Highbrow Magazine - Egypt https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/egypt en ‘The Square’ Vividly Captures the Turmoil in Egypt https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3434-square-vividly-captures-turmoil-egypt <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/film-tv" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Film &amp; TV</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 01/13/2014 - 08:52</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumtahrirsquare_1.jpg?itok=PpfUnkkZ"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumtahrirsquare_1.jpg?itok=PpfUnkkZ" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>With a balcony’s threshold as our viewfinder through which to see an indeterminable future, we witness the city lights of Cairo extinguished en masse in an instant anti-flash.   And alongside those lights vanquish the markers of certainty that have so hauntingly defined a post-colonial Egypt living under the boot of emergency rule for over 30 years. The cacophonous experiment of democracy has sparked itself inside the Egyptian conscience. </p> <p> </p> <p>“This is our life now.  We will stay in the streets,” says Ahmed Hassan, one of the six revolutionaries whose interwoven lives are beautifully documented in Jehan Noujaim’s latest film <em>The Square</em>.</p> <p> </p> <p>Noujaim, who has boldly outlined the aesthetic struggle between subjective truths in a post-9/11 epoch, especially the role of international media outlets during the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq with her 2004 film <em>Control Room</em>, rekindles her predicate of “the battle of images,” as articulated by British-Egyptian actor and filmmaker Khalid Abdalla, a featured participant in the film who left his life in London to join the revolution in Tahrir Square.</p> <p> </p> <p>With this “battle of images” so resonant, to relegate this film as only an award-winning depiction of the on-going fight for social justice and freedom across Egypt would be an act of missing the point. This film is a tangible action, an expressive continuation of this endeavor towards democracy just as important as the raw material of which Noujaim’s narrative is composed.</p> <p> </p> <p>The underlying thesis that makes <em>The Square</em> so unique is that it eschews both the construct of a conclusion and the notion of a singular authorship, as the film chronologically traces the relationships of its six disparate characters via personal interviews, cell phone camera footage, and stunning panoramas of the labyrinthine cityscape of Cairo. More so, <em>The Square</em> shows firsthand the essential role that social media has played in the growth of an alternative public space within a nation-state made notorious for its penchant for violent repression of dissent.  The Square proves that authoritarian states no longer hold such a strict monopoly of the violence they project against their own.  With camera phones in the streets, these violent crackdowns may now be judged upon an international stage.</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2tahrirsquare.jpg" style="height:468px; width:625px" /></p> <p>Taking in the Egyptian revolution through this film, one is reminded of an excerpt from Renee Gladman’s novel, <em>The Ravickians,</em> wherein her protagonist proclaims that “You can design a flag and name a country, then design another flag and name another country, years before you have to bring that country into existence.”  In the film, Magdy Ashour, a Muslim Brotherhood member who had spent sporadic terms in prison throughout Mubarak’s reign, claimed that before the Arab Spring he was “afraid to dream the wrong dream.”</p> <p> </p> <p>For the struggle for democracy in Egypt does not end when American cable-news no longer affords it quality air time or when Noujaim’s film fades to black and lets its credits travel through its frame.  Its narrative eternally unfolds itself, and it inspires us all to disregard every notion of complacency in the fight for a more just world.  As viewers of this revolutionary piece of cinema, we will here repeatedly throughout its duration that “Tahir is symbolic land.” </p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>William Eley is a contributing writer at </em>Highbrow Magazine<em> and is presently a Master’s candidate of Aesthetics and Politics at the California Institute of the Arts.</em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/jehan-noujaim" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">jehan noujaim</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/square" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the square</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tahrir-square" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tahrir Square</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cairo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cairo</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/eyptian-revolution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">eyptian revolution</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/muslim-brotherhood" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Muslim Brotherhood</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/films" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">films</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/arab-spring" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Arab Spring</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">William Eley</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 13 Jan 2014 13:52:44 +0000 tara 4101 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3434-square-vividly-captures-turmoil-egypt#comments In Egypt, the Revolution That Many Regret https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3374-egypt-revolution-many-regret <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 12/19/2013 - 09:50</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumtahrirsquare_0.jpg?itok=tVPj-g2l"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumtahrirsquare_0.jpg?itok=tVPj-g2l" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> </p> <p>From our content partner <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/12/letter-from-cairo-arab-winter-and-revolutionary-regrets.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p> </p> <p>CAIRO, Egypt -- It was on a lunch break during a tour of the ancient city of Memphis, under the shadows of Egypt’s ancient pyramids that Tarek, a tour guide, became emotional.</p> <p> </p> <p>“Before the revolution,” said the 28-year-old, “I worked so hard that I begged for one day off a month and the company always said no. Now I get to do three jobs a month and I have to beg them to pick me.”</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a phrase you hear often in Egypt. “Before the revolution,” locals say, things were bad but manageable. Before the revolution, everyone hated the same regime. After the revolution, hope has turned to fragmentation and fear. And tourism – once a mainstay of the economy – has slowed to a trickle.</p> <p> </p> <p>Tarek says he’s now feeling the pinch.</p> <p> </p> <p>Winter is typically peak tourist season, but on one afternoon in December – the coldest in a century – the Sonesta Moon Goddess sits almost empty among a cluster of luxury liners meant to ferry eager tourists along the famed Nile between Aswan and Luxor. There were five guests on board the Sonesta, which has a capacity of over 100. The 45-member crew looked close to despair.</p> <p> </p> <p>Tarek, meanwhile, says his mother is sick and in hospital. “I sold my laptop, I sold my nice furniture. I stopped going to the gym, stopped lifting weights, which was my passion. All I think of now is how to pay the bills, and it’s not possible.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Then he adds, under his breath, “I hated the old regime, but not that much.”</p> <p> </p> <p>It’s a sentiment shared by many of Egypt’s young, who account for a quarter of the country’s population. In 2011, thousands joined in a popular revolt inspired by the rising tide of discontent known as the Arab Spring. Egypt’s protests ended former leader Hosni Mubarak’s 30-year rule and culminated in the election of Muslim Brotherhood candidate Mohammad Morsi, who was then toppled from power by the state military exactly one year later.</p> <p> </p> <p>Since then the country has been racked by violent protests and a growing power struggle between Islamists on the one hand, and a military led by notorious strongman Gen. Abdel el-Sisi.</p> <p> </p> <p>The political and social chaos has taken a heavy toll. According to the Central Agency for Public Mobilization and Statistics (CAPMAS), unemployment reached 13.4 percent during the third quarter of 2013. For those under 25, the figures are worse, with some 70 percent of young people unemployed. Predictions for the fourth quarter are even more dire.</p> <p> </p> <p>Meanwhile, society is fragmenting, as supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood continue to clash with both the military and anti-Brotherhood forces. In the latest round of violence, spurred by a newly enacted law prohibiting public protest, a student at Cairo University was shot while on campus, reportedly through a shut gate. His death has only heightened a sense of angst among the young.</p> <p> </p> <p>One cabbie offered this assessment of society post-revolution. “Before, if there was an accident, five or six cars would stop to help. Now, no one wants to be involved. They don’t trust each other like they used to.”</p> <p><img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumCairo.jpg" style="height:279px; width:500px" /></p> <p>Amid the chaos, Interim President Adly Mansour is working to draft a new constitution intended to pave the way toward new elections next year. But with political factions critical of the draft’s language, and with the Muslim Brotherhood – which still holds a significant following – planning to boycott the referendum, the road ahead looks treacherous.</p> <p> </p> <p>“I would say that anyone who says they aren’t confused is a liar,” said one graduate student at American University in Cairo who declined to give her name for fear of possible repercussions. “The last few months have been mindboggling.”