Arabic in Israel

Ha'aretz reports on the problems of Arabic instruction in Israel:

"Arabic is a compulsory subject in junior high, but only is taught in 80 percent of the schools, the study finds. However, senior Education Ministry sources say that only about two thirds of junior high schools teach Arabic...

"Bar-On says that many dedicated teachers encounter not only a reluctance among pupils to study subjects considered impractical, like mathematics or English, but also prejudice and ignorance. 'The Arabic language and culture are seen as inferior and primitive,' she says.

"Only 2009 pupils took the five-unit matriculation exam in Arabic last year, 6 percent fewer than two years earlier. This is a negligible percentage of the Jewish students who took matriculation exams...

"According to the study, 63 percent of the Arabic students in high school said they were studying it because they wanted to 'serve in intelligence.' Zuf Aragman, also of Rosh Ha'ayin, chose it because she wanted to study another language. 'Pupils think that those who study Arabic do it only to get into intelligence, but that's not necessarily true. Languages are among the only things school gives you, because history, for example, I can learn from books,' she says."

Arabic is one of Israel's official languages, and the first language of an important minority of citizens and all its neighbors, making it slightly more important than Spanish in the United States. The country needs people who speak it an understand Arab culture. At the same time, however, I can relate to the decisions made by individuals. Given the nature of Israel's interaction with most of the Arab world, European languages are much more valuable, as the bookshelves in Hebrew University's library will attest.

Baluchistan

In my news reading, I've been coming across references to Baluchistan with increasing frequency. Since I know squat about it, I went to read some background from the excellent Chapati Mystery. The issues are what you might expect, with a population marginalized by colonial development practices and their continuation by Pakistani leaders. Go read Sepoy's post for the past 150 years or so of the story.

Aliyev on Karabakh

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev claims that talks with Armenia over the status of Nagorno-Karabakh are in their final stage:

"'It has been almost three years that the Karabakh negotiations have been conducted within the Prague [peace] process,' Aliyev said. 'During this period we have had many meetings at the levels of presidents and foreign ministers. Of course, in these meetings ways of resolving the problem were discussed. There were different stages, but I can tell you we are approaching the final stage of negotiations.'"

He didn't go into details, but most likely what will emerge is a Karabakh that is part of Azerbaijan, but with a great deal of autonomy and no prospect of full independence or union with Armenia.

Matthew Yglesias is Right

I think Matthew Yglesias has this right:

"If I were a Sunni Arab Iraqi, and an al-Qaeda dude stopped by my house I would greet him warmly, offer a cup of coffee and my thanks, agree to help him out in any way he asked, etc. The fact that I might be, by conviction, an atheist and a believer in social democracy wouldn't change this at all. Why wouldn't I support al-Qaeda? Because they're the bad guys? Don't be naive -- they're the guys with guns trying to kill the other guys with guns who are trying to kill me. And if pretending to be a devout Sunni Muslim is the price I need to pay for protection, then why not.

"Much the same could be said of Shiite Arabs' attitudes toward Muqtada al-Sadr. Shadi Hamid's complaints about "the utter incompetence of Nouri al-Maliki government and its continued willingness to turn a blind eye to the increasingly brutal, roving death squads of its Sadrist coalition partners" might as well come from Mars. Why wouldn't you support Sadr? He has a fairly effective armed force at his disposal that's willing to protect Shiites who show their loyalty. Wouldn't you want to work with such a force?"

People tend to forget broad social divisions can be caused by the very conditions of conflict that, on the surface, appear as their result.

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Brass Crescent Voting

Voting is now underway for the 2006 Brass Crescent Awards - just click on the (slightly dated) icon above to select your favorites. Given the competition, which reportedly included over 200 entries, I'm pleased to see several of my own nominees as finalists. Congratulations to Lisa, Laila, 'Aqoul and Nora for standing out in the crowd!

Peace on Earth

For some people, peace is apparently controversial:

"A homeowners association in southwestern Colorado has threatened to fine a resident $25 a day until she removes a Christmas wreath with a peace sign that some say is an anti-Iraq war protest or a symbol of Satan.

"Some residents who have complained have children serving in Iraq, said Bob Kearns, president of the Loma Linda Homeowners Association in Pagosa Springs. He said some residents have also believed it was a symbol of Satan. Three or four residents complained, he said...

"Lisa Jensen said she wasn't thinking of the war when she hung the wreath. She said, 'Peace is way bigger than not being at war. This is a spiritual thing.'"

Gaza Truce

Today a truce took effect between Israel and Palestinian leaders with regard to fighting in the Gaza Strip. So far there have been violations on the Palestinian side, with Hamas's military wing and Islamic Jihad claiming responsibility for three Qassam rockets fired at Israel early this morning. Israel, however, is not responding, and Palestinian forces have been deployed to try and stop what they call "rogue acts."

Many hope that if these cease-fire is successful, it will lead to a resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The truce comes right after Hamas's exiled hard-line leader Khalid Meshaal, agreed to a six-month window for negotiations leading to a Palestinian state. Today, he even backed away from the six-month deadline. The timing of all this is interesting, as Meshaal is often seen as a conduit for Syrian influence in Palestinian affairs. It may be that in the wake of the Gemayel assassination, Syria has come down hard in favor of calm in the territories, though that would suggest Gemayel's assassins came from an element of the Damascus regime other than that which is working the Palestinian portfolio, if it can be traced back to Syria at all.

A final point worth addressing is whether all this could suddenly lead to a peace deal. On first glance, that seems laughable, but it's worth remembering that Prime Minister Olmert's weakness could make him take the same path as Ehud Barak in staking his career to a bold gamble for peace. If so, let's hope everyone had learned the lessons of Taba.

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Dujail Theats

A massacre committed in the Shi'ite village of Dujail was a key component of Saddam Hussein's trial. After sentence was pronounced November 5, Sunnis in the area began targeting Dujail residents as a means of gaining retribution. The article stays focused on that area, but it wouldn't surprise me of the Saddam verdict has been a driving force in the upsurge of violence in Iraq in recent weeks, perhaps fueling the anger of former Ba'athists as much as the February 2006 destruction of the Askariyya Shrine did Shi'ites.

