Winnaars en verliezers van 2013: Dr Kromzwaard Trofee 2013

Posted on January 1st, 2014 by martijn.
Categories: Blind Horses, Blogosphere, Islam in the Netherlands, islamophobia, Multiculti Issues.

U weet het; 1 januari dus is het tijd voor de bekendmaking van de Dr. Kromzwaard Trofee 2013. Een paar opmerkingen vooraf:

1. De competitie is een paar jaar geleden gestart met een ludieke ondertoon; de naam is daar een onderdeel van.. Dat neemt niet weg dat de suggesties van mensen en de uiteindelijke stemmen natuurlijk wel serieus zijn. Vorig jaar werd eigenlijk voor het eerst vooral benadrukt hoe onbelangrijk de trofee is; maar er werd iets te vaak gezegd dat het onbelangrijk was. Ook dit jaar moest onder andere Annabel Nanninga (Geenstijl) toch vooral publiekelijk laten weten dat het niets uitmaakt dat zij genomineerd was (ze verwachtte overigens zeker de nummer één te worden in haar faalhaas-categorie). Ook stijgt ieder jaar het aantal stemmen. Dit jaar is dat 1497. Daarbij is de klacht van enkele mensen dat je een trofee met deze naam niet makkelijk op je cv zet. Met andere woorden, de competitie is heeft iets te serieuze proporties aangenomen voor deze naam. In 2014 krijgt de competitie daarom een nieuwe naam. Als u suggesties heeft, dan hoor ik ze graag!
2. Het blijkt opnieuw dat het aantal keer dat een artikel is ingezonden als suggestie, werkelijk helemaal niets zegt over de einduitslag. In geen enkele categorie is het meest ingezonden artikel de winnaar geworden.
3. Hieronder volgt de uitslag per categorie. Helemaal onderaan vindt u het complete overzicht van de stempercentages.

De winnaars van 2013

Beste blog

Sterke kandidaten hier. Het vaakst ingezonden was het prachtige stuk van Martijn Kleppe over de foto van Marokkaans-Nederlandse jongeren en hoe deze is verworden tot een icoon. Martijn Kleppe kreeg uiteindelijjk 19% van de stemmen. Het stuk van Rahma Bavelaar dat één van de beste kritieken is op media-verslaggeving van het afgelopen jaar, werd derde met 9% van de stemmen. De winnaar met de meeste stemmen is het mooie en zeer noodzakelijke stuk van Nourdeen Wildeman over de Rohingya met liefst 72% van de stemmen (het hoogste percentage van allemaal bij de winnaars).

Beste nieuws/achtergrond

Een lastige categorie voor velen omdat ze televisie moesten vergelijken met een geschreven stuk. Het vaakst ingezonden item vooraf was de uitzending van het NRCV programma Altijd Wat over de Syrië-gangers. Uiteindelijk kreeg dit programma 23% van de stemmen, net voor de uitzending over Marianne Vaatstra van het programma Medialogica met 21% van de stemmen. De overduidelijke winnaar hier is het stuk van Nadia Fadil met 56% van de stemmen. Dit stuk is geschreven in de context van de discussie over Syrië-gangers, maar laat een breder patroon zien waarom mensen hun eigen land verlaten.

Beste opinie/column

Hier is het verschil tussen inzendingen en de uiteindelijke uitslag misschien wel het grootst. Het artikel van Nadia Ezzeroili over haar afscheid van islam was veruit het vaakst ingezonden. Geen enkel artikel in welke categorie dan ook is zo vaak voorgesteld: 15 keer. Uiteindelijk wordt ze derde met 17% van de stemmen, maar we gaan zeker nog van haar horen denk ik. Nummer twee (24%) is het stuk van Johny van Hove over hoe racisme is verweven met onze tradities en populaire cultuur; waarschijnlijk het meest analytische stuk van de drie. De winnaar hier is Norah Karrouche met haar krachtige (en net als bij Ezzeroili’s stuk) invoelbare verhaal over integratie met 59% van de stemmen.

Alle mensen in deze drie categorieeën van harte gefeliciteerd en in het bijzonder de winnaars natuurlijk!

Faalhazen

Daar gaan we verder niet teveel woorden aan wijden mensen.

Blogfaalhaas

Meest ingezonden stuk was van Frank Verhoef: uiteindelijk 16% van de stemmen. Annabel Nanninga die zeker wist dat ze hier nummer één zou worden, maar het maakte haar natuurlijk niks uit, kreeg 34% van de stemmen. Bart Schut is de verliezer met 50% van de stemmen.

Nieuwsfaalhaas

Meest ingezonden: Perdiep Ramesar over de Schilderswijk (38%). Nummer drie is Omroep West over de Piermoskee met 15% van de stemmen. De verliezer hier is Spitsnieuws, hoewel vermeld moet worden dat ook anderen trapten in de seksjihad hoax: 47% van de stemmen.

Opinie/columnfaalhaas

Vaakst ingezonden was hier Jonathan van het Reve en deze eindigt uiteindelijk als derde met 10% van de stemmen. Rob Wijnberg wordt tweede met 16% en de verliezer is hier het stuk van Geert Wilders en Joram van Klaveren met maar liefst 74% van de stemmen.

Tot Slot

Rest mij alle winnaars te feliciteren! En natuurlijk iedereen te bedanken die stukken heeft ingezonden en heeft gestemd. Met dank aan L.M. en U.O voor het vele werk (nou ja dit jaar was een makkie toch?).

U kunt het hele jaar 2014 weer stukken inzenden als suggesties voor de competitie van 2014. Maar zoals hierboven gesteld, de naam gaat veranderen in 2014. Ook daarvoor worden suggesties op prijs gesteld!

En natuurlijk, alle goeds toegewenst voor u en uw dierbaren in 2014 (en hopelijk ver daarna ook…).

PS
Overigens bestaat mijn site in 2014 15 jaar. Ter gelegenheid van dat blogessaywedstrijd. Denk dat ik het thema heb, maar suggesties mogen nog. In maart meer.

3 comments.

Nieuw in Nederland: #Happylines Dawah

Posted on December 3rd, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, Blogosphere, Islam in the Netherlands, Notes from the Field, Public Islam, Ritual and Religious Experience.

Sinds kort hebben de gratis dagbladen Sp!ts en Metro iedere dag een kleine ruimte vrij op hun voorpagina:

Dag 24: Glimlachen met #happylines – Metro

Metro en Sp!ts houden dagelijks ruimte vrij op de voorpagina voor #happylines. Hier kunnen lezers mooie, zelfgeschreven gedachtes, wensen, lieve woorden of een tekening achterlaten voor de volgende lezer.

Zoals de pagina inderdaad laat zien, levert dit aardige dingen op. Soms zijn ze simpel en alledaags en soms meer diepgaander. Het duurde niet heel lang of ik kwam op Facebook de volgende statusupdate van Abou Khattab Al Turkmani tegen:

Anonieme dawah in de trein!

Als we dit allemaal doen, moeten jullie opletten wat er zal gebeuren in Nederland!

De volgende aya’s heb ik opgeschreven:

263. (Het uitspreken van,) vriendelijke woorden en vergeving is beter dan een liefdadigheid die door kwetsing gevolgd wordt. En Allah is Behoefteloos, Zachtmoedig.
Surat Baqarah aya 263

8. Allah verbiedt jullie niet om met degenen die jullie niet bestrijden vanwege de godsdienst, en die jullie niet uit jullie woonplaatsen verdrijven, goed en rechtvaardig om te gaan. Voorwaar, Allah houdt van de rechtvaardigen.

Surat Al-momtahanah aya 8

#happylines

Intussen is er een eigen facebook pagina opgezet: Happylines Dawah. Op De Ware Religie zegt initiatiefnemer Abou Khattab het volgende:
Nieuw dawah project in Nederland; #Happylines Dawah | DeWareReligie.nl

Vandaag de dag lopen de mensen als blinde kippen achter de media aan, dat kan anders. Met prikkelende teksten wil ik uitleggen dat de islam anders in elkaar zit dat het algemeen heersende beeld. Dat het helemaal niet zo vreemd is dat de moslims in Syrië vechten voor sharia. Het zijn vaak de onwetende mensen die praten met boter op hun hoofd.” […] “We laten het niet zomaar gebeuren dat Nederland 368 soldaten naar Mali stuurt. We onderdrukken niet, maar als wij, als moslim gemeenschap, aangevallen worden en onderdrukt worden dan zullen wij onze tanden laten zien. En die zijn scherp!”

[…] “De men leeft in een samenleving die te maken heeft met een financiële crisis, een maatschappelijke crisis en een morele crisis. De islam biedt daar de oplossing voor, maar dat moeten de mensen nog wel weten.”

Dawah
Dawah heeft een lange traditie binnen de islam en wordt meestal vertaald met ‘uitnodiging tot de islam. Grofweg kan dawa gezien worden als een praktijk met drie dimensies:
1) Een getuigenis over de islam;
2) Een rituele praktijk waarbij verschillende formules en handelingen worden herhaald;
3) Dawah is openbaar en ook gericht op een publiek effect, bijvoorbeeld bekering.

Dawah kan betrekking hebben op het openbaren van de boodschap van God en mensen laten leiden naar het geloof. Daarnaast leert de geschiedenis ons dat dawah ook betrekking kan hebben op propaganda door religieuze en/of politieke leiders om hun gezag te vestigen en te legitimeren. Toen de Arabieren de islam verder verspreiden, kreeg dawah meer en meer het karakter van missiewerk. In de huidige tijd zien we nog twee andere functies. Namelijk allereerst als plicht voor activistische moslims (vooral in allerlei revitaliseringsbewegingen) om andere moslims naar het rechte pad (volgens hun interpretatie) van islam te leiden. En ten tweede om te werken aan een beter imago van islam in het licht van tal van islamofobische uitingen en ontwikkelingen.

Dawahlines
Deze Happylines Dawah is een nieuwe creatieve ontwikkeling die voortborduurt op wat al eeuwenlang gangbaar is en tegelijkertijd gebruikt maakt van nieuwe media: de happylines in Spits en Metro en social media zoals Facebook. De facebookpagina is opgericht door Abou Khattab Al Turkmani (salespromotor en eigenaar van een cosmeticabedrijf) samen met een vriend van hem; jonge moslims van rond de 20 jaar. De pagina heeft inmiddels ruim 400 likes, maar beiden zijn van plan om het groter te maken. Abou Khattab vertelt dat hij mensen wil informeren en prikkelen tot het onderzoeken van de islam door kleine teksten achter te laten in de happylines.

Dat ze denken, ‘Hey, is dat écht zo? Het is niet zo als we dachten dat het was.’ Ik wil de mooie, lieve kanten van islam laten zien. Het zijn liefdevolle breinprikkels om mensen uit te nodigen tot islam. Daarmee ontken ik niet dat ‘jihad’ in islam thuishoort. Maar het gaat om wijsheid en goed onderricht; we willen niet de islam op een angstaanjagende manier verspreiden.

In mijn gesprek met hem verwijst hij naar de Quran, sura 28, aya 56:

Waarlijk, gij zult hen die gij wilt niet kunnen leiden, maar Allah leidt wie Hij wil; en Hij kent hen het beste die geleid willen worden.

Abou Khattab wil niet op een harde confronterende manier dawah verrichten, maar juist op een vriendelijke manier. Volgens hem kunnen we niet bepalen dat degenen die men lief heeft, geleid worden: “God leidt wie hij wil”. Hij stelt daarbij overigens wel zeer helder dat dat niet betekent dat hij de ‘jihad’ ontkent:

Dat wil niet zeggen dat ik de strijd ontken of dat we ons laten onderdrukken. Als de politie met wapenstok wordt afgestuurd op een partijtje voetbal, dan moeten we optreden. Wij laten ons niet onderdrukken.’

Abou Khattab was één van de gasten tijdens het voetbaltoernooitje dat in Den Haag op het trapveldje aan de Hondiusstraat georganiseerd werd en dat werd opgebroken door de politie (zie mijn verslag HIER).

Hartverzachters
Veel van de boodschappen die totnutoe te zien zijn op de Facebook pagina zijn, naast pogingen om het imago van de islam te verbeteren en mensen nieuwsgierig te maken, ook te zien als manieren om mensen een hart onder de riem te steken. Dat soort boodschappen en veel van de teksten in het algemeen die een vriendelijk gezicht van de islam proberen te laten zien, worden ook wel ‘hartverzachters’ genoemd. Het idee daarbij is dat willen mensen tot islam kunnen komen hun hart open moet staan voor de boodschap; een ‘hard hart’ houdt alles tegen terwijl een ‘zacht hart’ als van nature open staat voor de boodschap van God. Bij deze hartverzachters gaat het soms om spirituele teksten; soms om steuntjes in de rug, maar in alle gevallen om het benadrukken van de zachte, vriendelijke kant van islam.

Andere teksten hebben weer wat meer weg van vermaningen, maar dan wel weer op zo’n manier dat ze tegen de heersende stereotypen zouden moeten ingaan:

Andere bijdragen kiezen ook de vriendelijke kant, maar hebben toch ook een confronterend element in zich zoals de volgende:

En soms een provocatief element, kijk goed naar de volgende:

En ook deze ingezonden happylines is in die lijn:

De initiatiefnemers willen echter vooral de nadruk leggen op de zogenaamde hartverzachters, vriendelijke boodschappen en steuntjes in de rug.

Happy Dawah

Happylines Dawah is een interessante moderne en creatieve wijze van dawah verrichten uit de hoek waar mensen het wellicht niet verwachten. Het is ook opvallend omdat de meeste dawah activiteiten in Nederland in de praktijk niet specifiek gericht zijn op het bekeren van niet-moslims (met als belangrijke uitzondering Waaromislam.nl), maar op het brengen van moslims naar het rechte pad of het corrigeren van het imago van de islam bij niet-moslims. Happylines Dawah maakt dat onderscheid niet, niet in type boodschap en niet in publiek. Het is ook geen dawah door middel van grote lezingen, cursussen en grote gebaren, maar juist door het klein te houden met hartekreten, alledaagse overwegingen, kwinkslagen, enzovoorts. Soms met een politieke boodschap, soms als steuntje in de rug voor een dag.

Overigens is het mijns inziens ook niet correct om een confrontatie dawah te zetten tegenover een meer vriendelijke dawah. Zoals ik het zie  gaat het om verschillende stijlen van religieus activisme, maar niet persé om een verschillende boodschap. Sommige moslims kiezen voor een dawah met een vriendelijk gezicht ook omdat zij kritiek hebben op andere moslims die dat niet doen, maar daar is in dit geval geen sprake van. Tegelijkertijd zou het ook onterecht zijn om alle vormen van dawah over één kam te scheren als ‘jihadistisch’ want daarmee zou je het leven van moslims reduceren tot slechts één dimensie. Het gaat volgens mij om verschillende afwegingen over wat de kwestie is waarom dawah nodig is, waar mensen behoefte aan hebben en welke benaderingswijze en boodschap effectief is tegen de achtergrond van hun opvatting over de boodschap van islam en over de samenleving waarin men leeft.

1 comment.

Hello world! Challenges for blogging as anthropological outreach

Posted on May 8th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: anthropology, Blogosphere.

Together with my colleague Henk Driessen I organized the Anthropology and/in Publicity conference in 2010. Several anthropology bloggers had very interesting contributions to the theme of public anthropology which are still available at our conference blog. Together with the lectures of Thomas Hylland Eriksen, Ulf Hannerz, Mathijs Pelkmans and Annelies Moors the blogposts made great workshop.

In the Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute (JRAI) Henk Driessen, Mathijs Pelkmans and yours truly have published our reflections on the theme of public anthropology as a commentary in the issue of June 2013 (Volume 19, Issue 2).

Going public: some thoughts on anthropology in and of the world (pages 390-393) by Henk Driessen

Unfortunately, too much anthropology is boring, unattractive, and unapproachable for wider audiences.4 My personal position is that as public servants we have a political and moral duty to communicate what we know in an accessible manner to wider audiences, at least now and again, depending on the nature of the requests and the quality of the media that seek our co-operation. I am convinced that in the long run we need to do so also for the benefit of the survival of anthropology.

Hello world! Challenges for blogging as anthropological outreach (pages 394–397) by Martijn de Koning

[I]s blogging really a solution for the lack of influence of anthropological knowledge? I will explore this issue by focusing on two questions: why do people blog and who is the audience of anthropology blogs? Based on the contributions of several blogs, including my own, I’ve come to the conclusion that our reach is limited to the extent that we appear mostly to attract fellow anthropologists in the West and that our blogs are Western-orientated.

A wider audience for anthropology? Political dimensions of an important debate (pages 398-404) by Mathijs Pelkmans

Why do we agree that anthropology has unused potential, and why would it be good for anthropology to be more widely heard (apart from this potentially attracting more students and generating more funding)? Answers can be found by looking at how we conceive of anthropology, what kind of public anthropologists we have in mind, but also what kind of audiences we are implicitly thinking of. Such a discussion, I argue, reveals that the desire for a public presence is politically and normatively informed.

Many thanks to Henk Driessen, Mathijs Pelkmans and Matthew Engelke for their valuable comments on earlier versions of my comment.

NOTE:

Kristina Killgrove (whose blog is mentioned and cited in my comment) has published a response on her blog. I hope my comment and her blog will contribute to a debate on the avenues for public anthropology. Read her critical response: Is Blogging Really the Future of Public Anthropology?

2 comments.

Closing the week 11 – Sectarianism, Syria, Europe, Dutch

Posted on March 17th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Most popular on Closer last week

1. Surveillance: Veiligheid, Risico en Nederlanders in Syrië
2. Marriage as punishment: documentary about women’s rights in Morocco by Hasna Ankal {Al.arte.magazine}
3. European and non-European Philosophers as public intellectuals

Featuring: Sectarianism and Syria
Stop Trying to Make Syria’s War Into a Sectarian Conflict – Atlantic Mobile

It paints a picture of a Middle Eastern conflict in which religious and sectarian differences inexorably determine political outcomes. Because it suggests that such violence is inevitable and may even be biologically or culturally predetermined, it exonerates the Assad regime and other countries that have failed to act even in the face of extreme state-sponsored violence against innocent civilians — as when Syrian government forces bound and shot 49 children during a massacre of 108 civilians in Houla last spring.

The sectarian story is also wrong for a less obvious reason. Syrians — the real people on the ground who happen to live in Syria — don’t conform to the sectarian stereotypes that policymakers and pundits are promoting with such gusto. Of course, some Syrians identify strongly with their ethnic or religious communities. But like people all over the world — including here in the United States — many Syrians hold multiple allegiances, sympathizing with more than one sectarian identity or none at all, or are of mixed backgrounds. […]
But this narrative — and the devastation that could come from it — can be avoided if we debunk at least three myths. First, sectarianism is not about intractable religiosity. […]
Second, Syrians have been mobilizing against Assad for reasons that are not in fact sectarian.[…]

Third, framing the war as sectarian is anything but objective.

In Lebanon, a proxy battle for Syria | GlobalPost

The bustling shipyards and seaside cafes of this Mediterranean port lend the city a veneer of normalcy. But residents tell a different story — one of extreme poverty, state neglect and vicious sectarian violence.

Foreign Fighters
Hundreds of Russian Islamists Fighting Assad in Syria, Expert Says | News | The Moscow Times

Rais Suleimanov, head of the Kazan-based Volga Center for Regional and Ethno-Religious Studies, said he got this number from Russian militants themselves, who he said have “no interest in exaggerating it.”

He said the militants come from CIS countries including Ukraine and from different regions of Russia, among them Tatarstan and the volatile North Caucasus, where Russian law enforcement is battling an intractable insurgency of separatist Islamist militants.

Other experts cast doubt on the reliability of the figure cited by Suleimanov, saying it was virtually impossible to verify. But they said that given Russia’s staunch support of the Assad regime, it would be natural for militants opposed to the Russian government to help fight a kind of proxy war in Syria.

With Official Wink And Nod, Young Saudis Join Syria’s Rebels : NPR

The Saudis are part of an inflow of Sunni fighters from Libya, Tunisia and Jordan, according to Aaron Zelin, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

“Most of the foreigners are fighting with al-Nusra or Ahrar al-Sham,” both extremist groups, Zelin said.

Sunni extremist fighters are now part of a vicious civil war that has killed an estimated 70,000 people and created more than a million refugees.

Insight: Foreign fighters seek Islamic state in post-Assad Syria | Reuters

Huddled around a fire in a bombed-out building in Aleppo, foreign jihadists say they are fighting for a radical Islamic state in Syria – whether local rebels trying to topple President Bashar al-Assad like it or not.

Foreign Jihadists Declare War on Syria’s Assad – SPIEGEL ONLINE

Abu Rami’s last foray into war wasn’t much of a success. Just after his unit had crossed over the border, one of his men lost his wits. The young man cowered in the undergrowth, trembled and didn’t budge. Out of necessity, the whole unit had to come to a stop: Ten Lebanese, armed with 10 Kalashnikovs loaded with 65 magazines of ammunition, had come to a standstill inside the Syrian border, without any backup.

Syria presents foreign fighter list in bid for UN to acknowledge terror acts — RT News

Syria has presented the UN Security Council a list of 143 foreign citizens killed in Syria fighting government troops. Damascus hopes the move will force the UN to declare the presence of foreign nationals in Syria to be international terrorism.

­The Syrian government reportedly presented proof that citizens of 19 different nations had fought in the country alongside rebel forces.

West training Syrian rebels in Jordan | World news | guardian.co.uk

UK and French instructors involved in US-led effort to strengthen secular elements in Syria’s opposition, say sources

BBC News – Syria conflict: British fighters seek jihad

Militant groups thought to be linked to al-Qaeda are operating in the country. Among their ranks, a small number of young British men – at this stage, probably only running into the dozens – are joining this fundamentalist fringe, having been recruited from towns and cities across the UK.

Syria Crisis: Foreign Fighters Worry And Boost Syrian Rebels

The presence of foreign Islamic militants battling Syria’s regime is raising concerns over the possible injection of al-Qaida’s influence into the country’s civil war.

Syria’s rebels share some of those misgivings. But they also see in the foreign extremists a welcome boost: experienced, disciplined fighters whose battlefield valor against the better-armed troops of President Bashar Assad is legendary.

The Dutch Are Worried the Syrian War Is Headed Their Way – Dashiell Bennett – The Atlantic Wire

The government of the Netherlands raised its terror threat level to “substantial” today, amid fears that terrorists trained in Syria will try to disrupt the coronation of their new king. The head of Dutch counterterrorism says that as many as 100 Dutch citizens have traveled to Syria to join in the war there, and are returning angry, radicalized, and highly-trained to wreak havoc on Europe. He also cited an increased radicalization among Dutch youth in general, making them highly susceptible to recruitment by these returning jihadist fighters.

Syria backgrounder
Some old pics ~ Syria « pietervanostaeyen

No comments, just pics from the 19th and early 20th Century

A History Of Syria With Dan Snow – YouTube

Dan Snow travels to Syria to see how the current civil war has been shaped by the country’s tumultuous history, unpicking the historic divisions between the myriad factions.

Syria Comment » Archives » The Free Syrian Army doesn’t exist

Is the FSA losing influence in Syria? How many people are in the FSA? Is the FSA receiving enough guns from the West, or too many? Will the FSA participate in elections after the fall of Bahar el-Assad? What is the ideology of the FSA? What’s the FSA’s view of Israel? Is Jabhat el-Nosra now bigger than the FSA? What does the FSA think about the Kurds? Who is the leader of the FSA? How much control does the central command of the FSA really have over their fighters?

All these and similar questions keep popping up in news articles and op-ed chinstrokers in the Western media, and in much of the Arabic media too.

They all deal with important issues, but they disregard an important fact: the FSA doesn’t really exist.

Tentative Jihad: Syria’s Fundamentalist Opposition – International Crisis Group

Prematurely and exaggeratedly highlighted by the regime, belatedly and reluctantly acknowledged by the opposition, the presence of a powerful Salafi strand among Syria’s rebels has become irrefutable. That is worrisome, but forms only part of a complex picture. To begin, not all Salafis are alike; the concept covers a gamut ranging from mainstream to extreme. Secondly, present-day Syria offers Salafis hospitable terrain – violence and sectarianism; disenchantment with the West, secular leaders and pragmatic Islamic figures; as well as access to Gulf Arab funding and jihadi military knowhow – but also adverse conditions, including a moderate Islamic tradition, pluralistic confessional make-up, and widespread fear of the kind of sectarian civil war that engulfed two neighbours. Thirdly, failure of the armed push this past summer caused a backlash against Salafi groups that grabbed headlines during the fighting.

American Anthropological Association: The Syrian Regime and the Opposition

Many Syrians are opposing the simplicity of overthrowing a regime when there is no viable alternative or any way to prevent an outright civil war. In a country that has a vivid memory of coups and counter-coups, this is a serious matter. Many Syrians have an uneasy relationship with the regime, but there was a social contract where the regime with its widespread security system and its many branches ensured stability and security as long as it was not challenged. It was something many Syrians were proud of, especially when neighboring countries were mired in civil war and ethnic strife. If the regime is gone, what comes next? Who is ready to take charge? There is no clear indication that a smooth transition will take place and a civil war does not look like a good idea. It remains to be seen if creative diplomatic efforts can find a way out of this quagmire, because a military option will only bring on more destruction.

Europe
Muslim helpline reveals majority of faith attacks on women | UK news | guardian.co.uk

The majority of Muslims physically attacked, harassed or intimidated because of their faith are women, according to the first results from the UK’s official helpline for victims of Islamophobia.

Frenchman rips off Muslim woman’s veil – Alarabiya.net English | Front Page

A Frenchman who ripped a Muslim woman’s veil off her face as she strolled in a fairground was Wednesday given a five-month suspended prison sentence and ordered to compensate his victim.

‘Real’ Dutch Muslimas Tackle Migration and Islamophobia

Al-Nisa’s campaigns are indeed a breath of fresh air with their positive images of Muslim women. While responding to political discourses is beneficial and interesting in that it shows an awareness of current debates, it also risks being reactive and risks perpetuating the discourses about who Muslims are and how they should integrate into mainstream Dutch society. It is important, as a movement of Muslim women, to find allies among all other Muslim women (such as Indonesian women, as a start) and other marginalised groups (such as Eastern Europeans).

In our attempt to show “who Muslims are,” we should be careful to not fall into the anti-immigrant, anti-asylum, and pro-integration lines of thinking of our host country. We can tackle Islamophobia by breaking down the ideologies behind such ideas, rather than by showing that we are not scary.

Misc.
Three Unconventional Documentaries from Gaza | Al Akhbar English

Awadallah explores Palestinian society in Gaza from many angles. She seems obsessed with her characters’ depth and believability. The filmmaker told Al-Akhbar, “Usually, the character itself lures me. Some people have a great and exciting story, but they can’t tell it. A film requires not only a good story, but also a good narrator.

Dutch
Moskee is flyeraars van radicale moslims zat – RELIGIE – PAROOL

Aanhangers van de radicale islamitische organisatie Hizb ut Tahrir (HuT) flyeren bij moskeeën voor een staat waarin de sharia de dienst uitmaakt. Moskee Badr in de Willem Leevendstraat in West heeft daar nu schoon genoeg van.

RTL Nieuws – Asscher praat met door moslims bedreigde jongerenwerker

Minister Lodewijk Asscher van Sociale Zaken gaat binnenkort praten met de Arnhemse jongerenwerker Mehmet Sahin. Die moest onlangs onderduiken nadat hij afstand had genomen van antisemitische opmerkingen van Turkse jongeren.

Honderd jihadstrijders uit Nederland – NOS Nieuws

Een kleine honderd Nederlandse moslims vechten op dit moment mee in landen als Afghanistan, Somalië en Syrië, melden bronnen aan de NOS. Het overgrote deel van hen is afgereisd naar Syrië.

Bruggenbouwers » Moslims Marokko hebben groot respect voor kloosterzusters

De bevolking van Marokko is voor 99% islamitisch. Niettemin hebben Karmelitessen en Clarissen er kloosters gesticht. Een bezoek aan de kerk van gebed.

Een omsloten contemplatief klooster midden in een islamitisch land? Zuster Maria Virtudes vindt de vraag heel gewoon. “Andere religieuze zusters in Europa vragen mij vaak wat het voor zin heeft een katholiek klooster te stichten in een land dat voor 99% islamitisch is”, zegt zij en ze lacht.

Antisemitisme in Arnhem

“We kunnen lang terug in de geschiedenis gaan en de islamcritici vertellen dat het antisemitisme toch vooral een Europese uitvinding is, we kunnen vertellen dat de grootste genocide ooit in Europa werd begaan door Europeanen, we kunnen vertellen dat Maarten Luther zich zeer laatdunkend uitliet over de joden, dat Hugo de Groot niet erg aardige uitspraken over de joden deed, en natuurlijk moeten de moslims zich bewust zijn van de op zijn zachtst gezegd niet erg vriendelijke woorden in de koran en islamitische traditie over de joden, over de verdrijving en moord op de joden in de oase van Medina. Het is een tragische opsomming van ellende.
Daarom denk ik dat de oplossing ook niet in de religies ligt.” Dat schrijft Jan Jaap de Ruiter om onderstaand blog.

Marokkaanse organisaties dreigen steun aan PvdA in te trekken

Marokkaanse organisaties hebben aan PvdA-voorzitter Spekman een brief geschreven waarin ze aankondigen Marokkaanse-Nederlanders sterk te zullen adviseren om niet op de PvdA te stemmen, wanneer de PvdA in de Eerste Kamer steun geeft aan het wetsvoorstel om de kinderbijslag en de uitkeringen voor nabestaanden in Marokko stop te zetten.
Het wetsvoorstel zal door PvdA minister Asscher aan de Eerste Kamer worden voorgelegd.

De Marokkaanse organisaties zullen de brief ook overhandigen aan hun lokale PvdA-afdeling. Hieronder de brief, die is ondertekend door Mohammed Rabbae en Abdou Menebhi. Het is onbekend namens hoeveel en welke organisaties de brief is geschreven.

Lodewijk Asscher reageert op open brief van Rabbae en Menebhi

Eerder deze maand schreven Mohammed Rabbae en Abdou Menebhi namens een onbekend aantal Marokkaanse organisaties een brief aan PvdA voorzitter Spekman. Ze lieten hierin weten Marokkaanse-Nederlanders sterk te zullen adviseren om niet op de PvdA te stemmen, wanneer de PvdA in de Eerste Kamer steun zou geven aan het wetsvoorstel om de kinderbijslag en de uitkeringen voor nabestaanden in Marokko stop te zetten.

PvdA minister Lodewijk Asscher die het voorstel aan de Eerste Kamer gaat voorleggen, reageert hieronder.

Radicaal of radeloos? Geïsoleerde moslima’s in Amsterdam

Afgelopen week leverde Vizea Adviseurs in opdracht van de gemeente Amsterdam een puik verkennend onderzoek af naar (potentiële) radicalisering van moslima´s. In het rapport ‘Radicaal (on)zichtbaar’ doen de onderzoekers verslag van hun bevindingen aan de hand van een indrukwekkende questionnaire, die zij voorlegden aan 155 jonge Amsterdamse islamitische vrouwen met verschillende etnische en culturele achtergronden en met – zo bleek – een rugzak vol problemen. 12 van hen die in de enquête hoog scoorden op vragen over geweldslegitimatie werden daarna uitvoerig ‘doorgelicht’.

De uitkomsten zijn niet direct schokkend. 7 % zegt weliswaar bereid te zijn zelf geweld te gebruiken als ‘hun geloof wordt bedreigd’, maar het veiligheidsrisico dat van de groep uitgaat is volgens de onderzoekers klein. Over de omvang van het aantal radicale moslima’s in de hoofdstad doen zij geen uitspraken, omdat gewerkt is met een beperkte en – belangrijker – selecte steekproef.

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Closing the Week 10 – Women’s Day, Prayer, Reverberations, Nones, News, Dutch

Posted on March 10th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Top posts on Closer this week

1. Zwarte Piet, Black Pete – The Documentary
2. Haremfeminisme: Het blanke elitaire feminisme?
3. Het Al Qaeda Spook – De Intieme ideologische Relatie tussen Inspire en Wilders

International Women’s Day
tabsir.net » Rape and the Gender Gape

For International Women’s Day, it is important to reflect on issues that are of significant impact on women around the world. Let’s start with a beginning, the Genesis one. The original creation story familiar to Judaism, Christianity and Islam starts out with man alone. Not only is the first man not like other animals, which he has no problem naming, but he has no family: no nurturing mother, no moral father, no brothers or sisters. He was formed as a lump of clay with breath and a spirit connection to the divine. Even the presence of God, his creator father figure, was not enough for this lonely man. Surely this garden paradise was hell for the man alone.

emel Celebrates International Women’s Day – YouTube

International Women’s Day was celebrated by emel, the Muslim Lifestyle Magazine, with a special issue featuring inspirational women who support and uphold the rights of women. Covering issues such as acid violence, FGM, forced marriage, domestic violence, poverty, and war, the magazine interviews some of the most prominent Muslim women in the field.

Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi: Muslim Women Take Back the Mic on International Women’s Day

In the last few years, Muslim women have begun pushing back against the monolithic “Muslim Woman” to celebrate the joys of our context and the challenges therein. We’ve seen a Muslim woman — Tawakkul Karman — win the Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy work in Yemen, and another Muslim woman — Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy — win an Oscar for amplifying the courageous voices of acid attack survivors in Pakistan.

International Women’s Day 2013: 7 Sadly Disturbing Truths About Women’s Bodies (HOW YOU CAN HELP)

But we’re not done fighting yet.

Women across the globe are still face horrifying abuse and health risks, including sexual exploitation and genital mutilation, devastating injustices that are in our power to eliminate in this lifetime.

Read through the seven disturbingly sad truths women face and find out how you can get involved in improving the lives of women around the world.

Marlies ter Borg on International Women’s Day | WISE Muslim Women

In Haarlem, Holland we celebrate International Women’s Day with a big meeting in the local concert hall. Dutch women from Turkey, Morocco and South America join with women from Dutch parentage in debate, concert and dancing to emphasize what we have in common.

I myself will remember the women in North Africa and the Middle East now engaged in a heroic struggle side by side with their men.

I have published an anthology of Bible and Qur’an stories, called Sharing Mary, a wonderful Jewish woman loved by Christians and Muslims alike.

I would like to point to two admirable women in my anthology.

Prayer & New site: Reverberations
Introducing Reverberations « The Immanent Frame

We are pleased to announce the launch of Reverberations, a new digital forum on prayer produced in conjunction with the SSRC’s New Directions in the Study of Prayer initiative. Reverberations will serve as a hub for communication among participants in the New Directions in the Study of Prayer project, a platform for a broader set of academic and public engagements, and a space within which a wide range of resources and materials related to the practice of prayer will be compiled, curated, studied, and explored. The forum will host a prayer blog authored by a diverse group of scholars and journalists and will publish original longer-form writing, interviews with researchers and journalists studying prayer, and a range of other essays & exchanges.

Reverberations | Prayer, Imagination, and the Voice of God—in Global Perspective

TML: They don’t think of themselves as doubting God, but they are extremely articulate about how God is present through the human. They know that there are Catholics, Hindus, and Muslims, and it’s very difficult for a smart, university-educated person to say, “Hindus have culture, but we don’t, we have truth.” So you are committed to having truth, but you also have culture. You also know that if God is talking to you in your mind, first of all you have God. But at the same time, you are aware that you are mistaken some of the time. Holding both of these simultaneously is the modern predicament—the awareness of the uncertainty of your knowledge.

SBA: That’s fascinating. And it runs up against the typical critique of evangelicals, especially by Dawkins and the new atheists, that evangelicals are turning away from the modern predicament, away from ambiguity and rational discernment.

TML: Yes. And the new atheists are not exceptionally articulate about the limitations of human knowledge. These guys are just seeing a different beyond, a different more, whatever it is. It took me a while to recognize how sophisticated people were about belief. My own preconception was that belief was a proposition rather than an attitude. And I remember doing research for When God Talks Back and being in this prayer group with a bunch of women, and they were all so clear about their awareness of the possibility that they were wrong—not about whether God exists, but about whether God is present right here. So in fact as you bring God closer you become more aware that He might not be present. You allow yourself to tolerate the uncertainty, because the uncertainty is very clear. You give yourself the real literal text, but you interpret it in a way that makes it flexibly fictional even though it’s nonfiction. You are saying things like, “this is a love letter written to me,” but you’re sitting in a room with ten people, all of whom cognitively see the same text, but also believe that it is God’s specific, unique love letter written to each individual self.

Reverberations | The Higher Power

“Prayer” is not a good word among many adult survivors of clerical sexual abuse. I learned this at the first meeting of survivors I attended in the Chicago area last winter. These survivors have largely broken with the church. They associate “prayer” with the authority of the church and with the church’s determination, as they see it, to deny their experience. “Prayer,” when it is attached to the idea of “healing,” is especially toxic because it appears to insist on closure. “Pray to be healed” sounds like a command. “What’s a better word than prayer?” I asked. The word this group agreed on was “spirituality.” Here’s where I had to confront and rethink some old assumptions about praying and about religion.

Reverberations | Prayer and Worldmaking

For many Spanish Catholics, the Reconquista undertaken by the Roman Catholic monarchs remains the foundational pillar within the edifice of Spanish identity and history. From this perspective, the transformation of mosque into cathedral and the displacement of Muslim salat by Roman Catholic mass are not simply historical events to be reassessed and revised, but rather, remain essential to the symbolic architecture of the Spanish soul. For Muslim visitors, in contrast, the mosque stands as the embodiment and expression of a highly celebrated period within the history of Islamic societies, an inheritance that is as much theirs as it is Christian Europe’s. For some, the enchanting beauty of the sanctuary solicits a passional response which seeks to find expression in prayer. In both cases, the turning to God in prayer is made across a dense fabric of historical relations, and carries both the burdens and the possibilities that this history offers.

Reverberations | What Prayer Can and Cannot Do

My interest in prayer has to do with what prayer can or cannot do. Mine is the quest of the doubter who would believe. I want to know what efficacy there is in prayer.

Can our prayers change the outer world? I suspect not, but I’m interested in stories that claim otherwise.

The Papal Prayer Machine | (A)theologies | Religion Dispatches

Following the pontiff’s request that all Catholics “continue to pray for me, for the Church, and for the future pope,” the Knights naturally asked for prayers. Breaking new ground, however, they proposed that these prayers might not merely be spoken at home, declaimed during mass, or formed in the privacy of one’s thoughts. The prayers for Benedict and his successor should, instead, be put on display in the growing global commons of the Twitterverse. According to their press release, the Knights were “encouraging people to send their prayerful support to Pope Benedict XVI directly by tweeting ‘I am praying for you’ and the hashtag #prayerforthechurch to the pope’s twitter account.”

Nones
Sean McCloud: Nones, Somes and the Combinativeness of American Religious Practices

In January, NPR’s Morning Edition resurrected the October 2012 Pew Poll suggesting that 19.6 percent of Americans had no religious affiliation, dubbed them “nones” and described this as a rising trend. The week-long radio series, titled “Losing Our Religion,” started with discussion of the poll and then quickly veered into the classic Henry Luce journalism style of attempting to discuss social trends through select personal narratives. While I was struck with how the journalists tended to use the same default terms, such as “God” and “faith,” as their interviewees, the aspects I found most interesting were the assumptions behind the concept of “nones” itself.

Losing Our Religion: The Growth Of The ‘Nones’ : The Two-Way : NPR

This week, Morning Edition explores the “nones” — Americans who say they don’t identify with any religion. Demographers have given them this name because when asked to identify their religion, that’s their answer: “none.”

What does spirituality mean in America today? « The Immanent Frame

What does “spirituality” mean in America today, and how can social scientists best investigate it?

News
Burkinis to help Muslim Swedes take the plunge – The Local

The small Swedish town of Emmaboda has vetoed a petition to introduce women-only hours at the municipal swimming pool, and instead wants to start selling burkinis to its observant Muslim female bathers.

A woman’s journey out of faith, family and fear – The Washington Post

On a summer night in a Western town of flat fields and hazy sunsets, a young woman stood outside a Greyhound bus with a ticket in her hand and a backpack over her shoulder. Boarding the bus, she said later, would be the hardest thing she had done in her 18 years.

Kyrgyzstan Considers Banning Girls from Traveling Abroad | EurasiaNet.org

A lawmaker in Kyrgyzstan is pushing a resolution that would ban young women from leaving the country without their parents’ written consent.

Turkey: Mothers’ Group Works to Broaden LGBT Tolerance | EurasiaNet.org

For retired Sule Ceylan, who is now an artist, the realization that her grown son was gay initially hit her in a similar way. “It was really bad,” remembered Ceylan. “I wanted him to live a false life. I was thinking this can’t go on like this.”

Female Iranian communists organize topless protest against hijabs in Swedish capital (PHOTOS) — RT News

The Iranian female activists have followed the footsteps of the scandalous Ukrainian FEMEN movement, flashing their breasts in protest against the hijab headscarf, women wear in the Islamic world.

Spain’s Supreme Court overturns city’s ban on full-face veils | Islam | World Bulletin

The case against Lleida – all of whose justifications for the ban were ruled unfounded – was brought by the Watani Liberty and Justice Association.

Mosques and Marriages: Manifestations of Patriarchy and Misogyny in the Western, Muslim Context

I don’t think the dynamics are specific to Muslims or Islam, but are symptoms of a silent, implicit system of patriarchy that is endemic to Western society and seeps into all aspects our lives.

Wilders tells Muslims to renounce Islam – it would be ‘good for them and also for our free society’ | Islamophobia Today eNewspaper

ALL Muslims should renounce their religion immediately in favour of Christianity or atheism – it would be better for them and for everyone else, controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders said in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Lateline: Geert Wilders interview (Dutch anti-islamic migration politician) (ABC TV Australia) – YouTube

Australian interview with controversial anti-islamic Dutch politician Geert Wilders, interviewed before he visited Australia in February 2013. Wilders advocates the stopping of migration of muslims to the West, amongst many other anti-islamic views. This interview raised many complaints to the ABC after it was broadcast on 13 Feb 2013.

Facebook Rumi: How a Muslim mystic became a popular meme | What Would Muhammad Do?

If you’ve been following on social media, center-of-heart-rumi
you have probably had someone forward you an image or a meme
with a wise and poetic saying from the famed Sufi poet Rumi.

According to many accounts, Rumi became the best-selling poet in the English language in the 1990?s, continuing onto today.

Today, his popularity now seems to have spilled over onto social media.

Dutch
Marokkaanse organisaties dreigen steun aan PvdA in te trekken

Marokkaanse organisaties hebben aan PvdA-voorzitter Spekman een brief geschreven waarin ze aankondigen Marokkaanse-Nederlanders sterk te zullen adviseren om niet op de PvdA te stemmen, wanneer de PvdA in de Eerste Kamer steun geeft aan het wetsvoorstel om de kinderbijslag en de uitkeringen voor nabestaanden in Marokko stop te zetten.
Het wetsvoorstel zal door PvdA minister Asscher aan de Eerste Kamer worden voorgelegd.

Marokkaanse organisaties zullen de brief ook overhandigen aan hun lokale PvdA-afdeling. Hieronder de brief, die is ondertekend door Mohammed Rabbae en Abdou Menebhi.

Lokum.NL | Turkse man ondergedoken na kritiek op antisemieten – Lokum.NL

De inwoner van de Arnhemse wijk Broek die vorige week openlijk afstand nam van antisemitische uitspraken van Turkse jongeren, heeft deze week enige tijd ondergedoken gezeten. Dit hebben verschillende bronnen bevestigd aan het NTR-programma De Halve Maan.

Mehmet ?ahin, die de Turks-Nederlandse jongeren uit de wijk onder meer huiswerkbegeleiding gaf, ging in het NTR-programma Onbevoegd Gezag openlijk in tegen de anti-joodse sentimenten die de jongeren uitten. De jongeren zeiden dat ‘Hitler goed werk had gedaan’ en dat het vermoorden van vrouwen en baby’s goed was als het om joden ging.

Said El Haji » Moeders plicht

Het is vandaag Internationale Vrouwendag. Een prima gelegenheid om iets over mijn moeder te vertellen.

Buurt vreest ‘spookmoskee’ De Baarsjes – BINNENLAND – PAROOL

Een spookmoskee voor de deur, dat vrezen huiseigenaren rond de plek in De Baarsjes waar de Westermoskee moet komen. Projectontwikkelaar Manderen jubelt dat de eerste paal van de moskee nog deze maand de grond in gaat. Het stadsdeel is sceptisch.

‘Turkije hoort echt niet bij de Europese Unie’ – Buitenland – VK

opinie Het getuigt van wijsheid als we de onderhandelingen met Turkije over toetreding tot de EU stoppen. Dat schrijven ChristenUnie-Kamerleden Gert-Jan Segers en Joël Voordewind.

Klein deel Amsterdamse moslima’s bereid tot geweld – AT5 Echt Amsterdams Nieuws

Een kleine groep Amsterdamse moslima’s is bereid zelf geweld te gebruiken als hun geloof wordt bedreigd.

Nederlandse moslimjongeren willen tegen Assad vechten – Nederland – TROUW

Steeds meer moslimjongeren in Nederland willen naar Syrië om daar te vechten tegen het regime. Dat is ook een gevaar voor de veiligheid van Nederland, zegt het Contactorgaan Moslims en Overheid (CMO) woensdag.

Islamitische organisaties zijn bezorgd over ronselen van jongeren voor strijd in Syrië

Het Contactorgaan Moslims en Overheid (CMO) krijgt verontrustende signalen dat steeds meer jongeren in Nederland zich aangetrokken voelen tot deelname aan de gewapende strijd in Syrië. Het CMO is bezorgd over de ronselpraktijken en ziet daarin een veiligheidsrisico voor Nederland.
Het CMO stuurt daarom een brief naar zijn aangesloten organisaties en imams met de oproep om hieraan aandacht te besteden. Dat laat het CMO weten in een persbericht.

K: Triodos moet islamitische universiteit volgens zijn eigen criteria de wacht aanzeggen

In een eerder artikel vestigde ik er de aandacht op dat Triodos Bank in 2003 de Islamitische Universiteit van Rotterdam (IUR) heeft gered van een faillissement; en dat de bank nog steeds geldschieter is van deze instelling. In dat verband belichtte ik de kwalijke opvattingen van rector Ahmet Akgündüz, die een fervent pleitbezorger is van de orthodoxe sharia en in vele boeken ijverig de gronden aanvoert voor het schenden van fundamentele mensenrechten in een islamitische staat.

Al-Jazeera interviewt bekeerde ex-PVV’er

Nadat de afgelopen dagen enorm veel gespeculeerd werd over de bekering van oud PVV’er Arnoud van Doorn, heeft hij vandaag nogmaals bevestigd aan al-Jazeera.net dat hij officieel bekeerd is tot de Islam. In een gesprek met al-Jazeera.net geeft Van Doorn te kennen dat hij al een tijd bezig was met het bestuderen van de Islam.

‘CDA moet zich op moslims richten’ – Binnenland | Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl [binnenland]

CDA moet nadrukkelijker kiezers en nieuwe leden gaan werven onder moslims in de grote steden. Dat adviseert de werkgroep CDA & Islam.

Nieuws.nl – ‘Meer moslims bekeren zich tot christelijk geloof’

(Novum) – Steeds meer moslims in Nederland bekeren zich tot het christelijke geloof. Vooral mensen uit Iran stappen vaak over, concludeert het Nederlands Dagblad zaterdag uit een rondgang langs kerkgemeenten en landelijk opererende stichtingen. Landelijke cijfers zijn er echter niet.

Kipslachter moslims riskeert bewust boete

Kippenslachter Clazing in Zevenhuizen riskeert bewust een geldboete door niet te slachten volgens nieuwe eisen van de EU. Clazing is een middelgrote slachterij in Nederland waar alle kippen op Islamitische wijze worden geslacht.

Moskeebestuur Deventer blij met azan

De Centrum Moskee gaat dagelijks oproepen tot gebed. Een peiling onder omwonenden pakte positief uit voor de moskee. Het bestuur is blij, maar reageert gelaten: ,,Het voelt niet als winnen of verliezen.”

PVV wil verbod dagelijkse azan in Deventer

PVV-baas Geert Wilders vraagt het kabinet dit zo snel mogelijk te verbieden. Hij typeert het nieuwe fenomeen als een ‘imperialistische moskee-oproep, tekend voor de islamisering van ons land’. Ook wil Wilders van de ministers Plasterk en Asscher weten of ze zijn visie delen dat dit schadelijk is voor de integratie. “En zo niet, waarom niet?”, vragen Wilders en fractiegenoot Joram van Klaveren. Ze vinden moskeeën en azan niet thuishoren in Nederland. De PVV gaat er vanuit dat ook moslims klok kunnen kijken. “Denkt u ook niet dat de oproep tot islamitisch gebed totaal overbodig is omdat er in Nederland gewoon klokken hangen en verondersteld mag worden dat ook moslims kunnen klokkijken.”

Elsevier.nl – Zorgen om antisemitisme onder Nederlandse jongeren

Binnen- en buitenlandse organisaties maken zich zorgen om de antisemitische uitspattingen van jongeren in Arnhem. Ze vragen premier Mark Rutte (VVD) onderzoek te doen naar recente vormen van Jodenhaat.

0 comments.

Closing the Week 10 – Women's Day, Prayer, Reverberations, Nones, News, Dutch

Posted on March 10th, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Top posts on Closer this week

1. Zwarte Piet, Black Pete – The Documentary
2. Haremfeminisme: Het blanke elitaire feminisme?
3. Het Al Qaeda Spook – De Intieme ideologische Relatie tussen Inspire en Wilders

International Women’s Day
tabsir.net » Rape and the Gender Gape

For International Women’s Day, it is important to reflect on issues that are of significant impact on women around the world. Let’s start with a beginning, the Genesis one. The original creation story familiar to Judaism, Christianity and Islam starts out with man alone. Not only is the first man not like other animals, which he has no problem naming, but he has no family: no nurturing mother, no moral father, no brothers or sisters. He was formed as a lump of clay with breath and a spirit connection to the divine. Even the presence of God, his creator father figure, was not enough for this lonely man. Surely this garden paradise was hell for the man alone.

emel Celebrates International Women’s Day – YouTube

International Women’s Day was celebrated by emel, the Muslim Lifestyle Magazine, with a special issue featuring inspirational women who support and uphold the rights of women. Covering issues such as acid violence, FGM, forced marriage, domestic violence, poverty, and war, the magazine interviews some of the most prominent Muslim women in the field.

Ayesha Mattu and Nura Maznavi: Muslim Women Take Back the Mic on International Women’s Day

In the last few years, Muslim women have begun pushing back against the monolithic “Muslim Woman” to celebrate the joys of our context and the challenges therein. We’ve seen a Muslim woman — Tawakkul Karman — win the Nobel Peace Prize for her pro-democracy work in Yemen, and another Muslim woman — Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy — win an Oscar for amplifying the courageous voices of acid attack survivors in Pakistan.

International Women’s Day 2013: 7 Sadly Disturbing Truths About Women’s Bodies (HOW YOU CAN HELP)

But we’re not done fighting yet.

Women across the globe are still face horrifying abuse and health risks, including sexual exploitation and genital mutilation, devastating injustices that are in our power to eliminate in this lifetime.

Read through the seven disturbingly sad truths women face and find out how you can get involved in improving the lives of women around the world.

Marlies ter Borg on International Women’s Day | WISE Muslim Women

In Haarlem, Holland we celebrate International Women’s Day with a big meeting in the local concert hall. Dutch women from Turkey, Morocco and South America join with women from Dutch parentage in debate, concert and dancing to emphasize what we have in common.

I myself will remember the women in North Africa and the Middle East now engaged in a heroic struggle side by side with their men.

I have published an anthology of Bible and Qur’an stories, called Sharing Mary, a wonderful Jewish woman loved by Christians and Muslims alike.

I would like to point to two admirable women in my anthology.

Prayer & New site: Reverberations
Introducing Reverberations « The Immanent Frame

We are pleased to announce the launch of Reverberations, a new digital forum on prayer produced in conjunction with the SSRC’s New Directions in the Study of Prayer initiative. Reverberations will serve as a hub for communication among participants in the New Directions in the Study of Prayer project, a platform for a broader set of academic and public engagements, and a space within which a wide range of resources and materials related to the practice of prayer will be compiled, curated, studied, and explored. The forum will host a prayer blog authored by a diverse group of scholars and journalists and will publish original longer-form writing, interviews with researchers and journalists studying prayer, and a range of other essays & exchanges.

Reverberations | Prayer, Imagination, and the Voice of God—in Global Perspective

TML: They don’t think of themselves as doubting God, but they are extremely articulate about how God is present through the human. They know that there are Catholics, Hindus, and Muslims, and it’s very difficult for a smart, university-educated person to say, “Hindus have culture, but we don’t, we have truth.” So you are committed to having truth, but you also have culture. You also know that if God is talking to you in your mind, first of all you have God. But at the same time, you are aware that you are mistaken some of the time. Holding both of these simultaneously is the modern predicament—the awareness of the uncertainty of your knowledge.

SBA: That’s fascinating. And it runs up against the typical critique of evangelicals, especially by Dawkins and the new atheists, that evangelicals are turning away from the modern predicament, away from ambiguity and rational discernment.

TML: Yes. And the new atheists are not exceptionally articulate about the limitations of human knowledge. These guys are just seeing a different beyond, a different more, whatever it is. It took me a while to recognize how sophisticated people were about belief. My own preconception was that belief was a proposition rather than an attitude. And I remember doing research for When God Talks Back and being in this prayer group with a bunch of women, and they were all so clear about their awareness of the possibility that they were wrong—not about whether God exists, but about whether God is present right here. So in fact as you bring God closer you become more aware that He might not be present. You allow yourself to tolerate the uncertainty, because the uncertainty is very clear. You give yourself the real literal text, but you interpret it in a way that makes it flexibly fictional even though it’s nonfiction. You are saying things like, “this is a love letter written to me,” but you’re sitting in a room with ten people, all of whom cognitively see the same text, but also believe that it is God’s specific, unique love letter written to each individual self.

Reverberations | The Higher Power

“Prayer” is not a good word among many adult survivors of clerical sexual abuse. I learned this at the first meeting of survivors I attended in the Chicago area last winter. These survivors have largely broken with the church. They associate “prayer” with the authority of the church and with the church’s determination, as they see it, to deny their experience. “Prayer,” when it is attached to the idea of “healing,” is especially toxic because it appears to insist on closure. “Pray to be healed” sounds like a command. “What’s a better word than prayer?” I asked. The word this group agreed on was “spirituality.” Here’s where I had to confront and rethink some old assumptions about praying and about religion.

Reverberations | Prayer and Worldmaking

For many Spanish Catholics, the Reconquista undertaken by the Roman Catholic monarchs remains the foundational pillar within the edifice of Spanish identity and history. From this perspective, the transformation of mosque into cathedral and the displacement of Muslim salat by Roman Catholic mass are not simply historical events to be reassessed and revised, but rather, remain essential to the symbolic architecture of the Spanish soul. For Muslim visitors, in contrast, the mosque stands as the embodiment and expression of a highly celebrated period within the history of Islamic societies, an inheritance that is as much theirs as it is Christian Europe’s. For some, the enchanting beauty of the sanctuary solicits a passional response which seeks to find expression in prayer. In both cases, the turning to God in prayer is made across a dense fabric of historical relations, and carries both the burdens and the possibilities that this history offers.

Reverberations | What Prayer Can and Cannot Do

My interest in prayer has to do with what prayer can or cannot do. Mine is the quest of the doubter who would believe. I want to know what efficacy there is in prayer.

Can our prayers change the outer world? I suspect not, but I’m interested in stories that claim otherwise.

