’t exclusively Muslim; Hassan, for example, points out that he and his “massive family” are part of “a vast Palestinian community… in North Florida, nearly all of them Greek Orthodox or Catholic.”But Hassan gets the anti-Muslim bigotry, especially because it comes back to haunt him (he, an Arab Christian American, is tarred with Islamist Hamas). For those in the GOP who might be reading this, allow me to tell you: The percentage of Christians among the Palestinian population is about the same as the percentage of African Americans in the U.S.A.
For a party so concerned with America’s Christian identity, Romney and Gingrich’s dismissal of the Palestinians is part of their broader disinterest in the Muslim world, and its diversities and differences. Namely, most Muslims aren’t Arabs, and most Arab Americans are Christians. You read that correctly.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 01:02 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 02, 2012
Illustrative of Egypt's developing political culture, Death to the Marsha
As horrid as the football match disaster was, this just does not speak well : Calls to Execute Egypt's Military Ruler Echo on Cairo's Streets - NYTimes.com
According to an eyewitness account posted online, one of the team’s star players, Mohammed Abu Trika, joined the fans in chanting for Field Marshal Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, who leads the military council that still rules Egypt, to be put to death. Modifying the popular revolutionary chant, “The People Demand the Fall of the Regime,” the protesters shouted, “The People Demand the Execution of the Marshal.”
But fifty odd years of conspiracy thinking...
Posted by The Lounsbury at 05:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 02, 2011
Washington Post tells Arab Spring to "Just Do It" with the Elections
Anne Applebaum of the Washington Post, basing herself on initial elections in post communist Poland apparently working to move democracy forward despite flaws, says that the lack of fully functional electoral procedures shouldn't delay getting people as a whole into the process of participation. Otherwise the old regimes' allies and like-minded in the state will reassert themselves or start a new despotism afresh.
Continue reading "Washington Post tells Arab Spring to "Just Do It" with the Elections"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:26 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 10, 2011
October Date Set for Tunisian Elections
It looks like it's official. Tunisian constitutional assembly ("Constituent Assembly") elections will be held in October, back from the initial July set date. October 23 to be exact.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:48 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
May 14, 2011
Naiveté in Propaganda: Ben Laden & Impact of Porn Accus
I am continuously befuddled that the US military and counterror people believe these kinds of demarches, Pornography Is Found on Bin Laden’s Computers - NYTimes.com actually carry any credibility with audiences not already pre-disposed to the US view / to disliking Ben Laden.
The discovery of the pornography, first reported by Reuters, may not be surprising in a collection of five computers, 10 hard drives and dozens of thumb drives and CDs whose age and past ownership is not known.No. Just simply no. Porn does not "tarnish" Ben Laden more with anyone who does not already loathe and despise him. First, the credibility of the accusation is .... dubious as to a real factual connection to himself (given no control on provenance, and frankly the Americans could be making this up). There are any number of non-ideological reasons to view this with scepticism.
But the disclosure could fuel accusations of hypocrisy against the founder of Al Qaeda, who was 54 and lived with three wives at the time of his death, and will be welcomed by counterterrorism officials because it could tarnish his legacy and erode the appeal of his brand of religious extremism.
Second, on the ideological side, the people who lean towards sympathy towards Ben Laden are not going to be in any way inclinced to view this as credible - indeed it feels rather smearish - and quite the contrary I rather would suspect it has rather more potential to generate sympathy than the inverse, along the line so "the infidel not only have killed the Sheikh, but now are fabricating personal smears."
A stupid idea and demarche by "counter-terrorism officials" (a discipline I have less and less respect for as time goes on, as it seems to mean 'specialist in advancing own prejudices in military-security jargon').
Rather more effective wold be to focus on his writings and things more clearly connected to him and the idealogy.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 09:04 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 10, 2011
Tremors in Tunisia?
Curfews, demonstrations, crackdowns, dismissals of key figures, speculation on a coup, etc. in the birthplace of the Arab Spring, and it's not even summer yet. But maybe it's just the ups and downs of seasonal growth.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:29 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
May 02, 2011
Meaning & Impact of Ben Laden death
My general reaction matches that of Issandr Amrani and Aqoul colleague, with reservations: Bin Laden finally dead - Blog - The Arabist
First, outside of Pakistan and the US this won't be much of a big deal — and it probably wouldn't have been either at any point in the last decade, which goes to show how the alarmism about Bin Laden being some kind of popular figure in the Muslim world was misplaced. Secondly, where's Ayman Zawahri? And thirdly, the amount of Pakistani complicity with Bin Laden really seems beyond the pale.I don't agree with "any point in the last decade" as the symbolic value c. 2001-2002 or 2003 would have been powerful. Ten years on, well... It has some value, but now that most of the MENA region has had more than a taste of Takfiri Jihadi movements, the reservoir of sympathy has long been quite limited (the genuinely spontaneous anti reactions in Morocco over the years, for example).
'Aqoul: The Last Salaf in On You, Mr. Osama
May 02, 2011
The Last Salaf in On You, Mr. Osama
One gets the impression, or at least I do, that while the US Navy SEALS, the Angel of Death,, and justice itself, have not bypassed Osama bin-Laden, in some sense -- at least for the MENA region (less so for Af-Pak) - history has left him behind, and has for quite a while.
I think this is closer than Amrani on real impact: history left Ben Laden behind, he was more a creature of a period 93-03 than of the past few years. The MENA 48 movements are the new news, not Ben Laden and the Takfiri movements.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:53 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 20, 2011
Carnegie + W Bank on NA and EU: True, False, Nuanced, Well-known?
Soliciting the experts regardng these summary statements via Carnegie and World Bank, below. Basic fact, nuanced, fundamentally off? I go with #1, but just confirming.
Continue reading "Carnegie + W Bank on NA and EU: True, False, Nuanced, Well-known?"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 03:33 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 01, 2011
The Economist Assesses Post-Revolution Tunisia
Via Gulf News, the Economist appraises the Punic wares. (UPDATE: Tunisian Finance Ministry predicts little or no growth in 2011.)
Continue reading "The Economist Assesses Post-Revolution Tunisia"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 03:31 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 26, 2011
Tunisia, Protesting Disease
Libya in crisis – live coverage | World news | guardian.co.uk
I'm growing concerned that the Tunisian case can go seriously sideways. I fail to see how bringing down Ghannouchi helps. Now is the time to monitor and to prepare. Changing faces in an interim regime does not solve much. Organising proper parties, political networks. Change forced by demonstration is only a good thing as a very extraordinary measure.
Three people have been killed in clashes between Tunisian security forces and youths rioting in central Tunis, an interior ministry official told Reuters.
The claims of Ben Ali agents provocateurs can't be dismissed out of hand, but is a bit pat.
The official, who declined to be named, said another 12 had been injured in the clashes, which he said occurred after a riot orchestrated by loyalists of ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. He said about 100 people had been arrested.
"Those who were arrested have admitted they were pushed by former Ben Ali officials," he said. "Others said they were paid to do it."
A Reuters witness had earlier seen Tunisian soldiers fire into the air and use tear gas in an effort to disperse dozens of youths, many carrying sticks, who were breaking shop windows near Tunis's Barcelona Station
More from French sources, which give more detail and suggest perhaps by timing and behaviour that the agent provacteur thesis is not unfounded - but could as well suggest that the slum hooligan profile exploiting the situation:
Continue reading "Tunisia, Protesting Disease"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 05:24 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
February 25, 2011
To lighten the moment: Qadhdhafi Joke (Ar w Trans)
A joke making the rounds by email:
يحكى أن القذافي زار مدارس المغرب ذات مرة في عهد الحسن الثاني ووجد المعلمين يلاحظون في دفاتر تلامذتهم ب"حسن" و"مستحسن" و"حسن جدا" فأمر معلميه لما عاد إلى ليبيا أن يكتبوا للتلاميذ "مستقذف" "قذافي" و"قذافي جدا
English:
It's said that Qadhdhafi visited a Moroccan school in the time of [King] Hassan II and found "Very Good" [Ar: Hassan Jidun], "Commendable" [Mustehassen] and "Good"[Hassan] [all act. Mor. school grades] that teachers noted in the workbooks of the students. So when he returned to Libya, he ordered his teachers to use the grades "Very Qadhafi" [Q. jidun], "Established / Mustaqadhif" and "Qadhafi"(joke resides in Hassan II's name].
Posted by The Lounsbury at 11:16 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 24, 2011
Revolution and Cultural Revival
This interesting note from our friend Nisrine Malek is worth reading (and less depressing the watching Libya go to hell.
Egypt has returned from the cultural backwaters | Nesrine Malik | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
I think there is an opportunity, it is certainly true that despite what the American Gov agents are always telling me, Egypt ceased to be a though leader in the Arab world ... well more or less since Sadat.
Egypt has returned from the cultural backwaters
Once the dominant force in Arab culture, post-revolutionary Egypt now has the chance to return to this role
Posted by The Lounsbury at 02:19 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
February 23, 2011
The incoherence of Arab Left commentary: West Damned if it does, damned if it doesn't
Typical of Angry Arab, this comment:
The Angry Arab News Service/وكالة أنباء العربي الغاضب
Obama and Hillary still don't want Qadhdhafi to surrender power: they fear the impact on oil field, just as they feared the impact in Egypt on the lousy peace treaty.
Where he gets this from escapes, as the Americans are clearly not friends of The Guide by any rational stretch of the imagination. Evidently, if the American government is not making sloppy posturing statements like himself, that means they're for something. It escapes, apparently, that it is not the role of diplomacy to make angry, loose commentary (in public). Not that American condemnations, or anyone else's is going to have any effect on The Guide at all. It would be pure self-indulgence. Which is fine for bloggers, but incompetent idiocy for governments.
Of course this same line of commentary, when the Americans do say something, then wrings its hands about Western interference in Arab affaires. In fact the Obama administration is doing the Arabs a favour by staying out of the way, and giving the protesters the space not to be foreign stooges, but themselves.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 05:39 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
February 20, 2011
Libya: Dancing by The Grave (but whose end game?)
Only 48 hours ago if someone had asked me could the Guide fall I would have said, "not bloody likely." Now I am not sure at all.
Live Blog - Libya | Al Jazeera Blogs
12:11 am: Libya's ambassador to China, Hussein Sadiq al Musrati, has just resigned on air with Al Jazeera Arabic. He called on the army to intervene, and has called all diplomatic staff to resign.
He made claims about a gunfight between Gaddafi's sons and also claimed that Gaddafi may have left Libya. Al Jazeera has no confirmation of these claims.
11:25 pm Online reports claim remaining pro-Gaddafi militia in Benghazi, around the Elfedeel Bu Omar compound, "are being butchered by angry mobs". It is impossible to verify the claims, though Al Jazeera has spoken with several people in the city who say protesters control the city, as security forces flee to the airport.
However, I believe that Qadhdhafi and the people close to his system are going to have every reason in the world to fight savagely for their position as I don't think a negotiated solution or a light resolution is possible given they went the Full Qadhdhafi.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:23 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
February 17, 2011
Sleazy Self-Promotion and the Lara Logan Incident
Although not directly spotlighting this issue, the apparent "wilding" attack on journalist Lara Logan amidst the Tahrir Square celebrations brings to mind my own thematically related essay from a few years back, which I sleazily and opportunistically link here.
Continue reading "Sleazy Self-Promotion and the Lara Logan Incident"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 04, 2011
Best Quote So Far -- From Egypt's new PM
[Egyptian Prime Minister] Ahmed Shafiq, . . . appealed to his compatriots, especially Egypt's youth, to show patience . . . "It has great meaning not to hurt each other*, [or] hurt our reputation," he said. "Do they want what happened in Tunisia to happen here?"
Meanwhile, my proposed ten day rule of street revolutions faces the big test.
Continue reading "Best Quote So Far -- From Egypt's new PM"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:34 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
January 30, 2011
Rached Ghannouchi Returns to Tunisia (with rant on Anti-Islamist Panic)
Exiled Ennahda party leader Rached Ghannouchi was received by enthusiastic crowd when his plane landed. Given that he is somewhat of an Islamist, apparenlty his presence doesn't count as a step towards True Democracy, in the proposals of Robert Satloff, who wants the US to sponsor a new wave of Arab democratic government which would, apparently, not allow any non-secular or at least Islamist party to participate. In other words, the same thing all over again, a Ben Ali, only with multiple parties. Rant below, on anti-Islamist Panic.
Continue reading "Rached Ghannouchi Returns to Tunisia (with rant on Anti-Islamist Panic)"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 06:06 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 21, 2010
Gulf Science
First, let me register my deep irritation in reading headlines like this from the FT (and other newspapers). It is lazy and stupid journalism. The Gulf is not the Arab World in toto.
FT.com - Arab states try to fill scientific shortfall
Arab states try to fill scientific shortfallOn the last item, I rather suspect that unless the Academic is an Arab, the citizenship angle is not appealing at all. Even as an Arab, the citizenship offer, given Gulf, is not necessarily an attractive deal.
By James Drummond and Robin Wigglesworth
In 2004, the UN Arab Development Report characterised Arab universities as “either buried in dust or smothered by ideologies”. A Unesco report in 2005 identified the region as “the least research-and-development-intensive area in the world”.
But Gulf states in particular are now expending huge amounts of petrodollars on education, in an attempt to catch up with the developed world and train nationals for more diversified, non-hydrocarbon economies in the future.
“The Arab world used to be a prime place for science, research and technology, but in the past couple of centuries it has deteriorated a lot, due to politics and ignorance. Things finally look like they are getting better now,” says Wael al-Delaimy, an associate professor of medicine at University of California, San Diego.
Abu Dhabi, for example, intends to pump Dh4.9bn ($1.3bn) into research and development by 2018 under a strategic plan for higher education announced last month. The emirate’s plan calls for 28 per cent of its graduates to be in engineering-related areas. But currently only about 9 per cent of higher education students are in those fields, says the Abu Dhabi Education Council.
Institutions such as the Qatar Foundation, home to branches of six US universities, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, and the Sorbonne and New York university branches being established in Abu Dhabi, are trying to fill the shortfall. Most are teaching establishments for undergraduates. But the intention is that, with time, they will conduct research and award doctorates. ....
Not all has gone well. This month John Perkins, the provost of Abu Dhabi’s Masdar Institute, said he was leaving for “personal reasons”. The Masdar Institute has been formed in partnership with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and aims to carry out research in renewable technologies. ....
“They [the universities] are slowly beginning to realise that money cannot buy people, especially scientists,” says Hilal Lashuel of the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. “The lack of equal treatment is a major problem. Hiring and pay is based on nationality and not merit, and Arab scientists are often disadvantaged when it comes to both.”
In Dubai, Tarik Yousef, the dean of the Dubai School of Government, a think tank, agrees that a research culture cannot be developed remotely or by one and two-week visits. .... “I don’t think they [the universities] are going about it the right way. Who are they using to recruit people? [They use] this executive approach,” Mr Yousef says. Some universities are losing as many people each year as they recruit, he says. ....
“Academics want time for research – and they want to be rewarded . . . It has to be a two-way conversation,” he says. “The first question people ask me is: what is my teaching load? How much administrative work am I going to have to do? Am I going to be able to organise seminars and attend conferences and deliver papers?”
Another issue is citizenship. Gulf states have historically granted citizenship grudgingly if at all. In a globalised business such as academia where people prefer not to move frequently, the prospect of working for decades in a country and then being denied the right to stay there is unattractive.
States that offer a route to citizenship are more appealing, academics say. To this end, Mr Yousef says Qatar and Bahrain are offering passports to talented academics to entice them. ....
More fundamentally, there is nothing much in the Gulf society that suggests that they will be able to create any kind of merit based academics. I could see this working in say Egypt, if they got a huge chunk of money, but only barely. The Gulf, no way. This is futile throwing money at a symptom.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:50 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 17, 2010
Quixotic Arab Sat Plans
I am bemused by this report. I have a very hard time believing there is market space for yet another Arab Sat in the news space (although perhaps it might convince the USA to finally put to death the laughing stock fiasco of its state run news service, Al Hurra)
Sky News considers launch in Arabic | Media | guardian.co.uk
BSkyB is in talks about launching a Sky News-branded 24-hour Arabic language service in conjunction with an Abu Dhabi-based private investor.
It would compete with the Qatar-based al-Jazeera and other Arabic language news services in the Middle East and North Africa.
Sky said that the channel will launch within the next two years if the discussions are successful.
The new channel, which would be a 50/50 joint venture between the two parties, will be based in Abu Dhabi and have bureaux "in most major regional and international news centres".
It would be broadcast free-to-air across the Middle East and North Africa regions offering, according to Sky News, "independent and neutral coverage of the news agenda".
"The Middle East is undergoing rapid economic and social development and is becoming an increasingly attractive region for media investment," said John Ryley, head of Sky News. "This venture would build on our existing strengths as an international news provider and bring the Sky News brand to a new audience. Discussions are progressing well and we look forward to bringing a new approach to Arabic-language news."
Well, I suppose if some gullible Emirati is willing to plump for this....
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:30 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 14, 2010
France & Niqabs: Show your face
Having mixed feelings about this, as I have no love for Saudi ninjette wear nor other things called 'burqa' (contra the head scarf, which is harmless, the Saudi inspired all-ninjette wear is a sign of problems). At the same time this takes a small minority and makes them martyrs to their mistaken (or misbegotten) cause. That is a mistake.
FT.com - French lawmakers approve ban on full veil
French lawmakers approve ban on full veilEmphasis added.
France’s National Assembly on Tuesday backed by a crushing majority a bill banning the wearing of the full face veil in public spaces, a garment which politicians across the political spectrum regard as a symbol of religious extremism.
The vote – by 335 to 1 – takes France a step closer to becoming the first democracy to ban women in the street from wearing the niqab or burka. The Belgian parliament is planning a similar clampdown while Spain is proposing to curb the full veil’s use in public buildings.
The bill will now pass to the Senate in September where it is likely to meet little resistance. However, even once enshrined in law it is almost certain to face an eventual legal challenge on the grounds that there is no constitutional basis for an outright ban in public spaces.
....
The vote is testament to the political consensus in France against the full veil even though it is a marginal phenomenon – only 2,000 women out of a Muslim population of some 5m are thought to wear it.
....
However, some Muslim community leaders suspect a ban may simply stigmatise all Muslims.
.... the differences between government and opposition on the issue of a “burka ban” are small: the socialists want a ban only in public buildings and services, rather than an outright ban, which they fear could prove unlawful.
France’s Conseil d’Etat, a body that advises on the constitutionality of laws, warned the government earlier this year that “no uncontestable legal basis can be found for an outright and generalised ban on the wearing of the full veil”.
The bill does not specifically ban the face veil but prohibits anyone from wearing an item of clothing to hide his or her face in open spaces, including streets, shops, parks or cafés as well as in public services such as town halls, schools and hospitals. Offenders face a fine of €150 ($191).
A number of items here. Last one first, this evidently is a law that can (and if it can, will) be used for purposes well beyond its original aim. Fines on say street anarchists (hmmm, well I'm almost in favour of that, but liberty is liberty), pretext for legal action against persons with legitimate desires to remain anonymous, etc.
Otherwise, why a law what amounts to a handful of persons? Prejudice in the end. French lawmakers spending time on this is sheer idiocy relative to France's more pressing problems. The only explanation is hysteria and bigotry (2k of say 2.5m women is a minute, infinitesimal percentage, it is literally absurd to be concerned about this to pass a national law).
Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:40 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
July 10, 2010
Egypt & The Arab Socialists: Failures in Liberalisation
An interesting article from FT on the ongoing failure of liberalization in Egypt (despite the cheer-leading press on this over the years, Egypt benefiting from the Pyramid Halo Effect) A general observation is how much the hard-core Arab socialist countries ended up resembling each other in terms of their dysfunctionalities. Egypt, Algeria, Syria - all three show really impressive similarities in terms of economic dysfunction despite a fair degree of diversity between themselves otherwise.
FT.com Unrest adds to Egypt’s labour travails (emphasis added in bold)
Almost unheard of a few years ago, labour protests are now so frequent in Egypt that barely a week goes by without a sit-in or strike by workers calling for higher wages or better conditions. .... Earlier this year, successive waves of workers camped out for weeks at a time on a narrow strip of pavement in front of parliament to call attention to their grievances. The protesters have included public and private-sector employees. Egyptians protesting in support of political demands can usually expect a harsh response from the security services. More tolerance, however, has been shown towards workers and in most cases the government has made concessions. The reason, analysts argue, is that the authorities fear that suppressing agitation in favour of specific economic demands could give rise to wider political unrest. There is also a recognition that high inflation has severely eroded the purchasing power of low salaries. ....
“There is no country in the world which does not set a minimum wage,” says Kamal Abbas, a labour activist who runs the independent Centre for Trade Union and Workers Services. “This has to reflect a basic basket of goods, and it should be open to renegotiation [when prices rise].” [Lounsbury: Absolute rubbish, but the usual posturing that one hears from labour activists] He and others say Egypt has no functioning mechanism for agreeing wages. Trade unions are under the control of the government, undermining their ability to reflect the interests of their members. [Lounsbury: Well, yes,really the worst of both worlds although I hardly care much for the radical leftism of the labour groups in MENA]
High unemployment, officially at 9.4 per cent but unofficially much higher, means workers are often prepared to accept low salaries and illegal or unsafe working practices. ... Relative costs are a concern. Employers in Egypt complain that the productivity of local workers is low, their work ethic poor, and they are ever-ready to abandon their jobs for slightly higher wage offers. [Lounsbury: I can't get behind the criticism of always being ready to switch to better pay, never understood that as a critique] “There is a mismatch between the capabilities of the unemployed and the qualifications wanted by companies,” says Ahmed Abdel Wahab, the head of the Engineering Industries Export Council. “Ironically we have unemployment, but it is not because there are no jobs.”
The problem is at its most acute in the textile industry, a labour-intensive sector that employs some 30 per cent of the manufacturing workforce. “The global crisis has offered us here in Egypt opportunities, but we are unable to benefit because we cannot grow fast enough because we have a people problem,” says Magdy Tolba, a garments manufacturer and exporter who employs 4,000 workers. Mr Tolba always needs an extra 700 to 800 workers “in all departments”. He blames the problem on the poor quality of state-funded vocational education and the emergence of generations of graduates who shun industry in favour of easy jobs in the civil service, where the day ends at 2pm. [Lounsbury: "Emergence?]
The average salary in his factory, he says, is $133 a month and could reach $180 with overtime. “If salaries go any higher we would be unable to compete,” he says. “Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Vietnam have lower labour costs.” Mr Tolba says he has had to import workers from Bangladesh in order to meet his export commitments. They cost him up to 25 per cent more than Egyptian workers, but their productivity, he says, is 40 per cent higher.
The government is aware of the need to improve vocational training and there are several schemes under way to address the issue, some funded by foreign donors. But experts say a more comprehensive strategy is needed. Mr Radwan, the former ILO economist, says that a “formula which worked from Brazil to Singapore” is the establishment of a training fund in which the private sector contributes 1 per cent of its labour costs. “The fund would be run by government, labour and business, but the private sector would have the upper hand,” he says.
Poor competitiveness due to poor labour culture and general productivity are real handicaps for the MENA region as they are not super low cost relative to direct labour cost. The sheer and utter cretinism of the state supported training programs is hard to capture. The Private Sector type run training fund is a good idea, if implemented correctly. One rather suspects given Egyptian Pharaonism that will never be the case.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 09, 2010
The Perrenial Permanent Campaign to Save the Arabic Language
Yet another article. How many of these have I seen over the past 20 years. Save formal aka modern standard aka Classical Arabic....
BBC News - Campaign to save the Arabic language in Lebanon
Unless teaching is modernized, all rather precious and pointless posturing. It's quite impressive to see the same arguments and same hand wringing over the declines over 20 years. I am not, I would add, sure that the absolute numbers of users have gone down, just the gains in literacy are not accruing to formal Arabic. As it is stultified and ... well rather deadened by the classicism of teaching.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 05, 2010
Education, Arabic. Even the Gulf
Sadly a long-run problem in the Arab world, the archaism of Arabic language instruction.
FT.com Bilingual classes at heart of shake-up
Back in the Emirates Palace, teachers say the problems persist in the Arabic curriculum. Children are introduced to letters of the alphabet one letter at a time simply by drawing the shape or by colouring it in. Classes are uninspiring and result in the children disliking learning in general and Arabic in particular.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 02:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 04, 2010
Realist Orientalist Art (19th C) & the MENA Market (art mkt)
A decent article from FT about the popularity of realist Orientalist paintings in the MENA region. This comes as little surprise I should think to anyone who's lived out here for a while. I've found that in upper-middle class homes (& above) there is quite a taste for these kind of reproductions - and yes, the realistic works that 'ring true' (and with little squeamishness as far as I have observed about 'sensitive' subjects like slave markets).
