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Thursday, November 17, 2005

Meria-Latest Journal




Published by the GLORIA Center,
Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya
MERIA News - Issue 7 - November 2005
Total Circulation 22,000


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All material copyright MERIA. You must credit if quoting and ask permission to reprint.


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CONTENTS

NEWS FROM THE GLORIA CENTER

1. PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST

2. WEBSITES/GROUPS ONLINE

3. FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO E-MAIL PUBLICATIONS

4. FUNDING/SCHOLARSHIPS/FELLOWSHIPS/WRITING OPPORTUNITIES

5. RESEARCH QUERIES-PLEASE HELP

6. SCHOLARS AND AUTHOR'S ALERTS (writers report on their books, articles, and activities)

7. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, LECTURES



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NEWS FROM THE GLORIA CENTER

Important Correction:
In the September issue of MERIA Journal, the articles by Joshua Teitelbaum, Eyal Zisser, Abbas William Samii, and Michael Rubin were meant to have included the following after their abstracts:
This article was originally written for a project and conference on "After the Iraq War: Strategic and Political Changes in Europe and the Middle East," co-sponsored by the GLORIA Center and The Military Centre for Strategic Studies (CeMiSS) of Italy.

Table of Contents for MERIA Journal Volume 9, Number 4 (December 2005):
The December 2005 issue of MERIA Journal will be out shortly and sent to all subscribers. The following articles will appear: Anar Valiyev, "Azerbaijan: Islam in the Post-Soviet Republic;" Sean L. Yom, "Civil Society and Democratization: Critical Views from the Arab World;" Jonathan Spyer, "The Impact of the Iraq War on Israel's National Security Conception;" Emil Souleimanov, "Chechnya, Wahhabism, and the Invasion of Dagestan;" Barry Rubin, "What's Wrong: The Arab Liberal Critique of Arab Society;" Meir Litvak & Joshua Teitelbaum, "Edward Said and Orientalism: Some Methodological Remarks;" Etienne Sakr (Abu Arz), "The Politics and Liberation of Lebanon;" Ali Salman Saleh and Charles Harvie, "An Analysis of Public Sector Deficits and Debt in Lebanon: 1970-2000."

Barry Rubin, The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley, November 2005). 304 pages. HB: $25.95. ISBN 0-471-73901-4. The struggle for democracy within the Arab world is one on which the fate of America, and perhaps the whole world, now rests. Still, how accurate is our understanding of Arab society, and how reasonable are our expectations? Experience has taught us to assume repressive regimes will fall and glorious freedom will rise up in a way that closely mirrors the former Soviet bloc countries, despite a cavalcade of culture differences. For information and to order: http://eu.wiley.com/WileyCDA/WileyTitle/productCd-0471739014.html.

November 28. Washington, DC, USA. The Politics and Prose Bookstore invites participants to the upcoming lecture of Prof. Barry Rubin, Author of the new book, "The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East." The lecture will take place at 5015 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC (At Nebraska Avenue). For information, visit: http://www.politics-prose.com/calendar.htm#n28, or contact: books@politics-prose.com.

The GLORIA Center announces the publication of the two first books in The Middle East in Focus series, published by Palgrave Macmillan and edited by Barry Rubin. Taking new perspectives on the area which has undergone the most dramatic changes, the Middle East in Focus series seeks to bring the best, most accurate expertise to bear for understanding the area's countries, issues, and problems.

Patrick Clawson and Michael Rubin, Eternal Iran: Continuity and Chaos (Palgrave Macmillan, November 2005). 224 pages. PB: $24.95. ISBN 1-4039-6276-6. HB: $75.00. ISBN 1-4039-6275-8. Exploring both continuity and change, Clawson and Rubin provide the historical backdrop crucial to understanding how Iranian pride and sense of victimization combine to influence its contentious and potentially dangerous politics. To order the book from outside the United States, visit the UK website, at: http://www.palgrave.com. For further information, visit: http://www.palgrave-usa.com/Search/QuickSearchResults.aspx?searchby=t&searchfor=eternal%20iran.

