Month: August 2007

Appeal court fines prominent poet for insulting religious extremist

IFEX : Appeal court fines prominent poet for insulting religious extremist:

The Southern Cairo court stipulated 8 August 2007 as the date for selling Hegazi’s home furniture in order to put into effect the court ruling, after Hegazi refused to pay the money, preferring his home furniture be sold.

This ruling, in an insult lawsuit brought forward by al Badri in 2003, is the latest in a series of lawsuits by al Badri against various writers, thinker and poets, sometimes in the form of a “hesba” (insult to God) case, and on other occasions as an insult case.

Nasr Hamid Abu Zaid was among the victims of sheikh al Badri in the famous case of 1993-1994, which resulted in a court ruling divorcing Abu Zaid from his wife. While Abu Zaid immigrated to the Netherlands after the court ruling, writers and thinkers continue to be brought before the court; many of those cases are raised by the sheikh. Other cases brought by the sheikh against other writers, thinkers and poets are still in court.

I mentioned this case a few days ago but thought it was worth repeating. If any reader hears of what happened today please leave a comment.

“A madrassa grows in Brooklyn”

When I was in New York last year, I heard about a new middle school that was going to open in Brooklyn and offer classes in Arabic. The Khalil Gibran school was going to be the first American public school to have “Arabic language and culture” as part of its curriculum. I’m pretty sure a few of my colleagues at NYU looked into possible teaching there. Good thing they didn’t, because apparently, this public New York high school is actually going to be a radical madrasa!This has been discovered thanks to the efforts of the usual band of credible organizations: a group calling itslef the “Stop the Madrassa Community Coalition,” Daniel Pipes (whose recent column provided me with the hilarious title of this post), Militant Islam Monitor, and the New York Sun. As the New York Times reports:

Alicia Colon, a columnist for The New York Sun, wrote that Osama bin Laden must have been “delighted� to hear the news of the school. “New York City, the site of the worst terrorist attack in our history, is bowing down in homage to accommodate and perhaps groom future radicals,� she said. “I say break out the torches and surround City Hall to stop this monstrosity.�

Then Fox decided to cover the story, with predictable results.No matter that the school is open to students from all backgrounds, and that it will teach the standard state curriculum. Its principle Debbie Almontaser, a Muslim woman long involved in inter-faith efforts, apparently has an “Islamist agenda.” And no mattter that almost everyone in the US government agrees we are in dire need of more Arabic speakers–apparently it’s OK to promote Americans speaking Arabic; but Arabs (Arab-Americans are still Arabs) speaking Arabic on U.S. soil can clearly be up to no good.All this I understand perfectly; what I can’t figure out is why the New York Times calls Daniel Pipes “the director of the Middle East Forum, a conservative research center that says its goal is to promote American interests in the region.” I don’t expect the Times to tell the truth (the Middle East Forum’s agenda is to smear real academics, spread racism against Arabs and Muslims, and blindly support Israe). But surely they could get a bit closer.

Hiltermann’s “A Poisonous Affair”

Although it has become well-known as one of Saddam Hussein’s worse crimes, the gassing of the Kurdish village of Halabja in March 1988 has not been the subject of extended reflection, particularly the tacit acceptance of Saddam Hussein’s policy of using chemical weapons against Kurdish dissidents and in his war with Iran that preceded Halabja. Joost Hiltermann, who in the early 1990s wrote for Human Rights Watch the first thorough report on the Halabja massacre, has now published a book on it in which he looks at the operation in itself (led by the recent sentenced Saddam henchman Chemical Ali) as well as its international context. A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja looks specifically at how Reagan administration officials turned a blind eye to Saddam’s war crimes and continued to support him against Iran, which had also suffered from Iraqi chemical attacks. Hiltermann recently wrote in an op-ed:

