Closing the week 3 – Featuring the Tunisia Uprising II
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Featuring Tunisia Uprising II
YouTube – Suicide that sparked a revolution
Tunisia’s political upheaval began last month after a young vendor set himself on fire after police confiscated the fruits and vegetables he sold.
The act of self-immolation sparked a series of protests and riots that ultimately led to the end of President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali’s 23-year rule.
Al Jazeera’s Ayman Mohyeldin traveled to the man’s hometown of Sidi Bouzid for this exclusive report.
[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47d6fyaOjRM]
Esam Al-Amin: The Fall of the West’s Little Dictator
But perhaps the ultimate lesson to Western policymakers is this: Real change is the product of popular will and sacrifice, not imposed by foreign interference or invasions.
To topple the Iraqi dictator, it cost the U.S. over 4,500 dead soldiers, 32,000 injured, a trillion dollars, a sinking economy, at least 150,000 dead Iraqis, a half-million injured, and the devastation of their country, as well as the enmity of billions of Muslims and other people around the world.
Meanwhile, the people of Tunisia toppled another brutal dictator with less than 100 dead who will forever be remembered and honored by their countrymen and women as heroes who paid the ultimate price for freedom.
An uprising in Tunisia – The Big Picture – Boston.com
Beginning in December of last year, a series of ongoing protests in the streets of Tunisia escalated to the point where President Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali – who had ruled the country for 23 years – at first declared he would not seek re-election, then fled the country on January 14th. An interim government was assembled, but protesters remain in the streets, demanding removal of all traces of Ben Ali’s old RCD party. Protesters’ frustrations with high unemployment, inflation and corruption drove them to the streets after a pivotal event, when a young Tunisian vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire after police confiscated his produce cart. Bouazizi died of his injuries days later. Collected here are images of the turmoil in Tunisia over the past couple of weeks.
Tunisia: How the US got it wrong – Opinion – Al Jazeera English
The events in Tunisia again show how US foreign policy in the Middle East fails to fully understand the region.
Mark LeVine
Revolution in Tunisia – Tariq RAMADAN
All honor and praise to the people of Tunisia ! Their resistance and non-violent civic revolutionary action, their determination and sacrifice, has shaken the dictatorship to its foundations. President Ben Ali has fled—he and his close collaborators should have been put on trial—and the country’s prime minister (a long time Ben Ali’s support) has taken the helm…but for how much longer ? What we are witnessing is the first stage ; the stakes are high, the situation fraught with danger. Anything can happen : an attempt by the regime to play for time or to manipulate the people’s demands (with a sham “new” government) ; shadowy maneuvers by internal or outside forces. Vigilance is essential ; there is no place for naivety ; we must remain alert, and beware of hasty expedients. Tunisia’s informal citizens’ revolution has revealed an extraordinary power, but the new counter-power’s strength can also become a weakness if confronted with political forces that will attempt to use the constitution, international political alignments or profit from a cooling-off period simply to reshuffle the deck. We must be equally vigilant about the role of the army. The people may be offered the appearance of freedom minus the dictator, followed by a new clampdown on Tunisian political life. Let us indeed hail this first victory—but be aware that the outcome is far from settled.
Bloggingheads.tv – Uprising in Tunisia
Uprising in Tunisia
The revolution or would-be revolution in Tunisia (09:39)
What happens next? (05:12)
What should the US do? (10:44)
Arab nostalgia for Bush, disappointment in Obama (05:33)
Peace vs. democracy promotion in the Middle East (07:27)
Which regimes might be next to fall? (13:25)
The lesson from Tunisia’s people – The National
Yet one of the lessons to be learned from the Tunisian uprising, which brought down a 23-year-old closed system of rule, is that every despot-led Arab regime lays the foundations for its own undoing. The greedy lust for power, economic monopolies, the exclusion of the people and the oppression of intellectual elites are bound to make the citizens turn the tables.
The Tunisian regime was not the weakest in the region and the Tunisian people are not necessarily the fiercest. For many Arab governments, this should be food for thought.
In the wake of the ouster of Tunisian President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, we speak with University of Michigan History Professor Juan Cole. “This is the first popular revolution since 1979,” Cole says. “This revolution so far has been spearheaded by labor movements, by internet activists, by rural workers. It’s a populist revolution, and not particularly dominated in any way by Islamic themes, it seems to be a largely secular development.
