Closing the week 52 – Featuring the Tunisia Uprising
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Featuring The Tunisia Uprising
This week in the Middle East | Brian Whitaker | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
The biggest story from the Middle East this week … No, the biggest, most important and most inspiring story from the Middle East this year is one that most readers may only vaguely have heard of, if at all. It’s the Tunisian uprising.
The riots and demonstrations that have swept through Tunisia during the past 10 days also began with a small incident. Twenty-six-year-old Mohamed Bouazizi, living in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, had a university degree but no work. To earn some money he took to selling fruit and vegetables in the street without a licence. When the authorities stopped him and confiscated his produce, he was so angry that he set himself on fire.
Witnesses report rioting in Tunisian town | Top News | Reuters
“People are angry at the case of Mohamed and the deterioration of unemployment in the region,” said Mahdi Said Horchani. “Regional authorities have promised to intervene.”
Tunisian president vows to punish rioters after worst unrest in a decade | World news | The Guardian
The president delivered a televised address promising more jobs while vowing to punish rioters after two protesters were killed and one graduate set himself on fire in desperation at not being able to find a job.
Tunisian minister is fired after unrest
The president, who runs this tiny Muslim country in North Africa with an iron fist, said the night before that the recent protest violence was manipulated by foreign media and hurt the country’s image. Tunisia is a popular destination for European tourists and one that rarely sees unrest or public dissent. Ben Ali’s government was clearly caught off guard by days of spreading discontent.
RE: Protests in Tunisia « The Moor Next Door
Do follow the links to the Tunisian sites following and reporting on the riots and protests. These are important, even if Tunisia is small and politically unimportant in the big picture, because they represent a push against some of the dominant narratives about Tunisia and its political culture and regime. It is important to understand the people involved and what their aspirations and objectives are; especially as the country looks set for succession in the next five or so years.
Re: Protests in Tunisia, Pt. II « The Moor Next Door
As stated previously, these riots are important because they challenge the dominant discourse on Tunisia’s politics (or lack there of) in western writing and reporting. Tunisia is by far among the most politically stable countries in North Africa and arguably the one with the healthiest economies. But this is all relative to its neighbors and must be considered in the regional context. If things are going the way they are in Tunisia, what does this mean for other geriatric regimes on the verge of power transitions? What impact will these have, if any at all, on how emerging Arab leaders in Egypt, Algeria, Libya and elsewhere look at their people?
No words could express my anger and bitterness about what’s going on in my country!
Les raisins de la colère tunisienne » Nawaat de Tunisie – Tunisia
La tentative d’immolation par le feu de Mohammed Bouaziz, jeune diplômé sans emploi, le 17 décembre à Sidi Bouzid a provoqué une vague de contestation. Depuis lors, ce mouvement s’est étendu au reste de la Tunisie, constate El Watan.
Union member Ali Zarei said that Felhi shouted “no for misery, no for unemployment” before ending his life by touching the pole energized with 30,000 megawatts. The death triggered protests met with tear gas after scores of jobless youths hurled stones at police and set fire to an administrative building in a nearby town.
In Egypt, activism escalates, spurred by Tunisian riots and local violence – Ahram Online
The cumulative and unprecedented peak of discontent – of the elections, the persecution, and the long-standing economic troubles that plague the majority of the nation’s 80 million population – may very well serve to unite disparate groups of activists and politicians, bringing them together in a larger, more forceful movement for change. And the example of Tunisia, and the courage its youth have displayed in risking their lives, may very well be the impetus Egypt’s own youth and activists need to take their activities to a new level of vitality. The question, this time, is how fast the government will react and what measures it will take to crush any imminent threats to its stability and rule. The planned demonstration may very well serve as an indicator and forewarning of what is to come.
The demonstrations have now crossed the Tunisian borders. Thanks to social media sites such as Twitter and Facebook and thanks to lessons learned during the aftermath of Iran’s Presidential election, Tunisians and other Arabs are mobilizing to throw their support behind a movement without a clear idea about who will carry on with this “revolt” as many have started calling it by now.