The Papal Prayer Machine | (A)theologies | Religion Dispatches

Following the pontiff’s request that all Catholics “continue to pray for me, for the Church, and for the future pope,” the Knights naturally asked for prayers. Breaking new ground, however, they proposed that these prayers might not merely be spoken at home, declaimed during mass, or formed in the privacy of one’s thoughts. The prayers for Benedict and his successor should, instead, be put on display in the growing global commons of the Twitterverse. According to their press release, the Knights were “encouraging people to send their prayerful support to Pope Benedict XVI directly by tweeting ‘I am praying for you’ and the hashtag #prayerforthechurch to the pope’s twitter account.”

Nones
Sean McCloud: Nones, Somes and the Combinativeness of American Religious Practices

In January, NPR’s Morning Edition resurrected the October 2012 Pew Poll suggesting that 19.6 percent of Americans had no religious affiliation, dubbed them “nones” and described this as a rising trend. The week-long radio series, titled “Losing Our Religion,” started with discussion of the poll and then quickly veered into the classic Henry Luce journalism style of attempting to discuss social trends through select personal narratives. While I was struck with how the journalists tended to use the same default terms, such as “God” and “faith,” as their interviewees, the aspects I found most interesting were the assumptions behind the concept of “nones” itself.

Losing Our Religion: The Growth Of The ‘Nones’ : The Two-Way : NPR

This week, Morning Edition explores the “nones” — Americans who say they don’t identify with any religion. Demographers have given them this name because when asked to identify their religion, that’s their answer: “none.”

What does spirituality mean in America today? « The Immanent Frame

What does “spirituality” mean in America today, and how can social scientists best investigate it?

News
Burkinis to help Muslim Swedes take the plunge – The Local

The small Swedish town of Emmaboda has vetoed a petition to introduce women-only hours at the municipal swimming pool, and instead wants to start selling burkinis to its observant Muslim female bathers.

A woman’s journey out of faith, family and fear – The Washington Post

On a summer night in a Western town of flat fields and hazy sunsets, a young woman stood outside a Greyhound bus with a ticket in her hand and a backpack over her shoulder. Boarding the bus, she said later, would be the hardest thing she had done in her 18 years.

Kyrgyzstan Considers Banning Girls from Traveling Abroad | EurasiaNet.org

A lawmaker in Kyrgyzstan is pushing a resolution that would ban young women from leaving the country without their parents’ written consent.

Turkey: Mothers’ Group Works to Broaden LGBT Tolerance | EurasiaNet.org

For retired Sule Ceylan, who is now an artist, the realization that her grown son was gay initially hit her in a similar way. “It was really bad,” remembered Ceylan. “I wanted him to live a false life. I was thinking this can’t go on like this.”

Female Iranian communists organize topless protest against hijabs in Swedish capital (PHOTOS) — RT News

The Iranian female activists have followed the footsteps of the scandalous Ukrainian FEMEN movement, flashing their breasts in protest against the hijab headscarf, women wear in the Islamic world.

Spain’s Supreme Court overturns city’s ban on full-face veils | Islam | World Bulletin

The case against Lleida – all of whose justifications for the ban were ruled unfounded – was brought by the Watani Liberty and Justice Association.

Mosques and Marriages: Manifestations of Patriarchy and Misogyny in the Western, Muslim Context

I don’t think the dynamics are specific to Muslims or Islam, but are symptoms of a silent, implicit system of patriarchy that is endemic to Western society and seeps into all aspects our lives.

Wilders tells Muslims to renounce Islam – it would be ‘good for them and also for our free society’ | Islamophobia Today eNewspaper

ALL Muslims should renounce their religion immediately in favour of Christianity or atheism – it would be better for them and for everyone else, controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders said in Melbourne on Tuesday.

Lateline: Geert Wilders interview (Dutch anti-islamic migration politician) (ABC TV Australia) – YouTube

Australian interview with controversial anti-islamic Dutch politician Geert Wilders, interviewed before he visited Australia in February 2013. Wilders advocates the stopping of migration of muslims to the West, amongst many other anti-islamic views. This interview raised many complaints to the ABC after it was broadcast on 13 Feb 2013.

Facebook Rumi: How a Muslim mystic became a popular meme | What Would Muhammad Do?

If you’ve been following on social media, center-of-heart-rumi
you have probably had someone forward you an image or a meme
with a wise and poetic saying from the famed Sufi poet Rumi.

According to many accounts, Rumi became the best-selling poet in the English language in the 1990?s, continuing onto today.

Today, his popularity now seems to have spilled over onto social media.

Dutch
Marokkaanse organisaties dreigen steun aan PvdA in te trekken

Marokkaanse organisaties hebben aan PvdA-voorzitter Spekman een brief geschreven waarin ze aankondigen Marokkaanse-Nederlanders sterk te zullen adviseren om niet op de PvdA te stemmen, wanneer de PvdA in de Eerste Kamer steun geeft aan het wetsvoorstel om de kinderbijslag en de uitkeringen voor nabestaanden in Marokko stop te zetten.
Het wetsvoorstel zal door PvdA minister Asscher aan de Eerste Kamer worden voorgelegd.

Marokkaanse organisaties zullen de brief ook overhandigen aan hun lokale PvdA-afdeling. Hieronder de brief, die is ondertekend door Mohammed Rabbae en Abdou Menebhi.

Lokum.NL | Turkse man ondergedoken na kritiek op antisemieten – Lokum.NL

De inwoner van de Arnhemse wijk Broek die vorige week openlijk afstand nam van antisemitische uitspraken van Turkse jongeren, heeft deze week enige tijd ondergedoken gezeten. Dit hebben verschillende bronnen bevestigd aan het NTR-programma De Halve Maan.

Mehmet ?ahin, die de Turks-Nederlandse jongeren uit de wijk onder meer huiswerkbegeleiding gaf, ging in het NTR-programma Onbevoegd Gezag openlijk in tegen de anti-joodse sentimenten die de jongeren uitten. De jongeren zeiden dat ‘Hitler goed werk had gedaan’ en dat het vermoorden van vrouwen en baby’s goed was als het om joden ging.

Said El Haji » Moeders plicht

Het is vandaag Internationale Vrouwendag. Een prima gelegenheid om iets over mijn moeder te vertellen.

Buurt vreest ‘spookmoskee’ De Baarsjes – BINNENLAND – PAROOL

Een spookmoskee voor de deur, dat vrezen huiseigenaren rond de plek in De Baarsjes waar de Westermoskee moet komen. Projectontwikkelaar Manderen jubelt dat de eerste paal van de moskee nog deze maand de grond in gaat. Het stadsdeel is sceptisch.

‘Turkije hoort echt niet bij de Europese Unie’ – Buitenland – VK

opinie Het getuigt van wijsheid als we de onderhandelingen met Turkije over toetreding tot de EU stoppen. Dat schrijven ChristenUnie-Kamerleden Gert-Jan Segers en Joël Voordewind.

Klein deel Amsterdamse moslima’s bereid tot geweld – AT5 Echt Amsterdams Nieuws

Een kleine groep Amsterdamse moslima’s is bereid zelf geweld te gebruiken als hun geloof wordt bedreigd.

Nederlandse moslimjongeren willen tegen Assad vechten – Nederland – TROUW

Steeds meer moslimjongeren in Nederland willen naar Syrië om daar te vechten tegen het regime. Dat is ook een gevaar voor de veiligheid van Nederland, zegt het Contactorgaan Moslims en Overheid (CMO) woensdag.

Islamitische organisaties zijn bezorgd over ronselen van jongeren voor strijd in Syrië

Het Contactorgaan Moslims en Overheid (CMO) krijgt verontrustende signalen dat steeds meer jongeren in Nederland zich aangetrokken voelen tot deelname aan de gewapende strijd in Syrië. Het CMO is bezorgd over de ronselpraktijken en ziet daarin een veiligheidsrisico voor Nederland.
Het CMO stuurt daarom een brief naar zijn aangesloten organisaties en imams met de oproep om hieraan aandacht te besteden. Dat laat het CMO weten in een persbericht.

K: Triodos moet islamitische universiteit volgens zijn eigen criteria de wacht aanzeggen

In een eerder artikel vestigde ik er de aandacht op dat Triodos Bank in 2003 de Islamitische Universiteit van Rotterdam (IUR) heeft gered van een faillissement; en dat de bank nog steeds geldschieter is van deze instelling. In dat verband belichtte ik de kwalijke opvattingen van rector Ahmet Akgündüz, die een fervent pleitbezorger is van de orthodoxe sharia en in vele boeken ijverig de gronden aanvoert voor het schenden van fundamentele mensenrechten in een islamitische staat.

Al-Jazeera interviewt bekeerde ex-PVV’er

Nadat de afgelopen dagen enorm veel gespeculeerd werd over de bekering van oud PVV’er Arnoud van Doorn, heeft hij vandaag nogmaals bevestigd aan al-Jazeera.net dat hij officieel bekeerd is tot de Islam. In een gesprek met al-Jazeera.net geeft Van Doorn te kennen dat hij al een tijd bezig was met het bestuderen van de Islam.

‘CDA moet zich op moslims richten’ – Binnenland | Het laatste nieuws uit Nederland leest u op Telegraaf.nl [binnenland]

CDA moet nadrukkelijker kiezers en nieuwe leden gaan werven onder moslims in de grote steden. Dat adviseert de werkgroep CDA & Islam.

Nieuws.nl – ‘Meer moslims bekeren zich tot christelijk geloof’

(Novum) – Steeds meer moslims in Nederland bekeren zich tot het christelijke geloof. Vooral mensen uit Iran stappen vaak over, concludeert het Nederlands Dagblad zaterdag uit een rondgang langs kerkgemeenten en landelijk opererende stichtingen. Landelijke cijfers zijn er echter niet.

Kipslachter moslims riskeert bewust boete

Kippenslachter Clazing in Zevenhuizen riskeert bewust een geldboete door niet te slachten volgens nieuwe eisen van de EU. Clazing is een middelgrote slachterij in Nederland waar alle kippen op Islamitische wijze worden geslacht.

Moskeebestuur Deventer blij met azan

De Centrum Moskee gaat dagelijks oproepen tot gebed. Een peiling onder omwonenden pakte positief uit voor de moskee. Het bestuur is blij, maar reageert gelaten: ,,Het voelt niet als winnen of verliezen.”

PVV wil verbod dagelijkse azan in Deventer

PVV-baas Geert Wilders vraagt het kabinet dit zo snel mogelijk te verbieden. Hij typeert het nieuwe fenomeen als een ‘imperialistische moskee-oproep, tekend voor de islamisering van ons land’. Ook wil Wilders van de ministers Plasterk en Asscher weten of ze zijn visie delen dat dit schadelijk is voor de integratie. “En zo niet, waarom niet?”, vragen Wilders en fractiegenoot Joram van Klaveren. Ze vinden moskeeën en azan niet thuishoren in Nederland. De PVV gaat er vanuit dat ook moslims klok kunnen kijken. “Denkt u ook niet dat de oproep tot islamitisch gebed totaal overbodig is omdat er in Nederland gewoon klokken hangen en verondersteld mag worden dat ook moslims kunnen klokkijken.”

Elsevier.nl – Zorgen om antisemitisme onder Nederlandse jongeren

Binnen- en buitenlandse organisaties maken zich zorgen om de antisemitische uitspattingen van jongeren in Arnhem. Ze vragen premier Mark Rutte (VVD) onderzoek te doen naar recente vormen van Jodenhaat.

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Closing the week 8 – Anthro, Islam, Evangelicals, The West, Dutch and Other Affairs

Posted on March 3rd, 2013 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Most Popular on Closer

1. Het Al Qaeda Spook – De Intieme Ideologische Relatie tussen Inspire en Wilders
2. Muslims and the Paradox of Normality
3. Welkom in Eurabia II – De Protocollen van de Wijzen van Mekka

Anthro-affairs
Race, racism, anthropology #1: Mullings on “Interrogating Racism” | Savage Minds

The comments section from my last post about the Napoleon Chagnon controversy eventually led into a discussion about race, racism, and anthropology. If you read more about the debates surrounding Chagnon, it’s pretty clear that they bring up some important (and complex) issues about race, power, the academy–and anthropology’s place within all of this. Near the end of the comment thread, one of our readers mentioned an article that’s well worth reading (thanks, Kat): Interrogating Racism: Toward an Antiracist Anthropology, by Leith Mullings (Annual Review of Anthropology, 2005).

Nacirema Rituals – Horace Miner, “Body Ritual among the Nacirema”

I use Nacirema Rituals as a way to introduce anthropology, ideas of human similarity and difference, ethnocentrism, and cultural relativism. It corresponds to the material in the section on Human Nature and Anthropology. I’ve recently been rediscovering just how current these issues continue to be. Accounts of human beings as inherently warlike, only tamed by modern states and modern moral codes, have become newly popular and quite entrenched. See War, Peace, & Human Nature: Convergence of Evolution & Culture for a new book that will hopefully provide a counter-narrative.

Space and Culture › Book review: Henri Lefebvre on Space – Architecture, Urban Research, and the Production of theory

During this formative period, Lefebvre developed his concept of space as concrete (’lived’) abstraction, a concept which should critically surpass and dialectically overcome (aufheben) central state urban planning as well as dismantle notions of space and housing that are perceived by Postfordist or Keynesian capitalism as mere reified objects of consumption.

The ethics of openness: How informed is “informed consent”? | Ethnography Matters

Informed consent for these interviews hasn’t really been about forms anyway. It has been about relationships between people, and trust.

Public Islam
Anthro | Religion | Media: Muslim Prayer in AZ Senate

Muslim Prayer in AZ Senate

Chinese Muslim traders in Cairo | Exporting China’s Development to the World

This is clearly not an in-depth study, but to the extent that it is correct it is a reminder of the limited ability of transnational networks to erode the power of the national imaginary, in China perhaps more than elsewhere.

Rise of Islamic Converts Challenges France – NYTimes.com

While the number of converts remains relatively small in France, yearly conversions to Islam have doubled in the past 25 years, experts say, presenting a growing challenge for France, where government and public attitudes toward Islam are awkward and sometimes hostile.

Adhan Allowed in Sweden – Europe – News – OnIslam.net

In an unprecedented move in the Scandinavian country, Muslims in the Swedish capital have won the right to raise Adhan (call for prayers).

Muslims work for LGBT support and acceptance | GLAAD

Many Arab-Americans from conservative backgrounds struggle with coming out or supporting LGBT equality. In Dearborn, Michigan the population is 40% Arab and includes many first generation Americans. The Arab American News recently highlighted Chris Ramazzotti, one of very few gay Arab men who is willing to speak openly about his sexual orientation. Ramazzotti is the executive director of Al-Gamea, a group formed in 2006 to help young LGBT men and women in Dearborn’s Arab community.

A large number of the people associated with Al-Gamea are Muslim, though the group has also reached out to LGBT Chaldeans, a group of Iraqi Catholics who do not identify as Arab. Both Arab Muslims and Chaldeans have found refuge in Al-Gamea, which, in addition to providing community and events, has raised money to help those who have been disowned after coming out to their families.

Religion General
Book Culture and the Rise of Liberal Religion | Religion & Politics

The liberal approaches to religion found in James and Jones—intellectually engaged, psychologically oriented, and focused on personal experience—characterized large swaths of middle-class spiritual life by the middle of the twentieth century.

I argue that this popularization of religious liberalism happened largely in and through books. Jones’s understanding in Social Law that modern religion required modern books in order to reach “the wayfaring man” was prescient: books and book culture were integral to the rise of liberal religion in the twentieth century. In order to succeed at all, the liberal project of renovating religion in light of modern knowledge had to succeed in the marketplace of print. And, by and large, it did.

The new evangelicals « The Immanent Frame

With a lead essay by Marcia Pally, this exchange calls attention to the growing group of evangelicals who have “left the right,” and features brief responses from a range of voices, including participants in this emerging field of “new evangelicals” and longtime observers of these trends. The exchange as a whole complements an earlier discussion and sheds light on the historical sources and political implications of these profound transformations in the social engagements of “new evangelicals” at home and around the world. At the same time, the authors debate whether the “robust political polyphony” of contemporary evangelicalism is really so “new” at all, or whether it should instead be seen as a return to its roots as a diverse global movement.

‘The West’
Is Europe Western? | Kyoto Journal

I like the words “German” and “European” better than “Western” because they force me to think more concretely. The term “Western” on the other hand contains an insidious concept. It tries to wrap up an ideology in a geographic packaging: whoever is in favor of democracy, freedom and individualism is considered Western in their orientation. And, if that person originates from the geographic west then they belong to their own tradition. If not, they have left their own tradition. They may well be modern but they are not completely themselves.

Liberal Paradoxes :: Anthropolaris

A recent article posed in the NYT – In Furor Over Cartoon, Murdoch Apologizes for ‘Grotesque’ Drawing – sheds some light on media politics. As if we needed to be reminded how untouchable Israel (and any critique of its policies) really is…

Erik Raschke: A Dutch Dissonance – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

Cognitive dissonance is hardly a Dutch phenomenon, but it is more than shocking to see that a highly educated populace, so proud of their history can, at the same time, be so blind to history. As the German ambassador to the Netherlands, Otto von der Gablentz, once commented, “Germany has not forgotten the lessons from its past. The Netherlands, by contrast, seems blinded by the myth of its own innocence.”

Misc.
Mattea Kramer & Chris Hellman: “Homeland Security” – Guernica / A Magazine of Art & Politics

Perhaps the strangest part of homeland security operations may be this: there is no agreed-upon definition for just what homeland security is.

Masculinizing the Feminine (or how to use pinterest for visual analysis) | Material World

Masculinizing the Feminine: is a pinterest page maintained by Sociological Images.

Each image links to products marketed specifically for men, that explicitly move away from the feminine (I like Blo-job, bronzing powder for men). Many of the images are linked to discussion and detail on the blog…thanks for this resource! Best way to use pinterest…

Gopk: Cultural fundamentalism. A step forward

“cultural fundamentalism/essentialism does not reify culture, but it is in reality about relationships between cultures as understood and bounded, internally homogeneous, integrated and exclusive sets of values, behavior and meanings which are thought to be inevitably threatened by foreigners who by definition have a different culture” (V. Stolcke, “Comment on Ralph Grillo, ‘Cultural Essentialism and Cultural Anxiety'”, Anthropological Theory, 3(2):175-77.

Egypt’s Music of Protest | Middle East Research and Information Project

one might argue that the edgiest and most explosive music is now being produced by Egypt’s working-class youth. It ingeniously combines advanced technologies with “from-the-hood” beats. It is unafraid to tackle subjects heretofore ignored or downplayed in polite venues. Mahragan promises to be “really tough” for the state or cultural elites to appropriate or contain.

Learning About Salafism | Tasneem Project Review

As part of my long-running exploration of Islam/Muslims, I’ve started to investigate Salafism — from the outside. In the past, I’ve dabbled in [quietest] Salafism as a participant. Amghar (2007) suggest Salafism’s attraction rests with the fact it “expresses a rebellion in which religion symbolises an affirmation of the self in opposition to the dominant values in society.” He may be right. I still don’t hold the dominant values of this society in very high regard. The world I’ve come to know over the last 30 years has consistently disappointed. Worse still, it takes an effort of will not to get dragged into the shameless mire. Outside of puritanical and conservative faith, I’ve never known anyone who maintains absolute integrity in respect of her/his own values, and that includes myself. I’ve always thought people could do better, in the right company. The problem is Salafis are dodgy company. Some of their ideas and values are total shite, even if the Salafis I’ve known are utterly convinced they’ve found the home of human perfection.

Sexism Fatigue: When Seth MacFarlane Is a Complete Ass and You Don’t Even Notice

A strange thing happened on Sunday night when I watched Seth MacFarlane joke that Zero Dark Thirty is a movie about how bitches be naggin’, and listened to him croon about how lovely Jodie Foster’s naked boobs looked mid-simulated-gang-rape. I felt…nothing. Just nothing. Nothing beyond exhaustion and an extreme desire for wine, anyway. I wasn’t happy about it, but compared to what I was expecting from MacFarlane, it was a yawn. Compared to the sheer volume of hate and misogyny I filter every day for my job, it was a sneeze.

Anthropologist rightfully denounces militarization

Marshall Sahlins, a leading American anthropologist, resigned last week from the National Academy of Sciences. This may come as a shock to the scientific community and even to students at NYU. Anyone taking an introductory course to anthropology at NYU, for example, is bound to encounter several readings of Sahlins’s work. Among his more influential works are “Historical Metaphors and Mythical Realities,” a case study of the murder of Captain Cook in Hawaii and how it was the result of underlying social factors. Normally, when a scientist or scholar resigns from such a prestigious position, one assumes that he probably committed an irrevocable and egregious error that forever taints his credibility as an academic. However, our assumptions sometimes deceive us. If we explore the reasoning and motivations behind Sahlins’s resignation, we may arrive at deeper insights into the issues at play.

New Media in Africa and the Global Public Sphere | African Futures

There is a tendency to fetishize the relationship between social media and the likelihood of protest. While the uses of mobile phones to spread information and coordinate actions were widespread in some protests and disturbances in Sub-Saharan African countries; take the cases of Mozambique and Mali (here and here) for example. Separately, research on Zambia’s recent election concludes that the impacts of online crisis monitoring and information tools during elections—like Ushahidi—may be overstated. New research about Twitter use suggests few elites (described as “African business and political leaders”) have joined the continent’s Twittersphere. However, not all evidence is negligible pointing instead to the emergence of a connected public on the continent, including some political and policy elites.

Syria’s civil war: The country formerly known as Syria | The Economist

“MY COUNTRY is being destroyed,” sobs Ahmad, a student from the eastern city of Deir ez-Zor who joined the protests when they began in March 2011. “The regime is killing us, many of the opposition fighters are becoming criminals and the world is watching it like a film.” He is worried that onlookers may think this is normal, seeing that Syria lies in the centre of a region which is no stranger to wars and strife. Syria, with its chemical weapons, alliance with Iran, shrinking government and spreading militias, has become the confluence where all that is worrying about the Middle East comes together.

Oscar loves a white savior – Salon.com

If a movie features white people rescuing people of color from their plight, odds are high an Oscar will follow

Dutch
Moskee-internaten onder toezicht – NOS Nieuws

Moskee-internaten komen onder toezicht te staan. Dat heeft minister Asscher met een aantal gemeentebesturen afgesproken, schrijft hij in een brief aan de Tweede Kamer (.pdf).

‘Arabische homokroeg is onmisbaar voor Arabische homoseksuelen’ – Vonk – VK

Bij het nieuws dat de Arabische homokroeg Habibi Ana in Amsterdam moet sluiten, schieten de Marokaans-Nederlandse Laila Ezzeroili herinneringen te binnen aan de wilde jaren waarin zij zelf als opstandig meisje een thuis vond tussen de moslimnichten.

Jongerenwerker geeft vrouw geen hand: ontslag

Een 25-jarige islamitische jongerenwerker uit Veenendaal is door een welzijnsinstelling in Veenendaal ontslagen omdat hij weigerde vrouwen een hand te geven. De man, actief in het buurtwerk, werd in september op non-actief gezet na klachten van onder meer de woningcorporatie.

16/2/2013 | Interview with Haitham al-Haddad | Rotterdam, the Netherlands – YouTube

Interview with Haitham al-Haddad | Rotterdam, the Netherlands

Waarom Lodewijk Asscher geen bankiers vangt | ThePostOnline

Onze minister van Sociale Zaken en Werkgelegenheid probeert existentiële angst over moderniteit te bestrijden met een papiertje. Het participatiecontract moet ervoor zorgen dat migranten zich meer gaan gedragen zoals wij. Asscher kan eisen stellen aan nieuwkomers en die eisen zijn erg zichtbaar voor alle burgers. Kijk eens, er wordt iets gedaan!

Uiteindelijk haalt het allemaal niets uit.

Asscher’s participatiecontract betuttelt migranten | ThePostOnline

Voor de duidelijkheid: het is goed en belangrijk om de problemen die er zijn aan te pakken en ze niet te ontkennen. Het kabinet onderkent die problemen, blijkens de nota en de brief aan de kamer, vrij volledig. Maar het is nog veel beter om de zin te scheiden van de onzin. Wie zich aan de wet houdt, een eigen inkomen genereert, en verder zonder problemen functioneert in onze samenleving heeft geen participatiecontract nodig. Nederlands spreken is voor heel veel dingen handig, maar als het ook probleemloos zonder kan, dan moeten we daar vooral niet moeilijk over doen.

Integratie is een pragmatisch probleem, geen ideologisch vraagstuk.

Integratie: is Lodewijk Asscher een ‘vluggertje’? | ThePostOnline

En dan wordt het zorgelijk. Want, wanneer Asscher wil dat nieuwkomers zich aan onze wetten en regels houden heeft hij natuurlijk volkomen gelijk. Maar daar hebben we de politie voor. Echter, als hij voorstelt dat mensen deze waarden moeten internaliseren, ze moeten onderschrijven, voelen en geloven, dan wordt het eng. Ik ken niemand die de manier waarop hij in het leven staat heeft laten vastleggen in een contract, laat staan iemand die de manier waarop hij in het leven staat, wijzigde door het tekenen van een contract. Want hoe gaat hij de vordering van migranten bijhouden? Met een gedachtenpolitie? Die krijgt het druk dan!

‘Asschers participatiecontract is een discriminatoir en paternalistisch heropvoedingsprogramma’ – Henk van Houtum – VK

Eindelijk was de economie – en niet die volledig uit de hand gelopen discussie over identiteit en multiculturaliteit – weer inzet van de politiek ideologische strijd en toen kwam daar minister Asscher met zijn integratiebrief, schrijft Henk van Houtum. ‘Dat levert een waarden-en normen exercitie op die veel verder gaat dan Balkenende ooit durfde te dromen.’

Weg met de integratie-industrie! | ThePostOnline

Mijn vader heeft mij opgevoed met de centrale boodschap dat werken edel is, dat het brood het lekkerst smaakt als het zelf is verdiend. Maar hij was gewend geraakt aan die uitkering, passief geworden, in zichzelf gekeerd, verloor de Nederlandse taal, hij isoleerde zich en ging een djellaba dragen.

Dat is het beeld dat ik voor ogen heb als ik zeg dat de welzijnssector niet verheft, maar hospitaliseert. Ik durf te zeggen dat ik midden in de samenleving sta, juist doordat ik nooit en te nimmer met Welzijn van doen heb gehad. Het is het verheffingsideaal dat mij ontwikkeld heeft, niet de welzijnssector.

‘Asscher mag het niet bij woorden laten’ – Nausicaa Marbe – VK

Asscher heeft iets gedaan wat geen eerdere vicepremier aandurfde: ernstige integratieproblemen duidelijk vanuit de culturele onaangepastheid en de onwil bij de betreffende migrantengroepen verklaren, en daar oplossingen zoeken. Dat betoogt Volkskrant-columnist Nausicaa Marbe.

‘Typisch Nederlandse’ kerk-staat-verhoudingen zijn achterhaald – Sociale Vraagstukken – TROUW

Overheden worstelen meer dan ooit met de vraag hoe zij met religieuze groeperingen om moeten gaan. Voldoet het zogenaamde ‘Nederlandse model’ van kerk-staat verhoudingen nog wel als richtsnoer? In de praktijk van alledag voert pragmatisme de boventoon en klinkt seculiere kritiek steeds luider.

PhotoQ – Columns – Top die foto!

Sommige problemen zijn lastig te illustreren met foto’s. Allochtonenproblematiek is daar één van. Zo heb ik al eens eerder geschreven over de stereotype foto’s die daarvoor gebruikt worden (zie verwijzingen onder dit artikel). Maar al een tijd ben ik gefascineerd door één foto die voor allerlei nieuwsberichten wordt gebruikt.

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Closing the week 29 – Featuring Breivik: One Year After

Posted on July 22nd, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, International Terrorism, Multiculti Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

Most popular on Closer this week:

1. Van praktijk naar publieke actie: niet-vasten tijdens de vasten
2. Islamophobia and the Politics of Hate in Europe – Liz Fekete
3. Ramadan in Europe – A Youtube Essay I: First Day

Featuring One Year After Breivik

The Victims
Rest In Peace, Mona Abdinur – Utøya 22. juli 2011

Daily Kos: ….and there was LOVE

This girl of Bosnian origin survived by swimming away from Utøya, allthough she didn´t consider herself a good swimmer and the water was very cold (she got eventually picked up by a boat). Her father who had experienced the Serbian bombings of Sarajevo used to forever thankful for having found refugee in a peaceful and functional country and it was of couse surreal for him that his daughter should experience a grave terror attack in Norway. Like many others who was at Utøya she sent SMS to her family in the middle of the attack when she still didn´t know what was happening or whether she would survive.

Utøya one year on: victim’s family describe their loss – video | World news | guardian.co.uk

Bano Rashid, 18, was among the 69 people who died in a shooting spree by Anders Behring Breivik at a Labour youth camp on Utøya island on 22 July 2011. Days later she was the first victim to be laid to rest. A year on, her sister Lara, who survived the attack, and her parents, who had brought the family to Norway from Iraq in search of peace, are trying to cope with their loss.

Victims of the Norway Attacks – Multimedia Feature – NYTimes.com

Anders Behring Breivik, an anti-Muslim extremist, is accused of killing 77 people in an Oslo bombing and a shooting rampage at a summer camp for young political activists on July 22, 2011. Learn more about the victims by clicking on the images below.

Learning From Norway’s Tragedy – NYTimes.com
Remembering

As Norway’s foreign minister, I have been frequently confronted with these questions over the past year. Without prejudice to the ongoing legal proceedings, I believe these are key questions. How we, as independent nations and as an international community, should fight violent political extremism is at the heart of politics in the 21st century. I also believe that Norway’s experience after the attack has important lessons that may be relevant beyond our borders.

In Oslo, Evil Demystified With Civility – NYTimes.com

As the trial of Anders Behring Breivik opened in Oslo last week, a friend e-mailed from New York with a question: Was it not a bit weird, he asked, that officers of the court took time to shake his hand, offering courtesy, deference even, to a man who had openly boasted of killing 77 people last summer in Norway’s worst peacetime atrocity?

Norwegian king shows multiculturalism support / News / The Foreigner — Norwegian News in English.

Professor of Anthropology, Thomas Hylland Eriksen, told Dagsavisen about the King’s fourth visit to the area in less than a month that, “Groruddalen has long been considered as a stepchild in Norwegian society.”

“The fact the King is travelling here at this time is a clear message from the Royal family about the kind of society they want. One might quote the King’s grandfather, King Haakon, who said, ‘I am also the Communists’ King’. King Harald is doing something similar. In this way, he is showing that he is king for all people.”

Norway’s trial, and a democratic lesson | openDemocracy

The legal procedure in the case of Anders Behring Breivik, the perpetrator of the Norwegian massacre of July 2011, is a case-study of democratic values – in particular, that democracy is not a “what” but a “how”, says Thomas Hylland Eriksen.

Norway defies Breivik one year on « World On Sunday

“The bomb and the shots were intended to change Norway. People responded by embracing our values. He failed, the people won,” Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg told the crowds, carrying red and white roses at the memorial in central Oslo.

Norway’s prime minister attends memorial service for those killed in Breivik attacks – video | World news | guardian.co.uk

The prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, says the massacre has not succeeded in changing Norway and the Norwegian people. Stoltenberg spoke at a memorial service on Sunday, attended by members of the royal family, on the first anniversary of the attacks in Oslo and Utøya in which Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people and injured hundreds more

Reflection
Norway – one year after: an open wound | openDemocracy

Populist right-wing politicians expressing extreme views on immigration, Islam and Muslims, have in general been confronted in the mediated public spheres to a much greater extent than before 22/7, as have extreme-right wingers. But how much else has moved on?

Conservative Think Tank Scholar Promotes Claim That Norway Terrorist Attacked Because He Was Censored | ThinkProgress

In the speech, flagged by the website Loonwatch, Hirsi Ali noted that she herself appeared in Breivik’s 1,500-word manifesto (Breivik reprinted a European right-wing article saying Hirsi Ali should win the Nobel Peace Prize). While she denounced Breivik’s views as an “abhorrant” form of “neo-fascism,” she then postulated that Breivik was driven to violence because his militant anti-multicultural views were not given a fair airing in the public discourse.

Anders Behring Breivik Attacks: Norway Remembers Massacre Victims On Anniversary

Norway on Sunday paused to commemorate the 77 victims of a bomb and gun massacre that shocked the peaceful nation one year ago, a tragedy that the prime minister said had brought Norwegians together in defense of democracy and tolerance.

From my blog
Belief and Violence: Anders Breivik and Wilders’ Freedom Party – C L O S E R — C L O S E R

As soon as it became clear that the perpetrator was a white Norwegian guy with some nativist and Wilders’ Freedom Party sympathies another game emerged. The link with Wilders’ ideology and rhetoric was immediately picked up by his opponents. Well first I should add that as soon as it appeared that the shooter was a blonde white guy the staunch anti-racists of the conservative and liberal right wing stated that this did not mean it wasn’t a Muslim and people discussed the alledged radical outlook of converts. After that proved to be nonsense in this case, the debate on the Internet turned to Wilders and his ideology. His supporters denying any responsibility by Wilders for the terrible attacks. A minority however, after the condemning the attack when they still thought it was Al Qaeda, were actually supporting the attacks for example by stating: ‘As things turn out now, the perpertrator is a right wing extremist. In that case the attack is the only correct answer to a totalitarian leftist state where right wing people are silenced‘. Another person stated on his photoshop blog (where he frequently attacks left wing and Muslim politicians in satirical photoshops) that the perpetrator should enlist in a new course: “Choosing sensible targets as an anti-islamist” thereby showing a picture of, what appears to be, an attack on the Kaaba in Mecca and the people who go there to the Hajj“. Satire of course. But these people constitute a minority as far as I can tell. Others condemn the attacks and as far as I can tell now most Freedom Party supporters I know abhor the attacks. The reactions on Twitter and Facebook however are starting to resemble the reactions towards (salafiyyah) Muslims after the murder on Van Gogh in 2004.

Radicalization Series V: Freedom Fighters, Conflict and Culture Talk – C L O S E R — C L O S E R

It is important I think to see how his ideas (but not his actions) not only are derived from bloggers and politicians but also who they resonate with and are grounded on a grassroots everyday level. I also think the Netherlands can give some clues to that and is relevant here since Breivik partly derived his inspiration from Wilders’ Freedom Party ideology. In this blog therefore I will present some material of the Dutch section of the Ethnobarometer research in which we held focus group discussions on issues of security and culture after 9/11, the murder of Van Gogh and the French riots and Muhammad Cartoons. The research was conducted in 2005 and 2006 and the focus groups consisted all of both Moroccan-Dutch and native Dutch citizens of Gouda (except one group that was a moderate right wing group of native Dutch citizens). We did not aim for a representative sample but for an even division with regard to age, gender and political preferences. I will focus mostly here on the statements of the native Dutch participants. It shows how people struggle with tolerance on the one hand (seen as an important part of Dutch identity) and fear of Islamization and Muslims on the other hand expressed by different modalities of culture talk. While in the case of Bawer, Breilvik and Wilders the presence of Islam and Muslims are seen as the cause of conflict and by definition leading to conflicts, the Ethnobarometer research also revealed mechanisms that can de-escalate conflicts.

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Closing the week 27 – Featuring Public Religion

Posted on July 8th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, anthropology, Blogosphere.

Public Religion
Islam’s place in Europe – Global Public Square – CNN.com Blogs

The angry young men who chanted “God is Great” while battling police in the streets have reignited the ongoing debate over Islam’s place in Europe, a debate which has risen to the top of many politicians’ concerns. The German president said in a newspaper interview that while German Muslims clearly “belong” to the country, it is less clear whether or not Islam does.

But something arguably much more meaningful, if less newsworthy, took place days later. Groups representing hundreds of thousands of German Muslims condemned the violence and called on constituents to fulfill the civic duty of voting in regional elections that month.

BBC News – Austria celebrates ‘model’ law on Islam

Austria has had a checkered history when it comes to relations with Muslims, but its 100-year-old Law on Islam is seen as a symbol of tolerance.

Secularism: Its content and context « The Immanent Frame

In a paper written in the days immediately following the fatwa pronounced against Salman Rushdie, called “What is a Muslim?,” I had argued that secularism had no justification that did not appeal to substantive values, that is to say, values that some may hold and others may not. It was not justifiable on purely rational grounds that anyone (capable of rationality) would find convincing, no matter what substantive values they held. I had invoked the notion, coined by Bernard Williams as ‘internal reasons,’ to describe these kinds of grounds on which its justification is given. Internal reasons are reasons that rely on specific motives and values and commitments in the moral psychologies of individuals (or groups, if one takes the view that groups have moral-psychological economies). Internal reasons are contrasted with ‘external reasons,’ which are reasons that someone is supposed to have quite independent of his or her substantive values and commitments, that is, independent of elements in the psychologies that motivate people. Bernard Williams, recapitulating Humean arguments against Kantian forms of externalist rationality and the universalism that might be expected to emerge from it, had claimed that there are no such things as ‘external reasons.’ Whether that general claim is true or not, my more specific claim had been that there are no external reasons that would establish the truth of secularism. If secularism were to carry conviction, it would have to be on grounds that persuaded people by appealing to the specific and substantive values that figured in their specific moral psychological economies. Such a view might cause alarm in those who would wish for secularism a more universal basis. Internal reasons, by their nature, do not provide such a basis. As, I said, internal reasons for some conclusion that will persuade some people, may not persuade others of that conclusion, since those others may not hold the particular substantive values to which those reasons appeal and on which those reasons depend. Only external reasons could persuade everyone since all they require is a minimal rationality possessed by all (undamaged, adult) human minds and make no appeal to substantive values that may be variably held by human minds and psychologies. Alarming thought it might seem to some, there is no help for this. There are no more secure universal grounds on which one can base one’s argument for secularism.

Cooperating modernities in Tunisia?

In April, Columbia political scientist Alfred Stepan came out with an article in the Journal of Democracy on “Tunisia’s Transition and the Twin Tolerations.” If the article is right, Tunisia’s secularists and Islamists are participating in an encouraging pattern of political cooperation that bodes well for the country’s democratic development. There is good reason to be hopeful about the relevance of an emerging “Tunisian model” of secular-Islamist negotiation, not only for Tunisia’s future but for all those countries affected by the Arab Spring. Yet there is also reason for caution.

The “Muslim Kristallnacht” and a Swiss Twittergate

One of the more colorful Muslim figures in Switzerland making the media rounds the past few months is Aziz Osmanoglu of Basel, who was recently on trial for hate speech charges. The court case was based on Osmanoglu’s statements made to a Swiss TV show, which essentially added up to saying that it was “Sharia-compliant” to beat a recalcitrant wife if she refused to have sex. Specifically, he said, “A man needs sex. That is why he can, as a last resort, beat his wife if she refuses. If not, the man cheats and this is not wanted in Islam.” Strangely enough for Switzerland, the appeals court acquitted him, ruling that he was speaking personally; in other words, that he was acting in freedom of speech and not as a representative of the Muslim community.

While the court of appeals’ ruling is problematic enough, this story isn’t finished. Yesterday, in response to the court judgment, a tweet was posted, allegedly from SVP politician Alexander Muller (yes, from the same party that brought you the minaret vote), saying that “Maybe we need another Kristallnacht…this time for mosques.”

The “Muslim Kristallnacht” and a Swiss Twittergate

One of the more colorful Muslim figures in Switzerland making the media rounds the past few months is Aziz Osmanoglu of Basel, who was recently on trial for hate speech charges. The court case was based on Osmanoglu’s statements made to a Swiss TV show, which essentially added up to saying that it was “Sharia-compliant” to beat a recalcitrant wife if she refused to have sex. Specifically, he said, “A man needs sex. That is why he can, as a last resort, beat his wife if she refuses. If not, the man cheats and this is not wanted in Islam.” Strangely enough for Switzerland, the appeals court acquitted him, ruling that he was speaking personally; in other words, that he was acting in freedom of speech and not as a representative of the Muslim community.

While the court of appeals’ ruling is problematic enough, this story isn’t finished. Yesterday, in response to the court judgment, a tweet was posted, allegedly from SVP politician Alexander Muller (yes, from the same party that brought you the minaret vote), saying that “Maybe we need another Kristallnacht…this time for mosques.”

Fashion as Resistance: The Case of Mali

The article suggests that fashion is too “cool” for these Islamists, as they have taken the conservative approach in endorsing hijab and banning trousers for women. To some degree, the article portrays angry Islamists getting back at fashion designers and perhaps even women. Nonetheless, the issue may be a bit more complex than Yahoo! News analysis. The issue with fashion may be not its colors and uncovered arms, but what it represents. In an interview, designer Sidahmed Seidnaly, aka Alphadi and also known as the Magician of the Desert, expresses his discomfort with the situation in Mali and the push for Shari’ah law in the northern region. Similarly, designer Mariah Bocoum made her five-piece collection to represent the struggle of Malian people and as a way to resist the restrictions now imposed in Mali’s north.

Arts and Culture
Don’t Panik! Islam and Europe’s ‘Hip Hop Wars’ – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

French director Keira Maameri’s recently released documentary “Don’t Panik” – screened a few weeks ago at the Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival in Doha – offers Médine and five other rappers (from Sweden to Senegal) an opportunity tell their side of the story, and to reflect on how they are viewed as Muslim hip hop artists. “My track ‘Don’t Panik’ aims to bring communities together,” says Médine, referring to what has now become his signature track where he announces his multiple identities (ghetto-dweller, proletarian, Muslim, African) while telling listeners to stay calm. “[The song] denounces discrimination against youth in housing projects, the working class, Africans – and Muslims. Yet what do people remember? Muslims – that’s the only thing they remember.”

PBS Documentary Showcases Islam’s Contribution to Civilization

On Friday, July 6 at 9 p.m. EST, PBS will nationally broadcast a documentary titled, “Islamic Art: Mirror of the Invisible World” narrated by Susan Sarandon. The documentary is a timely reminder about the many contributions made by Muslims to art and culture. As an educator, I am looking forward to this documentary as it adds to a growing collection of well-made documentaries that provide a semblance of balance to the general propensity in the media to stereotype Muslims.

Misc.
Muslims are well-integrated in Britain – but no one seems to believe it | Leon Moosavi | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

British Muslims often express a stronger sense of belonging than other citizens, so why are they still seen as outsiders?

New social movements and social change « Media and Social Change

These extracts from Wikipedia will be familiar territory to many readers of this blog, but I thought they could be a useful reminder of the connection between ‘new social movements’ theory and the pursuit of social change.

Reading: Talal Asad on “Islam,” Europe, and the civilizational shtick | Greased Cartridge

“If religion is often thought of as a major danger, “Islam” is often represented as a uniquely intractable instance of active religion in the modern world. In the modern world “religion”has-or at any rate, we believe that it should have-its proper appointed place. Islam, presented as a “religious civilization,” is a construct not only of the media but also of intellectual discourse. That is the discourse in which the rich and diverse history of Muslim societies across three continents and one-and-a-half millennia is reduced to the essential principles of a distinctive “religious civilization. ”

Is religion free? « The Immanent Frame

My second general comment is that however we want to define religion (and perhaps we could take a leaf from northern Madagascar and leave it open, specifying only what it is not), one of the general features, as the Malagasy ethnography also suggests, is a kind of submission to something conceived as larger, higher, or more powerful than oneself. Durkheim called it society; Maurice Bloch calls it deference to authority or to other persons; Roy Rappaport describes it as one of the entailments of engaging in ritual performance. In participating in a ritual, whatever one’s state of mind or ‘belief’ at the time, and irrespective of the semiotic ideology that Webb Keane rightly and compellingly points to, one is accepting the outcome (assuming that the felicity conditions of the performative event are met) and moreover accepting the meta-performativity, i.e. that acts and utterances of this kind, felicitously produced, have the consequences that they do. To perform a ritual is, in the end, to accept a certain liturgical order of which it is part (irrespective of whether this also entails deference to specific officials, like priests). In other words, the freedom to carry out certain kinds of acts is premised on subjection to an order that defines what such acts are, that puts things under a definition and regulates the changes in definition. As I elaborate elsewhere, the process is one of the instauration of ethical criteria and it is intrinsic to human speech acts. Insofar as what we refer to as specifically ‘religious’ includes the most formal and consequential kinds of performative acts (baptized or not, etc.) one might say that what religion is not is freedom.

Multiculturalism in Europe « The Immanent Frame

After the rise of multicultural policies in the 1980s and 1990s, the winds have shifted in Europe. Terrorist attacks in Madrid, London, Norway, and, most recently, in Toulouse, have furthered the securitization of Islam across Europe, while increasing immigration (predominantly from Muslim countries) has caused societal tensions. As a result, existing ideas concerning multiculturalism, religious pluralism, and national authenticity are being challenged. Past policies of cordon sanitaire are no longer in full effect, as mainstream political parties have come to adopt some of the ideas of their populist and right-wing peers; witness former president Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign rhetoric against immigration and Muslims following the strong showing by right-wing candidate Marine Le Pen.

We’ve invited a small handful of scholars to comment on the increasing influence of anti-immigration and anti-Islam ideas and parties across Europe and to offer their thoughts on how best to accommodate minority claims (especially those involving Islam) in a democratic and liberal Europe

Dutch
Timboektoe is meer dan verwoest erfgoed – De Standaard

De westerse media zijn er weer ingetrapt. Met de aandacht voor het vernielde erfgoed in Timboektoe hebben radicale moslims precies bereikt wat ze wilden: uitvergroting van hun belang en hun rol.

Wat volgens BAZ LECOCQ meer aandacht verdient, de miserabele situatie van de bevolking in Noord-Mali, blijft helaas onder de radar.

Wilders’ joodse, christelijke en anti-islamitische geldschieters « altahrir, news of Islam, Muslims

Dikke vrienden waren Geert Wilders en uittredend PVV-Kamerlid Wim Kortenoeven niet. Wilders is een ‘politieke klaploper’, zei Kortenoeven vandaag tijdens zijn persconferentie. De partijleider loopt volgens hem voortdurend ‘de deur plat bij joodse organisaties om te vragen om geld’. Wie zijn Wilders’ religieuze geldschieters eigenlijk

Sharia en de mentaliteit van de moslims « Badr Youyou

Een van de grote misverstanden die er gecreëerd worden over de sharia is namelijk het eerste waar de meeste mensen aan denken: het islamitische strafsysteem. Dit geldt voor zowel moslims als niet-moslims. Het beeld over de sharia is volledig verkleurd door het gedrag van een aantal groeperingen zoals Saoedi-Arabië, de Taliban, Iran en allerlei andere landen die het strafsysteem als eerste wat ze invoeren wanneer de sharia aangekondigd wordt. Wanneer het ontbreekt aan verdieping en een objectieve studie over de sharia, dan krijg je dit soort taferelen. Moslims die dan enkel aan het strafsysteem denken als ze het woord ‘sharia’ voorbij zien komen.

Moslims in Kenia bevechten terrorisme : Nieuwemoskee

Moslimorganisaties in Kenia hebben zich achter een wetsvoorstel geschaard om terrorisme in het Oost-Afrikaanse land te bestrijden, waarbij zij benadrukken dat terroristische acties tegen de islamitische leer in gaat. Zij steunen het wetsvoorstel en vinden het niet-discriminerend voor de moslimgemeenschap. Kenia telt 10 miljoen moslims op een totale populatie van 36 miljoen.

Islamkritiek helpt de positie van moslimvrouwen: Brendel en Dibi « George Knight

Dit verbond tussen Dibi en Brendel in hun zorg over de invloed van de radicale islam is nieuw. Het verbindt allochtonen met autochtonen en doorbreekt links-rechts tegenstellingen. De Roemeens-Nederlandse schrijfster Nausica Marbe voegt zich in een Volkskrant-column bij de kritiek op de ‘progressief wanende intellectuelen die het volk minachten die de sharia minachtend afwijzen’. Ze noemt oud NRC-hoofdredacteur Folkert Jensma en arabist Maurits Berger als ‘leunstoeldenkers’ die meisjes en vrouwen die lijden onder de sharia in de steek laten. Zo is Jensma weliswaar tegen een shariaraad, maar relativeert-ie de slechte positie van moslimvrouwen: ‘Huwelijksdwang is geen moslimmonopolie‘ en ziet-ie volop ruimte voor arbitrage.

Moslim mode spreekt het westen aan | MaxaFashion

Moslimmode is een van de hardst groeiende markten en volgens berichten goed voor zo’n 96 miljard pond (zo’n 119 miljard euro) per jaar. De Britse mode-industrie verbleekt daarbij met een waarde van 21 miljard pond. Ontwerpers proberen nu de Moslim klant tegemoet te komen met een meer conservatieve look.

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Closing the week 17 – Featuring Sex, Arab Women and Orientalism

Posted on April 29th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

Most popular on Closer this week:

1. Seks, Dood en Islam
2. Art, Islam & Europe
3. Film: Dochters van Malakeh
4. Interview Veena Malik: My Pakistan is infamous for many reasons other than me

UPDATED 3 MAY 2012, SEE BELOW
Foreign Policy: The Sex Issue
The Sex Issue | Foreign Policy

Women’s bodies are the world’s battleground, the contested terrain on which politics is played out. We can keep ignoring it. For this one issue, we decided not to.

The Ayatollah Under the Bed(sheets) – By Karim Sadjadpour | Foreign Policy

In the Islamic Republic of Iran, all politics may not be sexual, but all sex is political.

The Worst Places to Be a Woman – By Valerie M. Hudson | Foreign Policy

Mapping the places where the war on women is still being fought.

Why Do They Hate Us? – By Mona Eltahawy | Foreign Policy

There is no sugarcoating it. They don’t hate us because of our freedoms, as the tired, post-9/11 American cliché had it. We have no freedoms because they hate us, as this Arab woman so powerfully says.

Yes: They hate us. It must be said.

Some may ask why I’m bringing this up now, at a time when the region has risen up, fueled not by the usual hatred of America and Israel but by a common demand for freedom.

Foreign Policy Debating the War on Woman; six commenters
Sondos Asem: Misogyny exists, but blaming it for women’s suffering is simplistic

Eltahawy uses a combination of hyperbole and perhaps benign neglect to highlight offensive stances and bury more women-centered ones. Far from constituting a solution, this type of one-dimensional reductionism and stereotyping is one of the problems facing Arab women. Let’s be clear: There is misogyny in the Arab world. But if we want progress for Arab women, we must hack at the roots of evil, not at its branches.

Shadi Hamid: Arab women have more agency than you might think

The fact of the matter is that Arab women, throughout the region, are exercising their moral and political agency, but not necessarily in the ways we might expect.

Hanin Ghaddar: We need more badass ladies

Mona Eltahawy is right. They hate us. But they also fear us, as much as our dictators feared us. And we can break them, as much as we broke and will keep on breaking our tyrants. Today, their fear of the public sphere is multiplied because of the revolutions. We should use that fear to our advantage.

Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf: The Prophet Mohammad was a revolutionary feminist

Mona Eltahawy describes cultural practices in Egypt and the Middle East that predate Islam yet have been embraced by many people now as part of Islam. The practice of genital mutilation of women, for example, is found only in Africa. If it were part of Islam, it would be practiced by Muslims all over the world.

For his time, the Prophet Mohammed was a revolutionary feminist.

Naheed Mustafa: “Nekkid Burqa Woman” is lazy and insulting

Here’s a quick reenactment of me reading Mona Eltahawy’s cover essay as my eyes involuntarily (I swear!) flit over to Nekkid Burqa Woman: “So, yes, women all over the world have problems — BOOBS! — yes, the United States has yet to elect a female president — BOOOBS! — and yes, women continue to be objectified in many “Western” countries — BOOOOOBS!” And so on.

When I was asked to contribute this critique, I had to ask myself what exactly my problem was. I’ve narrowed it down to two things: The image of Nekkid Burqa Woman is lazy and insulting.

Leila Ahmed: Eltahawy misreads Alifa Rifaat

Disconcertingly, Eltahawy strangely misreads (in my view) the Rifaat story with which she begins her essay. After enduring “unmoved,” as Eltahawy correctly says, her husband’s sexual exertions, the story’s central character then eagerly rises to wash herself and perform ritual prayers. Eltahawy reads these actions as indicating Rifaat’s “brilliant” portrayal of “sublimation through religion.”

Talking about Sex, women’s bodies and Orientalism: my selection
Mona Eltahawy and Leila Ahmed discuss FP “Why Do They Hate US” piece on Melissa Harris Perry Show April 28th 2012

The Duck of Minerva: “Seriously, Guys!”: How (Not) to Write About Gender and Foreign Affairs

Below are three big do’s and don’ts for foreign policy magazines aiming to “take women’s issues seriously.”

Foreign Policy: The Sex Issue « Saira Says

This cover is offensive and disrespectful; it demonstrates the inherent disregard by Western society for women who do wear niqabs and hijabs. The cover also sets the tone for the entire issue.

The Intersection between Gender, the Ghost of Colonialism, and Religion « confessionsofamuslimpunk

I believe Ms. Eltahawy has attempted to explain away the misogyny of Arab nations as something indicative of Muslim and Arab cultures. This reasoning does contain some validity considering the inequality that has existed between males and females throughout the region’s history (e.g. females being given half of the inheritance of male family members upon the passing of a parent). It, however, fails to incorporate a long-form analysis of how misogyny among Arab cultures has evolved through the interplay between culture, religions, warfare, and general historical events.

Why Do They Hate Us? They Don’t. | loonwatch.com

Racists don’t see nuance. They lump all people of a certain group altogether. That’s exactly what Mona Eltahawy does in her article. She paints the entire people of that region–or at least its men–with one broad bush. They hate women. All 170 million of them.

Let’s Talk About Sex

The primary focus is Islam and its production and repression of sex and gender politics in the Middle East. In discussing the role of fatwas in the regulation of sexual practices, Karim Sadjadpour parades a tone of incredulity. Leaving aside his dismissal of the centuries old tradition of practicing Muslims asking and receiving advice on sexual and gender practices, the article assumes an unspoken consensus with its readers: the idea of a mullah writing about sex is amusing if a little perverted.

Then there is the visual. A naked and beautiful woman’s flawless body unfolds a niqab of black paint. She stares at us afraid and alluring. We are invited to sexualize and rescue her at once. The images reproduce what Gayatri Spivak critiqued as the masculine and imperial urge to save sexualized (and racialized) others. The photo spread is reminiscent of Theo van Gogh’s film Submission, based on Ayyan Hirsli Ali’s writings, in which a woman with verses of the Quran painted on her naked body and wearing a transparent chador writhes around a dimly lit room. Foreign Policy’s “Sex Issue” montage is inspired by the same logic that fuels Submission: we selectively highlight the plight of women in Islam using the naked female body as currency. The female body is to be consumed, not covered!

Do Arab men hate women? It’s not that simple | Nesrine Malik | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

To heed Eltahawy’s call and indulge in cultural absolutism – if we are to use the west as a model, basic women’s and even minority rights, did not become enshrined until there was a political environment when traditional structures (particularly the church) had sufficiently receded.

The call to arms, therefore, should not be to the outside world to recognise the truth of men’s hatred towards women, but rather to Arabs. And in a time of political upheaval this call should ask them to look inwards and continue to recognise and dismantle the structures that have been perpetuated for too long. This reform is already under way when it comes to women’s rights thanks to the efforts of several Arab feminists, such as Nawal El Saadawi and Tawakul Karman, who recognise that we need to fight the patriarchy, not men.

Mona: Why Do You Hate Us? « Tahrir & Beyond

The fundamental problem of Mona’s essay is the context and framework of how she analyzes why women in the Middle East are oppressed and the only reason she could give is because men and Arab societies (culturally and religiously) hate women.