Divide and Conquer

Yesterday at American Footprints, I posted on why Americans should care about Bahrain's elections, citing among other factors the rise there of Sunni/Shi'ite divisions similar to those in Iraq. I didn't know quite where these had come from, however, as they reportedly weren't there twenty years ago. Articles like this one, however, cause me to suspect it might be part of a divide-and-rule strategy on the part of Bahraini leaders which accompanied the transition to democracy. It also may be implicit in the ingrained attitudes of people from areas with no Shi'ite presence, many of shom see them as under Iranian influence. In this context, it's worth mentioning that the Bahraini ruling family still has ties to strongly Sunni areas like Kuwait and Qatar.

St. Peter in Gallicantu

Bit by bit, I'm visiting various sites around Jerusalem. Today's excursion was to the Church of St. Peter and the Crowing of the Cock, usually known by the shorthand St. Peter in Gallicantu.



You can't quite make out the golden cock above the black cross in this picture, but you might notice the church is modern, dedicated in 1997 on the site of an archaeological dig which was examining the ruins of older Crusader and Byzantine churches on the site of what is believe to be Caiaphas's house, where Jesus was taken after his arrest and tried. Artifacts from the excavation, including several 5th-century Byzantine mosaics, are displayed around the church and its grounds, which also include carvings that represent the story of Jesus's arrest and trial.

As with most Jerusalem holy sites, much of its significance is conjectural. For example, the archaeological team discovered a cave complex beneath the foundations of the oldest building, which some argue is the place were Jesus was imprisoned, though there is also a candidate for that in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. They also don't even bother to post a sign for a possible spot where Peter denied Jesus three times before the cock crowed, the incident which lends the site its name. Regardless of the particular events, though, you have to feel respect for the place just because of all the pain it bears from those who come here on pilgrimage seeking to understand the Passion.

It's also great for the views overlooking the Kidron Valley. I walked back downtown along the edge of that valley, as well as the Valley of Jehoshaphat, which is simply its central portion and located between Temple Mount and the Mount of Olives. You can see some pictures I took here.

Islamists Set in Bahrain

Gulf News tells us what we can expect from the elections:

"Tomorrow’s Parliamentary elections are widely expected to change the face of Bahrain's politics as the opposition is set to win the majority of seats of the Council of Representatives, controlled for the past four years by a strong pro-government block.

"However, a victory by the opposition, many in this open-minded and multicultural state fear, may deal a significant blow to the country's withering liberal tradition.

"The Islamists, led by Bahrain's biggest Islamic society, Al Wefaq, are coming, warns a leading liberal activist.

"The liberal elite are worried the upcoming Parliament 'will restrict whatever personal freedoms may have been left' in a country where the people are used to a Western-like lifestyle, said Abdullah Al Madani.

"More than 30 Islamist candidates are expected to win seats, including 17 from Al Wefaq, a Shiite group, and six from the Sunni Salafi group Al Assalah."

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Bahraini Strike Law

As part of free trade negotiations with the United States, Bahrain agreed to liberalize its labor laws. About a month ago, the island nation banned firing striking workers. Immediately, workers began striking or threatening to do so. It seems that didn't go over so well:

"Bahrain has banned strikes and worker demonstrations in most business sectors, a month after labour law reforms banning the sacking of strikers encouraged a wave of trade union activity in the Gulf island state...

"'Strikes and calls for demonstrations in vital establishments are banned ... these establishments are civil defence, airports, sea ports, hospitals, health centres and pharmacies,' Prime Minister Sheikh Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa said in an edict posted on a state media Web site on Monday.

"The other areas where strikes are now banned are transport, telecommunications, water and electricity companies, bakeries, educational firms and oil and gas companies.

"The head of Bahrain's trade unions declined to comment.

"Since the ban on sacking striking workers was issued on Oct. 17, many workers in Bahrain, a U.S. ally, have either gone on strike or threatened to do so, to demand better working conditions."

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Haram ash-Sharif

This afternoon I finally took time off from my dissertation to wander over to the Haram ash-Sharif, or "Noble Sanctuary." Jews and Muslims both regard it as the site where Abraham was willing to sacrifice one of his sons and it is widely accepted as the site of Solomon's Temple. Muslims also believe that it represents the place from where Muhammad ascended to Heaven on his Night Journey. According to legend, it is also where Adam landed when he entered the world, and perhaps the place where he was buried, while other legends current in the time of the Crusades say a footprint on the rock within is that of Jacob or Jesus. Both Christian and Muslim sources record that the rashidun caliph Umar built the first mosque here, although in reality the entire grounds are a giant outdoor mosque, with the Dome of the Rock, built by the Umayyad caliph Abd al-Malik, as a shrine within it.

Today the site is peaceful, with trees providing shade over walkways which during Friday prayers are overflowing with the faithful but at other times having surprisingly few people strolling along or being pushed in wheelchairs or helped by those younger than themselves. The Dome of the Rock itself is stunning, with bright blue tilework beneath the brilliant golden dome. Because it is currently closed to non-Muslims, I could only imagine the wonderous inside, the sight of which moved the historian of late antiquity Peter Brown to proclaim that, "Islam must be true."

As I walked over there, I was thinking about Yazid b. al-Muhallab, a late Umayyad general and governor who spent some time living near Ramla under the protection of the future caliph Suleyman. I spent much of yesterday reading about him for my dissertation, and it seemed likely that he had wandered up here at least once. Once there, however, for some reason I couldn't help but be consumed by the thought of the Abbasid caliph al-Ma'mun the Great, who renovated the Dome and tried to take credit for building it, wandering the courtyard with his advisors planning his adjustments during his visit to Jerusalem all those centuries ago.

My fingers are crossed that it will again be open to non-Muslims before I leave Jerusalem.

UPDATE: I forgot that it's also the presumed site of the Last Judgement. The fact of shared holy places is often cited as a reason for conflict, but could there be any better symbol of how much they actually have in common? I love just being within sight of that golden dome and everything it represents.