Ersin Kalaycioglu, Turkish Dynamics: Bridge across Troubled Lands (Palgrave Macmillan, November 2005). 256 pages. PB: $24.95. ISBN 1-4039-6280-4. HB $75.00. Turkey is a pivotal state whose domestic political, economic, and social developments have important implications across the globe. Here a leading Turkish political scientist enhances understanding of the interactions of liberal democracy with longstanding cultural cleavages along secular-religious lines, ethnicity, and social class. For further information and to order, visit: http://www.palgrave-usa.com/Catalog/product.aspx?isbn=1403962804.

Donations to MERIA Journal
The response to our September appeal was very heartwarming. In particular, the number of professors and even students on shoe-string budgets who donated to MERIA was well above expectation. We received donations from Colombia, Turkey, Israel, Canada, the UK, and the United States.
Patrons ($200-500):
The Okanagon Jewish Community Centre, Canada. Dr. Harris, Occidental College.
Sponsors ($100):
Prof. William Hale. Prof. Sanford Lakoff, Professor Emeritus, UCSD. Prof. Carole A. O'Leary, American University, in memory of John H. and Frances L. O'Leary. Prof. Marcos Peckel, Universidad Externado de Colombia, Bogota, Colombia. Dr. David Ilan, Hebrew Union College, Israel. John D. Sullivan, Center for International Private Enterprise, www.cipe.org. Stanley Winer. Dr. Mark D. Mandeles. Judith and Robert Klein. Anonymous donor in New York. Anonymous professor in Turkey.
Other donors ($50):
Ms. Carole Franco. Bill Rautenberg in honor of Papa Louis. Prof. Ami Ayalon, Tel Aviv University. Dr. David Eaton.
Students, seniors ($30):
Avi Shahrur. Prof. Arthur Goldschmidt Jr., Professor Emeritus of Middle East History, Penn State University. Ian Hawkins, in memory of Nurse Helen Smith, of Leeds, Yorkshire, England. Anne and Roy Freed of Boston, Mass. Prof. Nachum Gross, Prof. Emeritus of Economics, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prof. Amnon Cohen. Mr. Sandy Brown, in honor of the 74th birthday of Richard A. Brown. Joel Boucree, Auburn, CA, USA, in honor of my dear and best friend Justin Maier. Rabbi Charles Sheer. Samuel Z. Klausner and Roberta G. Sands Isaac Ginsburg, Ottawa, Canada. Dr. Shimshon Kinory, in honor of his former teacher Don Patinkin, Prof. of Economics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Gavin Gross. Beverly Gidron for Avner A. Gidron. Two anonymous donors in the United States.

MERIA Journal is creating a French-language edition scheduled to come out in April 2006. We are looking for good articles in French that deal with the politics, society, history, economics, and other areas of the modern Middle East (twentieth and twenty-first centuries). We encourage authors to submit proposals or queries. Please contact us (gloria@idc.ac.il) if you have ideas for articles or know of people who might be good authors, or if you would like to receive a free subscription to MERIA Journal in French. To see our guidelines for authors, visit http://meria.idc.ac.il/article-submissions.html. The deadline for submissions is January 2006.

MERIA Journal (Le Journal de Revue des Affaires Internationales du Moyen-Orient) lance une ?dition fran?aise dont la premi?re ?dition est pr?vue pour Avril 2006. Nous cherchons des articles en fran?ais qui ?tudient la politique, la soci?t?, l'Histoire, l'?conomie et d'autres aspects du Moyen Orient moderne (le XXe et XXIe si?cles). Nous encourageons les auteurs ? soumettre leurs propositions et leurs questions. Merci de nous contacter (gloria@idc.ac.il) si vous avez des id?es d'articles, si vous connaissez des auteurs qui pourraient nous convenir, ou si vous souhaitez vous abonner gratuitement ? MERIA en fran?ais. Pour consulter nos directives concernant les auteurs, visitez http://meria.idc.ac.il/article-submissions.html. La date limite de propositions est janvier 2006.


1. PUBLICATIONS OF INTEREST

A. Books

Salwa Alghanim, The Reign of Mubarak al-Sabah, Shaikh of Kuwait, 1896-1915 (I.B.TAURIS, 2005). Price: Special offer: £45.00 + shipping & handling. For further information, visit: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=181905659227370.

Yildiz Atasoy, Turkey, Islamists and Democracy: Transition and Globalization in a Muslim State (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 240 pages. HB: £30. ISBN 1 85043 758 0. The book tells the story of Islam's engagement with the reorganization of the global economy. For further information and to order: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=510000000117686&sf_01=CAUTHOR&st02=TURKEY%2C+ISLAMISTS&sf_02=CTITLE&sf_03=KEYWORD&m=11&dc=20.

