Mideast News & Politics

From Afghanistan to Mali: Jihad Finds a New Home

“Jihad” as a physical struggle has long been a topic associated with the Middle East. The region’s volatility is often attributed to Islamist groups like the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, and Hezbollah — groups who interpret the concept, which means “struggle” in Arabic — in a severe way. However, with the Arab Spring came a changed region, and a changed face for Middle Eastern Islamism. The Muslim Brotherhood is the shining example: thrust into the mainstream the group was forced to reconcile its revolutionary rhetoric with the realities of running a modern state. Egyptians quickly demonstrated that any “hardline” Islamism would not be tolerated, and thus a relatively secular constitution was born.

The Red Line in Syria Was Crossed Long Ago

Military intervention in Syria is not a desirable outcome for anyone – the Syrians, NATO, or the Greater Middle East. Arguing for military intervention is advocating a highly complex and dangerous military debacle far surpassing the NATO mission in Libya. However, after 21 months of inhumane bloodshed, it is hard to ask how more has not been done to stop it. It is only now that the proverbial “red line” of intervention has been established. That line has been drawn at chemical weapons.

Israel, Iran and The Arab Spring

Two of the countries that will play the most important roles in the future of the Arab Spring are not Arab nations. As a large and powerful country seeking to maintain and spread its influence across the Middle East, Iran’s actions in the coming years will have major effects on the direction the movements for change in the Arab world take. Meanwhile, Israel, increasingly fearful for its security, will continue to be skeptical about the idea that the Arab Spring is a positive development. As the Islamic Republic and the Jewish state face off against each other (soon, probably, with both armed with nuclear weapons), Arab states and their peoples may, unfortunately, be caught in the middle.

The Other Side of Libya’s Forgotten Revolution

“Libya could become the United States of the Arab World,” or so American risk consultant Stephen Hollingshead said to the Libya Herald. He cites an intense vigor for “freedom,” an innate entrepreneurial spirit, and a robust fundamental desire for democracy as the building blocks for a great nation. Although his hypothesis is difficult to quantify, the tremendous support the NATO mission received and the continual pro-democratic protests in Tripoli and Benghazi may signal that Hollingshead is onto something.

Post-revolution Libya, however, has been gently pushed onto the back burner by “flashier” events like protests in post-Arab Spring Egypt and the Syrian civil war. There are strong democratic undercurrents that could make it a valuable ally. Yet, counterforces in Libya are gradually eroding its democratic potential. The corrosive pressure of armed militias like Ansar al-Sharia, the threat of renewed autocracy, and a profoundly diminished role for the rule of law are the primary culprits. This will be detrimental to Libya and the world if it continues. Libya’s democratic survival depends in large part on the support of the international community.

Lunacy Over Sanity in the West Bank

On 2 November 1917, Arthur Balfour wrote a letter to Baron Rothschild promising that His Majesty’s government favored the idea of establishing a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine. The consequences of what has since come to be known as the Balfour Declaration live with us today. Israel and Hamas have just clashed over Gaza. Israel’s closest allies, the US and the UK, have been upset by its plans to build 3,000 new homes for settlers in East Jerusalem and West Bank, a move that is illegal under international law. More importantly, representatives of 95% of the world’s population have just voted to accord “Palestine non-Member Observer State status in the United Nations,” a similar status to the Vatican. The UN support for Palestinian statehood is largely symbolic and will not change much on the ground in the short run. For now, the carnage will continue.

Arab Spring or Cold War?

A curious thing has happened in the realm of political and intellectual debate since the beginning of the Arab Spring. For years after 9/11, many comparisons were made between the “war on terror” and the Cold War, particularly in terms of the ideologies of the enemies facing America and the West in both struggles. One of the most prominent writers taking such a position, Paul Berman, provided a critical element of this line of thought in his 2003 book, Terror and Liberalism, arguing that Osama bin Laden’s Islamism and Saddam Hussein’s Baathism both shared a deep, basic philosophical root with Bolshevism, Nazism, and other 20^th-century European totalitarian ideologies. Berman and others maintained that, just as the Soviet Union had been stared down and defeated through a combination of political, economic, intellectual and military measures, violent Islamic fundamentalism could likewise be prevented from ever again posing a threat to Western liberal civilization.