Cluster Bombs in Lebanon

First it was white phosphorus; now the IDF admits to using cluster bombs in civilian areas:

"The Israel Defense Forces on Monday admitted for the first time to having targeted populated areas with cluster munitions during the recent war in Lebanon.

"The IDF Spokesman's Office said in a statement that 'the use of cluster munitions against built-up areas was done only against military targets where rocket launches against Israel were identified and after taking steps to warn the civilian population.'

"The IDF discovered that there had been "irregularities" in the use of cluster munitions, even before the end of the recent Lebanon war, sources in the defense minister's office said Monday."

It seems all my recent posts related to the Arab-Israeli conflict have been to condemn people. Will somebody besides these guys please do something I can support?

Syrian Meddling?

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is blaming Syria for preventing the formation of a Palestinian unity government. To her, of course, this seems to mean preventing Hamas cooperating with Abbas, and the set of issues there is too complicated for me to formulate a clear position on it. However, since June there has been a steady drumbeat of both Arab and Israeli sources alleging Syrian meddling in Palestinian affairs, including the negotiations over Gilad Shalit. This doesn't seem at all like the propaganda surrounding Iran, which is a pre-determined villian for those with a particular policy agenda, and the Syria angle is worth taking seriously.

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Iraq and Bahrain

One of the silver linings to the Iraq debacle has been the new confidence and sense of empowerment of Arab Shi'ites. Gulf News explains the relevance of Najafi clerics for the Bahraini elections:

"While Shaikh Adel Al Mouawda in 2002 referred to Sunni religious authorities in Saudi Arabia to obtain the edict that allowed him and other Sunnis to vote and run in the elections, Shaikh Eisa Qasem found in Grand Ayatollah Ali Al Sistani in Iraq the answer he was seeking. 'Boycotting the elections would be a grave mistake,' said the fatwa that the Shiite establishment quickly spread in Bahrain to convince eligible voters who were reluctant to go to the voting stations on November 25.

"In the heat of the pro-elections drive, Shaikh Eisa Qasem admitted that his decision to run in the 1973 elections alongside other religious personalities in Bahrain was based on an edict from Najaf-based authorities Sayyed Mohammad Baqer Al Sadr and Shaikh Mohammad Ameen Zain Al Abidine.

"The candid admission coupled with the participation calls by Al Sistani this year and Sunni religious leaders in 2002 highlight the increasing significance that religious statements from foreign-based scholars are playing in Bahrain's polls."

I know virtually nothing about the Bahraini religious establishment, so my sense that had Sistani not been around the clerics would simply have turned to Iran or Lebanon for models probably doesn't count for much. With luck I'll learn more when I go there in a couple of months.

Save the Children

Rinat blogs about a moving visit to the children of Qassam target Sderot, while Hossam notes two children killed in the Gaza Strip. There desperately needs to be international intervention regarding Gaza aimed at preventing attacks on civilians of both sides. Since Ehud Olmert is right that Gaza militants deliberately target civilians while Israel warns them that they're coming, such a force could start by establishing law and order in the tiny enclave and disarming the Gaza militants.

Georgia Photos

A few months ago when I was telling people I was planning to visit the Caucasus, most didn't understand why. Now that they've seen pictures, such as the one below of the Narikala Fortress in Tbilisi, everyone wants to go there themselves.



You can see the rest of my Georgia collection here.

Muslim Nobel Laureates

I hadn't actually realized this connection before, but two of this year's Nobel laureates, Muhammad Yunus in Peace and Orhan Pamuk in Literature, hail from the much-maligned Muslim-majority world.

Ayham al-Sammarae

I've dug a bit more into a case I first learned of yesterday, in which former Iraqi Minister of Electricity Ayham al-Sammarae, whose daughter is a former classmate, friend, and loyal Badger from the University of Wisconsin, has been convicted of corruption on questionable grounds and sentenced to two years in prison during which many fear he will be assassinated.

Al-Sammarae was first appointed Minister of Energy under Paul Bremer, and continued under the interim government. He is a Sunni, and has played a key role in trying to mediate between the U.S. and Sunni insurgents. This earned him the enmity of the Ja'afari government, which prevented him from attending last year's Cairo conference, for which he had organized a Sunni delegation. As noted in the e-mail I posted yesterday, he has also been outspoken against Shi'ite militias and their targetting of Sunnis.

He surrendered voluntarily to the court when charged with corruption, even though he was in Jordan at the time and could have remained at large. As he is an American, the U.S. Embassy sent observers to his trial. When he was sentenced, concerns about the regularity of the process and his safety in prison caused him to be taken into custody by American forces, but he was quickly handed back over to the Iraqis. I'm told Muqtada Sadr's people were the most vocal in demanding this, and it came about the same time that Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki insisted the U.S. halt its operations against Sadr's militia in Baghdad.

As noted before, the court which convicted him has itself been accused of corruption, which in Iraq wouldn't surprise me. In any case, it seems clear that this is the political side of the Iraqi Civil War, with the Shi'ite militias determined to silence a critic and influential Sunni leader whose promotion of peaceful solutions threatens their own agenda for the country. As they often are, corruption charges are simply a means to this end.

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Marital Belly Dancing

Gulf News has an interesting article which one could cast as the effects of Western-style pop culture on Egyptian women's personal lives:

"It is not uncommon to see in central Cairo a young couple, preparing for marriage, browsing shop windows for a dancing costume.

"'My fiance has asked me to buy one to dance for him after we get married,' said Hanaa, 24. 'I want to make him happy and show off my feminity,' she told Gulf News. Hanaa admits she likes dancing in the presence of family members or in women-only gatherings.

"'The purpose for buying these outfits is to boost marital bliss. We mustn't be ashamed about dealing with this issue, especially in this age of satellite TV where men watch pretty women dancing in music videos all the time and want their spouses to be like Nancy Ajram or Haifa Wehbe,' said Ahmad, a taxi driver, referring to the two Lebanese pop divas."

Iraqi Justice

Read this.