Sally N. Cummings, Kazakhstan: Power and the Elite (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 224 pages. HB: £45.00 + shipping & handling. ISBN 1860648541. The book places the elite in the country's broader institutional and historical context, analyzing their identity, behavior and how they gained and secured power in the early years of independence. For information and to order : http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=183494487262599&sf_01=CAUTHOR&st_02=kazakhstan&sf_02=CTITLE&sf_03=KEYWORD&m=1&dc=1.

Alan Dowty, Israel/Palestine, Hot Spots in Global Politics Series (Polity Press, 2005). 242 pages. HB: $59.95/PB: $22.95. ISBN 0-7456-3203-3. What explains the peculiar intensity and evident intractability of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict? This book demystifies the conflict by putting it in broad historical perspective, identifying its roots, and tracing its evolution up to the current impasse. For further information and to order: http://www.polity.co.uk/book.asp?ref=0745632025.

Paul Dresch and James Piscatori, Monarchies and Nations: Globalization and Identity in the Arab States of the Gulf (I.B.TAURIS, 2005). HB: Special offer: £45.00 + shipping & handling. For further information, visit: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=510000000374072.

Emirates Center for Strategic Studies & Research, Iraq: Reconstruction and Future Role (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 198 pages. PB: £16.99. ISBN 9948006380. For further information and to order: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=510000000213692&sf_01=CAUTHOR&st_02=iraq&sf_02=CTITLE&sf_03=KEYWORD&m=1&dc=13.

Emirates Center for Strategic Studies & Research, The Gulf: Challenges of the Future (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 220 pages. HB: £24.50. ISBN 9948006585. For further information and to order: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=510000000741476&M=9&WHERE=%28%28CTITLE+PH+WORDS+%27gulf%27%29%29&SS=%28%28CTITLE+PH.

Emirates Center for Strategic Studies & Research, Islamic Movements: Impact on Political Stability in the Arab World (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 261 pages. PB: £18.99. ISBN 9948005457.For further information and to order: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=700000000184958&M=1&WHERE=%28%28CTITLE+PH+WORDS+%27islamic+movements%27%29%29&SS=%28%28CTITLE+PH+WORDS+%27islamic+movements%27%29%29&DC=2&MW=2.

Tami Amanda Jacoby, Women in Zones of Conflict: Power and Resistance in Israel (McGill-Queen's University Press, October 2005). 184 pages. HB: CA $60.00 | US $60.00 | UK £45.00. ISBN 0773529535. PB: CA $24.95 | US $19.95 | UK £12.95. ISBN 0773529934. A consideration of the ways in which women have actively resisted constraints on gender equality in the nationalist struggle in Israel. For further information, visit: http://www.mqup.mcgill.ca/book.php?bookid=1890.

Deniz Kandiyoti & Ayse Saktanber (eds.), Fragments of Culture: The Everyday of Modern Turkey (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 360 pages. PB: Now available for £15.95 + shipping & handling. Writing from within the cultural landscape of modern Turkey, the book presents exciting new writing on the everyday, providing a corrective to the often skewed perceptions of Turkish culture engendered by conventional western critiques. For further information and to order: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=182725403498856&sf_01.

Michael Kerr, Imposing Power Sharing: Conflict and Coexistence in Northern Ireland and Lebanon (Forthcoming, Irish Academic Press, November 2005). 272 pages. HB: $69.50, ISBN 0 7165 3384 7. PB: $35.00, ISBN 0 7165 3383 9. The book is a comparative analysis of power sharing agreements and peace processes in Northern Ireland and Lebanon. It examines parallel journeys both societies took through power sharing to civil war, returning to power sharing again. For further information, visit: http://www.iap.ie.

Rory Miller, Ireland and the Palestine Question: 1948-2004 (Irish Academic Press, March 2005). 280 pages. HB: 45.00 EURO/£35.00, ISBN 0 7165 2814 2. PB: 25.00 EURO/£19.50, ISBN 0 7165 3349 9. Based primarily on Irish archival sources, parliamentary debates, EU, UN, and Israeli documents as well as the Irish media, this work is the first attempt to examine Ireland's evolving policy towards the Palestine question since the birth of Israel in 1948. For further information and to order, visit: http://www.irishacademic.com/acatalog/New_Titles.html.