Oh, Mona! « AmericanPaki

t this point, I have successfully lost count of the number of women who told me that the title of her article bothered them – but they couldn’t quite figure out why it was. I will tell you why: it is because the title divorces the countless number of women who might identify with the very real grievances they have living under a ruthless system that hates women, from the broader war on women. To claim that the “real war on women is in the Middle East” stakes the legitimacy of Arab women in the war against women, that I view as a global phenomenon not unique to Arab women, while leaving millions of non-Arab women, also victims of systemic misogyny, to fend for themselves.

Us and Them: On Helpless Women and Orientalist Imagery | Frustrated Arab

There are also unanswered questions:

1. Why not publish the article in Arabic, therein engaging with the intended audience more directly?
2. Why choose Foreign Policy as the platform and not a media outlet which would direct her piece at those she addresses?
3. Why is there so much orientalist imagery present? If she was not aware that these photographs would be used, did she take it up with Foreign Policy after realizing this?

Mainstream media and the Orient

the veiled bodies. The exposed bodies. The veiled yet exposed bodies. The hunger. The squalor. The eccentricity. The modest eroticism. The yearning for modernity, civilization and freedom. Welcome to the world of orientalist imagery.

In line with our Bernard Lewis Award, we would like to introduce an award for the “Orientalist Image of the Week”. This week’s award (won with honours) goes to Foreign Policy, for its Sex Issue cover.

On Mona Eltahawy’s “Why Do They Hate Us?” « RanaBaker’s Blog

Indeed, Eltahawy’s argument that the reason behind Middle Eastern and North African oppression of women is “hatred” is a simplistic one that ignores the social, cultural and political contexts in which these women live. But not only that. Eltahawy went as far as to say that it is the Islamic philosophy that enables men to “hate” and hence “oppress” and “sexually harass” women.

While this is true for certain groups that practice religious exploitation to justify crimes against all sectors of a society, including women of course, the Arab world, especially prior to the outbreak of the Arab Spring, had long lived under the rule of secular authoritarian governments who took no issue with their “security apparatus” committing sexual harassments here, virginity tests there and in some few cases rape crimes.

Dear Mona Eltahawy, You Do Not Represent “Us” – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

The issue is framing and presenting women in the region as a monolith and pitting their struggles against the backdrop of an argument which points to “hate.” The argument dismisses the role of figures like Tawakul Karman, Zainab and Maryam al-Khawaja, and others — women who rose through the revolutions and were present in the public sphere during protests and demonstrations, standing alongside their compatriots demanding change and an end to injustices of all kinds. These women stood up as individuals and not as self-proclaimed representatives of Arab women.

Jillian C. York » On Listening (a response to the Mona Eltahawy criticism)

the idea behind some of these comments is essentially: “Hey – foreigners find this valuable, shut up dissenters!” I even spotted one foreigner–who presumably lives in Egypt–telling various Egyptian women on Twitter that they were simply wrong.

The thing is, Arab women, in Eltahawy’s piece, are not active participants in the conversation, but subjects. That, I think, is why so many women took issue to her use of “us” — it felt disingenuous. I realize, of course, that there’s backstory here and she has a considerable number of non-fans and trolls, but this article in particular provoked a stronger reaction than any I’ve ever seen, and there’s a reason for that.

‘Why Do They Hate Us?’ A Blogger’s Response – Al-Monitor: the Pulse of the Middle East

Women like Manal Al-Sharif, Rasha Azab and Samira Ibrahim are not less “feminist” than other prominent female figures in the world. The veiled Bahraini protester Zainab Alkhawaja, for example, can speak well of the women’s struggle as she protests alone in the street and gets arrested for the sake of her detained father. He is Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja, the prominent Bahraini-Danish human rights activists who has been on a hunger strike in prison for 76 days. He, I am sure, does not hate her.

Monica L. Marks: Do Arabs Really ‘Hate’ Women? The Problem With Native Informants

Books by these “native voices” — including Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s “Infidel,” Azar Nafisi’s “Reading Lolita” in Tehran, and Irshad Mandji’s “Faith Without Fear” — have flown off the shelves in post-9/11 America despite being roundly rebuffed by leading feminist academics such as Columbia University’s Lila Abu-Lughod and Yale’s Leila Ahmed. Saba Mahmood, another respected scholar, noted that native informants helped “manufacture consent” for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan by serving up fear-inducing portrayals of Islam in “an authentic Muslim woman’s voice.”

??????? ?? ????: Love, Not Hatred, Dear Mona !

I was attracted to the opening of your article. Your style is interesting and you do poke the issues, and our issues are one, Mona. There’s no doubt that the facts in your article are accurate, that the problems highlighted are real, and that the suffering you write of is experienced by Arab women, even if they are not always aware of it. My anger faded as I read, slowly…until I reached the section where you explain “The Arab men’s hatred toward women”. Hatred?

Let’s see. In our Arab society, does the son hate his mother? The brother his sister? The father his daughter? And the husband hates his wife, and the lover his beloved? And the male colleague hates his female colleague, and the male friend his female friend, and the male neighbor his female neighbor?

Tahrir Spirit: I don’t really think they hate us!

I refuse to be lumped into this monolithic group of oppressed, abused and hated victims. Arab women’s problems are not the same across the board. Even within one country like Egypt, what I see as a problem, might not be the most pressing issue for the woman next door. So, I refuse to have Eltahawy talk on my behalf as if she is the expert who can accurately identify my plight.

Mona ElTahawy, stop victimizing us « Gold & Glitz’s Blog

Mona, who tries to empower women, marginalized us with this article, making a minority seem like the majority when in fact it is not and I say this while being a non-hijabi living in Southern Lebanon. Yes, I will be honest- I have been disallowed to do certain things because of my gender. But not because I am simply a girl, but because people fear for my well being. In the whole world, not just the Middle East, everywhere is a scary place to be. Now imagine how it would be for a woman to just walk out thinking she is equal to everyone else when she’s not because of teachings that existed before the Middle East did. She will only end up hurt. There is no reality in Mona’s extreme feminism and instead of empowering women to do something they’re good at and inform us of the rights we should be asking for, she marginalizes us and seeks pity. This works right into misogynistic hands, to make the woman seem like she is a victim when Arab women are damn strong.

Between You and Me | The Majalla Magazine

And for those women wishing to be treated equally to men, then it’s time to take these revolutions to the next level.

What many have taken issue with, however, is not this. It is Eltahawy’s assertion that men’s hatred of women is the cause for the absence of women’s freedoms in the Middle East. Though she has been criticized up and down for this claim— this is understandable when considering her lack of nuance and sophistication—there is some truth to it in that human rights are violated all the time because of a deep-seated hatred for a person or a group.

Mona, misogyny and the Middle East « Field Notes

Instead, let’s focus on the political and economic systems that depersonalize women’s discrimination. Let’s focus on divorce, citizenship and criminal laws that are vague and arbitrary. Let’s start by framing women’s relationship to the state: assume that women are citizens of the state—as they should be, that they enjoy the rights of the state—as they should enjoy, and from that, call out those persons—judges, politicians, army—that violate that relationship between a citizen and the state, violate that trust, violate those rights.

2 cents in favour of Mona Eltahawy
You gonna believe Mona Eltahawy or the grand mufti? | Butterflies and Wheels

Meaning what? We shouldn’t worry about women stoned to death, girls taken out of school and forced into marriage, girls who are held down while their genitals are sliced off, women whipped for not wearing a burqa? We should just say “that’s their culture, it’s none of our business” and go on our way rejoicing? We should be insular and selfish and indifferent?

MEI Editor’s Blog: Eltahawy and Sadjadpour in Foreign Policy’s “Sex Issue”

These issues will not go away, and it’s refreshing to see them addressed directly and not sensationally.

It’s Complicated: Mona Eltahawy’s Arab Violence Against Women Story Arouses Passions

As one critic put it: “Some Muslim women from Muslim backgrounds have been willing to join forces with media and governments in seeking to discipline unruly Muslim communities. Ayaan Hirsi Ali being the most prominent international example. However, other Muslim women…are painfully aware of the ease with which discussion of social problems within Muslim communities can be appropriated to vilify Muslims in general.”

That fear is understandable for both Arab societies and Muslim communities in the West, but it has been used to silence appropriate criticism such as Eltahawy ‘s and Hirsi Ali who, unfortunately, never runs out of examples of violence against women within the culture she knows a great deal about…

Mona Eltahawy Agonistes – Under the Black Blanket

The backlash started immediately, and she’s being attacked by Islamist supporters, and their women.

Mona Eltahawy sparks debate on plight of women in the Middle East « democrati.net

What must be remembered is this is a new age in the region, women are integral to Arab Awakening as Eltahawy mentioned — as the bearers of children, the top notch of the educated, the teachers, and even the bread makers — we must not let their plight be ignored. Women have come a long way, from not being allowed to go to school, to work in office regular or political – some of the biggest talking heads in activism and politics are women. To ignore the imperfection of women’s rights is to ignore the past struggles our mother and grandmothers have come to endure. Women still struggle to make it, there is no denial of that; whether the glass ceiling is in Cairo or Washington. My own aunt was not allowed to go to college by her husband. When he passed away some years ago at the age of 64, she attended university and got a bachelors in history. The renowned stories of the struggles women Mona mention are a reality and must not be ignored.

MEDIAinEGYPT: Mona Eltahawy: ‘Why Do They Hate Us?

Eltahawy tells the BBC’s Katty Kay that post-Mubarak Egypt has not provided women with the basic freedoms that all Egyptians asked for during the revolution.

Why do they hate Mona Eltahawy for speaking about Arab women? « Major Karnage

If no one says anything, nothing will ever get done about this. Good on Eltahawy for standing up to the cultural pressures trying to crush her into silence. Elections in Egypt will not bring democracy so long as female candidates cannot even have their faces on electoral material.

Massoud Hayoun — Off the Presses: On Mona Eltahawy’s ‘Why do they hate us’ — A study in journalistic context/ audience

As we see from the efforts — whether effective or ineffective, wholehearted or otherwise — of the Egyptian government under Mubarak, not even the Egyptian government can break down the doors of the Egyptian household and prevent abuses against women. I have strong reservations about the capacity of Foreign Policy’s largely American liberal, neo-liberal and right-wing readers to contribute to the betterment of Arab women in their households. I’d be happy if positive revolutionary changes were made, from any party. But there are so many examples of do-gooders hurting more than they help.

some of this must be true: Mona Eltahawy and the silencing of women

The depth of awfulness in the five or so responses I have read is such that I can’t hope to counter it all. The sheer variety of ridiculousness of argument present is stunning, ranging from old tropes such as “men are victimised too, therefore you can’t talk about women” and “the Arab world is very diverse, therefore no aspect of it can be criticised” to arguments I have never heard before, such as “the problem is not to do with religion or culture, but with the state” (say what?). I feel so utterly overwhelmed by the sheer volume of this shit that I am going to focus on just one type of response, which is endemic, but is also perfectly objectified in this article by one Samia Errazzouki: Dear Mona Eltahawy, you do not represent “Us”. This article engages in a vast amount of obfuscation using dizzying array of techniques, but it is primarily about silencing: the silencing of Mona Eltahawy, and ultimately, the silencing of any woman who dares to state the truth about patriarchy.

For Argument’s Sake | Out of the Black

Like all good polemicists, Ms Eltahawy uses strong language and a broad brush. Predictably, the blogosphere has objected rather facetiously to the implication that all Arab men are consumed with hate for the fairer sex. Yet however polemical Ms Eltahawy’s article, there is a germ of truth that deserves more credit than condemnation. The difference between Ms Eltahawy and the editors of a Danish magazine who mocked Islam some years ago to widespread derision is that Ms Eltahawy is not wilfully ignorant, as those magazine editors were. On the contrary, she is well aware of the issues she is describing. So to deride her sensationalist style, as Nesrine Malik does in The Guardian, is beside the point. Ms Malik goes on to admit that all of the issues described are true enough but suggests, isn’t politics the answer?

Why do they hate us? | A World of Progress

Eltahawy’s despair should be taken seriously. Yes, she quotes only the most extreme evidence in support of her thesis. But the events she describes took place. Twelve-year-old girls are dying in childbirth in Yemen because child marriages are legal. A woman caught driving in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to ten lashes and needed a pardon to avoid them, another woman, gang-raped, was sentenced to prison for having entered a car driven by a man not related to her. And in Morocco, a sixteen-year-old did drink poison because she had been forced to marry her rapist (which the law allows for him not to be punished for the rape) who then continued beating her.

University Diaries » “Hatred of women.”

Mona Eltahawy pulls no punches in this spectacular essay, one of the few UD‘s seen worthy to be read alongside the essays of George Orwell. Eltahawy and Orwell share an incandescent anger which lies unsteadily under hyper-controlled prose. This latent, labile, anger sustains the riveting tension and clarity of their unsettlingly poised voice. After you read Eltahawy, read Orwell’s How the Poor Die. The same outrage, the same strange, meticulous composure; and of course the same focus upon a large segment of hated humanity.

Why Do They Hate Mona? | VoVatia

The thing is, it seems like the vast majority of the criticism and attacks come from Islamic fundamentalists, with a smattering from people who are totally opposed to Islam throw in. Eltahawy identifies as a liberal Muslim. I read a few of the comments on this article, and they were basically along the lines of “So who cares if women are treated like crap? That’s what Muhammad told us to do!” These religious fundamentalist trolls (and not all of them are Muslim by any means) presumably spend all their time searching for things to be outraged about, then leaving angry comments that could never possibly change anyone’s mind. That said, cultural relativism also comes into play, and there’s some criticism from liberals of the “hey, they’re making progress, so don’t rush them” variety. These people are sort of glacially progressive, I guess. “What do we want? Better treatment for women! When do we want it? Sometime in the next thousand years!” It really seems to me, however, that most of the people who hate Eltahawy hate ALL women, so there’s real reason to single her out. From what I’ve seen and heard of her, I really like her.

Young Kurdish Woman Found Stabbed in Swedish Town | KURDISTAN COMMENTARY

It is Eltahawy’s article and it is Blesa’s life story. It is Maria’s life story and it is my personal experiences. It is not black and white and the more efforts are put into making it so, will only derail us from helping more young women escape the vindictive knives of scorn families.

Taking step back
Responses to Mona Eltahawy’s “Why Do They Hate Us?” « Muslim Reverie

The vast number of critiques written by Arab, Muslim, and South Asian women call attention to how Mona’s simplistic analysis and characterization of Arab women as “helpless” plays into larger discourses that have a real impact in the world, particularly in the way the US oppresses racialized people in Muslim-majority countries. This construction of the “helpless woman of color” who must be saved from the “dangerous man of color” has a long history of sexual violence, colonialism, and racism.

Arab News Blog » Firestorm of Debate on Mona Eltahawy’s “Why Do They Hate Us?”

Whatever you think of Mona Eltahawy’s article (and I was struck by its sad truths from the beginning), she got our attention. She threw down a gauntlet and managed to get the whole Middle East commentary community talking for a couple of days. That is what opinion journalism, informed by fact, does at its very best. And that should please the author and her editors.

Article on women in the Middle East triggers debate | The Stream – Al Jazeera English

Mona Eltahawy’s article “Why Do They Hate Us?” about what she calls the “war” on Arab women in the Middle East has sparked an online debate.

While some netizens have defended the piece, many have criticised it for its tone, presentation and its depiction of Arab women and men.

What 6 Egyptian women say about Mona Eltahawy » Mohamed Abdelfattah: An Egyptian Journalist

These are quotes from the articles and responses against the thesis of Mona Eltahawy’s recent notorious article:

Tahrir Spirit: Compiled list of Eltahawy reaction pieces

So, here’s a comprehensive list of reaction articles and blog posts to Mona Eltahawy’s Foreign Policy article Why do they hate us? Most of the pieces were written by Arab women. After reading these, you be the judge if these Arab women are a handful or not.

Eltahawy’s controversial article & the ensuing dialogue « Iqadh – Awakening

A friend of mine sent me this great critique of Eltahawy’s piece. I posted it on another forum with her permission and it sparked a great dialogue.

» Visualizing the Polarized Discourse of “Why Do They Hate Us?” Blog — Alex Hanna

Although the substance of the debate itself is highly engaging, I was particularly taken by the polarization and how it quickly emerged. And it wasn’t all against one – my Twitter timeline was clearly marked by those who were siding with Eltahawy and those resolutely against her. There wasn’t exactly a rhyme or reason to the division. Some quipped that most American and Western readers lauded the article, while Arabs were critical. But there were some important exceptions.

PUKHTUNKHWA TIMES: After the Arab spring, the sexual revolution?

An explosive call for a sexual revolution across the Arab world in which the author argues that Arab men “hate” Arab women has provoked a fierce debate about the subjugation of women in countries such as Egypt, Morocco and Saudi Arabia. Women are deeply divided over the article entitled “Why do they hate us?” by prominent American-Egyptian journalist Mona Eltahawy, which fulminates against “the pulsating heart of misogyny in the Middle East” and builds to an early crescendo by stating: “We have no freedoms because they hate us … Yes: They hate us. It must be said.”

Misc.
Egypt ‘necrophilia law’? Hooey, utter hooey. – CSMonitor.com

Today, Egypt’s state-owned Al Ahram newspaper published an opinion piece by Amr Abdul Samea, a past stalwart supporter of the deposed Hosni Mubarak, that contained a bombshell: Egypt’s parliament is considering passing a law that would allow husbands to have sex with their wives after death.
[…]
There’s of course one problem: The chances of any such piece of legislation being considered by the Egyptian parliament for a vote is zero.

Egyptian Chronicles: Necrophilia Law is a Rumor Ya People !!

This is a rumor so far , I really wish people to be careful on what they are spreading.

Extra
To conclude this sex issue, different magazine, different issue, similar audience, similar shit:

UPDATE 3 MAY 2012


Does Mona Eltahawy’s Radicalism Advance Arab Women’s Rights?

History has shown that it is never the right time to fight for women’s rights. And that is precisely why the incrementalists need the radicals to “poke the painful places.” Without the latter, the millions of Arab and Muslim feminists who are the real heroes will not have the political space to permanently heal those painful places.

Ali A. Rizvi: Misogyny in the Middle East: The Real Elephant in the Room

This fight is going to be harder than that. Mona Eltahawy has done a fantastic, brave thing by starting up the conversation in the way that she did, particularly after the horror of what she went through in Egypt last year. But unless all of the contributing causes are acknowledged and fought — as dangerous as this may be to do — these things will continue. If you want to fight patriarchy, but stop short of criticizing religion — you’re not fighting patriarchy. Period.

The Real Roots of Sexism in the Middle East (It’s Not Islam, Race, or ‘Hate’) – Max Fisher – International – The Atlantic

Arab societies suffer from deep misogyny, but the problem is not as particularly Arab or Islamic as you might think.

On “Why do they hate us?” and its critics – Blog – The Arabist

The responses to El Tahawy’s piece came fast and furious. I will admit to only having read about twenty of them, though I am sure there are dozens more. Even before reading the responses, I could have guessed what most would say, for indeed El Tahawy’s piece is reductive and essentialist, at the same time that it generalizes and perpetuates some of the very stereotypes individuals like her have long struggled to debunk.

However, El Tahawy’s piece and the responses to it get caught in the same circular debates that feminist theorists have been trying to address for some time, and highlight the significance of two theories in particular: intersectionality and the double-bind.

tabsir.net » The Real War on Women

The “real war” here is not about groping; it is a battle for minds, not bodies. The “real” enemy is a politics charged with a dogmatic rhetoric that is less about what men and women do in the bedroom than how they conform to an imposed tyranny that benefits the proverbial one percent, be they dictators or clerics. After the opening tease of a fictional Egyptian woman unmoved by sex with her husband, Eltahawy identifies the broader problem: “An entire political and economic system — one that treats half of humanity like animals — must be destroyed along with the other more obvious tyrannies choking off the region from its future.” Yes, but the numerous dead bodies of young men martyred in opposing these tyrannies prove that it is more than half of humanity that is being treated like animals.

On Mona Eltahawy’s “Painful Places” and the Power of Stories « A Muslimah Writes

What Ahmed alerted readers to is something I want to expand on here: faith and a powerful spiritual inner existence does not feed off of systematic, entrenched injustice, whether it be in the form of misogyny, racism, or any other system of oppression. In light of prevailing stereotypes about Muslim women, it’s too easy to say “Well, of course she has to believe in God, she has to meditate and escape from her reality, look at what a sodden sex life she has!” Sodden sex life or not, the places where women are truimphant–whether it be affirming their individuality through prayer or marching in the streets against tyranny–deserve to be examined on their own terms, not some heinous, monolithic, patriarchal hell they have to escape. Mona Eltahawy keeps stressing how she wants to “shake people up” and “poke the painful places,” but it’s one thing to poke that place, and quite another to aggravate it.

On Mona El Tahawy and ‘Native Informants’ | wadistocracy ??????????

The problem with Tahawy’s article, as others have pointed out, is that she attempts to depoliticize the patriarchy and make it about emotion–hatred–because, you know, Arabs are all ‘hot-blooded’ and whatnot. Such a reductive argument would never be accepted as an explanation for patriarchal practices in the West. But her thesis seems to fold in on itself: if oppression of Arab women is rooted in hatred fed by a uniquely misogynistic religion and culture, then oppression in other places is rooted in what, general malaise? To say misogyny is rooted in hatred is just redundant. Misogyny isn’t rooted in hatred, it IS hatred, and hatred of women is a symptom, not a cause, of the patriarchy in which both men and women participate.

Mona El Tahawy or native neo-orientalism « Ibn Kafka’s obiter dicta – divagations d’un juriste marocain en liberté surveillée

An American journalist writing exclusively for European, US and Israeli media outlets, Mona El Tahawy is not interested in helping Middle Eastern activists to bring about the legislative and social changes required, or to identify the practical ways this might be achieved. No easy clues here: there’s only hate to confront. How does one confront hate – by drone attacks, invasion or forced conversion? She does not say. More importantly still, Arab men and women are not really her main target – her piece is written in the tone of a native informer bringing the White (Wo)Man her exclusive insights about the twisted minds of her fellow natives. That article is more a career move, à la Irshad Manji or Ayaan Hirsi Ali (but without the latter’s islamophobia), than a sincere contribution to a fight for equality that is both morally necessary and socially unavoidable, as Youssef Courbage and Emmanuel Todd have shown.

Throw Off the White Woman’s Burden, Mona « KADAITCHA

While western feminists focus on Islam and Arab men for the plight of Arab women, scrutiny of the predations of western imperialism and capitalism is minimised, and any potential threat from an evolution of the Islamic economic system nullified.

Here’s a collection of the best crits of Mona’s article “Why do they hate us?“:

Some Issues with Foreign Policy’s “Sex Issue”: Part One

We’ve got some responses from several MMW writers coming, today and tomorrow, but to start off, here’s a roundup of some of the (many, many) other reactions to Eltahawy’s article. There are many missing from this list; feel free to link and quote your favourites in the comments.

Some Issues with Foreign Policy’s Sex Issue: Part Two (MMW Responds)

The recent Foreign Policy issue focused on sex drew a number of responses around the internet. Earlier today, we posted a round-up of some of the other blog posts and articles that were written about the issue; here, Sharrae, Azra, Tasnim, Nicole and I discuss our many thoughts on the issue as a whole and on Mona Eltahawy’s article.

1 comment.

Closing the Week 12 – Featuring The Rise and/or Waning of Radical Islam?

Posted on March 25th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, International Terrorism, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

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Salafisme: de vijand die we graag haten
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Wie beschermt de burger tegen mediageweld – En waarom geweld door burgers tegen de media begrijpelijk is

Brussels
Islam in Europe: Brussels: Imam dies in Salafist attack on Shia mosque

Brussels: Imam dies in Salafist attack on Shia mosque

Belgian mosque attack baffles both Brussels police and local Muslims | FaithWorld

A firebomb attack on a Shi’ite Muslim mosque in Brussels that killed a popular local imam triggered an anti-terrorist investigation on Wednesday, but police remained uncertain of the detained suspect’s identity and local Muslims baffled about his motives.

Call for unity after killing of imam – The Irish Times – Wed, Mar 14, 2012

THE KILLING of an imam in an arson attack on a Shia mosque in Brussels was widely condemned yesterday as Muslim leaders called for unity.

The Shia-Sunni Divide: Myths and Reality – Carnegie Middle East Center – Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

While there appears to be a consensus that sectarian violence is no longer limited to Iraq but has expanded to influence developments from the Gulf to Lebanon, public debate in the Arab world offers interesting insights about how both sides view the possible repercussions of deepening sectarian divisions.

The consensus in both Sunni and Shia circles appears to be that attempts to emphasise Sunni- Shia rivalries are intended to deflect attention from both the US occupation of Iraq and continuing Israeli aggression.

Toulouse
Toulouse killings: Death in the morning | The Economist

CANDIDATES for France’s upcoming presidential election suspended campaigning today after the massacre of three young Jewish schoolchildren, and one adult, in a religious school in Toulouse, in south-west France.

French Salafi militant’s road to radicalisation from Toulouse to Kandahar | FaithWorld

For Mohamed Merah, the Frenchman suspected of killing four Jews and three Muslim soldiers in southwestern France, the road to radicalisation ran from Toulouse to Kandahar in Afghanistan.

Toulouse Siege Over: Minister Confirms Terror Suspect Merah Is Dead – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International

The man thought to be responsible for killing seven in a murder spree in southern France is dead, French Interior Minister Claude Guéant confirmed on Thursday. Mohamed Merah, who claimed he belonged to al-Qaida, had brought the country to a near standstill after killing three soldiers and four people at a Jewish school.

.:Middle East Online::Toulouse siege over: Suspect jumps to his death in hail of bullets:.

Self-professed Al-Qaeda militant Mohamed Merah died during a police assault on his besieged flat after jumping out the window while still shooting, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said.

Mohamed Merah
Le Nouveau Normal – By Justin Vaïsse | Foreign Policy

The sociological profile of Mohamed Merah is a sad copy of that of his jihadist predecessors of decades past, from Herve Djamel Loiseau to Zacarias Moussaoui: It includes social relegation, identity troubles, and a feeling of injustice, mixed with petty crime, Islamist radicalization (not in a regular French mosque but while serving time in prison), then travel to Afghanistan and Pakistan. These are not deeply religious men, but rather actors crazed by a desire to take destiny into their own hands and live a more fulfilling life by appointing themselves defenders of victimized Muslims.

AFP: French shooting suspect’s journey from petty crime to jihad

Born in the southwestern French city of Toulouse on October 10, 1988, Merah had been tracked for years by France’s DCRI domestic intelligence service, but nothing suggested that he was preparing a major crime.

French suspect showed no sign of militant leanings – Boston.com

Just a few weeks ago, Mohamed Merah partied at a nightclub, and an acquaintance noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Another friend said the former car body shop worker liked to talk about “cars, bikes, girls and sports.’’

Toulouse siege: Mohamed Merah’s transformation to angry young jihadist – Telegraph

Mohamed Merah’s descent into darkness began in the grim housing estates on the edge of Toulouse.

ICSR – The International Centre For The Study Of Radicalisation And Political Violence

News reports today have linked the Toulouse gunman responsible for the murders of seven people, now identified as French citizen Mohammed Merah, to a recently banned French extremist group with connections to Britain.

Named Forsane Alizza (FA – the Knights of Pride), the group bears many similarities to the UK-based al-Muhajiroun/Islam4UK network.

A Tragedy in Toulouse – By Eric Pape | Foreign Policy

In isolation, the attack might appear to be the act of a lunatic, probably an anti-Semitic one, but an array of factors make this attack into something even more troubling, particularly that it is the third murderous attack in eight days — and that all seem to be linked to race and/or religion.

The Fallout from Toulouse – By Eric Pape | Foreign Policy

Merah’s demise put an end to a saga that has shaken a nation already anxious about its sputtering economy and a nerve-wracking election campaign in which economic and xenophobic populism risks becoming the norm. But the 10-day rampage of the “motor scooter killer” was like nothing France has ever seen. The French have become sadly accustomed to hostage crises, radical and anti-Semitic bombings, and assassinations in recent decades, but a Natural Born Killers-style murder tour by motor scooter was something else. In a country where guns are relatively rare, a single man executed three French paratroopers of North African descent, seriously wounded a black soldier, and engaged in a callous assault on a Jewish school in Toulouse before going down firing. For most French people, this could only take place in America — or in a Hollywood film.

Toulouse Killings Illuminate Salafist-Far Right Alliance in France | World | AlterNet

A Salafist group in France linked to the Toulouse killings is in an open alliance with neo-fascist figures and extreme right-wing Catholic groups.

New Laws Pushed by Nicolas Sarkozy After Toulouse Massacre Go Too Far – The Daily Beast

The French president is overreacting to France’s 9/11 with proposals for laws that criminalize traveling abroad for terrorist indoctrination, and consulting jihadist websites. Both would be disastrous for France, says Barry Lando.

Behind the Toulouse Shootings – Tariq Ramadan

Religion was not Mohamed Merah’s problem ; nor is politics. A French citizen frustrated at being unable to find his place, to give his life dignity and meaning in his own country, he would find two political causes through which he could articulate his distress : Afghanistan and Palestine. He attacks symbols : the army, and kills Jews, Christians and Muslims without distinction. His political thought is that of a young man adrift, imbued neither with the values of Islam, or driven by racism and anti-Semitism. Young, disoriented, he shoots at targets whose prominence and meaning seem to have been chosen based on little more than their visibility. A pathetic young man, guilty and condemnable beyond the shadow of a doubt, even though he himself was the victim of a social order that had already doomed him, and millions of others like him, to a marginal existence, and to the non-recognition of his status as a citizen equal in rights and opportunities.

Radical Salafists on the rise in Germany | Germany | DW.DE | 11.03.2012

While right-wing terrorism is currently the focus of attention in Germany, the threat posed by religiously motivated extremism remains. Radical Salafists are considered especially dangerous.

Despite shootings, extremist Islam waning in France: experts | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Muslims in French suburbs remain vulnerable to extremist indoctrination but those lured into radicalism are an “ultra-minority” and the spread of jihadism is declining, experts say.

Dutch
‘Die Islam is verderfelijk’ – AMSTERDAM – PAROOL

Waarin heeft Breivik gelijk?

‘We lijden enorm onder de politiek correcte opvatting dat je de islam niet mag bekritiseren. Dat zie je overal en dat belemmert een open debat over de islam enorm.’

En plots was daar de islam – Religie – TROUW

De Britse schrijver Tom Holland laat treffend zien dat het orthodoxe verhaal van het ontstaan van de islam zwakker is dan het lijkt. Maar hij had nog wel een stap verder mogen gaan

Leestip: ‘De vrijheidsimpuls van de islam’ : Nieuwemoskee

In de islam staan de vrije wil en de predestinatie op gespannen voet met elkaar – maar geldt dat niet voor iedere religie? In de bundel De vrijheidsimpuls van de islam bespreken Ibrahim Abouleish, Christine Gruwez, John van Schaik en Cilia ter Horst verschillende aspecten van de spanning tussen vrijheid en predestinatie in de islam. Met een voorwoord van Abdulwahid van Bommel.

Oprecht geloven in vrijheid (III): casus islam in het gedoogakkoord

In het artikel in Ars Aequi worden, aan de hand van het kader uit deel II van deze miniserie, de volgende actuele casus behandeld: het gedoogakkoord, het boerka-verbod, weigerambtenaren en de SGP, en ritueel slachten en mannenbesnijdenis. In deze post staat de eerste casus centraal.

Salafisme: Is islam ongeneeslijk ziek? De ontwikkeling van Al Qaeda in een notendop | Stichting Iman

Een van de hoofdartikelen uit de eerste editie van MUHARRAM Magazine. Met uitdrukkelijke toestemming van de houder van dit artikel geplaatst.

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Closing the week 11 – Religion, secularism and the politics of freedom

Posted on March 18th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: anthropology, Blogosphere.

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Featuring Religion, secularism and the politics of freedom
The politics of religious freedom « The Immanent Frame

Received wisdom from across the political spectrum suggests that securing religious freedom results in peaceful co-existence and ensures individual and associational flourishing vis-à-vis the state. Meanwhile, a deficit of religious freedom is seen as a driving force behind—if not the proximate cause of—insecurity and violence. The logic of these assumptions is currently being used to justify a wide range of well-funded public and private interventions in many parts of the world.

But what is religious freedom, and why are we talking about it now?

Guest edited by Elizabeth Shakman Hurd and Winnifred Fallers Sullivan in conjunction with a joint research project, scholars consider the multiple histories and genealogies of religious freedom—and the multiple contexts in which those histories and genealogies are salient today.

The naked public sphere? « The Immanent Frame

Santorum affirmed an earlier statement about his reaction to President John F. Kennedy’s 1960 speech on his religion:

To say that people of faith have no role in the public square? You bet that makes you throw up. What kind of country do we live that says only people of non-faith can come into the public square and make their case?

In light of Santorum’s recent comments, we asked a small handful of scholars about the status of these and related claims regarding religion in American political life. Just how “naked” is the American public square? What is the appropriate place of religion in the public sphere?

?Cultural models and Rethinking Secularism « The Immanent Frame

Taylor is clearly aware that the terms “secular” and “religious” have very different meanings in different traditions, which is precisely Talal Asad’s point in his discussion on blasphemy in Rethinking Secularism, but Taylor’s essential proposition that from the seventeenth century onward in the West the secular became a domain understood to be inhospitable to any claim made in the name of transcendence, “that the lower, immanent or secular, order is all that there is and that the higher, or transcendent, is a human invention,” is, at least from a cultural and historical perspective, seriously problematic, if not misleading. Yet before turning to what I find troubling about Taylor’s account of the relation between the religious and the secular in Western spirituality, let me say something first about the narrative Taylor is trying in important ways to correct.

tabsir.net » Miniskirting the Issue

Why is it that men blame women for their own failures? Whenever I hear a variant of the phrase, “Well, he couldn’t help himself,” I can’t but think that this excuse is in need of a lot of help. In Indonesia there is a bill being considered in parliament that would ban female lawmakers from wearing provocative clothing, such as miniskirts. Given that the number of Indonesian lawmakers wearing miniskirts must be a whopping minority, why is this needed?

Row delays opening of symbolic German mosque – The National

The Islamic organisation that commissioned the building sacked the German architect, Paul Böhm, in October, accusing him of 2,000 construction errors, cost overruns and of surreptitiously incorporating Christian elements into the design.

“Mr Böhm was brilliant as an artist but he failed as a master builder,” said the Turkish-Islamic Union for Religious Affairs (Ditib) a branch of the Turkish government’s religious affairs office.

It submitted a list of flaws such as nails and wire rods that were jutting out of the concrete of the unfinished building. The grand dome also is 23 centimetres out of place, Ditib said.

Mr Böhm, Ditib said, had included Christian crosses in the shape of the layout as well as a hidden Christogram made up of an X and a P, an old Christian symbol.

Mr Böhm, a respected designer of religious buildings, denied the accusations, and complained that Ditib was to blame for cost increases because it kept changing its mind about details.

He threatened to take legal action that would bring the project to a standstill.

Controversial from the outset, many residents complained that the mosque, which will offer space for 1,200 worshippers, would be too big. A far-right citizen’s group called Pro Cologne mounted a campaign against it, gathering 20,000 signatures and said that “a representative mosque with dome and minaret for several thousand faithful would change the face and the character of our hometown”.

Islam in France Case Study

As France experiences an influx of Muslim immigrants from former North African colonies and the Middle East, the country is struggling to deal with issues of multiculturalism and the role of religion in public life. In 2004, the French government banned female Muslim students from wearing headscarves in public schools. It claimed that any display of “conspicuous religious symbols” in schools contravenes the French value of laïcité, a strict interpretation of secularism in the public sphere. In 2011, the government passed a second law that bans full facial veils (i.e. niqabs, burkas) in public spaces. Many Muslims and non-Muslims have protested against the laws, arguing that they single out Islam unfairly and contribute to a narrow vision of what it means to be “French.”

Visibly Muslim by Emma Tarlo 2010 :: Malou Anthropology

Wearing a hijab or not wearing a hijab, being a Muslim or not being a Muslim, being British or being from a foreign background, being modern or being traditional, being emancipated or being oppressed; dichotomous questions that often get raised in the debate on Islamic identity and in particular about veiling. Emma Tarlo shows that it is not the question whether or not someone wears a veil and that these dichotomies mystify the complex reality of the hijab in the United Kingdom. Emma Tarlo shows in ‘Visibly Muslim’ the stories of multiple actors who are involved in or confronted by Islamic dress and Islamic fashion. Islam in Western urban societies is represented by the visibility of Islamic signs such as the hijab, which gives women an important role in the debate on Islam. Emma Tarlo successfully shows the many reasons, ideas, and issues about being visibly Muslim such as aesthetics, belonging, faith, politics, identity, ethics, morality, ethnicity and geography.

Misc.
New Issue of Anthropologies: Occupy and Open Access | Neuroanthropology

This is our Writing Culture moment. We have realized that we are in an unsustainable position as a field, one that is both ethically and methodologically off. But this time more “reflexivity” is not the answer. Indeed, the problems are more like those that have been gradually overcome between the fixed positions of sociobiologists and post-modernists, each convinced they are right and with little ground in the middle. Overcoming that opposition took several decades, and happened through a gradual process of engagement and reaching out on both sides, and yet it still comes up to bite anthropologists in the ass, such as happened with the word “science” in the AAA’s vision.

Anthropology, anthropologies; Islam, islams: Fields in Flux | CUNY Baccalaureate for Unique and Interdisciplinary Studies

Can there be an anthropology of Islam when both the discipline of Anthropology and the idea of Islam appear to be suspended in a state of undisciplined flux? This talk places Abdel Hamid El-Zein’s suggestion that anthropologists study “islams” in dialogue with John Comaroff’s recent response to “Is anthropology about to die?” Professor Varisco explores the ways anthropologists have been rethinking the idea of Islam. He also offers suggestions on how anthropologists can contribute to the broader study of Islam as practiced in contemporary cultural and in historical contexts.

strength, text, rape: Talal Asad – The Idea of An Anthropology of Islam

In conclusion, Asad says that, “An anthropology of Islam will therefore seek to understand the historical conditions that enable the production and maintenance of specific discursive traditions, or their transformation – and the efforts of practitioners to achieve coherence (Asad, 23).”

Dutch
Godsdienstonderwijs voor jonge moslims goed tegen dwang radicalen « vangodenenmensen

Godsdienstonderwijs moet. Is dat niet achterhaald? Dat moeten we toch juist afschaffen? Volgens Bart Voorzanger niet, omdat (vooral jonge) moslims meer kennis en inzicht nodig hebben in hun eigen islam om radicale geloofsgenoten van repliek te kunnen dienen. Thuis en in de moskee krijgen ze dat te weinig. Met meer kennis en inzicht kunnen zij beter hun eigen geloofs- en gedragskeuzen rechtvaardigen. En zijn ze beter bestand tegen dwang van radicalen.

NOS Nieuws – Conflict om gebedsruimte hbo

Na de Hogeschool van Amsterdam blijkt er ook op de Haagse Hogeschool een conflict te zijn over een gebedsruimte voor moslims. Studenten bidden daar in het trapgat omdat de school tot op heden geen aparte ruimte daarvoor beschikbaar wil stellen.

Moslims willen wasruimte op Noorderbegraafplaats – AMSTERDAM NOORD – PAROOL

Net zoals de begraafplaats De Nieuwe Ooster in Oost krijgt de Noorderbegraafplaats een nieuwe aula, een condoleanceruimte en een ontvangstruimte. Daarbij investeert Oost in een bewassingsruimte en een islamitisch grafvak voor 1400 graven die in de richting van Mekka liggen. Mustafa Topal van de moskee Emir Sultan en Aissa Zanzan van de Marokkaanse Unie Amsterdam-Noord vinden dat er in Noord ook een officiële bewassingsruimte bij moet komen voor de ongeveer 20.000 moslims in Noord.

Gebedsruimte voor moslims op kazerne – RTL Nieuws.nl

Moslims kunnen voortaan in hun eigen ruimte bidden op de Bernhardkazerne in Amersfoort. De eerste islamitische gebedsplaats, tegenover de hindoetempel en de kapel, is woensdag geopend en kan ook voor culturele lessen of bij speciale gelegenheden tijdens de vastenmaand ramadan worden gebruikt.

Bidden? Liever niet hier! | Wijblijvenhier.nl

Asma en Falko beklagen zich als studenten aan de Haagse Hogeschool over het beleid rondom gebeds- en/of stilteruimtes: “Voor nu zullen wij het gebed onderaan het trappenhuis, naast de nooduitgang, blijven verrichten”

RTV N-H – Nieuws – Marcouch: ‘Hogeschool te koppig in kwestie gebedsruimte’

Tweede Kamerlid Ahmed Marcouch (PvdA) vindt dat de Hogeschool van Amsterdam zich te koppig opstelt over een gebedsruimte voor islamitische leerlingen.

Heeft Marcouch gelijk?

De Hogeschool van Amsterdam (HvA) dient er wijs aan te doen alle levensbeschouwingen en religies gelijk te behandelen en dit naar buiten toe helder te communiceren. Zeker in deze tijden van polarisatie, waarbij elk nieuwsberichtje over moslims leidt tot pavlovreacties bij politici, is het van groot belang dat bestuurders zich niet gek laten maken en behalve principieel (ten aanzien van gelijke behandeling) ook een beetje pragmatisch kunnen zijn.

Gebedsruimte op school is nergens voor nodig – Elma Drayer – TROUW

De kwestie suddert al een tijdje in de regionale pers en in studentenbladen, maar bereikte dinsdag ook uw krant: moslimstudenten aan de Hogeschool van Amsterdam zouden graag hun stilteruimte terug willen.

.god.voor.dommen » Blog Archive » De Hogeschool van Marcouch

Een gebedsruimte voor op de trappen biddende studenten lijkt niet onredelijk maar is het volgens mij wel. Ten eerste wordt er afbreuk gedaan aan het openbare karakter van de school. De instelling dient zich aan religieuze opvattingen aan te passen en niet andersom. Op een katholieke of protestantse school verwacht je eenmaal bepaalde ‘aanpassingen’ die getuigen van de spirituele grondvesten van de instelling. Ten tweede kan dit een opmaat zijn voor nog meer religieuze eisen. Zoals: jongens en meisjes gescheiden lesgeven; rooster aanpassen ten behoeve van momenten waarop gebeden dient te worden; aparte kantine voor moslims. Hoe ziet het rooster eruit tijdens Ramadan. En denk wel dat er géén twee roosters naast elkaar zullen bestaan. De niet-moslims zullen het dagritme van de moslims moeten volgen. Andere religieuze groepen zullen hun eisenpakket bij de directie inleveren. Al was het maar om niet achter te blijven. Ten derde meen ik hier een religieuze dwang in te herkennen. Een moslim zou juist een openbare instelling bezoeken. Bijvoorbeeld omdat hij liberale opvattingen heeft over geloof of dat zij geen hoofddoekje wil dragen of helemaal niet meer in Allah gelooft (de angst voor sociale uitsluiting onder Muslims In Name Only is groot, kan ik getuigen!). In de gebedsruimte kan keurig overzicht gehouden worden wie wel of niet op de juiste tijdstippen deelneemt aan het gebed. Degene die de andere de religieuze maat neemt, wordt in principe door de directie van de instelling gedekt. Handig zo’n woordvoerder die namens de gehele gemuilkorfde gemeenschap spreekt.

Martijn van Dam.com

Wij horen juist aan de kant van de vrouwen die zich willen ontworstelen aan de sociale druk of mannelijke dwang van religieuze kledingregels. Dat dwingen we niet af met wetten, maar met een uitgesproken opvatting. Een uitzonderingspositie waarbij gelovigen anders behandeld worden dan anderen, hoort daar niet bij. En evenmin mag je van ons verwachten anderen te dwingen rekening te houden met je strenge geloofsopvattingen. Dus geen gedwongen winkelsluiting op zondag, geen boerka in de klas, geen eigen gebedsruimte in een openbare school, geen recht op eigen slachtmethoden als die niet voldoen aan de standaarden voor dierenwelzijn, geen kuising van kunst, geen subsidie voor een partij die vrouwen actieve politieke participatie weigert.

onderwijsethiek.nl » Blog Archive » Gebedsruimte

Een interessante vraag wordt dan in hoeverre Van Dam meent dat gelovigen überhaupt in de publieke ruimte mogen bidden. Neem een protestants-christelijke of katholieke leerling in de schoolkantine. Mag deze bij het begin van de maaltijd de handen vouwen of een kruisje slaan? Vermoedelijk zal Van Dam deze tekenen van vroomheid wel willen tolereren. Maar als een rechtzinnige moslim­leerling voorafgaand aan de dagelijkse lunch een bidkleedje uitrolt om op islamitische wijze te bidden, wil Van Dam dat dan opeens verbieden? Dat lijkt me een ernstige vorm van discriminatie. Of wil Van Dam dat de moslimleerling even een leeg lokaal opzoekt om daar zijn of haar bidritueel te volvoeren?

Een gebed zonder einde, kamervragen van de PVV | InfoMag.nl laatste nieuws

De kazerne in Amersfoort heeft sinds kort een eigen gebedsruimte voor moslims. Er was al een speciale ruimte voor christenen en hindoes, een kapel en een tempel. Dat is Marcial Hernandez totaal in het verkeerde keelgat geschoten, op onze kosten zijn er weer de nodige kamervragen gesteld, t.w.v. ongeveer 20.000 euro, waarmee de gebedsruimte eigenlijk al betaald is.

Foto’s: Gebedsruimtes van onderwijsinstellingen | Wijblijvenhier.nl

Na al dit soort berichtgevingen lijkt het alsof gebedsruimtes ongewoon zijn op onderwijsinstellingen in Nederland. Daarom hierbij een overzicht van gebedsruimtes op hogescholen en universiteiten in Nederland en omgeving. Van Delft en Rotterdam tot Twente… het kan gewoon. Respecteren deze instellingen dan niet scheiding van kerk en staat?

Theodor Holman: “Ik voel me verwant met Breivik” | www.dagelijksestandaard.nl

“Absoluut. Ik vind Wilders ook nog te links. Dat meen ik echt. Met name zijn sociaal-economische programma. Fleur Agema en Martin Bosma en Wilders zijn idealisten. Die willen iets. Ik sta dichter bij Breivik. Hoewel Breivik uiteindelijk ook kapot gegaan is door zijn eigen idealisme. Ik zou nooit de wapens ter hand nemen omdat ik namelijk geen idealist ben. Ik ben meer Nietzsche. Bij wijze van spreken. Ik hoop dat je dit met de juiste relativering zal brengen. Haha! Snap je wat ik bedoel? Ik wil stukjes schrijven, langs de kant staan en mensen uitfluiten.”

Theodor Holman: “Ik moet de hele tijd verantwoording afleggen” | www.dagelijksestandaard.nl

“Nee. Dan gaan we kijken wat er gaat gebeuren. Dan gaan we zien waar het fout gaat. Dan gaan we nog veel vaker horen: ‘Ik ben voor vrijheid van meningsuiting, maar dat mag niet gebruikt worden om Allah te beledigen.’ Als je de vrijheid van meningsuiting op welke manier dan ook gaat aantasten, dan ben ik zelfs bereid om de wapens op te nemen. Want dan gaat het fout.”

Liever gierig of gevaarlijk? – Joop.nl

Eerder deze week werd de VPRO gedwongen een satirisch stuk over Joodse Westoever-kolonisten van haar website af te halen. De verontwaardiging in binnen- en buitenland over het Polenmeldpunt Van Geert Wilders duurt nog steeds voort. En tegelijkertijd kijkt niemand ervan op als moslims vrijwel iedere dag in verband worden gebracht met gevaar en achterlijkheid. Die selectieve verontwaardiging is niet alleen onterecht, maar ook onthullend. En niet alleen immoreel, maar ook gevaarlijk.

Idrissi: ‘De islam heeft een Rik Torfs nodig’ – De Standaard

Yamila Idrissi, Vlaams parlementslid voor de SP.A, maakt zich grote zorgen over de islamitische jeugd in onze hoofdstad. ‘Die kansarme jongeren waar extremisten zich op richten, zijn vogels voor de kat.’

Kerknieuws.nl: ‘Religieuze organisaties werken de-escalerend’

Landelijke, mainstream religieuze organisaties hebben de afgelopen jaren niet meegedaan aan de polarisatie tussen moslims en niet-moslims. Ze hebben juist een de-escalerende rol gespeeld in tijden van kritiek op de islam.

Dat concluderen de wetenschappers Sipco Vellenga en Gerard Wiegers van de Universiteit van Amsterdam in een dinsdag verschenen onderzoek.

Verdachte met buitenlands uiterlijk wordt veel strenger gestraft

Verdachten met een ‘buitenlands uiterlijk’ worden strenger gestraft dan autochtone Nederlanders, in het bijzonder als de verdachten geen Nederlands spreken. Dat meldt NRC Handelsblad vandaag op basis van een observatieonderzoek van drie criminologen van de Universiteit Leiden in tien verschillende Nederlandse rechtbanken.

Verdachten met een ‘buitenlands’ uiterlijk hebben een vijf keer hogere kans op onvoorwaardelijke celstraf dan Nederlanders. Wanneer ze ook het Nederlands niet machtig zijn lopen ze een twintig keer hogere kans op een vrijheidsstraf.

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De Al-Haddad Hutspot

Posted on February 28th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, Blogosphere, Notes from the Field, Public Islam.

Van de website Dagtaak: DagTaak.org: PVV , Al-Haddad , De Balie en het Debat over vrijheid van meningsuiting (18 februari)

Al-Haddad mag niet naar de VU komen, hij is immers een haat-meneer. En van haat-meneren worden we bang. En angst past niet in het straatje van Nederland.

Wij zijn handelaars. Dat zit in onze genen. Wij zijn polderaars, we zoeken naar samenhang, coalities en grootste gemene delers. Iedereen mag zeggen wat hij wil, als hij maar op tijd water bij de wijn doet. Zolang de PVV het kabinet steunt mag hij doorgaan met haatzaaien. De gedoogsteun is het water.

[…]

Het debat toonde prachtig aan hoe polderaars en relativisten het afleggen tegen mensen die absolute waarheden verkondigen. En misschien schuilt daar wel het grootste gevaar. Het absolutisme viert hoogtij. Of de spreker nu Wilders of Al-Haddad heet.

Vrijheid van meningsuiting is niet langer meer het recht om absolutisme aan de kaak te stellen, maar eerder het recht van de absolutisten om de vrijheid van de mens aan de kaak stellen. En daar word ik nu bang van.

Het begon, zoals wel vaker, met een stuk van Carel Brendel (niet het bovenstaande stuk!) over de komst van de islamitische schriftgeleerde Haitham al Haddad als gastspreker naar een symposium van de Islamitische Studentenvereniging Amsterdam aan de Vrije Universiteit over de positie van moslim-academici in het Westen. Volgens Brendel zou Al Haddad pleitten voor invoering van de sharia, vrouwonvriendelijke uitspraken en anti-semitische uitspraken gedaan hebben; redenen voor de London School of Economics om hem eerder te weigeren. Het leidde al snel tot commotie net als bij de komst van Al Maghraoui en Arifi. De kwestie kreeg pas echt vaart toen het CIDI de zaak oppakte. In een persbericht riep het CIDI de VU en ISA op om hem geen podium te bieden. Vanaf dat moment kwamen media en politiek in actie hetgeen een grote rol speelde in het uiteindelijke besluit van de VU om de toestemming voor het symposium in te trekken. Wat precies de overwegingen zijn geweest is mij ook niet helder. De correcte volgorde van de gang van zaken aan de VU is echter als volgt:

1. De ISA kwam met de aankondiging voor een symposium met Al Haddad. Voor een religieuze studentenvereniging, zoals er meer zijn op de VU, niet heel bijzonder om een dergelijke spreker met religieus gezag uit te nodigen.
2. De VU won vervolgens advies in bij enkele ‘salafisme-experts’ zoals Wim Haan van de VU aangaf in een reactie op het weblog van Jan-Dirk Snel. In het kader van volledige transparantie en verantwoording: ik was één van die experts. Nu zal ik nooit zeggen wat de VU wel of niet moet doen aangezien dat niet mijn zaak is, maar ik heb aangegeven dat men commotie kon verwachten. De VU heeft een uitstekend track record met lezingen van islamitische denkers (in het verleden onder meer Tariq Ramadan, Sadik Al-Azm en Abdolkarim Soroush) en valt zeker niet te beschuldigen van alleen een podium te geven aan radicale denkers zoals Al Haddad. Mijns inziens is Al Haddad radicaal. Niet in de zin van opruiende prediken maar wel in het verspreiden van een gedachtegoed en het praktiseren ervan dat ingaat tegen opvattingen en praktijken die overheid en en anderen graag als maatschappelijke consensus beschouwen en die ook als zodanig beschermen: vrijheid van meningsuiting, tolerantie, seksuele vrijheden, enzovoorts. Al Haddad is ultra-conservatief op die punten, maar bepleit tegelijkertijd ook actieve deelname van moslims aan de samenleving (mannen vooral) en dat moslims zich aan de wet houden van het land waar zij zijn. Daar zitten wellicht tegenstrijdigheden in, maar ook mogelijkheden en kansen voor jongeren. In die zin was de uitnodiging van ISA aan hem nog niet zo slecht bedacht.
3. De commotie kwam vervolgens waarbij iemand anders het advies gaf zijn bijdrage in te kaderen in een debat. Daar was ik het wel mee eens; voor een academische setting is dat uiteindelijk beter hoewel ik er niet persé op tegen ben als studenten bijeenkomsten organiseren die dat niet hebben.
4. Uiteindelijk besloot de VU het debat toch niet te laten doorgaan. Mijns inziens een slappe houding van het bestuur (niet van de direct betrokkenen voor de goede orde) met een welhaast episch slechte reden: de controverse was nu zo groot dat er geen debat meer gehouden kon worden. Juist een universiteit dient de plek te zijn waar controversiële debatten gehouden kunnen worden lijkt mij zo en de controverse was eerder een argument voor het doorgaan ervan dan voor het cancelen. Inmiddels had het extremistische weblog Amsterdam Post opgeroepen een demonstratie te houden voor de VU. Daarbij komt het erop neer dat de VU hiermee een toezegging aan haar studenten breekt. Als men echt problemen wil hebben, moet men dat zo doen temeer omdat, volgens ISA, de VU niet overlegd heeft met de studenten (tot na de commotie).
5. Vervolgens kwamen Kustaw Bessems en De Balie op de proppen en namen het initiatief voor een debat over.

De uitspraken: jaja de context
Voorafgaand aan debat in de Balie stuurde het CIDI een rapport rond met de uitspraken die Al Haddad gedaan zou hebben. Het grote probleem daarmee is eigenlijk tweeerlei: de bronnen (ook die waar Brendel zich op beroept) zijn over het algemeen pro-zionistisch en islamofobisch. Ze hebben een zeer zwakke reputatie als het gaat om betrouwbaarheid, transparantie en evenwichtigheid. Daarnaast halen zij de uitspraken uit de context. Maarten-Jan Hijmans heeft er kritisch naar gekeken:
Abu Pessoptimist: Een omstreden sheikh en een uitnodiging die ten onrechte weer werd ingetrokken

Want, wat vaak uit het oog wordt verloren bij dit soort gevallen waarin beschuldigingen van antisemitisme vallen (en vooral als het gaat om gelovige islamieten), is de context. De preek gaat onder meer over solidariteit met de Palestijnen. En als ik het goed begrijp werd hij gehouden, zo’n tien jaar geleden tijdens de Tweede intifada, een periode waarin bijna 5.000 Palestijnen werden gedood. Als hij in de preek over ‘de Joden’ spreekt, bedoelt hij daar naar gangbaar Arabisch spraakgebruik de Israeli’s mee met wie dus een bloedige confrontatie gaande was op dat moment (zie ook wat Jan Dirk Snel hierover zegt). En als hij de Joden als ‘vijanden van God aanmerkt en als afstammelingen van apen en varkens’, is dat deels een verwijzing naar de Vijfde soera van de Quran, Al Ma’ida (vers 60). Waarmee ik niet wil zeggen dat Haddads tekst door de beugel kon , maar naar mijn bescheiden mening geeft deze achtergrond er toch een wat andere lading aan dan wanneer de uitspraken uit hun context worden gehaald.

