Mideast News & Politics

Taksim is Not (Yet) Tahrir

Almost a week of countrywide protests in Turkey have left an indelible mark on the country’s political landscape: broad discontent with the policies of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s policies and increasing haughtiness bubbled to the surface; militant soccer fans thousands of whom joined the Taksim Square protests united and were politicized; and the role police force plays in solidifying opposition groups and resolve was highlighted.

Mr. Erdogan’s intransigence and hard-handed police attempts to suppress the protest with tear gas and water cannons swelled the ranks of the demonstrators and turned a demand for perseverance of a 75-year old Istanbul park into a massive call for the prime minister’s resignation. Thousands of militant fans of Istanbul’s three rival soccer clubs led by the left-wing, most politicized of the support groups Carsi, the ultras’ of Besiktas JK, joined forces for the first time in 30 years as they march to Taksim Square. So did rival soccer fans in other cities.

Radical Islam in Chechnya: A Brand of its Own

Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher once called them "freedom fighters,” but today the jihadists of Chechnya now have names of a different name: “terrorists.” Brothers Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, known as the “Boston Bombers,” are seen as products of some sort of Chechen jihadist diaspora- as Americans try to understand exactly what drove them to their crimes. Were they really a part of a Chechen jihadist network seeking to terrorize the United States? Few news sources turn to Chechen history for clues.

When thinking about radical Islam in Chechnya, the dates to remember are 1994-96, or the "First" Chechen War. It wasn’t actually their first war against Russia; it was, however, importantly the first time a large influx of radical Islamists came to Chechnya for the fight. The war’s purpose was to get rid of the Russian influence in Chechnya.

Syrian Civil War: Russia Forges Risky Ties with Islamists

In a strategy fraught with risk, Russian President Vladimir Putin is exploiting deep- seated domestic anger at the United States and fundamentalist Russian Orthodoxy to justify his support for embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and forge an alliance with Islamist forces.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is countering foreign criticism of his pro-Assad policy and Russia’s declining credibility in sections of Arab public opinion by forging ties with Islamist detractors.

In a move that serves both Putin’s domestic and Russia’s foreign interests, a cross section of Islamist and secular political opinion in the Middle East and North Africa recently attended a Vaidal Discussion Club conference organised by the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the RIA Novosti news agency and Council on Foreign and Defence Policy, Moscow, with the backing of the Russian Foreign Ministry.

Forging commonalities

Officially intended as a brainstorming on rising Islamist political forces in the region stretching from the Atlantic coast of Africa to the Gulf that is wracked by popular protest and discontent, the conference offered Russian officials, academics and journalists an opportunity to drive home the notion that conservative Russian Orthodox Christians and Islamists share a common value system.

Reduced international credibility for backing Al-Assad is a small price to pay, particularly at a time when Putin has been travelling inside the country to regain some of his lost popularity. If all foreign policy is domestic, President Putin should be a popular man. He is standing up to the United States and the West, which in the eyes of many Russians were the reasons for their country’s decline as a super power and economic hardship. A significant slice of Russian public opinion believes that Russia’s current problems stem from the US imposing neo-liberal policies on it in the 1990s.

Catching several flies in one swoop

In reaching out to the Islamists, Russia hopes to catch several flies in one fell swoop. It aligns itself, despite differences over Syria, with a political force that is on the rise and demonstrates that it can still wield influence in the Middle East and North Africa. Islamists have won post-revolt elections in Egypt and Tunisia and are a major force in Libya and Yemen – the four countries that witnessed the toppling of their autocratic leaders in the last two years – and are an important segment in the armed resistance to the Al-Assad regime in Syria. It also serves Russia in its confrontation with Islamist insurgents in the Caucasus.

To achieve its goal, Russia deliberately included arch conservative Russian Orthodox officials and journalists among the participants in Marrakech who represent an important segment of Russian society. According to a prominent Russian analyst: “The Soviet era is over. The post-Soviet era is over. There is nothing to fill the vacuum. Logically something pre-Soviet will fill the vacuum. It is likely to fail, but for now that is an ultra-conservative streak of Russian Orthodoxy”.