The #MuslimVote: How Social Media Mobilized Election Victory

As Obama-Biden volunteers from all ages, ethnic groups and religions rested their weary eyes and feet, their ears remained glued to the sound of President Obama’s voice claiming a group victory, in Chicago, on election night.  “You organized yourselves block by block. You took ownership of this campaign five and ten dollars at a time. And when it wasn't easy, you pressed forward,” shared President Obama. Obama described grass-roots organizing where neighborhood blocks held local voter registration drives and phone parties to call neighbors to action. He also referred to “blocs” of key voting groups, like growing minorities, that had increased their civic engagement presence by advocating on issues. Muslim Americans were one of the communities that pressed forward and demonstrated pride in vocalizing their participation by typing #Forward and #MuslimVote on their web browsers and mobile phones as both organized groups and as individual citizens.  Mirroring other grassroots movements by the African-American and Latin-American communities, “Muslims For Obama” also operated as a movement that created the Twitter hash tag #MuslimVote to galvanize support of Muslim Americans. The purpose of “Muslims for Obama” was to identify as a distinct voting bloc for Obama in this 2012 election around a set of key issues beyond the neighborhood block.

Misconceptions of the Palestinian-Israeli Divide

Public interest in Palestine usually seems directly correlated to the number of bombs dropping and rockets firing. When the conflict simmers, people's attention spans increase. This tendency comes in tandem with a flawed paradigm, one that deems the conflict as intractable. Whether it is dismissed as insolvable because Muslims and Jews have supposedly been fighting for “thousands of years,” or because neither side can agree upon anything (or simply because it is too complex), the reality of the situation is consistently obscured by half-truths and whole myths.

The misconception that the conflict in Israel has persisted for millennia carries tremendous traction in the mainstream media. Implicit in this dismissal of the Palestinian conflict is that this is a war of religious ideology: both sides fighting for the supremacy of their own faith over another. In reality, faith serves little more than to embolden soldiers and legitimize otherwise outrageous political actions (like encroaching continuously into the West Bank with Jewish settlements or aiming rockets at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.)

Turkish Media Hate Speech Targets Armenians Most, Report Says

Armenians abroad and Turkey's Armenian community were the most targeted communities in articles or news items that are considered to be hate-speech between May and August 2012, according to a recent report from the Hrant Dink Foundation, released on Thursday.

The Hrant Dink Foundation regularly monitors the media for stories that target religious and ethnic minorities, or other disadvantaged groups such as the disabled or non-heterosexual individuals. Between August and May this year, there were 101 op-ed columns and news articles identified by the foundation's experts as targeting national, ethnic and religious groups. There were 35 items targeting women and individuals with sexual orientations that differ from the general population.

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*Photo Credit: NS Newsflash

Ready or Not, Here We Come: the NCF and Egypt’s Liberal Opposition

Egypt’s President Morsi enjoyed an unusual amount of congratulatory back-patting for his part in mitigating the recent Gaza conflict. Perhaps his newfound international credibility provided him the confidence he needed to make a revolutionary decree.

This decree freed him from any culpability or oversight from Egypt’s judiciary. Essentially, allowing the presidency to make powerful executive orders without restraint or meaningful opposition. As such, Morsi gained a level of power that was not enjoyed even by his tyrannous predecessor, Hosni Mubarak. The public reaction has clearly demonstrated that any self-gratifying power grabs wouldn’t be taken lightly. Morsi has been dubbed “Pharaoh” in the streets of Cairo and “Morsillini” on Twitter; he’s facing an internal judicial strike, pitting him against powerful Egyptian liberals. Violent anti-Brotherhood demonstrations have led to the death of one brotherhood member, the ransacking of the party’s headquarters, and the concurrent promise of counter-demonstrations from the MB.