Chemical Ali’s reign lasted two years, long enough to crush the Kurdish revolt, level the countryside, and seek to prevent a viable Kurdish national movement from ever arising again. Appointed by Hussein, his cousin, in March 1987, Chemical Ali, who headed Iraq’s security police, the Amn, wasted no time in sending a message to the Kurds that their time was up. “Jalal Talabani asked me to open a special communications channel with him,” he said later in a chilling speech to Baath party faithful, referring to the leader of the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, who today, in vindication of his long struggle, is president of Iraq. “That evening I went to Suleimaniya and hit them with special ammunition.””Special ammunition” was the regime’s euphemism for poison gas. In 1987, chemical attacks on guerrilla strongholds multiplied, extending to villages and, in a horrifying climax, an entire town: Halabja, in March 1988. Thousands died in Halabja, and the overpowering fear this attack instilled ensured that when Chemical Ali launched his counterinsurgency campaign, called Anfal, a few days later he caused mass panic by deploying gas at the outset of each of the operation’s eight stages.Terrified villagers ran straight into the Iraqi military’s arms, who handed them over to the Amn. They in turn hauled tens of thousands of men, women, and children to areas far from Kurdistan, where execution squads completed the job. The affair was over in six months. Some 70,000 to 80,000 (the numbers are uncertain and disputed) never returned home.Much of this was known to the Reagan administration, according to government documents and interviews with some of the principals. But knowledge is only half of it. Spooked by the specter of an Islamic revolution radiating throughout the Gulf from Khomeini’s Iran, the administration threw its weight behind Hussein’s unsavory regime in its eight-year war with Iran, providing it with millions of dollars in credit guarantees as well as diplomatic cover, satellite intelligence, and, indirectly, weapons.US intelligence was fully aware of Iraq’s chemical weapons use, but the administration didn’t do anything about it. When it did go so far as to condemn it, in 1984, it did so with a wink and a nod, sending Donald Rumsfeld as envoy to Baghdad to appease the Iraqis by offering to restore diplomatic relations.

One of the things that Hiltermann points out is that since Chemical Ali’s trial took place before a trial specifically on Halabja taking place later this year, Kurds will most probably able to get answers out of him on certain crucial issues concerning the planning of the massacre:

The Anfal trial has now ended and although Chemical Ali’s sentence will be reviewed on appeal, he is likely to follow his cousin in death by hanging. This means that neither man will be present at the Halabja trial later this year. This is a pity, as their absence will reduce the trial’s impact and may deprive the Kurds of information that could help them understand the circumstances that prompted the regime to order the devastating attack.Absent from the courtroom also, but casting an enormous shadow on the proceedings nonetheless, will be the Reagan administration that condoned if not encouraged its proxy’s chemical weapons use and, when Hussein’s behavior proved too embarrassing, in Halabja, did its best to defuse the fallout through cover-up and deceit.

Liberal Moroccan publisher charged with defaming monarchy

A quick note on this before more tomorrow (I don’t have much time and net access today): Ahmed Reda Benchemsi, publisher and editor-in-chief of the Moroccan weeklies TelQuel and Nichane, was arrested briefly over the weekend and charged on Monday with insulting Morocco’s King Mohammed VI. The reason? An editorial in TelQuel and Nichane criticizing the speech the king gave on the occasion on the anniversary of his enthronement. The Moroccan blogger Kingstoune has translated intro French the offending article from Nichane (an Arabic language weekly written in Darija, the Moroccan dialect, which can make it tough to read for a non-Moroccan, although Larbi scanned the article here if you want to try.)

The CPJ has details on the case here. Note that charges also include offending Muslims.

Needless to say, this is a rather sad time for Morocco as this charge comes soon after lawsuits were launched against two journalists late last month for publishing leaked security documents, the first Nichane case earlier this year in which two journalists were given suspended sentences for “insulting Islam” and the forced departure of AbouBakr Jamai, perhaps the most courageous Moroccan journalist, from the country.

It’s hard not to agree with my favorite Moroccan blogger, Larbi, who says:

J’arrive à l’évidence suivante: le Maroc a opté pour une politique de la peur visant à faire taire tous ceux qui sortent du moule habituel. Il ramène tout à la « haute trahison» là où il y a de simples opinions personnelles. Il cadre, aujourd’hui plus que jamais, la pensée et définie son champ d’exercice. Il n’en finit pas de multiplier les intimidations et les contraintes. Ancré dans ses certitudes, il ne supporte pas le regard différent de certains de ses citoyens, interdit leurs questionnements, rejette leurs colères. Il les veut tous semblables, alignés sur la même pensée, roulants à la même cadence, conformes au même modèle modélisant . De ce fait, il est plus proche d’un pays totalitaire du tiers-monde, et peut être il l’est, que d’un pays qui aspire à la démocratie. C’est triste, c’est vraiment triste. Je dis NON à cette politique de peur. Nous ne cèderons pas !