In exchanges with Islamists from Egypt, Iran, Lebanese group Hezbollah and Palestine’s Hamas, among others, Russian Orthodox conservatives left more liberal Arabs and Westerners aghast at the length to which they were willing to go in their wooing of the Islamists. Conservative Russian Orthodox journalists and officials asserted that Western culture was in decline while Oriental culture was on the rise, that gays and gender equality threaten a woman’s right to remain at home and serve her family and that Iran should be the model for women’s rights.

A senior Russian official told the conference that people understood the manipulation employed by Western democracies. However, he said, religious values offered a moral and ethical guideline that guarded against speculation and economic bubbles while traditional Islamic concepts coincided with their guidelines.

A strategy that could backfire

Russia’s deployment of conservative Russian Orthodoxy could well help Putin and Moscow further their interests, but it is also a strategy that could backfire. It could associate Russia with a force that ultimately proves incapable of leading reform. Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and his Muslim Brotherhood are under fire for failing to make good on the goals of the popular revolt that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak, including greater freedom, dismantling of the Mubarak-era repressive machinery, corruption and economic reform. Similarly, Tunisia’s Islamist-led government has yet to demonstrate that it can manage the country’s post-revolt transition.

The difficulties Egyptian and Tunisian Islamists are experiencing in making the move from clandestine groups to inclusive administrations has prompted Islamists elsewhere to rethink a too early acceptance of responsibility and power. Jordanian Muslim Brothers boycotted elections earlier this year officially in protest against gerrymandering, but also with an eye on what was happening elsewhere in the region.

Similarly, Russia’s position on Syria is likely to become ever more unpalatable as the violence in Syria on both sides of the divide becomes ever more brutal. If and when Al-Assad is forced out of office, Russia’s alliance with the Islamists could identify it with one faction rather than as an independent player in what is likely to be a prolonged, ugly and bloody struggle for power.

Finally, Islamists are likely to maintain their support for their brethren in the Caucasus irrespective of their relations with Moscow. That would render Russian foreign policy in the perceptions of many as purely opportunistic and undermine Moscow’s claim that its policies, including its support of Al-Assad, are based on principles such as non- interference in the domestic affairs of others.

Said a prominent Russian analyst: “It’s a brilliant strategy if it works. The problem is that if we end up with egg in our face, we will be further from home than we are now”.

*This piece was originally posted on RSIS Commentaries

James M. Dorsey is a Senior Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS), Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He is the author of the blog, The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer.

*Photo Credit: FreedomHouse

MENA Bloggers: New Category, Same Challenges in Media Space

Earlier this month, D.C.-based non-profit Freedom House released its 2013 report ranking press freedom around the world. The report measures the level of political and civil liberties, rating each country as ‘Free,’ ‘Partly-Free’ or ‘Not Free.’ According to the report, 63 percent of MENA’s population are ‘Not Free,’ while 35 percent are ‘Partly-Free’. Only 2 percent of the region’s population are deemed as ‘Free’. The report concludes that the “Middle East dramatized two competing trends: demands for change pushed forward by popular democratic movements, and an authoritarian response that combines intransigence with strategic adaptability.” In each trend we find insight into the sometimes competing, sometimes complimentary sub-cultures of bloggers versus journalists.

Star Trek: Into a Darkness We're Already Lost In

With all the buzz on the latest release from the Star Trek franchise, Star Trek: Into Darkness, I entered the theater expecting at least some social commentary to pop up in the movie. What I wasn’t sure about- but which ultimately delivered- was the grace with which that commentary would be woven into the Star Trek universe we know so well and love.

But, then, Gene Roddenberry created the show as an allegory of ourselves, a reflection of our time. And all the past caretakers of Star Trek canon have always understood that. It all just happens to be set in space...and in the future.