FT.com - Bidders dig deep to buy Orientalist art
The 2008 “Lure of the East” exhibition at Tate Britain, which showcased Victorian-era paintings of the Middle East by western artists, was the subject of intense criticism. Media commentators excoriated scenes depicting slave markets and harems as condescending imperialist fantasies catering to lowbrow tastes.
But in the Middle East, these denunciations have not affected the local art market. Auction houses are scouring the globe for Orientalist art, which is riding a wave of rising valuation. Some 70 per cent of the buyers are Arabs, says Isabelle de La Bruyère, director of Christie’s Dubai-based Middle East headquarters. But buyers in the region prefer more realistic works rather than obvious fantasies, she says. “Middle Easterners tend to buy images they can relate to, painted by people who actually travelled to the region,” Ms de La Bruyère says.
I should say that I have always rather liked the realist - historical Orientalist works of the late 19th century - it's fairly easy to discern which painters had actually done some serious observation and travelling versus the passers-by. And I have always thought that the standard Western (ahem, American) Academic hyper-sensitivity to "orientalism" and likening to neo-Imperialism is vastly overdone. The Neo Imperialists that merit the name (the 'Neo Conservatives' of the US hardly give a bloody damn about such things.
I would think that there is a degree of nostalgia for the past in the acquisition of said paintings as I have found that it is mostly the modern oriented that acquire (perhaps it goes without saying that the neo-traditional Salafi types never seem to go for this...), as a kind of visual touch-stone to a past that is at once proud but also at its tail end, an embarrassment for its backwardness.
Regardless Ms McMororrow gets it right here (I'd say fairly accurate, but let's not be peevish)
Art in the Arab world has traditionally meant textiles, carving, stonework and tiles, not paintings, and depictions of the human figure are especially rare. “That’s why there is a thirst for this market,” Ms McMorrow says. “These are quite accurate depictions of street life, landscape, costume and general design. That’s where a lot of the interest comes from
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April 06, 2010
Class Demographics Explain Better MENA/Muslim Integration in USA?
The Washington Times, not normally a spurting fountain of Muslim-friendly coverage, praises the relatively successful integration of Muslim immigrants in America when compared to that of Europe. (The newsstory mostly concentrates on inter-faith dialogue, but the broader implication of better relative integration (e.g. “melting pot”) in America comes through loud and clear.) While I do enjoy a nice dose of American exceptionalism, and I do think it may apply here in some ways, let me nevertheless throw out a less nationalistic hypothesis on relative integration levels. I am too lazy and busy to find and crunch the appropriate numbers and surveys to confirm or refute it, but here it is: Could some of the relatively better Muslim/MENA integration in America be simply due to the fact that Muslim immigrants there have tended towards the educated professional and middle class, rather than being a large class of laborers as may be the case in lots of Europe?
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April 04, 2010
Eardrumsticks: Cairo Restaurant Run By Deaf
I remember going to this place to get a dose of hi-fat content, in Dokki, Cairo, Egypt. For a while afterwards I thought I'd imagined it as there never seemed to have been the inevitable self-serving promotion or press release notice by KFC of its chain having an outlet run entirely by the deaf hearing-impaired nonhearing hearing disabled hearing-handicapped differently-abled hearers audially-challenged deaf. (There's a whole tug of PC war over the term and apparently most of the deaf prefer to be called "deaf". Or so I, um, hear.) Anyway, some nice news (not counting fat content issues) regarding a region often just focused upon for bad news.
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March 27, 2010
Ongoing Social Vents: Yemen Child Marriage, Saudi Poetess Scolds Muftis, etc.
Molestation Contestation: Yemen Battles Over Child Marriage Laws.
Muftis Get Rapped: Poetess Socks It to the Jeddah Valley PTA. "I have seen evil in the eyes of fatwas. . . barbaric, angry and blind, wearing death as a robe cinched with a belt".
Non-Mideast Non-Muslims Riot Over Non-Danish Video Images. But, but, but,only Muslims get violent when imagery of their sacred founder gets offensive, right? Others never do that, at least these days, right? Occasionally elsewhere too though, theatrical performances can also unite a few Muslims and Christians (see last paragraph) in shared death-threat issuance. This must be what is meant by the unifying power of art. . . .
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March 23, 2010
Explaining the Day to Day Mechanism of Popular Anti-Coptic Bigotry in Egypt
Blogger Nadia Elawady relates the ordinary day to day practices of shunning and mythologizing that nurture anti-Coptic prejudice among Egypt's Muslims. " I remember befriending Mariam . . . Quickly my [fellow] Muslim friends explained I could not befriend her. She’s Christian, I was told. So what, I asked. In Egypt, it’s not all right, was the answer. By the end of that same year I had heard my Muslim friends say it was yucky to drink out of a cup a Copt had drank from; they explained that the way to identify a Copt was by their odd smell and their oily hair. . . " One can infer from her post that such things are increasing and are pervasive among the more educated classes.
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March 16, 2010
Guy Fakes Salafism in Yemen & Spills the Hummus on the Goings-On (Real and Imputed)
Not exactly a Black Like Me story, but an American a-religious white guy writer sham-converts (or reverts, if one can do that shamically) to a salafi Islam in Yemen to study the natives and non-natives there, including Americans who go over there for Islamic or Arabic education. One was the guy who shot up the Arkansas military base. Aqoulite Shaheen takes down some of the odder generalizations and assumptions of the sham-converter down below in the comments. (A modern tip of the whig to commenter Antiquated Tory for the link at Global Post.)
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February 05, 2010
I have a vewwy gweat fwiend in Iswamabad named Biggus . . . .
Life imitates Monty Python's "Biggus" scene in Life of Brian as a proposed Pakistani ambassador to Saudi Arabia is rejected due to what his name sounds like in slang Arabic. Do you feel the need to titter when I say the name of my fwiend, Akbar..... Zeb? He has a wife you know, her name is Incontinentia. . . Incontinentia Teez. Sorry for the Python references.
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February 04, 2010
The Occupation? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller.
Astonishingly overlooked in past-decade MENA development reflections has been Jewish-Arab concord evident in the 2008 election of celebrity Ben Stein as Palestinian Authority Prime Minister.
Some memorable moments:
A) PM Stein and a panel of foreign affairs scholars judging an American Idol-style remake of Win Ben Stein's Money (scroll down for photo).
B) PM Stein explains the difficulties of settlement incursions to a Western aid official over a Starbucks.
C) Stein lets loose in Vegas for a last hurrah just before heading over to Palestine for his swear-in.
B) Of course, who can forget Prime Minister Stein's poignant narrative video of the Palestinian Nakba (refugee catastrophe) of 1948.
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December 28, 2009
Wehbe 2.0: A Whiter Shade of Palestinian?
(Apologies to Procul Harum (Haram?) for whom, unlike the Palestinians, 1967 was good year.) With a lot less denial than the late Michael Jackson, Palestinian women are reported to be aggressively consuming skin-whitening products. This, according to The Christian Science Monitor, which also cites and links to the recent lament about anti-dark skin sentiment among Arabs written by Nesrine Malik in the Guardian (UK) not long ago and also blogged about here at Aqoul. The pigment adjusting phenomenon appears partly inspired by such figures as the scintillating Lebanese chanteuse/statesperson Haifa Wehbe (ok, I made up parts of that description, just to irritate) and the Xena: Warrior Princess dark-hair/alabaster-skin aesthetic she can manifest, and which she shares with better example Nancy Ajram, the pendular-beaked former AUB Biophysical Engineering Department-Chair turned-singer (ok, made up some stuff there too). Anyway, jeez louise, the issues we humans can hinge our self-estimation on and make a mystique out of! But I do admit to getting seriously worked up if any blind fool even suggests that TIna Louise's Ginger was hotter than Dawn Wells' Mary Ann.
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December 18, 2009
Yglesias on Friedman
I cite this comment in full. It is precisely my feeling. With "friends" like Friedman one hardly needs enemies: Matthew Yglesias » Friedman’s Civil War
Friedman’s Civil War
I think I lack the words to adequately express how morally outrageous Tom Friedman’s call for a Muslim civil war is. But we can at least focus a bit on how factually inaccurate it is.
A couple of days ago, a suicide bombing in Pakistan killed 27. In July, militants hit a Pakistani hotel killing eleven. On December 8 12 were killed in Multan. That same day 100 Iraqis were killed in car bombs. Back in 2006 and 2007 there was regular fighting between Hamas and Fatah in which hundred were killed. And of course there’s ongoing violence in Iraq, in Yemen, in Sudan, and in many other Muslim countries.
Any normal person would conclude the obvious—Muslim-majority countries are suffering from an excess of civil wars most of which have some element of religious overtones. There’s quite a lot of violence and fighting. And it’s bad. People get maimed and killed. Children are turned into orphans. Hospitals and schools and productive infrastructure are destroyed. And while moral culpability for bad acts always adheres primarily to the bad actor, the fact of the matter is that the dominant theme of US foreign policy since 9/11 has been to intensify and exacerbate these conflicts, leading to vast quantities of death, destruction, and displacement.
Of course Friedman, the all knowing moustache, is not a normal person.
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December 15, 2009
Can't Haq It: Saudi-Israeli Collaboration To Stop Invader Bots
CAPTCHA, those squiggly letters on website and various user-i.d. portals you have to figure out and type in order to access something cybernetic and which ensures you are not a "bot" made out of silicon yourself, has been hacked. To the rescue now is a team so diverse, some have to kill each other if called into belligerent military service. But using 3-D animation and soon presenting in the land of anime, they may yet save us from the diminishing security of having to puzzle out a green angel-hair pasta version of "quetzlcoatl" and then type it in when we forget a password on gmail.
[R]esearchers at Tel Aviv University - part of an international team - have developed a "synthesis technique" to overcome the "bots" by generating images of animated 3-D objects that are detectable by humans but difficult for an automatic algorithm to recognize. The team . . . included colleagues at King Abdullah University in Saudi Arabia, The University of Delhi in India and researchers in Taiwan.... Their findings are being presented this week ... in Yokohama, Japan
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December 12, 2009
Genuine surprise, Abu Dhabi Trail
I have to say, this bit of news from FT.com that Son of late Abu Dhabi ruler put on trial is a real surprise.
Abu Dhabi authorities have put on trial Sheikh Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan, a member of the ruling family caught on tape apparently torturing an Afghan business associate, the Financial Times can reveal.
Sheikh Issa, one of 19 sons of Sheikh Zayed, the founding father of the United Arab Emirates and Abu Dhabi’s late ruler, is charged with causing harm and endangering life.
This unprecedented trial, held away from the public eye, will be seen as a barometer for the rule of law in Abu Dhabi, where the lines between the government and ruling families are blurred.
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December 05, 2009
Swiss ban on minarets, comment worth reading
The Moor Next Door has a typically long comment worth reading on this subject, although perhaps this opening is slightly unfair.
One should register no surprise that the continent which produced the Inquisition, anti-Semitism, the Crusades and the Holocaust would give rise to a sentiment that would lead 57% of Swiss voters to ban the construction of minarets.
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December 03, 2009
Charming Bigotry around Islamic finance
The level of paranoia from this American Likoudnik over 'Islamic' finance is ... amusing if also rather sad. As regular Aqoul readers know, I am not great fan of Islamic finance, considering it at best to be an awkward fiction (at worst, a grave error financially speaking). At the same time the writing here is absurd: The Threat of Shariah-Compliant Finance - David Yerushalmi - The Corner on National Review Online
Now it is The National Review, which as far as I can tell is a cesspool of far right lunacy in the US, but this mixture of financial illiteracy and grotesque abuse of language for what is in the end blind religious bigotry:
The Threat of Shariah-Compliant Finance [David Yerushalmi]
....
What makes this story more than simply one of a massive real-estate-investment company gone bad is the double-edged sword so prevalent in the chase for oil-based Middle East wealth: sovereign wealth funds and Shariah-compliant finance.
...
Another phenomenon that followed the great Oil Rush of the post-9/11 era was the promotion and aggressive exportation of a Muslim Brotherhood doctrine called Shariah-compliant finance (SCF). SCF or “Islamic finance” was first articulated in the mid-20th century by men like Sayyid Qutb of Egypt and Abul Ala Maududi of Pakistan, both of whom argued for a jihad against Westernization and for the creation of Islamic polities that would ultimately join in a hegemonic global Caliphate, with the goal of establishing Shariah not merely as the supreme law of the land, but as the supreme law of the world.
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November 23, 2009
The Color of Monkey: Egyptians Draw A Bead On Haifa
Guardian (UK) angel Nesrine Malik tells of lyrics by an Egyptian writer, sung by sultry songstress Haifa Wehbe, that refer to a child pining for his "Nubian monkey". The term, supposedly referring to a toy, is apparently tied in with long-standing negative color-race attitudes among lighter-skinned Egyptians and other Arabs towards the swath of swarthy Nubians in Egypt's south, and blacks in general. Nubia's bias guardians have requested some sort of legal sanction against the song. The issue brings to rare local public airing the color biases of much of Middle Eastern society, or in Ms Malik's words, the "endemic culture of racial stereotyping in the region ". It apparently also extends to a standard of beauty that elevates a "light-skinned, catty-eyed and slim-nosed" Lebanese look, though the description of the Haifa Wehbe song as "a mindless children's tune sung by an equally vacant performer" does suggest that the term "catty" is not restricted solely to the field of ocular esthetics. (PS -- Just love those commenters below the article at the Guardian. Sheesh.)
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November 13, 2009
East & West Side Story: Is Beirut Really Back?
Hype, snipe, or just type, o informed ones, about this Levanity fare. What say you to the Beirut toot in Guardian , UK?
It's beautiful, Beirut, beautiful and ugly and pock-marked and damaged and glamorous and unstable and exciting and just a bit mentally unhinged. It's the Elizabeth Taylor of the Mediterranean. Or it would be if you replaced the words "alcohol" with "Israel" and "a string of unsuitable marriages" with "15 years of civil war". . . . Beirut is back.
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November 12, 2009
Onion on Ft Hood
Nice little entry on Ft. Hood massacre reaction by the indefatigable (whatever that means) Onion.
FORT HOOD, TX—Following Army psychologist Nidal Malik Hasan's shooting rampage on the Fort Hood military base . . . fellow Muslims across the nation sent him a message today, saying "thanks a fucking bunch, asshole," to the 39-year-old killer. "Hey, great, eight years of progress right down the shitter" . . . .
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October 25, 2009
No Justice, No Chick-Peas: Lebanon Closes Hummus Gap
Lebanese culinary artistes have outdone their southern neighbor in making the largest ever hummus. No word on the size of the bread needed to dip, but it would certainly have to be one humongous kiloton of pocket bread, which, as we all know, is pita, an Israeli invention.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:06 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 18, 2009
Cairo: Faded Glory.... Quixotic quests for restoration
FT's profile on Cairo, and reviving it's downtown, at FT.com Investors seek to revive faded glory of Cairo (and as well the video commentary here
FT.com / Video & Audio / Audio slideshows - Resurrecting the Paris of the Orient (ahem, I believe that was Beirut, but...)) is interesting for a reflexion on the damage bad governance has done to Arab economies and civic areas. When I lived in Cairo I tried doing downtown as I adore art deco, but the hell of the constant din made it unlivable. Refurbishing buildings is not enough, mastering the insanity that is Cairo traffic, reducing traffic pressure is an absolute must. Of course, like Algeria, Cairo is a living testament to what the incoherence of "Arab Socialism" can do to an economy and its socio-economic fabric.
But as to the renovation plans, frankly I think it is tilting at windmills unless the orderliness is restored, and that seems impossible given the incompetence of the Egyptian regime. Sheer bad governance (and yes, the Egyptian regime is good at keeping itself in power, but that is not good governance) and general economic incompetence (although recent reforms, since 2001 or so are slowly starting to convince me that there is an exit from the Arab Socialism thinking, at least Egypt shows now more signs of clearer thinking and planning than the cretins running Algeria).
BTW, I did not know the American Uni had shut its downtown campus. Pity that. Such things are historical anchors.
(An aside, In Lounsbury some recent economics related rants re Algeria: on speaking Truth to Le Pouvoir; and on conducting jihad against rational economic policyl.
FT after the break:
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September 03, 2009
The Guide & The Advancing Libyan Relations
Having successfully pissed off the US and a decent portion of Western opinion, Al Jazeera English - Africa - Angered Rabat delegates quit Libya our fine leader of the Great Libyan Random Republic decided the Maghrebine donkey cart needed a wee bit of a jolt:
A Moroccan delegation has left Libya in protest over the invitation of members of a Western Sahara separtist movement to the 40th anniversary of the Libyan revolution, Moroccan officials have said.
The delegation, led by prime minister Abbas El Fassi, left the festivities on Wednesday after realising the president of the Polisario Front (SADR) and his delegation, which seek independence for the Western Sahara, were present, the Moroccan official news agency MAP said.
A contingent of the Moroccan Royal Armed Forces (FAR), which was supposed to take part in a military parade during the festivities, also cancelled its participation and left the place.
Explanation request
"The government of HM the king expresses its strong protest against this surprising attitude, while all assurances were given previously," an official statement by the Moroccan government said.
This, I confess, is moderately amusing. Frankly I think the Moroccans are being babies, but at least they're reasonably consistent in their policies and decisions. In contrast to the Libyans, where I can say from experience, one never quite knows exactly what a Libyan partner will actually do. Show for meeting? Maybe. Be prepared to follow an agreed contract? Well, so long as the Guide has not changed his mind, or if the camels weren't too grumpy. There is something deliciously random about Libya. Predictable in its unpredictability, perhaps. I am certain that in fact the Palace in Rabat did get assurances, but come on, They were Libyan assurances! Everyone knows what Libyan assurances are worth. Pissing off in a tiff... no panache in that.
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Berber Teaching Morocco and Gullible Journos
I really hate these kinds of articles, the wide eyed journo lapping up tripe: BBC NEWS | Africa | Trail-blazing for Morocco's Berber speakers
First, saying "Berbers" faced wide-spread discrimination as such is absurd.
Although Berbers were Morocco's first inhabitants and account for some 60% of Morocco's population, they faced widespread discrimination and it is only now that the language is required to be taught in public schoolDiscrimination in the sense the languages don't have much vehicular utility, but the way this reads, one would think Morocco had some bar to Berbers as an ethnicity.
Now this is the sad part
Their academic qualifications may not help them much on the jobs market, but the availability of a further degree in a subject that was once virtually outlawed in their North African country underscores Berber success in gaining official acceptance of the language.Acceptance, bollocks. Yet more unemployable graduates with useless degrees, instead of spending money on useful studies is a bloody shame.
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August 31, 2009
Egypt - Religious Flexability
New York Times has an interesting article, built around an interview with Gamal al-Banna, brother of the famous Hassan al-Banna... on "diversity" in views being published relative to religious thinking: Hints of Pluralism Begin to Appear in Egyptian Religious Debates .
I am not entirely convinced of the thesis, that with alternative media, a more liberal, flexible face is getting published or read more than in the past. Perhaps, but Gamal al Banna's thinking, as thumbnailed in the arty, strikes me as relatively typical of the sort of thing that the prosperous, confident middle class and elite say in private. Not in public, but in private. Or among intellectuals of whatever social class.
Now, one thing that is most important is the lack of official cover:
It is difficult to say exactly why this is happening. Some of those who have begun to speak up say they are acting in spite of — and not with the encouragement of — the Egyptian government. Political analysts said that the government still tried to compete with the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned but tolerated Islamic movement, to present itself as the guardian of conservative Muslim values.My observation is it's better to not have official encouragement. In general in the MENA region, to have official encouragement in religious areas is almost automatically to going to discredit you. What one does need is simply official forebearance (i.e. not hauling you off to court as an apostate).
Nevertheless, while I have some doubts as to the real current penetration of more liberal approaches to religious thinking (I might call it lifting the dead hand of salafism and returning to real thinking), it is without doubt a real opportunity to have fairly free press and alternatives outlets at least airing ideas.
“Salman Rushdie was less of a disaster than Sayyid al-Qimni,” said Mr. Badri in a television appearance on O TV, an independent Egyptian satellite channel. “Salman Rushdie, everyone attacked him because he destroyed Islam overtly. But Sayyid al-Qimni is attacking Islam and destroying it tactfully, tastefully and politely.”
But this time Mr. Qimni did not go into hiding. He appeared on the television show, sitting beside Sheik Badri.
Whether the promoters of the ideas will have the street cred to successfully moved forward, well....
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August 24, 2009
Xref: Moroccan Rapper in NYT...oddly
Just a side ref: Lounsbury: Moroccan Rappers make NY Times.... oddly More at Lounsbury.
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August 22, 2009
Chinese & Algerians Bis - from Lounsbury comments - Ethnocentrism, Hatreds & Colour
The Moor Next Door (Kal) made an interesting comment in Lounsbury: Algeria & Chinese in Algeria: the riot & fallout with respect to the Chinese & Algerian incident, and also touched on, in passing the
Interestingly, while I'm pretty sure (almost certain) that most Algerians (in Algiers at least) rather hate the black migrants in their midst, the same problem doesn't seem to exist with the Vietnamese in the country. I've never heard anybody complain about them in the way people rail about the Chinese.First, I second the observation in its entirety, second some thoughts.
On the Chinese, versus say other Asians, one would suspect several factors, prime among them is that the PRC Chinese coming to Africa haven't much of a clue as to the "non PRC" world and behave in Africa / North Africa rather boorishly as a general matter. Without existing and acculturated or savvy communities to guide them, the Big Country egoism comes out. The Vietnamese of course have a rather longer history, and I think generally the Vietnamese Francophone diaspora (even under Socialist auspices) was / is more worldly (or perhaps merely had existing Vietnamese networks from the colonial era to plug into, including the Tirailleur networks from the 1950s).
Leaving aside PRC / Mainlander boorishness, I find the contrast with the sub-Saharan migrants - let's say black migrants that aren't Arabophone interesting. Certainly there is the job-taking angle - and as Aqoul has discussed previously, an unpleasant well of latent colour racism in the Maghreb. Hard to know which is a bigger driver for SSA migrants. For the Chinese, this is without doubt shallower and more economic. I have not had much exposure to Algerian comments on SSA migrants, other than gaining the impression that Algeria may have rather more colour prejudice than Morocco (or a more obvious expression). I also wonder if the Senegalese and to a lesser extent the Malians get a better pass than others. That certainly seems to be the case in Morocco.
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August 20, 2009
Lewistful Thinking Reconsidered: A Conversion Narrative
However valuable Bernard Lewis may have been as a historian, his influence on recent academia/military/political thinking vis a vis MENA, has always been horribly worse than useless, but nevertheless quite significant. This account of a former academic disciple's ditching Lewis when encountering reality is worth reading if only to hear that when he encountered reality on the ground "with Bernard Lewis and Samuel Huntington as my guides, I ha[d] no way to make sense of such an encounter."
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 01:29 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 17, 2009
The Cretinous French Calls for Burka Ban
France, the land of illiberal democracy is inching towards 'banning' clothes to fight ideas. I find it stupid. Fadela Amara, Minister of Urban 'Regeneration' gave an interview to the FT.com calling for full ban on burka. I rather doubt her logic follows, that banning the burqa - in particular in the context of the cretinous ban on headscarves in schools, will stem radical salafism.
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Some old controversies: Morocco & Models, and Bloggy overreaction and preciousness
Rooting around I ran across this arty Morocco makes peace with its past. - By Anne Applebaum - Slate Magazine via Global Voices Online » Morocco: An Alternative to Iran? and the Poor Alternatives - Morocco Board News Service. Intrigued I thought I'd take a look at the arty from July on Morocco. Oddly, I found it not bad, not anywhere as much as implied by the fulminating against it.