My translation: I’ve come to the following conclusion: Morocco has opted for a politics of fear aiming to silence all of those who don’t fit the official mold. It speaks of “high treason” when dealing with simple personal opinions. It frames, today more than ever, critical thinking and limits where it can be exercised. It forever multiplies threats and constraints. Anchored in its beliefs, it cannot bear the critical examination of its citizens, forbids their questioning, rejects their angers. It wants them all the same, aligned on the same frequency, moving at the same rhythm, conforming to the same model. In this regard, it is closer to a totalitarian country in the third-world — and perhaps it is one — than a country that aspires to democracy. It’s sad, it’s really sad. I say NO to this politics of fear. We will not concede.

Hamas introduces Islamist practices in Gaza administration

Hamas shaves year off inmates’ sentences for memorizing Koran:

Inmates in the Gaza Strip’s main prison can now reduce their sentences by one year if they memorize five chapters from the Koran, Islam’s holy book, the prison’s governor announced Monday.

The prison, controlled by the militant Hamas movement since the group’s violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in June, holds 350 prisoners, 30 of whom are on death row.

The new scripture program seeks to encourage prisoners to behave according to the Koran’s law, prison governor Col. Abu al-Abed Hamid, said in a statement.

Most of the inmates were sentenced before Hamas took power, for crimes ranging from murder to corruption to collaborating with Israel.

The traditionally male-dominated Hamas also announced its intention to add 100 female officers to the Gaza police force. They would supervise women prisoners and help in police actions when women must sometimes be present to search other women, said Gen. Tawfiq Jaber, the acting police chief.

Hamas, in the middle of the biggest crisis to hit the Palestinian national movement, has its priorities straight. Note also the introduction of segregation of police forces (i.e. policewomen introduced to handle female suspects). Hamas is ruling Gaza as if it intends to stay for the long term. Admittedly, one might argue it has the right to govern as it sees fit since it won the last election. But it’s not too early to ask, when will the next elections take place?

Hizbullah tightening media coverage

I remember last year journalists covering Lebanon were quite positive about the professionalism and relative openness (for a militia that faces constant dangers) of Hizbullah’s press officers. I had read before (from McClatchy reporter Hannah Allam’s excellent blog) that they were now impossible to deal with, and it is confirmed again by Charles Levinson’s recent experience:

My experience with Hezbollah this week has left an unpleasant taste in my mouth. I had heard this from other journalist friends who have recently returned from Lebanon, but discovered it for myself this week: their interaction with the press borders on fascist. In southern Lebanon it is very difficult to find people of any confession who speak freely about the organization. Even mentioning Hezbollah by name in interviews seems often to make whoever you’re talking with a touch edgy and uncomfortable. By the end of the week, my Italian colleague was comparing trying to cover the Shiite organization to trying to cover the mafia in her home country.

For Hizbullah, this will prove counter-productive in the long-run…

Leonardo DaVinci may have been Arab

Dama1This story is very cool, not because Leonardo might have had Arab blood, but because of the fantastically meticulous research that has gone into it. Going through over 200 partial fingerprint samples from DaVinci’s paintings, finally finding the most complete one in ‘Portrait of a Lady with an Ermine’ (pictured on the right) and matching with other ones from manuscript.

In the case of Leonardo’s fingertip, patterns and ridges pointed to the Middle East, the researchers concluded.

“The fingerprint features patterns such as the central whorl that are dominant in the Middle East. About 60 percent of the Middle Eastern population display the same dermatoglyphic structure found in the fingerprint,” Capasso said.

The discovery would support Vezzosi’s claim that Leonardo’s mother was not a local peasant girl as previously thought, but a Middle Eastern slave.

According to Vezzosi, records unearthed in Vinci offer substantial evidence that Leonardo’s father, a craftsman called Ser Piero Da Vinci, owned a Middle-Eastern female slave named Caterina.

“It was common in 15th century Tuscany to own slaves from the Middle East,” said Vezzosi.

Indeed, in 1452, the same year of Leonardo’s birth, a law was passed in Florence that gave slave owners greater rights over their slaves.

Shortly after the law was passed, Ser Piero married Caterina off to one of his workers. The woman had just given birth to a boy called Leonardo.

Droit de seigneur?

[Thanks to Hisham for the link.]