</p> <p> </p> <p>Indeed, the hope that initially propelled the uprising has long since given way to fear and trepidation. She says she no longer walks in her own neighborhood. “I used to feel safe but now I am not so sure. I’ve seen people fighting, fist fights, that’s something I didn’t see before.” There are more robberies as well, she notes. And yes, more people with guns.</p> <p> </p> <p>Another student says conditions for women in particular have deteriorated. “Actually, I would say that life went to hell after the revolution, especially for women.” She cites several recent instances of women being attacked with acid for going out unveiled.</p> <p> </p> <p>As for Tarek, there is now a sense of wistfulness when he thinks about life under the old regime, a kind of revolutionary regret. “Some of my friends are saying if Mubarak ran again, they would vote for him.” Standing beneath the likeness of Rameses II – one of ancient Egypt’s most famed rulers who in the first millennium BC held power for more than six decades – he then adds, “But if that’s the case then why did so many of us die to topple him?”</p> <p> </p> <p><strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p><em>Andrew Lam is editor at New America Media and the author of Perfume Dreams: Reflections on the Vietnamese Diaspora, East Eats West: Writing in Two Hemispheres," and Birds of Paradise Lost," a collection of short stories about Vietnamese refugees on America's West Coast, which won the Pen/Josephine Miles Literary award.</em></p> <p> </p> <p><a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/12/letter-from-cairo-arab-winter-and-revolutionary-regrets.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/arab-spring" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Arab Spring</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egyptian-revolution" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">egyptian revolution</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hosni-mubarak" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hosni Mubarak</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egyptian-government" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">egyptian government</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/muslim-brotherhood" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Muslim Brotherhood</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egyptian-army" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">egyptian army</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Andrew Lam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Thu, 19 Dec 2013 14:50:59 +0000 tara 3991 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/3374-egypt-revolution-many-regret#comments What Is the Difference Between Morsi and Mubarak? Only Religious Fundamentalism https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1928-what-difference-between-mosri-and-mubarak-only-religious-fundamentalism <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 01/08/2013 - 11:10</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummosri.jpg?itok=HJAL_1sP"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediummosri.jpg?itok=HJAL_1sP" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/01/political-islam-and-the-arab-spring.php">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://www.alhewar.com/">Al Hewar</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Commentary</strong></p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Editors Note:</strong> <em>The recent popular outcry in Egypt in response to President Morsi trying to usurp power was a test case for the ruling Muslim Brotherhood party. In reaction to the recent political protests in Egypt, one Arab- American commentator writes that It is not Islam that is being tested, it is the politics of a conservative religious party.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> Is political Islam matching the aspirations of the Arab Spring? Egyptians may have a clear answer after living a few years under a Muslim Brotherhood administration. Early signs from Cairo are not encouraging.</p> <p>  </p> <p> President Morsi, representing the Brotherhood, won the post-uprising Egyptian presidential elections for three main factors: support of a relatively well-organized grassroots movement, being a leader of a resilient opposition to a series of corrupt regimes and a promise to take a moderate approach to political Islam. It turns out that the Morsi model of governance is a disappointing mixture of hardline religious fundamentalism, pragmatic capitalism and survival politics. Cairo’s current model falls short of the Turkish approach to politics.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Last month Morsi promoted a Sharia-based constitution. This president, a former US engineering professor, came to power in the wake of an uprising which ousted President Mubarak. Regrettably, the new constitution will slow reform rather than accelerate it. A rushed national referendum approved the legal document.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Morsi’s lust for power is not subtle. Within weeks of assuming power he demanded extraordinary presidential privileges. Street demonstrations made him retract his demands within days. As a president Morsi has to learn to serve all of Egypt’s widely diverse constituencies: Islamist parties- moderate and extreme, four different Arab nationalist parties (Nasserites), social service and human rights groups, a marginalized Coptic (Christian) community and a sophisticated network of business groups.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The excitement of the Arab Spring is gradually abating. Morsi has in fact replaced a dictatorship with a religiously-based autocracy. Just as President Mubarak was ousted for policies which ignored the poor, Morsi may one day be ousted for policies which are unfriendly to women and religious minorities.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumcairodemonstrations%20%28Adam%20Makary%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 400px;" /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Morsi is not sufficiently attentive to endemic social problems. At the core of Egypt’s predicament lie educational and economic impediments. One of every three adults is illiterate; 40% of women can’t read and write. Unemployment is high. The college educated is many times more likely to be unemployed than the poorly educated. Higher education makes young people politically agitated and economically dependent.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Tourism is significantly important for Egypt’s economy: in 2008 13 million tourists visited; tourism generated 11 billion US dollars and employed 12% of the workforce. When tourists have to worry about Egypt’s current affairs they lose interest in Egypt’s past – its historic monuments. Tourism is enhanced by a climate of freedom and appreciation of cultural diversity.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The value of the Egyptian pound is rapidly eroding, a sign of a declining economy and faith in the future. External Arab investment is crucial. When Arab investors lose confidence in Egypt’s economy they are not likely to put their money in a stale environment.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In a few months the Morsi regime has lost its charisma, thanks to the steady resistance of thinly connected opposition groups and the support they receive from the international media.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The current Cairo version of political Islam is not reading the sentiments of Egyptians. Despite their deep religiosity the majority of Egyptians do appreciate religious tolerance, freedom of women, secular politics and business with the outside world.</p> <p>  </p> <p> One day Egyptians will launch another well organized campaign of protest against a post-Mubarak regime, which has so far deviated from the goal of the Arab Spring. The Spring was not only about “majority rule” and removal of dictators.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The longevity of the Morsi regime depends partially on the sustainability of the economy. Regrettably, foreign aid of the oil-rich Arab countries continues to protect the economic base of the Egyptian regime from collapse. The International Monitory Fund is currently negotiating with the Egyptian government a massive (4 billion plus US dollars) package of loans. And the US is hooked to a 1.3 billion dollar aid to Egypt to maintain the peace treaty with Israel.</p> <p>  </p> <p> To balance a strategic-interest policy of foreign aid, Washington dedicates three times more to Israel. US foreign assistance is a “tranquilizer” for Egyptian silence (on a flawed Mideast policy) and a “stimulant” for Israeli building of more settlements on Palestinian land.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Egypt benefits from its leadership position in a troubled region. The imminent collapse of Syria, the growing agitation in Iraq, the vulnerability of Lebanon and Jordan, Bahrain’s ignored uprising, the ongoing hostilities in Yemen, makes Egypt look relatively stable.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Egyptians do not have to starve to change their political system. The ideologically diverse opposition groups must unite to confront a political system which will not hesitate to exploit oil-rich Arab countries in order to survive.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Not many had foreseen that the first important political outcome of the Arab Spring is the operational testing of political Islam in state building.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2013/01/political-islam-and-the-arab-spring.php">New America Media</a></p> <p>  </p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: New America Media; Adama Maraky (Wikipedia Commons).