Welcome to the kingdom of Morocco, a place that, in light of the last two weeks' events in Iran, merits a few minutes of reflection. Unlike Turkey, Morocco is not a secular state: The king claims direct descent from the prophet Mohammed. Nor does Morocco aspire to be European [NB Lounsbury: not any longer, although Hassan II had an amusing demarche to tweak the Fr. in this respect] Though French is still the language of business and higher education, the country is linguistically and culturally part of the Arabic-speaking world. But unlike most of its Arab neighbors, the country has over the last decade undergone a slow but profound transformation from traditional monarchy to constitutional monarchy, acquiring along the way real political parties, a relatively free press, new political leaders—the mayor of Marrakesh is a 33-year-old woman—and a set of family laws that strives to be compatible both with sharia and international conventions on human rights.Emphasis added: Constitutional Monarchy? Mmmmmm. Maybe. [edited to correct some systems errors]
The result is not what anyone would call a liberal democratic paradise. One human rights activist painted for me a byzantine portrait of electoral corruption involving "mediators" who "organize" votes on behalf of candidates. Others point out that if the demonstrators I saw at the parliament had been Islamic radicals or Western Saharan guerrilla leaders, rather than trade unionists, the police might not have been quite so blasé. Though women have legal rights, cultural restraints remain. A tiny fraction of the population reads newspapers, even fewer have Internet access, and somewhere between 40 percent and 50 percent of the country is illiterate in any case. As a result, election turnout is very low. Political posters feature symbols, not words.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 08:22 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
August 16, 2009
Sheikhly Romance: The New Generation
Four years ago this week eerie posted her fascinating graph of sheikhly-themed romance novels.
And now these tales of desert love appear to have evolved into a new form: eBook manga. If plummeting oil prices, bursting property bubbles and the regular jailing of expats for "adultery" haven't reduced the romantic appeal of the Gulf emir, it seems nothing will:
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August 15, 2009
Algeria & Chinese in Algeria: the riot & fallout (summ from Lounsbury)
A cross post to note : Readers may be interested in a Lounsbury blog note on the Algeria & the Chinese incident (see here for original Aqoul note) and a longer commentary on The Moor Next Door.
I'd note my as well, regarding the incident and Moor Kal's eval: he is quite right that this comes in the context of a country on a low boil.
This is to say nothing of the numerous fits of car and tire burning that go on quite often elsewhere in Algeria. This is part of the setting of Bouteflika’s Algeria, and it is the failure of the socio-economic order he has setup, that addresses only macro-level economic and social problems, but fails to address the basic tensions in Algerian society in an effective way.While agreeing with the failure of the socio-economic order, actually, I would say that Boutefliqa's Algeria doesn't address in any coherent way macro-economic problems. Quite the contrary, in fact the incoherent mish-mash of foot-dragging liberalisation (which reeks of 'we're only doing because our hands are forced') and then backtracking to failed 1970s era quasi autarkic import substitution regimes seems to be merely muddling forward by a group of elderly fools who can't admit that their revolution failed.
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August 09, 2009
The Real Itchin' in Religion: Not the Text, Stupid
Some insightful, as in "I wish I'd said it" commentary, some days back by blogger "Thoreau" at Unqualified Offerings. Adapted below from a lead post and then some later comment by him, he notes in passing some things of direct relevance to those who look at issues of religion and violence and traditionalism, etc. specifically as regards the largely Muslim Middle East and the alleged Muslim requirement to go forth and jihadify. In sum, the idea that people are driven, or even set their norms, by some robotic response to purported permanent religious injunctions in the sacred writ is non-real world, i.e. not religion as actually practiced by real people anywhere. (And to add to his commentary, I would note that most sincere religious observance/piety/consciousness in people tends to proceed from the poetic part of the individual human character as well as the social and cultural.) His discussion started with the tension alleged between religion and science; see below the break here for fuller quote.
Continue reading "The Real Itchin' in Religion: Not the Text, Stupid"
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June 16, 2009
Can Iran Firmly Sustain An Election? Links and Stuff
Some numbers crunching here and analysis with gossip here. Word of mouthy reports of human rights leaders being arrested here. A danger of hanging chadors. Links and or leads to them, courtesy of Aqoulite Eva Luna who is too engaged to otherwise post.
So, who won?
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June 06, 2009
Obama Talking to Just Arabs/Iran/MENA?
So says the Jakarta Post. That's in Indonesia. Jakarta, that is, not the Post. Well, the Post too but there are Posts everywhere.
At least three - democracy promotion, religious freedom and women's rights - of his seven points are more relevant to a region who's [sic] governments are bastions of despotism than [to] the average Indonesian,. . . . for the majority of Indonesians - Muslim or otherwise - these three issues are fundamental ways of life already held dear. . . Not surprisingly Indonesia's most eminent Muslim thinkers were products of Western scholarship, not Al-Azhar or Arab Universities . . ..But in Cairo he put an Arabic frame on a cultural dialog which most Muslims may not relate to.
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May 27, 2009
Iran Blocks Facebook Before Election
Tyranny likes this.
Ahmadinejad sends Bad Karma to opposition.
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May 21, 2009
Divided Dubai
Dubai is a remarkable exercise in segregation. If your entire acquaintance with the place is through glossy articles in the media, you might well wonder how this could be. After all, Dubai is often described as a cosmopolitan city. You can find a remarkable range of nationalities and cuisines here, given its size, and this author has yet to see any mention of ethnic tensions in the city in the international press. What, then, is Ye Olde Top Secret Anonymous Guy talking about?
Continue reading "Divided Dubai"
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May 02, 2009
Emirates Torture, goes "global"
Well, it appears that the Abu Dhabi ruling family has gotten itself into a pickle with one of its more "tradition" minded royals. That is the torture video of Sheik Issa bin Zayed al-Nahyan. The age of youtube and fast diffusion of such media wrongfooting their Emirates image-branding. I confess when I saw this on FT etc I rather shrugged, thinking that the Emiratis would PR their way forward as usual. Certainly the medieval behaviour wasn't very surprising: Videotape Complicates U.S. Deal With Emirates - NYTimes.com
The videotape — first shown last week by ABC News — has provoked outrage from members of Congress, who said it could add fuel to lawmakers’ reservations about a pending civilian nuclear agreement between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, the seven-member federation on the Persian Gulf to which Abu Dhabi belongs.
Now, while it is probably true the source - who by name is almost certainly a Levantine, I'd guess either Palestinian and/or Lebanese [not being a binary choice per se] is without doubt somewhat slimey,
The videotape, made in 2004, emerged in a separate lawsuit filed by Bassam Nabulsi, a former business partner of Sheik Issa. Mr. Nabulsi, an American citizen from Houston, claims he was later tortured by Emirates police officers after he refused to hand over the videotape.The tape was made by Mr. Nabulsi’s brother on orders from Sheik Issa, who liked to film torture sessions and watch them later in his palace, said Anthony G. Buzbee, Mr. Nabulsi’s lawyer.
In its statement, the government of Abu Dhabi — the emirate to whose ruling family Sheik Issa belongs — promised a “comprehensive review” of the matter. It also said the government “understands that the matter depicted on the video was resolved between the two parties and that no criminal charges were brought by either party.”
The man being tortured in the video is Mohammed Shah Poor, an Afghan grain merchant who Sheik Issa believed had cheated him, Mr. Buzbee said. Mr. Poor was gravely injured but survived, Mr. Buzbee said.
....
Daryl Bristow, Sheik Issa’s lawyer, said in a statement that “Bassam Nabulsi and his lawyer are attempting to use a videotape of a third party to influence the court and public opinion” about the lawsuit. He added that he could not comment on details because of the suit, but that “when all the facts are known, the one-sided ‘story’ being told by Nabulsi and his lawyer will be completely addressed and Nabulsi will be discredited.”
However, the fine British lawyer really should have come up with something better than Nabulsi being "discredited" - here's a hint mate, your client is on video torturing someone over a commercial transaction, and it seems highly likely that there is more video (that is they are not bluffing); one rather has to credit the probability that the client did like getting videotaped engaging in his medieval commercial dispute resolution. As such, even if Nabulsi is a total scumbag - and the fact he (or his bro) filmed torture sessions makes that near certainty - no 'discrediting' is terribly helpful to your client (well in court maybe, but one rather suspects the least of his problems is the actual court case).
This is one of those moments where lawyers should know to keep their fucking mouths shut. Second observation, do not let a lawyer be your PR person.
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April 27, 2009
Tarnishing the Emirates Image?
FT.com Video of assault draws fire for UAE
The incident threatens to tarnish the reputation of Abu Dhabi. It also poses questions about the rule of law and impunity in a nation dominated by powerful families.
Hmmm, perhaps I am overly cynical, but isn't this exactly the image of the Emiratis?
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April 24, 2009
Orientalist Art Boom: Will this get Aqoul design a cash bid?
From Saudi Aramcoworld comes this report of how middle easterners learned to stop worrying and finally loved the balm of Orientalist art:
In July 2008, Orientalism brought £21.4 million to Christie’s in London, “the highest total ever achieved for this category,” says Alexandra McMorrow, director of 19th-century European art for the prestigious auction house. This included world record prices for seven artists; “bidders from North Africa, the Middle East, India, Europe and America competed fiercely,” she adds. . . .These shifts are part of a larger, gradual, mostly sympathetic reevaluation that has been taking place over the past few decades of much 19th-century European art.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:44 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
April 21, 2009
Environmental Awareness as marketing
GCC Green Tax - American Footprints
Despite, and in some ways perhaps because of, its centrality to the world's oil industry, the Gulf region does have a high level of environmental awareness, particularly in Oman and the United Arab Emirates. The UAE's first president, in fact, publicly gave up hunting in the 1970's for ecological reasons.
This is absurdly gullible. Or rather naively put. The GCC is posturing for foreigners (and in ways they can afford, having the margins to do so).
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April 12, 2009
Reading Race in MENA: Black Imam of Mecca and American reads
While not a terrible article, the New York Times coverage of the new 'black' Imam in Mecca is subtly irritating for its facile American centric lens. A Black Imam Breaks Ground in Mecca - Biography - NYTimes.com
It's easy to be rather too nitpickily peevish about such things, but nevertheless a bit better context should have been easy to achieve here:
Officially, it was his skill at reciting the Koran that won him the position, which he carries out — like the Grand Mosque’s eight other prayer leaders — only during the holy month of Ramadan. But the racial significance of the king’s gesture was unmistakable.Sheik Adil, like most Saudis, is quick to caution that any racism here is not the fault of Islam, which preaches egalitarianism. The Prophet Muhammad himself, who founded the religion here 1,400 years ago, had black companions. [Lounsbury: Ahem such as a certain Bilal...]
“Our Islamic history has so many famous black people,” said the imam, as he sat leaning his arm on a cushion in the reception room of his home. “It is not like the West.”
It is also true that Saudi Arabia is far more ethnically diverse than most Westerners realize. Saudis with Malaysian or African features are a common sight along the kingdom’s west coast, the descendants of pilgrims who came here over the centuries and ended up staying. Many have prospered and even attained high positions through links to the royal family. Bandar bin Sultan, the former Saudi ambassador to the United States, is the son of Prince Sultan and a dark-skinned concubine from southern Saudi Arabia.
But slavery was practiced here too, and was abolished only in 1962. Many traditional Arabs from Nejd, the central Saudi heartland, used to refer to all outsiders as “tarsh al bahr” — vomit from the sea. People of African descent still face some discrimination, as do most immigrants, even from other Arab countries. Many Saudis complain that the kingdom is still far too dominated by Nejd, the homeland of the royal family. There are nonracial forms of discrimination too, and many Shiite Muslims, a substantial minority, say they are not treated fairly.
Emphasis added.
While I would be the last to deny colour prejudice is present in the region - MENA, the Gulf, Mashriq, Maghrib - the highlighted part really is myopically American, tying explicitly colour and slavery into an automatic association. That certainly was not the case for most of Islamic history, and seeing the Nejdi prejudices as primarily or even essentially racial strikes me as rather misunderstanding Saudi society (or Gulfie society) via the eyes of American cultural norms.
The colour prejudice is there, but given slavery was except its last decades perhaps, never colour exclusive (although one should not forget that towards the end, the low-end slavery was more or less exclusively African), it is hardly the sole driver, and the profound prejudices against outsiders, including pale Lebs for example, is much more that of a parochial tribal society than the implied counterpart to American or even old European colour prejudice as such.
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April 07, 2009
That Dubai Theocracy. Theocracy with drunk Lebsluts and Brits
I can't resist taking another shot at Andrew Sullivan's preposterous use of the bigot-phrase dhimmitude and calling Dubai a 'theocracy' by pointing to this fine little event (with FT illustration)
FT Weekend Dubai World Cup
Along the track at the 300m mark, the atmosphere among paying customers – at what is regarded as Dubai’s social event of the year – is a cross between Ascot and Cheltenham. In the “Irish village”, young male expats enjoy a Guinness or three, while in the “Bubble Lounge” girls in floaty mini-dresses and high heels drink champagne before teetering off for a photoshoot with Hello!-style magazine Ahlan!
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March 30, 2009
A Chechen in Every Potshot? Dubai Assassination
Stretching out our Dubai trilogy to 4, Chechen on-again off-again military leader, Sulim Yamadayev, who was apparently against the Russians before he was recently for them, was just shot to death while staying in the UAE. (There appears to be a pattern of exiled adversaries of current pro-Russian Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov dying in a veritable Fodor's list of the world's more glamorous cities.) It appears Dubai's gendarmes have made an arrest. In all the unhappy news about Dubai, let's not hope for "free fire zone" to replace a currently economically bumpy "free trade zone." Importing Russian affairs has typically hitherto had only a recreationally carnal implication.
In the end, though, this is probably more a Chechnya-Russia story here than a Gulf one.
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March 23, 2009
Dubai, Bye Bye?: Guardian Lumps Gulf City's Fate with Detroit
Simon Jenkins at The Guardian declares prognosis negative on the ultimate fate of Dubai, which he has slated to be the Detroit of the Middle East, only worse, and largely on an architectural basis. My gut and a brief impression there in real time tend to disagree. But folks with real data and experience are out there. (UPDATE: One of our Aqoul circle opines differently from Jenkins here (disclaimer, author didn't write the overenthusiastic tite). And now, for the Dubai-curious. a bit of Jenkins below the break.
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February 21, 2009
Baha'i Anxiety: Sects and Vile Hints in Iran
Several leaders in the Baha'i faith -- that other other other other Abrahamic monotheism -- have been charged in Iran with espionage and other crimes, with possible death penalty exposure. These were generally seen as pretext charges for a broad official chronic program of persecution. The charges are regarded as probable pretext most especially because Baha'i have little access to secrets, being denied official employment, and also because the alleged country of espionagery, Israel, is naturally going to have relatively extensive ties with the Baha'i leaders because the city of Haifa, Israel is the site of the Baha'i Vatican. The Baha'i world headquarters have been situated there because that religion's founding family settled there in early 20th century Palestine around the time of the British Mandate's start, and after exile from Iran/Persia where they and the faith had originated.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:57 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
February 19, 2009
Double Fault!
Dubai has spent the past decade or so doing everything it can think of in order to raise its profile. In the past week, however, two separate international events have been completely overshadowed by controversies. I wouldn't be surprised if the city's leaders spent a few days pining for the good old days of security through obscurity.
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December 14, 2008
But. . . is it good for the shoes?
(Apologies to an old parochial expression.) President Bush encounters one meaning of leading a sole superpower when a journalist in Baghdad tosses his footwear at the US head of state. The arch terrorist reportedly shouted "This is the End". Jim Morrison is sadly incapable of comment.
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November 19, 2008
House Niggers: Obama, Race & MENA
First, for regular 'Aqoul readers and contributors, my apologies for the ongoing absence. Think of it as a recharge period. Frankly there has not been much interesting for me to say (that I can say, given most of the most interesting things I would comment on have been rather too 'sensitive' for me).
Second, today's Al Qaeda media event - Ayman az-Zaouahiri's fine little exposition of unconscious (or perhaps not so unconscious) Egyptian and Arab racism in describing Obama as a Abid el Beit, a house slave, using a word (Abd/Abid) that in the East has somewhat nasty overtones in dialectal (versus classical/formal) usage.
I refrained from writing anything on Obama during the election as I rather thought that there was nothing much to add. I suppose this is a moment to add that the reaction across the board to Obama's election was ecstatic, including among the Arab financial professionals I have the most contact with. I should perhaps put up some more personal observations if that seems interesting on the Lounsbury pages, but none of this is terribly surprising (and unfortunately professional obligations prevent me from sharing the best and most revealing reactions, although I should say that I was stunned to discover that the illiterate grandmother of my cousins not only following the
US elections but asking her children for updates on US elections eve and day).
However, the Zaouahiri demarche is interesting to comment on and discuss. The use of a fairly racially charged phrase I found rather interesting.
Continue reading "House Niggers: Obama, Race & MENA"
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November 09, 2008
Now Hear the Nerds of the Lord: Monks Battle in J'lem
Not since the pocket-protectors flew maniacally in my high-school Chess Team intramural conflict between Star Trek and Star Wars clubs have I seen such a significant Battle of the Nerds (I was Trek). In Jerusalem's Holy Sepulchre, alleged tomb of Christ, Greek Orthodox and Armenian monks have been busted after exchanging hard blows (no relation to child sex scandals, btw).
The monk, who gave his name as Serafim, said he sustained the wound when an Armenian punched him from behind and broke his glasses.No word on his Rubik's cube, but the monastic mayhem is all part of the long-runnning turf wars of Christian sects over a site that even the big JC walked out of after only three days (theologians debate still what happened to the 30-day deposit). This conflict is dwarfed by the larger mostly Muslim Arab versus mostly Jewish Israeli contentions over the whole city, but could conceivably outsize it in being even stupider. On the other hand, such intra-Xtian things did give us the Crimean War which produced Tennyson's great Charge of the LIght Brigade.
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November 01, 2008
(UPDATE) Starving for Detention: Pro-Saudi-Dissident Hunger Strike
A hunger strike in Saudi Arabia on behalf of Saudi dissidents in custody is set for November 6-7. It is apparently the first such hunger strike in Saudi Arabia, or at least the first publicly known one.
"To the government, we want to say that you can't put prisoners of conscience in jail without facing consequences," said Walid Abu-Alkhair, a writer and lawyer in Jiddah. "And to the activists, we want to say, you are not alone. We want to show that when you put human rights activists in jail, a new wave will come and take their place."Food for thought, or non-food as the case may be. (UPDATE: full information release/specifics further down below).
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October 04, 2008
Eyes of Ramadan
A perennial issue at the start and end of Ramadan - who and how to determine it - is fairly well described in this FT article, with the essence of the issue around using eyes (unaided or aided) or astronomical calculations to make the determination, with the differences taking a political edge.
But some commentators now believe the process may be as much about political allegiance as any religious observance. Saudi Arabia, as the birthplace of Islam and the location of its two holiest mosques, has always commanded a position of respect, but even so many Muslim countries have traditionally followed the sightings as determined by their own religious scholars. ....Several senior figures in Saudi Arabia had supported shifting towards astronomical calculations – or at least using telescopes – in line with King Abdullah’s general policy of reform and modernisation. They suggest that these devices might help produce a reliable calendar in advance, greatly facilitating everything from determining official public holidays to travel plans.
In August, however, the Supreme Judicial Council and Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia voted to reject any “mathematical calculation” of the calendar and issued a fatwa against using any means other than observation with the naked eye.
Countries with close Saudi links followed the ruling of the Mufti in accordance with their traditions. Gulf states, except Oman, often follow Saudi Arabia’s decision. This year, Jordanian religious officials indicated they did not see the crescent at all yet would follow the Saudi ruling in deference to “Islamic unity”.
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September 13, 2008
Rap Al-Mutanabbi
Speaking of weird interests, this is a quick note to those who might want to experiment Arabic heritage with Western music. While there are quite a few pieces of Arab hip-hop around (search myspace), none as far as I know went to re-use the timed structure of Classical Arab Poetry.
The meters in Classical Arab poetry are classified in 16 “seas”, which might be thought of as rhythmic samples. A poem is therefore composed based on one of those samples. Each verse can be weighed against one of those samples, be decomposing it into “moving” and “silent” phonemes to find out which sea it’s based on.
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Posted by Shaheen at 06:48 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 08, 2008
On Hidjabs, Sexy or Not (encore), public sexualities etc.
One of our comment leavers drew my attention to this arty by a certain Naomi Wolf, pubished in Egypt in this instance, on questioning typical Western reactions to the Hidjab and the Chador / Burqa...
An interesting article - at first I had this Naomi Wolf confused with the Canadian Leftist git of not terribly similar name, except first - and I think I would largely agree, although it perhaps too readily excuses some items.
Further comment later, must off to meeting go.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:47 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
August 02, 2008
Arabic Translation Peeve, vol 200: Is this the Best the Army can do?
Check this out. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, Mr. 9/11, provided in Arabic answers to questions in the trial of bin-Laden's driver. Here is what our competent Arabic translators of our front-line fighting forces in the war on terror, as edited by our leading media, in a trial under a global microscope, provide as one answer of his:
“As the American Army (we) have drivers, cooks, crewmen and legal personal,” Mohammed wrote. . . "We also, are human beings ... we have interests in life. ...You can not understand terrorism and Al-Qaida from 9/11 operation.”Rant below.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:18 PM | Comments (29) | TrackBack
August 01, 2008
His Hair Was Perfect: Werewolves of Gaza
(Apologies to the late Mr Zevon.) Turkey's so deeply meaningful war over hatwear nearly overthrew the government, and apparently its recent being sent to its room without supper is causing the AKP to temporarily write off the struggle, um, whole cloth. But those profound Turkish wars of meaning over hatwear give way to Gaza, where the struggle over the true hair of steadfastness has reached crisis proportions. It appears that Hamas is now shaving the moustaches off Fatah activists, in retaliation for the jackbooted debearding of Hamas loyalists by Fatah. An ominous development for a society already beset by settlers wielding sidecurls in violation of the Fourth Geneva Convention on Treatment of Follicles. Is history so soon forgotten, or are they just returning to their roots? Is it not time to get more bangs for the buck, and yes, rogaine one's freedom? And didn't Munich teach that even a small moustache needs to be stopped early? Turkey has stopped hair-covering, but hair itself remains appeased. Can anyone not see the civilization at stake in all this? What coiffure-textile combination do you feel best reflects optimal social values? Or is this person the secret key to global harmony?
Continue reading "His Hair Was Perfect: Werewolves of Gaza"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:47 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
July 03, 2008
Turkish Soap Opera Washing Arab Marriages Away
A very quick tabloid-level entry about this new Turkish soap opera, Noor, provoking divorces throughout the Arab World – Or as this cartoon puts it:
(the wife is entering the court)
Um-Mahjoob, please don’t divorce me!! I’ll do anything you want!! Tomorrow I’ll even do a nose job surgery to look like (mohanned) on the TV show (Noor)!!”.
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Posted by Shaheen at 03:14 AM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
June 11, 2008
Al-Sharq, babe, has such teeth, dear: Lebanese Big Shots Interviewed
(Apologies to Bobby Darrin and the Three-Penny Opera.) On what seems like the ultimate Summer Vacation for MENA nerds, a student provides extremely useful and interesting account of meetings with the pezzonovantes of the Lebanon. Via Col. Pat Lang, via commenter duaneg. Below, some choice excerpts....
Continue reading " Al-Sharq, babe, has such teeth, dear: Lebanese Big Shots Interviewed"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 06:30 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
June 08, 2008
Rebuilding Lake Tritonis
Through Pantom, Jane Jacobs on cities:
... City development is a natural process, and oftentimes the problem is not to get it going but to remove obstacles to it.
In many ways we would simply waste less time and money on what doesn't work:
• Cities and countries wouldn't bother trying to attract transplanted factories (the focus of most current international development). At best this would be seen as a stopgap measure, one step short of charity.
This quote sums up the spirit of an important part of Jacob's article. It made me think of all those efforts to develop the Sahara and the Arabian Desert. One particular instance that came to mind is an idea put on the table by the Tunisian government in the 1980s to create an interior sea using the chotts. The idea was never implemented for petty political reasons, so petty politics might have positive side benefits it seems. It was actually born in the head of a French military scientist in 1864’s Algeria.
Continue reading "Rebuilding Lake Tritonis"
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June 07, 2008
News you can't choose: Items of interest
From our newsroom, discussion of a news clip (and I do mean clip) on FGM support in Egypt.
I think the foreign intelligence hinted at by inside "sources" in latest stories is the other I-word (see other stories from a few years back), and not Iran, as is being assumed.