Where Were the Tunisian Islamists? – NYTimes.com
The young Tunisian street peddler who triggered the revolt by publicly burning himself reminds us of the Vietnamese Buddhist monks in 1963 or of Jan Palach in Czechoslovakia in 1969 — an act of precisely the opposite nature from the suicide bombings that are the trademark of present Islamic terrorism.
Even in this sacrificial act, there has been nothing religious: no green or black turban, no Allah Akbar, no call to jihad. It was instead an individual, desperate and absolute protest, without a word on paradise and salvation. Suicide in this case was the last act of freedom aimed at shaming the dictator and prodding the public to react.
Mona Eltahawy Blog » Archives » Raining on the Tunisian Revolution
But let me tell you what really distresses me off: a host of Western “analysts” and “experts” determined to outdo our despots in coming up with reasons why the Tunisian revolution will fail and why it’s impossible to replicate.
Anthropology
Cultural Farming
All TV/media content communicates messages; but less understood are how media production practices equally communicate. Cultural Farming is a collection of ethnographic video websites built upon simple, camera-less, techniques of appropriation and remix. These projects are on-going performances of public mediaturgy. Each is a
critical examination of common media practice and presentation…because production is always the first step in media meaning-making.The purpose, here, is to illustrate possibilities for critical response in a mediated world, and most importantly to foment deeper public discourse about how media-makers tell our socio-cultural stories to us. In short, common TV/media practices can only tell certain kinds of stories, and only in certain kinds of ways. This is a massive communicational dilemma in a multi-dimensional-media-world. And so, how we respond through our media to those communicating to us can help to inform all media production. Let’s respond to “media” by critically refunctioning its language and technique. Let’s retell “media’s” unreflexive stories back to their makers, to challenge anonymous cultural production.
Book review: No fashion outside the “West”?
“The subject of fashion in non-Western world is largely understudied. The whole research community is to be blamed for viewing fashion too narrowly”, Tereza Kuldova writes in her new book review for antropologi.info. She has read a new book on fashion studies: Fashion in Focus by sociologist Tim Edwards.
How to create culture by noticing culture
Spotting culture is a way of creating culture. Everyone is smarter and more observant when we’ve given them the ethnographic head’s up. Cat jewelry? I had no idea. But now I will look for it. When I am stuck at the airport, I will use the BusinessWeek typology to observe the people around me. New categories will suggest themselves. Old ones will get refined. Union Square? I will keep my “Normal Bob” cheat sheet in mind as I go.
Making culture, mapping culture
Rick asked, “What if I redid the subway map [as] a food map?” He brought in his friend Maira Kalman and the two of them renamed 468 stations. Avenue H became Mulligan Stew, Avenue J became Can of Soda, and Brighton beach became Beach Stroganoff. The New Yorker published their map in 2004.
This is remapping, taking a world we know, and reworking how we see it. It’s one way to make culture.
In an urban neighbourhood in eastern Java, hundreds of religious students, or santri, arrive at a pesantren (boarding school) owned and run by the family of a charismatic preacher, Nyai Nisa. She is a popular figure, aged in her 40s, with hundreds of supporters who appreciate her speeches for their wisdom and for the feminist orientation of her religious thought. The santri have come to this family-operated pesantren because it is also the home of a tarekat (Sufi order). They will attend courses of study that last for days, weeks or months depending on their spiritual needs.
Lies Marcoes Natsir is one of Indonesia’s foremost experts in Islam and gender. She has played a pioneering role in the Indonesian gender equality movement by bridging the divide between Muslim and secular feminists and encouraging feminists to work within Islam to promote gender equality. Lies is a passionate and talented trainer and has used these skills to change people’s attitudes to the status of women in Islam. With her strong leadership and commitment Lies has empowered countless Indonesian women and brought gender into mainstream parlance in Indonesia.
Misc.
‘What is your problem with me?’ Pakistani actress asks Muslim cleric amid reality show furor
ISLAMABAD — A Pakistani actress castigated for appearing to cuddle with an Indian actor on a reality show lashed out at a Muslim cleric who had criticized her during a widely watched television exchange this week.
Hamburg´s Jihadi Legacy – German Town Invaded by Islamists | Jih@d
After Hamburg´s notorious 9-11 Mosque “Masjid Taiba” was closed last year, radical Salafis are searching for a place to meet and worship. In a small North German community they found a new home – one of them a 18 year-old convert who threatens local Jewish Community officials.
WikiLeaks: US courted Dutch Muslims after Van Gogh murder | Radio Netherlands Worldwide
An all-expenses-paid study trip to the US: that was the offer to a number of prominent Dutch Muslims following the killing of controversial filmmaker Theo van Gogh in 2004. Now WikiLeaks documents reveal that these trips were part of a concerted effort by Washington to win the hearts and minds of Dutch Muslims. Among them was the current Mayor of Rotterdam, Ahmed Aboutaleb.
