Syria is taking steps to rein in conservative Islamist activity and boost its secular Ba’athist pedigree.
Kareem Fahim, “Syria Moves to Curb Influence of Muslim Conservatives,” New York Times, Sept. 4, 2010
Archive for the ‘Politics (General)’ Category
Syria Reining in Islamists
Saturday, September 4th, 2010Possible Power Struggle Taking Shape in Egypt
Saturday, September 4th, 2010There are signs a power struggle may be taking shape in Egypt over who will succeed 82 year old President Hosni Mubarak: his son Gamal, who would be the first non-military man to become president since the 1952 revolution, or the Chief of Intelligence, General Omar Suleiman, a highly respected armed forces insider.
Questions of Succession for President Mubarak
Thursday, September 2nd, 2010As mentioned in class today, President Mubarak has been governing Egypt since 1981, when his predecessor Anwar Sadat was assassinated by militants. While it may seem to some within the country that Mubarak has grown synonymous with the office of president, there are indications that it may soon be time for a new president. The two leading candidates are his son Gamal Mubarak, a businessman who lacks military credentials, and General Oman Suleiman, a long-time establishment figure within the military.
This article from the BBC discusses the subtle ways the two have been talked up most recently as possible successors.
Senior Israeli Rabbi Says Palestinian Leader Should “Vanish”
Monday, August 30th, 2010Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, spiritual leader of the Shas party, a coalition partner in Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu’s government, said in his weekly sermon that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas should “vanish from our world,” and further said, ”May God strike them down with the plague along with all the nasty Palestinians who persecute Israel” ["them" being all who hate Israel]
Coincidentally, in an Op-Ed piece in today’s New York Times, an Israeli professor at Hebrew University in Jerusalem wonders if Israel can remain a Zionist state if the impasse over settlements and the arguments over sharing of territory continue:
Gadi Taub, “In Israel, Settling for Less,” New York Times Op-Ed piece, Aug. 30, 2010
Cracking Down in Bahrain
Friday, August 27th, 2010A period of reform and loosening of restrictions on personal freedoms seems to be coming to an end in Bahrain, where fears of Sunni-Shia sectarianism and the Iranian Shiite giant a short distance away to the northeast have led to a crackdown.
Thanassis Cambanis, “Crackdown in Bahrain Hints of End to Reforms,” New York Times, Aug. 27, 2010
Iraq: Stuck in Neutral
Thursday, August 26th, 2010“More than four months since the elections, a new government has yet to take shape,” says Joost Hiltermann, Middle East and North Africa Deputy Program Director at the International Crisis Group. ”What is holding things up… “he says, “is the fear among many Iraqis that whatever party wins the right to form the government and appoint the prime minister will proceed to concentrate power around itself, using gaps and ambiguities in Iraq’s new constitution to its advantage.”
In the wake of the withdrawal of American combat troops this past week, there are questions about what role the U.S. will play in future Iraqi affairs.
Joost Hiltermann, “Iraq: The Impasse,” New York Review of Books, Aug. 19, 2010
Where Does Middle Eastern Sectarian Intolerance Come From?
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010Sami Zubaida tells us that in the late Ottoman Empire (19th century), Jews, Christians, Freemasons, and Muslims lived together, with exceptions to be sure,in an atmosphere of harmonious cosmopolitanism. So, what went wrong? Zubaida blames Arab nationalism and a renewed sectarianism that accompanied it.
Change is in the Air for the Arab World
Monday, July 19th, 2010The Economist is featuring a series of reports on its website (dated July 15, 2010) profiling the political futures of three key Arab countries: Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. The author of the piece on Egypt is NMH alumnus Max Rodenbeck.
The July 17, 2010 issue of The Economist features a “Special Report On Egypt” containing much more. This report is accessible via ProQuest on the NMH Virtual Desktop to members of the NMH community.
Vali Nasr on Religion and Politics
Wednesday, July 7th, 2010Review: Two New Books About the Muslim World
Wednesday, May 12th, 2010(via ProQuest and the NMH Virtual Desktop) — The Economist, “Islam’s Many Hats,” May 8, 2010, p. 85
The books:
Vali Nasr, Meccanomics: The March of the New Muslim Middle Class. Oneworld
Isobel Coleman, Paradise Beneath Her Feet: How Women are Transforming the Middle East. Random House
Excerpts from the review:
“Islam looms large, sometimes terrifyingly so, in the West’s vision of the Middle East. Westerners are apprehensive as they see secular-minded democrats losing ground to Islamic fundamentalists. This anxiety, greatly sharpened by the attacks on America in 2001, the “war on terror” and all its consequences, has led to many seeing any public expression of Islam as a threat. Two new books by Vali Nasr, an Iranian-American academic, and Isobel Coleman, a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, offer a welcome challenge to such fears. Neither author disregards the danger posed by extremists (underlined this week by the attempted car-bombing in New York). But they insist on a careful distinction between piety and fundamentalism, and present a nuanced view of Islam’s role in public life that is cautiously hopeful.
The battle against religious extremism, writes Mr Nasr, will be won by the rising Muslim middle class. Change will come about through free trade and integration into the global economy, not by sanctions or military action. The region will not turn away from Islam but remain piously conservative, probably misogynistic too. Secularism’s appeal has been tarnished by the region’s many autocratic regimes–and Middle Easterners have countless reasons to resent the West and its attempts to impose its own style of political reform…
Ms Coleman makes the case for Islamic feminism. Far from oppressing women, Islam endows them with plenty of rights; the problem lies in implementing those rights. Riffat Hassan, a Pakistani-American, argues that though the Koran treats women with respect, centuries of patriarchy have turned them into chattels. She and other Islamic feminists believe that by fighting for women’s rights within Islam, using the very same texts and doctrines that have proved so oppressive, women may be able to push through reform without being told that they have been indoctrinated by Western infidels.”