Jan-Dirk Snel schrijft het volgende:
De omstreden shariageleerde – wat hij zei en wat we willen weten | Jan Dirk Snel

Twee veelvuldig aangehaalde zinnetjes kwamen me verdacht voor. Ten eerste de bewering dat joden ‘the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs‘, of in het Nederlands ‘de vijanden van God en de afstammelingen van apen en varkens‘ zijn. En ten tweede de uitspraak: ‘They are one of the armies of the devil‘, die in het Nederlands concreet wordt ingevuld: ‘Joden zijn een van de legers van de duivel‘. Onder de twee uitspraken in de Engelse en Nederlandse weergave heb ik meteen maar een Googlelink gestopt. En ja hoor: het gaat steeds over onze imam en vaak gaat het inderdaad om bronnen die zichzelf als joods aanduiden. Maar dat zegt uiteraard nog niets over de vraag of ze kloppen.

Ik zal het maar direct verklappen: volgens mij kloppen de citaten. En ik zeg er direct bij dat alle gegevens in de blog van Carel Brendel naar mijn bevindingen feitelijk juist zijn. Alle links heb ik nagetrokken. Hier beperk ik me tot de twee genoemde zinnetjes. Ze komen uit een toespraak of een preek die Jawad al-Haitham al-Haddad op 24 safar 1422, 18 mei 2001 dus, in Londen hield. Brendel gaf die bron op Al Minbar al in het Arabisch. Hij gaf alleen niet de beste link naar de vertaling. Op dezelfde site waar hij naar linkte, werd op 4 februari van dit jaar een gedeelte vertaald. Ik citeer dat stuk:

‘[W]e must reflect on the reality of the conflict between us and the Jews, the enemies of God, and the descendants of apes and pigs.

O brothers! The conflict between us and the Jews is religious, historic, civilizational, and infinitely complex; it is not bounded by time or place, and it has more than one dimension.

Yes, o brothers, this is the nature of the conflict. It is not a military conflict for a limited period on the land of Palestine. The battle in Palestine, such as that underway at the moment and that which took place in the past, is but one small part of this conflict.

There is no better example of this, o brothers, than our recognition based on an investigation of reality, that although the Jews do not occupy all our land in Palestine, in time they will take over parts of the Arab countries indirectly in a manner perhaps worse than the military occupation. For example: political and economic control, and all their efforts to gain cultural control, as well as their hard work towards normalisation [of relations]. This is only part of their management of this battle, of which realise its importance and our ignorance.

We know that the Jews are using all that they can to end this conflict in their favour. They are doomed and will lose. They are one of the armies of the devil, of which Allah the Almighty said: And incite [to senselessness] whoever you can among them with your voice and assault them with your horses and foot soldiers and become a partner in their wealth and their children and promise them. But Satan does not promise them except delusion. [17:64]

Did Allah not commands us to seek refuge from the devils of mankind and the jinn? Indeed, the devils of mankind are perfectly represented by these Jews. Do their Protocols [of the Elders of Zion] not say: “We must seduce the world with women and wine, through gambling and recreation, and if this is not sufficient then their reality will testify to this.”

O brothers: their weapons in this battle are like the weapons of Satan: all kinds of desires, money, women, alcohol, games, media, so-called sports and art. All of these are amongst their weapons.”

O brothers: their weapons in this battle are like the weapons of Satan: all kinds of desires, money, women, alcohol, games, media, so-called sports and art. All of these are amongst their weapons.’

Het gaat om een klein stuk van de totale toespraak, niet meer dan een tiende deel. Dit gedeelte begint op ongeveer een kwart of een derde van de tekst. Nee, ik kan geen Arabisch, maar ik heb de gehele tekst in Google Translate gegooid en daaruit kon ik duidelijk opmaken dat het vertaalde fragment aaneengesloten is en de vertaling lijkt me ook tamelijk accuraat. U moet het anders zelf ook maar eens proberen. En mensen die Arabisch lezen, kunnen uiteraard het hele verhaal controleren.

Het gaat om een toespraak uit 2001 toen de Tweede Intifadah gaande was en de sjeikh geeft grafische beschrijvingen van het onheil en het leed dat Palestijnen treft. De joden in zijn toespraak zijn natuurlijk in de eerste plaats de joden die in Israël wonen. Laat ik dit zeggen: het is niet altijd onbegrijpelijk dat mensen in het Midden-Oosten soms over ‘joden’ in plaats van over ‘Israëli’s’ spreken. De meeste soldaten van dat land zijn nu eenmaal joden en het gaat om een staat die zichzelf als joods verstaat. Je hoeft niet op alle slakken zout te leggen. Maar ook al valt de tekst tegen de achtergrond van de persoonlijke levensgeschiedenis van de sjeich misschien wel enigszins te begrijpen, hij doet de uitspraken toch maar. En het gaat om meer dan een felle positiekeuze in een concrete strijd, het gaat wel degelijk om een algemeen wereldbeeld waarin zeer generaliserend en in vijandige termen over joden wordt gesproken. En het lijkt me dat je hem daar op aan mag spreken. Dit is wat wij antisemitisme plegen te noemen.

‘s Avonds was Haddad eindelijk zelf te zien (wederhoor weet u wel) in het nieuws waar hij ontkende bepaalde uitspraken gedaan te hebben:

Liegt Haddad daarmee als hij de uitspraken ontkent? Wellicht, zoals Snel oppert, wist hij het niet meer tien jaar na dato. Als hij het wel wist, kan hij ook nog van mening veranderd zijn, maar dan zijn de ontkenningen nogal dom. Wel dienen ze in hun politieke context geplaatst te worden zoals duidelijk blijkt. Ze dienen tevens gezien te worden binnen de bredere context van het salafisme wanneer hij er op wijst dat de strijd tegen de ‘joden’ (Israëliërs) deel uit maakt van een grotere strijd. Binnen de salafi islam ziet men inderdaad de wereld verwikkelt in een eeuwige strijd tegen het kwaad (de duivel, het ongeloof) dat erop uit zou zijn het ware geloof te vernietigen. Dat resulteert in onder andere in een pleidooi om afstand te houden vanalles wat God verwerpt. Dat wil niet zeggen dat de houding van salafi moslims ten opzichte van ongelovigen er per definitie een is van afwijzing en haat. Integendeel zelfs, aangezien men ook wil dat ongelovigen zich bekeren tot islam neemt men tegelijkertijd een open en verzoenende houding aan. Dat dit weer resulteert in een nogal paradoxale en ambivalente houding moge duidelijk zijn maar het betekent ook dat Al Haddad’s ontkenningen, nuanceringen en uitwijdingen niet alleen pogingen zijn om antwoorden uit de weg te gaan. Ze zijn volledig consistent met die ambivalentie die inherent is aan het salafistische gedachtegoed. We zien dat ook terug in de fatwa’s op de site van de Islamic Sharia Council waar Al Haddad aan verbonden is. Ook Chaalan Charif wijst op de RNW site dat er ruimte is voor interpretatie van de uitspraken van Al Haddad. (EDIT20110219 – Zoals één van mijn ‘reaguurders’ opmerkte, het is de vraag of Al Haddad’s opmerking over de strijd tegen de joden inderdaad – alleen –  betrekking heeft op de algemene strijd en wij-zij tegenstelling zoals ik die hier schets. Al Haddad doelt hier, en dat is mijn interpretatie, op zowel de strijd tegen de Israëliers (dat is immers de context van het stuk) en hij verwijst naar een groter (dan tegen Israël) en een specifiekere (dan die algemene) strijd tegen de joden.)

Het rituele debat
Na de oproep van het CIDI volgden kamervragen (antwoorden) van Joel Voordewind gesteund door andere partijen (samen de meerderheid in het parlement). Een en ander kwam, indirect, neer op een pleidooi om Al Haddad de toegang tot Nederland te weigeren. Al Haddad zou de invoering van sharia voorstaan en wanneer Voordewind het had over sharia, legde hij dat voortdurend retorisch uit met ‘handen afhakken’.

Hoewel niet direct zo gesteld is de suggestie wel degelijk dat de bedoeling is dat Al-Haddad geweigerd moet worden. Blijkbaar is Al Haddad niet de enige wiens uitspraken vol zijn met ambivalentie en ambiguïteit. Veel helderder was PvdA kamerlid Martijn van Dam die de studenten vroeg de uitnodiging in te trekken én stelt dat de studenten met hun uitnodiging de indruk wekken geen respect te hebben voor wat Van Dam ziet als ‘gedeelde waarden’ zoals respect voor andere bevolkingsgroepen, tolerantie ten opzichte van andere opvattingen en gelijkwaardigheid van mannen en vrouwen. Een dergelijk gebrek aan respect zou teleurstellend zijn voor studenten aan de VU en afstralen op alle moslims in Nederland die daar voortdurend op aangesproken worden. Of zijn brief, de actie van het CIDI, de kamervragen en het gebrek aan hoor en wederhoor (op dat moment in het debat) wel bijdragen aan een respect voor datgene wat sommigen als kernwaarden presenteren is mij onduidelijk. De toon was er wel mee gezet. Het beroep op ‘onze’ kernwaarden (‘daar staan we toch allemaal achter?’ MvD) tegenover die van Al Haddad en de ISA en mogelijkerwijze ook van ‘gematigde’ (MvD) moslims. Voor sommigen zoals Van Dam en Brendel gaat het om ons inclusief de ‘goede moslims’; voor anderen om ons exclusief alle moslims. In ieder geval dienen ‘onze’ kernwaarden verdedigd te worden en aangezien de vrijheid van meningsuiting centraal staat hebben we daarin twee mogelijkheden: zijn komst tegenhouden of juist in het kader van de vrijheid van meningsuiting het debat aangaan.

Dat laatste was de strategie van Kustaw Bessems die al eerder na het Nationaal Islam Congres een interview met Al Haddad had. Tofik Dibi stemde in om mee te doen. De bedoeling van zo’n debat was niet het uitwisselen van standpunten om elkaar beter te begrijpen, maar confrontatie en Al Haddad te dwingen zich te verantwoorden. En als statement tegen anderen die censuur zouden bepleiten. Iets dat volledig paste in het dichotomische schema van ‘onze’ kernwaarden tegenover ‘vreemde’ opvattingen van Al Haddad zoals uiteengezet in vorige alinea. Het initiatief van Bessems en de Balie betekende dat het debat zoals de ISA studenten dat wilden werd overgenomen (of gekaapt?) door krachten die uitgingen van dat dichotomische kader. Natuurlijk was er ook het argument dat de vrijheid van meningsuiting voor iedereen geldt en dat we niet met twee maten moeten meten.

Tegelijkertijd zorgde het er natuurlijk ook voor dat Al Haddad wel een podium kreeg iets dat ook met de nodige vraagtekens werd bekeken onder meer door Amanda Kluveld en Nausicaa Marbe.  De laatste stelt de vraag hoe ver onze tolerantie moet gaan ten opzichte van intoleranten en waarom notabene studenten zich bezighouden met gedachtegoed dat hen leert een ‘afwijzende vreemde’ te worden in Nederland. Kluveld bekritiseert dat het de studenten nu wel heel makkelijk wordt gemaakt en dat zij nogal slap zijn en dat Al Haddad, net als volgens haar Ramadan (toch echt een ander type prediker maar ok) de ongelovigen voor zich laat rennen. Anderen, zoals Hafid Bouazza, stellen dat Al Haddad per definitie geen ruimte geboden moet worden al is het maar omdat de islam zelf censuur zou kennen en omdat een en ander leidt tot vernedering en uitsluiting van de vrouw. Voor Bas Paternotte op Geenstijl was met name het optreden van de Halve Maan een staaltje ‘zelfislamisering‘ ten gunste van ‘mal figuur’ (zie ook AC) die ‘geen bedreiging’ vormt; zelfislamisering zou wel iets bedreigen (maar onduidelijk blijft wat). In het buitenland werd het hele gedoe juist niet gezien als een teken van zelfislamisering, maar als een goed voorbeeld van hoe een samenleving ‘het kwaad‘ aanpakt.

Vanaf dat moment kwam het circus in de hoogste versnelling. Bij zijn aankomst op Schiphol stond de halve Nederlandse media hem al op te wachten en hij mocht direct door naar het programma Halve Maan van de NTR. Daar deed zich iets opmerkelijks voor. Al Haddad wilde volgens de Halve Maan niet met een ongesluierde vrouw aan tafel zitten en dus vertrok presentatrice Naeda Aurangzeb. Dat deed zij terwijl iedereen het kon zien terwijl de afspraak ervoor al was gemaakt.

Daarmee wordt het opstaan een opzichtig statement; het is mij niet duidelijk welk maar het is ieder geval zeer breed geïnterpreteerd als een nederlaag. Zij had juist het statement moeten maken dat zij bleef zitten en dat hij dat maar de accepteren had in plaats van andersom, zoals onder meer Abdelkarim El-Fassi stelde op WBH. Nu wekte ze, in die interpretatie althans, de indruk onderdanig te zijn en te buigen voor een ‘achterlijke‘ moslim. Ik schat in, maar het is speculatie, dat zij juist de praktijk van Al Haddad wilde ‘ontmaskeren’; duidelijk maken waartoe het leidt als mensen als Al Haddad het voor het zeggen hebben. Of, ook speculatie, wellicht was het een protest richting haar redactie die immers ingestemd had met de eis dat hij niet door een ongesluierde vrouw geinterviewd zou worden. Dat iemand overigens eisen stelt aan het deelnemen aan een televisieprogramma is overigens op zich niets bijzonders. Niet geïnterviewd willen worden door een ongesluierde vrouw is in deze context natuurlijk wel heel opmerkelijk. Al eerder verscheen Al Haddad bij Nieuwsuur alwaar Mariëlle Tweebeeke hem interviewde via een verbinding omdat hij niet wilde zitten in het gezelschap van een vrouw die ‘ongepast’ gekleed is hetgeen al de nodige verontwaardiging opleverde.

Het Halve Maan incident verharde de dichotomie tussen ‘ons’ als verlicht en Al Haddad als ‘achterlijk’ ‘intolerant’ en eropuit om ons te islamiseren. Dat was dan ook de context waarin het debat in De Balie plaatsvond. Tussen de Halve Maan en het debat in was er overigens nog wel het besloten symposium van de ISA studenten; maar het lijkt wel alsof iedereen dat ontgaan is. Tijdens dat symposium lichtte Al Haddad zijn standpunt met betrekking tot zijn optreden in de Halve Maan nog eens toe. Hij stelde daarbij dat hij van mening is dat vrouwen zich moeten bekommeren om de kinderen en de familie; voor hem een belangrijk aspect van zijn geloof. Voor Al Haddad is het belangrijk consequent te zijn. Iets dat hij al eerder benadrukte, zodat mensen niet denken ‘hij zegt het een, hij doet het ander’. Als hij dan geinterviewd zou worden door een vrouw dan zou dat voor hem eigenlijk hypocriet zijn; immers zijn overtuiging is dat zij dit soort werk niet zou moeten doen. Omdat hij dus belang hecht aan consequent zijn, wilde hij niet geinterviewd worden door een vrouw.

Het was een nogal warrig debat dat volledig voldeed aan de wij-zij dichotomie. Dibi en vooral Bessems riepen, als het ware, Al Haddad op het matje en kwamen eigenlijk niet veel verder dan allerlei stereotype beelden over anti-semitisme in islam. Het idee van een verlichte Nederlandse samenleving met liberale moslims werd met verve uitgedragen. Daardoor kreeg Al Haddad het erg makkelijk; naar mijn mening hoefde hij nauwelijks pijnlijke zaken te ontwijken want daarvoor was de confrontatie een te makkelijk spervuur van beschuldigingen. Hij hoefde niet in te gaan op de tegenstrijdigheden binnen het salafistische denken zelf noch over de praktijken. Simpelweg omdat Dibi en Bessems niet goed genoeg op de hoogte zijn van de ins and outs van dat gedachtegoed. Het werd daarmee enigszins een beschavingsoffensief waarin ‘wij’ het gedachtegoed van Al Haddad wel moeten weerspreken. In dat kader bracht de actie van Ebru Umar die het niet pikte dat er aan tafel door mannen over vrouwen werd gesproken weinig taboedoorbrekend. Zij eiste het woord en ging daarom demonstratief aan tafel zitten (Al Haddad bleef zitten), maar was nauwelijks in staat hem van zijn stuk te brengen. Het viel dan ook verder niet op dat ze er zat en nog minder dat ze er op een gegeven moment niet meer zat.

Voor een andere mening zie Carel Brendel die stelt dat Umar juist het ongelijk van het programma de Halve Maan aantoonde; maar dat is precies mijn punt: het is zoveelste toevoeging aan een wij-zij schema. Dat was ook niet zo verwonderlijk want behalve dat de aanloop tot het debat en het debat zelf voldeed aan de wij-zij dichotomie onder sommige secularistische Nederlanders, voldeed het ook aan het goed-kwaad framework van de salafisten. Ook voor hen was het een demonstratie van het eigen gelijk: dat de ander voortdurend moslims aanvalt en niet schroomt om dat op valse gronden te doen. Ruimte voor nuanceringen is er in een situatie als deze nauwelijks of zelfs typisch voor anti-semieten volgens sommige zionisten. (Voor een iets ander wij-zij schema zie Bas Heijne.) De helden van het vrije woord tegenover de helden van de islam. De positie die atheïsten als Ehsan Jami en Damon Golriz daarbij innemen is natuurlijk interessant. Beide presenteren zich immers als ex-moslims die de idealen van de verlichting omarmd hebben. Damon Golriz heeft een uitgebreide versie van zijn commentaar tijdens het debat op internet gezet; terug te vinden bij Harry’s Place. Hij verwijst daarbij ondermeer naar een google-cache van een inmiddels verdwenen site waarin Al Haddad wordt opgevoerd als onderdeel van ‘islamitisch extreem-rechts‘ en waarin verschillende filmpjes en uitspraken van Al Haddad terug te vinden zijn over bijvoorbeeld huiselijk geweld en afvalligheid.

Opvallend zowel bij het debat in De Halve Maan en als bij De Balie, was verder de emotionele geladenheid onder de opponenten van Al Haddad met name in het programma De Halve Maan. In het geval van Naeda Aurangzeb op zich heel begrijpelijk natuurlijk; zij wilde een statement maken (denk ik) én voelde zich als vrouw en als moslim persoonlijk aangevallen. Met een dergelijk emotioneel debat waarin gevoelens van ongenoegen, gekwetstheid en walging worden geuit met betrekking tot de praktijken en uitlatingen van een ander, wordt de wij-zij tegenstelling bestendigd; het brengt degenen bij elkaar die die gevoelens delen en mobiliseert hen ook om zich uit te spreken. Daar tegenover stond de meer schriftuurlijke benadering van Al Haddad die bleef redeneren vanuit zijn interpretatie van de traditie daarmee op een soortgelijke manier zijn achterban aan zich bindend. De ontmoeting, of botsing, van deze twee stijlen van discussie botsten zodanig met elkaar dat het vervreemdende effect richting de opponent en het bindende effect richting degene die men toch al steunde, alleen maar groter geweest zal zijn.

Al Haddad kreeg tijdens in debat in De Balie voortdurend het verwijt om de antwoorden heen te draaien. De vraag is of hij dat echt deed. Wellicht met betrekking tot zijn uitspraken over Israël, maar voor de rest was Al Haddad eigenlijk heel consistent. Hij bood excuses aan mocht hij mensen van verschillende rassen en levensbeschouwingen beledigd hebben. Zijn opponenten wilden heldere eenduidige antwoorden, kregen vervolgens telkens van Al Haddad een heel exposé. Dat is logisch aangezien binnen het salafisme de islamitische antwoorden op hedendaagse vraagstukken helemaal niet zo eenduidig zijn als vaak gedacht wordt. Met betrekking tot mannen en vrouwen staat men op het standpunt dat deze complementair zijn en dat de rechten en plichten bepaald worden door de specifieke context. Wel probeerde hij voortdurend aan te tonen dat ‘het’ Westen met twee maten meet; geen onbegrijpelijk standpunt maar wel één die als jij-bak uitgelegd kan worden.

Eén van de weinige delen van de discussie die echt zin hadden kunnen hebben had bijvoorbeeld betrekking op de vraag van Bessems in hoeverre ‘de sharia’ in Europa toegepast kan worden. Daar wreekte zich echter het gebrek aan kennis bij Bessems om echt in te gaan op het nogal abstracte antwoord van Al Haddad en Bessems leek vooral op zoek te zoek naar de incompatibiliteit van mensenrechten en sharia. Al Haddad’s bewering dat familierecht bepalingen niet opgelegd moeten worden, maar aanwezig moeten zijn om in behoeften van sommigen te voorzien, had meer aandacht verdiend. Het toepassen van dergelijke bepalingen kan niet zonder sociale druk (zoals niets afgedwongen kan worden zonder sociale druk); en hoe verhoudt zich dat dan met de vrijheid in een bepaald land. Ook Tofik Dibi’s vraag naar de invloed, al dan niet gewild, van Al Haddad, was een uitstekende vraag. Maar ook daar ging men niet echt op door. Allerlei verwijzingen in het debat, onder meer naar Saoedi Arabië, lieten zien dat men eigenlijk nauwelijks wist uit welke ‘school’ Al Haddad komt (bepaald geen vriend van het Saoedische regime). (Of wat te denken van de bijdrage van Afshin Ellian die in een column nog maar even verwees naar Iran…).

Bessems aan het einde maakt de opmerking dat het uiteindelijk niet gaat om wie er is moslim is of niet, maar om wie (moslim en niet-moslim) er kiest voor individuele vrijheid; mensen maken hun eigen keuzes en dat is niet noodzakelijk de keuze die Al Haddad graag zou willen. Blijft nog de vraag, voor sommigen althans, waarom de ISA een bijeenkomst wil met zo’n man zoals Tamarah Benima zich afvraagt en die ook aan de Vrije Universiteit zelf gesteld is. Ogenschijnlijk gaat datgene wat Al Haddad de studenten leert immers regelrecht in tegen de dagelijkse praktijk van die studenten en in het bijzonder tegen de belangen en praktijken van vrouwelijke studenten. Daarmee zijn we aanbeland bij een redelijk klassieke vraag in de studie van religie: waarom willen mensen een boodschap horen die althans ogenschijnlijk ingaat tegen hun leven van alledag en hun belangen? Voor een licht andere kijk op het debat zie Jerry Springer Show in De Balie door Zihni Ozdil.

Tot slot:
Na het debat besloot Ehsan Jami aangifte te doen tegen Haitham al-Haddad vanwege zijn uitlating dat afvalligen in islam de doodstraf verdienen (hij vergeleek dat met de doodstraf op landverraad). In Schepper&Co lichtte hij dat verder toe in een gesprek met Tofik Dibi en GertJan Segers (ChristenUnie) over de grenzen van de vrijheid van meningsuiting:

Voor ISA is een en ander waarschijnlijk een bittere pil en de hele gang van zaken kan ook elders op onbegrip (maar ook gemengde reacties) rekenen. ISA verwijt in een reactie op de site dat de VU gezwicht is voor politieke druk en dat men verzuimd heeft zich onafhankelijk en academisch op te stellen en na te gaan of de ophef enige grond had. Dat laatste is begrijpelijk. Zoals ISA zelf stelt zijn politieke partijen afgegaan op beweringen in de media zonder die zelf te controleren op googlen na dan; er is niemand die voor het kamerdebat zelf navraag zou hebben gedaan. Niettemin stelt men zich strijdbaar op en stelt niet te zwichten voor censuur en politieke druk. Zie ook hun stukken in NRC Handelsblad en Het Parool (1,2).

Haitham al Haddad heeft tenslotte nog twee boodschappen voor het publiek in Nederland:
Een boodschap aan het Nederlandse volk en de media! – Sheikh Haitham al-Haddad

In een interview met Dawah-TV gaat hij in op het vraagstuk van de verhouding tussen mannen en vrouwen, in het licht van de recente commotie in Nederland:

Update 24 Maart 2012
Marokko | Maghreb.NL » Blog Archive » Moslimgeleerde Al-Haddad terug in Nederland

De Britse shariageleerde Haitham al-Haddad is een van de sprekers op de derde editie van het Nationaal Islam Congres op 8 april in Amsterdam. Hij sprak ook op eerdere edities. Hij is uitgenodigd, omdat hij een interessante spreker is, aldus organisator Saoed Khadjé, volgens NU.nl.

Israel & Palestijnen Nieuws Blog: Palestijnse extremist Al-Haddad spreekt in Amsterdam

Nog een paar antisemitische uitspraken van Al-Haddad:

· In the article ‘The Intifada and the Signs of Victory,’ (2001) Al-Haddad made a series of anti-Jewish statements; he states that Jews are the “eternal enemies of God” and that they “descended from apes and pigs.” An identical message was delivered by al-Haddad on 28.4.2003 at the Muntada al-Islami mosque in London.

· In the article ‘Who Are The Innocents?’, Al-Haddad proclaims that Muslims should “hate” the kuffar (unbeliever). He declares “Jews and Christians to be kuffar,” and that “hating them, and avoiding them” is a “necessity.”[2]

· (18 mei 2001). We know that the Jews are using all that they can to end this conflict in their favour. They are doomed and will lose. They are one of the armies of the devil, of which Allah the Almighty said: And incite [to senselessness] whoever you can among them with your voice and assault them with your horses and foot soldiers and become a partner in their wealth and their children and promise them. But Satan does not promise them except delusion

Did Allah not commands us to seek refuge from the devils of mankind and the jinn? Indeed, the devils of mankind are perfectly represented by these Jews. Do their Protocols [of the Elders of Zion] not say: “We must seduce the world with women and wine, through gambling and recreation, and if this is not sufficient then their reality will testify to this.”

Nederland 0 – 10 Al-Haddad | MarokkaanseKaas

Je kan het als moslim overigens eens of oneens zijn met Al-Haddad en diens opvattingen. Dat is een keus die elk individu maar voor zichzelf moet maken. Maar oh! Wat bleek vrij Nederland slecht te zijn in het verdedigen van waar men voor staat. Zoals een Spaanse topploeg haar tegenstander compleet kapot speelt, zo werd ook Nederland weggespeeld. Meer dan kalm blijven en simpele antwoorden geven, bleek genoeg te zijn om Nederland stil te krijgen en mensen van het vrije woord met de staart tussen de benen terug naar huis te sturen.

Nederland kan haatimam Al-Haddad vol trots en zelfvertrouwen ontvangen « George Knight

k denk dat de winst is dat het besef is gegroeid dat een open debat met gelijke wapens moet worden gevoerd en dat religiekritiek nodig is om religie op weg naar de moderniteit te helpen. In dit geval weg van de fundamentalistische variant van de islam. Ofwel, Al-Haddad mag eisen vooraf stellen, maar die hoeven niet gehonoreerd te worden als ze anderen schaden. Zo lijkt het me ondenkbaar dat Al-Haddad bij een volgend bezoek nog vrouwen van tafel kan weren. De organisator zal hoon treffen.

Haitham el Haddad in De Balie – een gemiste kans

’t Is mooi dat Baliedirecteur Albrecht ruimte bood voor een kritisch gesprek met de omstreden Palestijns-Britse imam El Hadad, die elders geweerd werd om wat hij misschien gezegd heeft en mogelijk bedoelde, maar echt van de grond kwam dat gesprek niet, en dat is jammer.

Artikelen Vriend Klei: Narnia, Nederland en de ‘seculiere meerderheidscultuur’

Als Pauw & Witteman een debat willen met een ‘echte’ moslim, vragen ze nooit een degelijke CDA- of PvdA-politicus. In plaats daarvan nodigen ze lieden uit als Mohammed Enait, de advocaat die niet wilde opstaan voor de rechter omdat hij het Nederlandse recht niet respecteerde, en Izz ad- Din Ruhulessin, de Nijmeegse student Arabisch en politicologie die in de Volkskrant Iran verdedigde toen men daar een overspelige vrouw wilde stenigen.
Ook het Amsterdamse debatcentrum De Balie heeft een fascinatie voor deze ‘echte’ moslims. Dat Kennedy en Meijers een punt maken, bewijst het debat dat op vrijdagavond 17 februari 2012 in Amsterdam werd gevoerd tussen de wahabitische geestelijke Haitam al-Haddad, journalist Kustaw Bessems en GroenLinks-Kamerlid en vrijzinnige moslim Tofik Dibi. Het debat en de commotie eromheen, ze hadden wel iets weg van een slecht uitgevoerde circusact.

Theodor Holman: “Ik moet de hele tijd verantwoording afleggen” | www.dagelijksestandaard.nl

Dan gaan we nog veel vaker horen: ‘Ik ben voor vrijheid van meningsuiting, maar dat mag niet gebruikt worden om Allah te beledigen.’ Als je de vrijheid van meningsuiting op welke manier dan ook gaat aantasten, dan ben ik zelfs bereid om de wapens op te nemen. Want dan gaat het fout.”

-Je ziet echt een helend element in de vrijheid van meningsuiting.

“Ja. Daarom is het ook goed dat je zo’n imam als Al Haddad laat spreken. Censuur is het verschrikkelijkste. Dat is lobotomie. Als dat te erg wordt met de censuur, dan pakken we de wapens en dan gaan we schieten.”

Opinie: Democratische censuur of hoe dit land de weg kwijt is | Welkom bij D66 Oldenzaal

Bijna twee weken geleden was er ineens veel ophef over de komst van sjeik Haitham al-Haddad naar Nederland. Een man die al vele extreme en verwerpelijke uitlatingen heeft gedaan. Dat mensen het niet met Al-Haddad eens zijn kan ik volledig begrijpen. De denkwijze van deze man en de daar uit voortkomende uitlatingen zijn middeleeuws en verwerpelijk. Iedereen heeft echter de vrijheid om te zeggen wat hij wil. Het is niet aan politici om te bepalen wat iemand wel of niet mag zeggen, dat is in een democratische rechtstaat enkel en alleen aan de rechter.

Wat hebben we nu geleerd van deze kwestie?

4 comments.

Closing the week 4 – Featuring Competing Utopias

Posted on January 29th, 2012 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Most popular on Closer this week

1. Gezichtssluiers in Debat
2. Op zoek naar de profeet Mohammed – De overleveringen via Al-Zuhri door Nicolet Boekhoff-Van der Voort
3. Jessica Stern – Terror, Rape and Shame
4. Minister Donner as Mufti: New developments in the Dutch ‘burqa debates’ by Annelies Moors

Feature: Competing Utopias
A Tunisian Girl /????? ??????: Being on a Death List

Yesterday I was in the staffroom writing some texts, when a colleague of mine greeted me in a hurry and informed me that he was in la ‘Manuba’ University and that he knew that the “Salafis” occupying the university for months now, have just announced that I was on their death lists and he asked me to be very careful. I was not surprised at all as many other bloggers , human rights activists, journalists went through the same experience, either for denouncing obscurantism and extremism or for criticizing the new government. Many of them had been badly beaten and assaulted like was the case three days ago for Professors Hamadi Redissi and Zied Krichene who were present in Nessma TV trial and who like hundreds of people attending just expressed their refusal to such a breach of one of the basic human rights that is freedom of speech. (see previous post in French).

Full: Egypt’s uprising continues to be a work in progress – The National

There is a dramatic video made by Egyptian activists that has been circulating online lately. In it, actors play the roles of some of the major protagonists of the Egyptian uprising and its aftermath: Hosni Mubarak, the military, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Salafists, the liberals, and of course the courageous activists who took to the streets a year ago and toppled a “Pharaoh”.

The narrative shows the military turning the political players against each other: the Salafist against the activist, the Muslim Brother against the Salafist, the liberal against the Islamists and so on. Later, the politicians do nothing as the military beats the activist: they are too busy with ballot boxes, and finish by fighting each other for an empty throne. The video ends with the words, “All of you sold Egypt.”

Is Liberalism Islamic?: An Interview with Mustafa Akyol | Politics | Religion Dispatches

This book is mainly about the problem of freedom in Islam. I argue that Islam, at its very core, is a religion that liberated the individual from the bond of the tribe and similar collective bodies. But I also show how the initial impetus of the faith was partly overshadowed as a result of some early theological controversies, and, moreover, political decisions. This also means that some of those early debates can be reopened, and coercive elements in Islamic law and culture can be reformed. And I am saying all these within a particularly Turkish outlook, as I explain the little known history of “Muslim liberalism” that emerged in the late Ottoman Empire and modern-day Turkey.

In Morocco, Islamists Learn To Work With A King : NPR

King Mohammed VI responded quickly to a pro-democracy movement last year with a new constitution and snap elections. The Justice and Development Party, known as the PJD, won the most votes in November. Now, Moroccans ask: How will this popular Islamist party govern?

Shi’a Muslims: halal meat? | Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist

We can clearly state that within Muslim communities in various places, a particular process is taking place. This process is vocally opposed by a certain number of Muslims, but not by a comparable number that, for instance, opposed the above mentioned controversies. This process is what I call a globalization of intolerance; something which is surely new in the history of Muslim communities around the world.

Wittgenstein and the “Do Muslims and Christians worship the same God?” question :: Anthropolaris

In Iraq this past summer, I was part of a discussion/friendly debate with a group of people centered around the question “Do Muslims and Christians worship/pray to/talk about the same God?”

Muslim Brotherhood, other Islamists have changed their worldview – The Washington Post

The Islamists have, in fact, changed: They are more middle-class “bourgeois,” and they benefited from the liberalization of local economies during the last decades of the 20th century, especially in countries with no oil rent. The Islamists have also drawn lessons from the failure of ideological regimes and from the success of Turkey’s AKP party. They are no longer advocating jihad and understand geostrategic constraints, such as the need to maintain peace, even a cold one, with Israel. Realism is the starting point of political wisdom.

Critical Muslims: Reviving the ‘Islamization of Knowledge’ Project?

In spite of these birth pains, Muslim intellectuals greeted the ‘Islamization of Knowledge’ Project with considerable enthusiasm. Soon other scholars, such as Seyyed Hossein Nasr, and activists like the British-Pakistani Ziauddin Sardar also began weighing in. In Malaysia the project received the backing of the rising political star Anwar Ibrahim, the former firebrand student leader turned government minister and — some whispered — a possible successor of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. The viability of ‘Islamization of Knowledge’ seemed further assured as the project also began tasking institutional form: In the United States in the shape of Ismai’l al-Faruqi’s International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) and in Malaysia by the establishment of the earlier-mentioned ISTAC, founded in 1987 by Syed Naquib al-Attas, but since then incorporated into the International Islamic University Malaysia.

The context of religious pluralism « The Immanent Frame

Akeel Bilgrami’s article, “Secularism: Its Content and Context,” is an important and welcome contribution on a topic that has acquired momentum with the renaissance of the public role of religions, in democratic and non-democratic societies alike. Bilgrami clarifies in a penetrating and lucid way, three fundamental ideas on secularism: first, that it is “a stance to be taken about religion”; second, that it is not an indication of the form of government or the liberal nature of a regime; and third, that the context is a crucial factor in issues concerning the relationship between politics and religion. The first two arguments are intertwined and pertain to the identity and function of secularism, while the latter brings us directly to the role of religion in the public sphere, a theme that has become pivotal in contemporary democratic theory. Since I have no strong disagreement with Bilgrami’s arguments, what I would like to do in what follows is propose some specifications and exemplifications that may enrich or complete them.

Human Trustees – The Global Salafi Phenomenon

Yet, these days the Salafis pop up as you read about Egypt, Indonesia, and even France. It’s a movement with global reach, certainly, but at the same time very diverse – from apolitical, world-refusing born-agains, to al-Qaeda-emulating Jihadi-Salafis. In “Whence the Salafis?” I explained the cyclical nature of conservative revivalism in Islamic history. Now it’s time to look at the sociology of Salafism. This will also lead me to remark on how sacred texts are read – a theme that runs throughout my work.

The politics of representing Islam
The British Museum’s Pilgrimage – WSJ.com

Professor Nasser D. Khalili, who has amassed what is almost certainly the greatest collection of Islamic art in existence, and whose foundation has lent many of the key exhibits for this show, hopes that it will emphasize what Islam has in common with other religious traditions. “People ask why I, an Iranian Jew, should promote the culture of Islam,” he says. “I say ‘It’s because they are my cousins.’ And we must all learn from it: Christians, too, as well as the other Abrahamic religions.”

Aleppo – Architecture and History ::Islamic Arts and Architecture

“The city is as old as eternity, but still young, and it has never ceased to exist. Its days and nights have been long; it has survived its rulers and commoners. These are its houses and dwellings, but where are their former residents and the people who visited them? These are its palaces and chambers of court, but where are the Hamdanid princes and their poets? They have all passed away, but the city is still here. City of wonders! It endures. Its kings fall; they disappear, but its destruction has not been ordered”.

Post Offices and Islam « rogue anthropologist

Symbolic stamps—and reactions to them—also provide an entry point to analyze a culture’s priorities and hang-ups. I try to find a different design each time I purchase stamps and was delighted to discover Eid stamps this past November. According to USPS, the stamp “honors two of the most important festivals in the Islamic calendar: Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha.” The stamp says Eid Mubarak, which is the greeting shared among Muslims on those days, roughly translating to “have a blessed festival.”

KUNA : Belgian academic says Muslims in Europe lack religious intellectual leadership – Religion – 22/01/2012

A Belgian professor of sociology and researcher on Islam Felice Dassetto is calling on rich Muslim countries to assist in establishing Islamic theological schools and faculties in Europe to overcome the gap in intellectual leadership of European Muslims.
“One of the major problems Muslims in Europe face, except perhaps for UK, is the absence of religious intellectual leadership,” said Dassetto who teaches sociology in the university of Leuven and has published three books on Islam.

Space: To boldly go where no man or woman has gone before
The Battle for Public Space: Squares and Streets of the Egyptian Revolution

Space is never something that people simply use; we make meaning out of space through how we use it. And Egypt’s revolution has seen a transformation in public space. That it is no longer surprising to see public walls adorned with political graffiti—even those of Cairo’s Supreme Court or administrative Mogamma building—speaks powerfully to this geographic transformation and to public space both as a site and an instrument of revolutionary struggle.

Guernica / VIDEO: Inshallah, Kashmir: Living Terror

The new documentary, according to Kumar, illustrates Kashmiris recounting “how their freedom is conceded and replaced by fear and institutionalized oppression… The film contains heart-wrenching stories of the effects of brutality and terror by Indian armed forces and militants alike.”

The documentary is culled from football filmed during the making of Inshallah, Football

Doing Anthropology
Support Diversity in Anthropology Blogs | Anthropology Report

Female bloggers are especially subjected to mistreatement, in posted comment streams and personal messages. This can be amplified whenever a female blogger talks about issues of gender or race, but can occur at any time–just look through the comment stream for Barbara J. King’s article on the so-called Paleo-Diet (and see King’s comment on the Kate Clancy post, referenced below).

I’ve highlighted below some recent calls and examples of this mistreatment, beginning with Kate Clancy’s call for support, Krystal D’Costa’s stance, and the example from Barbara J. King. I also include a recent article by Laurie Essig on Gingrich-and-race: again check the vitriol in the comment section.

Please take a look at these articles. Support diversity in anthropology blogs and elsewhere.

The unexpected micro-politics of fieldwork | Savage Minds

But then, I noticed something.

The kids who came over to play were only from certain households. Other kids never came by, or were explicitly told to stay away by the kids in the household where we were renting. I didn’t know this was happening at first…but I slowly started figuring things out. Certain kids would approach me and ask about baseball when I wasn’t at our house, and I thought it was strange that they never actually came over…until the whole mystery started to make more sense. I also remember some kids hanging out on the edge of the yard, leaning on the wall watching us play. I’d ask them if they wanted to play, but they would politely refuse every time. Why didn’t they every want to actually play?

Becoming a Networked Researcher – using social media for research and researcher development | Impact of Social Sciences

I was the first person in my department to actively engage with social media and digital research methods to conduct my PhD research. I was unable to undertake fieldwork in the traditional sense; spending a period overseas conducting interviews and collecting data, as part of my Geography PhD at KCL. While I had made several trips to a number of institutions, I had to look at different ways to contact and communicate with a large number of globally dispersed actors.

strength, text, rape: Talal Asad – The Idea of An Anthropology of Islam

When I finished reading Talal Asad’s essay, “The Idea of an Anthropology of Islam,” I turned back to the front page and wrote in big, capital letters across it, “What is at stake are the conditions of the possible questions it is possible to ask” and “DISCURSIVE TRADITION.” That is the basic take away, those two things. But I’ll go into at least a little more depth for everyone’s benefit.

Misc.
Colonial and Post-Colonial Governance of Islam: Continuities and Ruptures, Bader, Maussen, Moors

This comprehensive collection examines a broad spectrum of Islamic governance during colonial and postcolonial eras. The book pays special attention to the ongoing battles over the codification of Islamic education, religious authority, law and practice while outlining the similarities and differences in British, French and Portuguese colonial rule in Islamic regions. Using a shared conceptual framework the contributors to this volume analyze the nature of regulation in different historical periods and geographical areas. From Africa and the Middle East to Asia and Europe, Colonial and Post-Colonial Governance of Islam opens up new vistas for research in Islamic studies

Newt Racism: The Racially Coded Language of Presidential Candidates » Sociological Images

Since outright hatred and discrimination of people because of their race is no longer socially acceptable in our post Civil-Rights era, many argue racism no longer exists. But sociologists suggest that racism simply changed, becoming more implicit and indirect.

Racial Stereotyping and Perceptions of Competence » Sociological Images

In “Portraying Tiger Woods: Characterizations of a ‘Black’ Athlete in a ‘White’ Sport,” Andrew Billings discusses how race plays a role in sports commentators’ evaluations of golfers, and particularly in how they describe and comment upon Tiger Woods. A content analysis of 37.5 hours of coverage of golf tournaments between April and August of 2001 by CBS, NBC, and ABC, during which 2,989 evaluative comments occurred, revealed patterns in how sportscasters described Tiger Woods compared to other golfers. When he was losing, Woods was more likely than other golfers in the same position to be described as lacking composure or concentration, of “self-destructing,” and of lacking control over his emotions. Overall, Billings found that the types of language other students have found to be applied to Black athletes were applied to Woods only when he was losing. When he was doing well, commentators did not significantly stereotype Woods.

The study is interesting in light of a video sent in by Jason Eastman. This Wall Street Journal segment discusses the results of a study that investigated how media depictions of college quarterbacks’ performances.

Welcome to MEC TV – By Marc Lynch | The Middle East Channel

Welcome to the Middle East Channel Editors Vlog, or possibly MECTV, or the MEC-VLOG or — if I get my way — Aardvark TV! We’re working on it. Whatever the name, I’m thrilled to announce the pilot episode of what we hope will be a weekly video blog hosted by me on the Middle East Channel. Hey, it worked for Justin Bieber, right?

Law and Family (Non-)Unification in Israel: A Conversation Between Samera Esmer, Taiseer Khatib, and Hassan Jabareen

On 11 January, the Israeli Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the 2003 Citizenship and Entry into Israel Law. This law effectively prohibits Palestinian residents of the 1967 Occupied Territories, who are married to Palestinian citizens of Israel or to residents of East Jerusalem, from entering into Israel for the purpose of family unification. This law was amended in 2007, further prohibiting the entry of spouses who are citizens of Syria, Lebanon, Iran, and Iraq.

Dutch
Bruggenbouwers » Presentatie van ‘De ideologie van de PVV’ op 2 maart

In De ideologie van de PVV gaat De Ruiter, verbonden aan de Universiteit van Tilburg, in op het PVV-gedachtegoed zoals verwoord door PVV-Kamerlid Martin Bosma in zijn De schijn-élite van de valse munters, dat in 2010 verscheen. Helder analyserend legt De Ruiter uit dat het PVV-denken sterk zwart-wit is en zich op een vijftal thema’s richt: het christendom, de islam, joden en Israël, de linkse partijen en immigratie en multiculturaliteit. Daarnaast besteedt De Ruiter aandacht aan de wording van de PVV als politieke beweging, en de manier waarop Martin Bosma omgaat met cijfers en feiten. In een verhaal dat dit boek afsluit verwoordt De Ruiter zijn zorg over wat er gebeurt als uitsluiting in een samenleving regel wordt.

De Krom(me) Inburgering « altahrir, news of Islam, Muslims

Afgelopen week meldde zich weer een besmet persoon in de ziekenboeg van het kabinet: staatssecretaris De Krom. Hij heeft aangegeven dat er consequenties zouden zijn voor mensen die geen Nederlands spreken en aan het loket van de gemeente aankloppen voor een uitkering, hiermee reagerend op het initiatiefvoorstel van de VVD. Nu is de inburgering altijd een onderwerp voor een debat, zeker met dit rechtse kabinet, maar de vraag die mij steeds parten speelt, hebben die mensen dit weleens meegemaakt, onderzocht van dichtbij?

‘Boerkaverbod? Integratie slaagt pas als Europa de islam serieus neemt’ | khamakarpress.com

Moslima’s toestaan om een boerka te dragen leidt heus niet tot fundamentalisme. Politicoloog Jonathan Laurence adviseert Europese beleidsmakers: laat islamitische gebruiken, kledingvoorschriften en scholen laten voor wat ze zijn. Het ontbreekt de islam nu vooral aan maatschappelijke erkenning.

Holy Wars (VPRO Import) : Time for change

Holy Wars neemt de kijker mee in de wereld van twee verschillende fundamentalistische gelovigen. Meer dan drie jaar volgt de film de Christelijke zendeling Aaron Taylor en de radicale Khalid Kelly, een Ier die zich tot de Islam heeft bekeerd.

5 Compassievragen: Jan Jaap de Ruiter – handvestvoorcompassie.nl

Vanaf vandaag vindt u op deze website regelmatig een interview met een persoon die ‘iets’ met compassie heeft. Deze week is onze gast: Jan Jaap de Ruiter, arabist aan de Universiteit van Tilburg.

Wereldjournalisten Het leven van Mohammed

Het Leven van Mohammed (The Life of Muhammad) is een uitvoerige en historisch onderbouwde driedelige BBC-serie, die nu door de NTR in Nederland wordt uitgezonden. Presentator Rageh Omaar reist in de voetsporen van de stichter van de islam en vertelt het verhaal van zijn leven. Het is tegelijkertijd het verhaal van het ontstaan van één van de grootste religies ter wereld. De serie werd vorig jaar door de BBC uitgezonden en zorgde nog vóór uitzending voor ophef. De Iraanse regering protesteerde fel tegen de uitzendingen, omdat ze zouden zijn bedoeld om de islam te besmeuren. Dat is zeker niet het geval, hoewel controversiële onderwerpen niet worden geschuwd.

Historiën » De islam in China

Even vooraf: dit boek biedt meer dan de titel De islam in China suggereert. De schrijfster Marie-Hélène De Spiegeleer (1936), reisbegeleidster sinds 1986, geeft ook een beeld van de islam op zich: inhoud, symbolen, rituelen, militaire expansie in Azië, kunst, handel, Zijderoute. Ze geeft ook een beknopt schematisch overzicht van de Chinese geschiedenis en parallel daarmee van de gebeurtenissen in andere culturen in de rest van de wereld.

0 comments.

Closing the week 45 – Featuring Faith in Occupy

Posted on November 13th, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Activism, Blogosphere.

Most popular on Closer last week

1. Voor jonge Turken doet Nederland er niet toe door Zihni Özdil
2. Sex slaven in Amsterdam
3. Islamoloog Joas Wagemakers krijgt Erasmus studieprijs
4. Performing Eid: Eidhearts

Featuring faith in occupy
A spark lit in Tunisia ignites the world – CBS News

And so Tunisia erupted and overthrew its government, and Egypt caught fire, as did Bahrain, Syria, Yemen, and Libya, where the nonviolent protests elsewhere turned into a civil war the rebels have almost won after several bloody months. Who could have imagined a Middle East without Ben Ali of Tunisia, without Mubarak, without Gaddafi? And yet here we are, in the unimaginable world. Again. And almost everywhere.

Japan was literally shaken loose from its plans and arrangements by the March 11th earthquake and tsunami, and that country has undergone profound soul-searching about values and priorities. China is turbulent, and no one knows how much longer the discontent of the repressed middle class and the hungry poor there will remain containable. India: who knows? The Saudi government is so frightened it even gave women a few new rights. Syrians wouldn’t go home even when their army began to shoot them down.  Crowds of up to a million Italians have been protesting austerity measures in recent months. The Greeks, well, if you’ve been following events, you know about the Greeks.  Have I forgotten Israel? Huge demonstrations against the economic status quo there lasted all summer and into this fall.

Occupy Wall Street Meets Tahrir Square – NYTimes.com

At the risk of being obvious, let us list the ways that Occupy Wall Street is not like Tahrir Square: no protesters have been killed, there have been no demands for the president to step down and no crowds swelling above six figures. The protesters are in far less danger, and seem to pose far less danger to the powerful, than in Egypt. 

But it’s worth pausing for a moment on this point: Here in Lower Manhattan, and around the country, protesters have embraced a movement springing from the Arab world as a model of freedom, democracy and nonviolence.

“Are you ready for a Tahrir moment?” an initial call to action demanded. Now, newcomers to Zuccotti Park are given leaflets explicitly connecting the movements: “We are using the revolutionary Arab Spring occupation tactics to achieve our ends and we encourage the use of nonviolence to maximize the safety of all participants.”

Interfaith groups embrace Occupy Wall Street – Charleston Spirituality | Examiner.com

All over the country, including here in Charleston and surrounding cities, the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread to shocking proportions; and, whether protestors are religious or not, to rally requires a leap of faith.

An Open Letter to Occupy : Indybay

What these groups have in common is a connection to practice: of prayer, of meditation, of centering, to embody their values. Values that translate beyond personal interest into collective concern. Thus, we propose explicitly reaching out to communities of faith, spirit and transformation to broaden and deepen support for Occupy. This will succeed in creating space for the many families, church groups, synagogues, mosques and temples that are committed to justice, while showing that the Occupy movement extends its invitation to those that are most often not invited.

Christians, Jews and Muslims at “Occupy Wall Street” | Everyday Citizen

As the “Occupy Wall Street” protests have continued in the last couple of weeks, more religious people from many different religions have begun to join and make their presence felt. This is important, as religious people have made important contributions to past movements for social change, such as the civil rights movement, the woman’s suffrage movement, the abolition movement, and the labor movement. The three Abrahamic religions, Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, have especially have a historic concern for the plight of the poor and the marginalized that fits well with the concerns of the “Occupy Wall Street” protesters. Religious figures like Martin Luther King Jr., Rabbi Joshua Heschel, Malcolm X, Bayard Rustin, James Farmer, William Sloane Coffin, Pauli Murray, and others have all fought for similar economic justice issues that the “Occupy Wall Street” protests are fighting for today.

Diverse Faith Involvement in Occupy Wall Street

From New Haven, Connecticut to San Francisco, California, clergy and people of faith are standing in solidarity with Occupy Wall Street protesters. Despite the occasional story trumpeting the Occupy Movement as a “largely secular” undertaking, there is a far-reaching consensus from both the mainstream and religious media that the faith community is a dynamic partner in the Occupy movement.

Below is a media roundup detailing faith’s fitting (and growing) role in the Occupy Movement:

The Associated Press: Religion claims its place in Occupy Wall Street

No shoes are allowed in the “Sacred Space” tent here, but you can bring just about any faith or spiritual tradition.

A day’s schedule finds people balancing their chakras, a “compassion meditation” and a discussion of a biblical passage in Luke. Inside, a Buddha statue sits near a picture of Jesus, while a hand-lettered sign in the corner points toward Mecca.

The tent is one way protesters here and in other cities have taken pains to include a spiritual component in their occupations. Still, Occupy Wall Street is not a religious movement, and signs of spiritually aren’t evident at all protest sites.

GOD OCCUPIES WALL STREET – YouTube

GOD OCCUPIES WALL STREET

Occupy Wall Street: Faith on The Street – YouTube

Occupy Wall Street: Faith on The Street

Faith Communities and Occupy Wall Street – YouTube

Faith Communities and Occupy Wall Street

Video: Religion at Occupy Wall Street | Watch Religion & Ethics NewsWeekly Online | PBS Video

Watch Religion at Occupy Wall Street on PBS. See more from RELIGION & ETHICS NEWSWEEKLY.

Christian

At Occupy Protests, Bearing Witness Without Preaching — Beliefs by Mark Oppenheimer – NYTimes.com

There are Christians, too, eager to be seen as Christians. They face a special challenge. They want to make the church visible, so they wear clerical collars or other religious garb, like the albs, or white robes, that lay Christians may also wear.

But they know that many,

Clergy providing spiritual support for Occupy Chicago masses – chicagotribune.com

Standing among the pickets and chanting crowds of Occupy Chicago, Lutheran pastor Tom Gaulke doesn’t hoist a sign denouncing greed or pleading for money to buy a congressman.

Gaulke simply dons his vestments. He believes his robe and stole say it all.

10 Things Christians Should Know & Do about the “Occupy” Protests | Faith Forward

After weeks with a notable lack of media coverage about it, American Christians are learning about an amazing phenomenon that is taking place on Wall Street in New York that has birthed a movement that’s spreading across the land. Hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens are showing up en mass to parks and city squares to protest corporate fraud and exploitation and to express their outrage. But what should Christians make of all of this? We like “lists of 10” so I’d like to offer the following action items for us to consider:

Communion Service @ Occupy Boston – YouTube

Communion Service @ Occupy Boston

Jews

Occupy Wall Street Jews… JPost – Jewish World – Jewish Features

Jews in the Occupy Wall Street movement are finding Jewish inspiration for their protests, and setting their sights on rethinking Jewish institutions.

Young U.S. Jews aim ‘occupy’ movement at Birthright Israel – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

As the various “occupy” movements spread across the United States, headed by the massive Occupy Wall Street events, a group of young Jewish Americans is taking the notion of the “99%” against the ruling “1%” to debunk what they see as the hypocritical U.S. Jewish leadership.

In a mission statement titled “Occupy the Occupiers: A Jewish Call to Action,” the Young, Jewish, and Proud (YJP), described as the youth wing of the left-leaning Jewish Voice for Peace movement, called out to young Jews to “stand up to the 1% in our own community, the powerful institutions that support Israel’s corporate-backed military control of the Palestinian people and act as the gatekeepers for our community.”

Group hoists Jewish tent at Occupy Oakland | j. the Jewish news weekly of Northern California

Amid the many tents already dotting Frank Ogawa Plaza, a Jewish tent went up this week in support of the Occupy Oakland movement.

A group calling itself the Occupy Oakland Jewish Contingent placed a canopy in the plaza Nov. 2 to guarantee a Jewish presence in the ongoing protest.

“Jews have been a part of [Occupy Oakland] from the beginning,” said Daniella Salzman, one of the organizers of the group. “We are open to all people who identify as Jewish, whether affiliated with a synagogue or whatever their level of observance. We are setting up a tent for an open and visible Jewish space to invite [Jews] to join in dialogue.”

Jewish liberals defend Occupy Wall Street from anti-Semitism claims | JTA – Jewish & Israel News

A group of liberal Jewish activists, former politicians and union leaders released a statement denouncing opponents of Occupy Wall Street for accusing the movement of anti-Semitism.

“We are publicly engaged American Jews who support both Israel and the ideas behind Occupy Wall Street, and who also strongly oppose right-wing attempts to smear that movement with false charges of anti-Semitism,” the statement said.

Amy B. Dean: What’s a Jew to Do?