ICG: After Gaza

The International Crisis Group has released a much-awaited report on the late unpleasant events in Palestine, After Gaza. To sum it up, ICG says “West Bank First” would be a disaster, takes Hamas to task for the way it has run Gaza, tut-tuts Fatah for not wanting to share power and urges Palestinians to form one national government again with support from international community:

A more promising course would be for Fatah and Hamas to immediately cease hostile action against each other and begin to reverse steps that are entrenching separation between Gaza and the West Bank and undermining democratic institutions. In the longer run, they should seek a new power-sharing arrangement, including:
• a clearer political platform, explicitly endorsing the Arab Peace Initiative;

• a commitment to a reciprocal and comprehensive Israeli-Palestinian ceasefire;

• reform of the security services, to include de-factionalisation and integration of Hamas’s Executive Security Force;

• reform of the PLO, expanding it to include Hamas and Islamic Jihad;

• formation of a new unified government approved by the parliament; and

• consideration of early presidential and legislative elections, although not before one year before the establishment of new government.

To facilitate this, Arab states and other third parties should offer their mediation and monitoring of any agreement. If an agreement is reached, the Quartet should be prepared to engage with a new government politically and economically.

One lives in hope. The report also sheds light on the brutality of the fighting between the two main Palestinian factions and dispels a few myths commonly repeated in much of the mainstream American media. Such as:

Some observers stress the ideological incompatibility of two movements with very different ideas about how to settle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In numerous talks Crisis Group held with Fatah and Hamas leaders during this period, however, program divergence virtually never came up. The battle was essentially over military and political power, more specifically who would control the security sector and whether Hamas would be allowed to join the PLO.

Or:

Clearly, continued deterioration in the economy and security, coupled with Quartet and Israeli refusal to amend policies, strengthened the more hard-line within Hamas. Sceptical of the decision first to stand for elections and next to share much power in a national unity government, they could point to the continued boycott, international financial and material support to Fatah, Hamas’s inability to govern and its loss of popular support and ask: why are we doing this? In Rafah, a newspaper run by members of the military wing, the Martyr Izz-al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, published an article denouncing Haniya as a renegade for involvement in politics and defending a government set up under occupation. It was accompanied by statements by the late Hamas leader Abd-al-Aziz Rantisi attacking formation of any government under occupation.

Or:

Hamas’s bête-noire – continuing the starring role in Islamist demonology he assumed in the 1990s during successive crackdowns on Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad as head of the Preventive Security Force (PSF) in the Gaza Strip – was Muhammad Dahlan. Intelligent, ambitious and ruthless in equal measure, he adroitly used his powers and position over the years to develop an extensive, loyal patronage network, outmanoeuvre and/or co-opt Fatah and PA rivals and solidify his role as the most important Fatah power in the Gaza Strip. To Hamas, he personified everything it detested: “collaboration, corruption, and chaos�. Islamists denounced him as the “head of the snake�, the local strategist and point man in a campaign led by the U.S. to reverse the 2006 elections. Hamas saw Dahlan’s 18 March appointment by Abbas as national security adviser with expanded powers – a presidential prerogative exercised the day after the national unity government was formed – as a clear signal that Fatah power centres opposed to reconciliation retained the upper hand. Some concluded that their rivals’ commitment to the Mecca Agreement stemmed from their conviction that the engineered failure of a national unity government would justify early elections. Commenting on such a scenario, a Hamas leader in late May warned:

Dahlan and his allies are seeking to torpedo the national unity government. We will not let this happen. We will not allow elements within Fatah to restore its hegemony and will not participate in early elections or recognise their legitimacy.

Or:

Facing a growing security vacuum, Hamas officials also expressed increasing concern about the emergence of rival, radical jihadist groups that might outflank them, as Hamas had done with Fatah. Several weeks before the June confrontation, a leader said: “The Zawahiris are gaining. The one party that is winning is al-Qaeda�. Such sentiments were echoed by Fatah, though to accuse Hamas of creating a climate conducive to the radicals’ growth. In response, Hamas accused Dahlan of sponsoring the Army of Islam, a clan-based militia whose leadership had previously cooperated with Hamas but with which it had been in bitter conflict since mid-2006.

Also juicy little bits of detail like:

When Dahlan associates sought refuge in the home of Egyptian diplomats, Qassam militants dragged them out.

Some important conclusions too:

It appeared not so much a victory for Hamas – which was suddenly confronted with new and unprecedented responsibilities and challenges – as for the Qassam Brigades, not only because they and their commanders rather than the politicians in Gaza or Damascus seemed to be calling the shots, but because Fatah’s defeat and their control of Gaza’s streets gave them the opportunity to appear publicly for the first time in over a decade.

There’s a lot more in there if you dig.