Humankind's vital war on disliked headgear and neckwear continues as Ataturkville's high court tells girls to take it off, take it all off, since a girl or woman has a right to the integrity of her body (see FGM), except when putting a cloth on her head.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:23 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
June 01, 2008
Martyr, She Wrote: Zawahari Slammed For Males-Only Al-Qaeda
Hell hath no fury as a wannabe mujahedah scorned, it seems. Ayman al-Zawahari's comments, that al Qaeda cannot accept female fighters, has alot of pro-al Qaeda women's abayas in a wad. Websites are full of anger over his suggestions that they should be stay-at-home moms, merely nurturing, raising and feeding the next generation of pointless mass murderers. (I don't know if Rosie the Riveter or Zenobia or Xena, Warrior Princess would approve either side in that debate.) Via Thoreau at Henley.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:11 AM | Comments (22) | TrackBack
May 28, 2008
Keffiyeh & Donuts: Ad Cancelled Because of Scarf Threat
Can it get dumber than this? Probably, but you'd have to work at it. The disturbing part is not the initiation of an attack on an ad because of a scarf that looks like a keffiyeh, it's that the anything-but-small-time ad sponsor would roll over so quickly, with no counterreaction against them for doing so. (Bonus related question: What is it about nationalism and, in other contexts than this, feminism, that makes such issues out of headgear?)
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 18, 2008
La Cache Qui Rit: Egypt's Facebook Protest Met With Facebreak
The Washington Post tells of the attempt to use Facebook to organize a protest strike in Egypt, and the successful efforts of the government to beat it to the punch by, well, beating and punching its chief organizer, after disrupting and threatening the organizing. "Security forces beat him from 1 p.m. Wednesday until 3 a.m. Thursday, stripping him naked, slapping him, dragging him across the floor tied to a rope and threatening to rape him, Maher said. They demanded passwords to the Facebook groups, although the groups do not require passwords, and the real names of those who had registered, he said."
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 07:38 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 09, 2008
Get your Kicks / On Beirut / Sects' Dissects
An open thread for discussion of Lebanon at the crossroads . . . again. And who'd have guessed Nasrallah would provide the fireworks for Israel's 60th anniversary? Followup full posts from our expert team are welcome and encouraged, with removing the horrid tasteless lyrics allusion-pun above from its lead position as added incentive.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:26 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack
May 02, 2008
Funny, She Doesn't Look Bahraini
Bahrain's possible new ambassador to the US has interesting demographics. Not all that amazing if one is familiar with the region outside of stereotypes and post-1948 tensions. Still the background of the former legislator(-tress?), if legislating is what the Shura Council does, might cause some to be unduly surprised.
MANAMA, Bahrain - The only Jewish woman lawmaker in Bahrain is a candidate to become this Persian Gulf kingdom's ambassador to Washington. . . . Huda Nono, a legislator in the Shura Council, said she was among people being considered for the post and referred further queries to the foreign ministry. . . .If Nono was appointed, Bahrain would be the first Arab country to send a high-level Jewish diplomat to Washington. . . . Nono is the first Jewish woman in the Shura Council, a 40-seat body appointed by the king that also has a Christian among its 11 female legislators. . . . Nono replaced her cousin Ibrahim Nono, who held the Shura Council seat for four years.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:33 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
April 23, 2008
Another Good Conspiracy Theory Down the Drain
Al Qaeda says an Israeli conspiracy didn't do 9/11. And, it adds, Iran started the Israel conspiracy rumor. Is that itself a conspiracy rumor?
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:43 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
April 02, 2008
A Brief Note on Zionism, Israel and the Nub of It
It being a little quiet around here what with all of us busy and/or lazy, I thought I'd spice it up by going against the usual, and quite healthy, distaste of most Aqoul principals towards wading into the Israel-Palestine morass. Especially as there are anniversaries and such coming up. Anyway, today's lesson comes from a column of Michael Gerson (not a fan, myself, usually) in the Washington Post. It tells of a speech at the Holocaust Museum by an old gentleman, a Mr. Traum, who was once a very young gentleman in Nazified Austria. He recalls various events especially around Kristallnacht in 1938-39. Below the break is a revealing nugget.
Continue reading "A Brief Note on Zionism, Israel and the Nub of It"
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March 08, 2008
MENA & Race
Worthy of discussion and comment, a comment by Nisreen Malik in Comment is Free (The Guardian) on Race & the Arab world, from a Sudanese perspective. The comments sadly are fairly unenlightening, but certainly the issue of "race" and colour in the Arab World (or perhaps the Arab & Islamic Worlds, etc) is worthy of some reflexion. Of course nothing there is "new" in a sense, but it is good to return to such tihngs now and again.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 08:19 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
March 07, 2008
Saudi Arapia? Hib-hob from the Land of the 2Moskz
Over at the Washington Post, Faiza Ambah tells the tale of a Saudi hip-hop crew who dream of stardom and self-expression. Unfortunately, their Saudi parents and kinfolk are not so enamoured of these kids now performing a real-life version -- allowing for musical genre differences -- of the movie Dirty Dancing (whose own star is, incidentally and sadly, fighting for his real life).
But even as they rap in praise of Islam and their mothers, and against the war in Iraq and terrorism, their biggest hurdle has been convincing family, friends and Saudi society that they are not simply trying to imitate a decadent Western lifestyle.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:27 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
February 17, 2008
Whither Arab Sats? The 'Arab' (authoritarian dinos) broadcasting code
The Financial Times worthy article on Al Jazeerah's response to the Mubarek led censorship drive is worthy of some reflexion.
The key portion of the so-called media code is:
“The commitment to freedom of expression is a main cornerstone of Arab media activity, provided that the practice of this freedom should be informed by a sense of awareness and responsibility in order to protect the higher interests of Arab states and of the Arab nation,”
Of course the Arab states "higher interests" (never mind the polite outdated fiction of the 'Arab Nation') really means the interests of the dictators to provide turgid non-news. Now, taking Morocco as an example, with a relatively free-ish media under a media code that is perhaps nearly as potentially cretinous, it is true that application is as important as a law (above all in circumstances as obtain in MENA were law is more an expression of potential intent than binding law). But effects?
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:16 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
February 16, 2008
Dull, Duller, Dulles: Accents and Airports
A bit of a lighter subject than recent events call for, since our Lebanon Expert Panel colleagues are nowhere to be found even as Imad Mughniyah pulls a Matthew 26:52, with spectacular success. Anyway, some details of the following story are changed but the upshot actually happened some weeks back: person of MENA background says to me in D.C. area: "Am feeling sick. Can you pick up my favorite cousin flying in from Amman, Jordan today?" "Sure." Few minutes later, a follow up: "Um, it appears he's landed already, but he's in Dallas, Texas. Apparently, the travel agents over in Jordan heard him ask for Dulles Airport, and sent him on a plane to Dallas. " True story, anyone experience same or similar? And what's Arabic for "D'oh!"?
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:41 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 28, 2007
Sheikhs' Sure Booty: Your Empire At Work
Finally figuring out what anyone here could have told them years ago, US forces in Iraq have earned at least a B-plus in Empire-Building 101 -- not that that's a good thing, but it can salve a sore wound for an indefinite period. The principle is to use local power structures as your surrogates, basically by bribing them. This USA Today story details it well. (Thanks to a Klaus call, we have a link for the original stick-figure anti-insurgent plan offered by a later-killed US soldier here.)
Tribal sheiks . . . have seats on most of the city councils and the provincial council. . . . Many tribes run construction and trucking businesses and benefit from U.S. and Iraqi government reconstruction projects. The contracts with U.S. forces allow sheiks to hand out jobs, and thus maintain power.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 04:39 AM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
December 27, 2007
Sindhs of the father: Benazir Bhutto dead thread (open)
Benazir Bhutto, ex-Pakistani prime minister, is now an ex-person. Have at the whole set of issues in this open thread, o dear readers. Others of the Aqoul team may post more detailed entries on this most unpleasant passing of the daughter of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. (BTW, I don't know who those people are who say 'why do Muslims never go out in the streets venting their anger when al-Qaeda or other extremists* do a terrorist act?') Well, clearly, they sometimes do.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 06:22 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
December 16, 2007
Competent Adults in Charge? The Iraq Surge's Non-Failure
Not often do I get to be more right than Jim Henley, but here I claim it though I can't document my earlier growing sense that The Surge would turn out better than we cynics first expected. (The last time he was wrong, which goes back years, so was I, as when he predicted that Ariel Sharon would not go through with the Gaza withdrawal.) But now he is surprised that violence has not rebounded in Iraq since The Surge in a way he has predicted. I am far less surprised however and, although I started as a Surge Cynic as shown here, I have come to feel after more information that there has been a good chance of some sustained suppression of the violence. More on why, below.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:58 AM | Comments (28) | TrackBack
December 02, 2007
Prediction: Teddy Bear Thing Started As Spite
This sentence is in one story: "The row erupted after a secretary at the school complained to the Sudanese authorities about the naming of the bear." I cannot find it but somewhere I came across a reference to the Teddy Bear Teacher as having apologized to a faculty member who was offended. Prediction: this will turn out to have started as a spite attack by someone in the school staff who, for whatever reason, did not personally like that teacher and found an issue to attack her on that would get the dopey and the offenderati riled up. Could be wrong here, but the spidey senses are starting to tingle as this kind of information trickles in.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:38 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
December 01, 2007
Spank me, I've been a bad girl
Marjorie, an expatriate blogger in Qatar who often tackles social and religious issues, brought my attention to that country's first survey of violence against women. Not only had nearly two-thirds of women polled been beaten, over two in five believed they deserved it.
Continue reading "Spank me, I've been a bad girl"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 10:41 AM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
November 27, 2007
Hirsi Ali: Ideological Chameleon
First, I curse SP for pointing out this latest interview with the infuriating headline: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: My life under a fatwa. Boys and girls, we've been over this before. A fatwa is not an ummah-wide execution order, it is a ruling issued by an Islamic scholar in response to a specific legal question. I wrote about this distinction almost two years ago, when Wafa Sultan told the New York Times that Dr. Ibrahim al-Khouli had issued a "fatwa" when he called her an atheist during a TV interview.
Listen, you credulous glurge-sucking Western journalists, just because some idiot Ayatollah lobbed one at Rushdie almost two decades ago doesn't make every random statement by a Muslim (scholar or fanatic) a fatwa. Nor is a fatwa binding across the universe (else a lot of Muslim women with plucked eyebrows are going to hell). Of course, the f-word does score a lot of publicity amongst the chattering classes, which is why every faux reformer wants one.
But let's get on to the actual article, shall we?
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Posted by eerie at 09:44 AM | Comments (31) | TrackBack
November 10, 2007
Infidel Review: Packaged Phobias
Yes, in in breaking news, the long-awaited mysterious review of Hirsi Magan/Ali has been sighted.
It is perhaps not off to share as well, The Financial Times very able critical review of a related genre of Islamophobic literature, that of the statistically illiterate "Eurabia" genre to which in many ways Hirsi Magan/Ali belongs.
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:45 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
November 08, 2007
Jasim & The Argot Naughts: Why That Name in Iraq?
I come up with naught when I search memories of Eastern Mediterranean Arabs and their dialects, patois, and argots, for Jasim and variants as personal names. Yet every single flippin' story from Iraq has someone named Jasim in it. What's the deal with that? (And yes, my worst allusion-pun ever.)
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 06:28 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
October 25, 2007
The Magic Kingdom
Last week, I decided it would be interesting to watch The Kingdom, an action movie that followed four FBI agents sent to Saudi Arabia to investigate a massive attack on an American housing compound. I went not because I expected it to be intellectually stimulating (it wasn't) or because I figured I'd learn useful things from the film (I didn't), but because I wanted to see how Hollywood portrayed Saudi Arabia. Save for the surfeit of British villains, Hollywood is a useful barometer of American perceptions of a particular part of the world; there is a reason so many bad guys were Russians during the Cold War.
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October 21, 2007
Real Fascism Awareness Week: DC-area Holocaust Commemoration
Sunday October 28 from 6 to 8 pm in Sterling, Virginia, near Washington DC, a rather nice event for those interested and local. The All Dulles Area Muslim Society is organizing a presentation featuring a Holocaust survivor, called, perhaps unsurprisingly: Reflections on The Holocaust: A Story of a Holocaust Survivor, and designed for "all of Humanity to Remember and Learn the Lessons of the Holocaust." More info below.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:56 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
October 20, 2007
Souq Heil: What's Up With This Cocked-Arm Gesture?
The sunbats are out doing their Islamofascism Awareness week hate-fest, with the usual bigotries and idiocies, but I do have to agree though on the reaction engendered by this photo (I've seen others like it) of what appears to be the Hizbollah 3rd Bandana battalion. Is it what it appears to be -- a militaristic fascist salute, or has it some other significance? UPDATE: With the aid of commenter M, we learn it is indeed a political-militaristic "Roman salute" but apparently a Fascist-era Lebanese custom that transcends sectarian lines (is that a good or bad thing?). Enjoy (thanks M) this collage of Lebanon's main Christian party, and chief Lebanese allies of Israel, doing the Teutonic taxi hail. (Cache it in, before they get hip and delete.)
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:06 PM | Comments (31) | TrackBack
October 07, 2007
Arabic and Technology: Reform or Die
The use of Arabic in technology has been one of my pet issues since, as a teenager, young Arab kids who didn’t start learning the Latin alphabet yet, used to come to my place during summer to play video games, and wouldn’t be able to enter the necessary commands to launch them. A few years later, I was trying to teach basic programming skills to Arab professionals and they were also facing serious hardship in associating the mnemonics of computer languages based on English roots with their functions. While I found programming very easy even as a child – after all, computer languages are just another language to express yourself in – this made me realize that computers as they are today could never be as easily accessible on average to an Arab as they are to a European, not to mention an American.
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In Defence of Liberal Society & Hijabs, Fashionable or Not
A long delayed note, as I meant to write on this during the summer, but business intervened. Nevertheless, a moment of reflexion and a strange title perhaps, given my self-confessed dislike of the hijab (as all too often ostentatious worn on the sleeve religiosity - but not always, thus one reason for the note). However our dear site mistress's note on perhaps the need for showcasing fashionable (that is to say, not self-negating nunnish habits) hijabs and the like, and a coincidental bit of to do in blogosphere about hijabs provoked some reflexion (however tardy).
I should note that it was this rather stereotypical 'oh isn't liberating the girl took off her hijab' and 'oh isn't it oppressive she put it back on' comment from an English teacher formerly in Rabat. Stereotypical of course as its the typical Western (and very secularized MENAite elite) reaction. It is also near pure bollocks as such, mistaking something between religious choice - mistaken or not - and perhaps fashion, as indicative of "liberation" or not. Sadly, fairly typical imagery. Taking off the hijab, liberation. Putting it on, Male Oppression. [fixed the bloody link as well]
[Added Reference 8 Oct:: Worthy of some reflexion, Women of Birminghamabad find identity in FT relatively recently, from its ongoing and refreshingly non-hysterical Muslims in Europe series]
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Posted by The Lounsbury at 05:13 AM | Comments (32) | TrackBack
September 26, 2007
Abu Aardvark on The Surge & The Sunni Leadership
A personal favorite political magazine's blog presents a personal favorite political institute's video of an Aqoul favorite blogger Marc Lynch, aka Abu Aardvark, speaking at a conference at the CATO Institute on THE SURGE. The professorial Father of Aardvarks opines about the recent Iraq Sunni insurgent-US military cooperation, but bases his insights on Arabic language media and internet communications of Sunni community leaders. The conclusions he arrives at are basically that the Sunni leaders are stating to their very anti-US constituency that cooperation with the USA is merely tactical and the result of insurgent victories which forced the US to assist them in certain common aims of fighting al-Qaeda and fighting some Shiite militias. They view the government and al-Sadr as "Iranian" and they eventually want the entire US occupation out. In addition, the conditions are such that further sectarian fragmentation is underway and no matter how long the US stays, it appears the conditions will remain ripe for sectarian war. Informed readers, have at it.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:48 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
September 13, 2007
Iran War On the Way: More Evidence
It appears that I may have been right to call attention to those saying a war on Iran is being rolled out by the Administration. An informed and expert source in DC affirmed it to me as well a few days back. And it looks like the usual suspect sources are now marketing it. (Love the part where we can mysteriously tell that the Germans really want us to attack even as they back away from sanctions against Iran. Saying "no" when they really mean "yes", those Teutonic teases!) Michael Ledeen appears to be the one whose job is to incite the converted; he who says that al-Qaeda and Iran are interchangeable terms and at one point called Dubai, an "Iranian colony". Man, all them dang camel jockeys are the same and interchangeable, and that thinking is how one manufactures a war. Anyway, Aqoulites and Aqoulite wannabes with Iran-specific knowledge are needed to weigh in, now and in the future.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:19 PM | Comments (19) | TrackBack
September 09, 2007
Quick Roundup of News on Roundups
{Sarcasm} Here's a headline you'd never expect to see. I'm shocked, shocked. . . . {/sarcasm} (Iraq)
Now here's a headline you'd really never expect to see. (Israel)
Here's an interesting roundup about al-Qaeda leader roundups. For a variety of reasons, this Abu al-Yazid guy seems the most interesting and dangerous , specifically as he reminds me in terms of his alleged internal likeability, technical profession (accountancy/fundraising), energy, and tactical sense of a rather successful violent insurgent of the past. Insurgencies can use good accountants and fundraisers.
And, just for yucks, bad news for anyone planning to have online virtual sex with Osama bin-Laden.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 06:04 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 07, 2007
Bin-Laden Versus Bin-Laden, same day
Osama bin-Laden on Sept. 7 2007* -- "19 young men were able, by the grace of [God], the Most High, to change the direction of [America's] compass."
Osama bin-Laden on, um, Sept 7, 2007 -- "burning living beings is forbidden by our religion, even if they be small like the ant, so what of men?"
In addition to terrorist, criminal, fanatic, and other filth-and-foul words, we can now add "what a fatuous dick".
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:11 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
F**kin' Alif, Dude! Arabic School Opens in Brooklyn
The Khalil Gibran International Academy school has opened in New York, part of the public education system. Being a wacko libertarian, I have my reservations even about public schooling as a general concept, but allowing it to be a virtue and necessity, still what advantage is it to have a specialized school devoted to Arabic culture and language for kids in Brooklyn USA? Folks, there does exist a private education option for establishing such things, if felt needed. This has a Euro feel of separateness to it, combined with the related US cult of the Great God Diversity. But I thought we yanks had passed on the "separate but equal" thing in public schools. Naturally, of course, the Daniel Pipes squadrons of haters-of-all-things-even-appearing-Muslimish-and-socially-acceptable made an unbelievably laughably weird xenophobic stink over it (Pipes: "learning Arabic in-and-of-itself promotes an Islamic outlook"). They even got the first chosen principal fired for correctly explaining that intifada in Arabic means a shaking-off, thereby apparently establishing that a school that teaches the Arabic language should most definitely not teach it accurately.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:47 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
August 25, 2007
Syria's Consideration: A Realistic Travelogue in A Surprising Place
I must say something nice about the Washington Times, which normally has MENA-related fare along the lines of FoxNews and this type of swill. I saw this story a short time back of a travel-writer's visit to Syria in the dead-wood version, but not online. Now I see it is online. Amazingly, the writer actually seems to have taken note of the place and reported it and experienced what normal travelers there would notice, although one might find it too saccharine for its non-comments on the ubiquitous Leader & Family photos, or the pervasive poverty. Still, entitled sincerely and without guile The Kindness of Syrians, it is well done and refreshingly rooted in relevant reality; excerpts for you link-avoiders below the break. (Elsewhere on deeper questions of wealth and poverty, AbuFares has this to say; more on that at another time. Now back to the W. Times.)
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:49 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 29, 2007
Miss Arab World
Congratulations to Miss Bahrain who has just won the Miss Arab World beauty contest in Cairo.
It's wonderful to see how a modest glimpse of flesh can instantly bridge the East-West divide, as evidenced by the comment from Daily Mail reader Ken from Suffolk:
"So, behind the hijab's, niqab's and burqa's there are some very pretty ladies in the Arab world."
Purely for the research purposes of Aqoul's male readers, here are some of the other contestants (those whose monocles have already steamed up may click the images to enlarge):
I am sure many of our learned commentators will be able to draw significant political insight from this landmark event.
Posted by secretdubai at 06:07 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
July 22, 2007
Dubai's New Erection Penetrates Foe China Entry's Position
Why are you looking at me like that? Stop it. The internal structure of the new under-construction Burj Dubai tower has just passed the height of the rival entry in the world's tallest building competition, Taiwan-Republic of China's Taipei 101 tower. The Burj is now 1,667 feet (sorry, I don't do metric). The question: is there any value or significance to such structures? It looks horrible at this stage; is the final version decent? And no. The caption wrote itself. Grow up. (Update: Taipei 101 - I think it's ugly too.)
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:45 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
July 19, 2007
The Muslim Sartorialist
Ever heard of the Sartorialist? It's basically a photo blog done by a guy with a keen eye for fashion. He photographs people in trendy European and North American cities and adds little blurbs about why he thinks the outfits are interesting.
Now, I've always taken note of fashionable Muslim girls around me. They are masters of layering, texture and coordination. Whether it's at the mall, a pretentious cafe or even my gym (where one stylish muhajabat routinely schools me on the treadmill), these ladies are not held back by their headscarves. Unfortunately, most of the photos you find on news sites are of women wearing frumpy hijabs, dowdy overcoats and ominous-looking ninja getups (as Lounsbury likes to call them). Western media is inundated with photos of shapeless baby-blue Afghan burkas and Saudi niqabs, so it's hardly surprising that most non-Muslims think this style of dress is ubiquitous.
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Posted by eerie at 02:02 PM | Comments (40) | TrackBack
July 16, 2007
Next, We'll be Pledging Allegiance To Vishnu
They're taking over. Now it's the Hindus. First the Muslims will force my daughter to wear a burka, which I just learned is a Nazi symbol, now if it weren't for the voices of the intrepid zealots of the gospel heard in this video, soon the guy pictured here would take over, and the Senate cafeteria will have to remove hamburgers from next to the freedom fries. Even scarier, he looks like he might be the Pope (oops, wrong century's xeonphobia).
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 07:34 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
July 14, 2007
Muslim Integration in American Political Life
I'd just like to draw attention to a recent report on the subject, which draws some conclusions I'd hope would be common sense to anyone paying attention. A few that particularly struck me:
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Posted by evaluna at 05:16 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
July 12, 2007
Tunisia & Women's Rights: Real Developments?
I turn this issue over to a better-informed readership. A Globalist article argues that Tunisia provides a real regional model for a legislative and public policy system that would protect the rights and hopes of women in home and professional life, and do so consistent with religious sentiment and scholarship. "What really sets Tunisia apart from other Arab countries and most majority-Muslim states," Andrea Barron writes, "are its policies on marriage, divorce, child support, abortion, honor crimes and domestic violence. After all, what does it matter if a woman can attend university, own her own business and run for political office if she cannot choose her own husband and be free from violence perpetrated by her own family members?" So, are the benefits in Tunisian women's legal rights genuinely real; if so, have they been a cause or the effect of social changes? And where does the, ahem, not quite freedom-loving/democratic nature of the Ben Ali government fit in to all this, if at all?
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:21 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
June 30, 2007
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 | Comments (7) | TrackBack
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 | Comments (6) | TrackBack
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?
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:30 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
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 | Comments (22) | TrackBack
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 | Comments (27) | TrackBack
May 30, 2007
The Curse of Spinsters
From Gulf News Express via The Emirates Economist - "Sad Spinsters: Lonely Hearts".
Dr Mohammad Wafeek Eid, a psychiatrist at Al Musa Medical Centre in Dubai, said most spinsters suffer from anxiety, depression and multiple psychosomatic complaints, including headaches, epigastric disturbances, abdominal gases and discomfort. "They tend to be suspicious and they make those around them uncomfortable. They are somehow viewed as abnormal because they do not go through motherhood – spinsters are the object of social pity. They feel they are unfulfilled, incomplete," he said.
None of the Emirati businesswomen interviewed in the article sound remotely sad or "incomplete". On the contrary they are probably enormously relieved to have escaped a matrimonial life sentence with the likes of Dr Eid.
Posted by secretdubai at 11:13 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
May 28, 2007
Sexy Abaya Fashion & Breathless American Journos
While not entirely terrible, the Washington Post arty For Cloaked Saudi Women, Color Is the New Black - indeed in some ways quite an interesting piece on new Abaya fashion - was moderately annoying. I suppose it's from the Saudi-centered vision (of course it is an arty about KSA, but given my experience that much of the non-Islamic world takes KSA as if it were the standard...)
Of course it does raise fond images of sexy Abaya fashion as seen outside KSA. Never mind the baroqueness of Maghrebine Caftans...
Posted by The Lounsbury at 02:18 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
May 19, 2007
I dislike racists and I dislike niggers even more
I was sitting with some bledars* who were introduced to me at a Moorish coffee place, and they were complaining about how racist many whites were. They had some pretty legitimate criticisms actually.
