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Ed Webb

Syria: Has it won? | The Economist - 0 views

www.economist.com/...displaystory.cfm

Syria diplomacy Israel Turkey EU USA Lebanon Assad Economist

shared by Ed Webb on 30 Nov 09 - Snapshot
  • Under its surprisingly durable leader, Syria has stubbornly nudged its way back into the heart of regional diplomacy. It can no longer be ignored
  • Mr Assad is increasingly viewed as an essential part of the region’s diplomatic jigsaw. He is fast coming back into the game. Even America would like to embrace him.
  • A flurry of foreign dignitaries has recently courted Mr Assad, including the Saudi king, the French and Croatian presidents, the prime ministers of Turkey, Jordan, Iraq and Spain, and a stream of ministers and MPs, plus a string of prominent Americans. Mr Jumblatt himself is expected in Damascus soon, as is another Lebanese leader with a personal animus, Saad Hariri, now filling his slain father’s shoes as Lebanon’s prime minister.
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  • Mr Assad’s regime has not only endured but thrived, along with Syria’s economy. Its GDP, its foreign trade and the value of loans to its private sector have all nearly doubled in the past four years, as reforms have tapped suppressed entrepreneurial vigour. For decades Damascus looked as dour as Bucharest under communist rule. Now it pulses with life. New cars throng its streets. Fancy boutique hotels, bars and fully booked restaurants pack its rapidly gentrifying older quarters, while middle-class suburbs, replete with shopping malls and fast-food outlets, spread into the surrounding hills.



    The revenue of Damascus’s swankiest hotel, the Four Seasons, is said to have doubled between 2006 and 2008. Bank Audi Syria, one of several Lebanese banks prospering there, made a profit within six months of launching in 2005. It now boasts $1.6 billion in deposits, and recently led Syria’s first-ever private syndication to finance a cement plant, a joint venture between France’s Lafarge and local businessmen costing $680m. In March Syria relaunched its stock exchange, moribund since the 1960s and still tiny. But with new rules allowing foreign ownership of equity, investors are showing keen interest.

  • Syria is a natural transit hub for the region’s energy exports. In October it signed a series of agreements with Turkey. A decade ago the Turks had threatened to invade; now they can drive across the border without visas. Last month the EU also abruptly signalled its eagerness to sign a long-delayed association agreement, leaving the Syrians to ponder whether it needs revision in light of their stronger bargaining hand.
  • The reforms so far have been the easier ones. Pervasive corruption and creaky infrastructure will impede progress. So will a school system that, despite the opening of some 15 private universities, is far from supplying the skills needed for a modern economy.
  • although Syrians whisper about palace intrigues and bumps in the night, a striking number reckon silence is a reasonable price to pay for stability. Punishment is harsh but at least the rules are clear. Syrian society is as complex in sectarian make-up as neighbouring Lebanon and Iraq, and harbours similarly volatile groups, including jihadist cells that the government ruthlessly squashes. Yet it has experienced minimal unrest in recent years. The most serious incident was a car bomb that killed 17 people in Damascus last year. The calm, say some, results less from heavy policing than from clever intelligence, including the co-opting and manipulation of extremist groups. With the exception of the Kurds, Syria’s minorities enjoy a sense of security envied elsewhere in the region.
  • Frightened by the invasion of Iraq, Syria nevertheless yanked the American lion’s tail by letting insurgents slip into the fray. Such nerve, along with Syria’s generous accommodation of Iraqi refugees, improved Mr Assad’s Arab nationalist credentials just when America’s moderate Arab allies looked callow and spineless.
  • Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, tried to provoke a reaction from Mr Assad, when visiting President Nicolas Sarkozy in France, by calling for negotiations without preconditions. Syria had no preconditions, answered Mr Assad on his own Paris visit, but rather rights that everyone recognised. Indeed, Mr Netanyahu’s predecessor, Ehud Olmert, seemed to accept that the Heights would one day have to be returned to Syria.
Ed Webb

Informed Comment: Nearly One in Four Persons on Globe is Muslim - 0 views

www.juancole.com/...-four-persons-on-globe-is.html

muslims Islam demographics population growth politics

shared by Ed Webb on 09 Oct 09 - Snapshot
  • If current demographic trends continue, moreover, the world could level off at about 9 billion persons in 2050, and nearly 1/3 of those could well be Muslim. The really big Muslim populations are not in the Middle East, which is largely arid and wouldn't support such populations. It is in relatively well-watered places such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, and Indonesia in Asia where the bulk of Muslims live.
  • One of the implications is that the US is a little unlikely to thrive as a superpower in the 21st century if its more venal and bloodthirsty politicians go on barking about "Islamo-fascism" (they never said Christo-Fascism even though Gen. Franco in Spain was a good candidate for the label) and denigrating Islam and Muslims and seeking to militarily occupy their countries and siphon off their resources. That kind of behavior may have worked in the 19th century before Muslims were mobilized, but it does not work now.
Ed Webb