Houchang Nahavandi, The Last Shah of Iran: Fatal Countdown of A Great Patriot betrayed by the Free World. A Great Country whose fault was Success (Aquilion Ltd, 2005). 540 pages. PB: US$28.95 / GB£14.95. ISBN 1904997031. For further information and to order: http://shopping.ketab.com/addprod.asp?id=14755&cat=1&aut=nahavandi%2C+houchang&pgs=1 .

Angelo Rasanayagam, Afghanistan: A Modern History (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 336 pages. Now available for PB: £12.99 + shipping & handling. ISBN 1850438579. This book is the first major history of modern Afghanistan.. For further information and to order: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=510000000198968&sf_01=CAUTHOR&st_02=AFGHANISTAN&sf_02=CTITLE&sf_03=KEYWORD&m=4&dc=5.

Scott Ritter (Foreword by Seymour Hersh), Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of America's Intelligence Conspiracy (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 256 pages. HB: Special price £12.60. ISBN 1845110889. For further information, visit: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?ISB=1845110889&TAG=&CID=.

Vesta Sarkhosh Curtis and Sarah Stewart, The Idea of Iran: Vol. 1: Birth of the Persian Empire (I.B.Tauris Publishers, 2005). 192 pages. HB: £39.50 + shipping & handling. ISBN 1845110625. Offer ends November 5, 2005. This book explores the formation of the first Persian Empire under the Achaemenid Persians. For further information, visit: http://www.ibtauris.com/ibtauris/display.asp?K=510000000742636&sf_01=CAUTHOR&st
02=birth+of+the+persian+empire&sf_02=CTITLE&sf_03=KEYWORD&m=1&dc=1.


B. Journals, Newsletter, Papers

Democracy Digest, Vol. 2, No. 11, (November 2005), a bulletin of the Transatlantic Democracy Network, is currently available. To read, visit: http://www.demdigest.net.

Democratiya, No. 2 (November-December 2005) is currently available. It is a free bi-monthly online review of books dealing with such topics as war, peace, human rights, international law, democratization, and social and labor movements. To read, visit: http://www.democratiya.com.

Insight Turkey's October-December 2005 issue entitled, "Turkey and the Black Sea/Caucasus" is now available. The journal covers a broad range of topics related to Turkish domestic and foreign policy affairs and aims to provide a forum for informed discussion on Turkey's relationship to its adjacent regions, such as the Middle East, the Caucasus, the Balkans, and Europe. For further information, visit: http://www.insightturkey.com/.

Nonproliferation issues (NPI), is a weekly digest of nonproliferation, arms control, and international security literature compiled by FirstWatch International's expert research team. For the latest issues, visit: http://www.firstwatchint.org/NI.html.

The National Intelligence Strategy of the United States of America, Office of Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) News Release, No. 4-05, October 26, 2005. To read, visit: http://www.odni.gov/release_letter_102505.html http://www.odni.gov.

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, "Islamic Utopian Romanticism and the Foreign Policy Culture of Iran," Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies, Vol. 14, No.3 (Fall 2005), pp. 265-92, ISSN 1066-9922. For further information, visit: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/online/1066-9922.asp.

Katinka Barysch, Steven Everts, and Heather Grabbe, "Why Europe Should Embrace Turkey." The latest pamphlet of the Center for European Reform (CER). Available at: http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/p_637_europe_emb_turkey.pdf.

Soner Cagaptay, "Turkey at a Crossroads: Preserving Ankara's Western Orientation," Policy Focus, No. 48 (October 2005. To download a pdf version, go to: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/html/pdf/CagaptayBookWeb.pdf

Farid Guliyev, "Post-Soviet Azerbaijan: Transition to Sultanistic Semiauthoritarianism? An Attempt at Conceptualization," Demokratizatsiya, Vol. 13, No. 3 (Summer 2005), pp. 393-435. The full text of the article is now available online: http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3996/is_200507/ai_n15704837. For a copy in pdf format, contact: fareedaz@yahoo.com.