Muslim resistance: The struggle within – video | World news | guardian.co.uk
Documentary maker Masood Khan explores the Muslim community’s struggle against extremism. In the first of three videos, he goes to Luton to see how Salafi Muslims are rejecting the extreme rhetoric of al-Muhajiroun
Amira Hafner-Al-Jabaji talks about dialogue with government. – swissinfo
It is one year since the Swiss government initiated regular dialogue with the Muslim community following a vote to ban new minaret construction.
swissinfo.ch spoke to Amira Hafner-Al-Jabaji, a Swiss of Iraqi origin and one of those involved in the dialogue, about what had changed since November 29, 2009.
Building a police state in Palestine | The Middle East Channel
“If we are building a police state — what are we actually doing here?” So asked a European diplomat responding to allegations of torture by the Palestinian security forces. The diplomat might well ask. A police state is not a state. It is a form of larceny: of people’s rights, aspirations and sacrifices, for the personal benefit of an élite. This is not what the world meant when it called for statehood. But a police state is what is being assiduously constructed in Palestine, disguised as state-building and good governance. Under this guise, its intent is to facilitate the authoritarianism which creates sufficient popular dependency — and fear — to strangle any opposition.
Theocracy: “What Would Be So Bad About It?” | Religion Dispatches
I’m not sure why she used the word theodicy — which is an attempt to answer the theological problem of evil, that is, how can an all-powerful, all-knowing, loving god permit evil to exist — when what she was talking about was clearly theocracy (and Rushdoony didn’t articulate a distinctive theodicy anyway). The flattering essay describes Ahmanson as a “force of nature” and “unflinching in her defense of Rushdoony.” And, in turn, the article doesn’t question either her denial of her own theocratic leanings — or her defense of theocracy as a concept.
Dutch
Onderzoek naar lespraktijken in moskeeën is gestrand
Een onderzoek naar lespraktijken in moskeeën is onlangs gestaakt. Dat heeft minister Piet Hein Donner aan de Tweede Kamer geschreven. Het Verwey-Jonker instituut heeft de opdracht teruggegeven, nadat het er maar niet in slaagde afspraken te maken met moskeeën in Amsterdam en Tilburg. Zo schrijft de Vokskrant.
Waar hebben we het nou eigenlijk over? – Wij Blijven Hier!: Het schrijversplatform van moslims
Vooropgesteld: als het aan mij ligt, zouden juist Islamitische organisaties de meest transparante organisaties moeten zijn. Je zou ieder onderzoek naar het pedagogisch klimaat met open armen moeten ontvangen en hen vol trots de mooie, moderne en schone lokalen kunnen laten zien. Je zou ze op ieder moment een les kunnen laten bijwonen en daarna de complimenten over de stijl van lesgeven op een bescheiden manier in ontvangst nemen. Dat is nu niet de realiteit en dat is een probleem. Ook ik heb niet het vermoeden dat het onderzoek geen doorgang heeft kunnen vinden omdat de Islamitische organisaties uit bescheidenheid hun kwaliteiten niet wilde tonen. Er is nog een hoop te doen.
p>Maar laten we wel de zaken in perspectief blijven zien; waar hebben we het nou eigenlijk over?
„Islam verloochent eigen bron” – Kerknieuws – Kerkplein
UTRECHT – Tussen de moderne islam en het klassieke islamitische denken bestaat een radicale breuk. Islamitische intolerantie van vandaag de dag heeft nauwelijks iets gemeen met het gedachtegoed van moslims in de tiende eeuw.
Pickwick, alleen voor echte Nederlanders – Wij Blijven Hier!: Het schrijversplatform van moslims
Mensen. Er is helemaal geen reden om grammoedig te zijn. Ik kreeg langzamerhand namelijk het vermoeden dat Neerlands marketeers in de veronderstelling waren dat er in elke reclame minimaal één vervelende allochtoon hoorde te zitten. Ik ben daarom blij dat er nu eens een keer van wordt afgeweken en men voor de verandering het Germaanse type uit de gouwe ouwe doos haalt. En alleen al om die reden mag deze reclame genomineerd worden voor een Gouden Loekie in de categorie: Beste Reclame Zonder Irritante Allochtonen
Wat is nou ‘stuff muslims like’? « Nieuwsblog nrc.next
http://www.nrcnext.nl/files/2011/01/conversation_starter132.jpgVanavond worden in het programma Zóóó moslim bekende Nederlanders getest op hun kennis over de islam. Deelnemers moeten vragen als ‘Wat is de hadj’ en ‘hoeveel moskeeën zijn er in Nederland’ zo goed mogelijk beantwoorden. Maar, vraagt redacteur Hanina Ajarai zich vandaag in de papieren nrc.next af, is het niet verstandiger naar moslims te kijken, in plaats van de islam? Je kunt wel iets weten over islam, maar dan weet je eigenlijk nog steeds weinig over moslims.