Ali Gomaa: Islam, Israel and the United States - WSJ.com - 0 views

online.wsj.com/...3298004574457452301729982.html

Egypt Islam Christianity politics USA Al-Azhar

shared by Ed Webb on 08 Oct 09 - Snapshot
  • while we must strive to reinforce the common principles that we share, we must also accept the reality of differences in our values and in our outlook. Islam and the West have distinct value systems. Respect for our differences is a foundation for coexistence, and never for conflict.
  • While some of the divide between Islam and the West lies in the realm of ideas, it lies mostly in the realm of politics. The violence and the aggression to which many Muslim countries have been subjected are the main sources of a deep and legitimate sense of grievance, and they must be addressed.
Ed Webb

Turks intolerant of religious diversity, says poll - 0 views

www.todayszaman.com/...gious-diversity-says-poll.html

Turkey religions tolerance opinion poll data ethnicity

shared by Ed Webb on 03 Oct 09 - No snapshot

  • Turks intolerant of religious diversity, says poll









    A survey conducted by a private research company has shown that a great majority of the public does not want atheists, Jews or Christians for neighbors and also disapproves of their employment at top state institutions, the Radikal daily reported yesterday.
  • Fifty-seven percent of 1,108 people surveyed in the poll said they did not want to have atheist neighbors, while 42 percent said they did not want Jewish neighbors and 35 percent of respondents were reluctant to have Christian neighbors
  • When participants were asked whether they have close friends who are Alevi, Kurd, atheist, Greek, Armenian or Jewish, 64 percent stated that they had a Kurdish friend, while 53 percent said they had a friend from the Alevi community.
  • Ed Webb
    Ed Webb on 03 Oct 09
     
    via @mideastyouth
Ed Webb

Best place for Muslims to live? America - Yahoo! News - 0 views

news.yahoo.com/...ykavakciweb

muslims USA Turkey Tunisia Islam middle_east middleeast autocracy authoritarianism democracy religion opinion

shared by Ed Webb on 30 Sep 09 - Snapshot
  • In Turkey, where the vast majority of the population is Muslim, you will not find a lawyer with a beard or a student at a university wearing a head scarf, but you can find plenty in New York City. In Tunisia, you won't see a religiously dressed physician at university hospitals – but you can in Alabama.
  • Many Muslim countries promote homogeneity while their citizens yearn for a right to diversity, which will give them the ability to practice their religious rituals freely.
  • the difference is when American Muslims face an unjust treatment, they have recourse where they can find justice
Ed Webb

Religion in schools, finally | open Democracy News Analysis - 0 views

www.opendemocracy.net/...religion-in-schools-finally

education religion Russia CCCP secularism textbooks Orthodoxy Islam Judaism Buddhism

shared by Ed Webb on 29 Sep 09 - Snapshot

  • Dmitry Medvedev met with the leaders of Russia's traditional religions, and responded to two appeals from them.



    He agreed that the history and culture of the country's main religions should be included in the core school curriculum. He also agreed that the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation should have military priests.

  • Twice a week from the spring of next year, pupils in the fourth and fifth classes will study one of three new subjects. They and their parents will be able to choose between the religious culture of one religion (Orthodox, Islam, Judaism or Buddhism), the history and cultural background of the world's great religions, or the foundations of secular ethics. It will be compulsory for pupils to choose one of these three modules.
  • These three modules, "Foundations of religious culture", "Foundations of history and culture of world religions" and "Foundations of secular ethics",- will be taught by teachers who have taken a special training course, though most of them will probably have had  a secular education.
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  • at first the main problem will be a serious lack of qualified teaching staff.
  • the Church has already declared its readiness to work with the Ministry of Education and Science, the Russian Academy of Education, and a number of other institutes in order to inspect the new textbooks and study materials
  • "There should be no place for religious propaganda in these lessons, no appeals  to perform particular religious rites or to accept particular dogmas. The textbooks should not contain criticism of other religions, and there should not be a single line which could be used as an argument in the debate of the superiority of one religion over another. The subject should be treated secularly. It should be financed by a secular organisation, and ‘indoctrination' into any faith should be prohibited," stressed the author of the future Orthodox textbook.
  • classes in Orthodox or Muslim culture have in fact already become part of the curriculum - but only as optional subjects, or as part of the regional component of the curriculum.
  • The Patriarch was at pains to stress that his overriding concern was that the historical and cultural aspect of the new subject should be well established. For without a good grasp of the foundations of the religion that defines the state, it is impossible to understand the country's historical roots, or to appreciate the riches of its national culture.
  • freedom of conscience, seen solely as an unlimited opportunity to inculcate atheist thought, is a hangover from the worst days of the state's war against religion
  • "We are worried about the moral climate in schools which forms the personality of the person, and his or her understanding of good and evil. This is what concerns us, not lobbying for a particular subject of the curriculum, as people often try to make out".

  • critics of the Moscow Patriarchate, who mocked the "Barvikha symphony" of the Church and State, the "Orthodoxisation of the country" and the "missionary revenge of the church". For they realise the threat which Patriarch Kirill's new policy, which is gaining increasing popular support, poses to their ideas.



    This policy lies in turning nominal Christians, people who are Orthodox only in name, into active members of the Church.