Today, in economic and social conditions reminiscent of the 1930s, Occupy Wall Street (OWS) is generating considerable excitement and some nervousness among American Jews. On the one hand, its critique of economic inequality and of a political system that excludes most voices from civic discourse resonates with the community’s liberal majority. On the other hand, Jews have often been scapegoated during economic crises, accused of being puppet masters behind the scenes.

So, what’s a Jew to do?

We can take a lesson from the 1930s, and advance an aggressive reform agenda that addresses the critique of structural inequality put forward by Occupy Wall Street.

Vein of anti-Semitism within Occupy demonstrations have Jewish leaders concerned | abc7chicago.com

As Occupy Wall Street nears the six-week mark, a vein of anti-Semitism flowing through the movement has reached Chicago. Jewish leaders say they are concerned.

This is the ugly underbelly of Occupy Wall Street: Recycled anti-Jewish prejudices from small but vocal segments of the movement whose hatred on the picket lines is being magnified on the Internet.

Now, anti-Semitic sign bearers and speakers who have latched onto the Occupy demonstrations have Jewish leaders in Chicago concerned.

Occupy Wall Street: Does anyone care about the anti-Semitism? – Right Turn – The Washington Post

In the millions of pixels devoted to the radical Occupy Wall Streeters, virtually nothing has been said about its anti-Semitic elements. The conservative Emergency Committee for Israel is out with an eye-popping ad:

Jewish Groups Rally in Sukkah at Occupy Los Angeles – YouTube

Jewish Groups Rally in Sukkah at Occupy Los Angeles

OCCUPY WALL STREET -ZUCCOTTI PARK ON SUCCOS IN NYC – YouTube

OCCUPY WALL STREET -ZUCCOTTI PARK ON SUCCOS IN NYC

Muslim

Occupy Movements: Where are the Muslims? | Al-Talib News Magazine

We were surprised to find the protest packed. The crowd was very diverse and various different kinds of signs could be seen, from “I am 17—what is my future going to cost me?” to “I am an Afghan child, please stop dropping bombs on me.”

But, some people were missing… Where were my Muslim brothers and sisters at?

Dr. David Liepert: Should Muslims Occupy Wall Street Too?

The growing Occupy Wall Street movement has gained attention as a popular expression of general discontent with the inequities evident in modern western finance. However, it has been criticized for lacking focus and presenting no coherent alternative.

Could more Muslim participation be of further help?

Because without question the movement was inspired by the non-violent, world changing protests of Egypt’s heroic citizens in Tahrir Square.

‘Occupy Wall Street’ Wins Muslim Support – Americas – News – OnIslam.net

NEW YORK – Joining the ranks of fellow Americans in protesting economic inequality, US Muslim groups have thrown their weight behind the ‘Occupy Wall Street’ protest movement against social injustice in the United States.

Video: Muslim Groups Back Occupy Wall Street Protesters (CAIR) – YouTube

Muslim Groups Back Occupy Wall Street Protesters (CAIR)

Jummah prayer at Occupy Wall Street – YouTube

Jummah prayer at Occupy Wall Street

Photos of Occupy Boston — After one month

A group of supporters left Occupy Boston and walked in the early morning rain to US District Court where Tarek Mehanna, of Sudbury, accused of supporting Al-Qaeda, was starting trial (this photo is from the previous day). Jacob Dinklage, 22, said via the Boston Anarchists Against Militarism (BAAM) announcement list, “The FBI and the Massachusetts US Attorney are accusing Dr. Mehanna of ‘material support for terrorism’ and related charges. His real offense in the eyes of the US government was his courage as a Muslim and a man of conscience: his opposition to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq; his vocal support for other Muslims falsely imprisoned by the US government and; his refusal to work as an informant for the FBI in the Muslim community. For these stands he now faces the possibility of life in prison.” Occupy Boston participants had previously shown support for Mehanna in an October 9 rally which drew national criticism from the Far Right.

Misc.

Triggering Global Debates – Qantara.de

In Germany, Islamic theology is being introduced as a university course – a much debated issue in academic terms, but also politically. In this interview, Mathias Rohe, Germany’s most renowned academic expert on Sharia law, talks about what this means for the development of Islam in Germany and, potentially, on a global level

Is the U.S. ready for Muslims on reality TV? | The Stream – Al Jazeera English

On November 13, the U.S. network TLC is scheduled to premiere the first reality television show exclusively featuring a Muslim-American community. The eight-part series, “All-American Muslim,” was filmed in Dearborn, Michigan, home to the largest population of Arab-Americans in the U.S. While about a third of Dearborn residents are of Arab descent, Arab-Americans are less than one per cent of the total U.S. population.

The programme follows five different Arab-American Muslim families and will portray the community “struggling to balance faith and nationality in a post 9/11 world” while challenging stereotypes about Muslims in the U.S.

NYPD Surveillance Angers Muslims (VIDEO)

After an undercover NYPD officer infiltrated their group at Brooklyn College, Muslim students there are learning to protect themselves. And dozens of similar “know your rights” seminars are being held across New York City following an AP report that revealed the police department’s widespread surveillance of the Muslim population.

Pickled Politics » Wusses from Muslims Against Crusades back out of protest

So… Muslims Against Crusades have been banned as of midnight. For people not aware of the context, this isn’t new. Anjem Choudhary’s two previous reincarnations of the same sect – Al-Muhajiroun and Islam4UK – were also banned in the past.

For young Muslims, Hajj pilgrimage reawakens Islamic values – CNN.com

For this year’s Hajj, iReporters from around the world documented their journeys, describing their experiences as they complete this Islamic sacrament. Thanks to the power of social media and platforms like CNN’s iReport, they’ve been able to share their faith with the world, giving Muslims and non-Muslims alike a glimpse of the significance of this powerful and transformative event.

The 2011 Hajj also holds special significance for Muslims in the wake of the Arab Spring this year. Though the pilgrimage has traditionally been thought of as an undertaking for middle-aged or senior Muslims, increasing numbers of young pilgrims have been making the trip to Mecca in the past decade.

Call for papers: Muslims and Political Participation in Britain : Euro-Islam: News and Analysis on Islam in Europe and North America

Despite the impact that Muslims have had on election campaigns and their roles in various political institutions, research on this topic remains scant. Indeed, much of the existing work was couched within the broader areas of the participation of ethnic minorities or the impact of race on electoral politics. The conference hopes to address this lacuna and thereby highlight current research that deals with Muslims and political participation in Britain, whether at local, regional or national levels. It seeks to pay particular attention to how this participation has changed over recent years and identify new trends for the future, although historical reflections are also welcome.

Dutch

Straat-Dawah.NL – 23 oktober 2011 – Amsterdam « Islam4Europe

De broeders van Straat-Dawah.NL zijn dawah gaan verrichten in de hoofdstad van Nederland, Amsterdam
Bekijk de videobeelden en krijg een impressie van hoe de dag eruit zag op zondag 23 oktober 2011

Bankieren moslims verstandiger? « Nieuwsblog nrc.next

Of heeft islamitisch bankieren ook voordelen in onzekere financiële tijden?

 

Aan de rand van het door de Occupy-beweging bezette Beursplein in Amsterdam stonden vorige week zaterdag drie Arabische jongens rond een krakkemikkig tafeltje. Ze vielen op zijn zachtst gezegd een beetje uit de toon. Onder de bezetters op het plein is de kledingcode capuchons, kistjes en dreads. Deze jongens droegen lange Arabische gewaden, zonnebrillen, arafatsjaals en borstelige baarden. Navraag leerde dat ze zich inzetten voor de verspreiding van de sharia, het islamitisch recht, in Nederland.

Wat heeft de sharia te maken met de Occupy-beweging?

Apocalyptisch wereldbeeld van Breivik en Wilders heeft niets met Islam te maken | Sargasso

Moslims zijn vanouds niet anti-joods en anti-homo. De westerse agressie tegen hen mist elke grond, zegt Frits van Veen, journalist, gespecialiseerd in Noord-Afrika en het Midden-Oosten.

Gelijkwaardigheid van man en vrouw in de islam : Nieuwemoskee

Het gegeven dat moslimvrouwen zich tot kort geleden niet of nauwelijks bezighielden met koranexegese (tafsir) is waarschijnlijk een belangrijke oorzaak van het aanhoudende beeld dat in de islam de vrouw ondergeschikt is aan de man. De afgelopen decennia hebben verschillende vrouwelijke moslimintellectuelen aangetoond dat meer aandacht voor vrouwelijke aspecten in de openbaringsteksten en ruimte voor de stem van vrouwen bij de interpretatie daarvan, belangrijk zijn om recht te doen aan de feitelijke koranische boodschap van rechtvaardigheid en gelijkwaardigheid. Culturele aspecten hebben overigens waarschijnlijk nog meer invloed op het halsstarrige beeld van de ondergeschikte moslimvrouw. Vooralsnog blijken namelijk vooral cultuurgebonden opvattingen en praktijken behoorlijk resistent te zijn tegen de zich snel verspreidende nieuwe religieuze inzichten.

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Closing the week 44 – Featuring Varieties of Eid

Posted on November 6th, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere.

Most popular on Closer last week:

1. U zegt: Martin Bosma over Afrikaner cultuur
2. Postcard from Birmingham: islam and ethnicity in everyday life
3. Postcard from Birmingham: Paradoxes of the North Sea Triangle
4. Anthropology: Blog this!

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On Hajj
Muslims celebrate Eid al-Adha – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

One of the five pillars of Islam, Hajj is a religious duty that must be carried out at least once by every able-bodied Muslim who can afford it.

This year’s pilgrimage is unique as it is the first to happen since the Arab Spring began last year.

7 Tips for a Sustainable Eid-ul-Adha Festival « Green Prophet – a sustainable voice for the Middle East

After a day experiencing ever-growing consumerism attached to the Muslim celebration and on the eve of “Eid-mas”, my family already sponsored a meat-drive for British locals and abroad in Pakistan. Yet, I am wondering what it is exactly I was supposed to sacrifice. Got any ideas?

Eid Al-Adha 2011: Dates, Prayers And Customs Explained (PHOTOS)

Muslims observe and prepare for Eid al-Adha in a number of ways. Before the festival, the faithful acquire new clothing and visit with family and friends. At dawn on the day of Eid, Muslims recite the traditional declaration of faith, the Takbir, followed by the pre-sunrise communal prayer, Salat al-Eid, which is also said on Eid al-Fitr. Worshipers then greet friends with the traditional Arabic salutation of Eid Mubarak (“Have a blessed Eid”) and exchange gifts.

In a symbolic act, Muslims who can afford it slaughter a cow, goat, sheep or camel, keeping a portion to feed themselves and distributing the rest to friends, family and the needy. Those who can’t afford it, buy meat from a Halal butcher to distribute. Giving out this meat, in addition to the morning prayers, is considered an essential component of Eid al-Adha.

Muslims wordlwide celebrate beginning of feast of sacrifice – ISLAMIC WORLD – FRANCE 24

Sunday marks the beginning of Eid al-Adha, a three-day Islamic festival in remembrance of Abraham’s near sacrifice of his son. Throngs of Hajj pilgrims in Mecca marked the event with the ritual slaughtering of a sheep.

Big Picture: Eid al-Adha and the Hajj

I’ve long been fascinated by the Hajj, even beyond its meaning to muslims. I think it’s the level of convergence of devotion. Or maybe something more. There’s also something about artifacts and symbols that hold such enourmous power that is fascinating. I think it’s beautiful in a way. I’m also not sure whether it’s just my own perspective on muslim customs that has broadened slightly (bred by a more international network? Internet connectivity? Something else?) of society’s. Either way, it’s fascinating, and the Big Picture does a great job of communicating both the humanity and the scale of the event.

The Many Varieties of Traditional ‘Eid Foods and a Giveaway from Saffron Road

Muslims come from all over the world, though the highest concentration of Muslims reside in Southeast Asia, therefore there isn’t really one particular type of food characteristic of all Muslims. What is characteristic is keeping traditional foods within the boundaries of halal, or permissible foods (no alcohol, pork or other foods deemed impermissible as identified in the Qur’an, the holy book for Muslims).

Because of the migration of Muslims to many other parts of the world, particularly to the West, traditional foods are being fused with the foods and dishes of their new homelands, making for a great combination of healthy world flavors. ‘Eid ul Adha celebration tables all over the world will surely be eye candy for foodies everywhere, insha’allah.

We decided to demonstrate just a few samples of what you might find on the tables of a variety of Muslim households and communities with specific ties to a particular region of the world- it’s truly fascinating!

Hajj and Politics

An Anthropologist in Damascus: Eid in a Druze Village

In the morning we celebrated Eid with the Druze. I mentioned that I thought Eid al-Adha was a Muslim holiday celebrating the end of the Hajj, but the villagers denied any connection and, anyhow, didn’t seem too concerned and made it as much their holiday as any other. The kids woke up early to “make war” in the neighborhood with fireworks and rockets in the streets. Young men walked the village in gangs of ten or so and rode motorcycles up and down the streets. And we experienced how exhausting the Arab custom of visiting can be.

Divine dispatches: a religion roundup | Riazat Butt | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

Divine dispatches: a religion roundup

Saudi Arabia beheadings reprieve and suppression of dissent; Canadian imam beaten in Medina; Hajj pilgrimage app

Muslim pilgrims defy Saudi religious police to visit cave linked to Koran | FaithWorld

As Muslims from all over the world congregate for the annual haj pilgrimage, some are defying the edicts of Saudi Arabia’s strict Wahhabi school of Islam by climbing al-Nour mountain in the hope of attaining spiritual favour.

Muslims start the hajj amid year of Arab uprisings – World – Ohio

Libyans long denied the opportunity to make the hajj usually reserved for Moammar Gadhafi’s cronies were among the millions of Muslims ascending a holy mountain Saturday to begin the annual weeklong pilgrimage.

Why Saudi men prefer to perform Haj alone – Arab News

A quarter of women surveyed on the Internet by a Jeddah social center have said husbands who perform the Haj alone are being selfish. They said the men should take their wives with them.

Syrian troops ‘fire on Eid demonstrators’ – Middle East – Al Jazeera English

Security forces in Syria are said to have killed at least 10 civilians as anti-regime demonstrations were staged across the country on the first day of the Muslim feast marking the end of the Hajj.

Hajj Experiences

When I Went to Makkah – IBlog – Culture & Entertainment – OnIslam.net

I love the chills of remembering the first time I set foot in A- Masjid Al-Haram and my eyes beheld the Kaaba — I was 10 at that time. I thought if the Kaaba were a person, it must have the most attractive yet peaceful aura.

Muslim Woman’s Hajj Diary (Series) – IBlog – Culture & Entertainment – OnIslam.net

Has my time really come? Islam dictates that Muslims must go for Hajj once in their lifetime if they are physically and financially able to do so. Of course, I knew that! But it was in the back of my mind. “I’ll do it someday of course,” I would think to myself. But first, I have to complete my university studies.

Haj: a sense of belonging| News24

All artificial walls and borders are broken. To quote Malcolm X: “Never have I witnessed such sincere hospitality and
overwhelming spirit of true brotherhood as is practiced by people of all colours and races here in this ancient Holy Land, the home of Abraham, Muhammad and all the other Prophets of the Holy Scriptures. For the past week, I have been utterly speechless and spellbound by the graciousness I see displayed all around me by people of all colours. I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug – while praying to the same God – with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana”.

Sounds & Images of Hajj

Eid al-Adha and the Hajj, 2009 – The Big Picture – Boston.com

Some 2.5 million Muslim faithful from all over the world descended on Mecca this year, many encountering an unusual occurance: heavy flooding due to recent torrential rains. Collected below are photographs from this year’s Hajj and observance of Eid al-Adha. (38 photos total)

Muslim Singers Celebrate Hajj and `Eid – Music – Culture & Entertainment – OnIslam.net

Listen

Misc.
The Decline of Jihadist Activity in the United Kingdom | Combating Terrorism Center at West Point

This article identifies three reasons why there has been a reduction in jihadist activity in the United Kingdom. First, there has been a decline in jihadist as well as Islamist “gateway” organizations in the United Kingdom. Second, British Muslim communities are less receptive to Islamist and jihadist arguments. Third, the British government’s counterterrorism capabilities have improved.

New Statesman – “You should have your tongue ripped out”: the reality of sexist abuse online

Female bloggers speak out about misogynist comments, rape threats and death threats.

Ground: Zero « The Immanent Frame

Paul Kahn’s brilliant and timely text must be welcomed for many reasons; in particular, for the way it re-introduces in the field of constitutional law and legal theory the debate on sovereignty and political theology that has been unfolding over the last decade in the humanities. The attention to the sacred with respect to the question of law is appreciated, as is the emphasis on “state violence,” which for Kahn also necessarily requires a theologico-political perspective.

Where did religion come from? « The Immanent Frame

So let me just list some of my theoretical frameworks and address them as thoroughly as I can here.

Is there a global ethic? « The Immanent Frame

It seemed particularly apt, then, that Gordon Brown highlighted the challenges of climate change, economic inequality, and financial instability when he argued, Monday morning at NYU, for a new global “sentiment,” or ethic, to confront these three problems, which he termed the emerging crises of the age of globalization. These problems, he said, are shared, common, problems that, when they affect one part of the globe, also affect the whole. Since their scope is global, so too must be their solution. Is there anything, Brown asked, stronger than a protectionist or nationalist sentiment that can guide our interconnected future? Is there a global sentiment? And if so, what role might religion have in forming that sentiment? The former British prime minister’s comments served to introduce Jonathan Sacks, Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the Commonwealth and the keynote speaker of the third installment in a series of lectures sponsored by the NYU Dialogues on the Global Civil Society.

Dutch

Maghreb Magazine » Eid Moubarak

De redactie en andere medewerkers van Maghreb.NL en MaghrebMagazine.NL wensen alle lezers en overige moslims in Nederland: Eid Moubarak! Een mooi en gezellig offerfeest toegewenst.

Hajj Mabrur, Eid Mubarak «

Eid Moebarak! Gefeliciteerd met het Offerfeest! « Aagje Doeken

Eid Moebarak! Gefeliciteerd met het Offerfeest!

Wie mooi wil zijn… « Lous Life

`Mensen zijn hier echt druk met de voorbereidingen voor de feestdagen´, vertelde één van mijn lokale vriendinnen mij gisteren. Ze heeft jaren in Dar es Salaam gewoond en daar wordt Eid-al-Hadj, de viering van de pelgrimstocht door Moslims naar Mekka, veel minder uitgebreid gevierd dan op Zanzibar. Hier zijn mensen dagen of soms zelfs weken bezig met het uitzoeken van de juiste outfits, eten bereiden en er goed uitzien. Mijn gastmoeder klaagde dat het zo lastig was een kapper voor haar zonen te vinden en haar zus legde haar kledingrooster uit: als ze een jurk aanheeft, wast ze de andere, zodat ze niet vier nieuwe jurken hoeft te kopen.

Het Offerfeest voor dummies | Wijblijvenhier.nl

Trek je mooiste kleren maar uit de kast, koop je broertje om met wat centjes, geef je moeder een schort en je vader een scherp mes. Vandaag is het Offerfeest! Wat is dit voor een feest en waarom wordt het gevierd? In deze editie van ‘Islam voor dummies’ verlicht een korte en krachtige samenvatting.

Gezegend Offerfeest gewenst! : Nieuwemoskee

De redactie van Nieuwemoskee wenst alle bezoekers van de site een diervriendelijk en gezegend Offerfeest toe met oerhollandse moslimgezelligheid!

1 comment.

Closing the week 39 – Featuring the 'burqa debates' in Europe

Posted on October 2nd, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues, Public Islam.

Most popular on Closer last week

1. Minister Donner as Mufti: New Developments in the Dutch ‘burqa debates’ by Annelies Moors
2. Protest tegen mogelijk verbod gezichtssluiers
3. ‘Burqa ban’ in Europe
4. Veil, For A Change

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Europe in general
Religion and Law Consortium: Religlaw Index

Europe’s Banning of the Full-Face Veil – Ongoing News and Opinions

France’s burqa ban: women are ‘effectively under house arrest’ | World news | The Guardian

Since France introduced its burqa ban in April there have been violent attacks on women wearing the niqab and, this week, the first fines could be handed down. But a legal challenge to this hard line may yet expose the French state as a laughing stock

France starts ban on full-face veil, factbox on veils in Europe | FaithWorld

Below is a Factbox on government policies on full face veils in some other European countries:

Zeina : Under My Niqab. Are Full-Face Veils Really Unforced? | Cattiva’s Closet

Zeina went into hiding and was terrified. She knew very well that her husband had started hunting for her. The confrontation with the mirror was shocking. “Suddenly I saw myself again without a niqab, I looked like a ghost.” The book with her story will be published soon. It is not a plea against Islam. “I did not write this book against Islam, but for Islam, because Muslims can also be religious without waring the niqab,” she concludes.

How should we fight for the rights of muslim women in Europe. Should the full-face veils be banned in all Europe and not only in France?

Europeans Debate the Scarf and the Veil – Pew Research Center

Except in France, most Muslim women choose to cover their heads — but many among the general public disapprove

BBC News – The Islamic veil across Europe

Countries across Europe have wrestled with the issue of the Muslim veil – in various forms such as the body-covering burka and the niqab, which covers the face apart from the eyes.

The debate takes in religious freedom, female equality, secular traditions and even fears of terrorism.

The veil issue is part of a wider debate about multiculturalism in Europe, as many politicians argue that there needs to be a greater effort to assimilate ethnic and religious minorities.

Burqu’ing freedom: the danger of ‘moral civilizing’ | Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist

Many have been the opinions over whether the niqab or burqa are an Islamic requirement, innovation, or just one of numerous other styles of veiling. Al-Qaradawi has suggested that niqab is neither a requirement nor an innovation. In other words,it is a style within the tradition of Muslim dress. In another post I have discussed how increasingly, Muslim women, both by non-Muslims as well as Muslims, have been reduced to the ‘material culture’ of their dress styles. In this case, I wish to observe another aspect of the ‘war on burqa’.

Essay: Burqa ban. Banning the Islamic face veils or not, that has been an intense debated subject and was widely argued in various places especially in Europe such as Italy, Spain, France.

Burqa ban. Banning the Islamic face veils or not, that has been an intense debated subject and was widely argued in various places especially in Europe such as Italy, Spain, France.

Dutch burqa ban and French street-prayer ban shows Islamophobia rife in European politics

The Daily Telegraph has today reported on two developments in Europe which demonstrate how anti-Muslim discourse has found its way into national legislation in European countries.

Europe’s Muslims: burqa laws, women’s lives | openDemocracy

Several European states – France, Italy, Belgium and Britain among them – are involved in legal, social or political disputes over the dress-codes of Muslim women. A detailed and alert survey of the variegated experiences and attitudes involved is the best way to understand a complex issue, says Sara Silvestri.

France
France’s Burqa Ban: Two Women Fined for Covering Faces – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International

The new “burqa ban” in France has produced its first trial and convictions: Two women who staged a protest in May will have to pay fines. One defendant on Thursday promised to bring her case before the European Court of Human Rights.

Letters: Wearing the burqa in a secular society | World news | The Guardian

Another article about the baffling French ban on the niqab (The battle for the burqa, G2, 20 September), where the facts are repeated but little insight is gained. The paragraph where a niqab wearer says she can relate to Jewish women who were vilified in Vichy France made me begin to doubt the wearer’s motivation. Jews’ persecution in the second world war is a poor example here. If the Jewish women could have torn off their yellow stars and slipped into the masses to survive and not be killed, they would have done it in a flash. Most Jews have integrated into the societies they have come to live in. No one in this article gives a reason for wanting to cover their faces more than having a job or says what their friendships with non-Muslims are like. That is the truly interesting article to be written.

Belgium
BBC News – Belgian lawmakers pass burka ban

Belgium’s lower house of parliament has voted for a law that would ban women from wearing the full Islamic face veil in public.

French businessman pays Belgian face veil fines | Reuters

A French businessman paid fines Wednesday for two women in Belgium who wore full-face veils in public and said he would take Belgium and France to court over laws banning Muslim niqabs and burqas.

French businessman pays Belgian face veil fines | Reuters

A French businessman paid fines Wednesday for two women in Belgium who wore full-face veils in public and said he would take Belgium and France to court over laws banning Muslim niqabs and burqas.

Italy
No face veils, Italy tells immigrants – thestar.com

ROME – Women in Italy should not wear veils that cover their face, according to new government guidelines for immigrants that were drawn up in consultation with representatives of the main faiths, including Muslims.

Muslim Woman in Italy Is Fined for Wearing Veil – NYTimes.com

A 26-year-old Tunisian woman has been fined for wearing a face veil while walking to a mosque in northern Italy, adding to the growing debate on the integration of Muslim minorities in Europe.

BBC News – Italian committee approves face veil ban bill

An Italian parliamentary committee has passed a draft law which will ban women from wearing veils which cover their faces in public.

The Netherlands
Netherlands moves toward total ban on Muslim veils | World news | The Guardian

The Netherlands may become the first European country to ban Muslim face veils after its government pledged yesterday to outlaw the wearing in public spaces of the niqab, or veil, and the burka, or full-length cloak covering the head.

Dutch to Ban Full-Face Veils – NYTimes.com

The Dutch government said Friday that it would ban face-covering veils worn by some Muslim women because the garments flout the Dutch way of life and culture.

French businessman pays Belgian face veil fines | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

A French businessman paid fines on Wednesday for two women in Belgium who wore full-face veils in public and said he would take Belgium and France to court over laws banning Muslim niqabs and burqas.

Denmark
Denmark urges rules limiting face veil

Denmark’s government says face-covering Muslim veils don’t belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules.

The centre-right government said the burqa – an all-covering dress – and the niqab face veil are “diametrically opposed” to the values on which Danish society is built.

Right click: Burqa Ban ‘Un-democratic’: Danish Muslims

“It is important to let the Muslim population know that when they have fled dictatorship in their home country – or perhaps just left their country for work purposes – they will not encounter a new dictatorship or aspects of it in the Western democracies based on religious views,” Imran Shah, the spokesperson of the Islamic Society in Denmark, told The Copenhagen Post on Wednesday, April 13.

Mediterranean
Spanish town bans Burka in public buildings – Telegraph

The Spanish town of Lerida has become the first in the country to ban the Burka in municipal buildings.

Spain Plans to Ban the Face Veil under New “Religious Freedom Law” | IslamToday – English

Spain’s government plans to ban the use of the face veils in public places under a proposed new law on religious freedom, the justice minister Francisco Caamano (pictured) said Tuesday.

“We believe that there are things like the burqa which are hard to reconcile with human dignity and which especially pose problems of identification in public places,” Caamano told reporters.

Veil Ban Upheld In Spain

Spanish courts recently upheld a ban on face coverings in municipal buildings.

The ban went into effect in 2010 but was suspended after Muslim rights groups complained.

Lleida was the first Spanish town to enact the ban.

Islamic countries and the veil: It’s a cover-up | The Economist

AS DEBATE over the burqa heats up in Europe, across the Mediterranean Arabs are looking on with puzzlement and, at times, concern. In Morocco and Algeria, source of most of the Muslim immigration to countries like Spain and France in recent decades, interest has been particularly high. People in these countries, who have seen Europeans tighten immigration laws and embark on public debates over “national identity” in recent years, perceive European plans to ban the veil as springing from nativist sentiment and immigration fears rather than security concerns or women’s rights.

AFP: Bikinis and hijabs contrast on Albanian beach

September has seen devout Muslims again flocking to Albania’s only “burqa beach” after the Ramadan holy month, where women bathe in full hijab — a short distance from the “other” Albania where girls romp in scanty bikinis.

Videos
Tariq Ramadan on PressTV: What is Italy aiming to achieve from banning the burqa?

What is Italy aiming to achieve from banning… door presstv
John R. Bowen, anthropologist, author of ‘Can Islam be French?’ – FRANCE 24

Annette Young meets John R. Bowen, anthropologist and author of “Can Islam be French?” Islam is the second most widely practised religion in France, but how do Muslims live their religion in a country which is known for its fierce secularism?

Just the Face — IndieGoGo

The film will show first hand how these women are coping with this law, and what happens when they can’t. Will they fight or subvert the law, will they withdraw into their homes or simply find ways to adapt?

‘Star of the Niqab’ Kenza Drider is a high profile activist and media critic of the ban; Nelly Moussaid is a Karate World Champion; Karima is a talented fashion designer running a successful company; Laurence is an ex-punk, and Fatima is a housewife and mother. Their stories will give us an insight into the daily lives of people who are directly affected by the ban.

Women’s voices





Misc.
Why Quakers were the burqa wearers of the 17th century | Sarah Apetrei | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

In 1630, a certain oatmeal maker was examined by the highest church court in England, accused of preaching without a licence. Before an audience of bishops, he kept his hat firmly on his head. Doffing it momentarily to a secular representative, he turned again to the bishops, crying: “But as ye are rags of the Beast, lo! – I put it on again.” Refusal to observe “hat honour” – the custom of removing one’s headgear in the presence of a social superior – was a way of saying, in the most confrontational manner: “I reject your authority.” (In the case of the oatmeal maker, this was an especially radical rejection: the bishops were agents of Antichrist.) It was a gender-specific affront, since hat-doffing was a peculiarly masculine form of humiliation.

Hat dishonour and burqa-wearing are not, of course, the same thing at all. But they do both illustrate the symbolic power of head-covering, and its relationship to political “headship”. Twenty years or so after the case of the oatmeal maker, following civil war and the collapse of traditional pillars of social stability (the monarchy, and the church courts), the early Quakers also famously rejected hat honour.

Legal showdown looms over French face veil ban – Monsters and Critics

A legal showdown loomed Thursday over France’s ban on the Islamic face veil, after a court fined two women for refusing to comply with the ban, paving the way for constitutional challenges to the new law.

Entrepreneurial Muslim women make modest dress mainstream | Culture & Lifestyle | Deutsche Welle | 29.05.2011

Fashion-conscious young Muslim women are well aware that in western societies, covering up is often considered more scandalous than baring all.

Burqa-Clad Pole Dancer Leaves Saudi Islamists Hot And Bothered | EuropeNews

A British fitness instructor who visited the strict Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia to teach a Saudi woman the art of pole dancing has sparked disapproval among UK Muslims back home. 27-year-old Lucy Misch was invited to the country by one of Saudi’s richest and most influential families after a woman from the family attended a pole dancing class in Europe and reported back to her relatives living in the kingdom.

Beyond the veil: an experiment with the burqa – The National

The shock factor is intentional. To confront, to challenge. Picture it: a room full of German students at a university in the heart of Berlin, their chatter filling the air in the rat-a-tat-tat intonation of a language infused with order. The seating is atypical, students piled onto desks, sprawled out over every inch of available floor space, lining the walls with martial precision. But the space demands such disarray: it is too small for the numbers.

Then the shock: three figures float into the room, covered from head to toe. Three ghosts rippling into a German classroom, dressed in burqas, anonymous and unsettling. The chatter suddenly dies, and tension pervades the calm that descends

Dutch
‘Een boerkaverbod zal niets uithalen’ – POLITIEK – PAROOL

Fouad Sidali, tot 2010 stadsdeelbestuurder in Amsterdam-Bos en Lommer, is lid van het landelijk PvdA-bestuur. Hij baart opzien door zijn Twitterfoto waarop hij met nikab is te zien.

Het boerkaverbod is luxewetgeving – Opinie – TROUW

opinie Al bijna tien jaar worstelen opeenvolgende kabinetten met het boerkaverbod. Ook nu is het nog symboolpolitiek.

150 boerka’s – Nieuws – TROUW

column Gemeten naar de hoeveelheid opiniebijdragen die het jongste boerkaverbod bekritiseren, zou je bijna denken dat we hier met een breed maatschappelijk debat te maken hebben.

Het boerkaverbod is een afleidingsmanoeuvre | DeJaap

Daar is het dan eindelijk. Het boerkaverbod! Samen met de caviapolitie een van de meest onnodige wetsvoorstellen van dit kabinet. Dat dit verbod er waarschijnlijk komt is al een schande, de timing is ook kwalijk. Het lijkt een doorzichtige poging van het kabinet om de aandacht af te leiden van alle echte problemen die er nu spelen.

Wiens vrijheid van godsdienst?

Zonder gelijkheid bestaat geen vrijheid. De overheid moet kunnen waarborgen dat al haar burgers gelijk worden behandeld. Op het moment dat gelijke rechten in het geding komen, moet de overheid ingrijpen. Daar mogen we als samenleving nooit iets op afdingen. Dit is de kern van een beschaafde democratie. De discussie en publieke opinie rondom het boerka-verbod heeft mij dan ook enorm verbaasd. Van links tot rechts wordt het recht om een boerka te dragen verdedigd. In een rechtsstaat zou een beperking van de vrijheid van godsdienst niet passen. Maar juist een rechtstaat moet de grenzen van deze vrijheid bewaken. Zeker als onder het mom van vrijheid van godsdienst individuen onderdrukt en volledig geïsoleerd worden van de rest van de samenleving.

Interview: Boerka’s in en uit de carnavalswinkel | Wijblijvenhier.nl

Boerka’s worden verboden op straat. Waarom? Omdat het kabinet dat niet wil, punt! Wat mag nog wel dan? Carnavalskleding! Of het nou een piratenpak is, een politie-uniform of een… jawel… boerka! Althans, dat vond online carnavalswinkel Feestkleding 365. “Feestkleding 365 staat voor ‘elke dag een feestje!’. Maar ook voor ‘ieder zijn eigen feestje’.” Wat een rare snuiters dachten we. Wat bezielde hen? En als het zo’n succes is, waarom er dan mee gestopt? Ik heb het hen gevraagd.

Boerkaverbod: Boete voor mannen is prima! | Wijblijvenhier.nl

Ok, prima! Er is een boerkaverbod. Als je je nu in het openbaar vertoont in gezichtsbedekkende kledij – ik ben bereid het officiele verhaal aan te houden – dan krijg je 150 euro boete. Want dat mag niet. Blijk je een man te hebben die je daartoe dwingt – we doen even alsof deze wet nog steeds niet specifiek op moslima’s is gericht – dan is de boete veel hoger of je krijgt twee jaar cel.

Boerka verbod is een aanval op Islam en onderdrukking van de moslim vrouw « Islam4Europe

Het verbod op de boerka heeft dus niets te doen met veiligheid noch open samenleving noch met gelijkwaardigheid van man en vrouw. Maar is eerder een openlijke vijandschap en onderdrukking van de moslimvrouw.

Okay Pala

Lidvertegenwoordiger van Hizb ut Tahrir Nederland

‘Boerkaverbod is gebaseerd op onderbuikgevoelens, niet op feiten’ – Binnenland – VK

Hoewel ze zelf niet van de boerka als kledingstuk is gecharmeerd, slaat een verbod erop nergens op, betoogt Ferdows Kazemi. Symboolpolitiek, gebaseerd op niets anders dan onderbuikgevoelens.

Gunt de boerkadraagster mij wel mijn vrijheid? – Religie – TROUW

Ik ben best bereid om de boerkadraagster haar vrijheid te gunnen om haar godsdienst op haar manier te beleven. Waar ik echter huiverig voor ben, is de gedachte dat dat niet wederzijds is. Als er meer boerkadragers komen, is het niet ondenkbaar dat het mijn ontwikkeling zou kunnen tegengaan. Vooral liberale moslims kunnen hiervan de dupe worden. Door de boerka wordt namelijk de boodschap verspreid: hoe bedekter, hoe dichter bij Allah. Ik draag geen boerka, geen nikaab, ook geen hoofddoek maar ben wel moslim.

Desondanks ben ik soms niet zo blij met het boerkaverbod. Een verbod dat de vrijheid van een individu beperkt, is niet wezenlijk anders dan de praktijk in totalitaire ideologieën.

Echte liberalen verbieden de boerka – Weblog: Thijs Kleinpaste

Critici die zo’n verbod een botte maatregel noemen die ook vrouwen treft die wel blij zijn met hun boerka hebben gelijk. Het zij zo. Als we ons in dit debat, waar harde cijfers ontbreken, moeten bedienen van aannames, dan kies ik voor de stelling dat de boerka een gevaar is voor de vrijheid en individualiteit van vrouwen. De macht van mannen mag niet langer verdedigd worden met een beroep op misvattingen over datzelfde, schitterende principe. Mannen die zelf geen stuiver over hebben voor de vrijheid van hun eigen vrouw zijn er te lang door beschermd.

De loze argumenten tegen het nikaabverbod « CarelBrendel.nl

Tot dusver kwam ik deze tekenen van vrouwenslavernij vooral tegen in Amsterdamse wijken als Osdorp en Indische Buurt, gebieden waar moslimvrouwen hoe dan ook onder sociale druk van conservatieve geloofsgenoten staan. Deze vrouwen mogen straks niet meer buiten, is een ander argument tegen een beperking van de nikaabs. De goedpraters ondermijnen daarmee een ander veelgebruikt argument, namelijk dat de betrokken vrouwen zich uit vrije wil van hun gezicht en identiteit laten beroven.

CarlienRoodink.nl » Het hokje van de echte liberaal

De werkelijkheid is altijd weerbarstiger dan we als beleidsmakers en politici zouden willen. In dit verband wil ik graag citeren uit het onderzoeksrapport naar mensenhandel in de Amsterdamse raamprostitutie dat ik op dit moment aan het bestuderen ben: “de vrouw blijft volhouden dat ze niet is uitgebuit en houdt ook na de aanhouding van haar vriend contact met hem. De verdachte wordt veroordeeld.”

0 comments.

Closing the week 39 – Featuring the ‘burqa debates’ in Europe

Posted on October 2nd, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Multiculti Issues, Public Islam.

Most popular on Closer last week

1. Minister Donner as Mufti: New Developments in the Dutch ‘burqa debates’ by Annelies Moors
2. Protest tegen mogelijk verbod gezichtssluiers
3. ‘Burqa ban’ in Europe
4. Veil, For A Change

If you want to stay updated and did not subscribe yet, you can do so HERE

You can follow me on Twitter: Martijn5155

Europe in general
Religion and Law Consortium: Religlaw Index

Europe’s Banning of the Full-Face Veil – Ongoing News and Opinions

France’s burqa ban: women are ‘effectively under house arrest’ | World news | The Guardian

Since France introduced its burqa ban in April there have been violent attacks on women wearing the niqab and, this week, the first fines could be handed down. But a legal challenge to this hard line may yet expose the French state as a laughing stock

France starts ban on full-face veil, factbox on veils in Europe | FaithWorld

Below is a Factbox on government policies on full face veils in some other European countries:

Zeina : Under My Niqab. Are Full-Face Veils Really Unforced? | Cattiva’s Closet

Zeina went into hiding and was terrified. She knew very well that her husband had started hunting for her. The confrontation with the mirror was shocking. “Suddenly I saw myself again without a niqab, I looked like a ghost.” The book with her story will be published soon. It is not a plea against Islam. “I did not write this book against Islam, but for Islam, because Muslims can also be religious without waring the niqab,” she concludes.

How should we fight for the rights of muslim women in Europe. Should the full-face veils be banned in all Europe and not only in France?

Europeans Debate the Scarf and the Veil – Pew Research Center

Except in France, most Muslim women choose to cover their heads — but many among the general public disapprove

BBC News – The Islamic veil across Europe

Countries across Europe have wrestled with the issue of the Muslim veil – in various forms such as the body-covering burka and the niqab, which covers the face apart from the eyes.

The debate takes in religious freedom, female equality, secular traditions and even fears of terrorism.

The veil issue is part of a wider debate about multiculturalism in Europe, as many politicians argue that there needs to be a greater effort to assimilate ethnic and religious minorities.

Burqu’ing freedom: the danger of ‘moral civilizing’ | Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist

Many have been the opinions over whether the niqab or burqa are an Islamic requirement, innovation, or just one of numerous other styles of veiling. Al-Qaradawi has suggested that niqab is neither a requirement nor an innovation. In other words,it is a style within the tradition of Muslim dress. In another post I have discussed how increasingly, Muslim women, both by non-Muslims as well as Muslims, have been reduced to the ‘material culture’ of their dress styles. In this case, I wish to observe another aspect of the ‘war on burqa’.

Essay: Burqa ban. Banning the Islamic face veils or not, that has been an intense debated subject and was widely argued in various places especially in Europe such as Italy, Spain, France.

Burqa ban. Banning the Islamic face veils or not, that has been an intense debated subject and was widely argued in various places especially in Europe such as Italy, Spain, France.

Dutch burqa ban and French street-prayer ban shows Islamophobia rife in European politics

The Daily Telegraph has today reported on two developments in Europe which demonstrate how anti-Muslim discourse has found its way into national legislation in European countries.

Europe’s Muslims: burqa laws, women’s lives | openDemocracy

Several European states – France, Italy, Belgium and Britain among them – are involved in legal, social or political disputes over the dress-codes of Muslim women. A detailed and alert survey of the variegated experiences and attitudes involved is the best way to understand a complex issue, says Sara Silvestri.

France
France’s Burqa Ban: Two Women Fined for Covering Faces – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International

The new “burqa ban” in France has produced its first trial and convictions: Two women who staged a protest in May will have to pay fines. One defendant on Thursday promised to bring her case before the European Court of Human Rights.

Letters: Wearing the burqa in a secular society | World news | The Guardian

Another article about the baffling French ban on the niqab (The battle for the burqa, G2, 20 September), where the facts are repeated but little insight is gained. The paragraph where a niqab wearer says she can relate to Jewish women who were vilified in Vichy France made me begin to doubt the wearer’s motivation. Jews’ persecution in the second world war is a poor example here. If the Jewish women could have torn off their yellow stars and slipped into the masses to survive and not be killed, they would have done it in a flash. Most Jews have integrated into the societies they have come to live in. No one in this article gives a reason for wanting to cover their faces more than having a job or says what their friendships with non-Muslims are like. That is the truly interesting article to be written.

Belgium
BBC News – Belgian lawmakers pass burka ban

Belgium’s lower house of parliament has voted for a law that would ban women from wearing the full Islamic face veil in public.

French businessman pays Belgian face veil fines | Reuters

A French businessman paid fines Wednesday for two women in Belgium who wore full-face veils in public and said he would take Belgium and France to court over laws banning Muslim niqabs and burqas.

French businessman pays Belgian face veil fines | Reuters

A French businessman paid fines Wednesday for two women in Belgium who wore full-face veils in public and said he would take Belgium and France to court over laws banning Muslim niqabs and burqas.

Italy
No face veils, Italy tells immigrants – thestar.com

ROME – Women in Italy should not wear veils that cover their face, according to new government guidelines for immigrants that were drawn up in consultation with representatives of the main faiths, including Muslims.

Muslim Woman in Italy Is Fined for Wearing Veil – NYTimes.com

A 26-year-old Tunisian woman has been fined for wearing a face veil while walking to a mosque in northern Italy, adding to the growing debate on the integration of Muslim minorities in Europe.

BBC News – Italian committee approves face veil ban bill

An Italian parliamentary committee has passed a draft law which will ban women from wearing veils which cover their faces in public.

The Netherlands
Netherlands moves toward total ban on Muslim veils | World news | The Guardian

The Netherlands may become the first European country to ban Muslim face veils after its government pledged yesterday to outlaw the wearing in public spaces of the niqab, or veil, and the burka, or full-length cloak covering the head.

Dutch to Ban Full-Face Veils – NYTimes.com

The Dutch government said Friday that it would ban face-covering veils worn by some Muslim women because the garments flout the Dutch way of life and culture.

French businessman pays Belgian face veil fines | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

A French businessman paid fines on Wednesday for two women in Belgium who wore full-face veils in public and said he would take Belgium and France to court over laws banning Muslim niqabs and burqas.

Denmark
Denmark urges rules limiting face veil

Denmark’s government says face-covering Muslim veils don’t belong in Danish society but no ban is needed because their use can be limited under existing rules.

The centre-right government said the burqa – an all-covering dress – and the niqab face veil are “diametrically opposed” to the values on which Danish society is built.

Right click: Burqa Ban ‘Un-democratic’: Danish Muslims

“It is important to let the Muslim population know that when they have fled dictatorship in their home country – or perhaps just left their country for work purposes – they will not encounter a new dictatorship or aspects of it in the Western democracies based on religious views,” Imran Shah, the spokesperson of the Islamic Society in Denmark, told The Copenhagen Post on Wednesday, April 13.

Mediterranean
Spanish town bans Burka in public buildings – Telegraph

The Spanish town of Lerida has become the first in the country to ban the Burka in municipal buildings.

Spain Plans to Ban the Face Veil under New “Religious Freedom Law” | IslamToday – English

Spain’s government plans to ban the use of the face veils in public places under a proposed new law on religious freedom, the justice minister Francisco Caamano (pictured) said Tuesday.

“We believe that there are things like the burqa which are hard to reconcile with human dignity and which especially pose problems of identification in public places,” Caamano told reporters.

Veil Ban Upheld In Spain

Spanish courts recently upheld a ban on face coverings in municipal buildings.

The ban went into effect in 2010 but was suspended after Muslim rights groups complained.

Lleida was the first Spanish town to enact the ban.

Islamic countries and the veil: It’s a cover-up | The Economist

AS DEBATE over the burqa heats up in Europe, across the Mediterranean Arabs are looking on with puzzlement and, at times, concern. In Morocco and Algeria, source of most of the Muslim immigration to countries like Spain and France in recent decades, interest has been particularly high. People in these countries, who have seen Europeans tighten immigration laws and embark on public debates over “national identity” in recent years, perceive European plans to ban the veil as springing from nativist sentiment and immigration fears rather than security concerns or women’s rights.

AFP: Bikinis and hijabs contrast on Albanian beach

September has seen devout Muslims again flocking to Albania’s only “burqa beach” after the Ramadan holy month, where women bathe in full hijab — a short distance from the “other” Albania where girls romp in scanty bikinis.

Videos
Tariq Ramadan on PressTV: What is Italy aiming to achieve from banning the burqa?

What is Italy aiming to achieve from banning… door presstv
John R. Bowen, anthropologist, author of ‘Can Islam be French?’ – FRANCE 24

Annette Young meets John R. Bowen, anthropologist and author of “Can Islam be French?” Islam is the second most widely practised religion in France, but how do Muslims live their religion in a country which is known for its fierce secularism?

Just the Face — IndieGoGo

The film will show first hand how these women are coping with this law, and what happens when they can’t. Will they fight or subvert the law, will they withdraw into their homes or simply find ways to adapt?

‘Star of the Niqab’ Kenza Drider is a high profile activist and media critic of the ban; Nelly Moussaid is a Karate World Champion; Karima is a talented fashion designer running a successful company; Laurence is an ex-punk, and Fatima is a housewife and mother. Their stories will give us an insight into the daily lives of people who are directly affected by the ban.

Women’s voices





Misc.
Why Quakers were the burqa wearers of the 17th century | Sarah Apetrei | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

In 1630, a certain oatmeal maker was examined by the highest church court in England, accused of preaching without a licence. Before an audience of bishops, he kept his hat firmly on his head. Doffing it momentarily to a secular representative, he turned again to the bishops, crying: “But as ye are rags of the Beast, lo! – I put it on again.” Refusal to observe “hat honour” – the custom of removing one’s headgear in the presence of a social superior – was a way of saying, in the most confrontational manner: “I reject your authority.” (In the case of the oatmeal maker, this was an especially radical rejection: the bishops were agents of Antichrist.) It was a gender-specific affront, since hat-doffing was a peculiarly masculine form of humiliation.

Hat dishonour and burqa-wearing are not, of course, the same thing at all. But they do both illustrate the symbolic power of head-covering, and its relationship to political “headship”. Twenty years or so after the case of the oatmeal maker, following civil war and the collapse of traditional pillars of social stability (the monarchy, and the church courts), the early Quakers also famously rejected hat honour.

Legal showdown looms over French face veil ban – Monsters and Critics

A legal showdown loomed Thursday over France’s ban on the Islamic face veil, after a court fined two women for refusing to comply with the ban, paving the way for constitutional challenges to the new law.

Entrepreneurial Muslim women make modest dress mainstream | Culture & Lifestyle | Deutsche Welle | 29.05.2011

Fashion-conscious young Muslim women are well aware that in western societies, covering up is often considered more scandalous than baring all.

Burqa-Clad Pole Dancer Leaves Saudi Islamists Hot And Bothered | EuropeNews

A British fitness instructor who visited the strict Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia to teach a Saudi woman the art of pole dancing has sparked disapproval among UK Muslims back home. 27-year-old Lucy Misch was invited to the country by one of Saudi’s richest and most influential families after a woman from the family attended a pole dancing class in Europe and reported back to her relatives living in the kingdom.

Beyond the veil: an experiment with the burqa – The National

The shock factor is intentional. To confront, to challenge. Picture it: a room full of German students at a university in the heart of Berlin, their chatter filling the air in the rat-a-tat-tat intonation of a language infused with order. The seating is atypical, students piled onto desks, sprawled out over every inch of available floor space, lining the walls with martial precision. But the space demands such disarray: it is too small for the numbers.

Then the shock: three figures float into the room, covered from head to toe. Three ghosts rippling into a German classroom, dressed in burqas, anonymous and unsettling. The chatter suddenly dies, and tension pervades the calm that descends

Dutch
‘Een boerkaverbod zal niets uithalen’ – POLITIEK – PAROOL

Fouad Sidali, tot 2010 stadsdeelbestuurder in Amsterdam-Bos en Lommer, is lid van het landelijk PvdA-bestuur. Hij baart opzien door zijn Twitterfoto waarop hij met nikab is te zien.

Het boerkaverbod is luxewetgeving – Opinie – TROUW

opinie Al bijna tien jaar worstelen opeenvolgende kabinetten met het boerkaverbod. Ook nu is het nog symboolpolitiek.

150 boerka’s – Nieuws – TROUW

column Gemeten naar de hoeveelheid opiniebijdragen die het jongste boerkaverbod bekritiseren, zou je bijna denken dat we hier met een breed maatschappelijk debat te maken hebben.

Het boerkaverbod is een afleidingsmanoeuvre | DeJaap

Daar is het dan eindelijk. Het boerkaverbod! Samen met de caviapolitie een van de meest onnodige wetsvoorstellen van dit kabinet. Dat dit verbod er waarschijnlijk komt is al een schande, de timing is ook kwalijk. Het lijkt een doorzichtige poging van het kabinet om de aandacht af te leiden van alle echte problemen die er nu spelen.

Wiens vrijheid van godsdienst?

Zonder gelijkheid bestaat geen vrijheid. De overheid moet kunnen waarborgen dat al haar burgers gelijk worden behandeld. Op het moment dat gelijke rechten in het geding komen, moet de overheid ingrijpen. Daar mogen we als samenleving nooit iets op afdingen. Dit is de kern van een beschaafde democratie. De discussie en publieke opinie rondom het boerka-verbod heeft mij dan ook enorm verbaasd. Van links tot rechts wordt het recht om een boerka te dragen verdedigd. In een rechtsstaat zou een beperking van de vrijheid van godsdienst niet passen. Maar juist een rechtstaat moet de grenzen van deze vrijheid bewaken. Zeker als onder het mom van vrijheid van godsdienst individuen onderdrukt en volledig geïsoleerd worden van de rest van de samenleving.

Interview: Boerka’s in en uit de carnavalswinkel | Wijblijvenhier.nl

Boerka’s worden verboden op straat. Waarom? Omdat het kabinet dat niet wil, punt! Wat mag nog wel dan? Carnavalskleding! Of het nou een piratenpak is, een politie-uniform of een… jawel… boerka! Althans, dat vond online carnavalswinkel Feestkleding 365. “Feestkleding 365 staat voor ‘elke dag een feestje!’. Maar ook voor ‘ieder zijn eigen feestje’.” Wat een rare snuiters dachten we. Wat bezielde hen? En als het zo’n succes is, waarom er dan mee gestopt? Ik heb het hen gevraagd.

Boerkaverbod: Boete voor mannen is prima! | Wijblijvenhier.nl

Ok, prima! Er is een boerkaverbod. Als je je nu in het openbaar vertoont in gezichtsbedekkende kledij – ik ben bereid het officiele verhaal aan te houden – dan krijg je 150 euro boete. Want dat mag niet. Blijk je een man te hebben die je daartoe dwingt – we doen even alsof deze wet nog steeds niet specifiek op moslima’s is gericht – dan is de boete veel hoger of je krijgt twee jaar cel.

Boerka verbod is een aanval op Islam en onderdrukking van de moslim vrouw « Islam4Europe

Het verbod op de boerka heeft dus niets te doen met veiligheid noch open samenleving noch met gelijkwaardigheid van man en vrouw. Maar is eerder een openlijke vijandschap en onderdrukking van de moslimvrouw.

Okay Pala

Lidvertegenwoordiger van Hizb ut Tahrir Nederland

‘Boerkaverbod is gebaseerd op onderbuikgevoelens, niet op feiten’ – Binnenland – VK

Hoewel ze zelf niet van de boerka als kledingstuk is gecharmeerd, slaat een verbod erop nergens op, betoogt Ferdows Kazemi. Symboolpolitiek, gebaseerd op niets anders dan onderbuikgevoelens.

Gunt de boerkadraagster mij wel mijn vrijheid? – Religie – TROUW

Ik ben best bereid om de boerkadraagster haar vrijheid te gunnen om haar godsdienst op haar manier te beleven. Waar ik echter huiverig voor ben, is de gedachte dat dat niet wederzijds is. Als er meer boerkadragers komen, is het niet ondenkbaar dat het mijn ontwikkeling zou kunnen tegengaan. Vooral liberale moslims kunnen hiervan de dupe worden. Door de boerka wordt namelijk de boodschap verspreid: hoe bedekter, hoe dichter bij Allah. Ik draag geen boerka, geen nikaab, ook geen hoofddoek maar ben wel moslim.

Desondanks ben ik soms niet zo blij met het boerkaverbod. Een verbod dat de vrijheid van een individu beperkt, is niet wezenlijk anders dan de praktijk in totalitaire ideologieën.

Echte liberalen verbieden de boerka – Weblog: Thijs Kleinpaste

Critici die zo’n verbod een botte maatregel noemen die ook vrouwen treft die wel blij zijn met hun boerka hebben gelijk. Het zij zo. Als we ons in dit debat, waar harde cijfers ontbreken, moeten bedienen van aannames, dan kies ik voor de stelling dat de boerka een gevaar is voor de vrijheid en individualiteit van vrouwen. De macht van mannen mag niet langer verdedigd worden met een beroep op misvattingen over datzelfde, schitterende principe. Mannen die zelf geen stuiver over hebben voor de vrijheid van hun eigen vrouw zijn er te lang door beschermd.

De loze argumenten tegen het nikaabverbod « CarelBrendel.nl

Tot dusver kwam ik deze tekenen van vrouwenslavernij vooral tegen in Amsterdamse wijken als Osdorp en Indische Buurt, gebieden waar moslimvrouwen hoe dan ook onder sociale druk van conservatieve geloofsgenoten staan. Deze vrouwen mogen straks niet meer buiten, is een ander argument tegen een beperking van de nikaabs. De goedpraters ondermijnen daarmee een ander veelgebruikt argument, namelijk dat de betrokken vrouwen zich uit vrije wil van hun gezicht en identiteit laten beroven.

CarlienRoodink.nl » Het hokje van de echte liberaal

De werkelijkheid is altijd weerbarstiger dan we als beleidsmakers en politici zouden willen. In dit verband wil ik graag citeren uit het onderzoeksrapport naar mensenhandel in de Amsterdamse raamprostitutie dat ik op dit moment aan het bestuderen ben: “de vrouw blijft volhouden dat ze niet is uitgebuit en houdt ook na de aanhouding van haar vriend contact met hem. De verdachte wordt veroordeeld.”

0 comments.

Closing the week 36 – The Remains of That Day 9/11

Posted on September 11th, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, International Terrorism, Murder on theo Van Gogh and related issues, Religious and Political Radicalization.