Through all the different incarnations, from the show’s original team led by Captain James Tiberius Kirk, to the rise of the incomparable Captain Picard, the lost voyagers of Captain Kathryn Janeway, and the rag tag team of Deep Space Nine- and even the (not as popular) prequel team of pre-Kirk Enterprise, the brand has always tackled the biggest questions of American society, and our world. From racism to sexism to war and peace, the Star Trek brand rarely shies away from exploring the big themes across a wide gamut of human experience.

Algeria: Middle East’s Next Revolt if Soccer is a Barometer

Algeria is competing to be the next Arab nation to witness a popular revolt. That is assuming soccer is a barometer of rising discontent in a region experiencing a wave of mass protests that have already toppled the leaders of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and Yemen and sparked civil war in Syria.

In fact, there is increasingly little doubt that soccer, a historic nucleus of protest in Algeria, is signaling that popular discontent could again spill into the streets of Algiers and other major cities. Two years ago, protesters inspired by events in Egypt and Tunisia, ultimately pulled back from the brink despite the toppling of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak and Tunisia’s Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.

Now, in circumstances similar to Saudi Arabia, protests are mounting amid uncertainty about the future as Algeria’s aging leadership struggles with a series of natural deaths and the effects of health problems among its remaining key members.

Resurrecting The Arab Peace Initiative

The resurrection of the Arab Peace Initiative (API) by the United States, which was initially introduced by the Arab League in Beirut, Lebanon in 2002, is a strategic and timely move. Sadly, however, the API should have all along been the basis for a negotiated Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement.

This is not deep insight; the Israelis and the Palestinians could have forged a bilateral agreement had Israel accepted the API as the framework of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace. Israel’s national security concerns (real and imagined) could have dramatically been allayed had the Arab states- and by extension all Muslim countries- been at peace with Israel. By rejecting the API, successive Israeli governments have made a mistake of historic proportions.

FIFA Anti-Racism Campaign Has Work Cut Out in the Middle East

World soccer body FIFA’s newly established anti-racism committee has its work cut out for it in the Middle East and North Africa where ironically only Israel and Iran have taken some, albeit too few, steps to counter discrimination based on color, religion, ethnicity or sex.

In countering racism and discrimination in the Middle East, FIFA faces not only racist outbursts by fans, players and officials on the pitch but often a structure and unwritten policies that are inherently discriminatory.

In the latest incident of racism, Iran’s soccer federation this month banned Paykan FC coach Firouz Karimi for eight games and fined him $3,000 for calling Dutch player of African descent Sendley Sidney Bito a cannibal and a Negro and refusing to shake his hand.

“Meet a Muslim Person”: Four Minutes of Heartbreak and Honesty After Boston

On April 24, in the aftermath of the Boston Marathon bombings, and the apprehension of two American Muslim suspects, Adam Saleh posted a video clip entitled, “Meet a Muslim Person” on YouTube (posted here below). I’ll be honest – this film broke my heart, many times over. The clip began circulating online, almost immediately—particularly among Muslims- and provoked a wide spectrum of reactions. The four-minute documentary clip is a brilliant success—not in showing the xenophobia many American Muslims face nor the majority of non-Muslims who seem to harbor no generalized ill-will towards a diverse community. The clip’s power comes from what it reveals about the position of the Muslim community in the United States today.

New AFC President Sets About Reform as Battle for Change Looms

A Singapore-based sports marketing company is at the center of a battle for the future of reform within world soccer days after the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), wracked by two years of scandal over ousted president Mohammed Bin Hammam’s management of the group, elected a new head to complete his term.

The newly elected president, Sheikh Salman Bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa, the president of the Bahrain Football Association, has little time to implement promised reforms aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability and good governance within the AFC. With less than two years before regularly scheduled presidential elections, Sheikh Salman has inherited an organization that has yet to prove its commitment to change.