This week’s issue of The Economist features an excellent update on Sunni-Shia sectarian strife. Aslan, one of your text authors this semester, is exceptional on the origins of the split. The article linked below is equally good on the current situation, and it contains a superb chart summarizing the positions and dogmas of the leading contenders:
The Economist, “Sunni-Shia Strife: The Sword and the Word,” May 12, 2012
Writing from Istanbul, a Turkish journalist says, “Those who hope to nurture genuine religiosity should first establish liberty.”
Mustafa Akyol, “Can Islamists Be Liberals?,” New York Times Op-Ed piece, May 14, 2012
The US has not been selling arms to Bahrain since last year due to a crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations. Yet, after a visit from Bahraini Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa to the US, our State Department has decided to begin to sell to Bahrain again. A Frigate, as well as other coast guard vehicles, along with upgraded F-16 engines will be delivered to Bahrain. The US has decided, however, not to sell any crowd control equipment. The State Department has stressed that the weapons sold to Bahrain are solely for the purpose of helping Bahrain “maintain its external defence capabilities.”
See the BBC story here
See the PressTV story here
Will the arms dealing between the US and Bahrain have any effect on democracy in Bahrain?
Adel al-Tarifi wrote an opinion piece in Al-Sharq al-Awsat on May 9, 2012 entitled “Revisionists in ‘The Arab Fall.’” His main point is that as Islamists rise to power, overtaking and displacing the more secular goals of the original revolutionaries such as “civil society” and “human rights,” hope is giving way to apprehension and even fear.
Excerpts:
الآن بات بإمكانك رصد تصريحات وكتابات متشككة في نتائج «الربيع العربي» على مستقبل الحريات والحقوق في تلك البلدان. أي أن دعاة «المجتمع المدني» والحقوقيين باتوا يدركون أن المبادئ والأحلام التي تعلقوا بها، قد تحولت إلى كابوس مرعب بسبب صعود الإسلاميين المتشددين إلى سدة الحكم.
“We are at the point now where you can observe statements and writings that are skeptical about the results of the ‘Arab spring’ and skeptical about the future of freedoms and rights in those countries. This is to say that advocates of ‘civil society’ and rights have begun to realize that the principles and dreams that had become attached to them, have turned into nightmares because of the rise of radical Islamists to the gates of power…
لا شيء، الإنسان هو من يعطي القوانين أو الأنظمة قيمتها وليس العكس. قد تتمكن من عزل الرئيس ورجاله وتسمي ذلك ثورة، وقد تتمكن من تغيير الدستور والأنظمة، ولكنك لن تنجح في تغيير حياة الناس إلى الأفضل، إذا كان ذلك على حساب أمنهم ومعاشهم.
Obviously, it is mankind who bestows value or legitimacy upon laws or regulations, not the reverse. You may be able to depose a president and his men and call it a revolution, and you may be able to change the constitution and change regulations, but you will not succeed in changing people’s lives for the better if it comes at the expense of their security and their livelihoods.”
(My translation)
On Friday May 11, 2012 the Egyptian Presidential elections will begin. On this date those Egyptians who live abroad will be casting their votes to choose from the 13 approved candidates. There are six million Egyptians living abroad yet “ only some 587,000 are registered to vote.” Those who are registered are eager to place their vote as are those who reside and work in the country. “The idea that their voices will actually count has stirred up strong feelings in many Egyptians, who espouse opinions as diverse as the candidates they are expected to vote for. And, according to various Ahram Online surveys, Egyptians living abroad are no different.”
“Many analysts say that Egyptian expatriates were not given enough time to study the candidates’ various electoral programmes, noting that they would begin voting only 12 days after the official launch of presidential campaigning. Many expats, meanwhile, are finding it difficult to follow candidates’ respective campaigns from abroad, or don’t possess the national identification cards required to cast ballots.”
Since there has only been a short time for voters to review the canidates will they be able to make informed decissions?
“I ask the Filipino girl behind the counter if she likes it here. ‘It’s OK,” she says cautiously.’ ‘Really?,’ I say. ‘I can’t stand it.’ She sighs with relief and says: ‘This is the most terrible place! I hate it! I was here for months before I realised – everything in Dubai is fake. Everything you see. The trees are fake, the workers’ contracts are fake, the islands are fake, the smiles are fake – even the water is fake!’ But she is trapped, she says. She got into debt to come here, and she is stuck for three years: an old story now. ‘I think Dubai is like an oasis. It is an illusion, not real. You think you have seen water in the distance, but you get close and you only get a mouthful of sand.’”
Thanks to El Johnson, former NMH Faculty member now living in Beirut, for passing this article along:
The red notice for al-Hashimi “represents a regional (and) international alert to all of Interpol’s 190 member countries to seek their help in locating and arresting him, following the issue of a national arrest warrant by Iraq’s Judicial Investigative Authority as part of an investigation in which security forces seized bombing materials and arrested individuals,” the international police organization said in a statement. -CNN
“Everybody knows that my case is a political case, from beginning to end, and that the charges against me are fabricated, and far from the truth,” al-Hashimi said in a statement. -CNN
A red notice is not an international arrest warrant, but is serious enough to make many Interpol member countries consider the alert to be a valid request for provisional arrest. Interpol is the Lyon-based international police agency that currently has 190 members. He is being brought to face charges for terrorism.
Al-Hashimi has been living in a Turkish government guest house in Istanbul. Turkish government officials were not immediately available for comment on whether Turkey would comply with the red notice.
Officials in Washington have said that the would be bomber who was to carry out a suicide attack on an American airliner had actually infiltrated Yemeni Al-Qaeda. The alleged spy is believed to have been deployed by Saudi Arabian intelligence agencies and implanted within the organization. The same agent is also responsible for providing the intelligence that led to the fatal drone strike which killed the mastermind behind the bombing of a US ship in 2000.
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