Seth G. Jones, Jeremy Wilson, Andrew Rathmell, and K. Jack Riley, "Establishing Law and Order After Conflict." This is a RAND Corporation study which contains the results of research on reconstructing internal security institutions during nation-building missions. For the full report, visit: http://www.rand.org/pubs/monographs/2005/RAND_MG374.pdf.

Andrzej Kapiszewski, "Non-Indigenous Citizens and 'Stateless' Residents in the Gulf Monarchies. The Kuwaiti Bidun." Available at: http://www.abydos.com/~andrzejk/.

Suna Kili, "August 30 and the Turkish Army I," Cumhuriyet, August 30, 2005. For further information, contact: levent.cinemre@iskulturyayinlari.com.tr.

Suna Kili, "August 30 and the Turkish Army II," Cumhuriyet, 31 August 2005. For further information, contact: levent.cinemre@iskulturyayinlari.com.tr.

Suna Kili, "Turkish Constitutional Developments: An Evaluation," Essays in Honor of Georgios I. Kassimatis. (Athens, Berlin, Bruxelles: 2004), pp. 121-140. For further information, contact: levent.cinemre@iskulturyayinlari.com.tr.

Suna Kili, "An Evaluation of the Atat?rk Period from the Perspective of Elements of National Power," Dedication to the 80th Anniversary of the Turkish Republic. For further information, contact: levent.cinemre@iskulturyayinlari.com.tr.

Ahmet T. Kuru, "Globalization and Diversification of Islamic Movements: Three Turkish Cases," Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 120, No. 2 (Summer 2005). To read, visit: http://students.washington.edu/ahmet/.

Michael McFaul, "Chinese Dreams, Persian Realities," The Journal of Democracy, Vol. 16, No. 4 (October 2005). Basic demographic and socioeconomic factors in Iran are favorable to democratization. The mullahs may hope to stave off democratic change by emulating the Chinese model, but this strategy is doomed to fail. For further information, visit: http://www.journalofdemocracy.org.

Jonathan Rynhold, "Behind the Rhetoric: President Bush and U.S. Policy on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," American Diplomacy. The full text of the article is now available online: http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/.

Lorenzo Vidino, "Iran's Link to Al-Qaeda: The 9-11 Commission's Evidence," Middle East Quarterly, Vol. 11, No. 4 (Fall 2004). For information: http://www.meforum.org/article/670.

Reidar Visser, "Shi'i Separatism in Iraq: Internet Reverie or Real Constitutional Challenge?" NUPI Paper no. 686 (Oslo: Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, August 2005), 18 pages. Full text available at: http://historiae.org/shiseparatism.asp.

Scott Wallsten and Katrina Kosec, "The Economic Costs of the War in Iraq." Working paper (September 2005). AEI-Brookings Joint Center for Regulatory Studies. Available at: http://aei-brookings.org/admin/authorpdfs/page.php?id=1188.

Eyal Zisser, "Embattled Neighbors--Syria, Israel and Lebanon," (Book Review)
Shofar, Vol. 23, No. 3, pp. 202(2), March 22, 2005. For information, contact: Robert G. Rabil at: rgrabil@yahoo.com.

"Islamists at the Ballot Box." Special Report 144 (July 2005), The United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Available online at the USIP website: http://www.usip.org/ or request hard copy by mail (free of charge) from: usip_requests@usip.org.

To see information from the Center for European Reform (CER) on the topic "Why Europe Should Embrace Turkey," visit: http://www.cer.org.uk/pdf/pr_637_eu_turkey.pdf.

To see the results of a RAND Corporation workshop on "Exploring Religious Conflict," visit: http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/2005/RAND_CF211.pdf. For the summary, visit: http://www.rand.org/pubs/conf_proceedings/2005/RAND_CF211.sum.pdf, or: http://www.rand.org/publications/CF/CF211/index.html.

For a report by the Congressional Research Service (via Federation of American Scientists) on "Islamist Extremism in Europe," visit: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/terror/RS22211.pdf.


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2. WEBSITES/GROUPS ONLINE

A. General:

The Middle East Quarterly has just made available several hundred reviews of books about Middle Eastern studies and Islam, linked alphabetically by book author,
at: http://www.meforum.org/meq/reviews.php.

The Mehlis Report on the Hariri Assassination originally released on October 21, 2005, is available at: http://www.un.org/News/dh/docs/mehlisreport/ or http://www.mideastweb.org/mehlis_report.htm.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) has launched a website, including news releases, speeches, and information on national intelligence strategy and about the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004. Visit: http://www.odni.gov.