</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-mosri" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">president mosri</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cairo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cairo</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/islamic-fundamentalism" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">islamic fundamentalism</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/muslim-brotherhood" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Muslim Brotherhood</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/arab-spring" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Arab Spring</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hosni-mubarak" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hosni Mubarak</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/foreign-aid" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">foreign aid</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Michel Rubeiz</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 08 Jan 2013 16:10:08 +0000 tara 2162 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1928-what-difference-between-mosri-and-mubarak-only-religious-fundamentalism#comments From Salman Rushdie to Sam Bacile: Why Fanatics Are Easily Offended https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1588-salman-rushdie-sam-bacile-why-fanatics-are-easily-offended <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Mon, 09/24/2012 - 15:48</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumSalmanRushdie%20%28NAM%29.jpg?itok=o5orB0ev"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumSalmanRushdie%20%28NAM%29.jpg?itok=o5orB0ev" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/09/salman-rushdie-to-sam-bacile-the-age-of-outrage-ism.php">New America Media</a> and <a href="http://www.firstpost.com/world/salman-rushdie-to-sam-bacile-the-age-of-outrage-ism-458256.html">FirstPost</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> A mysterious man in California hires a soft porn director and tricks some low-rent actors into making a trashy movie about the Prophet Muhammad.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Now an Iranian foundation ups the price on Salman Rushdie's head saying that if he had been killed earlier for blasphemy, this newest anti-Islam film would never have been made.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Forget the Crusades, Palestine, the toppling of the democratically-elected Mossadegh in Iran in 1953.</p> <p>  </p> <p> We are expected to believe that Salman Rushdie is the slippery slope that has led to Sam Bacile.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The logic is so ludicrously tortured that it should be the butt of jokes. Instead it turns deadly serious and leaves a US ambassador and others dead in Libya and a gathering storm of mobs from Pakistan to Yemen.</p> <p>  </p> <p> After the 9/11 attacks, Americans grappled with the question “Why do they hate us so?” Now that question has morphed into “Why are they so easily offended?”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Writing in the <em>Washington Post</em>, Fouad Ajami, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution sees this as a “lack of modernity” because modernity, he says, “requires the willingness to be offended". (By that definition, India is most definitely un-modern since Indians of all political colors and religious denomination have turned being offended into a cottage industry of sorts. Being offended has become an expression not of piety or hurt, but really a show of political muscle. Look, we can get this movie banned, this painter exiled, this text yanked from the syllabus.)</p> <p>  </p> <p> Ajami writes that the Middle East is hyper-sensitive about its glorious past and its abject present. That makes it “brittle and proud about their culture, yet deeply ashamed of what they see around them” when it comes to economic growth, political freedom and the status of women.</p> <p>  </p> <p> He sets up a clash of civilizations with the barbarians literally at the gates.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It is inside those fortresses (the US consulates and embassies), the gullible believe, that rulers are made and unmade. Yet these same diplomatic outposts dispense coveted visas and a way out to the possibilities of the Western world. The young men who turned up at the US Embassies this week came out of this deadly mix of attraction to American power and resentment of it.</p> <p>  </p> <p> This is an attractive hypothesis for many Western readers, liberals and conservatives alike, because it keeps the West on top, the conclave of the civilized, with the angry hordes railing against it because deep in their hearts they really want what it has to offer - democratic freedoms and running water.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But this outrage is not just a one-way stream like the line outside the US consulate. We are in the age of outrage-ism where you have to constantly up the ante to fan the flames. For that you need, writes Bobby Ghosh, in <em>Time </em>Magazine, a global outrage machine.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/mediumyemenviolence%20%28AP%29.jpg" style="width: 600px; height: 451px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> The US has a pastor like Terry Jones who wants to burn the Koran, try the Prophet, and promote Bacile's trashy film. And Egypt has a TV host like al-Nas' Sheikh Khaled Abdallah who Ghosh writes is “every bit as inflammatory and opportunistic as Jones”. The film had been rightly ignored until the likes of Jones and Abdallah jumped on it from either end. That, says Ghosh, became a “wolf whistle to the Salafists” who had been protesting for months outside the US embassy in Cairo demanding the release of Omar Abdel Rehman, the blind sheik imprisoned in the United States and charged with plotting a series of bomb attacks.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Ghosh writes:</p> <p>  </p> <p> Collectively, these hatemongers form a global industry of outrage, working feverishly to give and take offense, frequently over religion, and to ignite the combustible mix of ignorance and suspicion that exists almost as much in the U.S. as in the Arab world.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It's not about a movie. That's just the pretext, the excuse that groups that want to storm the embassy are waiting for. It suits all the actors concerned, Issandr El Amrani, a Moroccan-American journalist writes in Abu Dhabi's <em>The National</em> newspaper.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The resulting cascade of outrage is now predictable. Islamophobes in the West will say, ‘We told you they're fanatics,' and the crowd-riling demagogues here will say, ‘We told you they disrespect us.' And politicians everywhere will use the language of outrage in their petty calculations.</p> <p>  </p> <p> So the real question is not whether you ban one film or not but how do you puncture this global industry of outrage.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Salman Rushdie has one idea as he propounded to Sagarika Ghose on CNN-IBN.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “I'm tired of religion demanding special privileges, I mean, just get over it. There's no other idea in the world that demands protection, you know. If ideas are strong, they can stand criticism.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Hafiz Saeed who participated in a rally in Lahore has a very different take.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “ do not demand an apology alone from the US government but the hanging of all the persons involved in this blasphemous film. (That's in addition to Pakistan needing to sever all relations with the Western world.)”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Neither can the answer be let's go back to a pre-Arab Spring world where the West coddles dictators in the Middle East as long as they keep the oil flowing and the protesters in jail.</p> <p>  </p> <p> There will never be a world where these fanatics don't exist. But could there be one where they don't matter so much except to their own fringe? That needs addressing the actual socio-economic-political reasons that allow these hate mongers to flourish and bloom and sit on state-linked foundations like the one that raises the bounty on Rushdie's scalp. That's a long tedious process and the Arab Spring is just the beginning of it. The rulers in Egypt are already grappling with the contradictions of both encouraging the protests to defend Islam and having to send out riot troops to protect the American embassy from the defenders.</p> <p>  </p> <p> A friend compares it to the malaria epidemic that's racking India now. The mosquito is not going to go away, no matter how annoying it is. You can deal with the endemic causes for it whether it's trash, the felling of trees, or unchecked development. That won't eradicate the mosquito but will minimize its nuisance potential. Or you can spray it with DDT and worse only to discover 10 years down the line that yesterday's pesky mosquito has turned into today's mutant monster.</p> <p> <em><strong>Photos: New America Media; AP.