A few hookah puffs later, the ranting began over how their peaceful, wonderful and so civilized shithole of a village – one would wonder why they left it – was being invaded by those troublemaking, criminal uncivilized tourists from the neighboring country – but we love their money, don’t we.
To sum up, I became irritated and called them retarded bumpkins. As the Chinesian saying goes, Monkey on a branch pees on Monkey’s head on the branch below. Hopeless humanity.
(*) bledar: French slang (mostly used by French Maghrebis) for recent immigrants from North Africa. Pejorative, has a “yokel” connotation.
Posted by Shaheen at 06:14 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
April 30, 2007
Pakistan: booze, boobs and bullets
I was just sitting at this restaurant with this Pakistani American acquaintance when he asked:
“Don’t you feel lonely here sometimes?”
“No, why should I?” I answered.
“I don’t know, I miss partying, you know?”
“You can party pretty well here” I replied.
“No, it’s not the same”
Like me, Moe had moved around a lot and he hadn’t been here for long. Before coming to this city which boasts about the quality of its night life and the beauty of its women, he had spent a few years in Pakistan.
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Posted by Shaheen at 02:38 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
April 11, 2007
Why didn't the Ottomans conquer the Americas?
There is little research as to why the Ottoman Empire, one of the major world powers of the Age of Discovery, didn’t try to pick its share of the New World. Digging a bit, I came up with the only three related articles I could find. They barely scratch the surface. To fully access those articles, you’ll probably need to buy them or get them from your nearest university library.
One of the articles deals with the Piri Reis map, the earliest record of America by the Ottomans. It doesn’t really deal with the issue, but it's a good academic overview of the map itself. America is marked as Vilayet Antilia, which might imply some intention, at least from Piri Reis, to annex it to the Ottoman realm. Vilayet – or Wilayah in Arabic – means governorate, or province.
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Posted by Shaheen at 10:11 PM | Comments (36) | TrackBack
April 06, 2007
My Inner Neocon & Iran's Shatt Across the Bow
No, I don't want us or Britain to go to war with Iran. Heck, I'm a "cut and runner" on Iraq from before it happened. But am I the only one not of neoconnish-hawkish outlook who is a little perturbed that uniformed professional British sailors and Marines, engaged in lawful patrolling and probable legitimate intelligencing, roll over and "confess"? (Side note to antiwar folks: the coalition presence is now lawful, regardless of other moral or prudential non-rectitude.) Civilians, I understand. Me, I'll give away your social security number when faced with a nail clipper. But what happened to stiff upper lip; name, rank and serial number? If they were tortured or threatened I won't judge, but at least I'd want to know. UPDATE: Rolling over does make a little more sense after these revelations of mock executions, etc..
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:49 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
April 05, 2007
Well, Golly: Egyptian Finance Comes to Town
Youssef Boutros Ghali, Egypt's Minister of Finance, will be giving his take -- perhaps a bad choice of words -- on the economy of Nile-dom right here in Potomac River City, aka Washington D.C., on Thursday, April 12 (reserve at the CATO Institute by 11 April). Full details are below the break, and here, the most important of which is "Cato Forums and luncheons are free of charge." D.C area Aqoulites are required to go, if they are below 32 and in any kind of University. Meanwhile, informed comments from all on the subject, including from our own regional finance hyperinformed but Masrophobic resident Id, are welcome.
Continue reading "Well, Golly: Egyptian Finance Comes to Town"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:16 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
March 29, 2007
Next Year, Get Baked in Jerusalem?
One Israeli political party has announced that according to its interpretation of a rabbinical ruling, marijuana is not kosher for Passover, and so followers should abstain from its consumption during the upcoming holiday.
Continue reading "Next Year, Get Baked in Jerusalem?"
Posted by evaluna at 10:28 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
March 14, 2007
Rock the Casbah bis: Casablanca Bombings
Unfortunately I still lack time to delve into the Casablanca bombing this past weekend, and must soon to airport make, however a quick round-up of some materials I think are decent:
- Reuters - WP round up of the local Moroccan press indicating planning was perhaps more extensive than the initial event suggested. I'd note that I caught on the local Sat TV the Moroccan TV's images of the truck taking away the bombs. One rather big ass dump truck.
- WaPo backgrounder on the bombers whose profile rather resembles that of the 2003 bombers.
My observation, which is a prelude to my long-overdue and incomplete post on Maghreb spillover and drivers for the problem is the Poli Sci 'wisdom' re poverty and economic frustration not being drivers for Islamist neo-Salafi terror is bollocks. Some portion of course is purely ideological and would exist without any economic-situ driven radicalisation, but it is clear to me up close that a significant and important portion is driven by economic factors, and socio-economic frustration. That some radicals, espeically leaders come from more wealthy backgrounds says nothing about causation, any more than the presence of wealthy Left radicals in the 19th and early 20th centuries disproved a general observation of radicalisation being driven by economic issues in that period, in Europe, etc.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:38 PM | Comments (32) | TrackBack
March 11, 2007
Arab music for dummies
A few years ago, Mother conceded total defeat against "The West" in my education when it came to music. She had been trying hard for years to introduce me to the subtleties of classical Arab music through Umm Kalthoum, Abdel Haleem and other such names, to no avail. To her great dismay, I wasn't even interested in the younger stars that other Arabs worship, such as George Wassouf or Kathem Essaher. And while she had hoped it was only a matter of maturity, and that as an adult, I would abandon that tasteless rock or electronic noise I tend to listen to in favor of the more refined Arab tones, here I was, a full grown man, still unable to name but the singers above without even identifying their music, let alone appreciating it.
Mother's sorrow could be alleviated though if she understood I made a few steps in her direction when I discovered alternative currents of Arab music, mostly born in the Diaspora. And this is where I invite the Matthew Hogan's of this world, whose impermeability to mainstream Arab music I share, to discover it by entering that universe through other gates.
Continue reading "Arab music for dummies"
Posted by Shaheen at 01:55 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
March 07, 2007
Hala Sarhan and the Case of the Lyin' Prostitutes
Hala Sarhan is a talk-show host who it seems it is now obligatory to describe as the "Oprah of Arab TV", although in some ways she is closer to Jerry Springer or the old Geraldo talk show, alternating between interviews with movie stars and others in the entertainment industry and "social issues" shows that somehow always seem to focus on, well, sex. Now she's in serious trouble and threatened with prison time after three women she interviewed as prostitutes for a show on prostitution turned up, claiming to have been paid to read off of a script. The three claim to have gone public because the show disguised their features digitally, but did not do so for their voices, and they were recognized by their neighbors and relatives. A good English rundown of the story can be found here. Of particular note is that she is facing a prison sentence for criticizing (falsely, supposedly) an arm of state security, particularly the police - during the interviews, the three possibly-prostitutes claimed to have been paying protection money to the Egyptian police.
There's been a political edge to Sarhan's work in TV. When she was a vice president at Egyptian private station Dream TV, she was the one who invited Muhammad Hassanein Heikal to come onto their channel and give a speech in which he denounced the idea of Gamal Mubarak becoming the next president. Not long afterwards, Haykal was off to Al Jazeera, and Sarhan was off to music broadcaster Rotana, where her talk show became much more entertainment-oriented as she also took over responsibility for the broadcaster's Cinema Channel.
Continue reading "Hala Sarhan and the Case of the Lyin' Prostitutes"
Posted by tomscud at 11:15 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
February 23, 2007
The Jack Bauer Effect
Sometimes when I'm out with the girls, I'll get fed up of talking about fashion or relationships and say something provocative just to stir things up. Most of the time, it's just martini-fuelled commentary about our celebrity-obsessed culture, the impact of widespread economic illiteracy, the exploding market for self-help books, etc. Whatever pops into my head, really.
A few weeks ago, while the ladies were chattering about Britney Spears' latest meltdown, I tapped my fingers on the table and said, "Do you think Americans might be more accepting of torture because of Jack Bauer?"
Having long ago accepted my mercurial oddball tendencies, they shrugged and returned to their original conversation. I, however, became rather fixated on the idea and spent much of the evening muttering to myself about cultural icons and their ability to shape popular opinion.
Continue reading "The Jack Bauer Effect"
Posted by eerie at 03:12 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
Tarek Fatah on Little Mosque
For some more provincial comments from the Big North, Tarek Fatah's take on Little Mosque on the Prairie has some good points. While I disagree with his idea that there might be an agenda behind the lack of portrayal of liberal Muslims in the show, he definitely put his finger on something when stating that "the liberal, secular or progressive segments of the community – are conspicuous by their complete absence from the Little Mosque narrative."
Continue reading "Tarek Fatah on Little Mosque"
Posted by Shaheen at 01:57 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
February 16, 2007
Nightlife and fun in MENA
On lighter matters, and far from the usual rants, real issues or stereotypes, ten YouTube clips about MENA nightlife and fun. To shake that idea of a clash of civilizations a bit, it's worth mentioning how in most Arab Mediterranean cities, upper and middle class lifestyle has more in common with Rome than Kabul.
Continue reading "Nightlife and fun in MENA"
Posted by Shaheen at 12:41 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack
February 11, 2007
What the Mecca Agreement could mean for the future of Palestine
The Mecca Agreement, signed by the leaders of Hamas and Fatah on 9 February, elicited much hope: that it will end the mini civil war in Gaza, which had begun to spread to the West Bank; that it will lift the international sanctions on the PA government; that it would force Israel to return to the negotiation table.
So far, the first target seems to have reached as the fighting has stopped. Of course, only in a few weeks will we know if the cessation of violence is permanent and can be sustained.
On the second and third targets the verdict is still out. The agreement has been received very cautiously, with the general comment being "Let's first see if the new government will conform to all demands by the International Quartet." The main, thorny issue is that of recognition of Israel and all agreements signed by the PLO.
One thing that hasn't been talked about is just what the new "government of national unity" means for the Palestinians ruled by it, and what the distribution of ministries will mean for the role that both Hamas and Fatah can (& cannot) play in Palestine.
Continue reading "What the Mecca Agreement could mean for the future of Palestine"
Posted by MSK at 04:24 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
January 16, 2007
Wikileaks.org leak: Site for the Whistleblower?
A new project, wikileaks.org is out of the bag, ahead of schedule. News leaked of the new site's proposal to unite international cybernerd expertise with political dissidence to create a place where persons can safely post leaked government documents with minimal fear of direct detection. The technical feasability and security value I know not, but here is where they provide basic info, with link to a sample of a leaked document allegedly from the Somali Islamic Courts movement. For MENA-watchers, or more probably US-MENA watchers, it may be a site to keenly watch.
Continue reading "Wikileaks.org leak: Site for the Whistleblower?"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 05:55 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
January 09, 2007
Little Mosque, Big Hype
It's common knowledge that all sorts of goods and services sell better if they are marketed using a terrorism/clash of civilizations angle. Every time I visit the bookstore, I see new and republished titles with prefaces and back covers that unsubtly use this type of framing to draw attention to otherwise dry material. In light of this cultural obsession with terrorism and Islam, it's hardly suprising that a new Canadian sitcom about small-town prairie Muslims has attracted an absurd amount of international attention. Local media, apart from regurgitating the usual cuddly sentiments (this show could only happen in fuzzy wuzzy multicultural Canada, US networks are too gutless and xenophobic!), have focused on CBC's publicity blitz for Little Mosque on the Prairie in the face of sagging ratings and the predictable dominance of American television programming in Canada.
Continue reading "Little Mosque, Big Hype"
Posted by eerie at 04:28 PM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
January 05, 2007
Cheap Outrage and Pretend Concern
Reading over the liberal (libertarian) blog, Hit & Run at Reason.com I was disappointed, although not particularly surprised to find a rather badly distorted reaction to Brian Whitaker's generally excellent work on gayness/homosexuality in MENA, Unspeakable Love, which Aqoul had the pleasure and privilege to review before publication.
Comments in particular showed much cheap outrage (one rather doubts any commentator had even read an accurate summary of Whitaker, given the content of comments) and faux concern for gays in the Islamic/Arab world.
Continue reading "Cheap Outrage and Pretend Concern"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:22 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
January 02, 2007
Eid 'Em & Weep: Was Saddam's Death-Timing Sectarian?
Nir Rosen suggests that the timing of Saddam's death on the Sunni Eid was a sectarian message: as there are no lawful executions on Eid, therefore legally the true Iraqi Eid must be the Shiite one. Is there any merit to this implication, O informed readers? Was it clearly a gottersaddamerung message for the Sunni side of the street? A look and listen at the lynch-mobbish hanging of Saddam (sensitive readers, don't go there) suggests a very sectarian sendoff. Faithful Aqoulite MSK has helpfully made note in comments of one blog and one NY Times account.
Continue reading "Eid 'Em & Weep: Was Saddam's Death-Timing Sectarian?"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:43 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
December 29, 2006
Something is rotten in the state of Islamist politics
The Grand Mufti of Saudi Arabia is one of the two most prominent leaders in Sunni Islam. He might not have the stature of the pope, but when he speaks, people listen. So what does he think is the chief objective of every Muslim?
Could it be:
- Being a good person, and living in harmony with one's neighbors?
- Following the five pillars of Islam?
- Defending Prophet Mohammed against slanderous attacks by enemies of Islam?
If you correctly guessed C, you win nothing - the first two would not have merited a mention here.
Continue reading "Something is rotten in the state of Islamist politics"
Posted by Top Secret Anonymous Guy at 10:07 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 27, 2006
You Can't Be Syria's? Ambassador Blogging
The envoy to USA from Syria apparenlty maintains a personal blog. I'll leave it to our distinguished readership to assess the value or lack thereof, and the deeper sociopolitical meaning. In the meantime, I kind of enjoyed his linking to this survey by Sami Moubayed of Syrian women's rights activities (which, I would note, apparently did indeed exist before the Levantine Boadicea of You Tube, Wafa Sultan, so bravely invented them from -- where was it? -- California, circa 2005.)
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 02:46 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
December 22, 2006
The Last Umayyad
On December 24th 1568, Don Fernando de Válor was crowned King of Cordoba and Granada. A little-known event in the history of European Islam, the revolt of the Moriscos - or the Alpujarra War - was one of the darkest episodes in a series of events leading to the destruction and disappearance of native Muslims from Western Europe up to the 20th century.
The revolt was set amongst a rare confluence of motives and interests: those of the Inquisition and part of the Castilian nobility eager to take over the Moriscos' lands, and those of a Spanish crown fearing the presence of a potential fifth column while fighting the Ottoman Empire for dominance in the Mediterranean.
Continue reading "The Last Umayyad"
Posted by Shaheen at 02:52 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
December 19, 2006
Another Woman Put In Her Place in Saudi Arabia?
Oh, wait, sorry. It's not Saudi Arabia. Culture shock for an American female visitor:
A woman...reported a vicious attack by an ad-hoc "modesty patrol" on a...bus last month...[She says] she was slapped, kicked, punched and pushed by a group of men who demanded that she sit in the back of the bus with the other women...She rode the bus daily to...pray at sunrise...Women usually sit in the back, while men sit in the front, as a matter of custom.
Where's Rosa Parks when you need her?
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:11 PM | Comments (21) | TrackBack
December 03, 2006
We interrupt this pogrom: radio test of anti-Muslim hatred
Playing provocateur, radio talk show host Jerry Klein in the Washington DC area decided the time was right to call for Muslims in America to be required to wear crescent tattoos or armbands, which drew a few outraged phone calls. But then the more interesting ones came in: "What good is identifying them?...You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans." And: "Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country...they are here to kill us." After an hour of tossing out this littlegreen, I mean red, meat, the host annouced that he wasn't serious and then added some comments of his own.
Continue reading "We interrupt this pogrom: radio test of anti-Muslim hatred"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 07:50 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
November 13, 2006
Blogging In the Sand: Saudi bloggers profiled
The Washington Post Foreign Service's Faiza Ambah profiles Saudi bloggers. Featured are Fouad al-Farhan, Ahmed al-Omran, and Bandar Raffa, with references to Mystique and others. An organized group of Kingdom bloggers is in formation.
[A] growing wave of young Arabs...have turned to blogging to bypass the restrictions on free expression in a predominantly authoritarian, conservative and Muslim region. Blogging is so novel here that the equivalent term in Arabic, tadween, to chronicle, was coined only this year. But it has spread rapidly among the increasingly urban youth and in the process has loosened the limits of what's open for discussion.
Fuller quote and your (one hopes) informed comments below the break.
Continue reading "Blogging In the Sand: Saudi bloggers profiled"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 04:05 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
November 04, 2006
Who Let The Cats Out?
I spent the past few days ruminating on a post, part of me wanting to ignore it and frankly bury it in the recesses of my repressed memory pile, another part of me gagging and wanting to spew my last meal. Am afraid the bile won and the balanced pondered upon post is in the bin. There are times when one has enough, when one comes to the realization that the tempered non-agitational reasoned approach to life leaves you out of the idiot pile but also robs you of your rage. It’s not Neanderthal or ignorant to be angry and I am, fucking seriously outraged, and I will not look for underlying causes or phenomenal precedents. Scum the lot of them.
Continue reading "Who Let The Cats Out?"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 04:30 PM | Comments (48) | TrackBack
October 26, 2006
Sheikh Hilali, Imported Imams and the Cultural Divide
Since I'm sick and daytime television is unbearable, thought I might write a bit about the emerging controversy around Sheikh Hilali, an Australian imam who recently made some rather provocative observations about women during a speech on marital relations and adultery.
The story is splattered across the front page of The Australian, which offers an mp3 version of the speech, along with an edited English transcript (which I'm sure only captures the boring parts).
Currently, the primary media hook seems to be that Hilali compared unveiled women to meat that gets snatched up by cats because it is left outside, uncovered. This is clearly drawn from the one-page English transcript noted above, which contains little substance save for the frankly bizarre and crude remarks about cats, meat and fridges (and some gratuitous mudslinging at People of the Book).
Continue reading "Sheikh Hilali, Imported Imams and the Cultural Divide"
Posted by eerie at 11:45 AM | Comments (33) | TrackBack
October 22, 2006
Memo from Dubai
It seems worthwhile to draw attention to an interesting article in NYT on Dubai and culture clashes, one which I think despite some superficialities is actually quite interesting. Stemming from a recent local Expat paper's admonishment to respect local culture a bit, it appears to have set off some reaction. I frankly agree with the admonition.
I also found the illustrating image amusing as the inappropriate couple behind the Emirati clique is so very clearly Leb.
Continue reading "Memo from Dubai"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 11:14 AM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
October 16, 2006
Tarawih in the Kingdom, Part 2
Today I got the giggles.
We chose a small makeshift mosque that was close by as the big neighbourhood one was too far to walk after a long day and so we made our way to the small one round the corner. It was tiny, barely holding a hundred people and the women's section held barely a third of that number. The moment I walked in and saw that there was a curtain, a CURTAIN, separating the male and female section, all the piety I had managed to muster evaporated as all I could think of was that the billowing curtain might be blown high enough to expose the two worlds. There would be havoc.
As we began to pray an old woman a couple of feet away from me began whispering visciously in my direction. Alarmed slightly I edged away from her but this only seemed to infuriate her further. After a few more ignored hisses, she grabbed me by my cloak and dragged me in one surprisingly firm move towards her. As I staggered in alarm my mother looked at me barely surpressing a laugh and whispered "You were too far away from her, there shouldn't be any gaps between worshippers." This I knew but had never witnessed it so dedicatedly implemented. I managed to regain my composure and keep praying, bemused by the small, bent octogenarian's strength.
Continue reading "Tarawih in the Kingdom, Part 2"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 09:10 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
October 14, 2006
Muhajabah and Heretic ponder the Offenderati
Last week, a devout Muslim friend and I had another productive talk about the state of Muslim-West relations over lunch. Actually, it wasn't lunch per se, more a stroll through the local bookstore as she was fasting and I was not.
I really don't know why she likes me. Perhaps she is trying to draw me back into the fold as it were, but I enjoy her company and find her observations astute and refreshing (as an aside, I am always amused when women view me as a "project", someone who needs to become more social, outgoing, faithful, less eccentric, etc).
In any case, the Muhajabah, while strolling through my favorite corner of the bookstore (World History/International Political Science, obviously), made an observation that recalled recent discussion of "Professional Offenderati" here on Aqoul:
"Do you think these wild-eyed types in Pakistan call their bosses to ask for the afternoon off because they need to throw things at the US embassy and burn the Pope in effigy?"
Continue reading "Muhajabah and Heretic ponder the Offenderati"
Posted by eerie at 04:38 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
October 11, 2006
Tash ma Tash: Serious Saudi Satire or Child's Play?
The Tash ma Tash controversy rages on and has been adequately reported in both Arabic and non-Arabic media as well as on the blog of our own Lounsbury. However, apart from the obvious religious knee-jerk reaction that has sadly come to be expected when the world is dealing with something apart from sombre doom and gloom of the Wahhabi institution, there have been some interesting and disturbing reactions that reflect some entrenched attitudes towards free speech and criticism.
The attitude towards comedic parody laced with political observation differs widely. In Egypt for example, despite the long-standing heritage of presidential domination and totalitarianism, political satires, most prominently Mohammed Subhi's "Mama America", get away with a lot and resonate with the concerns of the Egyptian public. The Egyptian actor Adil Imam's "Al-Irhabi" (The Terrorist) in the 90's was one of the first indigenous Arabic works to tackle and put a human face on the phenomenon of homegrown terrorism and Syria's Duraid Lahham has a long history of political satire, the play "Ka'sak, ya Watan" ("Cheers, o homeland") being one of the most moving works deriding the weakness of the Arab states in confronting Israel, where hope in a bright Arab future is metaphorically killed off in the death of Dureid's new-born baby Ahlam (= dreams).
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Posted by Meph at 04:32 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
October 07, 2006
Mr Straw & The Niqab
It appears that Foreign Secretary Straw's comments on the Niqab, the face veil, have set off a bit of a storm. From The Financial Times to The Times coverage of his original comments regarding prefering women not wear the face veil as divisive through to coverage of The Poodle's craven and inconsistent pandering (the sooner he is gone the better, I await with impatience) and The New York Times (but "British Official", come on, how about [former] British Foreign Secretary? [mea culpa, I entirely forgot about Beckett's very existence]).
I am not sure if that is good or bad, but it bears some commenting on. First, when I first saw the comments I wasn't sure if he meant the hijab, which would have been annoyingly tedious, or the niqab, which I agree with. I am pleased to see it is about the covering of the face. There is a vast and important difference between the ninja get-ups that are so very Saudi Wahhabite neo-Islamic rot, and a woman covering her hair with a scarf.
Continue reading "Mr Straw & The Niqab"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:58 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack
October 03, 2006
My Fieldtrip to the Right Blogosphere
Apart from daily scans of the Aggregator, I don't have a lot of time to spend reading blogs of any political/religious stripe. I'm not sure how often our contributors venture out into the wider blogosphere either, let alone cultivate relationships/flamewars with other blogs. My mental image of 'Aqoul somewhat resembles a secluded house on the outskirts of a chaotic city, a bit like Professor X's mansion (I'm sure this will lead to a bizarre side discussion on which X-Men are most like our authors/regulars, but let's try to stay focused).
In any case, I don't follow the daily mumblings of ignorant morons wanking on about dhimmitude and the infinite evils of Islam, nor do I routinely comment on blogs other than this one. Perhaps I'm a victim of the echo chamber effect, but I think it has more to do with wanting to spare myself the frustration of seeing the same Islamophobic glurge repeated over and over until it magically becomes fact.
Continue reading "My Fieldtrip to the Right Blogosphere"
Posted by eerie at 08:16 PM | Comments (35) | TrackBack
October 02, 2006
The reality of Islam and the Republic
I almost missed this fairly important note in the Financial Times on European Islam and the wild-eyed whinging that seems to be becoming the rage in certain circles in North America regarding the Muslim minority in Europe: The reality of Islam and the Republic.
First, the author of the opinion piece, FT’s European Editor, has an excellent summary of the mythology, playing off of a recent publication, Integrating Islam: Political And Religious Challenges in Contemporary France.
Continue reading "The reality of Islam and the Republic"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:02 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
October 01, 2006
UAE to hold polls in December
The UAE has announced dates for its first-ever polls. While the elections will do little to alter the balance of power in the country- the voters have been chosen by the rulers of the country's seven constituent emirates, and will only elect half the members of a purely consultative body- this still marks an important step towards increasing political participation.
Continue reading "UAE to hold polls in December"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 10:43 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
September 20, 2006
Racism? What racism?