To read the latest statements, briefings, and hearings on regional security issues, from United States Embassy in Tel Aviv and The American Center in Jerusalem, visit: http://israel.usembassy.gov.

To see Martin Kramer's Virtual Lecture Series on issues related to policy and politics in the Middle East, and on the predicament of Middle Eastern studies in America, visit: http://www.graphicmail.com/sendlink.asp?HitID=1123169472000&SiteID=1215&EmailID
=579358&Link=http://www.geocities.com/martinkramerorg/2005_08_04.htm.

The Television News Archive collection at Vanderbilt University is one of the most extensive and complete archive of television news, holding more than 30,000 individual network evening news broadcasts from the major U.S. national broadcast networks and more than 9,000 hours of special news-related programming. This resource serves as a unique reference tool for studying historical and political events. For further information, visit: http://tvnews.vanderbilt.edu.

To see a letter from Ayman al-Zawahiri to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi regarding a strategic vision for al-Qa'ida's direction for Iraq and beyond, and al Qa'ida's senior leadership's isolation and dependence, visit 'The office of the Director of National Intelligence' (ODNI) site at: http://www.dni.gov/release_letter_101105.html.

B. Egypt:

For an analysis of Egypt's presidential election, visit: http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/templateC05.php?CID=2367.

C. Iraq:
To see a translation of Iraq's draft constitution, visit: www.iraqigovernment.org.

To see the U.S. Department of Defense report to the Congress on "Measuring Security and Stability in Iraq," visit: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jul2005/d20050721secstab.pdf.

To see the National Security Archive Update, "Saddam's Iron Grip," Intelligence Reports on Saddam Hussein's Reign, October 18, 2005, visit: http://www.nsarchive.org.

D. Iran:
"In the Name of the God of Mercy, Compassion, Peace, Freedom and Justice," speech by Dr. Mahmood Ahmadinejad's, President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, at the Sixtieth Session of the United Nations General Assembly, New York, September 17, 2005. Available at: http://www.un.org/webcast/ga/60/statements/iran050917eng.pdf.

To see an ABC news report of U.S. Energy Department Briefing on "Iran's Nuclear Fuel Cycle Facilities: A Pattern of Peaceful Intent?," visit: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/International/story?id=1127021, or for the briefing itself, visit: http://abcnews.go.com/images/International/iran_nuclear_report.pd.

To see the latest U.S. Department of State report on arms control compliance on Iranian nuclear program, visit: http://www.state.gov/t/vc/rls/rpt/51977.htm.

E. Saudi Arabia
To see Middle East Report, No. 45 on "The Shiite Question in Saudi Arabia," visit: http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?l=1&id=3678.


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3. FREE SUBSCRIPTIONS TO E-MAIL PUBLICATIONS

The Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center is the educational and documentary center of the national memorial site of the Israeli intelligence community. It releases regularly, exclusive information on its Internet site. The information, a large percentage of which is based on original Palestinian documents captured by Israeli forces, is available in both in Hebrew and English. In addition, the Center now sends out information in an electronic newsletter. To subscribe, visit: http://www.intelligence.org.il/eng/default.htm.

To subscribe to Mideast Wire's Middle East daily news summary service, visit: http://www.mideastwire.com.

To receive The American Iranian Council (AIC) electronic newsletter, contact: update@american- iranian.org, or visit: www.american-iranian.org.


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4. FUNDING/GRANTS/FELLOWSHIPS/WRITING AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Funding/Grants/ Fellowships and Employment

The Center for the Study of Islam at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem is granting scholarships to Hebrew University graduate students (both M.A. in course of research & Ph.D.) studying Islamic religion and culture. Deadline: 15/12/2005. For further information, contact: islamic@mscc.huji.ac.il, or visit: http://islam-center.huji.ac.il.

The Eurasia Program of the Social Science Research Council (SSRC) is offering teaching fellowships at both the pre-doctoral and postdoctoral levels for the 2006-2007 academic year to support research, writing, training, and curriculum development on or related to the New States of Eurasia, the Soviet Union, and/or the Russian Empire. Applicants in all disciplines of the social sciences or humanities are welcome. The fellowships are funded by the U.S. Department of State under the Program for Research and Training on Eastern Europe and the Independent States of the Former Soviet Union (Title VIII). To apply & for additional information, visit: www.ssrc.org/fellowships/eurasia. Deadline: January 24, 2006 at 9:00 p.m.