Ed Webb

A Song Contest Becomes a Hot Spot in Feud Between Countries - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...31iht-eurovision.html

Eurovision Armenia Azerbaijan music politics

shared by Ed Webb on 01 Sep 09 - Snapshot
  • The simmering conflict between Armenia and Azerbaijan has entered a new theater: the Eurovision Song Contest.
  • some Azerbaijanis who took impartiality to impressive lengths, voting for the Armenian entry in the 2009 final in May, reportedly were called in to the Azerbaijani National Security Ministry
  • Previously, the Armenians had raised tensions by slipping images of a memorial in Nagorno-Karabakh, the enclave at the center of the dispute between the countries, into the video presentation that introduced their representative in a preliminary round.
Ed Webb

Memo From Cairo - Hints of Pluralism in Egyptian Religious Debates - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...31cairo.html

religion Islam moderation Christianity Bahais media al-Banna

shared by Ed Webb on 31 Aug 09 - Snapshot

  • Mr. Banna was pleased because at least his ideas were being circulated. Mr. Banna, who is 88 years old and is the brother of Hassan al-Banna, founder of the Muslim Brotherhood, has been preaching liberal Islamic views for decades.

    But only now, he said, does he have the chance to be heard widely. It is not that a majority agrees with him; it is not that the tide is shifting to a more moderate interpretative view of religion; it is just that the rise of relatively independent media — like privately owned newspapers, satellite television channels and the Internet — has given him access to a broader audience.

  • Some of those who have begun to speak up say they are acting in spite of — and not with the encouragement of — the Egyptian government. Political analysts said that the government still tried to compete with the Muslim Brotherhood, a banned but tolerated Islamic movement, to present itself as the guardian of conservative Muslim values.
  • President Obama’s outreach to the Muslim world has quieted the accusation that the United States is at war with Islam, making it easier for liberal Muslims to promote more Western secular ideas, Egyptian political analysts said.
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  • the dynamic was for Christians as well as Muslims in Egypt
  • this time Mr. Qimni did not go into hiding. He appeared on the television show, sitting beside Sheik Badri as he defended himself.
  • “It is an unprecedented move to recognize that one can be Egyptian and not adhere to one of these three religions,”
Ed Webb

French Rap as a Flash Point - NYTimes.com - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...27iht-rap.html

France rap hiphop culture politics censorship

shared by Ed Webb on 27 Aug 09 - Snapshot
  • “One wonders if our leaders understand their electors aren’t living in Tehran,”
  • a new phase in the usually hostile relationship between French rappers and politicians. Though the artists remain committed and popular provocateurs, some leaders who once called them a serious threat to French culture and public safety have begun to soften their tone. The change mirrors broader attitudinal shifts in France, a nation devoted to tradition but adapting, sometimes grudgingly, to an evolving, multiracial society.

  • “At a certain point, what they accept from a Franco-French artist they don’t accept from an artist of North African origin,” said the lawyer Guillaume Traynard, who has defended several French rappers in cases brought by politicians. He called the suits a misguided “shortcut” for addressing the problems of France’s tense minority neighborhoods, from which most French rappers hail.

    Orelsan, who is white, suggested rap’s troubles have had more to do with culture than with politics or race.

    “Rap is a kind of music that people don’t really understand,” he said. “It’s a musical genre that’s not accepted as ‘culture’ by a large part of the population.” Some French have attacked rap, he said, simply because they don’t view it as art — and mistake aggressive posturing for literal threats of violence.

Ed Webb

News | US students under fire for anti-Islam shirts - 0 views

www.alarabiya.net/...82974.html

antiislam Florida USA Christianity Islam sectarianism idiocy

shared by Ed Webb on 26 Aug 09 - Snapshot
  • A handful of school students in the American state of Florida were sent home this week for wearing t-shirts with the words "Islam is of the Devil" printed on the back in red and refusing to change out of them or cover the message.
Ed Webb

BBC NEWS | Europe | French minister urges burka ban - 0 views

news.bbc.co.uk/...8203290.stm

France Islam women gender politics international veil

shared by Ed Webb on 16 Aug 09 - Snapshot
  • Ed Webb
    Ed Webb on 16 Aug 09
     
    A ban on the burka in France would help stem the spread of the "cancer" of radical Islam, a female Muslim minister says.
Ed Webb

Coptic Church censoring student's PhD thesis - 0 views

www.almasryonline.com/...ARTICLE_EN

Coptic Copts academic_freedom censorship Egypt religion

shared by Ed Webb on 03 Aug 09 - Snapshot
  • When the young student called the bishop to confirm his attendance only days later, the bishop began listing a number of changes he would want to see in the PhD thesis before he would approve.


    One of those changes included the accent that Ishaq had claimed in his work was more appropriate in usage. The bishop argued that this would need to be changed in order to match his own accent of the Coptic Language, saying that this was the norm, not what Ishaq had asserted.
  • “The fact that a member of the church is, or was, attempting to manipulate the findings of an academic is inappropriate and must not be seen as something that happens often," he begins, “because in the region, religious groups, whether they are Christian or Muslim, too often get involved in situations they shouldn’t."
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