The Bolivian Professor

Troubling story from Kabobfest:

"New American Media writer Camille Taiara brings us the tale of a Bolivian-born professor, Waskar Ari Chachaki. Ari overcame all sorts of obstacles to become a professor. He was born in the Andean highlands, not exactly the kind of place that feeds academia. As a foreign student, he earned a Ph.D. from Georgetown University, making him 'the first member of the pre-Incan Aymara tribe with a doctorate in history from the United States.'

"Now he faces a greater obstacle than socio-economic and racial marginalization -- the misguided tyranny of the war on terror.

"There is good reason to suspect this is an ideological exclusion case. Officials comment his case is being handled by the FBI, and the State Department told the Chronicle of Higher Education that Ari's visa was cancelled 'under a terrorism-related section of U.S. legislation.' He was a bit of an activist, as well. He founded eight indigenous organizations in Bolivia and Peru -- the kinds of things our democracy-spreading government would seem to love...

"Taira reported that Ari suspects political opponents in Bolivia concocted this accusation to ruin him. 'If someone wants to ruin a person, they just say they have terrorist connections,' he said. Dr. Ari pointed out that 'the election of [Evo Morales,] the first indigenous president in five centuries, has provoked racial confrontation in Bolivia. Some say all those who advocate indigenous rights need to be reigned in.' (Only a professor could give structural context to the messed up policies that could cost his job)"

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Bahraini Elections: The Latest

Bahraini Parliament candidate Fawzia Zainal is claiming that Islamist groups are distributing videos decrying women's participation in the elections:

"'Members of the society are distributing video tapes in which Kuwaiti religious leaders oppose the participation of women in elections,' said Fawzia whose posters were defaced and tent vandalised.

"'I am also aware that members of the society are planning a series of secret meetings with voters to dissuade them from electing me,' she said.

"Fawzia is one of eight women running in the elections for the 40-member Chamber of Deputies among hopes that at least one more female candidate will be elected after Latifa became the first woman to reach the parliament in a public election."

Are these Kuwaiti videos aimed at Sunnis, or do the religious leaders have influence across the sectarian divide?

Meanwhile, Mahmood has much more on how things are going:

"Look at what our esteemed BD500-a-month-for-sale ex-MP Dr. Salah Ali and what he’s doing in the Central District’s constituency 4: allegedly sending sectarian, disloyal, seditious text messages to the people of that constituency against his opposition, who are known for their loyalty to the people of Bahrain and have rendered countless services to them. Telling them that they are non-believers, and that they will shut down mosques immediately they get into parliament, and the various other underhanded methods of trying to re-win the seat that he would never have dreamt of occupying had the boycotting societies decided to enter the game in 2002.

"He’s so desperate now that I am told that he personally is going out in the neighbourhoods knocking on door after door begging for votes, and allegedly writing cheques to buy votes, this is the 'scandal' that we have woken up to this morning, with one Ahmed Al-Mutairi (whose personality is also surrounded by infamy, it is alleged) receiving a BD100 cheque in lieu of him changing his address into Dr. Salah Ali’s constituency and promising to vote for him… from Dr. Salah Ali, ALLEGEDLY, of course. Well, it seems that even the good doc didn’t learn from Bandargate and just use cash, the stupid twat. I wonder how many of these cheques the twerp wrote so far, if he is - most probably - being financed to try to get him into parliament again by the likes of, ehm, Voldermort, then he’s got to keep receipts!"

Eteraz on Azerbaijan

Thanks to Nation Building, I discovered Eteraz, which aspires to be "the Muslim Daily Kos." I'm not yet sure of the significance of the name, which is the Persian word for "objection," but the first post I saw is great overview of Azerbaijan, which I recently got the chance to visit (1, 2). My only "eteraz" is the somewhat one-sided view of the Karabakh conflict, as the region's becoming part of Azerbaijan was mostly the Soviets' doing.

I don't have time to read any more tonight, but now I have something to look forward to when I wake up!

More on Kyrgyz Revolution

Erica Marat reports on the composition of the Kyrgyz opposition:

"The opposition, comprised of parliamentarians and NGO leaders, is frank about the fact that some of its leaders’ strong economic backgrounds helped to mobilize a capable political force. Many have described it as a 'revolution of the bourgeoisie,' sponsored by well-off businessmen who are also concerned with political stability and an open market environment. For Reforms’ leaders invested in tents, food, leaflets, and other supplies for the protests...

"The new voting system should encourage political party formation, but this process will be rather slower than the changes within the government. According to For Reforms’ leader Raya Kadyrova, realistic predictions for the next parliamentary elections in 2010 indicate that half of the candidates elected through the majority system will still represent a class of rich entrepreneurs who are guided by private interests. Most seats allocated according to party lists will be taken by veteran party leaders and only about one-third will likely be distributed among political leaders who are not involved in businesses. Furthermore, members of civil society will be actively recruited into political life. For instance, Edil Baisalov, a widely known civic activist, is likely to be in high demand by a number of political parties."

This wouldn't be the first time that concerns over the security of private property have led to a movement for democratization.

Pakistani Rape Law

Pakistan may finally change their current rape law:

"Pakistan's National Assembly on Wednesday passed a Bill designed to reform the country's harsh rape laws, amid angry protests by the influential alliance of Islamist parties and walk-out by its legislators.

"The 342-member lower house of parliament was prorogued after it hurriedly endorsed the Protection of Women (Criminal Laws Amendment) Bill.

"The Bill still requires approval from the 100-member Senate (upper house), where the government commands comfortable majority...

"The legislation makes changes in the Islamic Hudood laws enforced in 1979 by military ruler Mohammad Zia-ul-Haq, under which rape victims are liable to prosection for adultery if they fail to produce four male witnesses to the offence...

"In a bid to pacify the religious right, the government inserted into the Bill a clause that makes lewdness, defined as wilful sexual intercourse, an offence punishable with up to five years' imprisonment and a maximum fine of Rs10,000 (Dh625)."

Islamist parties in Pakistan are up in arms for this. Pakistan's current terrible rape law breaks with centuries of Muslim tradition by throwing rape in with sex crimes rather than violent ones, meaning it's much more difficult to prove and there are penalties for unproven accusations.

