Category: Society & Politics in the Middle East
Last night Moroccan king Mohammed VI announced reforms and a constitutional referendum. This can be seen as the answer of the Moroccan establishment to the protests in Morocco. Will it be sufficient for the protesters? The ideas of the king sounded healthy and promising but isn’t it more of the same…again? At the same time I’m also not that sure of the ‘revolutionairy spirit’ is so strong anymore. Furthermore it remains to be seen whether the supporters and opponents of reform will get an equal share of media publicity in the weeks leading up to the referendum. And if the referendum will be a clear yes for the reform, will the reforms eventually lead to a substantial decrease of the power of the current elite? Journalist Achmed Benchemsi has a good first take I think on the speech at Al Jazeera.
A weekly round up of writings on the Internet, some relevant for my research, some political, some funny but all of them interesting (Dutch/English). (As usual to a large extent based upon suggestions from Dutch, other European, American and Middle Eastern readers. Thank you all.) This week featuring the uprisings in the Middle East, again.
Bernard Haykel and Charles Schmitz are two of the most renowned scholars working on Middle East, including Yemen. In this talk they both shed some light on the complex background of the Yemeni situation, local and international politics, Al Qaeda, president Saleh, tribal matters and so on. Listen and watch this crash course on Yemen.
Madawi Al-Rasheed is Professor of Social Anthropology at King’s College, London. Born in Saudi Arabia, she currently lives in London. Her research focuses on history, society, religion and politics in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Her recent publications include Politics in an Arabian Oasis, A History of Saudi Arabia, and Contesting the Saudi State. In an interview with The Real News she reflects on current developments in Saudi Arabia against the background of the Middle Eastern uprisings and ‘Western hypocrisy’.
Wat is de positie van vermeende terreurverdachten in Nederland? In hoeverre speelt de AIVD onder één hoedje met veiligheidsdiensten in het Midden-Oosten die niet terugschrikken voor martelingen? Deze vragen komen vandaag aan bod in een uitzending van het VPRO programma Argos, naar aanleiding van de zaak Saddek Sbaa. Hier meer achtergronden over deze zaak en over de implicaties ervan.
The inspiration for the peaceful side of revolution in Egypt and Tunisia was derived from divergent sources ranging from celebrated figures and icons of nonviolence like Gandhi, Martin Luther King, and Gene Sharp and the human rights orientation of the cause. In this article Linda Herrera takes on a different approach by looking as to how the symbolism and imagery of the popular movie ‘V for Vendetta’ is used by activists in a way that shows the symbiotic relation between the bellicose language and images of objects of their rage and instructing the community on using peaceful non-violent strategies.
A weekly round up of writings on the Internet, some relevant for my research, some political, some funny but all of them interesting (Dutch/English). (As usual to a large extent based upon suggestions from Dutch, other European, American and Middle Eastern readers. Thank you all.) This week featuring the arrest of Radko Mladic.
‘Justice is done’, zei president Obama toen hij de dood van Osama bin Laden openbaar maakte. Na tien jaar zoeken hebben de Amerikanen hun aartsvijand gevonden en geliquideerd. Maar wat betekent de dood van Bin Laden? De opkomst van Al Qaeda in de jaren negentig was een reactie op de toenmalige politieke repressie in het Midden-Oosten. Inmiddels is in veel landen een streven naar democratisering op gang gekomen. Bin Ladens ideologie was gebaseerd op de woede over vernedering en onmacht, terwijl de huidige ontwikkelingen gebaseerd zijn op het terugwinnen van waardigheid. Roel Meijer stelt de vraag of Bin Ladens dood het einde van een tijdperk markeert en het begin van een nieuw hoofdstuk in de geschiedenis van het Midden-Oosten.
A weekly round up of writings on the Internet, some relevant for my research, some political, some funny but all of them interesting (Dutch/English). (As usual to a large extent based upon suggestions from Dutch, other European, American and Middle Eastern readers. Thank you all.) This week featuring the Saudi Arabian campaign Women2Drive.
This week the Israelis remember the victims of the holocaust and of the establishment of the Israeli state. The Palestinians remember Nakba, the ethnic cleansing of Palestine by Zionist armed forces. Both cases of remembrance are hegemonic and contribute to the construction of us and them while they are tightly connected at the same time.