</strong></em></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/sam-bacile" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">sam bacile</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/innocence-muslims" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">the innocence of muslims</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/salman-rushdie" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Salman Rushdie</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/chris-stevens" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">chris stevens</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-embassy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">U.S. embassy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/yemen" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Yemen</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/middle-east" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Middle East</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/muslim-fundamentalists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Muslim fundamentalists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/religious-fundamentalists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">religious fundamentalists</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iran" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iran</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ayatollahs" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">ayatollahs</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Sandip Roy</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Mon, 24 Sep 2012 19:48:23 +0000 tara 1607 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1588-salman-rushdie-sam-bacile-why-fanatics-are-easily-offended#comments Obama’s Middle East Dilemma https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1565-obamas-middle-east-dilemma <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 09/18/2012 - 12:46</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumObamaNAM.jpg?itok=IqJd97WM"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumObamaNAM.jpg?itok=IqJd97WM" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/09/obamas-fleeting-cairo-moment.php">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> In April 1980, a U.S. helicopter crashed into a transport plane in the Iranian desert, sealing the fate of a rescue mission ordered by President Jimmy Carter to save 53 American hostages in Tehran. The debacle that was Operation Eagle Claw also sealed Carter’s re-election chances because it demonstrated once again that he had allowed events to overtake his presidency.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The killing of U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya, on the anniversary of September 11 should provoke a similar examination of the Obama presidency. Here was a quintessential ambassador – an Arabic speaker, popular among ordinary Libyans, who had worked with the revolutionaries to overthrow Muammar Gaddafi – killed in the line of duty, inside the diplomatic mission along with three other Americans. It was a colossal failure, marking a nadir in a presidency that boasted a break with Bush-era unilateralism and a promise to “commit ourselves to an effort – a sustained effort – to find common ground” with the Muslim world.</p> <p>  </p> <p> That sustained effort began five months into his presidency, in Cairo, on June 4, 2009: “I have come here to seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world; one based upon mutual interest and mutual respect; and one based upon the truth that America and Islam are not exclusive, and need not be in competition. Instead, they overlap and share common principles – principles of justice and progress; tolerance and the dignity of all human beings.” He was placing the Middle East and an outreach to the Muslim world at the centre of his foreign policy ambitions.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Cairo was on his mind again this past week after the Egyptian government appeared less than keen to stop repeated attacks on the U.S. embassy there. A clearly frustrated President Obama said of Egypt on Thursday, "I don't think we would consider them an ally, but we don't consider them an enemy.” It was a stunning public rebuke of a nation that has received $2 billion in aid annually ever since Anwar Sadat signed the Camp David accords in 1979 and ranks with Israel, Australia and Japan as a “major non-NATO ally.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> As a venue for his first major address on America’s public diplomacy, Cairo was meant to be a leitmotif for a new overture to the Middle East, one designed to balm the Bush-era campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan. All of that came to naught last week with the killing of Ambassador Stevens and the disapproval delivered by Obama himself to newly-elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. It took Morsi another 24 hours to realize that he had to be more forthcoming if he wanted the aid to continue.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It is instructive to go back to that historic speech – historic because those words helped Obama win the Nobel Peace Prize the same year – to look at three specific touch points and see what progress has been made in US-Muslim relations. The first, “Moreover, freedom in America is indivisible from the freedom to practice one's religion. That is why there is a mosque in every state of our union, and over 1,200 mosques within our borders. That is why the U.S. government has gone to court to protect the right of women and girls to wear the hijab, and to punish those who would deny it.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> That assertion made not a whit of difference to the bloodthirsty killers of Ambassador Stevens. It has not persuaded the thousands of others in more than 20 countries that have rioted in Muslim nation capitals, railing against America. It would be worthwhile to ask how many more churches, synagogues and temples have been built in predominantly Muslim nations since June, 2009.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The second bellwether: “Among some Muslims, there is a disturbing tendency to measure one's own faith by the rejection of another's. The richness of religious diversity must be upheld – whether it is for Maronites in Lebanon or the Copts in Egypt.” In fact, nations like Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan are less tolerant of religious minorities than before. Ironically, the removal of dictators has made life for these vulnerable populations even less hospitable.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And, the third test: “The sooner the extremists are isolated and unwelcome in Muslim communities, the sooner we will all be safer.” Extremists and provocateurs are as welcome as they have ever been as is demonstrated by the ongoing violence targeted at American interests in capitals across the Muslim-Arab arc of nations in Asia and Africa stretching from Mauritania to Indonesia. The Arab Spring has seemingly made matters worse. The pretext: an amateurish, high school-calibre film that ridicules Prophet Mohammed.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Of course, Obama’s declaration in Cairo to provide fresh impetus to negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians has gone nowhere amid mutual recriminations and stonewalling. He has been no more successful than his predecessor who was a much more vocal supporter of Israel.</p> <p>  </p> <p> All of this points to a hard truth. Substantial sections of the Muslim world see America as Israel’s proxy – not the other way around – and can see nothing good ever coming out of Washington. Large swaths still cling to the notion that 9-11 was either self-inflicted or a Jewish plot. It’s not that they don’t understand the distinction between a private film-maker and the American government. They absolutely do, but almost any provocation is good enough to start a riot, take a few lives, and most importantly, burn the American flag. Burning of Korans, defecating on the Taliban, Abu Ghraib and the Danish cartoon controversy are all good enough reasons to spill blood and play spoiler.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The conclusion is inescapable: Other than helping win a Nobel Peace Prize, Obama’s Cairo speech was just another demonstration of soaring rhetoric and relativistic parsing. As Robert Lieber, Georgetown University’s international affairs professor, told Konrad Yakabuski of Canada’s <em>Globe and Mail</em>, “The Obama administration had a view if only we showed the Arab and Muslim worlds that we cared, things would change… But public opinion shows that the United States is no more popular in large chunks of the Middle East than it was under George W. Bush.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> If Bob Woodward’s latest chronicle <em>The Price of Politics</em> is an indictment of President Obama’s economic policy, the death of Ambassador Christopher Stevens and the continuing anti-American tumult in the Middle East are a similar black mark on the foreign policy front. To paraphrase Woodward, Obama has not worked his will – neither in economic policy, nor in public diplomacy.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>George Abraham is an Ottawa-based commentator who worked as a reporter and editor in the Middle East for 10 years.</em></p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/09/obamas-fleeting-cairo-moment.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/president-obama" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">President Obama</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/middle-east" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Middle East</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/foreign-policy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">foreign policy</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/united-states" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">United States</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/muslims" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Muslims</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/violence-middle-east" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">violence in the Middle East</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/israel" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Israel</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/iran" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Iran</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/us-economy" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">u.s. economy</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/ambassador-chris-stevens" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Ambassador Chris Stevens</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">George Abraham</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 18 Sep 2012 16:46:17 +0000 tara 1572 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1565-obamas-middle-east-dilemma#comments Is Egypt in Danger of Becoming the Next Iran? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1153-egypt-danger-becoming-next-iran <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Thu, 05/10/2012 - 21:22</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumEgyptElections.jpg?itok=qb5W_bnc"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumEgyptElections.jpg?itok=qb5W_bnc" width="480" height="270" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a>:</p> <p>  </p> <p> CAIRO -- It is a few minutes before midnight on Friday (May 4), and calm is far from able to make its way to the streets of this Egyptian capital. Teargas fills the air, and the shrill sound of ambulance sirens fill the neighborhood surrounding the Defense Ministry as hundreds of protestors seek shelter, and hundreds of military policemen hunt high and low for them.</p> <p>  </p> <p> About three hours earlier, Egypt’s military junta had declared a curfew over this neighborhood, but few of the citizens who started coming here to protest the April 26 decision of the Higher Election Presidential Commission ( a committee of judges tasked with monitoring and supervising the poll) observed it.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Either they bring Hazem Abu Ismail back to the presidential race or we will not stop protesting,” said one of the supporters of the Salafist hopeful, who was excluded from the list of presidential candidates because his mother had an American citizenship. “This is not a war for Abu Ismail but one for Islam.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> In a few weeks, Egypt will elect a president for the first time since a popular uprising that toppled a three-decade-old authoritarian regime under Hosni Mubarak. Violence is engulfing the country, claiming lives and spreading fear.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Egypt’s Islamist forces, particularly the Muslim Brotherhood and their more conservative Salafist peers, are sharpening their fighting tools and preparing their arguments for what seems to be an imminent clash, one that ostensibly takes center stage in the presidential election. And this clash is sure to go beyond the election to define the direction of how Egyptians will rule themselves.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “The Islamists want to radicalize this country by applying Islamic law, but the military will never be happy with this,” said Sharif Hafez, a liberal political analyst. “Islamists know that their chances in the next presidential election are dim, hence [they] desire to turn the table on everybody.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, who took over after President Mubarak stepped down last year, had declared that the army would return to its barracks when power is handed over to an elected civilian president.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But Islamists, having gotten rid of Mubarak’s fetters, want to dominate Egypt’s political life --  like Assem Abdel Maguid, a senior member of Jamaa Islamia, an Islamist organization that masterminded the assassination of the late president Anwar Sadat in 1981. He had recently turned to politics. “Those who say the chances of the Islamists in the presidential election are weak are mistaken,” he asserted.</p> <p> <img alt="" src="/sites/default/files/2mediumegyptelections.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 279px; " /></p> <p>  </p> <p> Two of the three frontrunners are Islamists. Should an Islamist become president on May 24, it would be a small step in a major move to do away with Egypt’s secular political and economic system.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The so-called economic and political “utopia” the Islamists had promised Egyptian voters never happened, with unemployment and poverty rising and parliament proving an extreme failure in addressing the needs of ordinary people.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “I will never vote for these people again,” said Akram Mahmud, a university student from Cairo. “They do nothing but lie and waste our time.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> But this is perhaps why Islamists are desperate to form a government. They accuse the current government of intentionally neglecting the needs of the public and depleting the nation’s financial resources in ways that discredit parliament.</p> <p>  </p> <p> On Friday, most of the people who clashed with military policemen outside the Defense Ministry were bearded Islamist executives. They pelted the military policemen with stones, even as they chanted “Alahu Akbar” (God is Great). Some of them retreated as determined soldiers kept them away from the offices of the military council, but others surged forward. More than 300 demonstrators were injured, and one army soldier was killed.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The demonstrators seemed to be settling old scores with the military, which has all along opposed the formation of a government by Islamists.</p> <p>  </p> <p> People like Hafez, who said he had received death threats from Islamists for his severe criticisms of them, think the next few days will be full of surprises.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “I do not think the military will hand Islamists this country on a silver platter… Hafez said. “They [the military] said Egypt’s secular system is a red line and in saying this, they do not joke.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> This is why other analysts, including leftist writer Abdullah el-Sinawy, think the big confrontation between the military and the Islamists is yet to come when Egypt embarks on writing its new constitution.</p> <p>  </p> <p> So far, Islamists have demonstrated a keen desire to dominate the constitution-writing panel, something that has been strongly opposed by liberals, secularists and leftists like el-Sinawy.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “I think the major confrontation is yet to come,” el-Sinawy said. “This is why I say to all political forces, ‘your unity is the only way out (for) this country, or we can find ourselves locked in a civil war.’”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/05/islam-and-the-egyptian-election.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egyptian-elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egyptian elections</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egyptian-military" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egyptian military</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/muslim-brotherhood" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Muslim Brotherhood</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/islamists" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Islamists</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/abu-ismail" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Abu Ismail</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cairo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cairo</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Amr Emam</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 11 May 2012 01:22:01 +0000 tara 934 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/1153-egypt-danger-becoming-next-iran#comments One Year Ago Today… https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/one-year-ago-today <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 01/25/2012 - 12:14</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumtahrirsquare.jpg?itok=ZLA0K_-u"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumtahrirsquare.jpg?itok=ZLA0K_-u" width="480" height="360" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> <em>January 25 marks the one-year anniversary of protests that toppled Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak and fueled a regionwide uprising.</em></p> <p>  From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a>:</p> <p> SAN FRANCISCO – Tareq, a Syrian American graphic designer living in Silicon Valley, says his life has “completely changed 100 percent over the past year,” a change he credits to protests in Egypt’s Tahrir Square exactly one year ago today. That date has since been enshrined as the beginning of the Arab Spring.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The toppling of Tunisia’s Zine Al-Abidine Ben Ali and Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak, followed by the fall of Libyan strongman Moammar Ghaddafi have defined what Tareq, who requested that his last name be withheld because of safety concerns for relatives in Syria, calls “the most important time of the region’s history.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> “[These events] have broken the barriers of fear for Arab-Americans and Arabs abroad against oppression and reinforced pride in being Arab,” says Tareq, before striking a note of caution.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The road ahead, he says, is long and unpredictable. Events in his native Syria, where an ongoing struggle to oust President Bashar Al-Assad has claimed over 5,000 lives, checks his optimism.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>The Year that Changed Everything </strong></p> <p> Mohammed Bouazizi was not unlike many young Tunisians. A recent college graduate, he was reduced to selling fruit to support himself and his family. On December 17, 2010, Bouazizi immolated himself to protest policies blamed for rising unemployment and poverty.</p> <p>  </p> <p> That singular event launched a wave of protests, beginning in Tunisia and rapidly spreading across the region, culminating in an 18-day rally that drew on Egyptians of all stripes and from all corners who descended on Tahrir and eventually succeeded in ending Mubarak’s 30-year rule.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Egyptians have since celebrated their gains, recently holding the country’s first democratic elections, with the moderate Egyptian Brotherhood sweeping into power ahead of secular and more religiously conservative rivals.</p> <p>  </p> <p> But for others in the region -- including Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria -- the ripple effects of the Arab Spring continues to make waves.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “These uprisings toppled the whole idea of Arab equals terrorist, backwards, or illiterate,” said Momen El-Husseiny, an Egyptian and currently a Ph.D. candidate at the University of California, Berkeley. “All these notions that had been so potent were no longer so. We are now in communication with the entire world,” he said.