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1. Radicalization Series VI – Muslims and Radicalization: What do we know?
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Featuring The Remains of that Day: 9/11

Memory and relics
Daniel Silliman: 9/11 relics

Religion, Peter Berger once said, is the audacious proposal that human activities are cosmically meaningful.

In this sense, some of the remembrances and relics of 9/11 are deeply religious. Curiously so.

Memories of 9/11 tragedy preserved – Philly.com

“What you find at most archaeological sites, ancient and modern, are things that are mundane, a part of daily life, so that is our mission here,” said Kate Quinn, the Penn Museum’s director of exhibitions.

Quinn said the September 11 museum lent Penn things that fulfill that goal of everyday items transformed – eyeglasses, a computer keyboard, visitor badges – that were unearthed during the excavations at ground zero.

“Archaeology usually tells us something about ancient times, but this is history, too, even if it is only 10 years old,” Quinn said.

It took me ten years, but I finally wrote something about September 11th. And then I made a little movie. | The Gideonse Bible

I knew I had to do it eventually, and I had to do it by today. When I saw that the VAMP theme for August was “Alternate Endings,” I knew exactly what to do. I wrote it in two hours; it exploded out of me. I’m sure it could be honed here and there, but I like the raw weirdness of it. What follows are my remarks as prepared for delivery. In the video, the last word is “possibility,” and I swallowed it for some reason. Also, I apologize for the sound quality; I don’t really know what I’m doing. Anyway:

Through the fragments of 9/11 » Knoxville News Sentinel

After the collapse of the south tower of the World Trade Center in New York, the first of the wounded, including four members of the New York City Medical Examiners Office, with Amy Mundorff, second from left, are brought via boat across the Hudson River to a triage area in Jersey City, N.J., September 11, 2001. Mundorff now teaches forensic anthropology at the University of Tennessee. (Chip East / Special to the News Sentinel)

The September 11th Industry | homophilosophicus

In the face of such horror however, a great hope was born on the streets ofManhattanten years ago today. On the television and on the radio inAmericaand around the world, millions witnessed the beautiful transformation of apparently cold New Yorkers into heroes and martyrs. Women and men in workaday suits and uniforms walked, often to certain death, into grave danger to reach the hands of other human beings whom they had never before met. In the sudden depths of catastrophe ordinary people took it upon themselves to become extraordinary. For all of our perceptions of the Big Apple as a cruel and hard place, it was the everyday New Yorker who reminded us that we are human. For all of the loss and the fear and the despair, there was a flash of something truly brilliant from the rubble and dust that day.

Reflecting on 9/11: Humanizing war

When I chose to enlist, I didn’t feel any great patriotic call. Our integrity as a nation never depended on me killing people in other countries. I didn’t have any college prospects—my GPA was a 1.17—and I didn’t want to end up as another pothead or meth-head in the rust belt. I wanted to blow shit up and kill people. Nobody in specific, no ethnic prejudice or anything stupid like that, I just wanted to shoot endless bad guys wearing the same clothes as each other, like in Goldeneye. Maybe pick up their ammo when I ran low.

‘A deeper meaning’: How 9/11 changed one Vermonter – for good: Rutland Herald Online

Ten years later, Michael realizes the eyewitness details he remembers were only the start of a larger story.

Column: Forgetting 9/11 Would Be a Tragedy – Long Valley, NJ Patch

Every person in this nation has differing opinions on the course of action America took in years following the deadliest attack on U.S. soil, but Sept. 11, 2001, in my opinion, is a day that cannot be forgotten.

9/11: Are We All Moral Monsters?

9/11 reveals often-hidden facts in our own anthropology: that we are all 9/11-enabled human beings, and we are all scared of our own mortality.

Marking the Tenth Anniversary of 9/11 : The New Yorker

For those in the immediate vicinity, the horror was of course immediate and unmistakable; it occurred in what we have learned to call real time, and in real space. For those farther away—whether a few dozen blocks or halfway around the world—who were made witnesses by the long lens of television, the events were seen as through a glass, brightly. Their reality was visible but not palpable. It took hours to begin to comprehend their magnitude; it is taking days for the defensive numbness they induced to wear off; it will take months—or years—to measure their impact and meaning.

The meaning of 9/11’s most controversial photo | Jonathan Jones | Comment is free | guardian.co.uk

http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2011/9/2/1314964814888/Young-people-chat-as-the–005.jpg In the photograph Thomas Hoepker took on 11 September 2001, a group of New Yorkers sit chatting in the sun in a park in Brooklyn. Behind them, across brilliant blue water, in an azure sky, a terrible cloud of smoke and dust rises above lower Manhattan from the place where two towers were struck by hijacked airliners this same morning and have collapsed, killing, by fire, smoke, falling or jumping or crushing and tearing and fragmentation in the buildings’ final fall, nearly 3,000 people.

Museum Anthropology: 9/11 Museum Human Remains Controversy

The brewing controversy over the unidentified human remains at the new 9/11 Museum has hit the news. Full disclosure, Dr. Chip has been involved with some of the grass-roots advocacy groups. We believe this is an important issue for all museum anthropologists, as it creates an important dialogue that asks about how the profession treats all human remains in the museum context, the intersection of memorials and museums, the nature and process of consultation, and how we might respond should another attack of such a magnitude come.

An Anthropological Preview of the Post-9/11 World « ZERO ANTHROPOLOGY

Imagine this scenario for 2002 – science fiction a short while ago, exceedingly likely now. The world had entered the paranoid phase of globalisation. Countries were neither at war nor not at war. Detailed surveillance of citizens and quixotic imprisonment of individuals became commonplace. Politicians eagerly elaborated on the imminent threat of terrorist attacks, thereby justifying ever more draconian measures. Radical humanist networks and human rights groups were ostracised for their lack of loyalty and structural similarities to terrorist groups. Yet everybody, including the politicians, knew in their heart of hearts that turning the citizenry into potential enemies would only aggravate the problem.

Anthropology News

In the aftermath of a disaster, calls for the replacement, replication and reproduction of that which has been lost represent a yearning for a return to normal. Yet a full return to any pre-disaster “normal” is impossible as the physical and emotional rupture of tragedy transforms everything and everybody. That which has been lost is irreplaceable, even if what may appear to be the original form is rebuilt. There is no unadulterated replacement, only re/placement. To break down this word:

Watch Videos Online | Other 9/11s Remembered – DN! | Veoh.com

Watch Other 9/11s Remembered – DN! in News | View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com

Social scientists on 9/11 and its aftermath
10 Years Later: Islam in the U.S. – YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELKoWgKeSQo
Robert Hefner, professor of anthropology and director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs (CURA) at Boston University, discusses the state of Islam and Muslim society in the U.S. since the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Shaped by 9/11: UMBC Researchers Reflect – YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4VsXOjXJ7Nk
The events of September 11, 2001 changed course of history. To some faculty at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), particularly those early in their careers, they also changed the course of their life’s work. The attacks and subsequent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan led them to study new issues and respond to new needs. This video includes reflections from Dr. Rebecca Adelman, who examines imagery of the War on Terror, and Dr. Seth Messinger, who works with veterans recovering from limb loss.

9/11 impact was less in Europe, says WUSTL anthropologist | Newsroom | Washington University in St. Louis

Because the Sept. 11 attacks happened on U.S. soil, it makes sense that they might have had a more profound impact in the United States than in Western Europe.
John Bowen

Bowen

But the location of the attacks isn’t the only reason for that, says John R. Bowen, PhD, an anthropology and religious studies professor, both in Arts & Sciences, at Washington University in St. Louis, who has spent the past 10 years studying Islam and civil law in France and England.

Key differences in how Muslims were perceived before 9/11 in the United States and Western Europe played a key role in how much — or how little — attitudes on Muslims changed after 9/11, Bowen says.

“After 9/11, many in the United States came to fear American Muslims for the first time; most knew nothing about Islam,” says Bowen, PhD, the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences. “But fear of Muslims already was present in parts of Europe.”

Al-Qaeda Is Winning – Daveed Gartenstein-Ross – International – The Atlantic

A decade after the attacks of September 11, 2001, national security opinion leaders are converging around the ideas that the threat of terrorism has been substantially reduced over the past 10 years, and that al-Qaeda is on its death bed. “Al-Qaeda is sort of on the ropes and taking a lot of shots to the body and the head,” White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan told the Associated Press on August 31. Defense secretary Leon Panetta said in July that the United States is “within reach” of “strategically defeating” the jihadi group, and the Washington Post has confirmed that his assessment is shared by many analysts. Commentators in the public sphere are increasingly adopting similar views. But my own research into the group has led me in a different direction: that this emerging consensus doesn’t just appear wrong, but obviously wrong. Al-Qaeda isn’t anywhere near defeated — for all our triumphalism, it appears to be winning.

10 Years Later: How We Won – William McCants & William Rosenau – International – The Atlantic

Ten years into our struggle against al-Qaeda, it’s time to acknowledge that the “war” is over and recognize that the United States and its international partners overreacted to the al-Qaeda threat. Terrorism, after all, is designed to elicit such overreactions. But the confluence of the recent death of bin Laden, harsh new economic realities, the democratic movements in the Middle East, and the ten-year anniversary of the September 11 attacks provide an ideal time to take stock of what it actually takes to deal with the al-Qaeda threat.

Well, Is Al Qaeda Winning Or Not? | INTELWIRE.com | Terrorism news and analysis, investigative reports and exclusive documents | By J.M. Berger, author of Jihad Joe: Americans Who Go To War In The Name Of Islam, Al Qaeda terrorism expert, documentary maker, author, special subjects include 9/11 Documents, Ali Mohamed, Mohammed Jamal Khalifa, Oklahoma City Bombing, and more

Some of my favorite thinkers have diametrically opposing pieces in The Atlantic today. Will McCants and William Rosenau write about How We Won the War on Terror, while Daveed Gartenstein-Ross writes that Al Qaeda is Winning.

Why Is The Middle East Still In Thrall To 9/11 Conspiracy Theories? | The New Republic

The 9/11 attacks catalyzed a tremendous shift in American foreign policy in the Middle East. Rather than prioritizing petrol, Washington targeted terrorist organizations, dethroned a dictator, and lobbied throughout the region for liberalization. Yet despite the billions of dollars spent policing Baghdad and protecting Benghazi, the unpopularity of the United States in the Arab world continues to be fueled by the belief that Islamist terrorists had nothing to do with 9/11, with many claiming the attacks were an American, Israeli, or joint American-Israeli conspiracy. In this sense, overcoming 9/11 revisionism is, perhaps, the greatest challenge facing American public diplomacy in the coming decade: So long as such conspiracy theories persist, Arabs will continue to view American policies aimed at preventing “another 9/11” as thoroughly illegitimate since, as they see it, 9/11 is just a big American lie.

Ten Years after 9/11, Do the Arabs value Democracy more than We do? | Informed Comment

The September 11 attacks have been revealed as a last gasp of a fading, cult-like twentieth-century vision, not as the wave of the future. They were the equivalent of the frenetic dashing to and fro of a chicken already beheaded. Al-Qaeda’s core assumptions have been refuted by subsequent events and above all in 2011 by the Arab Spring.

9/11: more security, less secure | openDemocracy

The world has been changed by the securitisation of everyday life and the Islamisation of security. The accompanying threat-complex has shifted American sensibilities, says Cas Mudde.

The roots of conflict | Education | The Guardian

Is western culture better than any other? Umberto Eco argues that what is important is not superiority but pluralism and toleration

Human Terrain Systems Dissenter Resigns, Tells Inside Story of Training’s Heart of Darkness » Counterpunch: Tells the Facts, Names the Names

My initial inclination was to wonder if this was a gag, or, having written several critiques of the Human Terrain Systems program describing why it is an ethical and practical anthropological disaster, whether someone was setting me up. While I’ve had several other Human Terrain social scientists write me with complaints about the program, it didn’t seem likely that Human Terrain Systems (HTS) would hire someone with John’s politically progressive views. But the email address was the same one John had used for years, and John’s story checked out and made sense, so I approached our correspondence along the lines of his initial request to help him organize his focus and to understand critiques of HTS. As he undertook his HTS training, we corresponded and I passed along articles, and offered friendship and critiques of what he was learning in this training; not that John needed help with this critique, the flaws in the program were pretty obvious to him.

David H. Price: Anthropology’s Military Shadow | The New Significance

Just as it was becoming passe to remark on anthropology’s status as colonialism’s wanton stepchild, George Bush’s Terror War rediscovered old militarized uses for culture, and invigorated new modernist dreams of harnessing anthropology and culture for the domination of others. Because I began in the early 1990s using the Freedom of Information Act, interviews, and archival research to document American anthropologists’ interactions with military and intelligence agencies, by the time the post-9/11 push by the Pentagon and CIA to again use anthropological knowledge as tools for intelligence, warfare and counterinsurgency, I had a decent head start on documenting and thinking about some of this history. By the time America got its terror war on, I had already documented the details of how this worked in the past, and had thought about the core of the ethical, political and theoretical fundamentals of a critical approach to questions relating to the weaponization of anthropology.

Wiley: Anthropology, History & Sociology

In the 10 years since the events of September 2001 a vast amount of scholarly research has been written on the impact of 9/11. We are pleased to share with you this collection of free book and journal content from the Anthropology, History & Sociology books and journals published by Wiley-Blackwell.

Wiley: Religion & Theology

In the 10 years since the events of September 2001 a vast amount of scholarly research has been written on the impact of 9/11. We are pleased to share with you this collection of free book and journal content from the Religion & Theology books and journals published by Wiley-Blackwell.

The paradoxes of the re-Islamization of Muslim societies « The Immanent Frame

The 9/11 debate was centered on a single issue: Islam. Osama Bin Laden was taken at his own words by the West: Al-Qaeda, even if its methods were supposedly not approved by most Muslims, was seen as the vanguard or at least a symptom of “Muslim wrath” against the West, fueled by the fate of the Palestinians and by Western encroachments in the Middle East; and if this wrath, which has pervaded the contemporary history of the Middle East, has been cast in Islamic terms, it is because Islam is allegedly the main, if not the only, reference that has shaped Muslim minds and societies since the Prophet. This vertical genealogy obscured all the transversal connections (the fact, for instance, that Al-Qaeda systematized a concept of terrorism that was first developed by the Western European ultra-left of the seventies or the fact that most Al-Qaeda terrorists do not come from traditional Muslim societies but are recruited from among global, uprooted youth, with a huge proportion of converts).

10 Years after September 11

10 Years After September 11, a digital collection recently launched by the Social Science Research Council. In the days immediately following 9/11/01, the Council invited a wide range of leading social scientists to write short essays for an online forum. Ten years later, these same contributors have been asked to reflect on what has changed and what remains the same. The result is an extraordinary collection of new essays, with contributions from Rajeev Bhargava, Mary Kaldor, David Held, Olivier Roy, Saskia Sassen, Veena Das, Richard Falk, and many others.—ed.

9/11 chronomania « The Immanent Frame

This post sketches out some of the ways the events of 9/11 altered time-consciousness and temporal rhetoric in the public sphere and follows how the attacks continue to frame the subjective experience of temporality. Beginning with the lexicon of the war on terror—with its temporally overdertemined rhetoric of “the homeland,” “preemption,” “fundamentalism,” and, of course, the name-date “9/11” itself—I consider a few cases of what I call 9/11 chronomania—the obsession with time and temporal disruption that characterizes representations of 9/11 across a variety of media forms. In the case of the 9/11 Commission Report, by refashioning disaster as chronology, the narrative aims to replace victims with knowers—first, by establishing an authorial subject in command of its perceptual, technological, and temporal fields, and second, by attempting to shape personal and collective understandings of 9/11 by securing events unfolding in multiple locations and witnessed in myriad ways on a single, immanent timeline. The goals of such a narrative are clear: the chronometric novella that begins the 9/11 Commission Report is in part a hook designed to catch a national audience primed by thrillers like the television series 24, but it is also an attempt to incrementalize and disaggregate horrific events into an easily understood linear plot as part of a self-professed attempt to salve the wounds of collective trauma.

Accounts of everyday life and politics
Aftershock and awe – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

Usama Hasan, a devout Muslim of Pakistani origin , who grew up in Britain and was known to be active in radical circles, was at work in his Oxfordshire office on the day of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
muslims.
Hicham Yezza, an Algerian Muslim who came to England on a scholarship to study computing and management, was at home in Nottingham, getting ready to go to class.

British Muslims tell the terrorists they ‘failed’ on the tenth anniversary of 9/11

More than 50 Muslim community groups the length and breadth of Britain have united on the tenth anniversary of 9/11 to express their solidarity with victims of terrorism and to tell the terrorists that a decade on ‘they failed’ in seeking to divide society on religious grounds.

How the fear of being criminalised has forced Muslims into silence | Mehdi Hasan | Comment is free | The Guardian

We have more Muslim MPs than ever. But there is a growing belief that dissent risks falling foul of terror laws

After 9/11: ‘You no longer have rights’ – extract | World news | The Guardian

What was it like for immigrant Muslims and Arab-Americans in the wake of 9/11? Ten years on, three people tell their stories

9/11 is No Excuse for Bashing Muslims – OtherWords

Violent jihadists don’t represent Islam any more than the Anders Breiviks of the world represent Christianity.

Book explores ‘Arab Detroit’ in decade since 9/11 | Detroit Free Press | freep.com

A book has been published that examines life in the Detroit area’s Arab-American community in the decade since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“Arab Detroit 9/11: Life in the Terror Decade” was released this past week and is published by Wayne State University Press. The book incorporates academic, artistic and everyday voices and viewpoints from one of the most well-known and largest communities of Arabs outside the Middle East.

The 9/11 Decade – How Interfaith Groups Built Bridges – NYTimes.com

Jews, Christians, Muslims come together, hoping to fight fear with familiarity. How it’s playing out in Syracuse.

Conversations with New Yorkers – The 9/11 Decade – Al Jazeera English

Al Jazeera speaks to people in New York about the 9/11 attack on their city and the events that followed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y155rP6iTYo

Living with 9/11: the Muslim American | World news | The Guardian

Linda Sarsour lives in Brooklyn and is from a Palestinian American family. She has become increasingly involved in community activism since the September 11 attacks

Three girls lead ‘normal’ lives after 9/11 attacks, but never forget | MyCentralJersey.com | MyCentralJersey.com

Sept. 11 was just the start of family always being around. Casey remembers getting off the bus that day and being so confused because there were so many cars in her driveway. She said her mom told her they were having a party because it was the first week of school and they wanted to celebrate because they have to get back into their daily routines.

Misc
The criminalization of speech since 9/11 – War Room – Salon.com

The expanded use of the material-support law is an important part of the legacy of 9/11 and the legal regime erected in response to the attacks. To learn more about the history and use of the material-support statute, I spoke with Hina Shamsi, the director of the National Security Project at the American Civil Liberties Union.

Mahmood Mamdani: Good Muslim, Bad Muslim (Part 1) – YouTube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w20DhY1O2j8

The HISTORY NEWS NETWORK (http://hnn.us) recorded this appearance of Mahmood Mamdani, Professor of Government and Professor of Anthropology Columbia University, at the annual meeting of the American Historical Association on January 6, 2007. He spoke as the guest of the Society for Historians of American Foreign Relations. The speech took place over lunch at Atlanta’s famous Pittypat’s Porch.

A US Soldier’s Experience in Iraq on 9/11 | Savage Minds

Here is a second interview with my friend serving his second term in Baghdad. We talk about his ‘cultural training’ exercises, Bradley Manning, and his engagement with the local Iraqis.

What was Osama bin-Laden for Muslims? | Islam, Muslims, and an Anthropologist

Yet what was bin-Laden for Muslims? This question is more difficult to answer than the previous one. First, I think we have to look at how western commentators, politicians, and of course the general public imagined what bin-Laden was for Muslims. Indeed, this is even more important than the former question since such perceptions have shaped how many people living in western countries saw and see Muslims. You only need to ask around in any European or US city and you will find people whom are strongly convinced that Muslims adore bin-Laden.

The Missing Martyrs — By Charles Kurzman — Book Review – NYTimes.com

In “The Missing Martyrs,” Charles Kurzman suggests that even before Osama bin Laden was killed, his movement had failed utterly. Al Qaeda’s ideological trademark is to exhort ordinary Muslims to engage in individual acts of violence against those deemed enemies of Islam, specifically Americans, Jews and the infidel rulers of Muslim-­majority states. And yet very few such attacks have occurred in the United States since Sept. 11, and certainly none comparable to the devastating events of that day. To emphasize just how surprising this is, Kurzman cites a 2006 online manual for aspiring jihadists that lists 14 “simple tools” that “are easy to use and available for anyone who wants to fight the occupying enemy” — they include “running over someone with a car” and “setting fire to homes or rooms at sleep time.” Kurzman, a sociologist who has written widely about Islamic reform movements, asks: “If terrorist methods are as widely available as automobiles, why are there so few Islamist terrorists? In light of the death and devastation that terrorists have wrought, the question may seem absurd. But if there are more than a billion Muslims in the world, many of whom supposedly hate the West and desire martyrdom, why don’t we see terrorist attacks everywhere, every day?”

Al-Qaeda’s Past and Present « jihadica

The newest issue of Foreign Affairs on the ten-year anniversary of 9/11 includes an essay by me (free registration required) on the history of al-Qaeda and its prospects after the Arab Spring. The essay covers the reasons for al-Qaeda’s founding, its targeting of the United States, its strategic thinking under Zawahiri’s leadership, its concept of an Islamic state, and its enduring problem with Islamist parliamentary politics.

After the Massacre, Norway Reexamines Its Values and Fears – The Daily Beast

In the wake of a devastating massacre, Norway reexamines its values—and its fears.

Slow attempts at making sense: Oslo 22/7

This research diary has until now exclusively treated the various facets of my PhD research project in Paris. When the numbness began to lose its grip, I started to realise why I feel so terribly concerned. Of course, I think most Norwegians, many Europeans and even many, many fellow world citizens feel deep concern when an atrocity like this strikes, even when they or their closest aren’t struck personally. This concerns us as fellow humans (of both the victims and the perpetrator…), and it concerns us as political beings. But I also realised that this concerns me profoundly in terms of the career I’ve chosen: What good is it to devote my professional life to understanding nationalism, belonging, community cohesion, conceptions of difference and the like when I have done nothing to prevent the worst thinkable acts of violence to take place in my own country? Especially since I think – or I’m sure – that I’ve felt there was a need for worry (but of course, not to this unconceivable degree…). For several days now I’ve been thinking about how I can contribute. How can I contribute in the best way with my knowledge (of living with difference in Europe), my concern (for the future of us all) and my devotion (to work for a better world)? I know need to think much more about this in the coming days and weeks, and I know that I need to act.

Jihadi Suicide Bombers: The New Wave by Ahmed Rashid | The New York Review of Books

After September 11, 2001, readers around the world quickly learned about the basic tenets of jihad and its distortion by al-Qaeda. Now the shelves of Western bookshops are again filled with books on the subject, which gives no sign of going away. Jihad, which means struggle, is “recommended” rather than obligatory for all Muslims, but its interpretation is literally an open book—the lesser jihad to purify one’s soul and perform good deeds for the community, the greater jihad to defend Islam when it is under attack. Each major collection of Hadith, or the sayings of the Prophet Muhammad that were compiled by several Muslim scholars well after the Prophet’s death, contains its own descriptions of jihad, with the result that the discussion of jihad has always been a matter of differing interpretations rather than literal observance.

Report – A Call to Courage: Reclaiming Our Liberties Ten Years After 9/11 | American Civil Liberties Union

An ACLU report release to coincide with the 10th anniversary of 9/11 warns that a decade after the attacks, the United States is at risk of enshrining a permanent state of emergency in which core values must be subordinated to ever-expanding claims of national security. (More on Civil Liberties After 9/11 »)

Empire, Subalternity, and Ijtih?d: Two Muslim Women’s Leadership Models in the Post-9/11 US – Ahmed – 2011 – The Muslim World – Wiley Online Library

Binary stereotypes silence Muslim women in post 9/11 America, but little has been written about how Muslim women’s leadership can enable voice. This article presents two leadership models based on the philosophy of ijtih?d (independent reasoning), which facilitate self-worth and solidarity, key elements of voice. The less visible spiritual colleague model, which has a followership of practising Muslim women, facilitates self-worth through ijtih?d, allowing women to seek self-definition through their own interpretation of the Qur’?n. As strategy, the leader converts her home into a space which is simultaneously sacred and political where such informal discussions take place around religious rituals. The public bridge-builder model creates solidarity between and among its following of practising and nonpractising Muslims and non-Muslim men and women. The strategy focuses on effective dialogue between different groups. Ijtih?d as discourse in pursuit of knowledge (‘ilm) creates equality and respect, the basis of sustainable alliances.

Anwar Al-Awlaki’s Links to the September 11 Hijackers – J.M. Berger – International – The Atlantic

In the timeline of the hijackers’ movements in the months before the attacks, New Mexico-born Awlaki and his followers seem to turn up nearly every step of the way

Zakaria: Why America Overreacted to 9/11 – The Daily Beast

Nine years after 9/11, can anyone doubt that Al Qaeda is simply not that deadly a threat? Since that gruesome day in 2001, once governments everywhere began serious countermeasures, Osama bin Laden’s terror network has been unable to launch a single major attack on high-value targets in the United States and Europe. While it has inspired a few much smaller attacks by local jihadis, it has been unable to execute a single one itself. Today, Al Qaeda’s best hope is to find a troubled young man who has been radicalized over the Internet, and teach him to stuff his underwear with explosives.

New books reflect what we’ve learned from September 11 and how we’ve learned to say it – The Boston Globe

Yet there is much to praise in these volumes. One captures the grief and loss of the period with uncommon intimacy. One captures the disillusion of the decade with unusual anger. And the third retells those events with unbridled drama. None of these three – or the scores of other commemoratives, perhaps the only growth industry in publishing right now – is in itself a one-volume work that captures this period of pathos and personal powerlessness.

Thoughts on 9-11: On the Importance of Intolerance | Reuters

She was a producer who lived in downtown Manhattan and upon hearing the first collision had run up the stairs of an apartment building across from the towers and banged on doors until someone fleeing the building let her in to watch from their windows.

Dutch
NOS Nieuws – Moslim-jongeren praten over gevolgen 9/11

Praten over de gevolgen van de aanslagen van 11 september in Amerika voor Nederland. Dat gebeurde gisteravond in Amsterdam door moslim-jongeren. Maar ze kwamen vooral voor de mening van een bijzondere gast, merkte verslaggever Rienk Kamer.

Fotozondag: Tien jaar geleden | DeJaap

Tien jaar geleden is het vandaag, dat twee vliegtuigen zich kort na elkaar in de Twin Towers van het World Trade Center in New York City boorden. Een derde vliegtuig raakte het Pentagon en een vierde stortte neer in Pennsylvania. Bij deze terroristische aanslagen kwamen 2974 mensen om het leven. Onder hen 328 brandweermannen en 62 politiemensen die direct na de eerste inslag op zoek gingen naar slachtoffers.

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Closing the week 35 – Featuring the politics of food, fasting and feasting

Posted on September 4th, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Religious and Political Radicalization, Ritual and Religious Experience, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

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Featuring the politics of food, fasting and feasting
tabsir.net » The Politics of Ramadan

Religion and politics have always been intertwined, even though some rituals would seem to be above the fray. Consider the fasting month of Ramadan, which has just ended. The Islamic hijra calendar is lunar with arbitrary 30-day months for a lunation which is not exactly 30 days. So determining when a month begins is linked to the sight of the new moon. Before the age of mechanical clocks it was also necessary to fix dawn by observation of the sunrise and decide at what point it was possible to say the sun had risen. In the early days of Islam the timing of Ramadan and the prayer times was based on visible signs. Scholars devised scientific and folk scientific means of telling time, but the basic premise is that a pious individual must make the call.

Foreigners and Their Food : David M. Freidenreich – University of California Press

Foreigners and Their Food explores how Jews, Christians, and Muslims conceptualize “us” and “them” through rules about the preparation of food by adherents of other religions and the act of eating with such outsiders. David M. Freidenreich analyzes the significance of food to religious formation, elucidating the ways ancient and medieval scholars use food restrictions to think about the “other.” Freidenreich illuminates the subtly different ways Jews, Christians, and Muslims perceive themselves, and he demonstrates how these distinctive self-conceptions shape ideas about religious foreigners and communal boundaries. This work, the first to analyze change over time across the legal literatures of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, makes pathbreaking contributions to the history of interreligious intolerance and to the comparative study of religion.

Is Eid Tuesday or Wednesday? – India Real Time – WSJ

The confusion about Eid-ul-Fitr, the day Muslims break their month-long Ramadan fast, is on again.

Ramadan 2011 – Alan Taylor – In Focus – The Atlantic

Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting, began earlier this month with the sighting of the new moon. Throughout this ninth month on the Islamic calendar, devout Muslims must abstain from food, drink, and sex from dawn until sunset. The fast, one of the five pillars of Islam, is seen as a time for spiritual reflection, prayers, and charity. After sunset, Muslims traditionally break the fast by eating three dates, performing the Maghrib prayer, and sitting down to Iftar, the main evening meal, where communities and families gather together. Collected below are images of Muslims around the world observing Ramadan this year. [42 photos]

When Is Eid? Muslims Can’t Seem To Agree : The Two-Way : NPR

Today is Eid al-Fitr, the Muslim holiday that marks the end of Ramadan, the holy month of fasting. Except that it isn’t.

Today, many Muslims in the United States, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and Jordan are celebrating Eid. Meanwhile, many Muslims in Indonesia, South Africa, India and Oman are not celebrating Eid until Wednesday.

Eid ul-Fitr marks end of violent Ramadan in Syria – CSMonitor.com

Eid ul-Fitr is normally a festive time, but Syrian citizens say seven were killed today by security forces. The regime faces EU oil sanctions by week’s end and weakening support at home.

Singapore’s Curry Solidarity · Global Voices

An Indian family in Singapore has agreed not to cook curry when their newly arrived neighbors from China are at home after the latter complained to authorities about the smell of curry. To show solidarity to all Singaporeans who love curry, which is after all a national dish, a “Cook A Pot of Curry Day” event was organized last Sunday, August 21. The Facebook page of the event had a confirmed attendance of more than 60,000. Below are some online reactions.

Video – Breaking News Videos from CNN.com

The duo that last year visited 30 U.S. mosques in 30 days is now visiting 20 mosques in 20 days during Ramadan.

Guestview: Ritual slaughter ban reflects fights over food and faith in the Netherlands | FaithWorld

In the recent Dutch debates about ritual slaughter, food has become a field where people battle over political, religious, economic, social and animal welfare issues. I do not think it is that speculative to say that the Animal Party has profitted from three major developments in Dutch society.

Guernica / Nicola Twilley: The Politics of Our Changing Foodscape

Nicola Twilley: Food is a political issue because politicians, and, indeed, our whole system of government, play such a large role in shaping what we do or don’t eat. For example, the government literally feeds a vast number of Americans (there were a record 45.75 million food stamp recipients last month) through its food assistance programs, and it feeds them with commodities it has purchased in bulk—purchases that are in themselves designed to support and stabilize prices for particular crops and industrial processes. Marion Nestle is a great person to read on how public health programs such as nutrition labeling or dietary guidance are shaped by our political system, including the undue influence of corporate lobbyists. It’s interesting to look at how dietary guidance, for example, shifts by country, for political as well as cultural reasons. The government plays a huge role in agricultural research (look at the influence of the extension programs at universities across America), environmental regulation, food safety (including guidelines around genetic modification and nanotechnology), and the economic landscape within which food production occurs. It is government policy on monopolies that allows four companies to dominate America’s meat supply, for example. Given that food is a health, environmental, infrastructural, economic, and technological issue, government investment, policy, and regulation ends up being one of the largest forces shaping the contemporary foodscape.

Religion and politics
Asking Candidates Tougher Questions About Faith – NYTimes.com

Yet when it comes to the religious beliefs of our would-be presidents, we are a little squeamish about probing too aggressively. Michele Bachmann was asked during the Iowa G.O.P. debate what she meant when she said the Bible obliged her to “be submissive” to her husband, and there was an audible wave of boos — for the question, not the answer. There is a sense, encouraged by the candidates, that what goes on between a candidate and his or her God is a sensitive, even privileged domain, except when it is useful for mobilizing the religious base and prying open their wallets.

New York Times Editor Bill Keller’s Religious Test for Presidential Candidates – The Daily Beast

Do religious conservatives operate far outside the American mainstream and pose a serious threat to our pluralistic democracy?

USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion

The New York Times’ Executive Editor Bill Keller struck a nerve when his weekly column in the Times Magazine called for journalists to pay “closer attention” to what the GOP’s candidates for president “say about their faith and what they have said in the past that they may have decided to play down in the quest for mainstream respectability.”

Political theology and political existentialism « The Immanent Frame

Kahn’s book is fascinating, insightful, and a delight to read. But it is many things. Although its arguments are set forth in a largely holistic fashion, one can distinguish at least three distinct aims: 1) a more or less faithful and analytic reconstruction of Carl Schmitt’s 1922 work, Political Theology; 2) a meditation on the applicability of Schmitt’s political-theological insights to specific features of contemporary American political-legal practice; and 3) a bold proposal, only loosely grounded in Schmittian textual evidence, that argues for political theology as the indispensable framework for grasping the character of politics in the modern world. The first of these aims helps to explain why the book owes its title and its chapter-by-chapter architectonic to Schmitt’s original work. The second explains why Kahn not infrequently departs from the task of reconstruction by offering illustrations drawn from contemporary American law and politics. The third leads us to Kahn’s most provocative conclusion, that there is something distinctive about modern politics qua politics that can only be understood if we remain alive to the theological sources that animate this dimension of our experience. Unlike some of the other commentators, my training and interests do not lie in the sphere of contemporary politics, and most certainly not American politics. I will therefore refrain from offering any challenge to Kahn’s reconstructive or illustrative purposes and will focus my attention chiefly on the third and final strand of the book.

Oxford University Press: The Myth of Religious Violence:

The idea that religion has a dangerous tendency to promote violence is part of the conventional wisdom of Western societies, and it underlies many of our institutions and policies, from limits on the public role of religion to efforts to promote liberal democracy in the Middle East. William T. Cavanaugh challenges this conventional wisdom by examining how the twin categories of religion and the secular are constructed. A growing body of scholarly work explores how the category ‘religion’ has been constructed in the modern West and in colonial contexts according to specific configurations of political power. Cavanaugh draws on this scholarship to examine how timeless and transcultural categories of ‘religion and ‘the secular’ are used in arguments that religion causes violence. He argues three points: 1) There is no transhistorical and transcultural essence of religion. What counts as religious or secular in any given context is a function of political configurations of power; 2) Such a transhistorical and transcultural concept of religion as non-rational and prone to violence is one of the foundational legitimating myths of Western society; 3) This myth can be and is used to legitimate neo-colonial violence against non-Western others, particularly the Muslim world.

A suspension of (dis)belief « The Immanent Frame

Most academic discussions in political science and international relations presuppose a fixed definition of the secular and the religious and proceed from there. Most realist, liberal, English school, feminist, and historical-materialist approaches treat religion as either private by prior assumption or a cultural relic to be handled by anthropologists. Even constructivists, known for their attention to historical contingency and social identity, have paid scant attention to the politics of secularism and religion, focusing instead on the interaction of preexisting state units to explain how international norms influence state interests and identity or looking at the social construction of states and the state system with religion left out of the picture.

Encounter – 12 June 2011 – Islam and the Arab Spring

As old regimes are torn down and new constitutions established in North Africa and the Middle East, how will these majority Muslim countries handle the challenges of liberal democracy and secularism?

Salafists boycott Egypt’s constitutional principles meetings – Politics – Egypt – Ahram Online

The Salafist Call (Al-Dawa Al-Salafya) and Nour Party release a statement explaining their boycott of yesterday’s constitution meeting called by Egypt’s Deputy Prime Minister Ali El-Selmi

Is there a crisis of secularism in Western Europe? « The Immanent Frame

Even quite sober academics speak of “a contemporary crisis of secularism,” claiming that “today, political secularisms are in crisis in almost every corner of the globe.” Olivier Roy, in an analysis focused on France, writes of “The Crisis of the Secular State,” and Rajeev Bhargava of the “crisis of secular states in Europe.” Yet this is quite a misleading view of what is happening in Western Europe.

Arab Uprisings
Ex-Jihadists in the New Libya – By Omar Ashour | The Middle East Channel

Abd al-Hakim Belhaj, the commander of Tripoli’s Military Council who spearheaded the attack on Muammar al-Qaddafi’s compound at Bab al-Aziziya, is raising red flags in the West. Belhaj, whom I met and interviewed in March 2010 in Tripoli along with Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, is better known in the jihadi world as “Abu Abdullah al-Sadiq.” He is the former commander of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG), a jihad organization with historical links to al Qaeda, the Taliban, and the Egyptian al-Jihad organization. Does his prominent role mean that jihadists are set to exploit the fall of Qaddafi’s regime?

Why Middle East Studies Missed the Arab Spring: The Myth of Authoritarian Stability « Kajian Internasional Strategis

For many Middle East specialists, this remarkable record of regime stability in the face of numerous challenges demanded their attention and an explanation. I am one of those specialists. In the pages of this magazine in 2005 (“Can Democracy Stop Terrorism?” September/ October 2005), I argued that the United States should not encourage democracy in the Arab world because Washington’s authoritarian Arab allies represented stable bets for the future. On that count, I was spectacularly wrong. I also predicted that democratic Arab governments would prove much less likely to cooperate with U.S. foreign policy goals in the region. This remains an open question. Although most of my colleagues expressed more support for U.S. efforts to encourage Arab political reform, I was hardly alone in my skepticism about the prospect of full-fledged democratic change in the face of these seemingly unshakable authoritarian regimes.

Libya’s spectacular revolution has been disgraced by racism | Richard Seymour | Comment is free | The Guardian

The murder of black men in the aftermath of the rebellion speaks of a society deeply divided for decades by Muammar Gaddafi

Egypt approves founding of Karama and Asala parties | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt

The Asala Party is the second approved Salafi party, after the Nour Party. It was founded by Adel Abdel Maqsood Afify, Ihab Mohamed Ali Sheeha and Mohamed Ibrahim Abdel Fattah Sultan.

Egyptian Salafi says Mubarak trial un-Islamic Asharq Alawsat Newspaper (English)

The Egyptian Salafi preacher responsible for the sensational fatwa condoning the killing of potential presidential candidate Mohamed ElBaradei has surfaced again. This time however, Sheikh Mahmud Amir, has issues a fatwa rejecting the legal persecution of former President Hosni Mubarak, saying that Mubarak’s actions were authorized by Shariaa law.

The Politics of Royal Pluralism in Jordan

While the people have demanded the fall of their regimes in streets and squares across the Arab world this year, those regimes have offered a persistent, if predictable, reply: “the people just aren’t ready for us to go yet.” This accusation of unpreparedness has taken a few different forms in different contexts: “The people are too sectarian” (Bahrain and Syria); “too tribal” (Libya and Yemen); “too Islamist” (Egypt, Libya, Syria); “too underdeveloped,” “too radical” “too violent,” “too weak and defenseless,” et cetera. In every case, the people are portrayed as inept and a threat to themselves. Meanwhile, regimes clinging to power in the face of mass protests portend that the only solution to this unpreparedness is their steady hand ferrying their societies into the harbor of democratic governance (eventually).

Awe and history in the Arab revolts

In their ongoing revolts against police states and overly centralised autocratic governments, ordinary Arab men and women are compressing into a single moment their equivalent of perhaps the two most outstanding global historical movements of the past 300 years or so: the democratic revolutions that engulfed the world from their starting points in France and the United States in the late 18th Century; and the global decolonisation movement that swept much of the Third World in the mid-20th Century.

The Middle Ground between Technology and Revolutions – Technology Review

Social media didn’t cause the revolutions in Egypt and Tunisia, but it did achieve unique visibility.

In Egypt, the Lure of Leaving – NYTimes.com

The first time I met Ayman, he insisted on picking me up in his shiny black Chevrolet sedan outside the King of Shrimp, a popular fish restaurant in the Cairo neighborhood of Shobra. It was April, and he had just returned from Berlin, where he attended a conference on tourism (“the world’s biggest”) for his job. A brand new “I Love Berlin” key chain dangled from his rearview mirror. Also dangling was a small metallic cross, along with “I Love London” and, of course, “I Love New York.” As a procurement manager at a multinational company, he travels a great deal. “I have a busy passport,” he told me during that first meeting, handing me his overfull visa pages to inspect.

Human rights irony for the US and Arab world – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

Ten years after September 11th, human rights flounder in the United States but flourish in the Middle East.

Qaddafi’s Fall Rivets Yemen – By Tom Finn | Foreign Policy

But in Yemen, the poorest and youngest country in the Arab world, tens of thousands were also tuning in to soak up the drama unfolding in North Africa. It was the downfall of Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak in early February that first set Yemen’s protest movement ablaze, sending thousands of young men spilling into the capital’s dusty streets to face the rubber bullets and water cannons of President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s regime.

Yusra Tekbali: Libyan Women Active Force In Revolution

Many of the Libyan women we interviewed tried to change society from within, but were repeatedly bogged down by the lack of bureaucracy and corruption in the law, saying the regime’s tight restrictions and constant interference were a constant threat. As Salha, a former employee in the oil and gas sector put it, corrupt officials and unpredictable laws meant “your business, your life, everything you work for can be here one day and gone the next.” On the other end of the spectrum, I met with Gaddafi supporters, such as the head of Tripoli’s Women’s Council and the commander of the Women’s Military Academy.

Radicalization and counter-radicalization
Kosovan Albanian admits killing two US airmen in Frankfurt terror attack | World news | The Guardian

Arid Uka, 21, tells court he was influenced by online Islamist propaganda before shootings at airport in March

University staff asked to inform on ‘vulnerable’ Muslim students | Education | The Guardian

Lecturers and student unions express disquiet over new anti-terror guidance on depressed and isolated students

Abraham H. Foxman: The Day Hate Became Everyone’s Problem

The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, were a national and personal tragedy. It was one of the darkest days in the history of America. Many of us knew people who died that day at the World Trade Center.

But it was also a day of resolve.

US Muslims find selves target of monitoring, abuse – Boston.com

More than half of Muslim-Americans in a new poll say government antiterrorism policies single them out for increased surveillance and monitoring, and many report increased cases of name-calling, threats, and harassment by airport security, law enforcement officers and others.

Still, most Muslim-Americans say they are satisfied with life in the United States and rate their communities highly.

New York becomes the Occupied Territories – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

As the US security state grows and civil rights and liberties erode, Osama bin Laden gets the last laugh.

New report maps the roots of Islamophobia – Islam – Salon.com

In a 140-page report released Friday, researchers at the Center for American Progress have traced the origins of rising Islamophobia in the United States to what they call a “small, tightly networked group of misinformation experts guiding an effort that reaches millions of Americans through effective advocates, media partners, and grassroots organizing.”

The report features profiles of some figures — blogger and activist Pamela Geller and think tank denizen Frank Gaffney — who will be familiar to regular Salon readers. It names Gaffney and four others as the leading “misinformation experts” who generate anti-Muslim talking points that spread in the media: Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum; David Yerushalmi at the Society of Americans for National Existence (who is also the architect of the anti-Shariah movement); Robert Spencer of Jihad Watch; and Steven Emerson of the Investigative Project on Terrorism.

Guernica / Rania Khalek: How the Political Right Bullied the Department of Homeland Security Into Ignoring the Threat of Right-Wing Extremism

After right-wingers freaked out about a report detailing the rise in right-wing extremism, Homeland Security effectively dismantled a unit tasked with tracking it.

Guernica / Russ Baker: Who—And What—Are Behind The “Official History” Of The Bin Laden Raid?

When you look closely, nothing seems right about what will surely become the accepted account of the raid that nailed America’s enemy number one. And then things get even weirder…

tabsir.net » Muslims of Color

Here is propaganda so blatant and smiley gross that it deserves a place alongside the insidious emulation of Lenin by the Soviets and idolization of dictators the world over. The cover image is an interesting spin on the separation of church and state in our land of the free: here we see the tattered American flag flying above a cross illuminated by a beam of light from above, at the feet of which lie a firefighter’s helmet and police hat. To label the libel in this colorfully designed “Kid’s Book of Freedom” a “Graphic Coloring Novel” strikes me as a misspelling; is it not more aptly named a “Pornographic Coloring Novel,” to be rated so for the sensational violence mongering rather than any out-of-place showing of body parts?

Misc.
Immigration law: No offence | The Economist

THE American Immigration Lawyers Association just released a report detailing what happens when criminal-law enforcement agents—ie, the police—enforce civil-immigration law. It looked at 127 cases from 24 states and Washington, DC in which clients of immigration lawyers were stopped, questioned or arrested by police for minor offences that resulted in the commencement of deportation proceedings. So it is a small sample, and not necessarily a representative one: most of these cases involved immigrants represented by or able to speak to counsel; there are plenty of others who were unable to contact an attorney before removal, and so represent themselves pro se during the removal process. It makes for dispiriting reading.

A question on affect « The Immanent Frame

I have a question about affect, the current it-word for cultural studies and critical theory. Roughly, “affect” gets at a kind of interactive, embodied experience that functions outside of meaning, rationality and intention. It is a capacity, intensity, or resonance of the body that acts autonomously from the subject. Affect is at work in inexplicable fads, social buzz, or even the mundane act of blushing. We can translate blushing into an emotion in a linguistic and psychological system—shame, attraction, anxiety—but the translation necessarily loses the very interactive, embodied, asignifying thing that makes affect such a fruitful and provocative topic. So, then, what does it mean to write about affect?

enthusiasm | frequencies

In German, there are two words—three even. Enthusiasmus, like the English enthusiasm, is rooted in the Greek “en theos,” to have the god within, to be inspired by god or the gods. But Enthusiasmus was inadequate to contain the sixteenth-century German reformer Martin Luther’s rage against those who purported to receive direct divine inspiration. For them, he coined the term Schwärmer, from the verb schwärmen, to swarm, as in the swarming of bees. The Schwärmer were those, like the so-called Zwickau prophets, Nicholas Storch, Thomas Drechsel, and Marcus Thomas Stübner, who claimed to have direct revelations from the Holy Spirit, or Thomas Müntzer, who insisted that direct revelation and prophecy continued to occur in history. For Müntzer religious radicalism and political radicalism went hand in hand; the new prophecies and apocalyptic revelations he proclaimed called for the re-ordering of society, and not just of the church. In denouncing Müntzer, the Zwickau prophets, and others as Schwärmer, Luther rejected not only claims to continuing revelation, but also the forms of religious and political agitation to which he believed such claims gave rise. To be a Schwärmer, most often translated as enthusiast or fanatic, was to be ungovernable by either human or God.

Cultural Relativism 2011 – DSK, Guinea, Anthropology 101

When I first flagged the op-ed by anthropologist Mike McGovern, “Before You Judge, Stand in Her Shoes,” I also included comments from parenthropologist who wrote, “I fear that Mike McGovern’s point, in his op-ed, will be lost on too many Americans who feel that there are too many immigrants, legal and especially illegal, in ‘their’ country.” But it’s worse. In “Don’t walk a mile in her shoes” Robert Fulford uses McGovern’s article to attack anthropology and the idea of cultural relativism (thanks to anthropologyworks for the update).

James Mollison’s Photos of Children’s Bedrooms Are a Commentary on Class and Poverty – NYTimes.com

Mr. Mollison’s new book, “Where Children Sleep,” had its origins in a project undertaken for a children’s charity several years ago. As he considered how to represent needy children around the world, he wanted to avoid the common devices: pleading eyes, toothless smiles. When he visualized his own childhood, he realized that his bedroom said a lot about what sort of life he led. So he set out to find others.

Dutch
Kafirs en Zeloten: geschiedenisfantasieën met Martin Bosma – GeenCommentaar

Maar wie waren die piraten nou eigenlijk? Bosma heeft het over ‘drijfjachten van moslims’ – alsof het zou gaan om religieus gemotiveerde zeloten, maniakken die voor eigen zielenheil in het wilde weg random christelijke dorpen ontvolkten omdat Allah nou eenmaal groot is en God niet. Niets is minder waar. Het is zoals Bill Clinton zei: it’s the economy, stupid. Het was handel. Keiharde handel. Mensenhandel. Foute boel. Maar: handel. En waar handel is, daar is Dietschen bloed niet ver weg. Een bekend en berucht piratenleider was Symen Danzeker – Simon de Danser. En wat te denken van Suleyman Reis, ook wel bekend als Dirk de Veenboer, en Murat Reis, geboren Jan Janszoon. Britten waren er ook, overigens. John Ward is ‘n bekende. En Lipari werd veroverd door een Ottomaans-Franse alliantie. Dus dat hele ‘moslims-tegen-christenen’ verhaal van Bosma is vierkant geleuter. Veel van de ‘islamitische’ piraten waren uiteindelijk Europeanen – en ze waren lang niet allemaal bekeerd tot de islam. Het ligt veel pragmatischer: in Europa kon je christenen niet als slaven verkopen. In de Arabische wereld daarentegen wel. Daar lag de verkoop van Moslims weer ietsje lastiger. Zo ziet u maar, die Arabieren lijken meer op Europeanen dan we geneigd zijn te denken.

Antwerpen wil moslims uit garagemoskeeën – Religie – TROUW

De 42 kleine moskeeën van Antwerpen moeten plaatsmaken voor een paar grote. Wethouder Monica De Coninck (SP.A) ziet moslims graag vertrekken uit hun achterkamers en garages.

Hoogleraar Jean Tillie: etnische en religieuze organisaties goed voor democratie

Religieuze en etnische gemeenschappen bedreigen de democratie niet, maar bevorderen die juist. Etnische en religieuze organisaties dragen bij aan democratie. Binnen deze organisaties vindt zelfreflectie plaats en worden burgerlijke vaardigheden ontwikkeld. Cruciaal voor dit democratisch proces is wel dat gemeenschappen niet geïsoleerd raken en ‘zwakke verbanden’ hebben met andere gemeenschappen. Het kabinet morrelt echter aan deze verbanden door in wij-zij-tegenstellingen te spreken. Daarmee ondermijnt het de democratie.”
Dat verklaarde Jean Tillie, hoogleraar en adjunct-directeur van het Instituut voor Migratie en Etnische Studies van de Universiteit van Amsterdam, die als coreferent optrad tijdens de Anton de Kom-lezing in het Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam. De lezing werd dit jaar gegeven door voormalig minister Ab Klink en is een jaarlijks initiatief van Art.1 en het Verzetsmuseum Amsterdam. Met de lezing willen de organisatoren aandacht vragen voor de strijd tegen intolerantie en discriminatie in heden en verleden.

Arabische Lente? – GeenCommentaar

Hoe zit het nu met die zo bejubelde Arabische Lente, is een win-win situatie wel mogelijk? Die vraag van een van mijn trouwe reageerders laat zich goed beantwoorden door een gerenommeerd politiek commentator uit het Midden-Oosten: Rami Khouri. Over het belang van historische analogieën om de ontwikkelingen in het Midden-Oosten op waarde te kunnen schatten. En waarom de westerse term ‘Arabische Lente’ de lading niet dekt.

Boerkaverbod is het product van een paternalistische overheid

Boerka’s verbannen maakt de samenleving niet veiliger, bevordert het samen leven niet, en helpt ook niet tegen de onderdrukking van moslima’s. Emancipatie is beter.

4 september: Suikerfeest voor vrouwen en kinderen : Nieuwemoskee

Op 4 september organiseert Al Nisa een actieve, inspirerende en gezellige workshop voor de vrouwen en een feestje voor kinderen. De bijeenkomst start om 13.00 uur met een inloop vanaf 12.30 uur. Vervolgens zullen we met de Ramadan in ons achterhoofd in een interactieve workshop onder leiding van Al Nisa bestuurslid Sandra Doevendans op zoek gaan naar wie we echt zijn. Neem iets mee wat belangrijk voor u is.

Sociale Vraagstukken » Etnische diversiteit versterkt sociale banden

Autochtonen die in regio’s wonen met een hoge etnische diversiteit blijken wel degelijk goede informele contacten met andere autochtonen te onderhouden, anders dan de Amerikaanse socioloog Robert Putnam vond. Voorwaarde is dat men geen etnische dreiging ervaart.

X, Y, zzzz: een pleidooi tegen generaties | DeJaap

Het begrip ‘generatie’ wordt – zoals dat gaat met tot de verbeelding sprekende begrippen als ‘authenticiteit’, ‘interactiviteit’ en ‘duurzaamheid’ – alom misbruikt. Misschien komt deze ellende wel door Pepsi. In de jaren ’80 hield zij jongeren voor dat zij “the next generation” waren. Die jongeren gingen dat geloven. Mensen geboren in de jaren ’60 en ’70 wilden zich graag onderscheiden van die groep voor hen, de babyboom generatie. Ze kwamen bekend te staan als generatie X – de babybusters. Hiermee was het hek van de dam en wilde iedere generatie een eigen label.

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Closing the week 25 – Featuring Beyond Wilders’ Free Speech

Posted on June 26th, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Multiculti Issues.

Most popular on Closer this week

1. ‘Islamisering’ van Nederland
2. Wilders on Trial VII – The dissensus ritual
3. Open brief – Geen innovatie zonder wetenschap door Peter Paul Verbeek, Appy Sluijs en Beatrice de Graaf
4. Egypt: After the revolution – by Samuli Schielke

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Featuring Beyond Wilders’ Free Speech
Wilders acquitted of inciting hatred and discrimination
Geert Wilders: In Defense of ‘Hurtful’ Speech – WSJ.com

I was tried for a thought crime despite being an elected politician and the leader of the third-largest party in the Dutch parliament.

Wilders acquitted of hate speech against Muslims | Holy Post | National Post

Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders was acquitted of inciting hatred of Muslims in a court ruling on Thursday that may strengthen his political influence and exacerbate tensions over immigration policy.

The Wilders trial: Not a hater, say the judges | The Economist

THE last time he took the stand in court, Geert Wilders, the enfant terrible of Dutch politics, promised to continue speaking publicly, even if it cost him his freedom. He was visibly relieved to discover today that no such sacrifice would be demanded of him. This morning an Amsterdam court acquitted him of five counts of hate speech and discrimination.

Geert Wilders and Dutch democracy | openDemocracy

A court in the Netherlands has found the influential politician Geert Wilders innocent of charges of fomenting hatred and discrimination against Muslims. The decision is a challenge both to the rule of law and to Dutch politicians, says Cas Mudde.

Does the acquittal of Geert Wilders signal a changing Netherlands? – By Robert Zeliger | FP Passport

Wilders’s acquittal may have attracted headlines, but the truth is that the social and political ground have been shifting in the supposedly tolerant society for years. Last year, Wilders’s Party for Freedom won 15 percent of the vote in national elections, making it the third largest in parliament. And his ideas are slowly creeping into mainstream politics: The Netherlands has some of the strictest immigration laws in Europe, and has banned face-covering attire like the niqab.

BBC News – Geert Wilders cleared of hate charges by Dutch court

Supporters of Geert Wilders erupted into applause in the public gallery of the court as presiding judge Marcel van Oosten acquitted the populist politician of all charges of hate speech and discrimination against Muslims.

The World from Berlin: Wilders Acquittal a ‘Slap in the Face for Muslims’ – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International

Controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders was acquitted of inciting hatred against Muslims by a court in Amsterdam on Thursday. But the right-wing populist’s statements and the verdict have reignited the debate over free speech.

Wilders acquitted of hate speech charges | Presseurop (English)

Most Dutch newspapers are content with the verdict. NRC writes in an editorial: “Let the voters decide about the opinions and remarks of the PVV leader and let’s have the debate with him in the place where it should be: in the political arena.” Trouw supports the court’s ruling: “No one in their right mind, who feels strongly about freedom of political and social debate, hoped that he would be convicted.” The left-leaning daily De Volkskrant agrees: “Wilders’s acquittal on all points proves that freedom of speech in the Netherlands has a broad definition.”