This is no Iran Election situation though and it would require more work to get the attention of the western world and its mainstream media to cover.
What happened to the state? Where did civil society go? Why is there only silence from Development Minister Mohamed Nouri Jouini?
Before even attempting to answer each one of those questions, these seemingly dysfunctional institutions need to be inspected more closely in order to see the extent to which they share responsibility for the suicidal protests of despair by Tunisia’s youth.
This is a not time for scoring political points. What Wikileaks says or does not say about Tunisia’s ruling familiy serves no purpose here. This is a time for reflection on Tunisia’s own ‘wretched of the earth’ – the ‘khobz-istes’ of Sidi Bouzid and the country’s disenfranchised youth.
The Khobz-istes (the jobless) strike back
Egyptian Chronicles: It is Biased Biased World
I do not understand how the mainstream media and social media dedicated itself to support and help the Iranian opposition after the last presidential elections in false hope to down the regime while it is ignoring the uprising of the Tunisian people that really have suffered for a long time in a way you can’t imagine it.
Egyptian Chronicles: Day No.14 : Tunisia Uprising
For the 14th day in a row the Tunisians continued their protest , for the two weeks now the Tunisians are moving more and more towards an uprising and the world does not want its Christmas and new year vacation to be disturbed. Tunisian people are still angry and the regime wants to control that anger with the security backlash
Tunisia’s inspiring rebellion | Nesrine Malik | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk
There are few moments in the political atmosphere of the Middle East that fill me with genuine pride. While eyes have long been fixed on opposition movements in Iran and Egypt, suddenly Tunisia has provided one of the most inspiring episodes of indigenous revolt against a repressive regime.
Tunisia struggles to end protests – Africa – Al Jazeera English
Tunisia is generally viewed in the West as one of the most stable and politically “moderate” countries in the region.
But the protests, the most boisterous the country has seen since the 1980s, have indicated a popular frustration with the government, a discontent hinted at earlier this month by a leaked US embassy cable.
The cable, titled “Corruption in Tunisia: What’s Yours is Mine”,dated June 2008 and released by the WikiLeaks whistleblowing website, observes a rising degree of corruption among the Tunisian establishment.
Protesters and Police Clash in Tunisia Following Self-Immolation | The Atlantic Wire
Though Tunisia’s relative prosperity has made it one of North Africa’s more peaceful states, the autocratic government is notorious for restricting political freedoms. The ongoing protests have come to incorporate long-held complaints in Tunisia over free speech restrictions, especially in the media and online, and over the 2009 election, which was marred with international observer allegations of government abuse. Here’s what’s happening in Tunisia and what Tunisia-watchers say it means.
Tunisie : Revue de presse des événements de Sidi Bouzid » Nawaat de Tunisie – Tunisia
Vendredi 17 décembre, Mohamed Bouazizi, un jeune diplômé de 26 ans, a tenté de s’immoler en plein jour devant le siège du gouvernorat de Sidi Bouzid, dans le centre-ouest de la Tunisie. Ce geste désespéré a provoqué un mouvement de révolte dans la ville qui est devenue le théâtre de confrontations violentes entre habitants et forces de l’ordre.
Popular Culture
Racists Totally Freak Out Over Muslim ‘Batman of Paris’ – ComicsAlliance | Comics culture, news, humor, commentary, and reviews
Another day, another racist freakout over non-white superheroes. But unlike the hilariously dishonest racism we saw when the Council of Conservative Citizens called for a boycott of Marvel’s Thor movie on account of a mythical Norse god’s depiction as a black man, a recent round of conservative attacks on Nightrunner — DC’s Muslim Batman of Paris — are prejudicial in a more insidious way. While the CCC put forth a laughably tenuous justification for their outrage, it was with respect to one specific character in one specific context. The argument against Nightrunner, led by conservative blogger Warner Todd Huston, is based on the bigoted belief that a Muslim superhero is by definition an exercise in deceitful political correctness, and that Muslims are natively evil.