</p> <p>  </p> <p> El-Husseiny, who spent the past year in Egypt and recently returned to Berkeley to complete his dissertation, said he immediately saw those changes within himself and in others.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>The Role of Women</strong></p> <p> Mokhtar Alkhanshali, of Yemeni descent, says the Arab Spring has altered the way Arabs are seen globally, dispelling widespread notions including that of Arab women being absent from the realm of civic engagement.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Nobel Peace Prize winner and head of the Yemeni organization Women Journalists Without Chains, Tawakkol Karaman, he noted, was “one of the first voices that came out in this movement in Yemen,” having “led the first protests in front of the University of Sanaa.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Women also played an active and prominent role in Egypt’s Tahrir protests. Such actions, broadcast for a global audience thanks to the proliferation of mobile technology and social media, “changed the face of Arabs,” says Alkhanshali.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “For a Yemeni woman to be the first Arab woman and youngest person to win a Nobel Peace Prize, and play such a role…I feel very proud of that,” he added.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Alkhanshali shared another experience, one closer to home, that spoke to the new light under which Arabs are now being seen. It was last Halloween, he explained, when he encountered a stranger dressed in military fatigues and a Kiffyeh, a traditional unisex headscarf.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “He told me he was a Libyan revolutionary,” Alkhanshali recalled, saying it was then he realized that mainstream society was beginning to replace the image of Arabs as “riding camels and oppressing women” to “fighters for democracy.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Inspiring Unity and Occupation</strong></p> <p> “I take my daughter to a (private) Arabic school,” says Hany Elhak, originally from Egypt and now living in San Jose. Recalling the events of the past year, he says that when the revolution first swept through Tunisia, students and parents with roots spanning the entire Arab world celebrated.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “People were bringing in food… We never felt that close,” he says, adding that a resurgent pride in Arab-American identity and culture, long overshadowed by conflict in the region and fears of terrorism at home, were evident in recent protests in San Francisco.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “During demonstrations in support of the Syrian struggle, there have been Yemenis, Egyptians, everyone there in solidarity. There has definitely been a renewed sense of Pan Arabism, a sense of Arab pride,” noted Tareq.</p> <p>  </p> <p> And inspiration. For if nothing else, the Arab Spring helped precipitate what has become the largest protest movement to hit America since the Vietnam War.</p> <p>  </p> <p> At a recent Occupy Oakland rally, Tareq remembers hearing protestors chanting “The people want to topple Wall Street.” That chant, he says, found its precedent in Tahrir and Tunis, where protestors cried, Asha’ab ureed isqaat anizaam. “The people want to topple the regime.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Of course we can’t take the credit, but I do believe that if the Arab revolutions were not this powerful, the Occupy movement would not have been (as powerful) either,” he notes.</p> <p>  </p> <p> <strong>Celebration and Reflection</strong></p> <p> Arabs across San Francisco and the Bay Area are preparing to commemorate the anniversary of the Arab Spring with an event that organizers say will “bring the community together… to reflect on this last year of revolution in Egypt and honor all Arab struggles.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Janaan Attieh, a community organizer and one of the individuals responsible for putting on Wednesday’s event in the city’s Mission District, says it is “vital that Arabs gather and connect” with one another.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Discussions are sure to touch on issues of democracy and the continuing violence in countries like Syria, though many are hopeful and say they’d like to return when conditions improve. Others are more cautious.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “I’m sure we will see democratic states,” said Tareq in reference to Syria, “but unfortunately (the violence) will continue. We won’t get democracy for free.”</p> <p> <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2012/01/one-year-on-arab-pride-and-the-long-road-ahead.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tahrir-square" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tahrir Square</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hosni-mubarak" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hosni Mubarak</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/demonstrations" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">demonstrations</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/arab-spring" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Arab Spring</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Suzanne Manneh</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Al Jazeera English</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:14:37 +0000 tara 455 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/one-year-ago-today#comments Has Western Media Exaggerated Divide Between Egypt’s Religious Groups? https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/has-western-media-exaggerated-divide-between-egypt-religious-groups <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Tue, 12/06/2011 - 12:58</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumEgyptreligion.jpg?itok=-P4u4kGG"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumEgyptreligion.jpg?itok=-P4u4kGG" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a>: Janaan Attia, a second-generation Egyptian-American and Coptic Christian from Oakland, California, is concerned about what the future holds for Egypt following the country’s parliamentary elections last week. But Attia, like many Egyptians both here and back in Egypt, is becoming equally concerned by how the country is being portrayed in the Western media.</p> <p>  </p> <p> That’s because a good amount of the media coverage before and during the first round of parliamentary elections -- some Egyptians have referred to it as their country’s “first free election” – has focused on religious tensions, both real and perceived, between the country’s Muslim majority (90 percent) and Coptic Christian minority (10 percent).</p> <p>  </p> <p> One incident that generated much international media attention and continues to be referenced is the “Maspero Massacre” of October 9, which was sparked when Egyptian Copts decided to stage a sit-in outside the state television station building in Cairo’s Maspero Square. They were there to protest the burning of one of their churches in Aswan, south of Cairo, and the vandalizing of other Coptic churches throughout Egypt earlier this year. The sit-in ended in violent clashes between demonstrators and Egypt’s Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF). By the time the dust settled, at least 25 civilians were killed, and hundreds more injured.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Attia says the massacre is proof that Egyptian’s fears of religious conflict and discrimination amid the current political turmoil are valid, but she insists that internal religious conflict is not the primary challenge facing Egypt, nor should the media be depicting it that way.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “As a Copt, of course, it adds another layer. My family felt marginalized [under] the Mubarak regime,” said Attia. “[Religious discrimination] is a concern, and it is a reality. However, state repression is state repression, and economic justice is the key point for all Egyptians.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Ironically, said Attia, as the Western media has had its gaze focused on conflagrations like the Maspero Massacre, it has overlooked unprecedented moments of unity between Mulsims and Copts that have been on display for the duration of the revolution.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “During the October 9th demonstrations, lots of Muslims were in support [of Copts],” recalled Attia. She points also to various Arab media reports showing Muslims and Christians protecting each other during the revolution’s start in January, and Attia is convinced that there is ongoing mutual support between Egypt’s religious communities.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Had there been this true (religious) divide as (it was) depicted, the revolution and getting Mubarak out of power wouldn’t have been so successful,” she said.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Ahmed Tharwat, a professor at the University of St. Thomas in Minneapolis and host of a local Arab-American community television program, BelAhdan, said religious differences have always been an issue in Egypt, “but always in a civil liberties context.” Furthermore, said Tharwat, the religious conflict perceived in Egypt today is less a product of the current revolution than it is “a remnant of the Mubarak regime.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Perceptions are further complicated when media generalize, said Hany Amin, a recent graduate of the American University of Cairo, currently studying at the Institute of International Studies in Monterey, Calif.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “We cannot deny that [religious discrimination] is a problem. [But] you cannot say that all Christians in Egypt will suffer from it. This is what I would call generalization.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to Amin, when he was in Cairo during the revolution, American and Western media were “generalizing and highlighting the Islamic Brotherhood as if they had all the power.