Dutch Court Acquits Anti-Islam Politician – NYTimes.com

Ties Prakken, a lawyer who represented immigrant and antiracist complainants, agreed that “there is no appeal possible in the Netherlands,” and said she would instead bring the case to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, accusing the Dutch government of failing to protect people from incitement to discrimination or violence.

“We have a reasonable case,” Ms. Prakken said, adding, “there is some case law in our favor there.”

“It’s not only an acquittal for me,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Wilders as telling his supporters, “but a victory for freedom of expression in the Netherlands. Fortunately, you’re allowed to discuss Islam in public debate and you’re not muzzled in public debate. An enormous burden has fallen from my shoulders.”

Political Mavens » The Dutch escape death by strangulation

A Dutch court acquitted populist politician Geert Wilders of hate speech and discrimination last week, Associated Press reported.

Very good news, indeed.

This entire episode, in which the Netherlands’ growing Muslim population tried to tighten its stranglehold on yet another country by wrapping its own laws around its neck, can be a lesson to the world.

TFS Magnum: Free Speech Isn’t (Quite) Dead in Europe

Now the powers of political correctness will actually have to debate him on the issues instead of silencing him through the courts. (What a novel idea! Public debate of controversial ideas. What will they think of next?)

Wilders, Freedom Party and anti-islam rhetoric
The intolerance of the tolerant | openDemocracy

The advance of populist anti-Islamic forces in the liberal bastions of northern Europe – Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden – appears to reflect a betrayal of these societies’ renowned social tolerance. But there is a more subtle logic at work, says Cas Mudde.

Why Geert Wilders is not Liu Xiaobo | openDemocracy

Cas Mudde was quite right to point out recently how liberal arguments are being used in the interests of illiberal attacks on Muslims. However, in the Dutch case this reflects anything but a progressive national consensus

The Geert Wilders enigma | openDemocracy

The high-profile Dutch politician Geert Wilders is closer to mainstream centre-right politics in the Netherlands than his hardline rhetoric about Islam might suggest, says Cas Mudde.

The coordinated attack on multiculturalism | openDemocracy

David Cameron is not the only European centre-right politician to attack multiculturalism or blame mass immigration for creating pressures on the welfare state. The leaders of centre-right parties across Europe are falling over each other to denounce multiculturalism and propose a new round of protectionist measures against migrant workers.

Old and new demagoguery: the rhetoric of exclusion | openDemocracy

Right-wing populist parties tend to be anti-multinational and anti-intellectual: they endorse nationalistic, nativist, and chauvinistic beliefs, embedded – explicitly or coded – in common sense appeals to a presupposed shared knowledge of ‘the people’.

Mainstreaming Hate – By Ferry Biedermann | Foreign Policy

Geert Wilders is slowly but surely making Islamophobia an accepted element of political rhetoric in the Netherlands — and he’s got his eyes on the United States, next.

Tea Parties of the World – By Joshua E. Keating and Jared Mondschein | Foreign Policy

The populist anti-government movement might be a uniquely American phenomenon, but it’s not too hard to find its influence elsewhere.

The Dis-Integration of Europe – By Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaïsse | Foreign Policy

European leaders are attacking ‘multiculturalism’ in a transparent ploy to appeal to far-right voters. But they’re threatening decades of progress in reaching out to Muslim minorities.

Free speech
Fighting words that are not fought « The Immanent Frame

“Under what conditions does freedom of speech become freedom to hate?” Judith Butler recently asked. Here I will explore these issues in light of recent developments concerning the freedom of speech in Norway. I will argue that applying a cosmopolitan liberal approach to freedom of speech (i.e., along U. S. First Amendment lines) in a European context in which anti-Muslim and anti-immigration discourses are becoming ever more poisonous and pervasive risks underestimating the power dynamics inherent to the practice of free speech in contemporary Europe as well as overestimating the “mainstream” political and intellectual will to mobilize against the populist right-wing’s instrumentalized Islamophobia.

To fight the xenophobic populists, we need more free speech, not less | Timothy Garton Ash | Comment is free | The Guardian

Geert Wilders should not be on trial for his words on Islam. But mainstream politicians must confront and not appease him

Poppies and Prophets « The Immanent Frame

Thus, it seems that those invested in the idea that conflicts over speech and the sacred reveal some deep and troubling incommensurability—not over whether “blasphemous” speech ought to be prohibited by the law (Mahmood does not argue for this, unlike, say, Peter Danchin), but rather over the background presuppositions about what kinds of speech can injure, how they injure, and why—are not looking broadly or carefully enough at public and legal discourse in Europe. I cannot see much difference at all between how Mahmood characterizes the injury felt by (some) pious Muslims at the defamation of the Prophet and how Judge Riddle and his witness describe the injury felt by “typical, mild-mannered” Britons at the burning of poppies during a commemorative ceremony.

Critical Inquiry — Volume 35, Number 4

Saba Mahmood
Religious Reason and Secular Affect: An Incommensurable Divide?

Any academic discussion of religion in the present moment must countenance the shrill polemics that have followed from the events of the past decade—including 9/11, the subsequent war on terror, and the rise of religious politics globally. What was once a latent schism between religious and secular worldviews has now become an incommensurable divide, and protagonists from both sides posit an ominous standoff between strong religious beliefs and secular values. Indeed, a series of international events, particularly around Islam, are often seen as further evidence of this incommensurability.
Despite this polarization, more reflective voices in the current debate have tried to show how the religious and the secular are not so much immutable essences or opposed ideologies as they are concepts that gain a particular salience with the emergence of the modern state and attendant politics—concepts that are, furthermore, interdependent and necessarily linked in their mutual transformation and historical emergence. Viewed from this perspective, as a secular rationality has come to define law, statecraft, knowledge production, and economic relations in the modern world, it has also simultaneously transformed the conceptions, ideals, practices, and institutions of religious life. Secularism here is understood not simply as the doctrinal separation of the church and the state but the rearticulation of religion in a manner that is commensurate with modern sensibilities and modes of governance. To rethink the religious is also to rethink the secular and its truth-claims, its promise of internal and external goods.

The Right to Ridicule by Ronald Dworkin | The New York Review of Books

The British and most of the American press have been right, on balance, not to republish the Danish cartoons that millions of furious Muslims protested against in violent and terrible destruction around the world. Reprinting would very likely have meant—and could still mean—more people killed and more property destroyed. It would have caused many British and American Muslims great pain because they would have been told by other Muslims that the publication was intended to show contempt for their religion, and though that perception would in most cases have been inaccurate and unjustified, the pain would nevertheless have been genuine. True, readers and viewers who have been following the story might well have wanted to judge the cartoons’ impact, humor, and offensiveness for themselves, and the press might therefore have felt some responsibility to provide that opportunity. But the public does not have a right to read or see whatever it wants no matter what the cost, and the cartoons are in any case widely available on the Internet.

Harvard Law Review: Dignity and Defamation: The Visibility of Hate

In his three 2009 Holmes Lectures published here, Professor Waldron seeks to describe and defend laws forbidding group defamation — what we commonly refer to as “hate speech” — as affirming the basic dignity of each member of society. Part I defends the characterization of hate speech as group defamation. It argues that hate speech impugns its victims’ standing as equal members of society. Part II describes hate speech regulation as the protection of a fragile public good: the assurance offered by each member of society to all of its members that they can live free of fear, discrimination, violence, and the like. Part III defends the views articulated in Parts I and II from various criticisms, particularly those of Professor Ronald Dworkin. Dworkin argues that forbidding hate speech may result in a loss of democratic legitimacy for other laws. But Professor Waldron argues that with sufficient safeguards the loss is vanishingly small, and well worth the concomitant gains. As well, prohibitions on hate speech should only extend to issues that are “settled,” such as race, rather than issues that are currently controversial, which should further allay concerns that hate speech regulation will foreclose freedom or democratic debate.

Op-Ed Contributor – Totally Tolerant, Up to a Point – NYTimes.com

IF it were not for his hatred of Islam, Geert Wilders would have remained a provincial Dutch parliamentarian of little note.

Is Critique Secular? : Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood – University of California Press

In this volume, four leading thinkers of our times confront the paradoxes and dilemmas attending the supposed stand-off between Islam and liberal democratic values. Taking the controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammad as a point of departure, Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood inquire into the evaluative frameworks at stake in understanding the conflicts between blasphemy and free speech, between religious taboos and freedoms of thought and expression, and between secular and religious world views. Is the language of the law an adequate mechanism for the adjudication of such conflicts? What other modes of discourse are available for the navigation of such differences in multicultural and multi-religious societies? What is the role of critique in such an enterprise? These are among the pressing questions this volume addresses.

That’s Offensive!: Criticism, Identity, Respect, Collini

That’s Offensive! examines the common assertion that to criticize someone else’s deeply held ideas or beliefs is inherently offensive. This idea, Stefan Collini argues, is unfortunately reinforced by two of the central requirements of an enlightened global politics: treating all people with equal respect and trying to avoid words or deeds that compound existing social disadvantages. In this powerfully argued book, Collini identifies a confused form of relativism and a well-meaning condescension at the heart of such attitudes. Instead, Collini suggests that one of the most profound ways to show our respect for other people is by treating them as capable of engaging in reasoned argument and thus as equals in intellect and humanity.

Misc.Wilders’ trial
Editorial: Freedom to abuse? – Arab News

Where is Europe headed? With every passing day, the continent appears to walk back into the Middle Ages, surrendering its much-acclaimed freedom of faith and multiculturalism. The acquittal of Dutch politician Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims has come as a shock to Muslims around the world.

The legal boundaries of Dutch insults – Features – Al Jazeera English

Legal experts also expressed their doubt whether “a political debate” belonged in a courtroom. When the charges were pressed, the public prosecution refused to pursue Wilders saying it did not believe in a successful outcome to this case, however insulting Wilders’ remarks were seen to be.

Misc.
Rape in wartime: Listening to the victims – CNN.com

This is the first of two stories focusing on rape as a tool of war. The second story looks at the untold stories of rape in the Holocaust. Both stories contain graphic language; discretion is advised.

Silence lifted: The untold stories of rape during the Holocaust – CNN.com

This is the second of two stories focusing on rape as a tool of war.

Non-violence and the narrative of peace | Joseph Dana

Mainstream Israeli and international media argued endlessly, as though in a state of reverie, about whether Palestinian demonstrators who threw rocks should be considered unarmed, non-violent or violent. Absent from the conversation was the fact that Israel is rapidly increasing a programme of military repression against demonstrations in a last-ditch effort to dominate the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood youth break away to form new political party « altahrir, news of Islam, Muslims

The Muslim Brotherhood is struggling with more dissent in its ranks after a group of young members broke away from the Islamist organization’s political party to form a secular party that is more inclusive of other cultures and religions.

A moment before boarding the next flotilla – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

I’d rather use my influence and power, in concert with other members of American civil society, to actively and nonviolently resist policies I consider abominable.

Egypt: The Victorious Islamists by Yasmine El Rashidi | The New York Review of Books

Stéphane Lacroix, a scholar of Wahabism and Islamist movements, spent a large part of last year in Egypt researching the Salafi movement, and he has close relations with prominent Islamists. In early June he described intimate meetings and dinners he’d just had with some of the Salafist leaders. “In many ways the Salafi battle has been won,” he said. “Certainly the conservative one has. To people like Abou Elela Mady”—the leader of the al-Wasat party—”it’s a question of which of the conservatives can win more votes.”

Shady politics of GayMiddleEast

In both cases Queer Arab and African voices are being co-opted by white men. With the help of a handfull of collaborators both on the continent and in the Diaspora they continually attempt to discredit our voices but worse grossly undermine grassroots struggles and take credit for any successes and acts of resistance. Queer African voices like our Queer Arab sisters and brothers..

The true definition of “Terrorist” – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

In late May, two Iraqi nationals, who were in the U.S. legally, were arrested in Kentucky and indicted on a variety of Terrorism crimes. In The Washington Post today, GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — writing under the headline: “Guantanamo is the place to try terrorists” — castigates Attorney General Eric Holder for planning to try the two defendants in a civilian court on U.S. soil rather than shipping them to Guantanamo.

Culture clash over ritual slaughter ban | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Two traditions clashed in the Dutch parliament on Wednesday evening: religious tolerance versus animal rights. The one rooted in centuries of Dutch history, the other a new development that seems to have rapidly become an element of 21st-century Dutch identity.

Dutch
Zo simpel is het! « Wat Je Zegt Ben Je Zelf!

Eindelijk heb ik dan de schuldige gevonden. De teleurstelling is schuldig. Ik heb hiermee ook bewezen dat een freaking GeenStijl-stuk het makkelijkste is wat er te schrijven is. Geef maar iets de schuld en verzin er een verhaal om heen. Al heb ik het nog te veel onderbouwd voor GeenStijl begrippen. De helft van de mensen slikt het toch wel voor zoete koek. Ze sluiten zich allemaal achter je aan. Niemand weet of ik het meen of niet! Een gedeelte zou mij verrot schelden. Er is ook een gedeelte wat mij gelijk gaat geven. Zo is de ster geboren. Of ik meen wat hier boven staat? Voor jullie een vraag voor mij een weet!

Sheikh Fawaz over oordeel rechtbank

Sheikh Fawaz heeft in zijn vrijdagpreek een reactie gegeven op het oordeel van de rechtbank in de zaak Wilders. De Sheikh vindt het oordeel een belediging voor de moslims.

Filosofie Magazine : Wilders’ vrijheid of vrijheid van meningsuiting?

De democratie begon in de achttiende eeuw met praten, met een gesprek waarvan niemand werd uitgesloten. Die discussie tussen gelijken, en niet het individuele recht op vrije meningsuiting, is volgens politiek filosoof Judith Vega de absolute kern van onze democratie.

Joodse instanties willen auteur rapport ritueel slachten horen :: nrc.nl

Bij het debat over het verbod op onverdoofd ritueel slachten speelde ‘het rapport van de universiteit van Wageningen’ een prominente rol. Joodse instanties willen de auteur nu onder ede horen over hoe het tot stand is gekomen.

‘Dierenrechten worden steeds belangrijker’ – Raoul Du Pré – VK

De politieke kracht van het verbod op de rituele slacht is vooral de symboolwaarde: dierenrechten winnen terrein.

SMN teleurgesteld over uitspraak rechter in zaak-Wilders

Het SMN is zeer teleurgesteld in de uitspraak van de rechter in de strafzaak tegen PVV-voorman Geert Wilders. We respecteren de uitspraak van de rechter, maar constateren ook dat de anti-moslim uitspraken van Wilders blijkbaar juridisch toelaatbaar zijn. Dat is teleurstellend. Het SMN vindt dat op basis van uitlatingen van de heer Wilders, er grond was om te worden veroordeeld voor discriminatie en aanzetten tot haat.

Marokkaans Netwerk: “De Nederlandse rechtsstaat is in gevaar”

Het Nederlands/Marokkaans Netwerk tegen racisme en voor sociale cohesie heeft met grote teleurstelling en verbazing kennis genomen van de uitspraak door de rechtbank in de zaak tegen Wilders. Dat laat het Netwerk weten in een persbericht.

Het Netwerk schrijft:” De Marokkaanse gemeenschap is verontrust over de uitspraak, die zal leiden tot een grotere verdeeldheid, meer islamofobie en verdergaande polarisatie. Moslims en andere minderheden zullen nog meer schade gaan ondervinden van de uitspraken van Wilders, die blijkbaar onbestraft gedaan kunnen worden.”

Etnische diversiteit versterkt sociale banden

Op basis van eerder onderzoek in de VS werd tot nu toe verondersteld dat mensen in etnisch diverse samenlevingen minder nauwe banden met anderen onderhouden. Ook zouden ze minder deelnemen aan het sociale leven. Onderzoek gefinancierd door de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) wijst nu echter uit dat de aanwezigheid van niet-Westerse immigranten in Europa geen negatieve gevolgen heeft op de banden tussen mensen. Integendeel: de aanwezigheid van immigranten in een regio komt ten goede aan de sociale banden tussen de mensen in die regio.
Het NWO-onderzoek is in juni gepubliceerd is in het tijdschrift Social Science Research.

Een toename van immigranten in een regio leidt er toe dat autochtonen meer allochtone vrienden en collega’s krijgen. Dit soort contact heeft weer een positieve uitwerking op het onderhouden van nauwe banden met andere autochtonen, ontdekten de onderzoekers.

Sociale Vraagstukken » Integratienota negeert bestaande waarden

Minister Donner gaat met zijn integratienota voorbij aan de al jarenlange stabiele steun van Nederlanders voor de multiculturele samenleving. De opvattingen van autochtonen zijn anders dan de scherpe toon van het publieke debat suggereert.

RTV Utrecht: “Hartelijk gesprek met leerlingen Bilalschool”

Leerlingen van groep 7 van de Amersfoortse Bilalschool hebben vandaag een gesprek gehad met nabestaanden uit de rouwstoet die zij eerder deze week verstoorden. Dat gesprek was open en hartelijk, staat in een persbericht van school en nabestaanden.

Bij het incident waren enkele leerlingen van de basisschool betrokken, alhoewel de beledigende opmerkingen door andere kinderen zouden zijn gemaakt. Er wordt door de school verder onderzoek gedaan.

0 comments.

Closing the week 25 – Featuring Beyond Wilders' Free Speech

Posted on June 26th, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Multiculti Issues.

Most popular on Closer this week

1. ‘Islamisering’ van Nederland
2. Wilders on Trial VII – The dissensus ritual
3. Open brief – Geen innovatie zonder wetenschap door Peter Paul Verbeek, Appy Sluijs en Beatrice de Graaf
4. Egypt: After the revolution – by Samuli Schielke

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Featuring Beyond Wilders’ Free Speech
Wilders acquitted of inciting hatred and discrimination
Geert Wilders: In Defense of ‘Hurtful’ Speech – WSJ.com

I was tried for a thought crime despite being an elected politician and the leader of the third-largest party in the Dutch parliament.

Wilders acquitted of hate speech against Muslims | Holy Post | National Post

Dutch populist politician Geert Wilders was acquitted of inciting hatred of Muslims in a court ruling on Thursday that may strengthen his political influence and exacerbate tensions over immigration policy.

The Wilders trial: Not a hater, say the judges | The Economist

THE last time he took the stand in court, Geert Wilders, the enfant terrible of Dutch politics, promised to continue speaking publicly, even if it cost him his freedom. He was visibly relieved to discover today that no such sacrifice would be demanded of him. This morning an Amsterdam court acquitted him of five counts of hate speech and discrimination.

Geert Wilders and Dutch democracy | openDemocracy

A court in the Netherlands has found the influential politician Geert Wilders innocent of charges of fomenting hatred and discrimination against Muslims. The decision is a challenge both to the rule of law and to Dutch politicians, says Cas Mudde.

Does the acquittal of Geert Wilders signal a changing Netherlands? – By Robert Zeliger | FP Passport

Wilders’s acquittal may have attracted headlines, but the truth is that the social and political ground have been shifting in the supposedly tolerant society for years. Last year, Wilders’s Party for Freedom won 15 percent of the vote in national elections, making it the third largest in parliament. And his ideas are slowly creeping into mainstream politics: The Netherlands has some of the strictest immigration laws in Europe, and has banned face-covering attire like the niqab.

BBC News – Geert Wilders cleared of hate charges by Dutch court

Supporters of Geert Wilders erupted into applause in the public gallery of the court as presiding judge Marcel van Oosten acquitted the populist politician of all charges of hate speech and discrimination against Muslims.

The World from Berlin: Wilders Acquittal a ‘Slap in the Face for Muslims’ – SPIEGEL ONLINE – News – International

Controversial Dutch politician Geert Wilders was acquitted of inciting hatred against Muslims by a court in Amsterdam on Thursday. But the right-wing populist’s statements and the verdict have reignited the debate over free speech.

Wilders acquitted of hate speech charges | Presseurop (English)

Most Dutch newspapers are content with the verdict. NRC writes in an editorial: “Let the voters decide about the opinions and remarks of the PVV leader and let’s have the debate with him in the place where it should be: in the political arena.” Trouw supports the court’s ruling: “No one in their right mind, who feels strongly about freedom of political and social debate, hoped that he would be convicted.” The left-leaning daily De Volkskrant agrees: “Wilders’s acquittal on all points proves that freedom of speech in the Netherlands has a broad definition.”

Dutch Court Acquits Anti-Islam Politician – NYTimes.com

Ties Prakken, a lawyer who represented immigrant and antiracist complainants, agreed that “there is no appeal possible in the Netherlands,” and said she would instead bring the case to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights in Geneva, accusing the Dutch government of failing to protect people from incitement to discrimination or violence.

“We have a reasonable case,” Ms. Prakken said, adding, “there is some case law in our favor there.”

“It’s not only an acquittal for me,” The Associated Press quoted Mr. Wilders as telling his supporters, “but a victory for freedom of expression in the Netherlands. Fortunately, you’re allowed to discuss Islam in public debate and you’re not muzzled in public debate. An enormous burden has fallen from my shoulders.”

Political Mavens » The Dutch escape death by strangulation

A Dutch court acquitted populist politician Geert Wilders of hate speech and discrimination last week, Associated Press reported.

Very good news, indeed.

This entire episode, in which the Netherlands’ growing Muslim population tried to tighten its stranglehold on yet another country by wrapping its own laws around its neck, can be a lesson to the world.

TFS Magnum: Free Speech Isn’t (Quite) Dead in Europe

Now the powers of political correctness will actually have to debate him on the issues instead of silencing him through the courts. (What a novel idea! Public debate of controversial ideas. What will they think of next?)

Wilders, Freedom Party and anti-islam rhetoric
The intolerance of the tolerant | openDemocracy

The advance of populist anti-Islamic forces in the liberal bastions of northern Europe – Denmark, the Netherlands and Sweden – appears to reflect a betrayal of these societies’ renowned social tolerance. But there is a more subtle logic at work, says Cas Mudde.

Why Geert Wilders is not Liu Xiaobo | openDemocracy

Cas Mudde was quite right to point out recently how liberal arguments are being used in the interests of illiberal attacks on Muslims. However, in the Dutch case this reflects anything but a progressive national consensus

The Geert Wilders enigma | openDemocracy

The high-profile Dutch politician Geert Wilders is closer to mainstream centre-right politics in the Netherlands than his hardline rhetoric about Islam might suggest, says Cas Mudde.

The coordinated attack on multiculturalism | openDemocracy

David Cameron is not the only European centre-right politician to attack multiculturalism or blame mass immigration for creating pressures on the welfare state. The leaders of centre-right parties across Europe are falling over each other to denounce multiculturalism and propose a new round of protectionist measures against migrant workers.

Old and new demagoguery: the rhetoric of exclusion | openDemocracy

Right-wing populist parties tend to be anti-multinational and anti-intellectual: they endorse nationalistic, nativist, and chauvinistic beliefs, embedded – explicitly or coded – in common sense appeals to a presupposed shared knowledge of ‘the people’.

Mainstreaming Hate – By Ferry Biedermann | Foreign Policy

Geert Wilders is slowly but surely making Islamophobia an accepted element of political rhetoric in the Netherlands — and he’s got his eyes on the United States, next.

Tea Parties of the World – By Joshua E. Keating and Jared Mondschein | Foreign Policy

The populist anti-government movement might be a uniquely American phenomenon, but it’s not too hard to find its influence elsewhere.

The Dis-Integration of Europe – By Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaïsse | Foreign Policy

European leaders are attacking ‘multiculturalism’ in a transparent ploy to appeal to far-right voters. But they’re threatening decades of progress in reaching out to Muslim minorities.

Free speech
Fighting words that are not fought « The Immanent Frame

“Under what conditions does freedom of speech become freedom to hate?” Judith Butler recently asked. Here I will explore these issues in light of recent developments concerning the freedom of speech in Norway. I will argue that applying a cosmopolitan liberal approach to freedom of speech (i.e., along U. S. First Amendment lines) in a European context in which anti-Muslim and anti-immigration discourses are becoming ever more poisonous and pervasive risks underestimating the power dynamics inherent to the practice of free speech in contemporary Europe as well as overestimating the “mainstream” political and intellectual will to mobilize against the populist right-wing’s instrumentalized Islamophobia.

To fight the xenophobic populists, we need more free speech, not less | Timothy Garton Ash | Comment is free | The Guardian

Geert Wilders should not be on trial for his words on Islam. But mainstream politicians must confront and not appease him

Poppies and Prophets « The Immanent Frame

Thus, it seems that those invested in the idea that conflicts over speech and the sacred reveal some deep and troubling incommensurability—not over whether “blasphemous” speech ought to be prohibited by the law (Mahmood does not argue for this, unlike, say, Peter Danchin), but rather over the background presuppositions about what kinds of speech can injure, how they injure, and why—are not looking broadly or carefully enough at public and legal discourse in Europe. I cannot see much difference at all between how Mahmood characterizes the injury felt by (some) pious Muslims at the defamation of the Prophet and how Judge Riddle and his witness describe the injury felt by “typical, mild-mannered” Britons at the burning of poppies during a commemorative ceremony.

Critical Inquiry — Volume 35, Number 4

Saba Mahmood
Religious Reason and Secular Affect: An Incommensurable Divide?

Any academic discussion of religion in the present moment must countenance the shrill polemics that have followed from the events of the past decade—including 9/11, the subsequent war on terror, and the rise of religious politics globally. What was once a latent schism between religious and secular worldviews has now become an incommensurable divide, and protagonists from both sides posit an ominous standoff between strong religious beliefs and secular values. Indeed, a series of international events, particularly around Islam, are often seen as further evidence of this incommensurability.
Despite this polarization, more reflective voices in the current debate have tried to show how the religious and the secular are not so much immutable essences or opposed ideologies as they are concepts that gain a particular salience with the emergence of the modern state and attendant politics—concepts that are, furthermore, interdependent and necessarily linked in their mutual transformation and historical emergence. Viewed from this perspective, as a secular rationality has come to define law, statecraft, knowledge production, and economic relations in the modern world, it has also simultaneously transformed the conceptions, ideals, practices, and institutions of religious life. Secularism here is understood not simply as the doctrinal separation of the church and the state but the rearticulation of religion in a manner that is commensurate with modern sensibilities and modes of governance. To rethink the religious is also to rethink the secular and its truth-claims, its promise of internal and external goods.

The Right to Ridicule by Ronald Dworkin | The New York Review of Books

The British and most of the American press have been right, on balance, not to republish the Danish cartoons that millions of furious Muslims protested against in violent and terrible destruction around the world. Reprinting would very likely have meant—and could still mean—more people killed and more property destroyed. It would have caused many British and American Muslims great pain because they would have been told by other Muslims that the publication was intended to show contempt for their religion, and though that perception would in most cases have been inaccurate and unjustified, the pain would nevertheless have been genuine. True, readers and viewers who have been following the story might well have wanted to judge the cartoons’ impact, humor, and offensiveness for themselves, and the press might therefore have felt some responsibility to provide that opportunity. But the public does not have a right to read or see whatever it wants no matter what the cost, and the cartoons are in any case widely available on the Internet.

Harvard Law Review: Dignity and Defamation: The Visibility of Hate

In his three 2009 Holmes Lectures published here, Professor Waldron seeks to describe and defend laws forbidding group defamation — what we commonly refer to as “hate speech” — as affirming the basic dignity of each member of society. Part I defends the characterization of hate speech as group defamation. It argues that hate speech impugns its victims’ standing as equal members of society. Part II describes hate speech regulation as the protection of a fragile public good: the assurance offered by each member of society to all of its members that they can live free of fear, discrimination, violence, and the like. Part III defends the views articulated in Parts I and II from various criticisms, particularly those of Professor Ronald Dworkin. Dworkin argues that forbidding hate speech may result in a loss of democratic legitimacy for other laws. But Professor Waldron argues that with sufficient safeguards the loss is vanishingly small, and well worth the concomitant gains. As well, prohibitions on hate speech should only extend to issues that are “settled,” such as race, rather than issues that are currently controversial, which should further allay concerns that hate speech regulation will foreclose freedom or democratic debate.

Op-Ed Contributor – Totally Tolerant, Up to a Point – NYTimes.com

IF it were not for his hatred of Islam, Geert Wilders would have remained a provincial Dutch parliamentarian of little note.

Is Critique Secular? : Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood – University of California Press

In this volume, four leading thinkers of our times confront the paradoxes and dilemmas attending the supposed stand-off between Islam and liberal democratic values. Taking the controversial Danish cartoons of Mohammad as a point of departure, Talal Asad, Wendy Brown, Judith Butler, and Saba Mahmood inquire into the evaluative frameworks at stake in understanding the conflicts between blasphemy and free speech, between religious taboos and freedoms of thought and expression, and between secular and religious world views. Is the language of the law an adequate mechanism for the adjudication of such conflicts? What other modes of discourse are available for the navigation of such differences in multicultural and multi-religious societies? What is the role of critique in such an enterprise? These are among the pressing questions this volume addresses.

That’s Offensive!: Criticism, Identity, Respect, Collini

That’s Offensive! examines the common assertion that to criticize someone else’s deeply held ideas or beliefs is inherently offensive. This idea, Stefan Collini argues, is unfortunately reinforced by two of the central requirements of an enlightened global politics: treating all people with equal respect and trying to avoid words or deeds that compound existing social disadvantages. In this powerfully argued book, Collini identifies a confused form of relativism and a well-meaning condescension at the heart of such attitudes. Instead, Collini suggests that one of the most profound ways to show our respect for other people is by treating them as capable of engaging in reasoned argument and thus as equals in intellect and humanity.

Misc.Wilders’ trial
Editorial: Freedom to abuse? – Arab News

Where is Europe headed? With every passing day, the continent appears to walk back into the Middle Ages, surrendering its much-acclaimed freedom of faith and multiculturalism. The acquittal of Dutch politician Geert Wilders on charges of inciting hatred and discrimination against Muslims has come as a shock to Muslims around the world.

The legal boundaries of Dutch insults – Features – Al Jazeera English

Legal experts also expressed their doubt whether “a political debate” belonged in a courtroom. When the charges were pressed, the public prosecution refused to pursue Wilders saying it did not believe in a successful outcome to this case, however insulting Wilders’ remarks were seen to be.

Misc.
Rape in wartime: Listening to the victims – CNN.com

This is the first of two stories focusing on rape as a tool of war. The second story looks at the untold stories of rape in the Holocaust. Both stories contain graphic language; discretion is advised.

Silence lifted: The untold stories of rape during the Holocaust – CNN.com

This is the second of two stories focusing on rape as a tool of war.

Non-violence and the narrative of peace | Joseph Dana

Mainstream Israeli and international media argued endlessly, as though in a state of reverie, about whether Palestinian demonstrators who threw rocks should be considered unarmed, non-violent or violent. Absent from the conversation was the fact that Israel is rapidly increasing a programme of military repression against demonstrations in a last-ditch effort to dominate the narrative of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

EGYPT: Muslim Brotherhood youth break away to form new political party « altahrir, news of Islam, Muslims

The Muslim Brotherhood is struggling with more dissent in its ranks after a group of young members broke away from the Islamist organization’s political party to form a secular party that is more inclusive of other cultures and religions.

A moment before boarding the next flotilla – Haaretz Daily Newspaper | Israel News

I’d rather use my influence and power, in concert with other members of American civil society, to actively and nonviolently resist policies I consider abominable.

Egypt: The Victorious Islamists by Yasmine El Rashidi | The New York Review of Books

Stéphane Lacroix, a scholar of Wahabism and Islamist movements, spent a large part of last year in Egypt researching the Salafi movement, and he has close relations with prominent Islamists. In early June he described intimate meetings and dinners he’d just had with some of the Salafist leaders. “In many ways the Salafi battle has been won,” he said. “Certainly the conservative one has. To people like Abou Elela Mady”—the leader of the al-Wasat party—”it’s a question of which of the conservatives can win more votes.”

Shady politics of GayMiddleEast

In both cases Queer Arab and African voices are being co-opted by white men. With the help of a handfull of collaborators both on the continent and in the Diaspora they continually attempt to discredit our voices but worse grossly undermine grassroots struggles and take credit for any successes and acts of resistance. Queer African voices like our Queer Arab sisters and brothers..

The true definition of “Terrorist” – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

In late May, two Iraqi nationals, who were in the U.S. legally, were arrested in Kentucky and indicted on a variety of Terrorism crimes. In The Washington Post today, GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell — writing under the headline: “Guantanamo is the place to try terrorists” — castigates Attorney General Eric Holder for planning to try the two defendants in a civilian court on U.S. soil rather than shipping them to Guantanamo.

Culture clash over ritual slaughter ban | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

Two traditions clashed in the Dutch parliament on Wednesday evening: religious tolerance versus animal rights. The one rooted in centuries of Dutch history, the other a new development that seems to have rapidly become an element of 21st-century Dutch identity.

Dutch
Zo simpel is het! « Wat Je Zegt Ben Je Zelf!

Eindelijk heb ik dan de schuldige gevonden. De teleurstelling is schuldig. Ik heb hiermee ook bewezen dat een freaking GeenStijl-stuk het makkelijkste is wat er te schrijven is. Geef maar iets de schuld en verzin er een verhaal om heen. Al heb ik het nog te veel onderbouwd voor GeenStijl begrippen. De helft van de mensen slikt het toch wel voor zoete koek. Ze sluiten zich allemaal achter je aan. Niemand weet of ik het meen of niet! Een gedeelte zou mij verrot schelden. Er is ook een gedeelte wat mij gelijk gaat geven. Zo is de ster geboren. Of ik meen wat hier boven staat? Voor jullie een vraag voor mij een weet!

Sheikh Fawaz over oordeel rechtbank

Sheikh Fawaz heeft in zijn vrijdagpreek een reactie gegeven op het oordeel van de rechtbank in de zaak Wilders. De Sheikh vindt het oordeel een belediging voor de moslims.

Filosofie Magazine : Wilders’ vrijheid of vrijheid van meningsuiting?

De democratie begon in de achttiende eeuw met praten, met een gesprek waarvan niemand werd uitgesloten. Die discussie tussen gelijken, en niet het individuele recht op vrije meningsuiting, is volgens politiek filosoof Judith Vega de absolute kern van onze democratie.

Joodse instanties willen auteur rapport ritueel slachten horen :: nrc.nl

Bij het debat over het verbod op onverdoofd ritueel slachten speelde ‘het rapport van de universiteit van Wageningen’ een prominente rol. Joodse instanties willen de auteur nu onder ede horen over hoe het tot stand is gekomen.

‘Dierenrechten worden steeds belangrijker’ – Raoul Du Pré – VK

De politieke kracht van het verbod op de rituele slacht is vooral de symboolwaarde: dierenrechten winnen terrein.

SMN teleurgesteld over uitspraak rechter in zaak-Wilders

Het SMN is zeer teleurgesteld in de uitspraak van de rechter in de strafzaak tegen PVV-voorman Geert Wilders. We respecteren de uitspraak van de rechter, maar constateren ook dat de anti-moslim uitspraken van Wilders blijkbaar juridisch toelaatbaar zijn. Dat is teleurstellend. Het SMN vindt dat op basis van uitlatingen van de heer Wilders, er grond was om te worden veroordeeld voor discriminatie en aanzetten tot haat.

Marokkaans Netwerk: “De Nederlandse rechtsstaat is in gevaar”

Het Nederlands/Marokkaans Netwerk tegen racisme en voor sociale cohesie heeft met grote teleurstelling en verbazing kennis genomen van de uitspraak door de rechtbank in de zaak tegen Wilders. Dat laat het Netwerk weten in een persbericht.

Het Netwerk schrijft:” De Marokkaanse gemeenschap is verontrust over de uitspraak, die zal leiden tot een grotere verdeeldheid, meer islamofobie en verdergaande polarisatie. Moslims en andere minderheden zullen nog meer schade gaan ondervinden van de uitspraken van Wilders, die blijkbaar onbestraft gedaan kunnen worden.”

Etnische diversiteit versterkt sociale banden

Op basis van eerder onderzoek in de VS werd tot nu toe verondersteld dat mensen in etnisch diverse samenlevingen minder nauwe banden met anderen onderhouden. Ook zouden ze minder deelnemen aan het sociale leven. Onderzoek gefinancierd door de Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek (NWO) wijst nu echter uit dat de aanwezigheid van niet-Westerse immigranten in Europa geen negatieve gevolgen heeft op de banden tussen mensen. Integendeel: de aanwezigheid van immigranten in een regio komt ten goede aan de sociale banden tussen de mensen in die regio.
Het NWO-onderzoek is in juni gepubliceerd is in het tijdschrift Social Science Research.

Een toename van immigranten in een regio leidt er toe dat autochtonen meer allochtone vrienden en collega’s krijgen. Dit soort contact heeft weer een positieve uitwerking op het onderhouden van nauwe banden met andere autochtonen, ontdekten de onderzoekers.

Sociale Vraagstukken » Integratienota negeert bestaande waarden

Minister Donner gaat met zijn integratienota voorbij aan de al jarenlange stabiele steun van Nederlanders voor de multiculturele samenleving. De opvattingen van autochtonen zijn anders dan de scherpe toon van het publieke debat suggereert.

RTV Utrecht: “Hartelijk gesprek met leerlingen Bilalschool”

Leerlingen van groep 7 van de Amersfoortse Bilalschool hebben vandaag een gesprek gehad met nabestaanden uit de rouwstoet die zij eerder deze week verstoorden. Dat gesprek was open en hartelijk, staat in een persbericht van school en nabestaanden.

Bij het incident waren enkele leerlingen van de basisschool betrokken, alhoewel de beledigende opmerkingen door andere kinderen zouden zijn gemaakt. Er wordt door de school verder onderzoek gedaan.

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Closing the Week 21 – Featuring Mladic and the Shadow of Srebrenica

Posted on May 29th, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: anthropology, Blogosphere, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

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Featuring Mladic and the Shadow of Srebrenica
Duke University Press Log: Judith Armatta on the Arrest of Ratko Mladic

The arrest of Ratko Mladic demonstrates how far the world community has moved from providing warlords and tyrants with golden parachutes. The arrest of Egypt’s former president Hosni Mubarek and the indictment of Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi provide further evidence of the degree to which accountability for crimes by the powerful has taken root. Mubarek will stand trial in Egypt before an Egyptian court. Gaddafi has been indicted by the prosecutor for the International Criminal Court, an indictment that must be confirmed by a trial chamber of the ICC before an arrest can be made, which at this point is not imminent as Gaddafi remains in power.

The Duck of Minerva: Mladic, OBL and International Justice

What I find fascinating about the international reaction to his arrest is the importance of this man being brought to trial. At no point I am aware of during his years of hiding was it argued that he should instead be taken out by a targeted killing – partly because it was recognized that justice for his victims required a trial. Recent empirical research demonstrates that these courts have not only been able to effectively carry out prosecutions, but have had a number of other important positive side-effects, with few of the negatives originally feared. I remain puzzled that the ad hoc tribunal model has not been seriously considered for KSM, OBL or other terrorist masterminds.

Diana Johnstone: Srebrenica Revisited

The false interpretation of “Srebrenica” as part of an ongoing Serb project of “genocide” was used to incite the NATO war against Yugoslavia, which devastated a country and left behind a cauldron of hatred and ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. The United States is currently engaged in a far more murderous and destructive war in Iraq. In this context, the Western lamentations that inflate the Srebrenic massacre into “the greatest mass genocide since Nazi times” are a diversion from the real existing genocide, which is not the work of some racist maniac, but the ongoing imposition of a radically unjust socio-economic world order euphemistically called “globalization”.

Dutch relief at the arrest of Mladi? | Radio Netherlands Worldwide

The arrest of Ratko Mladi? has been warmly welcomed in the Netherlands. The former Bosnian Serb army chief is accused of a genocide that took place virtually under the noses of the Dutch UN forces. They were supposed to be protecting the Muslim enclave of Srebrenica in 1995. The fall of the enclave and the murder of almost 8,000 Bosnian Muslims is therefore remembered by the Dutch as a black page in their country’s history. It was the worst atrocity committed in Europe since the Second World War.

Mladic in Belgrade court for extradition hearing – Crime – Salon.com

Mladic, 69, was one of the world’s most-wanted fugitives — the top commander of the Bosnian Serb army during Bosnia’s 1992-95 war, which left more than 100,000 people dead and drove another 1.8 million from their homes. Thousands of Muslims and Croats were killed, tortured or driven out in a campaign to purge the region of non-Serbs.

Mladic in the Dock-At Last – NYTimes.com

Less than a month after the death of Osama bin Laden, Ratko Mladic, one of the most evil men of the 20th century, has been captured. The moment is sweet. For me, bittersweet. For 16 years, Mladic had been Richard Holbrooke’s nemesis, and my husband died without seeing him brought to justice. Mladic’s freedom all these years after the Dayton Accords put an end to the Bosnian war was a personal wound for Richard, the chief architect of that agreement. We cannot call Dayton a success while Mladic is free, my husband used to say.

Profile: Ratko Mladic – Europe – Al Jazeera English

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb military leader during the 1992-1995 Bosnian war, was indicted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal in 1995 on charges of genocide and other crimes against humanity.

Serbia announced his arrest on May 26, 2011.

“On behalf of the Republic of Serbia we announce that Ratko Mladic has been arrested,” Boris Tadic, the country’s president, said.

“Today we closed one chapter of our recent history that will bring us one step closer to full reconciliation in the region.”

Executions Were Mladic’s Signature, and Downfall – NYTimes.com

With video cameras capturing the moment, Gen. Ratko Mladic’s bodyguards handed out chocolates to Bosnian Muslim children, promising terrified women that the violence was over.

“No one will be harmed,” the Bosnian Serb commander said on July 12, 1995, gently patting a young boy on the head. “You have nothing to fear. You will all be evacuated.”

Worst European massacre since WWII – The Irish Times – Thu, May 26, 2011

As Bosnian Serb troops brutally ‘cleansed’ their ethnic rivals from land they claimed, Mladic and Karadzic defended their actions.

What the arrest of Ratko Mladic means – International Crisis Group

Not only is Mladic’s arrest important, but so too is the reaction of average Serbs. So far it has been extremely balanced and accepting. On the morning of the Mladic’s detention, President Tadic said that his arrest was necessary to restore Serbian honor. This is indeed a time for Serbs, but also the rest of the Balkan population to recognize that terrible crimes were perpetuated in their name, but those who committed the crimes will face justice.

Mladic and his ilk should never be allowed to become local heroes; all people of the Balkans should clearly see them for who they are: ruthless cold blooded war criminals. This will provide the basis needed for reconciliation and forgiveness.

The meaning of Mladic’s arrest | The Multilateralist

Serb authorities arrested today Ratko Mladic, former commander of the Bosnian Serb army and author of the Srebrenica massacre. Serbia is reportedly arranging Mladic’s transfer to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in the Hague. Serbian president Boris Tadic has denied that the arrest was arranged to occur on the eve of a report from the ICTY and a visit by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. There’s long been speculation that the Serbian authorities knew where Mladic was but hesitated to seize him because of support for him in the armed forces.

Haunting Images of the Massacre That Shamed Europe – Photography by Andy Spyra | Foreign Policy

On July 11, 1995, the Serbian army entered the town of Srebrenica in eastern Bosnia-Herzegovina and in the days that followed killed 8,000 Bosniak men and boys. The Srebrenica genocide was the largest mass murder in Europe since the end of World War II, and the country is still recovering from the war that ended 15 years ago.

Live from Belgrade – following the arrest of Ratko Mladic « A Slice Of Serbian Politics

Almost eleven years since the gloriously announced democratic reforms and sixteen years since the Dayton agreement it is a high time for Serbia and the rest of the region to start walking towards the better future. Although Serbian Radical Party earlier today announced peaceful citizens’ protests and an opinion poll few days ago showed that 51 per cent of Serbia’s citizens is against Mladic’s arrest, I do not think that there is a political party or leader who would be able to make a political profit from organizing the protests similar to those when Radovan Karadzic was arrested.

Balkans via Bohemia: First thoughts about the arrest of Ratko Mladic

The arrest of indicted Serbian war criminal Ratko Mladic is a watershed moment in the region. But there are significant perils in it as well, and perhaps not where one might expect to find them.

Mladi? deserves a fair trial, but he will not get it… « BORUT PETERLIN in a rabbit hole of photography

I’ve been in Srebrenica and also in a morgue with several hundred unidentified bodies and also in Crni vrh – Zvornik the largest mass grave from a genocide in BiH. I wish Ratko Mladi? a fair trail, because fairness is what he deserves, although it can not be delivered in Haag or any other trial and also not in a/one lifetime, but he will get what he deserves! Above are images from Crni Vrh, Poto?ari, Sarajevo, Bijeli potok, Srebrenica. The sign on a billboard, written in Cyrillic is taken in Serbian part of BiH and my best translation would be “It is difficult to god, the way we are!”.

The devolution of Ratko Mladic – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

After rejecting ethnic division and asserting “brotherhood and unity”, how did Mladic become an accused war criminal?

Thomas Cushman, Anthropology and genocide in the Balkans from Anthropological Theory

This article examines scholarly discourse on the wars in the former Yugoslavia. It focuses on relativistic arguments put forward by anthropologists and shows how such mask and elide central historical realities of the con?ict. Relativistic accounts of serious modern con?icts often mirror and offer legitimation to the accounts put forth by perpetrators. In this case, several leading accounts of the wars in the former Yugoslavia display a strong af?nity to those asserted by Serbian nationalists. The article addresses the issue of ethics and intellectual responsibility in anthropological ?eldwork in situations of con?ict and the problem of the political uses of anthropological research.

Religion and the Public
Views: Matters of Ultimate Concern – Inside Higher Ed

The papers and exchanges at the Cooper Union in October 2009 were, for the most part, sober enough. Discussions of the concept of the public sphere tend to be more civil than the actually existing public sphere itself. But we shouldn’t take this for granted. Quite a bit has changed since Habermas introduced the term about 50 years ago — and the vectors of argument in The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere place his initial formulation under a lot of strain.

Butler, Habermas, and West on Religion in the Public Sphere

In The Power of Religion in the Public Sphere a group of preeminent philosophers confront one pervasive contemporary concern: what role does — or should — religion play in our public lives? Reflecting on her recent work concerning state violence in Israel-Palestine, Judith Butler explores the potential of religious perspectives for renewing cultural and political criticism, while Jürgen Habermas, best known for his seminal conception of the public sphere, thinks through the ambiguous legacy of the concept of “the political” in contemporary theory. Charles Taylor argues for a radical redefinition of secularism, and Cornel West defends civil disobedience and emancipatory theology. Eduardo Mendieta and Jonathan VanAntwerpen detail the immense contribution of these philosophers to contemporary social and political theory, and an afterword by Craig Calhoun places these attempts to reconceive the significance of both religion and the secular in the context of contemporary national and international politics.

Dutch blasphemy law likely to stay as Christian fundamentalist takes Senate balance of power – The Washington Post

Dutch courts have not prosecuted a blasphemy case since putting a novelist on trial in 1966 for a story about wanting to have sex with God, who had taken the form of a donkey.

Theology and cognitive science | Helen De Cruz’s blog

Traditionally, cognitive scientists have argued for a large cognitive divide between folk religion and theology. Folk religious beliefs are considered to be cognitively natural, whereas theology is chock-full of concepts that are difficult to represent. Pascal Boyer has termed the tendency of laypeople to distort official theological doctrines to reflect more intuitive modes of reasoning ”the tragedy of the theologian”.

Arab Uprisings
Three Days in Yemeni History | Waq al-Waq | Big Think

As I write, shelling is still going on around Sadiq’s house, and there are rumors that the 1st Armored Division is preparing for war. Meanwhile, tribesmen loyal to Sadiq are rushing south from Amran towards the capital to defend their shaykh, while the US ambassador is reportedly preparing to depart the country.

It isn’t clear where this headed, or what can be done from the outside, probably not much. Salih has let slip the dogs of war. This is likely to get worse before it gets better.

A Palestinian Revolt in the Making? | The Nation

The May 15 demonstrations reinvigorated the long-alienated Palestinian refugee community; although it is 70 percent of the Palestinian population, it has been largely shut out of the negotiations process with Israel. The emerging unity was on display at Qalandia, where youth trying to symbolically march from Ramallah to Jerusalem wore black T-shirts with the slogan “Direct Elections for the Palestine National Council, a Vote for Every Palestinian, Everywhere.” The PNC is the legislative body of the Palestine Liberation organization and is responsible for electing its executive committee. Traditionally, seat allocation in the PNC has been divided to represent the influence factions within the PLO, of which Hamas is not a member.

Readers’ Questions & Answers: More Thoughts on Arab Uprisings « The Moor Next Door

Last week reader sent an email asking a number of questions about the impact of the Arab uprisings on the Arab region in terms of the foreign policy of the countries in the region, from the perspective of some one who generally focuses on the Maghreb. Another reader emailed and asked for thoughts on Libya specifically. This is the response to both, not totally coherent (these are areas of generally peripheral interest/knowledge for this blogger) but here is a summary and then a very general thought dump on: Libya, Egypt, Turkey, Iran and regional Islamist movements (some of it is a bit dated, since it was written a week ago). Take it all with a grain of salt.

Showdown in Morocco | The Middle East Channel

What started as a small group on Facebook earlier this year, has since grown into a nationwide movement made up of a loose coalition of leftists, liberals and members of the conservative Islamist right. Inspired by the Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings and powered by new media, the movement convinced hundreds of thousands to take to the streets. The demonstrations held week in, week out, were remarkably peaceful. In response, King Mohammed VI promised a package of constitutional reforms to be submitted to a referendum in June. But as protesters, unconvinced by the King’s promise, vow to keep up pressure on the regime, authorities seem increasingly impatient and determined to break up protests violently, paving the way toward escalation and confrontation with the street. The middle class is joining the mass of demonstrators, moving the protests beyond the core of mobilized youth. Their target is the makhzen — which has become a code word for the monarchy’s abuses of power and monopoly over large sectors of the economy.

Free of Qaddafi’s Grip, Young Libyans in Benghazi Find a Voice – Bloomberg

Berenice Post, an Arabic and English weekly, is one of more than 50 publications that have sprung up in the rebel stronghold of Benghazi since the uprising against Muammar Qaddafi. Young Libyans in this eastern city are taking advantage of newfound freedoms to churn out publications, sketch anti-Qaddafi caricatures and record revolutionary rap.

The future of the Arab uprisings – Opinion – Al Jazeera English

A specter is haunting the Arab world – the specter of democratic revolution. All the powers of the old Arab world have entered into a holy alliance with each other and the United States to exorcise this specter: king and sultan, emir and president, neoliberals and zionists.

While Marx and Engels used similar words in 1848 in reference to European regimes and the impending communist revolutions that were defeated in the Europe of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, there is much hope in the Arab world that these words would apply more successfully to the ongoing democratic Arab uprisings.

Ducking the Arab Spring in Morocco « The Immanent Frame

The wave of protests shaking the Arab political regimes has quietly but forcefully made its way to Morocco. The February 20 youth movement—made up of a loose coalition of independent groups, backed by liberal, leftist, labor, and Islamist opposition movements—is leading the call for democratic change. Since February it has organized two mass demonstrations across fifty major cities and towns, drawing several hundred thousands of protesters. Social and political protests in Morocco are not new, nor do they yet threaten the survival of the regime. But the revolutionary spirit and mass appeal of the movement signal a major shift in popular attitudes regarding the monarchy’s monopoly and abuses of power.

Visualizing protests for media-bias and sectarianism » the engine room

Reuters ran a story last month alleging media bias in Al Jazeera’s coverage of the Arab Spring. This spawned a short flurry of online commentary, some posts more vitriolic than others. It also raised the awkward issue of how sectarianism impacts the regional spread and response to unrest, which is worth more considered attention than I have seen it given in mainstream reporting.

The thrust of the Reuters piece was that Al Jazeera, much applauded for their critical role in disseminating information on protests in Tunisia and Egypt (praise rightly deserved), had turned a blind eye to Bahraini protests out of deference to Qatari royal interests.

Racism, Sexism, Islamophobia
Dutch court rejects anti-Islam MP’s bias claim < | Expatica The Netherlands

An Amsterdam court rejected a claim by far right leader Geert Wilders that an earlier court decison was biased and that hate speech charges against him should be dropped.

“The request is denied,” said Judge Marcel van Oosten, during a hearing broadcast on the Internet by Dutch public television. “The trial must go on.”

Racist Science: An Evolutionary Psychologist on Black Women :: racismreview.com

Kanazawa’s argument is of course baseless and there is no scientific evidence to support his notion that black women have more testosterone than other races of women. The perception of Kanazawa and the Ad Health interviewers is a direct reflection of the historical social construction of black women (and whites) by elite white men, such as Thomas Jefferson and Georges Cuvier. This is a society historically constructed by elite white men, whereby their notion of beauty is treated as the irrevocable truth. A socially created “truth,” that has not only been accepted by whites, but also by some people of color. As far back as the 15th and 16th centuries, European travelers and scientists have defined black women as innately inferior to white women in beauty, sexuality, and femininity. These early European travelers often defined black women as masculine and thus fit for the hard life of slavery.

Asian people 42 times more likely to be held under terror law | UK news | The Guardian

People from ethnic minorities are up to 42 times more likely than white people to be the target of a counter-terrorism power which allows the stopping and searching of the innocent yet grants them fewer rights than suspected criminals, official figures seen by the Guardian show.

USC Knight Chair in Media and Religion

As media coverage shifts to the rising backlash against the chauvinism of Strauss-Kahn’s defenders, journalists should remember that in France, as in the U.S., sexism is rarely separable from racial and religious prejudice. While journalists rightfully dismiss conspiracy theories from anonymous bloggers, they would do well to heed the insights of scholars and op-ed writers who highlight the relationship between male chauvinism and anti-Muslim prejudice in French culture.

Anthropology
EthnoSense

This blog is for those who have experienced what other possible worlds are out there, who have dedicated time of their own to get to know another culture, another lifestyle… for those who realize that things could be different.

From fieldnotes to fieldtags « media/anthropology

I seem to spend a lot of my social media research time tagging web contents rather than taking fieldnotes. By ‘tagging’ I mean attaching keywords such as ‘activism’, ‘protest’, and ‘sinde’ to online materials that seem useful and then saving them on the bookmarking site Delicious.com, or (less frequently) on this blog, or ‘sharing’ them via Twitter through hashtags (e.g. #activism, #socialmedia, #egypt).

The Memory Bank » Blog Archive » The ethnography of finance and the history of money

Marcel Mauss was a prolific financial journalist, writing about the exchange rate crisis of 1922-24 at the same time as he was writing The Gift; but he kept them in separate compartments and economic anthropologists have been content to ignore his political writings. The recent emergence of the ethnographic study of finance promises to break down this division. But how might such an approach be integrated into the history of money at the global level? This paper outlines an approach to the anthropology of money drawing both on classical sources and on developments since the 1980s. With this in mind a number of ethnographies of finance are reviewed, paying attention to their methods and conclusions. How much has this exciting initiative contributed to a better understanding of the world economy today? What else is needed?

Paul Venoit: Giving Anthropology a Little Lip Service

Not for the faint of heart, red lipstick is like vibrance and confidence in a tube. But where did its sultry reputation originate? And why doesn’t a pale lip or a smoky eye conjure the same mood as only a red mouth can? Here’s where apothecary meets anthropology.

On Neoliberalism by Sherry Ortner « Anthropology of this Century

I find all of this encouraging on a number of counts. I am encouraged that there are wealthy persons like Ferguson who have both a critical intelligence and a conscience, as well as the talent to make a powerful film. I am encouraged that the film had the power to expose and shame an influential person, his field, and his institution, and possibly bring about some small but real change. I am encouraged that the Times covered, and indeed constructed, the story. It will only be out of some complicated conjuncture of people and forces like this – between wealthy and powerful renegades like Ferguson, powerful media like the New York Times (and smart reporters like Sewell Chan), anthropologists and others writing and teaching about what is going on, and ordinary people themselves, in their infinite practical wisdom, in every part of the globe – that some kinds of solutions may emerge.