DC Writer Responds to Anti-Islam Batman Attacks, Puts Protests In New Perspective | Death and Taxes
Batman writer David Hine has come out to explain his decision to have the Dark Knight team up with an Algerian Muslim, Nightrunner. In light of Hine’s remarks, a few more thoughts on why the right’s oh-so-wrong to protest.
Mecca Development Veers to Kitsch – Critic’s Notebook – NYTimes.com
It is an architectural absurdity. Just south of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Muslim world’s holiest site, a kitsch rendition of London’s Big Ben is nearing completion. Called the Royal Mecca Clock Tower, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the world, the centerpiece of a complex that is housing a gargantuan shopping mall, an 800-room hotel and a prayer hall for several thousand people. Its muscular form, an unabashed knockoff of the original, blown up to a grotesque scale, will be decorated with Arabic inscriptions and topped by a crescent-shape spire in what feels like a cynical nod to Islam’s architectural past. To make room for it, the Saudi government bulldozed an 18th-century Ottoman fortress and the hill it stood on.
‘Halal champagne’ falls a little flat – The National
PARIS // After the halal burger and halal foie gras became a hit with Muslims living in western countries, it is now the turn of champagne – or something vaguely like it – to try.
Missing character in kids’ literature: Muslims | StarTribune.com
“The books are more about what it’s like to live in another country and be a Muslim, or what it’s like to be from a war-torn nation, not what it’s like to be a teenager in America and be a Muslim,” Braun said. “Those books are few and far between.”
Misc.
The Media Line
Muslim and Jewish organizations in Europe are putting aside differences over the Middle East conflict to team up against a proposal by European Union (EU) lawmakers that would require ritually slaughtered meat to carry a label warning consumers about inhumane treatment to animals.
The Decline Effect and the Scientific Method : The New Yorker
Although many scientific ideas generate conflicting results and suffer from falling effect sizes, they continue to get cited in the textbooks and drive standard medical practice. Why? Because these ideas seem true. Because they make sense. Because we can’t bear to let them go. And this is why the decline effect is so troubling. Not because it reveals the human fallibility of science, in which data are tweaked and beliefs shape perceptions. (Such shortcomings aren’t surprising, at least for scientists.) And not because it reveals that many of our most exciting theories are fleeting fads and will soon be rejected. (That idea has been around since Thomas Kuhn.) The decline effect is troubling because it reminds us how difficult it is to prove anything. We like to pretend that our experiments define the truth for us. But that’s often not the case. Just because an idea is true doesn’t mean it can be proved. And just because an idea can be proved doesn’t mean it’s true. When the experiments are done, we still have to choose what to believe. ?
sp!ked review of books | The truth about tolerance
Frank Furedi, author of the forthcoming On Tolerance: A Defence of Moral Independence, takes to task Tariq Ramadan, who wants to bury the Enlightenment virtue of toleration and replace it with recognition.
Book Review – Holy Ignorance – By Olivier Roy – NYTimes.com
Over the past few years, a number of theories have been offered about the rise of fundamentalism. Roy proposes the most original — and the most persuasive. Fundamentalism, in his view, is a symptom of, rather than a reaction against, the increasing secularization of society. Whether it takes the form of the Christian right in the United States or Salafist purity in the Muslim world, fundamentalism is not about restoring a more authentic and deeply spiritual religious experience. It is instead a manifestation of holy ignorance, Roy’s biting term meant to characterize the worldview of those who, having lost both their theology and their roots, subscribe to ideas as incoherent as they are ultimately futile. The most important thing to know about those urging the restoration of a lost religious authenticity is that they are sustained by the very forces they denounce.
Suicide bombing: the martyr machine | Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist
Indeed, international indifference to suffering in Pakistan is certainly not something new. In the commonplace carnage, Pakistani lives appear cheap for both the Pakistani terrorists and the international community, including those involved in the business of making the world “safe” from terrorism. Out of this chaos, one recurrent question arises: why do people volunteer (if they volunteer) to become human bombs and kill innocents, even those who are desperately poor and already suffering? In this post I will not address the first part of the question but rather the second.