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Only once the parliamentary elections drew near, he said, did the same American and Western media begin addressing the other parties involved, including Copts, liberals and various moderate parties. “But they should have done that much earlier,” said Amin. Initially showing only one side “created a perception, and perceptions are hard to break,” he said.</p> <p>  </p> <p> That perception has become troubling to Yasmeen Daifallah, an Egyptian ex-pat currently residing in Berkeley, Calif.</p> <p>  </p> <p> She said the skewed media focus could cause Americans to misunderstand the “bigger picture in Egypt.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Michigan resident Atef Said, a civil rights lawyer in Egypt prior to coming to the U.S. seven years ago, was in Cairo from February through April of this year. He said he’s been concerned about the Western media’s “lack of context,” and is particularly bothered by how the media has ignored the wrongdoings of SCAF. Egypt’s current military apparatus, he said, is no different from the Mubarak regime in their “cracking down on everything,” and negligence in addressing the country’s public interest issues, such as equality, education and the economy.</p> <p>  </p> <p> “Media blame Egyptians for their own mess, as if SCAF is not responsible,” he said.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Said, like many others, is worried about Egypt’s immediate future. But he looks forward to the day when, “elected officials can be held accountable, unlike army officials who cannot be.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Peter Mikhail, a Coptic youth who has been active in the demonstrations at Tahrir Square, summed up his generation’s vision for Egypt’s future as thus: “Before the [revolution], there were Christians and Muslims, but after there are (only) Egyptians. The revolution succeeded in uniting us, as well as exposing a lot of deceiving groups.”</p> <p> --<a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2011/12/has-western-media-overhyped-divide-between-egyptian-copts-muslims.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">violence</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/copt-christians" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Copt Christians</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/muslims" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Muslims</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/elections" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">elections</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Suzanne Manneh</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Tue, 06 Dec 2011 17:58:21 +0000 tara 295 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/has-western-media-exaggerated-divide-between-egypt-religious-groups#comments The Global Revolt of 2011 https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/global-revolt-2011 <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Fri, 12/02/2011 - 13:26</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumglobalrevolt.jpg?itok=2YxYxS58"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumglobalrevolt.jpg?itok=2YxYxS58" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a>: “Shut It Down,” “No More Shipping for the 1 Percent” and “Death to Capitalism” proclaimed some of the banners near me as I joined thousands of demonstrators who converged on the Port of Oakland, Calif., on a sunny afternoon. This city is part of a global movement that has changed the terms of the political debate, stealing much of the thunder from the Tea Party movement and shaking governments around the world in a way not seen since the 1960s.</p> <p>  </p> <p> It started with Tunisia and the Arab Spring, then spread to Spain and the Indignados movement, to Chile with the massive student mobilization for an end to education for profit, to England with the urban riots, to Athens with the massive demonstrations against the tyranny of the Euro and the financial markets, and then to New York with the Occupy Wall Street movement.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Two comparable uprisings have rocked the course of history.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The revolutions of 1848 in Europe—known as the Spring Time of the Peoples—challenged monarchs, aristocrats and autocrats alike as Karl Marx and Frederick Engels penned the Communist Manifesto. Disturbances and revolutions occurred in more than 50 countries and thousands died with untold numbers fleeing abroad.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Then, exactly one century and two decades later, a broad anti-systemic movement roiled the globe on many fronts: the Tet offensive in Vietnam, the global anti-war movement, the student and worker uprising in Paris, the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia, the riots in Chicago at the Democratic convention and the Mexican student protests that led to the massacre at Tlatelolco Plaza.</p> <p>  </p> <p> None of these historic revolts was successful in terms of taking power, but they changed the world in profound ways, just as the great revolt of 2011 is doing.</p> <p>  </p> <p> As in 1968, today’s uprising is anti-systemic—calling for fundamental changes in the world's political and economic order. The youthful demonstrators of Tahrir Square in Cairo and the young people camped out in Zuccotti Park in New York see no future in the current governments that control their countries, be they authoritarian or democratic. As Nobel economics laureate Joseph Stiglitz writes, “Social protest has found fertile ground everywhere: a sense that the ‘system’ has failed and the conviction that even in a democracy, the electoral process will not set things right—at least not without strong pressure from the street.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> A strong sense of solidarity and communication exists among these movements. The initial squatters in New York City openly acknowledged that they were inspired by the revolts in Tunisia and Egypt. When the police crackdown occurred against Occupy Oakland, Egyptians sent communiques of support and marched to the U.S. embassy in Cairo calling for an end to police violence in Oakland. Weeks later a group of media and political activists in Cairo sent out a call for international support against the growing military repression in their country:</p> <p>  </p> <p> "We are still fighting for our revolution. We are marching, occupying, striking, shutting things down. And you, too, are marching, occupying, striking, shutting things down. We know from the outpouring of support we received in January that the world was watching us closely and [was] even inspired by our revolution. We felt closer to you than ever before. And now, it’s your turn to inspire us as we watch the struggles of your movements. ... If they stifle our resistance, the 1 percent will win-- in Cairo, New York, London, Rome -- everywhere. But while the revolution lives, our imaginations knows no bounds. We can still create a world worth living.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> October 15 marked an international upsurge in the movement. The headline of the Guardian newspaper of London proclaimed: “Occupy Anti-Capitalism Protests Spread Around the World.” Tens of thousands rallied and marched in London, Frankfurt, Madrid, Rome, Sydney, Hong Kong, Toronto, Santiago and Rio de Janeiro and scores of other cities around the globe. Although the demonstrators were largely peaceful, the police cracked down in many cities and clashes in Rome became particularly violent. A banner in Rome read, “People of Europe Rise Up.” In Berlin banners called for an end to capitalism, and in Frankfurt protestors fought with police in front of the European Central Bank.</p> <p>  </p> <p> These were the largest global protests since the international mobilization in February 2003 tried to stop the Bush administration from going to war in Iraq. But the protest movement today—driven by the Great Recession that threw the global economy into crisis—runs deeper and is far more resilient than that of 2003. At the heart of the crisis are international banks that got bailed out as millions of people lose their jobs, their life's savings, their homes and their daily bread. As Naomi Wolf proclaimed, the “enemy is a global ‘corporatocracy’ that has purchased governments and legislatures, created its own armed enforcers, engaged in systemic economic fraud, and plundered treasuries and ecosystems.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Meanwhile, the “corporatocracy” is determined to maintain its power and privileges as it comes under increasing scrutiny. In Europe, draconian austerity policies are being imposed to rescue the Euro, policies that will condemn Europe and much of the world to stagnant economic growth for years to come. In Greece and Italy, democracy is shunted aside as elections are avoided and technocrats beholden to the big banks are put in charge.</p> <p>  </p> <p> For much of the post-World War II period, it was believed that the inherent conflict between the “free market” and democracy could be reconciled. The electorate would refrain from interfering in the markets in exchange for steady employment, economic growth and access to an ever-increasing array of consumer commodities. Now this compact is broken. The financial markets ruin any country and its populace if it refuses to accept austerity and a decline in its standard of living. The “sovereign debt” must be paid insist the bankers and the financial markets. In effect, democracy is under siege.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In the United States, a country where ideology and the left have a weak legacy, the top 1 percent get more than 20 percent of the national income, up from 9 percent when Ronald Reagan took office. Perhaps the most telling figure is that one-tenth of the top 1 percent earn as much as the bottom 120 million people. This is why the slogans “Occupy Wall Street” and “We are the 99 percent” captured the imagination of people across the United States when the first tents went up in Zuccatti Park in New York City.