Misc.
An Iraqi view on the Netherlands | Standplaats Wereld

During my explanation my father joined us on Messenger, and Zahra started talking:

– Daddy, do you know? Ali said that the people in the Netherlands do not have any kind of problems, and that is the reason they create their problems, and then they demonstrate against their imagined problems!!

I honestly didn’t use this theoretical level of words! Now I wondered: who is the sociologist in my family??!!

News : Exclusive: Guildford Four and Birmingham Six solicitor condemns Tony Blair’s role in the “layers and layers of deceit” in Pan Am 103 case : THE FIRM : SCOTLAND’S INDEPENDENT LAW JOURNAL

Peirce, whose recently published book “Dispatches from the Dark Side” contains an essay entitled “The Framing of Al Megrahi” spoke to The Firm exclusively about the Pan Am 103 case and said that her involvement was prompted in part by her learning that the same discredited personnel whose flawed evidence was instrumental in convicting the Guildford and Birmingham convicts were also the providers of the key flawed evidence in the Megrahi case.

AFP: 50 years for Germany’s Turkish community

Aylin Selcuk may be the granddaughter of a Turkish immigrant, and a Muslim to boot, but she only really began to feel different from other Germans after a certain central banker spoke out.

Bin Laden’s TV

In part, the presumed self-evidence of the footage is attributable to its form – this being a video steeped in the familiar YouTube aesthetics of amateur production which we have all learned to read; indeed, some media outlets referred to it as a “home movie.” Yet self-evidence also depends on the video’s co-star: the television (indeed, the first minutes of footage focus solely on the TV screen, featuring a menu of channels and Bin Laden’s incriminating choice, Al Jazeera). If we believe the mainstream media, the video’s ability to “demystify the Bin Laden legend” rests in no small measure with the television itself. Consider the media’s depiction of this damning scene: “The video shows bin Laden sitting alone in a drab, run-down room in front of an old TV connected by a bundle of bare cables to a satellite receiver.” Or, from Tom Fuentes, former assistant director of the FBI on CNN: “An aging man crouched before a TV — a junkie TV, I might add — in a darkened room. Not exactly how most people picture the man who called for global jihad.” And: “So it’s a sort of a different image that some of this followers were being used to….There was nothing ostentatious about this video of Bin Laden. It wasn’t like he was looking at a flat screen…” (this from CNN’s ‘counter-terrorism expert’).

Fatemeh Fakhraie: A feminist Muslim breaks stereotypes | OregonLive.com

Fakhraie’s piece, “Roots,” appears in “I Speak for Myself: American Women on Being Muslim.” The collection of writing by 40 American Muslim women under the age of 40 was published this month by Ashland’s White Cloud Press. Each entry breaks open the life of a young woman who is at once ordinary and exceptional, who lives her life of faith under a spotlight that is often harsh.

Dutch
Alarm: meer dan helft van Amsterdamse bevolking allochtoon

Niet iedere allochtoon is zoals de Telegraaf suggereert ‘geen Nederlander’, de meeste zijn genaturaliseerd en net zo Nederlands als Maxima. Veel hier zijn hier geboren en net zo Nederlands als Amaiia, onze toekomstige koningin. Maxima en Amalia zijn net als veel andere allochtonen ‘wit’ en geen moslim.
Van islamisering van Amsterdam is voorlopig geen sprake. Al jaren schommelt het aantal Amsterdammers dat zichzelf moslim noemt rond de 12%.

Amsterdam is net als veel andere hoofdsteden een stad met vele etnische groepen en nationaliteiten. Dat is op zich geen reden voor zorg of alarm. Wat wel reden tot zorg geeft, is dat er in Amsterdam steeds meer sprake lijkt te zijn van etnische tweedeling

Etnische tweedeling in Amsterdam neemt toe

De segregatie langs etnische lijnen in Amsterdam neemt nog altijd toe. Vooral buiten de ring is er sprake van een stijging van het aandeel niet-westerse allochtonen. Onder deze groepen is de werkloosheid fors hoger, ligt het opleidingsniveau lager, is er sprake van een slechtere gezondheid, heeft men minder vaak een eigen woning en voelt men zich vaker eenzaam en gediscrimineerd. Turken hebben de meeste problemen met hun gezondheid, de ontwikkeling van Surinaamse Amsterdammers stagneert en maar liefst 42% van de Marokkaanse kinderen leeft in armoede.

Wat ook niet vrolijk stemt is dat steeds meer Amsterdammers alleen vrienden uit de eigen etnische groep hebben. Dit geldt voor Surinamers, Turken en Marokkanen en ook voor autochtonen.

Dat zijn enkele conclusies uit de vorige week gepresenteerde participatiemonitor De Staat van de Stad VI en de Diversiteits- en Integratiemonitor 2010. Beide onderzoeken zijn uitgevoerd door het Amsterdamse onderzoeksbureau O+S.

‘Probleem is extremisme, niet sharia’ – Arabische opstand – TROUW

“De deur is geopend voor conservatieve krachten in onze maatschappij, die een bedreiging vormen voor de positie van de vrouw”, zegt Tanahi al-Gabali. Zij was de eerste vrouwelijke rechter van Egypte, en is nu lid van het hooggerechtshof. Trouw spreekt met haar over de positie van vrouwen in Egypte na de revolutie.

Sharia4Holland pleit voor gescheiden toiletten – GeenCommentaar

Als het aan de radicale islamitische groepering Sharia4Holland ligt bieden restaurants, café’s en uitgaansgelegenheden zo spoedig mogelijk aparte toiletgelegenheden voor mannen en vrouwen. Tevens pleit de organisatie voor gescheiden sportteams en aparte gelegenheden tot douchen achteraf. Moslims in Nederland reageren verheugd, tegenstanders vrezen ‘een stap terug naar de middeleeuwen’.

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Closing the week 20 – Featuring Women2Drive

Posted on May 22nd, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, Gender, Kinship & Marriage Issues, Religious and Political Radicalization, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

Most popular on Closer this week:

1. Veil, For a Change
2. Het einde van religie in Europa?
3. Egypt: After the Revolution by Samuli Schielke
4. Diyanet in Turkey and the Netherlands – Transnational politics and politicization of research by Thijl Sunier
5. Catastrophe and Independence – Continuing Claims of Memory

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Featuring Women2Drive Saudi Arabia
Saudis arrest YouTube activist challenging ban on women drivers | World news | The Guardian

Saudi authorities have arrested an activist who launched a campaign to challenge a ban on women driving in the conservative kingdom and posted a video on the internet of her behind the wheel, activists said.

Saudi Arabia

Campaign by Saudi women to drive began on both facebook and Twitter: “On Fri Jun 17th, we women in Saudi will start driving our cars by ourselves.” You may follow fb link and on Twitter @Women2Drive.

A Few Brave Women Dare Take Wheel in Defiance of Saudi Law Against Driving – Bloomberg

Manal, a 32-year-old woman, is planning something she’s never done openly in her native Saudi Arabia: Get in her car and take to the streets, defying a ban on female drivers in the kingdom.

Saudi Women: “I Will Drive Myself Starting June 17”

Us women in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia are the ones who will lead this society towards change. While we failed to deliver through our voices, we will not fail to deliver through our actions. We have been silent and under the mercy of our guardian (muhram) or foreign driver for too long. Some of us barely make ends meet and cannot even afford cab fare. Some of us are the heads of households yet have no source of income except for a few hard-earned [Saudi] Riyals that are used to pay drivers. Then there are those of us who do not have a muhram to look after our affairs and are forced to ask strangers for help. We are even deprived of public transportation, our only salvation from being under the mercy of others. We are your daughters, wives, sisters, and mothers. We are half of society and give birth to [the other] half, yet we have been made invisible and our demands have been marginalized. We have been deliberately excluded from your plans! Therefore, the time has come to take the initiative. We will deliver a letter of complaint to our father the King of Humanity and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques calling on him to support the Women of June 17.

Xenophobia and Governance of (Muslim) minorities
The new faces of the European far-right « The Immanent Frame

Two hitherto marginal but rising forces proved pivotal in the 2009 European elections: a burgeoning Green movement and a renascent far-right. On one hand, the British National Party won its first entry to the European Parliament, while in the Netherlands a rich multicultural heritage has been challenged by the electoral victories of the nativist Party for Freedom (PVV). On the other hand, the breakthrough of environmental groups on the political scene was celebrated everywhere in Europe. In Germany, where there was already a strong Green tradition, and in France, they outstripped the center parties in unprecedented fashion. But since the election, the actions of the Greens have remained virtually invisible, while the far-right never ceases to occupy the public stage, shaping societal debate across Europe and positioning itself as a viable alternative political force.

Xenophobia and the Civilizing Mission | openDemocracy

The return of the figure of the foreigner in Europe questions the ways in which Europe has sought to reconstruct itself after a historical moment of deep importance: the fall of colonial empires. Medias and public opinion usually refer to two contemporary facts that define Europe, its contours, its ‘spirit’: the rise and fall of Nazism and totalitarianism, summarized in the Second World War and the ‘Fall of the Berlin Wall.’ Both occurred in Europe. However, the creation and fall of the colonial empires, events of considerable importance in the making of modern Europe, is very rarely included. The ways in which colonialism and its end have shaped Europe are not quite part of European cartography. What occurred in the colony is never entirely seen as the creation of modern, democratic Europe but as a monstrous perversion carried out by ‘uncivilized’ men. The colony is externalized, excised from political thought, framed between the beginning of colonization and its end. The ‘colonized’ is a foreign figure, framed within fixed categories, lazy, ungrateful, aggressive, violent, sexist. His woman is ‘oppressed,’ veiled, caught in tradition. The figure of the foreigner remains opaque, someone who is entirely a stranger, unable to ‘integrate’ European culture and values. And yet, only through this integration might the stranger enter civilization.

Abuse of Muslims shows equality is still an open question in Europe – CSMonitor.com

Religious intolerance is a daily reality in Europe, mainly targeted at Muslims. We need to better understand the dynamics behind the new trend of laws and popular opinion banning minority religious expression and stigmatizing Islam.

The future of Islamophobia: the liberal, the Jew, the animal | openDemocracy

So suddenly there has been a curious reversal in the fortune of Muslims and Jews in Holland. For Muslim organizations, this controversy has become an opportunity to demonstrate their reasonable willingness to adapt Islamic practice to the findings of modern science and the norms of Dutch society. For Jews, it has been to discover that they have been demoted from Holocaust survivors to a religious minority like any other. Suddenly it matters more that they are ‘religious’ than that they are ‘Jews.’ Neither the international pleas personally addressed to Dutch political leaders by the American Simon Wiesenthal Center, nor public statements from European rabbis, nor calls to remember the proud Dutch tradition of tolerance towards the Jewish community have made any difference. That is to say, today, so far as the secularist Dutch majority is concerned, once religious Jews disagree with them they are little different from Muslims: trapped in stubborn irrationality and medieval practices. Liberal secularism is on its way to becoming the new group-think.

Entrapment and Racialization: The “Homegrown” Canard

The very public disagreement between the two law enforcement agencies disrupted the usually tidy media narrative about “homegrown,” Muslim American terrorism, disrupted by vigilant and effective surveillance. Suddenly, messy notions of entrapment and false accusations targeting stigmatized minorities started to seep into the mainstream discussion.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister in call for tolerance after Ataka mosque incident – Bulgaria – The Sofia Echo

Bulgaria is one of the few countries in Europe which for more than 50 years has been an example of tolerance – ethnic, religious and other forms – and no one should damage this, Foreign Minister Nikolai Mladenov said after a clash outside a mosque in central Sofia between supporters of ultra-nationalist party Ataka and Muslims led to injuries and arrests.

Bulgaria: Right-Wing Group and Muslims Clash in Sofia · Global Voices

Violent clashes erupted between sympathizers of the nationalist Ataka (The Attack) party and local Muslims at the Bania Basha mosque in the center of Bulgaria’s capital, Sofia, during today’s nationalist demonstrations against the mosque’s loudspeakers.

The Arab Revolutions and Beyond
Reflections on the (In)Visibility of Copts in Egypt

I’ve been thinking lately about the circumstances under which Coptic Christians emerge on the Egyptian socio-political landscape. Those circumstances tend to be, in a word, ugly. Copts become a visible religious community when they are attacked. And then Westerners in particular wonder: “Who are the Copts?” (I should also point out, however, that although well aware of the existence of Copts, or al-aqbat in Arabic, most Egyptian Muslims are equally unfamiliar with Coptic religiosity.) This strange play between visibility and invisibility is the problematic that I take up here, arguing that what is desirable for Copts in a new Egypt is a visibility that takes seriously their religiosity. I do so by drawing on ethnographic fieldwork I have been doing among Copts and reflecting on recent events in Egypt.

Who are the Coptic Christians? | Art and design | guardian.co.uk

Attacks on churches, communal divisions – Cairo has recently seen conflicts between some Muslims and Coptic Christians. But who exactly are the Copts and how did they come to be in Egypt? Part of the answer lies in Coptic art.

War & revolutions: Europe and the Arab world – Empire – Al Jazeera English

Europe has dramatically changed its tune. Having once embraced Arab autocrats it is now supporting democracy in the Middle East, selectively. In Libya, they are intervening militarily, although Gaddafi was until recently a guest of honour in their capitals.

This diplomatic double dealing might be common place in international relations, but it is now being dressed-up in the moral hyperbole of humanitarian intervention.

To some, the NATO-led intervention has complicated the natural progression of the Arab awakening; others feel that despite their cynical calculations Western powers are, for the first time, on the right side of Arab history.

Empire travels across Europe’s centres of power to examine the hypocrisy of the Arab world’s closest neighbours.

Arab Spring, Turkish Fall – By Steven A. Cook | Foreign Policy

The Arab uprisings seemed tailor-made for the “new Turkey” to exert its much-vaunted influence in the Middle East. Since the Justice and Development Party (AKP) came to power almost nine years ago, Ankara has actively courted the region, cultivating warm relations with certain Arab countries, winning plaudits from Rabat to Ramadi for its principled stand on Gaza, and using its prestige to solve problems in Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria. A central focus of Turkey’s so-called “zero problems” foreign policy has been a concerted effort to improve and expand relations with the countries to its south and east. Now, with millions of Arabs standing up and demanding their freedom, Turks are not the only ones to have held up the “Turkish model” — the democratic development of a predominantly Muslim society in an officially secular political system — as a possible way forward for the rest of the Middle East.

Terrorism After the Revolutions | Foreign Affairs

Although last winter’s peaceful popular uprisings damaged the jihadist brand, they also gave terrorist groups greater operational freedom. To prevent those groups from seizing the opportunities now open to them, Washington should keep the pressure on al Qaeda and work closely with any newly installed regimes.

Egyptian uprising’s reporter: ‘Two Egypts have emerged’ | World news | The Guardian

In the past 100 days, two Egypts have emerged. One is revolutionary Egypt, driven by ideals and demanding reform and institutional change. And then there is the other Egypt, in which the military tries to maintain law and order. In certain areas, those two Egypts conflict; in other areas, they converge. Right now, they are torn apart and heading in very different directions.

Twitter’s window on Middle East uprisings Jon Friedman’s Media Web – MarketWatch

Her use of Twitter, for instance, is fascinating to me. Journalists have long done research by looking at such tools as government-issued reports. But by examining data from Twitter, Shereen Sakr can come up with first-hand findings.

An interview with the MB’s Mohamed Morsy – Blog – The Arabist

Mohamed MorsyFollowing a symposium in London organized by the Egyptian Community in the United Kingdom, a diaspora association of Egyptian Muslims in Britain, Arabist reader Dalia Malek had the chance to follow up with Muslim Brotherhood Guidance Council member and president of Justice and Freedom Party Mohamed Morsy and ask further questions about his lecture. She sent in this transcript of the interview and her notes on Morsy’s lecture.

Egypt: Why Are the Churches Burning? by Yasmine El Rashidi | NYRBlog | The New York Review of Books

On the weekend of May 7 and 8, in the Cairo district of Imbaba—an impoverished working-class neighborhood that has been a stronghold of militant Islamists in the past—a group of Salafis tried to force their way into Saint Mina Church, a local Coptic house of worship. They were demanding the release of a woman, Abeer, an alleged convert to Islam whom they claimed—without evidence—the church was holding against her will. (Christians here have long alleged that Islamists kidnap their girls, rape them, and force them to convert to Islam. In recent weeks, those allegations have grown. Now, some Salafis have been making similar charges about Copts.).

Israel and Palestine: Here comes your non-violent resistance | The Economist

FOR many years now, we’ve heard American commentators bemoan the violence of the Palestinian national movement. If only Palestinians had learned the lessons of Gandhi and Martin Luther King, we hear, they’d have had their state long ago. Surely no Israeli government would have violently suppressed a non-violent Palestinian movement of national liberation seeking only the universally recognised right of self-determination.

Gamal al-Banna: No to civil state with Islamic reference | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today’s News from Egypt

Banna, whose views are widely criticized in religious circles in Egypt, said that promoting the idea of a civil state on the condition that it should be based on religion, is “a fallacy.” His words represented a not-so-hidden attack on the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), which calls for a civil state with an “Islamic reference”.

During an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, Banna said that most Muslims today are Salafis, a fact that he attributes to the closure of the door to ijtihad (the process of making a jurisprudential decision by interpretation of the sources of the Islamic law), and people’s blind following of Salafi interpretations of Islam.

Where do gay rights come in the Arab protests? – Ahwaa.org

The revolutionary protests sweeping across the Arab world has left me wondering if this is one step closer to gay rights or if we have yet to reach that stage of tolerance, open mindedness and acceptance in our lifetime

The Associated Press: Israel’s religious gays battle for acceptance

A once unimaginable movement is emerging from within Israel’s insular Orthodox Jewish community: homosexuals demanding to be accepted and embraced, no matter what the Bible says.

Egyptian Chronicles: Nakba Revolution : The people want to return back to Palestine and Golan

I do not remember that the anniversary of Nakba was as hot and as intense as today seriously. The people want the right of the return , the people want to return back to Palestine.

Thirteen killed as Israeli troops open fire on Nakba Day border protests | World news | guardian.co.uk

Israeli troops opened fire on pro-Palestinian demonstrators attempting to breach its borders on three fronts, killing at least 13 people. Scores more were wounded at Israel’s borders with Syria, Lebanon and Gaza.

On Salafism
Salafis 101: 5 key facts – What does ‘Salafi’ mean? – CSMonitor.com

Salafi Muslims are often associated with militant Islam and violent groups such as Al Qaeda, though most Salafis disavow violent jihad. Repressed for decades by secular dictators such as Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Zine Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Salafis may find new breathing room now that the Arab Spring has ousted such leaders. Here are five facts to help you understand them.

Rise of Salafism in political sphere is muffled by media – The National

The Salafis have been accused of inciting recent violence, although there is no conclusive proof to that effect. The group did not initially support the Tahrir Square protests, but have gained great power in its aftermath.

Al-Ahram Weekly | Egypt | Salafism: The unknown quantity

Sectarian incidents like the burning of churches in Imbaba have put the spotlight on Salafis. Who are they, and what do they espouse, asks Amani Maged

Rape, sex and race
The DSK arrest could be bad news for French Muslims | FP Passport

That said, the arrest would seem to be bad news for one constituency: immigrants. If the scandal cripples the Socialists, the far-right may come to be seen as Sarkozy’s primary competition in the race, meaning the president will have to pander even more to anti-immigrant sentiment. As Jonathan Laurence and Justin Vaisse wrote in March about Sarkozy’s recent denunciations of “multiculturalism” — which hasn’t, in any case, been official policy in France for years — as a transparent ploy to appeal to supporters of the Le Pen family’s brand of right-wing politics:

The Media’s Aggressive Groping Problem | | AlterNet

There’s a very big difference between consensual sex and assault. Our media’s screwed up coverage of DSK’s rape charges and Schwarzenegger’s groping would suggest otherwise.

Schwarzenegger, Strauss-Kahn, and Why Isn’t Anyone Talking About Race? | Feminist Law Professors

The questions of class and power dynamics are real, important and significant ones in any conversation about either of these cases. Noticeably absent from the conversations I’ve read so far, however, is an acknowledgment of complex racial issues that may be involved.

The alleged victim in the Strauss-Kahn case is an African immigrant to the United States.

The mother of Mr. Schwarzenegger’s non-marital child is speculated by some to be Latina.

Misc.
What Obama did say – Blog – The Arabist

As with previous speeches, it’s well written and was well delivered. There is a certain consistency with the Cairo speech, as Obama highlights. There is an endorsement of the idea of freedom and democratization (not that any US president has ever delivered a speech in praise of dictatorship — it’s an easy score.) There was an admission of US interests in the region that would have otherwise made this speech simply too hypocritical (it’s going to be attacked for that anyway). I’m just not sure why those interests should include concern for one state’s security (Israel’s) and not others. Nor why self-determination in the pursuit of liberty is something that doesn’t apply for Palestinians. But here we tread old ground.

People believe subway maps over reality – Greater Greater Washington

Maps matter. Metro’s and London’s transit maps present distorted geographies in order to make the system’s organization clearer. They have become iconic, but the way they present distances shapes people’s understanding of space and distance in their region.

Explaining Islam to the public « The Immanent Frame

The expectation that Islamic studies scholars were prepared to “cover” the Islamic tradition and speak to its beliefs and practices on a normative, global basis was stressful for many of us. The idea that we could speak with authority about the practices of 1.4 billion people who speak dozens of languages and have inhabited the planet for the last 1400 years is absurd, of course. Like other academics, Islamic studies scholars are trained in certain fields of knowledge; in the best of programs, they are trained to be exceedingly careful about claiming too much. The pressures to become the academic voice of Islam both on campus and in the media frequently led scholars to abandon caution. We reached for our copies of the Encyclopedia of Islam and sent out queries, sometimes quite urgently, to the AAR Study of Islam listserv. “What does Islam say about x?” was the way questions were often framed. We were not allowed to answer, “It depends.” What was generally desired, it seems, was a fatwa, an authoritative ruling on what the Qur’an, the Sunna, and the ulama say about “x,” not a lecture on how the historical practices of real people refuse easy generalization.

Anonymous: peering behind the mask | Technology | guardian.co.uk

Are members of the ‘hacktivist group’ Anonymous defenders of truth and seekers of knowledge, or simply a bunch of cyber terrorists? Jana Herwig investigates

Getting Past the Enlightenment » Sociological Images

In this 11 minute animated talk, Matthew Taylor argues that scientific study of humans in the tradition of the Enlightenment has taught us, ironically, that Enlightenment values alone cannot be trusted to usher humanity into a better future.

To fight the xenophobic populists, we need more free speech, not less | Timothy Garton Ash | Comment is free | The Guardian

Geert Wilders should not be on trial for his words on Islam. But mainstream politicians must confront and not appease him

Seeing “Bridesmaids” is a social responsibility – Bridesmaids – Salon.com

How the fate of female-driven movies came to rest upon the success of “SNL” star Kristen Wiig’s new comedy

Mozart Sounds Like an Arab Love Song – Qantara.de

? This audacious project has foundered more than once and even this time its success hung by a thread. Daniel Barenboim performed a concert in Gaza with a group of European musicians. Hans-Christian Rößler reports

Dutch
Stop de teloorgang van de universiteitsjournalistiek – de Volkskrant – Opinie

krantjeop_300_01
Imago-obsessie bedreigt de vrijheid van universitaire media

De Bouali-norm « Wat Je Zegt Ben Je Zelf!

Daar waar de Balkenende-norm een doel dient – ik ken trouwens niet één Marokkaanse graaier bij de (semi-)overheid of in het bedrijfsleven… – is de Bouali-norm dus een compleet zinloze standaard, waar we heel snel van af moeten. Eerst was er alleen maar aandacht voor de “slechte” Marokkaan en nu is er aandacht voor de “wenselijke” Marokkaan. Maar wanneer komt er eens aandacht voor de echte en menselijke Marokkaan?

Frontaal Naakt. » Bij de dood van Osama

Hoe ironisch dat de Westerse toon en seculiere houding die de verschillende leiders hanteerden, minder heeft gedaan voor het imago van de Arabische wereld dan de simpele, maar volhardende acties van de mensen nu. Blijkt het gewone volk de taal van de diplomatie en PR beter te begrijpen dan de in dure, Westerse universiteiten opgeleide despoten.

OM vervolgt ‘imam’ Abdullah Haselhoef voor fraude :: nrc.nl

Binnenland

Het Openbaar Ministerie vervolgt Abdullah Haselhoef voor fraude. De NOS meldt dat hij naar schatting 2,5 miljoen euro aan kinderopvangtoeslagen zou hebben ontvangen voor opvang die in werkelijkheid nooit heeft plaatsgevonden.

Column van Willigenburg: waarom we de PVV dankbaar mogen zijn | DeJaap

Het is juist dáárom gekmakend, omdat diezelfde mensen iedereen voortdurend inpeperen dat je “niet te snel moet oordelen”, “genuanceerd” moet denken en “niet vanuit je onderbuik moet reageren”. Wát een gotspe. Als je de PVV niet meteen en ondubbelzinnig veroordeelt (maar haar handelen en voorspoed probeert te verklaren vanuit het recente verleden), kom je frontaal in contact met hún onderbuik! En die onderbuik is harder, strakker, gemener en onverbiddelijker dan de boze en soms hysterische onderbuik die rechts parten schijnt te spelen. Het is de onderbuik van de georganiseerde uitsluiting en verkettering.

Song of the Week

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Closing the week 18 – Round up Osama Bin Laden

Posted on May 8th, 2011 by martijn.
Categories: Blogosphere, International Terrorism, Society & Politics in the Middle East.

Most popular on Closer this week

1. In Memoriam: Osama bin Laden (1957-2011)
2. Strijd om de publieke ruimte – Hizb ut Tahrir op de Dam
3. De weg naar Osama – Over barbaarsheid en beschaving
4. Doing Anthropology
5. Three days of the West – What is Westernization

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Featuring Osama bin Laden; a round up
The Kill
» Osama Bin Laden Pronounced Dead… For the Ninth Time Alex Jones’ Infowars: There’s a war on for your mind!

When Obama pronounced Osama Bin Laden dead in a televised announcement heard round the world last night, he was at least the ninth major head of state or high-ranking government official to have done so.

Thinking Images v.16: Osama Bin-Laden and the pictorial staging of politics | David Campbell

The images that have emerged around the killing of Bin-Laden show how much of the pictorial record of politics is staged. Staging is not the same as faking. Political photography records events in front of the camera faithfully. But political events are often photo opportunities in which politics becomes theatre. Photography is complicit in this act when it doesn’t look beyond the immediate frame.

The White House’s release of a series of photographs on its Flickr stream showing the President and his national security advisers in and around the Situation Room (see above) was a fascinating but carefully managed insight into the conduct of Bin-Laden’s killing. If the post-mortem photo were to be released, it would also be part of this managed stream. But it was a small detail around another picture in the Flickr stream, of President Obama addressing the media, that showed how central the photo-op is to politics.

Bin Laden’s Quiet End | The Middle East Channel

So Osama bin Laden has finally been killed. This obviously represents the achievement of a goal long sought by virtually all Americans and most of the world, and is a cathartic moment capturing the attention of the world. As most counter-terrorism experts (and administration officials) have been quick to point out, his death will not end al-Qaeda. It does matter, though. There could be some major operational impact on the relative balance among al-Qaeda Central, the decentralized ideological salafi-jihadist movement, and the regional AQ franchises. But I will leave those crucial issues to others for now in order to focus on the impact of his death on Arab politics and on the broader milieu of Islamism.

The Big Lie: Torture Got Bin Laden – The Dish | By Andrew Sullivan – The Daily Beast

Old-fashioned, painstaking, labor-intensive intelligence work. The American way. We never needed to stoop to bin Laden’s standards to get bin Laden. We needed merely to follow our long-tested humane procedures.

Targeted Killing « LRB blog

The killing of Osama bin Laden is an instance of a much more general policy pursued by the United States and its allies – the targeted killing of named individuals in the war against terrorism and against various insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan. In the midst of American celebration of the fact that al-Qaida has lost its charismatic leader, it is worth getting clear about targeted killing in general, i.e. about the legality and the desirability of a policy of this kind. Targeted killings are of two kinds. The first involves killing people who are actually engaged in carrying out terrorist acts – planting a bomb or preparing someone for a suicide bombing. The second involves the elimination of high-profile individuals whose names appear on a special list of active commanders and participants in terrorism or insurgency. These killings are part of a strategy of disruption and decapitation directed against terrorist organisations.

Who told them where he was? « LRB blog

A US Special Forces operation in Pakistan has taken out Osama bin Laden and a few others. He was in a safe house close to Kakul Military Academy (Pakistan’s Sandhurst). The only interesting question is who betrayed his whereabouts and why. The leak could only have come from the ISI and, if this is the case, which I’m convinced it is, then General Kayani, the military boss of the country, must have green-lighted the decision. What pressure was put on him will come out sooner or later. The event took me back to a conversation I had a few years ago.

Bin Laden finally dead – Blog – The Arabist

A bittersweet moment: he deserved to die, but it took so long to track him down, despite all of the billions spent in intelligence and high-tech defense gear, that by the time he died it seemed almost irrelevant to the wider problems of the region. Also, to think of all the time and lives wasted, and the unnecessary, criminal ventures like the war on Iraq that were justified in the name of fighting Bin Laden. But I’m a believer in revenge, and symbolically this is important for the US, and for the families of the victims of 9/11. Let’s hope this might be used as an occasion to turn the page in US foreign policy.
Several things do strike you, though.

Osama bin Laden obituary | World news | The Guardian

To his enemies, whatever colour or creed, he was a religious fanatic, a terrorist with the blood of thousands on his hands, a man who had brought war and suffering to a broad swath of the Islamic world and come close to provoking a global conflagration on a scale not seen for decades. To his supporters, whose numbers peaked in the few years after the attacks of 11 September 2001 in America that he masterminded, he was a visionary leader fighting both western aggression against Muslims and his co-religionists’ lack of faith and rigour. For both, Osama bin Laden, who has been killed at the age of 54 by US special forces at a compound near Abbottabad, a town about 50 miles north-east of Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, was one of those rare figures whose actions changed the course of history.

Dynamic Relations: Thoughts on Bin Laden’s Death

I’m trying to wrap my head around all the posts that copy some nice, idealistic quote from Martin Luther King Jr or Gandhi or whomever. Why the non-violent sentiments now? Why the sentiments for a hypocritical narcissist who hid behind the veil of religion to convince others to die for his cause while justifying his own life? Why the sentiments now when 46 Americans were executed by 11 states in 2010 by legal decree? I’m not smart enough to know if killing Bin Laden was morally correct or not, but I do have enough insight to know that our celebration is misplaced. Celebrating his death only redefines the Us-Them divide and misdirects our gaze from the conditions that have led to the state of the world. His death won’t cause more violence, but the West’s continued political economic imperialism will (because We know best for Them). There is a strong inverse correlation between violence and economic opportunity (50% of death row inmates never graduated high school). Perhaps if we did better to place those ideals from MLK into the fabric of our society–into industrial capitalism, foreign policy, international trade agreements, and education at home and abroad–we wouldn’t be in this mess. Celebration blinds us to empathy and deludes us into thinking that the world is easily knowable.

Market Anthropology: Violence Begets Violence

If there was ever a more fitting bookend to the bubble that is silver and gold – we received it tonight.

Osama Bin Laden is dead.

The poster-face of the fear trade has been killed.

Anthropology 1200: Osama Bin Laden is Dead

As I am watching the three hour old news about the recent success of the American mission in Pakistan, I am struck by conflicted emotions. The leader of Al Qaeda, the man responsible for the death of thousands of Americans and Iraqis, was killed at the hands of the CIA. After nearly a decade of hunting, the man responsible for the 9/11 terrorist attacks has been killed during a raid on his compound by U.S. Navy Seals. I find it somewhat odd that after so much death, pain and suffering that the American people are so ecstatic over more death. I completely understand the jubilation that people have about the complete neutralization of the man responsible for killing 3,000 American citizens and countless military but I, for one, am sick body bags. I’m not going to celebrate the murder of a murderer but I will celebrate that this is one step closer to being finished.

anthronow:: Bin Laden is Dead

Susan Hirsch, a Professor of Anthropology and Conflict Resolution at George Mason University, talked to NPR’s Melissa Block about Bin Laden’s death. Susan Hirsch’s husband was killed in the 1998 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

News Desk: Notes on the Death of Osama bin Laden : The New Yorker

No doubt there will be time to reflect more deeply about the news announced by President Obama last night. For now, I thought it might be useful to annotate some of the initial headlines.

Osama | Center for a New American Security

I had told myself for years that the death of Osama bin Laden would not mean anything. Decapitation campaigns against sophisticated, mature terrorist networks, I knew, rarely yield strategic effects. But standing in that Washington bar, I was overcome with emotion.

The Ability to Kill Osama Bin Laden Does Not Make America Great – COLORLINES

Osama Bin Laden, evil incarnate, has justified so, so much American violence in the 21st century. We have launched two wars and executed God knows how many covert military operations in the ethereal, never-ending fight he personifies. We have made racial profiling of Muslim Americans normative, turned an already broken immigration system into an arm of national defense, and reversed decades worth of hard-won civil liberties while pursuing him, dead or alive. We have abandoned even the conceit of respect for human rights in places stretching from Abu Ghraib to Guantanamo Bay in the course of hunting him down. Now, finally, the devil is dead.

Geronimo
Museum Anthropology: Bin Laden Code-name “Geronimo” Is a Bomb in Indian Country

Although perhaps a bit far afield for Museum Anthropology, this editorial fundamentally relates to the issue of representation — how American Indians are represented in the public sphere, an issue of great importance to museum anthropologists.

Bin Laden’s Code Name Was ‘Geronimo’ « zunguzungu

Anyway, if we look at this story as revelatory of who we are now, what ethical constraints, imperatives, and licenses are being instantiated in the Global War on Terror, then I think we have a lot of reasons to be distinctly un-celebratory. The fact that his code name was “Geronimo” makes me tired and sad. If this is the story we are meant to celebrate, then we should think carefully about what it is that we are supposed to be happy to be defined by: the use of torture to get intelligence from detainees, a kill-first, hold-the-trial-later operation which targets households (and includes the deaths of nearby family members), and the idea that OBL’s corpse is more important than, say, capturing him and putting him on trial. We may decide that these things as justifiable, may think that the ends legitimize the means. But it may also only confirm a great deal about who we already knew ourselves, as a country, to be: our security apparatus has been doing exactly this sort of thing for years now. And can we really be comfortable with that? Can we be happy with it? Can we call it victory, justice? And is this the conclusion or the final normalization of “9/11??

Osama, Geronimo, and the scalp of our enemy « zunguzungu

Osama, Geronimo, and the scalp of our enemy

» “A Very Kind and Peaceful People”: Geronimo and the World’s Fair SAMPLE REALITY

Exactly ten years ago this week I turned in my last graduate seminar paper, for a class on late 19th and early 20th century American literature taught by the magnificent Nancy Bentley. The paper was about the 1904 World’s Fair and Geronimo, a figure I’ve been thinking about deeply since Sunday night. Because of the strange resonances between the historical Geronimo and the code name for Osama Bin Laden, I’ve posted that paper here, hoping it helps others to contextualize Geronimo, and to acknowledge his own voice.

Codename: Geronimo | Savage Minds

Following quick on the heels of the announcement of Osama Bin Laden’s demise at the hands of U.S. Special Forces Special Operations personnel, the public has learned more about the top secret operation to find this elusive enemy. One of the most revealing bits of trivia has been that Bin Laden was assigned the code name “Geronimo” by the operation tasked with capturing and killing him. This raises the question, what does a nineteenth century Apache leader have to do with twenty first century Saudi millionaire? Perhaps nothing when viewed from an academic standpoint, it seems more like a non sequitur. But when read as expression of an underlying ideology, one that has legitimated American military action for centuries, the answer is: quite a lot, actually.

American Indians object to ‘Geronimo’ as code name for bin Laden raid – The Washington Post

He died 102 years ago in Oklahoma, a beaten warrior, a prisoner of war, an exile from his homeland, a propped-up sideshow, a gambler and a lukewarm Christian. His family was murdered by Mexicans. The Americans stripped him of most everything else.

Justice, State Power and the War on Terror
The Osama bin Laden exception – Glenn Greenwald – Salon.com

Beyond the apparent indifference to how this killing took place, what has also surprised me somewhat is the lack of interest in trying to figure out how the bin Laden killing fits into broader principles and viewpoints about state power and the War on Terror. I’ve seen people who have spent the last decade insisting that the U.S. must accord due process to accused Terrorists before punishing them suddenly mock the notion that bin Laden should have been arrested and tried.

Geoffrey Robertson: Why it’s absurd to claim that justice has been done – Commentators, Opinion – The Independent

America resembles the land of the munchkins, as it celebrates the death of the Wicked Witch of the East. The joy is understandable, but it endorses what looks increasingly like a cold-blooded assassination ordered by a president who, as a former law professor, knows the absurdity of his statement that “justice was done”. Amoral diplomats and triumphant politicians join in applauding Bin Laden’s summary execution because they claim real justice – arrest, trial and sentence would have been too difficult in the case of Bin Laden. But in the long-term interests of a better world, should it not at least have been attempted?

The Torture Apologists – NYTimes.com

The killing of Osama bin Laden provoked a host of reactions from Americans: celebration, triumph, relief, closure and renewed grief. One reaction, however, was both cynical and disturbing: crowing by the apologists and practitioners of torture that Bin Laden’s death vindicated their immoral and illegal behavior after the Sept. 11 attacks.

Popular reactions
No dignity at Ground Zero | Mona Eltahawy | Comment is free | The Guardian

So it was a shock to find hundreds of others had turned that hallowed ground into the scene of a home crowd celebrating an away victory they hadn’t attended, the roots of which they were probably not there to experience or were too young to remember.

Us?mah Bin L?den is Dead: Forum Reactions | JIHADOLOGY

NOTE: Older quotes are first. Newest quotes toward the bottom of this post. This post was last updated 5/2/11 9:10PM US Central time.

Osama bin Laden Largely Discredited Among Muslim Publics in Recent Years | Pew Global Attitudes Project

In the months leading up to Osama bin Laden’s death, a survey of Muslim publics around the world found little support for the al Qaeda leader. Among the six predominantly Muslim nations recently surveyed by the Pew Research Center’s Global Attitudes Project, bin Laden received his highest level of support among Muslims in the Palestinian territories – although even there only 34% said they had confidence in the terrorist leader to do the right thing in world affairs. Minorities of Muslims in Indonesia (26%), Egypt (22%) and Jordan (13%) expressed confidence in bin Laden, while he has almost no support among Turkish (3%) or Lebanese Muslims (1%).

Over time, support for bin Laden has dropped sharply among Muslim publics.

“USA! USA!” is the wrong response – War Room – Salon.com

Bin Laden’s death is a great relief, but by cheering it we’re mimicking our worst enemies

News: More anthropology needed on bin Laden story

These responses do not come from any deep recesses of human nature, or some kind of evolved instinct. No, to get this right we must get closer to our present particularities rather than mythical evolutionary history. As I wrote in my blog-post “Anthropology, Barack Obama, Osama Bin Laden,” the sources are:
a) That since 2001 this has been ginned as a “war on terror” rather than the prosecution of criminals.
b) That people have individualized these events, trying to turn this into a “thank you President Bush.”
c) That there has been a recent upsurge in xenophobic nationalism.
Unlike the social sciences mentioned in this article, anthropology recognizes the particularities of “human nature” at this specific political-economic juncture.

YouTube – US Muslims hope for new start

Muslim American groups have welcomed the news of Bin Laden’s killing.

After September 11, 2001, many Muslims claimed they were treated with suspicion and endured increased discrimination in the United States.

Al Jazeera’s Monica Villamizar has more.

The Muslim World Sounds off on Bin Laden’s Demise | Informed Comment

Usama Bin Laden, a mass killer, passed virtually unmourned from the scene. There were no demonstrations against his killing in the Arab world. A few Taliban protested in Quetta and Afghanistan, as one might expect. Mostly Muslims denounced him and expressed relief he was gone.

Bin Laden carried out 9/11 to begin a big political and social movement. Nearly 10 years later the vast majority of Muslims did not trust him and many seem glad to see the back of him, while large numbers had decided that he was irrelevant to their lives.

tabsir.net » To hell with Bin Laden?

For the past decade it has been “Where the hell is Bin Laden?” Now that he is dead at last, the tabloid mantra is “ROT IN HELL,” at least for the medium of unsubtleness known as the NY Daily News. In less than 24 hours after his James Bond style killing a website appeared on Facebook called Osama Bin Laden is Dead. As can be seen from the screen shot below, the insults of revenge are having their day.

Bin Laden, the myth
LRB · Charles Glass · Cyber-Jihad

Now, the kids are terrified of some guy in a cave. The successors of McCarthy, Hoover and the 1950s television network bosses teach them that the madman Osama bin Laden can kill them at any minute, that he hates their freedom (perhaps not so much as their parents do) and is out to get them just because they are free. Unlike Khrushchev, Osama bin Laden has neither ICBMs nor nuclear warheads capable of destroying mankind ten times over. He does not even have a country. Yet he scares more than Khrushchev did. As every American schoolchild saw, bin Laden attacked the homeland on 11 September 2001 – burying a few thousand of us. He may yet bury more. We, of course, are sending his kind to their graves in Afghanistan, Iraq and other corners of the Islamic patrimony.

?????? ?? ????? Views from the Occident: IN PICTURES: Usama bin Laden, In Visual Retrospect: Part I

With reports that Al-Qa’ida Central leader Usama bin Laden (Osama bin Laden, Ladin) has been killed in a U.S. military attack, talk has shifted to what’s next for the once-premier organization. This is the first part of a series of “In Pictures” posts that will focus on providing a visual retrospective on Bin Laden in jihadi-takfiri cyber artwork. The artwork is taken from my research archive.

As I have written previously, graphic artwork is an important medium for jihadi-takfiris and they use it extensively.

Commentary: Bin Laden’s Death Shatters Conventional Wisdom | The National Interest

The triumphal news of Bin Laden’s killing yesterday has also called into question—if not shattered—much of the conventional wisdom about al-Qaeda’s leader and the movement he founded. First, the assumption was that he was hiding in a cave in some isolated mountain range, cut off equally from his supporters and from the creature comforts that make life as a fugitive more bearable. Yet we learn that he’s been living a stone’s throw from the Pakistani capital, both in comfort and relative anonymity. This in turn calls into question some of the assumptions about the aid and assistance he doubtlessly would have needed to receive from a variety of plotters to be located right under the nose of the government and its military and intelligence authorities. Also, the assumption was that Bin Laden was in such isolation and so cut off from communication that he’d nearly been reduced to a figurehead, a marginal character, in al-Qaeda’s operations and destiny. His presence in an urban hub, presumably with a variety of modes of contact, calls into question the supposedly hands-off, irrelevant role he had been believed to play in al-Qaeda’s strategy and perhaps even day-to-day operations. Indeed, it may have been his active participation in key al-Qaeda decision-making and operational matters that allowed us to track him to his hideout—there must have been an unusual number people coming and going, functioning essentially as couriers. It may thus be that he’s had much more of a role in al-Qaeda than we believed.

Top Ten Myths about Bin Laden’s Death | Informed Comment

New details of the operation against Usama Bin Laden have emerged. Here are the myths that people keep bombarding me with and which are now known to be untrue.

We Killed Osama bin Laden, Now Let’s Kill the Myth – New America Media

The United States is jubilant over the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. However, it will be some time before history catches up with the mythology that arose around him and the al-Qaeda organization in the past 10 years. Osama bin Laden at the end was far from the looming powerful figure he was made out to be. He had outlived his usefulness both as a bogeyman for the West, and as an Islamic responder to the neo-colonialist forces his organization purported to confront.

Now he’s dead, so what?

After Bin Laden: what next for al-Qaida and global jihad? | World news | The Guardian

Do the various Islamist groups in Pakistan and al-Qaida affiliates around the world pose a real threat to the west, and what strategic direction will they now take?

Wanted: Charismatic Terror Mastermind. Some Travel Required. – By Leah Farrall | Foreign Policy

As speculation about al Qaeda’s leadership succession mounts in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, the answer to who will assume control next lies in the organization’s rules and regulations — like those of any good corporation. Written and reviewed by a group of senior leaders, some of whom may now be poised to assume new positions within al Qaeda, they provide insight into how this critical transition will be handled, and will factor heavily into who is selected to move up the leadership ladder.

Al Qaeda’s organizational protocols (some earlier versions of which are available at the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point) make clear that a chain of succession exists.

Amb. Marc Ginsberg: Bin Laden Plagued the Arab World, As Well

Based on an unscientific review of today’s Arab media, Arabs and other Muslims, too, are taking quiet comfort from his demise, with good cause, although predictable voices of Arab resentment surfaced, as well.

Osama’s Dead, But How Much Does It Matter? – An FP Round Table | Foreign Policy

Bin Laden’s death will have profound implications for al Qaeda — and for U.S. engagement in the Middle East.

Osama bin Laden’s death: What now for al-Qaida? | Jason Burke | Comment is free | The Guardian

What does the death of Osama bin Laden mean for the future direction and leadership of militant Islamism?

So Osama’s dead. And? — Registan.net

What does this mean, many ask. My answer? Not a whole lot. Mullah Omar is still drawing breath, as are Haqqani pater and fils, as is Hakimullah Mehsud, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, and countless others. And of all of them, Osama commanded smallest number of men, and in many ways was nothing more than a figurehead. ISAF troops continue to flow into Afghanistan today, not from it. Deployment dates remain firm. Attacks have not ceased. The war stopped being about Osama a loooong time ago.

Don’t Get Cocky, America – By Daveed Gartenstein-Ross | Foreign Policy

Osama bin Laden’s death is a significant blow for al Qaeda, removing a figurehead who had evaded the largest manhunt in world history for almost a decade, and who seemingly managed to remain operationally relevant up until he was killed. In the torrents of commentary that will follow his announced death, many will agree with the puzzling proclamation that analyst Peter Bergen made on CNN last night that this marks the end of the war on terror.

News Desk: Bin Laden: Hey, Hey Goodbye : The New Yorker

Bin Laden is dead but is Al Qaeda? Certainly, his terror organization could not die without its leader being killed or captured. In the last few months it was fashionable to say that bin Laden was irrelevant. But the fact that he was able to evade justice since 1998, when he authorized the bombings of the two American embassies in East Africa, emboldened terrorists all over the globe.

On Bin Laden’s death and the Arabs – Blog – The Arabist

The trends that are winning out in recent years are the radical-resistance ideologies of Hizbullah (and to a lesser degree Hamas) and the radical-centrist view that fueled the uprisings. And in the longer-run, it is the latter rather than the former that have a vision of societies that are not constantly mobilized towards an external (or internal) enemy. The views of Hamas and Hizbullah address the problems of war and occupation, but not those of these societies beyond those problems. Bin Laden never really addressed either, his fight was for the glory of the impossible and in the hereafter.

OBL is Dead, Al Qaeda Isn’t – By Daniel Byman | Foreign Policy

Let’s begin with some notes of caution. As any expert will tell you, one of bin Laden’s biggest successes is creating an organization that will survive him. When bin Laden and a few associates founded al Qaeda in 1988, the organization was tiny and relied on the Saudi millionaire for the bulk of its funding. In subsequent years the organization has grown to support insurgents throughout the Muslim world, issued propaganda swaying the views of millions and, of course, murdered thousands through terrorism and its participation in civil wars. Thousands were asked to formally join the organization, and tens of thousands received training. So al Qaeda will not collapse overnight.

Obama and the End of Al-Qaeda | Informed Comment

Usama Bin Laden was a violent product of the Cold War and the Age of Dictators in the Greater Middle East. He passed from the scene at a time when the dictators are falling or trying to avoid falling in the wake of a startling set of largely peaceful mass movements demanding greater democracy and greater social equity. Bin Laden dismissed parliamentary democracy, for which so many Tunisians and Egyptians yearn, as a man-made and fallible system of government, and advocated a return to the medieval Muslim caliphate (a combination of pope and emperor) instead. Only a tiny fringe of Muslims wants such a theocratic dictatorship. The masses who rose up this spring mainly spoke of “nation,” the “people,” “liberty” and “democracy,” all keywords toward which Bin Laden was utterly dismissive. The notorious terrorist turned to techniques of fear-mongering and mass murder to attain his goals in the belief that these methods were the only means by which the Secret Police States of the greater Middle East could be overturned.

Anzalone, After Usama: The Jihadi-Takfiri Trend after Bin Laden | Informed Comment

The killing of Usama bin Laden, the founder of Al-Qa‘ida Central, this week in Pakistan has opened the door to intense speculation about the future of the militant organization and the transnational jihadi-takfiri trend that it represents. A great deal of attention has been paid to who the next leader of al-Qaeda Central, its next public face, will be. Bin Laden’s killing, while certainly a major loss to al-Qaeda Central and its regional affiliates, does not sound the death knell of the transnational trend known as the jihadi-takfiri (those who view Muslim holy war [jihad] as a pillar of the faith and who lightly excommunicate [takfir] and attack other Muslims who disagree with them). While the importance of his killing should be recognized, it is critically important to not exaggerate its likely impact.

Experts Explore Ripple Effect of Bin Laden’s Death

Thomas Gibson, professor of anthropology at the University of Rochester, has taught on Islam and global politics for the past decade in response to Sept. 11. He calls al-Qaida a decentralized network of “religiously inspired revolutionaries” who failed to achieve their objectives in their home countries. This network, he says, was kept alive by the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq because it made the U.S. appear as the greatest threat to ordinary Muslims rather than their own corrupt governments.

“Recent pro-democracy uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, and Syria have made both ‘U.S. imperialism’ and radical Islamic revolutionaries seem less relevant to ordinary people. It is now clear to most observers that Arab dictators have been using the threat of Islamic extremism as an excuse to extract resources from the U.S. to maintain their power,” Gibson says. “So-called terrorist groups in South Asia are a different matter, and many of them are, in fact, tactical fronts for the Pakistani military’s struggle with India.”

Gibson says there is good evidence that the Pakistani military has deliberately played both sides in the Afghan civil war to extract military resources from Washington. The fact that bin Laden’s villa in Abbotabad was just two miles from the Pakistani Military Academy and just 30 miles from the capital of Pakistan, he says, indicates that they have probably been using him as a bargaining chip for the past 10 years.

Misc. I
Anthropologists: “It’s time to kill the Osama bin Laden myths”

Anthropologists: “It’s time to kill the Osama bin Laden myths”

Where the Wild Frontiers Are: Pakistan and the American Imagination by Manan Ahmed – Just World Books

But it did not work out that way. Where the Wild Frontiers Are vividly captures the failure of most members of the U.S. elite to successfully “imagine” the reality of people’s lives and society in Pakistan in this important way. Ahmed unsparingly criticizes most of the so-called “experts” who prognosticate about Pakistan and its region in the U.S. mainstream media. About Robert Kaplan, he writes that “”The empire… will surely invite him to speak to groups with shinier brass and shinier domes. The historians reading [his] book will have less cause to be charitable”. A similar charge, he lays at the feet of Rory Stewart and Greg Mortenson.

Magnus Marsden, Living Islam. Muslim Religious Experience in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier

1This pleasure is rarely given to a book reviewer, so I shall put it simply: Living Islam is an important work, and this justifies assessing it in earnest and at length.1 ‘What does it mean to live a Muslim life?’ wonders Magnus Marsden. Asking this basic but powerful question has perhaps never been as strong a scientific imperative as today. To be sure, everyone—from the media and think-tanks in the West to religious and political authorities in the Muslim world—claim monopoly over the answer. This is particularly true when it comes to Pakistan, a country where disputes over the right to define ‘what a Muslim is’ have direct political and legal consequences.

Misc. II The Arab Uprisings
The Salafist challenge: Coming out of the Arab woodwork | The Economist

Extreme Islamists are growing more confident in the wake of the upheavals

Perspectives #2 May 2011, Special Issue: People’s Power – The Arab World in Revolt – Statehood & Participation – Heinrich Böll Stiftung

The self-immolation of young and jobless Tunisian Mohamed Bouazizi in the provincial town of Sidi Bouzid, being deprived of his vegetable stand and humiliated by the authorities, triggered popular movements and historic events in the Arab World completely unexpected in their magnitude…

The Reawakening of Nahda in Tunisia | Middle East Research and Information Project

There were two revolutions in Tunisia over the winter of 2010-2011. The first is already the stuff of legend. Twenty-six year old Mohamed Bouazizi, in an act of outraged despair at the indignity of not being allowed to work, set himself afire and released a revolution that spread from the interior to the coast and thence to the region, toppling two dictators of 24 years (Tunisia) and 30 years (Egypt) along the way.

The second upheaval was just as remarkable, even if it was eclipsed by the convulsions in Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen and now Syria. From January 18 — the day Ben Ali fled — to March 4 a grassroots coalition of trade unions, leftists, human rights groups and Islamists, mainly but not only from the Nahda (Renaissance) movement, turned Casbah Square into a pulpit for protests against any and all attempts by remnants of Ben Ali’s regime to regain control of the transition away from dictatorship. Having refused to open fire on protesters in the first revolution, Tunisia’s 30,000-strong army withdrew to its constitutional role in the second: It guarded certain civic sites but allowed the struggle to play out between regime and opposition.

And play out it did.

Dutch
11/9 en de dood van Osama bin Laden – GeenCommentaar

Nee, de titel is geen slip-of-the-pen. Want ik heb het niet over de aanslag in New York, maar over die in Amman, in het hart van het Midden-Oosten. Geen wonder dus dat de mensen in Amman net als die in New York blij zijn met het nieuws dat Osama bin Laden dood is. Genoot Osama bin Laden er ooit aanzienlijke steun, in de afgelopen jaren is die gesmolten als sneeuw voor de zon. Hoe kan het ook anders…

Ayaan Hirsi Ali en de strijd tegen de radicale islam: Osama Bin Laden dood

Osama_Bin_Laden De meest gezochte man door de Verenigde Staten en het meesterbrein achter de aanslagen van 9/11 is dood. Amerikaanse troepen hebben Osama bin Laden in Pakistan tijdens een helikopteractie gedood en hebben zijn lichaam in handen. Dat heeft de Amerikaanse president Obama even na half zes vanochtend Nederlandse tijd tijdens een persconferentie gezegd. “Het recht heeft gezegevierd”, aldus de president.

Bin Laden dood, terrorisme springlevend | Wijblijvenhier.nl

Als je na de dag van gisteren niet weet dat Osama bin Laden is vermoord, dan vraag ik mij af in welke grot jij hebt geleefd. Afijn, ik mag je dan bij deze wel als eerste feliciteren met het goede nieuws. Osama, hoofdrolspeler in zijn eigen producties, liefhebber van gevaarlijke speeltjes, die zovelen een euthanasiewens aanpraatte, de enige celebrity zonder facebookaccount, de verpersoonlijking van de onderwereld… is neergeschoten, onderzocht en begraven… in zee… want president Obama had natuurlijk wel respect voor de religie van Osama en die zegt dat hij zo snel mogelijk moet worden begraven. Ik neem aan dat de leden van de Amerikaanse special forces ook hun schoenen uitdeden voor ze zijn vila – goed ‘verscholen’ nabij een militaire academie en een politiebureau – in Pakistan binnentraden om hem voorzichtig neer te schieten?

Soeterbeeck Programma – Osama bin Laden is dood. Het einde van een tijdperk? Actualiteitencollege aan de Radboud Universiteit

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. Leon Wecke spreekt de column uit.

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