Allow me to bring your attention to a particularly poorly written piece of UAE agitprop. The UAE is quite heavily segregated socially - people of different national and ethnic origins tend not to mix together except for business. This has been exacerbated greatly by some rather flagrant racism.
I am not sure what legal sanctions exist regarding discrimination, but it is clear that if these exist, they aren't ever enforced. Housing ads can thus ask for Keralite Muslim bachelors, and job ads for Tagalog-speaking candidates only to apply for positions where these language skills are unnecessary, while nightclubs often turn away non-white people at the door on flimsy grounds. Pay scales differ wildly depending on one's skin color, as does how one is treated by all sorts of people one encounters, ranging from shopkeepers to immigration staff.
There has lately been some very slight movement towards recognizing this and doing something about it. Until now, that is.
Continue reading "Racism? What racism?"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 11:11 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
September 11, 2006
Yemeni Cricket? Upcoming Elections
Oh I wish I was in the land of khat and old times there were not forgotten, but I've never been there so I can't say there were old times. But for those to whom it matters, it appears that there are elections looming in the southland. September 20, 2006, to be precise. Will they be meaningful? And will they be cricket? This list suggests that the spirit of Lyndon Johnson may have had a hand in the voter registration process. UPDATE: 50 reported dead at election rally.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:46 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
September 05, 2006
American Media: It's not all fluff and stupidity
We here at 'Aqoul have spent no small amount of time bitching about the sad state of US media (news channels in particular). So it's heartening to note that even the most vapid, empty-headed celebrity rags have taken it upon themselves to educate issues-ignorant Americans on the nuances of Mideast politics.
As we can plainly see, it's not all stereotypical self-absorbed human interest slop for morons.
[Photo: Star Magazine - August 21, 2006]
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Posted by eerie at 07:07 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
September 01, 2006
Naguib Mahfouz, 1911-2006
Back when I was planning my first trip to Egypt, I asked a Lebanese friend of mine what one should read to get a feel for the country. Her immediate, breathless response was "Naguib Mahfouz! Omigod you have to read him!!" (yes, a bit of an airhead, but also adorable). Her first recommendation was the Palace Walk series, but recognizing the impracticalities of lugging three books around in my suitcase, she told me to read Midaq Alley instead.
My first night in Cairo was a blur of people, cars and smoggy air. I recall standing near the open window of my hotel room at 1am and wondering why it still sounded like the city was in the middle of rushhour traffic. Despite having come from a large (albeit orderly) city myself, I had trouble adjusting to all the noise and chaos, not to mention the small problem of air so thick you could almost grab it. An hour later, I found my way to a tiny 24-hour internet cafe. The only other person there was a chainsmoking American expat who laughed when I complained about the pollution and suggested I breathe through a filter, like he did.
Continue reading "Naguib Mahfouz, 1911-2006"
Posted by eerie at 12:42 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
August 23, 2006
Do-It-Yourself Profiling and Islamophobia
Following up on Matthew's barbuphobia entry, I would like to draw attention to some relatively minor yet rather disturbing events. Mere blips, but indicative of a growing acceptance of Islamophobia as an appropriate response to the current situation in MENA and the West.
Via Progressive Islam, the media has reported two separate incidents where passenger hysteria led to the ejection of Muslims from a plane. On a Malaga-Manchester flight, passengers overheard two Asian men speaking "Arabic" and refused to fly until they were removed. Similarly, a Canadian doctor returning home from a conference in Denver was escorted off a plane because one of the passengers found his behaviour suspicious and reported it to the flight crew. He was reciting evening prayers.
Continue reading "Do-It-Yourself Profiling and Islamophobia"
Posted by eerie at 04:46 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
Barbuphobia: Clerics, Beards, Pre-Judgment, Piety & Stuff
Egyptian author Mona Eltahawy confronts her own presumptions about Les Barbus, presumptions derived from her experiences growing up in Saudi Arabia. By les barbus, I refer of course to a nickname used elsewhere for those conservatively pious, sometimes Wahhabi, Muslim gents who tend to sport long beards. They are often presumed -- can we say profiled? -- to harbor intolerant or reactionary social and religious views (not to mention explosives). The author herself concedes holding such statistically valid presumptions presupposing judgmental viewpoints on the part of conspicuously beadred Muslim men. But she soon comes to discover that such presumptions aren't always a reliable guide to each individual, especially after encountering a new person of the barbus type who turns out to be worth getting to know as a three-dimensional being in his own right, during meetings they had in and around a conference in Copenhagen on modern Muslims .
Continue reading "Barbuphobia: Clerics, Beards, Pre-Judgment, Piety & Stuff"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 01:24 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
August 17, 2006
MENA Trade, Business Culture & Americans
While I confess this note is in part motivated by my desire to have an excuse to share this cartoon from the Moroccan business daily, l'Economiste from yesterday's - 16 Aug edition. This was emailed to me yesterday, and is worthy of a good laugh, I thought it also worthwhile to undertake some reflexions on both the subject matter and some generalisations about practical issues.
[Crossposted from The Lounsbury]
Continue reading "MENA Trade, Business Culture & Americans"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:25 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
"Macaque" Ado: North African Linguists Needed
Here in the USA, George Allen Jr., candidate for governor of the Commonwealth (that's "State" if one is less pedantic) of Virginia, is in hot water for referring to a dark-skinned Indian-descended opposition activist as a "macaca". Allen's people sort of claim it was improvised gibberish, but now it is recalled that macaque is a kind of monkey, and furthermore, that Allen is a good French speaker and Allen's mom was a Tunisian-raised Francophone of European heritage. Tell us, o Aqoul sages of North African and francophonic wisdom, is there a "there" there, to that accusation? Has French-style bigotry really made Allen deaf to what he himself is saying, proving indeed that Le Pen is mightier than Le Sourd?
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:31 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
August 06, 2006
In the UAE, even poor people are rich
As long as they are Emirati of course:
Dubai: The municipality has finalised designs for 10 residential complexes which will cater to low-income UAE nationals....
Abdul Rahman Sifai, Director of the Government Housing Department at the municipality, said it was the first time that apartment blocks were to be built for nationals.
Continue reading "In the UAE, even poor people are rich"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 05:31 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 05, 2006
Another death fatwa for the war?
I don't know if MEMRI has translated this one yet.
Continue reading "Another death fatwa for the war?"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 01:12 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 02, 2006
Darfur and Dom Perignon: Social Side Effects of UN Presence in Sudan
The United Nations is now conducting the largest humanitarian operation in Sudan because the Darfur issue has demanded increased UN support. The number of employees in Khartoum has quadrupled, and with this increased presence some rather interesting and somewhat colonial social spillovers mave materialized. In the past five years, the UN Mission in Sudan has opened two new offices and recruited hundreds of employees, mainly by skimming the cream of the foreign educated Khartoum elite. These young up-and-comers returned from their self-imposed exile in Cairo, London and the Gulf to take up positions that previously would have been hard to come across in Sudan.
Continue reading "Darfur and Dom Perignon: Social Side Effects of UN Presence in Sudan"
Posted by Meph at 09:11 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
July 28, 2006
Be Saudi: Hire a Saudi
That is the message on a billboard that towers above Saudi cities and attempts to call upon the patriotism of Saudis when the many Saudisation schemes have failed. "Saudisation" is the process of mandatory government-sponsored affirmative action that aims to end the monopoly of expatriates, mainly in the fields of banking and government bureaucracies. The scheme initially was launched in order to get Saudis into middle management white-collar jobs but has recently descended into the realms of (shock, horror) retail businesses and supermarkets. As the Israel-Lebanon issue has now descended into the wrist-slashing realm of the depressing, I thought 'Aqoul would turn its attention to the merely-banging-head-against-the wall realm of the depressing.
Continue reading "Be Saudi: Hire a Saudi"
Posted by Meph at 10:48 AM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
July 13, 2006
Season of Migration to the West: Gulf London
Ah summer in London town, it wouldn't be the same without the Arabs parading down Oxford Street and patronising the cafes of Mayfair. Grossly made up Gulf women tottering in their high hooker heels buying perfume in Selfridges and Harrods and then finishing off a day of shopping with some strong coffee or even the illicit sugary alcoholic drink. The casual observer reels from passive amusement to sickening anger at the decadence and the smugness of the swarm that descends on the city and with its prams and shopping bags and Bentleys, generally getting in the way and giving the proverbial middle finger to honest nine to fivers trying to grab a quick lunch before they get back to their grind and contemplate the exorbitant taxes they have to pay for the privelege of living in Great Britain.
Continue reading "Season of Migration to the West: Gulf London"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 09:23 AM | Comments (47) | TrackBack
July 11, 2006
French Immigration Policy: Proactive vs. Endured
Editor's Intro: While the subject matter of our commentator, Shaheen, may seem far afield from our Middle East-North Africa concerns, in fact the problems of French immigration laws, French labour laws and the like are really 'domestic' to North Africa. French models are slavishly copied by the North African states, and the environment in France especially has large echoes back in the Maghreb where hundreds of thousands of French residents return like lemmings every year. Both directly then, and indirectly, this has a large social, political and legal echo in the Maghreb, and especially in connexion with the lack of economic opportunity and cancerous growth of ghettos - in France, in Europe and yes, in the Maghreb itself. Certainly this editor deeply believes that 'social exclusion' tied to ethnicity is a key driver of extremism. Eerie, our benevolent Editor in Chief and myself are grateful to Shaheen for taking the time to comment with an insider's view of the situ. - The Lounsbury
Continue reading "French Immigration Policy: Proactive vs. Endured"
Posted by Shaheen at 07:17 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
June 21, 2006
Anger as Analysis: Part III
[Editor's Note: A warm welcome to Shaheen, our newest contributor]
I don't want to beat a dead horse, but I thought it would be interesting to have a French/Maghrebi take on our series of articles about media-savvy Muslim women hailed as reformers by Western media. France's Muslim reformist hero is Fadela Amara, a French feminist of North African descent.
Continue reading "Anger as Analysis: Part III"
Posted by Shaheen at 08:59 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack
June 14, 2006
MyGreenCard.com
Using MySpace.com, a young Jericho, West Bank gentleman managed to win the affections of an American girl, aged 16, and invite her over to be married. But before the young lady finished her unapproved journey to Israel-slash-Palestine-slash-Holy Land-slash-West Bank-slash-Judea&Samaria, she was intercepted by US authorities in Amman, Jordan, and returned to sender. Her parents had stopped her. Now, the story of this Internet romance suggests, in a bit uncommon form with the unusual youth of this girl, a too-prevalent reality among intercultural adults in a similar situation where the active ingredient, at least for one, is sadly not an Arabian Nights romance, but an all-too-common hidden-agenda romance of a certain piece of non-erotic laminated paper.
Continue reading "MyGreenCard.com"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:27 PM | Comments (28) | TrackBack
More Football
It would be very easy to watch the match between Saudi Arabia and Tunisia, the only two Arab teams in the World Cup, and to essentialize based on it. To begin with, no one in the Saudi squad plays for a foreign club - the players do rather well for themselves in their domestic league, which has low standards. The European teams have always been streets ahead of the Arab ones, and even the Sub-Saharan African teams have come impressively far, while the Arabs have lagged behind. Indeed, one would be surprised if the analogy didn't extend to loads of people secretly (or not-so-secretly) hoping the Americans would fail miserably.
Continue reading "More Football"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 12:51 PM | Comments (29) | TrackBack
June 06, 2006
Corner on Niqab: Saudi Women Face Off on Veiling
(The title pun was nearly "Sartorial Spleen Tour", so don't complain) Faiza Ambah, a few days back in the Washington Post, provided a profile of Saudi women, including professionals, who are emphatic in their preference for the unusually high restrictiveness -- even by conservative Muslim standards -- in the dress code mandated in their country.
UPDATE (6/10): Jennifer on Henley's blog has some related thoughts ("Modest Invisibility") on an overlapping subject, inspired by devout Egyptian woman Magda Amer's explanations of women's clothing choice and standards.
Continue reading "Corner on Niqab: Saudi Women Face Off on Veiling"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:09 AM | Comments (48) | TrackBack
al-Mondiale
It's that time again, as evidenced by the open month discussion turning towards football. As the civilised world's attention turns to Germany, Lebanon has started to sprout an international collection of flags that would do the United Nations (or at least the EU) proud. Although there are three MENA clubs in the field, Lebanese flag-bearers prefer the front-runners: I've probably seen more Brazil flags than any others, followed by France, Italy, and a surprising number of Germany flags, along with a few each England and Sweden and one solitary Argentina flag. No Saudi Arabia, and no Iran or Tunisia flags that I can recall.
Continue reading "al-Mondiale"
Posted by tomscud at 07:03 AM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
June 05, 2006
Anger as Analysis: Part II
Moorishgirl’s recent article in The Nation and a followup comment by our man Whitaker have compelled me to revisit the issue of telegenic female Islam critics and continue our Anger as Analysis series. My first installment focused on Irshad Manji and her inability to examine Islam objectively due to negative childhood experiences in her minority Twelver community (Uganda and Canada). Part II is a reflection on Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her controversial approach to critiquing Islam and its adherents.
Continue reading "Anger as Analysis: Part II"
Posted by eerie at 10:09 PM | Comments (112) | TrackBack
June 04, 2006
Muslim Women as Victims - Lalami's "Missionary Position"
[Crossposted from The Lounsbury]
In a rather longish piece in the American Leftist dinosaur paper, The Nation, expatriate Moroccan author Laila Lalami takes a whack at one of eerie's favourite topics, Muslim Victim Women Reformers in an arty entitled "The Missionary Position".
While I am not normally inclined to read such things as The Nation, the highlighting by The Arabist were enough to induce a read.
I cannot say that I am a fan of such hackneyed phrases as "supporters of empire", above all when used seriously, but what can I expect out of literary types?
Continue reading "Muslim Women as Victims - Lalami's "Missionary Position""
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:49 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
June 01, 2006
Rambling Thoughts on Public Space, Community, and Culture in Dubai
Dubai has long been the commercial capital of the Gulf. But much as it would like to pretend otherwise, most of what little culture it contains has been imported, and anything that looks historical only does so by virtue of a good façade. The rulers have always focused first and foremost on attracting business, and have been rather successful at this; most of the city's population has moved there from somewhere else for money. It thus differs in many ways from its next door neighbor Sharjah, whose ruler has put far more of an emphasis on retaining traditional and Islamic values, and where there is a 'decency code' and a prohibition on all alcohol.
Continue reading "Rambling Thoughts on Public Space, Community, and Culture in Dubai"
Posted by Top Secret Anonymous Guy at 06:34 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
May 29, 2006
Let’s Do the Time Warp, Part II: Russian Homophobia as Mainstream Political Culture
Some months ago, here at Aqoul I debunked Andrew Sullivan’s assertion that the Muslim mainstream is at the forefront of gay-bashing in the Russian Federation.
Well, it seems I was right – on Saturday the Moscow gay community did attempt to carry on with their observance of the 13th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexuality in Russia, resulting in beatings and scores of arrests (including those of the demonstration’s organizer and some participants, as well as counterdemonstrators), as the Mayor of Moscow had prohibited the demonstration on the grounds that homosexuality is “unnatural,” and was backed up by a court decision last week. Even some members of the Russian gay community had opposed the demonstration, fearing the violence that would result - Russia just isn't in the same sociopolitical place as the handful of industrialized Western countries that have visible gay activist movements, but then those are largely a development of the past couple of decades in any case.
Posted by evaluna at 12:20 PM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
Democracy in the UAE
Just over a year ago, Sheikh Mohammad bin Rashid Al Maktoum, then the crown prince of Dubai and UAE’s defense minister, and now the UAE’s vice president, prime minister and defense minister of the UAE, and ruler of Dubai, said:
I say to my fellow Arabs in charge: If you do not change, you will be changed… If you do not initiate radical changes, responsibly discharge your duties and uphold the principles of truth, justice and responsibility, your people will resent you. More than this, the verdict of history on you will be severe.
Continue reading "Democracy in the UAE"
Posted by Top Secret Anonymous Guy at 12:00 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
May 25, 2006
"Dhimmi": Crock Quran? (And I don't care)
(Apologies to Southern African-American folk music.) The apparently false allegations that Iran was preparing a law requiring Jews and Christians to wear identifying symbols has not only resulted in a newspaper retraction, but also has led some to revisit an overused word among much of the Islamophobic blogosphere and elsewhere: "dhimmi". The term, in history applied to Jews and Christians in certain Muslim periods, appears to be derived from some type of legal inferior status imputed to non-believers in the early stages of the Islamic conquests. Lately, however, it has sort of become a kind of warblog/Little Green Footballs type of Islamophobic cult-jargon (cf. moonbat) for one who is a perceived "Uncle Tom", i.e. a non-Muslim who suggests that Muslims may indeed act with ordinary human motives, or that their faith is flexible and not pervasively malevolent.
Continue reading ""Dhimmi": Crock Quran? (And I don't care)"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:33 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
May 23, 2006
Anger as Analysis: Part I
Irshad Manji, Wafa Sultan and Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Why am I always picking on them?
Ostensibly, we have much in common. We are women born into faiths and cultures where gender inequality is widespread and can manifest itself in terrible ways. If anything, I should be able to relate to women who distance themselves from normative Islam (or renounce it altogether) and maintain a deep appreciation for the individualism, plurality and relative freedom found in Western societies.
Instead, I am appalled at how casually they draw conclusions about an entire religion based on narrow personal experience and the substitution of angry rhetoric for serious examination.
Continue reading "Anger as Analysis: Part I"
Posted by eerie at 09:14 PM | Comments (24) | TrackBack
Morocco The Model! (Or Our Superficial Stereotypes Are Poorly Informed)
I stumbled across a funny (to me) "model" arty in the ideo-rag (I am not a fan of ideological papers) The Weekly Standard after stumbling across this attempt at writing on Islam, Elsewhere in Islam, itself deserving in comment (acerbic but fair comment, as I think the arty needs a whack in the side of the head on some factual and interpretive issues, but it's at least an honest effort): The Moroccan Model: A beacon of hope in the Islamic world.
I am sure regular readers are aware I am a fan of the Maghreb generally and Morocco in particular (although I have a warm spot in my heart for Tunisia as well, and why not Libya and Algeria as well?), so perhaps I should receive a fannish article on Morocco warmly. There is certainly something to be said for noticing that the Islamic or even the Arab or even the Mediterranean Arab world consists of countries besides Egypt and Saudi Arabia. And some of the article I agree with or perhaps better, some of the article did not lead me to think of running the author over with a car to spare the world further ill-informed bad writing.
Continue reading "Morocco The Model! (Or Our Superficial Stereotypes Are Poorly Informed)"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:40 PM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
May 17, 2006
Ayaan and Lessons on the Blog Whankosphere
Some sad lessons pop up once in a while in "blogging" (I do hate the term), among the the written confirmation of the facile idiocy that passes for commentary online, above all "far away" things. The utterly idiotic, wrong-headed ignorant whanking about the supposedly "Islamic immigrant" "intefada" that popped up during the French minority riots last year. This largely among American commentators with fuck all of an any information about France, the socio-religious profile of "immigrants" (3rd generation French born 'immigrants') hysterically shrieking on about an Islamic radical 'intefada' (hello Andrew Sullivan et al -none of whom by the way ever corrected or retracted their... well distortions and outright lies).
Continue reading "Ayaan and Lessons on the Blog Whankosphere"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 10:56 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
May 16, 2006
Census and Sensitivities: UAE & Its Minorities
Towards the end of last year, the UAE carried out its first census in 10 years. Given both the rapid demographic changes here and the promises to share the (usually classified) general data collected with the public, things sounded promising- the information gathered would be invaluable to any number of people. As my colleague SecretDubai has documented, things didn't turn out exactly as planned, not least because those being counted feared the enumerators might report them for any number of offenses ranging from cohabitation to various kinds of illegal occupancy, despite government promises to the contrary.
Continue reading "Census and Sensitivities: UAE & Its Minorities"
Posted by dubaiwalla at 12:46 PM | Comments (24) | TrackBack
May 13, 2006
Testing times
The news that Dubai is considering screening tourists for AIDS (or rather the HIV virus) is unlikely to help the emirate's campaign to market itself as an open and tolerant society:
It’s not clear how the tests would work, but anyone found to have the virus would be refused admission to the country, said Lieutenant Colonel Mohammad Al Mur, director of the human rights department at Dubai police.
Clearly it would be an unworkable policy: unless such information - god forbid - was contained in biometric passports, there is no practical way that immigration officials could test all visitors quickly and efficiently, let alone accurately.
The impact it would have on tourism would be catastrophic: "Fly to five-star luxury and sunshine in glorious Dubai! (If you don't mind being detained for 48-hours in the airport quarantine hotel while we verify your blood)" is a far from inviting slogan.
Continue reading "Testing times"
Posted by secretdubai at 07:23 PM | Comments (18) | TrackBack
May 04, 2006
Unspeakable Love: Gay MENA Culture Reviewed
I've just posted a review of Brian Whitaker's Unspeakable Love, a survey of gay and lesbian life in the Middle East. Although his book-blog says it's been out in Beirut since April 5, today was the first time I saw a copy in stores - Virgin had a ton of them, prominently displayed (albeit not as prominently as Walid bin Talal's puff bio).
Posted by tomscud at 12:54 PM | Comments (31) | TrackBack
April 28, 2006
The Goatee of Enlightenment
When Michael Totten writes his next book, I hope someone blurbs him as "the rightful heir of Thomas Friedman". It would be true on so many levels.
This week, the Goatee of Enlightenment followed the Moustache of Understanding from Beirut to, well, Tel Aviv at least. While there, he demonstrates all he's learned at the Master's feet, passing along commonplaces as though they were wisdom. But then he rockets off into a stupidity that's all his own, as he finds a new source of hope for Israeli-Arab relations in their relationship with the Bedouins:
Bedouin also serve in the Israeli Defense Forces. The skills they learn as desert wanderers make them the perfect trackers.
Because, you know, they get +10 to their "spot" and "sneak" rolls, and can train Tracking to level 37. But I digress. Let's see the true moment of happy cultural exchange:
Continue reading "The Goatee of Enlightenment"
Posted by tomscud at 06:10 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
April 11, 2006
Morocco: Pimping Pleasure or Stalling Out? (Economist)
The present Economist contains an intriguing article covering part of my brief, and a somewhat neglected corner of the MENA world, Morocco. Morocco attracts rather little attention in the "Anglo Saxon" world, despite having racked up some interesting political and economic wins in the past year, so perhaps a quick commentary then on the article, and the state of things in this rather strategically located country.
Continue reading "Morocco: Pimping Pleasure or Stalling Out? (Economist)"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:13 AM | Comments (26) | TrackBack
April 10, 2006
Brazilian Waxing, Feminism and a Dose of Perspective
[cross-posted from eerie]
Now that I've committed myself to elaborating on a previous entry about hijabs and conformity, here are my initial thoughts on Western feminism and Muslim women.
Actually, let me start with a useful, vaguely sexual anecdote, since this sort of thing seems to appeal to Aqoul's highly intellectual yet degenerate readership.
As some of you may recall, I attended a friend's wedding overseas last year. It was a ridiculously ostentatious 7-day event that included a side trip to a nearby beach resort for the wedding party. My role, as I understood it, was to assist the bride with her tedious pre-ceremony tasks, such as accompanying her to the salon where she had all the hair waxed off her arms, legs and pubic area.
Yes, all of it. No more hair "down there".
Continue reading "Brazilian Waxing, Feminism and a Dose of Perspective"
Posted by eerie at 06:56 PM | Comments (98) | TrackBack
April 01, 2006
Civil War Reenactors Come to Lebanon
UPDATE: The following story is an April Fools' Day hoax. In case you found it several months later by Googling "Lebanese Civil War" or "hot sexy arab Haifa Nancy", please note that it is NOT TRUE.
BEIRUT "No, you don't kill him over there!" Jack Karam runs down the narrow alleyway, a folded-up paper clutched in his left hand. Two young men in camo fatigues look up at him, and away from the two women and the old man they had been menacing with their submachineguns. Jack unfolds his poster-sized paper and starts pointing. The young men, the old man, and the two women gather about. There's a short discussion, Karam speaking in Southern-inflected English, the rest mostly in Arabic. Finally, they trudge a couple hundred yards through the dusty streets of Shatila camp and resume their positions. The two young men mime pulling the trigger, first on the old man, then on the two women, who collapse in a heap on the ground.
"That's more like it," says Karam.