Bahrain Bound

I've just learned that I can, in fact, travel to Bahrain despite the Israeli stamp in my passport, so I'll be headed there for Ashura in late January. Good times!

More on Iraqi Identity

Matthew Yglesias notes something of importance for my earlier point about Sunni/Shi'ite conflict in Iraq:

"Kurds and Shiites both have, in the very recent past, been subjected to incredibly brutal repression by a Sunni-dominated central government. They, not unreasonably, fear the return of such repression. Sunni Arabs, meanwhile, have an also-not-unreasonable fear that Kurds and Shiites will, in their desire to avoid a return to repression, engage in similar repression."

That is actually the key to the current sectarian divisions of Iraq. What's more, however, is that while the Kurds were victims of Arab nationalism, the Shi'ites weren't victimized as Shi'ites, but rather as people from a marginalized area of the country without ties to the ruling elite but with an institutional structure which that elite feared as a possible locus of alternative power. Saddam Hussein actually tried to gain control of the Shi'ites tribes by promoting a group of pro-regime tribal leaders called the "shaykhs of the'90's." What appears to have actually happened, however, is that those who were "down and out" looked to religious ly based networking which crystallized when the CPA made confessional rather than, say, social class divisions the keys to politics in post-Saddam Iraq.

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Arabs in the Holocaust

Rob Satloff talks about events which have been swept aside due to the Arab-Israeli conflict:

"In my research, I found stories of Arabs who welcomed Jews into their homes, guarded Jews' valuables so Germans could not confiscate them, shared with Jews their meager rations and warned Jewish leaders of coming SS raids. The sultan of Morocco and the bey of Tunis provided moral support and, at times, practical help to Jewish subjects. In Vichy-controlled Algiers, mosque preachers gave Friday sermons forbidding believers from serving as conservators of confiscated Jewish property.

"I found remarkable stories of rescue, too. During the heat of battle in the Zaghouan valley, west of Tunis, a group of Jewish internees at an Axis labor camp banged on the farm door of a man named Si Ali Sakkat, who courageously hid them until liberation by the Allies. In the Tunisian coastal town of Mahdia, a dashing local notable named Khaled Abdelwahhab scooped up several families in the middle of the night and whisked them to his countryside estate to protect one of the women from the threat of rape by a German officer.

"And there is strong evidence that perhaps the most influential Arab in Europe - Si Kaddour Benghabrit, the rector of the Great Mosque of Paris - saved as many as 100 Jews by providing them with certificates of Muslim identity, with which they could evade arrest and deportation. In my view, these men, and others, were true heroes."

Going clear back to here, one of my running themes for the year has been that Arab anti-Semitism is a modern phenomenon out of touch with most of Arab and Islamic history.

Bahraini Election Campaign

A whole week ago, when I wasn't paying attention, Mahmood al-Yousif called attention to secular liberal candidates dropping out of Bahrain's Parliamentary contest in favor of Islamists. Here's his perspective as a Bahraini secularist:

"Over the last few days, 15 prospective candidates gave up the fight and hung their swords. Some I am sure discovered that there was now way for them to compete in the fray and they did good by cutting their losses early and bailing out, others just entered the elections in the first place to probably just get the 'key money' they would be offered to get out of the way, while others have been pushed, harassed, cajoled to do so by various 'non'-political sources, at least, that’s what they want to call themselves and we know that they are anything but.

"So what’s happened then? The religious clerics put the kabbash on some candidates to get out of the way in favour of other turbans or beards! How about that for a good party trick? How do they do it? Well, think of the nod that a mafia boss does in those movies and you probably will get the picture.

"Once that signal is given, the 'apparatus' goes into overdrive: mosque preachers bleat the virtues of the selected one, while nefariously besmirches the opposition. So they bray out things like: 'Only elect the believers!'

"Of course, as they alone hold the exclusive keys to Heaven, it is only their sanctioned form of believers who are meant by this; why don’t you give us a CPR number and name why don’t you? Anyway, the content of the message of course is to tell people that the marked person is a non-believer! They have summarily excommunicated him politically, and of course their followers, being the true sheep they are, would just acquiesce to their demands unquestioningly. Ma’atems (on the other side of the spectrum) are just as bad using the same tactic more or less, and the result? Good people who have proven their mettle and who actually did attempt make a difference in the last parliament are chased out of the loop!"

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Observation

I need to buy a broom.

UAE Labor Issues

HRW has a new report out on migrant labor in Dubai. Here's a sample from the summary:

"This Human Rights Watch report addresses the abusive conditions faced by migrant construction workers in the UAE, specifically their exploitation by employers, and the UAE federal government’s failure adequately to address these abuses. Through interviews with workers, government officials, and foreign embassy representatives, as well as a survey of media reports in news and trade journal publications, we highlight what appears to be the most common concern of the construction workers: extremely low wages, typically withheld by employers for a minimum of two months along with their passports, as 'security' to keep the worker from quitting. Having incurred large debts to recruitment agencies in their home countries, paid to finance visa and travel costs, notwithstanding the legal prohibition against charging workers such fees, the workers feel compelled to remain in these jobs, despite the low—and in some cases, more protractedly unpaid—wages.

"Moreover, while engaged in the hazardous work of constructing high-rises, workers face apparently high rates of injury and death with little assurance that their employers will cover their health care needs. A lack of reliable and comprehensive statistics, including the failure to enforce company reporting requirements about deaths and injuries, is indicative of the entirely deficient capacities of the agencies tasked with investigating labor practices. Human Rights Watch learned that 140 government inspectors were responsible for overseeing the labor practices of more than 240,000 businesses employing migrant workers. Of greater concern is that the same deficiency of oversight may mean an absence of appropriate enforcement of health and safety standards, which may directly account for worker deaths and injuries.

"Foreigners constitute 95 percent of the workforce in the UAE, and as of 2005, there were 2,738,000 migrant workers in the country. The roughly 20 percent of migrant workers who are employed in construction are overwhelmingly men from South Asia, many of them illiterate and from impoverished rural communities.