Dutch
Protesten tegen werkloosheid in Tunesië « Rooieravotr
Of het werkelijk een revolutionaire volksopstand wordt waarmee de massa van de bevolking zich van een onderdrukkend bewind gaat ontdoen dat hen geen fatsoenlijke toekomst biedt? In ieder geval is het meer, véél meer, dan enkel een paar losse rellen en protesten. En dat is al bemoedigend.
Moslims doen wel zeker iets… – Trouw
Ibrahim Wijbenga, Marokkaans-Nederlands jongerenwerker en voorzitter Landelijk Platform aanpak Jeugdcriminaliteit, heeft gelijk (Podium, 23 december). Geweld tegen Joden is toegenomen. En dat geweld komt niet alleen van de kant van de moslims. Maar waar de discriminatie en het geweld van de islamitische kant komt, blijft het vaak stil. Er wordt niet voldoende afstand genomen door de islamitische gemeenschap zelf, aldus Wijbenga. Ook dat is waar. Antisemitisme wordt niet afdoende veroordeeld.
Wilders maakt boek over zijn visie op islam – Trouw
PVV-leider Geert Wilders wil een boek over zijn visie op de islam uitbrengen, zo heeft hij gezegd in een interview dat vrijdag in De Telegraaf staat.
Islam en Darwin : Nieuwemoskee
Mohammed M.I. Ghaly (1976) is hoogleraar Islam aan de Universiteit Leiden. Hij studeerde islamwetenschappen aan zowel de Al-Azhar Universiteit in Egypte als aan de Universiteit Leiden. In Leiden promoveerde hij op het onderwerp ‘Islam en Handicap’. Zijn interesse ligt met name op het terrein van de islamitische ethiek, jurisprudentie en theologie. Onlangs schreef hij ‘Islam en Darwin, de receptie van Darwin en de evolutietheorie in de Islamitische traditie[i]’. Dit artikel was aanleiding om Mohammed Ghaly voor een gesprek met Nieuwemoskee uit te nodigen.
Radio 1 Journaal » Blog Archief » DE OMGEKEERDE WERELD VAN MARTIN BOSMA
‘Ik een socialist? Nee. Een populist geloof ik, als ik de verzamelde media moet geloven. Eigenlijk ben ik gewoon een ouderwetse sociaaldemocraat, maar mijn tak van sport bestaat niet meer tegenwoordig, geloof ik.’
Het was het nuchtere antwoord van Martin Bosma op de licht provocerende opening van onze ontmoeting, ontleend aan het ophefmakende boek dat hij schreef als prominent PVV-kamerlid: De schijn-élite van de valse munters. Het eind van het jaar 2010 was een geschikt moment om samen met Michiel Breedveld van de Haagse redactie Bosma te laten vertellen over zijn drijfveren en kritische kanttekeningen te zetten bij het boek. Juist omdat het boek zoveel inzicht geeft over het denken bij de PVV. Bijvoorbeeld over de observatie dat Hitler een socialist was.
Ewoud Butter: Gezocht: polderimams
Nederlandse moslims hebben het inmiddels al 20 jaar over de wenselijkheid van in Nederland opgeleide imams. Een wens die gedeeld wordt door de Nederlandse politiek. Zo sprak Rita Verdonk in 2005 de hoop uit dat er in 2008 geen imams meer uit het buitenland zouden worden gehaald. Inmiddels is er een imamopleiding en komen er steeds meer Turks-Nederlandse imams. In Marokkaanse moskeeën blijven polderimams voorlopig nog een uitzondering.
» Archief » Maak kennis met de Nederlandse poldermoslim
De meeste moslims in Nederland komen uit het Midden-Oosten en Noord-Afrika. We hebben het dus over een gebied dat zich uitstrekt van Marokko tot en met Iran en van Turkije tot Soedan.
Aan de hand van een aantal profielen, willen we je een idee geven van de veelzijdigheid van migranten uit deze regio.
Angst voor de islam verkoopt « Mzine
Veel mensen zijn bang voor de islamisering. En hoewel de cijfers hun angst weerspreken, wordt deze ook gevoed en geëxploiteerd.
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