Continue reading "Civil War Reenactors Come to Lebanon"
Posted by tomscud at 04:13 AM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
March 23, 2006
Wafa Sultan: Bigger, Longer, Uncut - The Full Sultan Jazeera Transcript
Due to the tempest created by Wafa Sultan, 'Aqoul has decided to translate the Arabic transcript of the Al-Jazeera show on which Wafa Sultan for most intents and purposes made her debut. Hosted by Faisal al-Qasim, The Opposite Direction is held in debate format and usually deals with controversial issues touching upon taboo subjects like the Saudi royal family.
Continue reading "Wafa Sultan: Bigger, Longer, Uncut - The Full Sultan Jazeera Transcript"
Posted by Meph at 04:04 PM | Comments (166) | TrackBack
March 19, 2006
Women's Banking Services in KSA: A Rant
Due to a prolonged absence from the Kingdom of Saud my bank account (hosted in a financial institution the child of an agreement between Saudi Arabia and what was an infidel country last time I last looked) was frozen as no transactions had been conducted in over a year. Getting it unfrozen I assumed would be a straightforward enough matter as I made my way to the women's branch. Upon entering a small marble floored hall I beheld two female employees seated in workstations each side of an idoor floral plant arrangement and about a dozen other female clients seated atop plush leather furniture each apparently suffering from some degree of exasperation. I took a seat while trying to fathom what system of queueing was in use. As one client emerged from one office and another waiting sprung to her feet and darted in behind her, I surmised it was every woman for herself.
Continue reading "Women's Banking Services in KSA: A Rant"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 10:15 AM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
March 18, 2006
The Kills Are Alive With The Sound of Music: The Al-Qaeda Soundtrack
Fellow blogger, Chris Roach, an American paleoconservative*, writes a relatively nuanced reflection on the use of music in al-Qaeda recruitment/propaganda videos. Although his recurrent Islamophobia (more in other entries) can be irritating at times, allowing for that, this attempt to get at the stylings of Arabic music and the esthetics of Islamic art may contain some thoughtful criticism of music or good artistic debate fodder, even if wrong. "There is something jarring about this experience," he writes, "listening to lyrical and well-crafted music, most often in the classically minor key of the orient, while viewing awful images of murder and mayhem."
Continue reading "The Kills Are Alive With The Sound of Music: The Al-Qaeda Soundtrack"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 08:57 AM | Comments (83) | TrackBack
March 15, 2006
Fatwas and Wafa Sultan
Responding to a comment on my sarcastic 7-step guide to becoming a Muslim reformer, it occured to me that most Westerners have no idea what constitutes a fatwa, and that Wafa Sultan has used this misconception to her advantage in the New York Times.
First, the comment about my entry:
Crooning “Oh, oh, I’m under a death sentence, oh, oh, they’re coming to chop off my head, oooooh I’m so scaaaared” is lame snotty mockery when the target of your mockery actually is under a death sentence and people actually are getting killed.
I admit my comments were flippant and not intended to trivialize the problems faced by people who are intimidated and threatened by both secular and Islamist entities in the Middle East (such as the lovely and very brave journalist, Mona Eltahawy). Still, the ensuing debate has uncovered a number of popular and dangerous misconceptions, which will be cleared up here and there as I find them.
Continue reading "Fatwas and Wafa Sultan"
Posted by eerie at 12:52 PM | Comments (49) | TrackBack
Observing Other Societies: The Limits of Direct Contact & Idealistic Presumptions
I sincerely hesitate to endorse the genially and serially bigoted John Derbyshire but this rather good column about how visitors and observers of other societies can be dangerously wrong is actually rather good. It does explain alot of presumptive well-intentioned idiocy(blogosphere and printosphere) that masquerades as informed commentary on MENA, and Iraq in particular.
Continue reading "Observing Other Societies: The Limits of Direct Contact & Idealistic Presumptions"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 10:12 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 13, 2006
How to be a Muslim reformer
After reading an article on Wafa Sultan (the up-and-coming Muslim reformer) in the New York Times today, it occured to me that I should get on this reformer bandwagon before the market gets saturated. I'm articulate, telegenic, exotic (yet oh so fluffy and Westernized), not to mention female (oppressed by rigid Islamic paternalism, naturally). Too bad I've got so many other little schemes on the go and can't spare the time for this one. However, I've written a handy little guide for aspiring refuseniks, male or female, Muslim or non-Muslim. Hopefully it will inspire readers to lead the charge in enlightening the benighted Islamic world.
Continue reading "How to be a Muslim reformer"
Posted by eerie at 04:22 PM | Comments (41) | TrackBack
March 11, 2006
Danish Cartoon Protests: Roundup
Continue reading "Danish Cartoon Protests: Roundup"
Posted by eerie at 06:13 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
March 10, 2006
Pop-Inshaad: The Rise of Islamic Singers
As contemplating Irshad Manji and the DPW caving have taken their toll upon my will to live I thought Aqoul would turn to issues of pop-culture. A recently emerging trend has received plenty of media attention since the rise of the Azerbaijani born British Islamic singer Sami Yousif. Islamic 'inshaad' or religious singing has become a massive market in the Gulf and the Middle East and it is not simply a matter of Wahabi defintions of what is religiously compliant catching on, although that is partly the case. Islamic singers have produced anything from totally instrument free multi-harmony based songs (spearheaded mainly by Ahmed Bukhatir, actually quite good if slightly melancholy in my view) to full orcherstra backed-albums such as those released by Yousif, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music in London and a piano virtuouso.
Continue reading "Pop-Inshaad: The Rise of Islamic Singers"
Posted by Meph at 11:10 AM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
March 09, 2006
Irshad, Ijtihad and Irony
Don’t ask me why, but every once in a while I like to irritate myself by reading about Irshad Manji. Watching the surprised reactions to the recent Hamas electoral victory made me realize that in many Western circles, there is a naive belief that democracy & freedom = liberalism and that encouraging democracy in the Middle East will automatically result in secular, liberal (and by extension pro-Western) utopias. Visiting Irshad Manji's website the other day, it occured to me that the same sort of muddled thinking is behind her Project Ijtihad initiative to “support the liberal reformation of Islam”.
According to Manji, recovering the "lost" tradition of ijtihad will somehow free Muslims from their intellectual slumber and result in the widespread acceptance of so-called liberal values. Naturally, she doesn't define the term "liberal", but based on her highly biased and monolithic description of Islam (obviously derived from personal experience more than actual research on regional/cultural variations, historical context, etc), one expects that she would use some sort of handwaving “politics I agree with” definition. Manji also doesn’t bother to elaborate on the concept of ijtihad (which is a rather complex topic in Islamic legal theory) beyond the vague exhortation that Muslims start “thinking independently”.
Continue reading "Irshad, Ijtihad and Irony"
Posted by eerie at 07:10 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
February 25, 2006
Customary Marriage and Paternity Testing Laws in Egypt
A recent landmark case regarding paternity testing in Egypt has brought the issue of customary marriage and the backwardness of Egyptian paternity legislation into the spotlight.
The reason the case caught the attention of so many is that it involved the young son of a famous Egyptian acting couple. Sumia al-Ulfi and Farouq el-Fishawi are now estranged but their son Ahmed upon reaching his early twenties was propelled into the limelight due to his parentage and good looks. The twist that made the case even more explosive is the fact that Ahmed, just as his acting career was taking off, rejected his Westernised background and career and instead embraced the principles of Islam, becoming the poster boy for the Amr Khaled (popular noveau trendy preacher) generation and the campaign to call Muslim youth back to their roots.
Continue reading "Customary Marriage and Paternity Testing Laws in Egypt"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 01:00 AM | Comments (19) | TrackBack
February 20, 2006
Let’s Do the Time Warp: Gay Pride vs. Islamic/Official Intolerance in Russia
It seems Andrew Sullivan’s rant of the week is that Chief Russian Mufti Talgat Tajuddin has called for the prohibition of a planned gay pride parade in Moscow, recommending that marchers be beaten – and in a rare show of solidarity with the Russian Orthodox Christian community, recommending that they join together in beating gays. Tajuddin was joined in his opposition to the parade shortly thereafter by Russian Chief Rabbi Berl Lazar, though the Rabbi stopped short of recommending violence.
Before Andrew Sullivan leaps to the conclusion that Russian Muslims are at the forefront of homophobia and gay-bashing in the Russian Federation, he may want to bear in mind that the occasion for the parade was to be the 13th anniversary of the decriminalization of homosexual behavior in the Russian Federation.
Continue reading "Let’s Do the Time Warp: Gay Pride vs. Islamic/Official Intolerance in Russia"
Posted by evaluna at 11:10 PM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
February 14, 2006
Cartoons & Protest: Context, Hariri's Commemoration as a Benchmark
A brief comment if I may, on the cartoon controversy and benchmarking - in the context of the over-heated characterisations of the Islamic world and the protests against the Danish cartoons.
Among the items that have most annoyed me has been the lazy characterisations that had protests of mere hundreds or a handful of thousands as reflecting 'mass Muslim anger.' Mere hundreds is not mass anger.
I'd like to take Lebanon and the Rafiq Hariri Memorial demo as a benchmark for real mass movement: as one can gather from The Washington Post and better from the image with al Hayat's coverage, even allowing for large Xian and Druze participation, more than a few hundred Lebanese turned out.
I would hazard the opinion that one has a benchmark for what really is bringing people out, and what is not.
It strikes me that again and again, the largest demos one sees are not the ones supporting the radicals in the region. However, the radicals are good at turning out their troops more often, smashing things to get attention and generally bleating rather loudly claiming to speak on behalf of all. The squeeky wheel, as it were.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:44 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
February 12, 2006
Cartoons: Reasonable Protest
An item needing little added commentary, but something that deserves to be highlighted here in connexion with our prior comments: Muslim Crowds Decry Cartoons, Violent Retort.
Men and women, some pushing babies in strollers, crowded into Trafalgar Square as speakers not only denounced the cartoons as an unacceptable insult to the holiest figure in Islam, but also condemned the burning of embassies in Syria and Lebanon, deaths in Afghanistan and other violence that has come in response. "We want to move on to positive dialogue," said Anas Altikriti, a spokesman for the Muslim Association of Britain, which helped organize the rally. Police estimated the crowd at 5,000.
Now, which is better, dialogue with the moderate pious middle, or juvenile gratitious mini-jihads to pointlessly offend more people (a la our fine little islamophobe, Andrew Sullivan) and pointlessly play into hands of the extremists?
Posted by The Lounsbury at 08:29 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
French Sensibilités musulmanes
A brief object lesson on the ostentatious and willful blindness of the French elite
Combien Le Monde compte-t-il de lecteurs musulmans ? Je l'ignore, et, Dieu merci, la croyance religieuse — ou l'incroyance — ne figure dans aucune enquête statistique. "How many Muslim readers does Le Mond have. I have no idea, Thank God religious belief, or unbelief, isn't subject to any statistical inquiry." Yes, ignorance, willfull ignorance is a virtue in and of itself. Why then you can congratulate yourself on "repulican values" while simultaneously engaging in hypocritical discrimination.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:02 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
February 11, 2006
On Arab Weddings, Female Grooming and Ablutions
After spending the better part of six hours preparing for the wedding of a friend the other day, my entry into the wedding venue later that evening was almost totally overshadowed by how tired and irritated I was feeling. The length of the preparation and the reasons for it probably require a separate entry. Grooming, makeup etc were each respectively interrupted by prayers making for some absurd situations (such as praying 'Asr, the third prayer of the day with one eye fully made up and the other plain and bereft, somewhat reminscent of an injured pugilist). Nevertheless I was very proud of myself for timing it all impeccably, hairdressed after ablution in between 'Asr and 'Maghrib, makeup before 'Isha prayer and nails polished (nail varnish blocks water from reaching the nails and hence invalidates the prayer) after.
Continue reading "On Arab Weddings, Female Grooming and Ablutions"
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February 09, 2006
Open Discussion: MENA, Muslim Minorities & Moderation [Updated II]
Where Moderation? Which Moderation? What kind?
A short post, less of The Lounsbury banging on, and more some initial reflexions on the challenge of buillding moderation. Something I touched on in my little missive: Cartoon Outrage: Salafist Entrepreneurial Behaviour, Manufacturing Incidents & the Problem of Moderation, as have my colleagues.
The core problem is building moderate consensus, in the West - with or within a Muslim minority - and in the MENA region and Islamic world at large. There is much hand-waving out there (in the West especially) about "Moderate Islam" and the like by persons who seem to define moderation as being "just like us" - that is, being up to date the latest (newly acquired) socio-political fads in secular West with respect to religion, society and perhaps even economics (i.e. the cutting-edge values of the highly secularised commentariat of the West).
[Update: The New York Times features an interesting article of some relevance to reflecting on the subject of moderation and the cartoon controversy: At Mecca Meeting, Cartoon Outrage Crystallized. Have added to comment below]
[Further interesting commentary at our friend The Father of Aardvarks (I am inclined to agree with the Father of Aardvarks in re the media's poor performance as well as my lack of enthusiasm for the 'clash of civilisations' talk) pointing to this Egyptian blog post reproducing images from al Fagr that managed not to provoke great protest when first published in October 2005.]
[Further linking:our second favourite Frenchman, Olivier Roy, has a fine article very much in line with the 'Aqoul analysis, in grosso modo this again via Abu Aardvark, who also links to a somewhat boring Mona Eltahawy editorial that for me illustrates why liberal Muslims don't get a hearing. Moderation is boring. Lounsbury, 10 Feb 2006]
Continue reading "Open Discussion: MENA, Muslim Minorities & Moderation [Updated II]"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:53 AM | Comments (14) | TrackBack
February 06, 2006
Cartoon Outrage: Salafist Entrepreneurial Behaviour, Manufacturing Incidents & the Problem of Moderation [Updated]
There seems hardly any reason to provide links to this ever-escalating cycle of utter contemptible idiocy, so let me make this more or less purely opinion and my own personal analysis. I would be remiss, however, if I did not pimp our very own summary page on the Danish – Mohammed Cartoon Controversy.
I also would like to point to a fine round up of online commentary as well as highlight our dear Raf Bey’s contribution: “Why do the Syrians burn embassies but the Iranians don't?” In addition, to return a citational favour well-deserved, I point to Clive Davis’ blog commentary, and in particularly this most recent summary of rational commentary on the riots. One has to agree with his observation that the commentary he cites is “more helpful than one of Christopher Hitchens' thunderbolts on "the case for mocking religion".” Juvenile exercise of expression, but then we should be used to Hitchens being a cretin with regards to the MENA region.
Onward, then.
The Lounsbury Discussion on the Issue
[Update: reading Wikipedia I found an online link - no longer working - to the/an Arabic dossier on the cartoons written by the Denmark group of Imams. Having given it a speed read, it appeared to me that while the dossier was written post-facto to their official meetings, its Arabic text did clearly indicate the incendiary 'extra cartoons' were not published, but were ones received by certain unidentified protest leaders, post their public protests in Denmark. That makes the provence of the cartoons less doubtful to me. The dossier was not inherently unreasonable in tone, although certainly disputable, and clearly reflected an agenda, one which I continue to think reflects the Salafist extremist fringe]
[Update II: A very interesting note thanks to Clive's comment, Danish paper rejected Jesus cartoons; they were apparently offensive and unfunny. Ahem. Well. In other notes re the same article, someone desperately needs to give Muslim activists a lesson in marketing: the European Committee for Prophet Honouring just sounds... silly.]
Posted by The Lounsbury at 12:04 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack
February 02, 2006
How not to pick me up: Lesson #1
I pass a number of upscale cafes and restaurants while walking home from work. Occasionally I'll duck into one of them and pick up a gourmet snack, the sort of thing that comes with blood orange dressing or gooseberry garnishes. Today I decided to try a little place that only served overpriced salad, no doubt on the vanguard of the silly raw food trend currently sweeping North America. The server chattered enthusiastically about various ingredients as he prepared my $8 takeaway dish, which is not altogether strange in places where customer service rules require you to be a talkative idiot. Not entirely unpleasant either, but I was only half-listening to the conversation because my thoughts were elsewhere.
At the cash register, he paused a moment with his hands protectively encircling the pretentious little salad. I waited for him to ring the bloody thing through, but he just stood there grinning foolishly.
Continue reading "How not to pick me up: Lesson #1"
Posted by eerie at 07:57 PM | Comments (28) | TrackBack
January 31, 2006
More Comments on Complete and Utter Nonsense
As the good Lounsbury has recently outlined, a surge of hysteria has gripped the Islamic World in reaction to cartoons published in a Danish newspaper. Since he has done a superb job in skimming the Arab media I will limit myself to venting my spleen re grass roots Saudi and religious Arabic channel reaction. The gaggle of 'activists' (namely, bored housewives with no grasp or desire to grasp the fact that not all the world is actually under an Islamic monarchy, nor I would imagine, do they have a desire that their holiday destinations in Europe be run by The House of Saud) here in Riyadh have bombarded each other with text messages, e-mails and phone calls fanning the flames of a false sense of purpose and ironically manifesting a cultural arrogance and ethno-centrism equal to that which they are attacking.
Continue reading "More Comments on Complete and Utter Nonsense"
Posted by bint ash-shaitan at 12:00 PM | Comments (21) | TrackBack
January 30, 2006
Complete utter nonsense: "Offended by Cartoons" Muslim Pinheads Boycott the Danes
It is hard to know how to categorise this idiocy, however this arty at least gives some fuel Protests Grow Over Danish Cartoon of Muhammad, sadly for those who like to portray Muslims as fanatic cretins, as in fact there are a fine bunch of fanatic cretins to make the case.
The essential start point is a cretinous Danish paper ran months and months ago a rather idiotic competition to portray the Prophet Mohammed, and as I recall, a goodly percentage of entries were offensive nasty little Arab / Istlamic stereotypes. Frankly one got the sense of an undercurrent of bigotry in the entries.
But whatever, cartoons in a stupid Danish paper. Nothing to get one's underwear in a real not over. Danish Muslims protested and that should have been the end of it. But no, the International Ever Seeking Offence to Blow Up Issues for Exploitation Islamist Cretins Faction has gotten hold of this.
Continue reading "Complete utter nonsense: "Offended by Cartoons" Muslim Pinheads Boycott the Danes"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 08:46 PM | Comments (13) | TrackBack
January 29, 2006
France, Islam & Discrimination: Further to the idiocy of the "European Intifada"
Further to my ongoing comments of the situation in France, the riots that some ill-informed, bigotted or just plain stupid commentators blew up into a "Muslim intifada" in Europe, an interesting article on current French efforts on addressing rampant discrimination in France.
(A side set of reading by the way from 2003, note the prescient commentary, intifada my ass, I note there is a clear connexion with MENA directly, besides the issue of Muslim minorities in Europe and the potential echoes within the Islamic word, the parallels in terms of illiberal economies with severe labour rigidities leading to high unemployment and difficulties in findings jobs)
A few comments, then.
Continue reading "France, Islam & Discrimination: Further to the idiocy of the "European Intifada""
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:38 PM | Comments (9) | TrackBack
January 25, 2006
The Strange Case of Berber Language Instruction
Apparently Morocco is finally introducing instruction in Berber, the language spoken by the majority of the population, into the public school system. (For that matter, can you think of any other country where the absolute population majority doesn't have its language taught in schools? Not a discrete geographic region, or even an autonomous region, but a whole country? I can’t.)
Continue reading "The Strange Case of Berber Language Instruction"
Posted by evaluna at 10:49 PM | Comments (5) | TrackBack
January 21, 2006
Dr. Kapoor Explains Abu Ghraib?
There is nothing as reassuring as medical certainty, and indeed, our venerated Arabologist from Bombay, Dr. Kapoor, provides more the same for MENA's largest ethnic grouping.
The gems just keep a-coming.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 07:58 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
"Functional Arab Syndrome" Sufferers, Take Heart!
Having severe retrosternal burning and water brash? Perhaps epigastric or high epigastric pain not related to meals? Maybe even abdominal distension after meals and gases? And (gulp). . . Borborygmi (you don't want to know)? Well, dear reader, these and other symptoms could mean you are suffering from. . . .F.A.S.:
Functional Arab Syndrome!
Dr. Kapoor, our esteemed Indian expert on Arab health from the Bombay Hospital Journal, has been doggedly studying this tragic condition, along with his reports on the Arab phallus, for some time. (More of Dr. Karpoor's boborygmi, after the break)
Continue reading ""Functional Arab Syndrome" Sufferers, Take Heart!"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 07:46 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
January 20, 2006
The Arab Phallus and Its Discontents: An Indian Perspective
Following up on earlier discussion of Western fixations on Arab sexuality, we can add to the mix ... India and Arab sexuality. Apparently in an exercise of intellectual/medical retaliation for the nasty anti-Indian racism of Arabs in the Gulf (don't deny it, I heard it there, often), comes this piece on chronic diseases in the Arabian Peninsula, published via the Bombay Hospital Journal. Choice excerpts on Arab sexuality, including "size issues" are below the break. These include the astounding "fact" that Arabs have no interest in sports.
Continue reading "The Arab Phallus and Its Discontents: An Indian Perspective"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:23 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
January 18, 2006
Sex And Vile Hints: Marlowe, Patai and Arab Sexuality
Being market-oriented, your Aqoulites have taken note of the sex-oriented subjects that draw readers and hold them (so to speak). In due honor of the libidinous motives and Aqoul's egghead pretensions, I turn attention to an interesting essay of several months back (you may have to watch an ad to get full content) in salon.com by Ann Marlowe, taking apart Raphael Patai’s 1973 book “The Arab Mind”. Patai's book, she suggests, is obsessed with a distorted view of Arab sexuality, hinting at the primary role of sexual obsession/repression in culture and personal development. (Marlowe notes the book has had particular influence on views of MENA that neoconservatives hold.) A look at Marlowe's writing requires considering such things as: a) the debate over the cuteness of Iraqi men, b) American journalists deriding "Fat, sexist Arabs" as a party line, c) gender and genitals in Arabic language and childrearing, d) what all that means. And sex and sex.
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Posted by Matthew Hogan at 12:13 PM | Comments (16) | TrackBack
January 10, 2006
"It's got sex, of course it's bloody Aqoul material"
I shall link and say no more.
[Editor Lounsbury: Oh piffle, let's quote it, in full - re a quite stupid al Azhar Uni faculty member's fatwa against the evils of being naked while banging your spouse...]
Continue reading ""It's got sex, of course it's bloody Aqoul material""
Posted by dubaiwalla at 08:16 AM | Comments (15) | TrackBack
December 23, 2005
Skeletons aren't the only things in closets here
The least bad local paper ran two stories alongside one another yesterday, each ostensibly about Elton John's marriage to (well, civil partnership with) David Furnish. What I found interesting was the way the first and second stories differed.
The first, which was longer and given the top of the page, exclusively quoted people who opposed gay marriages. The people who were quoted could reliably be expected to take a particular line- two were figures from local churches and two more were prominent UAE academics, (unfortunately but predictably) including one who wants to register the UAE's first independent human rights organization. That fact was notable by its absence from this article.
The second article was somewhere between neutral and pro-gay marriage. The only national quoted opposed gay marriage in his own backyard. The last names of people who are quoted do not appear in the article; neither do their places of work (contrast with other article). Also note the phrase "gives a stuff" in this 'family' newspaper. But what grabbed my attention was the first line:
For the rest of Dubai Elton John's wedding is a minor event. But for one shadowy and little-understood minority of Dubaians, it is a very special day.
The author simply cannot explicitly acknowledge that there actually are gay people here. Whenever anyone is caught for 'immoral activities,' the media always describes them as some sort of freaks whose acts are alien to all that the local culture stands for, but a tiny aberration in an otherwise moral country. I suspect it is going to be a fair while before that changes.
Posted by dubaiwalla at 08:58 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
December 20, 2005
The Semi-Bogus Dilemma of Democracy versus Mosque & State
[A long and boring essay, written with all the arrogance I could muster out of being male, foreign to the region, and American.]
A "Semi-bogus" dilemma, I call it, because the issue of what type of rulers might emerge from real democratic processes in MENA is a fair question. My real target for discussion is more the Western progressive, since those are my own people (though I am more right wing “libertarian” than progressive). I speak about their fears and those of many MENA-ites as well, who express endless reservations about MENA democracy. They do so because democratic empowerment has a real risk of empowering retrograde Islamist/traditionalist forces, e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. To give away the ending, my message below is basically: shut up and get over it.
My more complex message directed towards MENA-ite advocates of liberal or social democracy is derived from reflections upon the insightful work of Mona Eltahawy regarding Egypt's last election rounds, and the harassment of the Coptic minority. This ugly American’s (meaning me) more complex message to MENA-ites is: don't shut up, but do get over it. . . for now, at least. The following is a look at why.