"UAE federal labor law provisions apply to both UAE nationals and migrant workers. But the federal government of the UAE has abdicated almost entirely from its responsibility to protect workers’ rights by investigating, prosecuting and remedying abusive and unlawful conduct by employers towards the construction workers. It has failed to enforce UAE law that since 1980 has required the government to implement a minimum wage, evidently choosing to uphold the interests of generally powerful and extremely profitable construction companies over the most basic rights of the migrant worker, who on average receives the equivalent of US$175 a month for his labor on a construction site. This stands in stark contrast to the average per capita income in the UAE of $2,106 a month."

I've pointed out some issues of concern for American policy over at American Footprints. The UAE is also still on my travel agenda for the year, though I'm now thinking March or April rather than January or February.

Iraqi Identities

As a historian of the Middle East whose intellectual formation came in part during the genocides of the 1990's in which most Americans preferred to ignore them as inscrutable centuries-old hatreds, I've been frustrated and depressed to see the same sorts of attitudes come to shape people's perceptions of Iraq, especially among my usual allies on the left. With that in mind, I'm anxious to recommend Hala Fattah's post on Iraqi exilies in Jordan:

"Among the daily horror of escalating civil war in Iraq, I take refuge in history. I believe that what a people once was cannot completely be erased by the interventions of the present, no matter how crippling the burdens of oppression, external interference and war. This realization has gradually dawned upon me as I continue to interview older Iraqis in Amman, Jordan, for a project on the monarchy period in Iraq (1921-1958). While an informed perspective on Iraq’s history as well as a dose of common sense would require us to note that that younger Iraqis, who have weathered persecution, instability, continuous military conflict and radical economic deprivation may realistically have nothing in common with an older, more worldly class of compatriots, who have lived abroad and are, for the most, at ease in exile, I continue to find interesting connections and relationships between older and younger Iraqis that defy barriers of class, confession, ethnicity and power. Even now, as ethnic cleansing and religion-based ideologies take hold in certain parts of Iraq, Iraqis in exile in Amman very often refuse to enter in the heavily politicized arena of sectarian-baiting and racist abuse that passes for a certain kind of power discourse at home."

She also has a great story from the time of the Armenian genocide. One thing I would point out about Iraq is that while there ha always been Shi'ites in southern Iraq, most of the region only converted in the 1700's and 1800's, partly as a response to the rise of Wahhabism in the Arabian Peninsula and partly, I suspect, through association with the Shi'ite shrine cities. The history there is a lot more complicated than the media tends to make it.

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Timbuktu Texts

Reuters reports on scholars working to recover manuscripts from Timbuktu:

"Private and public libraries in the fabled Saharan town in Mali have already collected 150,000 brittle manuscripts, some of them from the 13th century, and local historians believe many more lie buried under the sand.

"The texts were stashed under mud homes and in desert caves by proud Malian families whose successive generations feared they would be stolen by Moroccan invaders, European explorers and then French colonialists.

"Written in ornate calligraphy, some were used to teach astrology or mathematics, while others tell tales of social and business life in Timbuktu during its 'Golden Age,' when it was a seat of learning in the 16th century.

"'These manuscripts are about all the fields of human knowledge: law, the sciences, medicine,' said Galla Dicko, director of the Ahmed Baba Institute, a library housing 25,000 of the texts.

"'Here is a political tract,' he said, pointing to a script in a glass cabinet, somewhat dog-eared and chewed by termites. 'A letter on good governance, a warning to intellectuals not to be corrupted by the power of politicians.'"

Later in the article, someone says there could easily be over one million texts in all. What's funny about the article, though, is the way they're being held up by people like Thabo Mbeki as part of an "African" heritage. They certainly are, in the sense that sub-Saharan Africa has come to see itself as a cultural unit, but as Timbuktu was an important center of Islamic learning, it's an open question whether the people writing them would have seen themselves as closer to the Nguni or the Arabs.

Brass Crescent Awards

Nominations for the Brass Crescent Awards are open for another week. Although I don't read the Muslim blogosphere extensively enough to have opinions on a lot of the categories, I did nominate what I consider to be two worthy candidates: Nora Younis for "Best Middle Eastern/Asian Blog" and On the Face for "Best Non-Muslim Blog."

Click on the icon above to make your own nominations, and be sure to read the finalists for what is sure to be some blogospheric excellence!

UPDATE: I also nominated Salika Sufisticate for "Most Deserving of Wider Recognition."

Jerusalem Security

This picture shows, albeit badly, the security presence near the Old City's Damascus Gate around noon today (Muslim communal prayer time). Fortunately there were no serious clashes. In fact, there weren't any protests at all. You could, however, see the conflict at work pretty clearly as the security essentially became a privileged elite group amidst a population which sees them as illegitimate occupiers and especially angered over the events in Beit Hanoun. Nothing happened, but emotions were running high.

New Kyrgyz Constitution

Yesterday, Kyrgyzstan's Parliament passed a new Constitution which curtails Presidential powers. I don't know enough about Kyrgyz political issues to determine whether this is really Central Asia's Magna Carta, but in general, anything that moves a country away from having an authoritarian executive is good. (When you look at the history of democracies, Parliamentary systems are far more durable, despite the counter-example of the United States.) I also agree with these conclusions:

"By all measures, the ongoing instability in Kyrgyzstan represents a significant political change. While it is easy to misinterpret events in Kyrgyzstan as being signs of a failing state, the opposition has behaved bravely, constructively, and in a quite organized manner. According to various reports, For Reforms finances their activities through investments by the bloc’s key leaders, many of whom have backgrounds in business.

"It remains to be seen whether the new constitution will in fact prevent the current and future Kyrgyz presidents from authoritarianism and corruption, empower the parliament, and make the judiciary system more independent. However, the November 8, 2006, Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic is one of the most progressive documents in the Central Asian region and among all former Soviet states. In this context, the role of the March 24 Tulip Revolution in 2005 is significant. It reassured Kyrgyz political actors that joining forces and acting within the law would encourage the central government to compromise. Furthermore, while Bakiyev’s regime was on the brink of collapse, both the government and the opposition avoided a complete failure of the state apparatus...