The American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan is granting fellowships for 2006-2007. Deadline for applications: February 1, 2006. For further info, contact: acor@bu.edu), or visit: http://www.bu.edu/acor.

The American Center of Oriental Research (ACOR) in Amman, Jordan is seeking an assistant director for a residential administrative position. A one-year renewable appointment would begin in late 2005. Salary and benefits commensurate with experience. Applications should include CV, and names and contact information for three referees. Send to: acor@bu.edu. For further details, e-mail: acor@bu.edu or visit: www.bu.edu/acor.

The Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies is seeking an assistant or associate professor for The Contemporary Islam Program. A good understanding of Islamic history, culture, and practice in the Middle East and/or Southeast Asia, as well as knowledge of Islamic law and jurisprudence and theological issues are required. Knowledge of Arabic and/or Malay/Bahasa Indonesia is an advantage. A relevant Ph.D. and a good publication record are essential. To apply email full CV, two letters of reference, and writing sample to: iskabdullah@ntu.edu.sg.

Writing Opportunities

Insight Turkey journal is calling for papers on the following topics: Georgia after the Revolution: Where to Now?; The Azerbaijani Election of November 6; Turkey and Armenia; Turkey, Russia and the Caucasus; A Nuclear Iran: Implications for the Caucasus; Frozen Conflicts in the Black Sea/Caucasus; The Domestic Dimension of Turkey's Caucasus Policy; An American view of developments in the Caucasus; A European View on Developments in the Caucasus; European Neighborhood Policy and the Black Sea/Caucasus; A Russian Perspective of the Caucasus; A Larger NATO Role in the Black Sea?; The Role of Multinational Organizations in the Caucasus; The Politics of Development Work in the Caucasus. Articles on sub-regions: Abkhazia, Karabagh, Ossetia, Adjaria, Ahiska. Any other paper ideas, including book reviews, will be considered. Deadline for submissions: December 10, 2005. For further information or for format and referencing questions, contact: editor@insightturkey.com, or visit: www.insightturkey.com.

January 20-21, 2006. Philadelphia, PA, USA. The University of Pennsylvania and The University of Oxford are co-sponsoring a conference entitled, "Commemorating the Constitution, 1906-2006. State Building & Global Responses to Iranian Constitutionalism." Panelists are invited to submit abstracts of approximately 250 words assessing the process of nation formation, the development of a civic culture, or the international ramifications of this broad-based constitutional movement in the Middle East. For further information, contact: conference-1906@history.upenn.edu.

May 28-30, 2006. Banff, Alberta, Canada. The Association for Israel Studies (AIS) invites participants to its 22nd Annual Conference, sponsored by the University of Calgary. AIS is calling for proposals for organized panels and/or individual papers in any field of Israel studies for its upcoming annual meeting. Panels may consist of three or four papers, or may be organized as round-table discussions or "meet the author" sessions; panel organizers should provide a title as well as names, affiliations, and e-mail addresses of all participants, brief abstracts of their papers, and any requests for audio-visual equipment. Proposals for individual papers should include the same information. Proposals should be submitted electronically to the most appropriate member of the Program Committee. Deadline: February 15, 2006. For more information, visit: www.aisisraelstudies.com.On all other matters pertaining to arrangements for the annual meeting, contact: skeren@ucalgary.ca.

Columbia University Prof. Judy Kuriansky calls for papers for book, Psychotherapy in a Turmoil Region: Reconciliation between Palestinians and Israelis from a Psychological Perspective. Content: papers/manuscripts from both Palestinian and Israeli professionals in the field of psychology, social work, and social sciences, describing their work dealing with the psychological issues in their culture, therapeutic approaches they use, or collaborations they have been involved with-- bringing Palestinians and Israelis together with the aim of mutual psychological understanding. Deadline: as soon as possible. For any questions or clarifications, contact: DrJudyKuri@aol.com.