‘Diversiteit’ is een van de melkkoeien van de Publieke Omroep (PO). Het uitgangspunt van dit beleid is dat de etnische, culturele en religieuze verscheidenheid die Nederland rijk is zichtbaar moet zijn in het aanbod, de makers en het publiek van de media. De media moeten een weerspiegeling zijn van de multiculturele samenleving. Kortom: meer gekleurde acteurs, meer uitheemse presentatoren, meer exotische kandidaten in spelshows en meer aan elkaar gegroeide wenkbrauwen. En dan heb ik het niet over Bert en Ernie. Dit diversiteitsbeleid zou moeten leiden tot meer herkenning en binding met de allochtone kijker. Tot zover de theorie. In de praktijk doen de eerste-generatie-allochtonen (in het bijzonder de moslims) praktisch aan PO-geheelonthouding. Hun kijkgedrag beperkt zich tot de eigentalige schoteltelevisie. De tweede- en derde generatie allochtonen vertonen in kijk- en luistergedrag opvallend veel overeenkomsten met hun autochtone generatiegenoten. Beiden kijken en luisteren veel naar de commerciële zenders. Wat gaat hier mis?
Reformatie en modernisering in de islam : Nieuwemoskee
‘Reformatie en modernisering in de islam’ is een veel besproken thema in moslimkringen, maar ook daarbuiten. Ook in Nederland. De context waarbinnen men dit thema aankaart, impliceert het agenderen van de vraag of de islam vergelijkbare ontwikkelingen kent. De ogenschijnlijk neutrale uitdrukking ‘Reformatie en islam’ verhult echter een aanname met een hoog sceptische gehalte, namelijk dat reformatie- of hervormingsprocessen en modernisering in de islam wel degelijk gewenst zijn. Hier ga ik in op de vraag of islam reformatie- of hervormingprocessen en modernisering kent, en op de vooronderstelde noodzaak dan wel wenselijkheid van dergelijke processen in islam.
De nieuwe schoolstrijd | Dagelijkse Standaard
Gisteren betoogde Joost Niemoller dat het een goede zaak zou zijn als openbare scholen zich zouden verzetten tegen de hoofddoek. Het feit dat alleen bijzondere scholen de hoofddoek mogen weigeren zal er volgens hem toe leiden dat de openbare scholen uiteindelijk tot moslimscholen zullen vervallen en zullen radicaliseren. Bijval was zijn deel, met als voornaamste argument dat openbaar (staats)onderwijs seculier zou moeten zijn, en dat alle religieuze symbolen er zouden moeten worden uitgebannen.
Ik ga eens lekker in tegen deze communis opinio. Secularisering van het openbaar onderwijs ondermijnt het openbare karakter hiervan.
Bruggenbouwers » Cartoonaffaire Denemarken leerzaam voor beoordeling gevolgen Fitna
Zonder de cartoonaffaire in Denemarken in 2005/2006 hadden de Nederlanders minder goed geweten hoe te reageren op de verschijning van de film Fitna in maart 2008. Dat was één van de conclusies die een deelneemster trok na afloop van de ontmoeting op woensdag 19 januari tussen een delegatie van de Deense kerken en een delegatie van de Raad van Kerken in Nederland over het beleid inzake interreligieuze ontmoetingen.
Simon Admiraal en de omgekeerde wishful thinking » Mihai Martoiu Ticu
Simon Admiraal serveert ons de stelling dat ‘Tariq Ramadan wil omgekeerde integratie’ in een opiniestuk in de Volkskrant. Dit stuk is doorspekt met denkfouten en de stelling wordt op geen enkele manier hard gemaakt. Daarnaast toont het gebruikte materiaal evidente onjuistheden. Omdat ik toegang heb tot de Engelse versie van Ramadan’s boek “Western Muslims and the Future of Islam”, kon ik de enige twee aangeleverde “bewijzen” controleren op juistheid van vertaling en de context.
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