"Not having experienced modern statehood and democratic governance, Kyrgyzstan now appears to be in the process of forming a new political culture."

I've questioned the democratic bona fides of some opposition leaders, but on the other hand, by pushing for a more democratic process to resolve issues between them, they're effectively setting up a democracy. What remains to be seen is how they will act when the tables are turned.

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

East Jerusalem

Ha'aretz reports on some clashes with police today in East Jerusalem, with police even firing stun grenades at Palestinians angry over the Beit Hanoun strike. I thought about sitting in a cafe by the Damascus gate and chatting with people about the event on my way back from Mt. Scopus, but saw on the way there early this afternoon that it was closed, perhaps because of these events. In any case, those worried about my safety should know that the East Jerusalemites were as friendly as usual as I cut my path through the area.

UPDATE: I've posted more commentary here.

Beit Hanoun

the death of 18 or 19 Palestinian civilians by Israeli artillery fire has Palestinians vowing revenge. Negotiations over a Palestinian unity government have been suspended, and Amir Peretz has ordered an end to shelling in Gaza and called for a swift investigation. He should consider investigating his own government, however, as this comes from his and Olmert's persistent desire to look like they're doing something even when everyone knows that something is completely ineffective.

Daybreak

BBC called the House for the Democrats just as dawn was breaking here in Jerusalem. I would have blogged it then, but my internet connection was down all night.

Curses

Here in Jerusalem, the big story of the past week has been a gay pride parade scheduled for Friday and the opposition to it by ultra-Orthodox around the country. Some Haredi have even been rioting, and bystanders have been injured. Now, however, the ante is being upped:

"Earlier Tuesday, the supreme court of the ultra-Orthodox Eida Haredit mulled the possibility of issuing a pulsa danura - a halakhic measure widely viewed as a death curse - on the organizers of the planned Gay Pride Parade and against 'police who beat ultra-Orthodox Jews' protesting against the parade.

"'The Rabbical Court has held a special session and discussed placing a pulsa danura on those who have a hand in organizing the march,' Rabbi Shmuel Papenheim, editor of the Eida Haredit's weekly magazine 'Ha'eidah' told Army Radio on Tuesday.

"The curse could also be cast 'against the policemen who beat ultra-Orthodox Jews,' Papenheim added.

"Pulsa denura - or 'whip of fire' in Aramaic - is a curse with origins in Kabbalistic mysticism. It first came to light in Israel when far-right rabbis pronounced the curse on then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin during the turbulent period that preceded his 1995 assassination.

"The ceremony, which is supposed to cause the death of the subject within a year, calls upon the angels of destruction to refrain from forgiving the subject his sins, to kill him and to call down all the curses named in the Bible.

"Religious far-rightists also pronounced the curse against Ariel Sharon in the run-up to the summer, 2005, disengagement from Gaza."

Ilham Aliyev

Last week, the Christian Science Monitor ran a story on Ilham Aliyev's regime in Azerbaijan focusing on the gap between the promise of the country's oil wealth and economic realities and political oppression. The article is right about corruption in the country, and I don't expect that or political reform to come any time soon. I think, however, that the article overplays popular discontent with Aliyev, who seems to be really popular with a broad swathe of the public. His father, Heydar Aliyev, is credited with ending the Karabakh War, and much like Gulf monarchies, the regime gets to ride the wave of the energy-related economic boom.

That said, the statement that Azerbaijan has never been a democracy is inaccurate. For a brief period after World War I, Azerbaijan, which had earlier been the womb of Turkish nationalism, was an independent democracy featuring universal adult suffrage.

(Crossposted to American Footprints.)

Senate Predictions

I don't follow individual House races all that closely, as there are just too many of them, so anything I say about that chamber would just be derived from experts. I have, however, been keeping close track of the Senate, and with all the normal caveats about predictions, see the Democrats getting five seats. I'm picking them to knock off the GOP incumbents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Virginia, and Missouri, while retaining New Jersey and Maryland. Republicans will hold their seats in Arizona and Tennessee, and the former race will be closer than the latter. That leaves Rhode Island and Montana, which I just can't make up my mind about. I'm calling the parties to split them, with Rhode Island the more likely candidate for a Democratic pick-up.

As an added bit of intrigue, however, if the Democrats pick up five seats but lose Rhode Island, Lincoln Chafee will hold the balance of power between the parties. There's also the Lieberman factor; however, that's what I'm calling as most likely to be an upset. I won't predict a Lamont win outright, but it's definitely close than the polls indicate, and I'm saying it's too close to call.

UPDATE: Three minutes before the first polls close, I'm calling the Democrats to take 40 House seats.

Boredom and Tension

Tajikistan's Presidential election sounds as boring as expected, with Imomali Rahmonov cruising to victory amidst an opposition boycott. In Kyrgyzstan, however, tens of thousands of protestors are filling the streets demanding President Kurmanbek Bakiev either agree to curtail his powers or resign. The context for this is a debate over amending the Constitution and accusations that opposition leaders are planning a coup. I suspect these opposition leaders, several of whom were also active in the March 2005 Tulip Revolution, are less committed to democratic principles than they are increasing the power of governmental organs which they can influence. Sometimes, however, reforms have to proceed a step at a time.

UPDATE: Nathan Hamm is providing excellent coverage of what sounds like Tulip Revolution, Stage Two.

Grossman's Speech

David Grossman's speech at the memorial service for assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was excellent. Here's a clip:

"Go to the Palestinians, Mr. Olmert, do not search all the time for reasons for not to talk to them. You backed down on the unilateral convergence, and that's a good thing, but do not leave a vacuum. It will be occupied instantly with violence, destruction. Talk to them, make them an offer their moderates can accept. They argue among themselves far more than we are shown in the media. Make them an offer that will force them to choose between accepting it or prefering to remain hostage to fanatical Islam.