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The genius of the movement is its refusal to tie itself to a particular set of demands. The grievances are so extensive—a lack of jobs, a unequal distribution of income, a decline in educational opportunities, a lack of affordable housing, the high cost of medical care, corporate funding of elections—that the entire system has to be taken on.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The police assaults against the urban encampments can’t snuff out the movement. It will resurface in other ways and other forms. As a post-eviction statement by Occupy Wall Street, New York read: “You can't evict an idea whose time has come.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> We are in a volatile and unpredictable era. What we do know is that the great revolt of 2011 marks a turning point in history as a global mass movement takes on the economic and political forces that are plundering our world.</p> <p>  <strong>Author Bio:</strong></p> <p> <em>Roger Burbach is the director of the Center for the Study of the Americas (CENSA) based in Berkeley, California. He is working on a new book with Michael Fox and Fred Fuentes for Zed Books, “The End of US Hegemony and Socialism (As We Know It): Social Movements and Left Leaders in Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador and Venezuela.”</em></p> <p> --<a href="http://newamericamedia.org/2011/11/the-global-revolt-of-2011---a-turning-point-in-history.php">New America Media</a></p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/global-revolt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">global revolt</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/occupy-wall-street-movement" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Occupy Wall Street movement</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/tunisia" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Tunisia</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/england" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">England</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/oakland" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Oakland</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/new-york-city" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">New York City</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Roger Burbach</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Fri, 02 Dec 2011 18:26:55 +0000 tara 289 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/global-revolt-2011#comments Violence and Chaos in Cairo Plague Arab Spring https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/violence-and-chaos-cairo-plague-arab-spring <div class="field field-name-field-cat field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even"><a href="/news-features" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">News &amp; Features</a></div></div></div><span class="submitted-by">Submitted by tara on Wed, 11/30/2011 - 15:12</span><div class="field field-name-field-image field-type-image field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="og:image rdfs:seeAlso" resource="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumCairo.jpg?itok=0_3lh-2g"><img typeof="foaf:Image" src="https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/mediumCairo.jpg?itok=0_3lh-2g" width="480" height="268" alt="" /></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" property="content:encoded"><p>  </p> <p> From <a href="http://newamericamedia.org/news/">New America Media</a>: The Tahrir Square of today is a place of rampant violence and sexual assault, perpetrated by the state terror apparatus and street thugs alike. The recent toll: 40 dead, 2,000 seriously wounded and countless others intimidated, beaten and raped.</p> <p>  </p> <p> The 18 days Egyptian protesters endured on the square last winter, after Hosni Mubarak stepped down under direct pressure from President Obama and the Egyptian people began to claim a revolution they did not entirely own, are now being remembered with sweet nostalgia; celebrated as a time when “intellectuals” were the guiding light of the protests as opposed to today’s rule by thugs. (Yet even back then, a mob of Egyptian men assaulted and raped CBS chief foreign correspondent Lara Logan.)</p> <p>  </p> <p> Today, women risk their dignity and personal safety by going to Tahrir, a place where rapists roam freely and assault at will. One of the more vocal and prominent victims among them is Egyptian-American journalist Mona Eltahawy, who had her left arm and right hand broken before being sexually assaulted by Egyptian riot police. Eltahawy later told NPR, “We are experiencing a political revolution in Egypt, but we need a cultural and social revolution.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Yet, perhaps Eltahawy is too close to events at Tahrir to realize that it was pressure from the United States that ultimately led to Mubarak’s fall – the proverbial straw that broke the camel’s back -- and it was the U.S. that also ordered the Egyptian military to measure its response against the protesters. Moreover, to say that “we need” any kind of revolution comes across as naive and foolish on its face. Positive change comes only after years of preparation, organization and sacrifice, very little of which has been seen in the Arab world. Indeed, true change defines rather than demands its necessity.</p> <p>  </p> <p> These instant revolutions threaten to bring only more long-lasting pain to an “arc of instability” which is now being drawn from the heart of the Middle East to the westernmost reaches of North Africa. If any meaningful and lasting change is to occur, the millions in this vast region surviving on a dollar or two per day must first gain the wherewithal to think beyond their next meal, let alone “democracy.”</p> <p>  </p> <p> Early next year, this catastrophic “spring” is to reach its first anniversary, and a starry-eyed global media is still describing the events as an Arab “awakening” toward “democracy.” Yet the stark death tolls, massive disruption of lives and lack of a clear, constructive plan to move forward in such countries as Libya, Syria, Egypt and Yemen tell an entirely different story: What little these beleaguered nations have enjoyed in terms of stability and prosperity--albeit under the thumbs of abject autocrats--is being deliberately and systematically destroyed....</p> <p> Wishful thinkers at home and abroad are quick to dismiss any “conspiracy theory,” even as they watch endless scenes of violent clashes and funeral processions on their TV screens. They still want to believe that elections – held in the midst of state terror and mob violence carried out by a people fiercely divided by unresolved class, ethnic, religious and tribal differences -- will magically bring about rule of law, government by consensus and civil debate.</p> <p>  </p> <p> In his address to the nation on March 28, 2011, President Obama justified America’s impending intervention in Libya by saying, “Thanks to the extraordinary sacrifices of our troops and the determination of our diplomats, we are hopeful about Iraq’s future. But regime change there took eight years, thousands of American and Iraqi lives, and nearly a trillion dollars. That is not something we can afford to repeat in Libya."</p> <p>  </p> <p> According to Obama’s outlook, Libya is a resounding success done on the cheap: Overthrowing Muammar Gaddafi took only months to accomplish and did not cost a single American life. Yet today, as he was in March, the president remains “hopeful about Iraq’s future” even after eight years of American occupation during which Iraq has become a failed state with rampant corruption. Meanwhile, the largest beneficiaries of the war in Iraq remain ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, BP and Petronas, which enjoy the spoils of war via lopsided contracts written in their favor, which they negotiated with the puppet regime on the take.</p> <p>  </p> <p> Eight years from now, if “everything goes right” from the point of view of [the president], Libya and the rest of the “Arab Spring” nations could be in precisely the same predicament as Iraq is today.</p> </div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-tags field-type-taxonomy-term-reference field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Tags:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/cairo" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Cairo</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/egypt" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Egypt</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/violence" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">violence</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/chaos" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">chaos</a></div><div class="field-item even" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/arab-spring" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Arab Spring</a></div><div class="field-item odd" rel="dc:subject"><a href="/hosni-mubarak" typeof="skos:Concept" property="rdfs:label skos:prefLabel" datatype="">Hosni Mubarak</a></div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-author field-type-text field-label-hidden"><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Behrouz Saba</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-pop field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Popular:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">not popular</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-photographer field-type-text field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Photographer:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">New America Media</div></div></div><div class="field field-name-field-bot field-type-list-boolean field-label-above"><div class="field-label">Bottom Slider:&nbsp;</div><div class="field-items"><div class="field-item even">Out Slider</div></div></div> Wed, 30 Nov 2011 20:12:12 +0000 tara 278 at https://www.highbrowmagazine.com https://www.highbrowmagazine.com/violence-and-chaos-cairo-plague-arab-spring#comments