Mideast News & Politics

All Bets are Off When You Arrest The Egyptian Jon Stewart

Normally, we reserve Mondays for our “Music Monday” feature piece. And, I'm not one to turn my sections here into a soap box for my cultural grievances and political rants; to me, that's just bad journalism. But you know what else is bad journalism? Standing by silently in the face of hypocrisy against your fellow artists. Especially when you have access to a media platform that lets you do otherwise.

So, this isn't exactly a music article. But in the larger context of dummy governments, ventriloquist dictators parading as supposed presidents and how all that goes down in terms of censoring artists, it is. Because all bets are off when you arrest not only the country's top satirist, but creatives of any kind while claiming to be a democracy. Maybe Egypt’s president, Mohammed Morsi, played hooky from Leadership 101 the day he was supposed to get the handout on what constitutes a president. So here's a CliffsNotes version: a president is someone who plays fair, and if you want to play fair, you have to take whatever heat comes your way. Because throwing your critics in jail makes you the playground bully. Grow a thick skin, already!. You want to diffuse your national lampoon of a presidency? How about actually doing your job?

Obama and Netanyahu: The Same Old Song And Dance

At the eleventh hour, Prime Minister Netanyahu hustled to put his coalition government together only two days before President Obama's visit to Israel. Undoubtedly, Netanyahu's last-ditch effort was prompted by his incontrovertible desire to be the sitting, rather than the caretaker, prime minister in his meeting with President Obama.

Being the political animal that he is, Netanyahu calculated that first he needed to remind Mr. Obama that he must deal with him for the next four years, stating: "I look forward to working with you over the next four years to make the alliance between our two countries even stronger." That is, if his coalition holds together, but then again Netanyahu is no stranger to wishful thinking.

He further calculated that since Obama wants to prevent another failure in his peace efforts, he will avoid locking horns with him again and instead settle for diplomatic niceties. Here is where Netanyahu was wrong.

Muslim Haters in Buddhist Lands

Islamophobia is generally a trend debated within the confines of western media. Considering high profile attacks like 9/11 in New York, the 7/7 bombings in London, and similar incidents in the rest of Europe, this observation is not entirely surprising.

Nowadays, though, majority Buddhist populated nations such as Burma and Sri Lanka have been in the spotlight as anti-Islam attitudes and violence against Muslims have become increasingly prominent.

The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS), a Buddhist/nationalist Sinhalese group has stirred a bizarre controversy surrounding the sale of Halal food in the country, protesting its complete ban around the nation. A rally took place in the heart of the capital Colombo, where thousands chanted slogans and wore t-shirts decrying Halal meat. As a result, out of fear of reprisal, Muslim establishments have taken action to stop Halal certification.

Is A Taliban-Free Afghanistan A Pipe Dream?

When United States generals and politicians warn that Afghanistan is not ready for the 2014 troop withdrawal, they generally cite the quality of the internal security forces. The internal security forces must be able to beat back the Taliban or else Afghanistan will fall back into their hands as it was in the early 1990s. All of these reports are related to the power of the centralized government, the ability for Karzai to effectively rule over the state’s peripheries, and the reliability of the Afghan security forces.

Yet, anyone who has tried to govern Afghanistan knows it is impossible to control the peripheries, and anyone who has tried to invade it knows that a well-groomed security force does not grant one with the ability to maintain a secure Afghanistan. For a real prediction of what will happen in 2014, you have to look at the Afghan’s hinterlands, where local elders and ingrained tribal customs carry far more weight than the Afghan security forces.

Saudi Women in Shura Council: Symbolic or Substantive Change?

On February 19th, some university graduates, human rights activists and two royals were sworn into the Saudi Consultative Council of the Shura Council. Of these new members, thirty were women.



Overjoyed by this change, which marks a shift in Saudi Arabia’s practice of gender mixing, one of the new female Council members, Thurata al-Arrated said the move was "empowering to women" and it gave her hope for women’s "greater participation in general affairs of the country."