"Approach them with the bravest and most serious plan Israel can offer. With the offer than any reasonable Palestinian and Israeli knows is the boundary of their refusal and our concession. There is no time. Should you delay, in a short while we will look back with longing at the amateur Palestinian terror. We will hit our heads and yell at our failure to exercise all of our mental flexibility, all of the Israeli ingenuity to uproot our enemies from their self-entrapment. We have no choice and they have no choice. And a peace of no choice should be approached with the same determination and creativity as one approaches a war of no choice. And those who believe we do have a choice, or that time is on our side do not comprehend the deeply dangerous processes already in motion.

"Maybe, Mr. Prime Minister, you need to be reminded, that if an Arab leader is sending a peace signal, be it the slightest and most hesitant, you must accept it, you must test immediately its sincerity and seriousness. You do not have the moral right not to respond.

"You owe it to those whom you would ask to sacrifice their lives should another war break out. Therefore, if President Assad says that Syria wants peace, even if you don't believe him, and we are all suspicious of him, you must offer to meet him that same day."

The idea seems to have taken root in both the Israeli and American foreign policy establishments that talking is a bad thing. That must end, or we only strengthen the hand of extremists.

Anyway, read the whole thing.

Liberal Internationalism

Chief Footprint Blake Hounshell has a column up at The American Prospect:

"Recently here on TAP Online, Shadi Hamid and Spencer Ackerman debated what should serve as the lodestar of a progressive foreign policy vision. Hamid argued that the United States should make the promotion of democracy the centerpiece of its foreign policy, while Ackerman advocated that human rights take that role. Such questions will very likely become more relevant after Tuesday, if Democrats gain more power in Congress. But neither Hamid nor Ackerman offered the correct answer. As the small example of Vietnam helps to illustrate, the United States ought to be redirecting its energies toward renewing its strength and expanding the postwar liberal world order. Do that, and the rest -- democracy, human rights, liberal reforms -- will eventually follow.

"Ronald Beisner's new biography of Dean Acheson, this philosophy's most able practitioner, tells the familiar story of this world's creation from the perspective of its key founder. Although Secretary of State Acheson was a lawyer, not an economist, and his president Harry Truman a haberdasher rather than an international trade expert, their instincts were sound. Together with visionary European statesmen such as Jean Monnet and Robert Schuman, they led the creation of a postwar order that has brought the world to unparalleled levels of peace and prosperity. Acheson's main concern was to create a liberal system on what he later called the 'half a world' that the United States had come to dominate, facing off against the Soviet bloc. Economic openness, and ever-closer economic integration in Europe, were the primary drivers of this new system."

I agree.

My Accent

What American accent do you have? Your Result: The Inland North You may think you speak "Standard English straight out of the dictionary" but when you step away from the Great Lakes you get asked annoying questions like "Are you from Wisconsin?" or "Are you from Chicago?" Chances are you call carbonated drinks "pop."
The Midland
The Northeast
Philadelphia
The South
The West
Boston
North Central
What American accent do you have? Take More Quizzes

Mahmood Update

The Mahmood's Den saga has ended, though I don't know the fate of other blocked sites:

"Let me also confirm that I have made some concessions to in order to lift the ban on the site; specifically, I have heeded the “gag order” issued by the High Court published on the 5th of October, 2006 restricting comments and further discussion specifically dealing with their case against Dr. Salah Al-Bandar. I have therefore temporarily removed four articles published in this stream which are held in a queue unavailable to site visitors. These articles will be re-published at the expiry of that gag order. All attendant comments on those articles are also unfortunately sequestered with their parent articles.

"All articles and comments published prior to the gag order remain in place.

"Based on this and our discussions, the Ministry of Information has agreed to lift the block on Mahmood’s Den and cancel the pending court case."

Soccer

Bahrain plans to begin giving women free admission to soccer games:

"Females will be admitted free of charge to all Bahrain football stadiums when the sporting season opens next week, a spokesperson for the company sponsoring the matches has said.

"The decision, the first of its kind in the Gulf countries, aims to boost the number of women at the top-flight games, which have traditionally been limited to male spectators.

"While female sports fans welcomed it as a new step towards greater equality in a country that has one of the most liberal policies towards women in the region, opponents said it would neither boost attendance nor improve the quality of the game."

Mahmood's Den, et al

Bahrain is the site of more web censorship:

"Bahrain has blocked several websites for violating a reporting ban in the case of a government adviser who was deported after alleging election irregularities.

"Authorities imposed a ban on publishing information about the case of the adviser, British citizen Salah Al Bander, who was sacked and deported to Britain in September for what a minister said was an attempt to foment civil strife in the country.

"The case, known as Bandergate, initially made headlines in the country which is due to hold parliamentary and municipal elections on November 25. Officials say the reporting ban was imposed to ensure an impartial investigation."

For background to the Bandergate scandal, see Blake Hounshell at TAPPED.

You can sign a petition on Mahmood's behalf here.

Karabakh Progress?

There may have been progress in the Karabakh peace process:

"Until now, the barrier to the resolution of the Karabakh conflict has been the unwillingness of the Armenian side to return all occupied regions outside of Karabakh. Official Yerevan has long insisted that only five out of seven regions would be returned, and Kalbajar and Lachin would be kept until the final resolution of the conflict. Both of these districts have special importance from a geostrategic perspective, as Kalbajar, with its high mountains, forms a natural defense system for Karabakh and Lachin provides a land corridor between Armenia and Karabakh. Nevertheless, Azerbaijan has insisted on the liberation of all territories, with the possibility of providing joint usage to the Lachin corridor.

"Oskanian’s statement indicates a possible change of attitude inside the Armenian political establishment and a small hope for the resolution of the conflict. Both sides are aware that the year of 2006, considered by local observers and international community as a 'window of opportunity' due to the absence of elections in both countries, is rapidly coming to an end. The independent daily Zerkalo in Baku has even speculated that the Armenian authorities have started to lay the foundations for explaining the terms of the settlement to the Armenian public, as the 'tone of Oskanian was more that of calming the members of Parliament.' Zerkalo compared this act by the high-level government official with the attempt by former Armenian President Levon Ter-Petrosian to sell a 'step-by-step' proposal to the Armenian public."