Continue reading "The Semi-Bogus Dilemma of Democracy versus Mosque & State"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 09:53 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
December 07, 2005
The Saudi Women's Driving Protest: 15 Years Later
Faiza Ambah writes in the Christian Science Monitor on the 15 years that have elapsed since a dramatic protest by some Saudi women over their lack of driving rights.
Just to be a curmudgeon, I note this passage: "But the opposition to driving often comes from women themselves. A group of some 500 women, including university professors, doctors, journalists, and teachers, sent a petition to King Abdullah in July saying they wanted things to stay the way they were."
Continue reading "The Saudi Women's Driving Protest: 15 Years Later"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 07:06 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 29, 2005
Threesomes: Halal or Haram?
Last night, following a rather serious discussion on the root causes of gender inequality in MENA, Meph and I pondered the following weighty question:
Does Islam permit threesomes?
Neither one of us could recall any explicit ban on threesomes in the Qur’an or Hadith, but then again neither one of us had the vaunted expertise of a scraggy-bearded Islamic scholar. Clearly there was a need for further research.
Now, aside from facilitating high-minded discussion between two women on different continents, the internet is also a massive clearinghouse for fatwas, or rulings based on Islamic law. Burning questions can easily be answered by consulting any number of fatwa websites and searchable databases online. Opinions on everything from yoga to female tennis players are issued and posted on the internet by leading scholars, muftis, charlatans and utter quacks. According to Asharq Al-Awsat, more religious edicts have been published in the last decade than in the last 1400 years:
Even the Egyptian Grand Mufti has become exasperated with the soaring number of fatwas (religious edicts) and the confusion surrounding them in the media. He has recently called for increased supervision and the appointment off a specialist body as the sole authority to issue these edicts.
Continue reading "Threesomes: Halal or Haram?"
Posted by eerie at 12:30 PM | Comments (29) | TrackBack
October 25, 2005
Clarifications on Least Attractive Features like Class
Clarified some points on class, tribe and attractive features of MENA/Arab society in the comments on this entry.
But I reproduce the points here below as well. In haste, bullet points.
Continue reading "Clarifications on Least Attractive Features like Class"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 03:25 AM | Comments (18) | TrackBack
October 21, 2005
The Arab World's Least Attractive Feature
During my half-a year time in various Mideast countries, east of and including Egypt (and decades of knowing Arabs up close and personal), I found precious few Americans over there, and this was around the millennium, pre-9/11 and post-Oslo. I am not speaking of absolute numbers, I mean relative to other westerners/Europeans. And I am not speaking of tourists, but American would-be ex-pats of various types who hang out looking for opportunity and adventure. (But I do mean native-born Americans.)
I present my own theory why that is, and I think it is based on what is the most truly onerous aspect of most Arab MENA society, something which I think puts off Americans more than other issues. I will get to what that is only after saying what I do NOT think the problem is.
Continue reading "The Arab World's Least Attractive Feature"
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:37 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
October 13, 2005
Two Jews, Three Opinions, Part II: Day of Atonement Thoughts on Jewish Culture, Subculture, and Prejudice
[warning: much anecdotal musing ahead]
So here I am on this fine Yom Kippur, engaging in a bit of anthropological fieldwork among my extended family, a bunch of relatively liberal, politically aware Reform-ish American Jews in South Florida. In some ways we are very typical of our subculture(s), and in some ways we are not, but to be sure, there is a wide spectrum of opinion around here, and most of it is expressed passionately and frequently. My family is warm, loud, always interrupting each other, generous, and all-around decent people, and make frequent attempts to be openminded. Mom is even loving the biracial grandchild, in spite of her various complaints over the years that my sister (who basically hasn't dated a white guy since high school) is a reverse racist.
However, if I have to have one more discussion about how all Muslims are not out to exterminate the Jews, I might do something very un-Yom-Kippur-like, and really have something to atone for. I try to cut my aunt some slack - after all, she has worked for the past 20+ years at a grade school affiliated with a Conservative synagogue, and she gets the pro-Israel, anti-Muslim propaganda during most of her waking hours. But sheesh, she was just mentioning that she'd been thinking of donating to Pakistan earthquake relief, until her good friend and co-worker (a rabidly Zionist Israeli; one wonders, indeed, why she lives in the U.S.) mentioned maybe she shouldn't do that, because, you know, we wouldn't want to support people who want to wipe out the Jews.
Posted by evaluna at 10:46 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
October 12, 2005
Migration, Economics & MENA-African pileups
While I may be banging away at an issue of little general interest, I was encouraged to find something of relevance to the rising issue of Euro-African migration and the Maghreb in the last issue of the Economist.
Economics focus
Be my guest
The economic case for temporary migration is compelling; the historical record less so
Oct 6th 2005
(Yes subscription, don't like it? Fuck off then and read some free twaddle.)
For those puzzled, my reference is to the recent problem emerging in the Maghreb and especially Morocco with its land border with the Spanish enclaves Ceuta and Mellila, which I mentioned in my typically light weight Illegal Immigration - Borders & Madness and The Maghreb-African Immigration Problem
Continue reading "Migration, Economics & MENA-African pileups"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:49 PM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 11, 2005
Ramadan TV & Terror
Of interest to the media, terror and culture people here, a fine little story on a Ramadan soap that I have been following (or rather, am forced to follow unless I hole myself up in my office) on MBC: Syria launches terror-themed soap for Ramadan.
I caught this referenced online somewhere, but had actually been watching the series without knowing where it was going, although the last episode (10 September on MBC) gave the game away with the somewhat dime Khaliji character getting brainwashed by a ultra-Salafi takfiri type activist. That and the chica who is the implied wheel-chair bound narrator pulling or slipping back her hidjab to show nasty scarring.
Continue reading "Ramadan TV & Terror"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 08:11 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
October 07, 2005
Arab Media - Arab Sats: Father of Aardvarks (edited)
I would be remiss not to draw attention (although I suspect most 'Aqoul readers are already aware) to Abu Aardvark's article Watching al-Jazeerah.
In that context let me add a few observations:
Continue reading "Arab Media - Arab Sats: Father of Aardvarks (edited)"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 04:47 PM | Comments (11) | TrackBack
October 06, 2005
Arab Radio
Our friend The Father of Aardvarks has an interesting little piece drawing attention to a new report on Arab radio from the Arab Advisors Group; a very solid media advisory group founded a few years back (I should disclose that I know one of the founders, and have done business with him).
Our fine Father of Aardvarks, or Bou Aradvraak as I like to call him, largely concetrates on the public policy angle, which is important, but I find the business angle as interesting.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 05:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
October 05, 2005
Insomnia and Arab Singles Sites: Random Thoughts
Can’t sleep, so I’m surfing Arablounge.com, an Arab singles site.
It showed up on the bloody Google Ads bar, I swear.
The site appears to be aimed primarily at younger Americans/Europeans with Mideast backgrounds (Christian and Muslim) and seems to reflect North American online dating culture. Vastly different from the UAE section of Shaadi.com, a mega-personals site that I had the opportunity to…er…study in-depth some months ago. The most obvious difference between these two sites is that Shaadi.com is branded as a matrimonials site where people create profiles with the specific intent of finding a spouse (sometimes on behalf of a sibling or son/daughter). Unlike your average Western dating website, Shaadi profiles provide detailed information on religion, caste/subcaste, values (liberal, moderate, conservative), mother tongue, complexion (fair, wheatish, medium, etc) and most amusingly, residency status. I imagine that this might be particularly important for the large Indian/Pakistani expat population in Dubai.
Shaadi.com has a rather large selection of Asian Muslims, but hardly any Arabs or Turks (my personal preference, if I may be momentarily superficial). There is, however, another matrimonial site that focuses primarily on the Middle East and North Africa: Qiran.com.
Continue reading "Insomnia and Arab Singles Sites: Random Thoughts"
Posted by eerie at 11:44 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
October 01, 2005
Irshad Manji Left Guilt and Likoudnik Agitprop
Although this is an immensely tardy comment, I must thank eerie for the reference to The Globe & Mail letter from Tarek Fateh, which drew my attention to Irshad Manj's odd statement or claim regarding Muslim guilt in regards to the Holocaust. I confess I know Irshad (a fine name I may add) only by the few articles on her book & her articles and interviews. Rather simply, her book isn't available to me in this non-anglo environment.
Continue reading "Irshad Manji Left Guilt and Likoudnik Agitprop"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 03:07 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
September 28, 2005
Sexy Arab Abaya Women, Assumptions: US Public Diplomacy in KSA
Returning to a subject more or less dear to 'Aqoul, women in the Arab world, for a moment, I wanted to draw attention to this intriguing article from the visit by US public diplomacy director Karen Hughes to Saudi Arabia: Saudi Women Have Message for U.S. Envoy
Let me first say little in the article was surprising to me (including Ms. Hughes surprise that the "Sisters" did not look at their cultural heritage and mores in the same light as she expected), but it is a useful one for reflexion. Thus some comments on the article:
Update: The Financial Times also has this story. Better done actually.
Continue reading "Sexy Arab Abaya Women, Assumptions: US Public Diplomacy in KSA"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 09:25 AM | Comments (26) | TrackBack
September 13, 2005
Two Jews, Three Opinions: Marriage Law in Israel
Sometimes with all the infighting between Muslims, Christians, and Jews in the Middle East, not to mention among various flavors of Muslims and/or Christians, many people forget that the Jews aren't exactly one big, happy family. In fact, the Israeli Jewish community can be one big, unhappy, dysfunctional family in one very basic regard...the legal right to get married in a ceremony that reflects one's chosen level of religious observance, not to mention one's beliefs regarding gender equality: Unorthodox Weddings Dividing Israelis
Continue reading "Two Jews, Three Opinions: Marriage Law in Israel"
Posted by evaluna at 09:56 PM | Comments (10) | TrackBack
September 05, 2005
Yorkshire Bombers - British Muslims shocked
An item worthy of attention:
British Muslims Shocked by Video of Bomber
Well, this makes the denial and the excuse making coming out of the mouths of what we might call "the usual suspects" unsupportable (although certain deluded and or mendacious elements will continue to do so, just as they do in regards to 11 Sep).
Continue reading "Yorkshire Bombers - British Muslims shocked"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:04 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
August 29, 2005
Hijab Fashion, Getting Noticed in Your Slinky Little ....
In keeping with purient interests, as well as our commitment to rooting about the dark corners of the MENA world and its cultural off-shoots, I draw your attention to this amusing little article in The Washington Post entitled
While the arty actually deals with surburbanite sub-Con muslim girls in the Washington DC area, the actual issues therein are very familiar to the MENA region proper.
There is also a helpful little slide show to introduce you to Hijab sexy chic. Actually one of our young subjects is quite fetching in the scarfy hijab she chose. Fashion accessories...
Posted by The Lounsbury at 01:57 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
August 23, 2005
Sheikhing up UAE education
The UAE's education minister, Sheikh Nayhan bin Mubarak al Nahyan, is planning a massive overhaul of the country's education system. He has been highly critical of the current system: "Exam papers are poor and do not evaluate students' achievement. The entire teaching and evaluation systems are appalling. They allow every student to pass whether he or she studied or not."
UAE blogger Sandsoftime relates her own experience of the country's public education, and why radical reform is desperately needed:
"I had the unfortunate pleasure of going through the public education system here. I am not exaggerating when I say that I still mourn the wasted years of my youth spent in the hell hole that was my school. List of things wrong with school: Poorly paid idiotic teachers typically from Egypt, Jordan, Palestine, Syria, Somalia, etc. A curriculum that you can pass by just memorizing your way through, poorly written text books, crumbling infrastructure (On a side note, I visited my school a few months ago. The desk I used to sit in when I was 10 years old is STILL there more than 15 years later), widespread bullying. In other words, the entire system is designed to kill off whatever latent creativity the students may have. Those who succeed after graduating do so DESPITE their schooling and not because of it.
"Why is our education system such a mess? Because like everything else, we imported it during the 70's. We however made the dumb mistake of basing ours on the Egyptian system and other Arabic systems which themselves are based on the Ottoman System. The Ottoman system was designed around creating subservient civil servants and soldiers out of its population. Have you ever wondered why much of the Arab world is dysfunctional? Because it goes hand in hand with an equally dysfunctional education system.
"This is why national parents prefer to spend the expense on sending thier kids to International Schools here in the UAE. Despite being very expensive, the International schools here are actually pretty good and do an excellent job of preparing the students for their future. One of the side effects is the kids don't have a strong command of Arabic as thier parents, something which has become prevalent among the children of well-to do nationals.
"Our public education system needs to be demolished and rebuilt from scratch. You cannot reform a system that was built on perpetuating repression."
Posted by secretdubai at 04:34 PM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
In the news of the Odd: Arab syn for begger
This little news item offered me a bit of bemusement insofar as it is just plain odd:
Online Thesaurus Pulls Listing for 'Arab'
The primary question in my mind is not the 'pejorative' synonyms per se, but their.... well oddness. I mean if I ponder I am certain I can think of pejorative synonyms for Arab, but begger and 'welfare bum' certainly don't crop up.
Really quite peculiar.
Posted by The Lounsbury at 07:08 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 22, 2005
Critiquing the Arab World (update link)
A small note of reflection on critiques of the Arab world, Daniel Drenzer’s blog, the weaknesses of the commentary and other points raised.
[An interjection, on reading this AM’s comments and in particular Britt’s mendacious reply, I have to say I was too generous, the fellow is in fact a political hack interested in talking points, not getting up to speed, pity that, but more below.]
Continue reading "Critiquing the Arab World (update link)"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:52 AM | Comments (8) | TrackBack
August 20, 2005
The Real Reason for the Iraqi Constitution's Delay
Rebecca Bergstrom reveals all:
Nasar argues.Nasar is trying to build a Constitution. His efforts are, he believes, noble, and will, as he imagines them, meet the deadline given to him.
Then he sees the telltale animation for Force of Aggro.
"Ack! I'm being pulled!" he says.
Continue reading "The Real Reason for the Iraqi Constitution's Delay"
Posted by tomscud at 10:23 AM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 19, 2005
Internet Foraging
For those of you who haven't seen http://syn.aqoul.com yet, it's an online media aggregator that collects MENA-related mainstream and blog items using RSS/XML/Atom feeds. Not quite finished, suggestions and comments are welcome.
On an unrelated note, for your Friday afternoon (or Friday evening, or Saturday morning...bloody timezones) enjoyment, here is an interesting photo (Source - From Cairo, with love):
There's an even funnier one on the front page, but it's going to be removed shortly.
Posted by eerie at 02:45 PM | Comments (4) | TrackBack
August 14, 2005
Flirting by Bluetooth in UAE
I don't recall the UAE being this conservative but I didn't interact with the "locals" as other Arab ex-pats from the Crescent called them (often with a tone of undue disdain). Indeed the indigenous folks played by more conservative rules, and so flirting and courting via electronic device, as the BBC tells us, makes sense, despite the oversimplified tone of this and related stories.
Ahmed Bin Desmal's friends joke that he is a "Bluetooth king". The 20-year-old says he has used the technology to send notes to girls he sees in public places.
"In our country it's very rude to go up and talk to them," he says. "I sent some notes, they liked them - they took my number and they called me. I say nice things - I'm into poems."
Posted by Matthew Hogan at 11:56 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
August 13, 2005
The Perverse Fascination Continues: Sheikh-Themed Romance Novels
Joining secretdubai, yinshuisiyuan and myself, the ever-thoughtful Jackmormon is also contemplating the mysterious popularity of sheikh-themed romance novels:
All mockery aside, I suspect that there is a statistically significant boom in such novels--one Susan Mallery began writing romance novels with "sheik" in the title in November 2001 and is up to eight in her series by now--but I can't really make the longitudinal argument I'd like to without more serious Library of Congress diving. And for that kind of research, I'll have to have an academic article in view. My hypothesis so far is that since romance novelists and readers are constantly in search of new diabolical male stereotypes, the recent media coverage of Arab masculinity has sparked an uptick in Arab-male leading roles in romance novels. And since the romance-novel writing business is so fast, I'll bet one could find one hell of a statistical correlation, if one knew how to look.
I suppose one might try to force such a survey through Amazon’s Advanced Search, but the speed at which these novels are published is probably comparable to the speed at which they drop off the face of the earth.
Continue reading "The Perverse Fascination Continues: Sheikh-Themed Romance Novels"
Posted by eerie at 12:07 AM | Comments (17) | TrackBack
August 11, 2005
Emory Law School: Islamic Family Law Resource
Currently reading Women's Rights & Islamic Family Law: Perspectives on Reform, based on a series of studies conducted by Emory Law School.
The book presents case studies of Muslim societies in Egypt, the West Bank & Gaza and the United States. It also includes a general survey of domestic violence in the Middle East. This study is particularly interesting to me because it attempts to describe the interaction between shari'a, social attitudes and state law in the region. I may write something about it later, but for now I offer this useful link to Emory's Islamic Family Law website.
Note that the data is current as of 2002 and may not include more recent legal reforms/reviews in countries like Morocco (I'm smirking at you, Lounsbury).
Posted by eerie at 10:12 PM | Comments (12) | TrackBack
August 09, 2005
Fatima Mernissi: The Veil and the Male Elite
Lately I’ve been reading a lot about women, personal status law and gender inequality in MENA. While it is a common knee-jerk reaction to blame Islam for oppressing women in the region, one need only look non-Muslim communities in and around the Middle East to see that similar practices often cut across religions. Mistreatment and neglect of women and female children is perpetrated by Muslims, Christians, Hindus and others, justified to varying degrees by calls to religion, local custom or ancient tradition.
Having said that, it’s also quite common to see people claiming that Islam elevated the status of women, when compared to the jahiliyya (pre-Islamic period) in Arabia. This appears to be true (although it remains controversial to what degree), but these same writers generally fail to mention that both the Qur’an and the Hadith contain passages stating quite clearly that women are not equal to men in some rather important respects. For me, the inequality is exemplified by a verse in Sura 4 (here are two translations):
Men are the protectors and maintainers of women, because God has given the one more (strength) than the other, and because they support them from their means. Therefore the righteous women are devoutly obedient, and guard in (the husband’s) absence what God would have them guard. As to those women on whose part ye fear disloyalty and ill-conduct, admonish them (first), (next) refuse to share their beds (and last) beat them (lightly); but if they return to obedience, seek not against them means (of annoyance): for God is Most High, Great (above you all). – 4:34 (trans. A. Yusuf Ali)
Men are in charge of women, because Allah has made some of them excel the others, and because they spend some of their wealth. Hence righteous women are obedient, guarding the unseen which Allah has guarded. And those of them that you fear might rebel, admonish them and abandon them in their beds and beat them. Should they obey you, do not seek a way of harming them, for Allah is Sublime and Great! - 4:34 (trans. Majid Fakhry)
Guardianship, obedience and the “appropriate” interpretation of this verse have been widely debated by religious scholars. Based on the full title of Moroccan feminist writer Fatima Mernissi’s work, The Veil and the Male Elite: A Feminist Interpretation of Women’s Rights in Islam, I expected a discussion of Qur’anic verses that suggested both equality and inequality in terms of gender. Of course, I had already been disappointed by Mernissi’s meandering style in Islam and Democracy, so it was not particularly surprising to discover the same unfocused, overly-poetic writing here. My guess is that this work is not a rigorous sociological study as much as it is a description of her personal journey, with a bit of history thrown in for interest.
Continue reading "Fatima Mernissi: The Veil and the Male Elite"
Posted by eerie at 08:49 PM | Comments (20) | TrackBack
August 06, 2005
Who Speaks For Islam in the West?
After doing a bit of follow-up reading on secretdubai’s discussion of UAE government control over mosques, I came across an interesting article in the Globe and Mail (linking to Google results to avoid registration prompt, just click on the first result):
Leaders clash over who speaks for Muslims in Canada - July 29, 2005
As a small group of conciliatory Muslim leaders met with Prime Minister Paul Martin last night, a war of words broke out between two other leaders whose irreconcilable world views stand as bookends to the diverse opinions of nearly 600,000 Canadian Muslims.
"Imams like Aly Hindy are holding the entire Muslim community as a hostage. A vast number of Muslim Canadians don't want to have their leadership from almost medieval imams," Tarek Fatah of the Muslim Canadian Congress told the CBC yesterday.
Meanwhile, Mr. Hindy -- who has given more than 20 news media interviews this week urging Muslims not to co-operate with Canadian security agencies -- once again took to the airwaves to say that people like him, and not Westernized Muslims like Mr. Fatah, are the true voice of Islam in Canada.
The controversial imam defended his decision not to put his name on the recent sheaf of signed statements from Islamic leaders condemning recent terrorist strikes in the United Kingdom. "We've already condemned terrorism, this is obvious," Mr. Hindy said. "Why don't the churches, for example, condemn terrorism done by George Bush and Tony Blair?"
Continue reading "Who Speaks For Islam in the West?"
Posted by eerie at 03:47 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBack
July 28, 2005
Terror & Ideology - A Resume
We've been talking quite abit about this, naturally given London, Sharm esh-Sheikh and the like. I think a small wrap up, as well as a compare and contrast, especially with some recent reports and editorials, may be useful. So, below the fold I think the expression goes, a longish commentary and perhaps a slight Lounsbury-ish rant:
Continue reading "Terror & Ideology - A Resume"
Posted by The Lounsbury at 06:52 AM | Comments (7) | TrackBack
July 09, 2005
The wonders of wasta
What is wasta? In Arabic, it roughly means "connections" or influence, and is arguably the most valuable form of currency in much of the Middle East, far more effective than bribes and certainly more effective than following due process.
It is of course an obviously unequitable and counterproductive phenomenon. At a simple level, it puts incompetent people into jobs they ill deserve and will ill manage. As this article notes:
"Intercessory wasta angers unsuccessful candidates who have outstanding credentials, and creates dependencies among those who are less capable, yet obtain power and position because of their wastas."
Anyone working in the Gulf (and possibly in the Western world) will have witnessed "phantom jobs" - a usually prestigious and highly-paid position that is either unneccessary, or carried out by two people. In the latter case, there will be a national and and a lesser-paid expat in essentially the same role. The national will probably have a higher title. The lesser-paid expat will actually do the job.
This can work fine assuming the company is profitable enough for the double-paypacket, unless the national get the whim meddle in an area he is totally unqualified to handle. We can use "he" here fairly safely, given Arab women tend to enter the job market on merit at least as much as wasta. Wasta is in fact a barrier to many females, just as it is to expats of both genders.
On the serious side, wasta can be a significant hindrance to economic development. "Driving out competence by ignoring merit and performance diminishes the nation's economic competitiveness."
Continue reading "The wonders of wasta"
Posted by secretdubai at 03:19 PM | Comments (6) | TrackBack
July 02, 2005
The Struggle of Moderate Islam
The following letter was written to the Khaleej Times newspaper on 26 April 2005.
Moderation good for Muslims
"ISLAM recognises no theocracy, and no overlordship of any religious leader or party. Each believer prays directly to God without any intermediary. So in a way, the authority of our clergy rests on very shaky foundations." Irfan Hussain (KT, April 21) has hit the nail on the head.
I really appreciate you for publishing this wonderful opinion. Some clerics go rampant not only in Pakistan, but also in Bangladesh and many other developing Muslim nations. Muslim parents in these countries send their children to 'madrassas' to learn about Islam and its beauty.
But, unfortunately, the children learn an extreme form of Islam created by misinterpreting the teachings of Holy Quran and the 'hadith' in an aggressive way by these clerics. They merely take advantage of the poverty and illiteracy to inject the doctrine of violence and hatred in the veins of young pupils. They portray the image of non-Muslims somewhat like 'untouchables'.
The acquiring of knowledge is treated as a sin and moderation is seen as transgression. The beauty of Islam is completely destroyed. Thus, the religion of peace is transformed into a religion of terror. The teachings of these clerics suggest Muslims are born only to go for ‘jihad’ and dying irrationally will help them acquire salvation.
Jihad is allowed only when the enemies target us, and the killing of innocent people for the sin they never committed is not jihad, but an extreme sin. God created every human being and only God has the power to take the lives of His creatures. Islam teaches us to respect life, not destroy it. These clerics should not be encouraged. They transgress, invent, and destroy the true teachings of Islam.
The Muslim governments should keep these people in check in order to progress and make our mark in the world. The acquiring of knowledge should get top priority. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) always taught the believers to acquire knowledge and to spread knowledge. We should follow his holy teachings.
— Mohd. Salekun Noor, Fujairah
Posted by secretdubai at 04:39 PM | Comments (3)