King Abdullah took the throne when his modernizing brother, King Fahd, died in 2005. He is seen as the "reformer" in Saudi Arabia and has said, "We refuse to marginalise women's role in Saudi society.” He previously banned the kissing of his hand and the hands of other royals, saying it should be reserved for ones parents among other social reforms.

In MidEast Peace Process, Prospects For Peace Must Trump Potential Failures

President Obama’s foray into the Middle East may well provide him the last opportunity to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, which is central to the region’s stability. Having failed in his effort during his first term to forge peace between Israel and the Palestinians, the President may not want to invest significant political capital to seek a solution to an intractable conflict with an uncertain outcome. That said, the raging conflicts throughout the Middle East — the horrific civil war in Syria, the unending violence in Iraq, the instability in Egypt, the simmering conflict with Iran — may appear to have little to do with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, yet they are interconnected and will affect one another. A resolution to this explosive conflict is a must and only the United States can influence, induce, pressure or even resort to necessary coercive measures to compel Israel and the Palestinians to make the required concessions and reach a peaceful agreement.

The Effects of the Iraq War

March 19, 2013 marked the tenth anniversary of the Iraq war, and I recollect those years with deep sorrow.

Scores of articles and op-eds have been written on the misguided Iraq war and perhaps not much can be added to the tales of one of America’s worst foreign policy blunders ever. To put this war in its proper perspective, however, the war and its consequences must be reviewed within the context of its repercussions on Iraq itself, the Middle Eastern region and on the United States. The most compelling question we must ask ourselves is: Have we learned enough from this sad chapter in our history to avoid another reckless military adventure in the future?

Egyptian Crackdown on Soccer Fans Likely to Unite Militants

Egypt’s judiciary and security forces appear posed to crack down on militant, highly politicised and street battle-hardened soccer fans in a bid to exploit internal differences among them.

The crackdown however could boomerang by uniting rather than further dividing the fans in their opposition to the security forces, Egypt’s most hated institution because of its role in enforcing the repression of the regime of ousted president Hosni Mubarak.

The security forces and the judiciary hope to capitalize on cracks among the fans, one of Egypt’s largest civic groups, that have emerged beyond their traditional rivalries over who was responsible for the death last year of 74 supporters of crowned Cairo club Al Ahli SC in a politically loaded brawl in the Suez Canal city of Port Said and how to respond to recent sentences handed down by a court against those responsible.

International Sanctions: Iran Feels the Psychological Impact

Struggling to maintain its place in Asia’s top tier, Iranian soccer is a reflection of a country laboring under the burden of a repressive political regime and not only the economic but increasingly also the psychological effect of international isolation and punishing sanctions.

The psychological wear and tear is universally visible. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a soccer fan who has unsuccessfully tried to tie football to his waning political bandwagon in part because of his encouragement of political interference in the game and his failure to invest in grassroots development and modernization, last October chided the national team for lowering its ambitions.

“If you think that you are only good enough for Asia, then that is what you will be and will remain. It is my firm opinion that Iran belongs to the world class elite as we have the talents and skills to be there,” Mr. Ahmadinejad said.

The US Can’t Throw Weapons at the Syrian Civil War

Syria’s two-year-old civil war continues to spiral out of control and drag its neighbors into the chaos. The refugee crisis now numbers in the millions, and the death count is projected to be near 70,000 people. Understandably, American politicians are scrambling to formulate a response to the conflict that will mitigate its now inevitable long-term repercussions. Several Republican senators — true to their hawkish roots — maintain that the solution is to arm the Syrian rebels and aid in their immediate overthrow of the embattled dictator, Bashar al Assad.

These Congressmen, particularly John McCain and Lindsey Graham, operate under a paradigm that is disconcertingly redolent of the thinking that justified the invasion of Iraq: if the dictator falls, peace will ensue, and a new government can be established (maybe even a pro-American one). However also true to the Iraq analogy, arming the rebels will not create a thriving democracy. The Syrian conflict has become so convoluted, so divided, and so complex that you can’t simply “arm” the rebels and expect positive results.