April 28-29, 2006. Washington, DC, USA. The Center for the Study of Islam and Democracy calls for papers to its 7th Annual Conference, "The Challenge of Democracy in the Muslim World." The possible paper topics include (but are not restricted to): The state of democracy in the Muslim societies/countries; critical evaluation of the theoretical discourse on democratization; domestic and external challenges to democracy in the Muslim world; prospects for democracy in the Muslim world; The challenge of anti-democratic Islamist discourses; gender equality, the rights of minorities, and democratization in the Muslim world; developing new and just interpretations of Islamic principles in the 21st century. Proposals must demonstrate the relevance of their topic in general to the challenges of democracy in Muslim societies. E-mail proposals (between 200- 400 words) by January 1, 2006: conference@islam-democracy.org. For updates on the conference, visit: http://csidonline.org/.


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5. RESEARCH QUERIES-PLEASE HELP

Seeking information on the culture and politics of the Arabs in Iran, both in Khuzistan/Arabistan and in the Gulf provinces. In particular, seeking information regarding their relationship with pan-Arabism and their attitudes toward the Islamic Republic. Please contact Ariel I. Ahram, at: aia4@georgetown.edu.


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6. SCHOLAR'S AND AUTHOR'S ALERTS

Andrew G. Bostom (ed.), foreword by Ibn Warraq, The Legacy of Jihad: Islamic Holy War and the Fate of Non-Muslims (Prometheus Books, October 2005). 600 pages. HB: $18.48. ISBN 1591023076. The Legacy of Jihad is a comprehensive, meticulously documented compilation which includes Muslim theological and juridical texts, eyewitness historical accounts by both Muslim and non-Muslim chroniclers, and essays by preeminent scholars analyzing jihad war and the ruling conditions imposed upon the non-Muslim peoples conquered by jihad campaigns. For further information, visit: http://www.andrewbostom.org/.

Frederic Tellier, L'heure de l'Iran (Ellipses, 2005). For further info, contact: Ftellier1@aol.com.

Ilan Berman, Tehran Rising: Iran's Challenge to the United States (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, September 2005). 224 pages. Price: $24.95. ISBN 0-7425-4904-6. For further info, contact: berman@afpc.org.

James Ker-Lindsay, EU Accession and UN Peacemaking in Cyprus (Palgrave Macmillan, August 2005). 224 pages. HB: £45.00. ISBN 1-4039-9690-3. This work traces the attempts by the United Nations to bring about the reunification of Cyprus prior to the island's accession to the European Union on May 1, 2004. For more information, visit: http://www.palgrave.com/products/Catalogue.aspx?is=1403996903.

Reidar Visser, Basra, the Failed Gulf State: Separatism and Nationalism in Southern Iraq (Berlin: LIT Verlag, October 2005). 256 pages, Price: 29.90 EURO. ISBN 3-8258-8799-5. The first case-study ever published on an actual occurrence of southern Iraqi separatism. For information and to order, visit: http://historiae.org/basra.asp.

Robert G. Rabil, Syria, the United States, and the War on Terror in the Middle East
(Praeger Publication, forthcoming in 2006). For information, contact: rgrabil@yahoo.com.

Suna Kili, History of the Turkish Revolution (September, 2005). 445 pages. PB: $17 + postage. ISBN 975-458-259-9. For further information, contact: levent.cinemre@iskulturyayinlari.com.tr.


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7. ANNOUNCEMENTS OF MEETINGS, CONFERENCES, LECTURES

November 18, 2005. The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for Defense and Security Studies invites participants to its upcoming Conference, "Alliance and Sacrifice: Counter-Terror and Radicalism in Pakistan." For booking information contact Ms. Mamoona Shah at: mamoonas@rusi.org. For information: http://www.rusi.org/events.

November 19-22, 2005. Washington, DC, USA. The Association for Israel Studies (AIS) and The Middle East Studies Association (MESA) invite participants to the upcoming "Israeli Foreign Policy after Arafat" conference, to be held at the Wardman Park Marriott Hotel Washington, DC. For further information on the MESA program, contact Bob Freedman at: rofreedman@comcast.net.

Tuesdays. London, England. The London Middle East Institute invites participants to its upcoming Tuesday lectures program 2005-6, entitled "The Contemporary Middle East." For further information contact: lmei@soas.ac.uk, or visit: www.lmei.soas.ac.uk.

December 7, 2005. London, England. The School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), a college of the University of London, invites participants to a lecture by Suseela C Yesudian-Storfjell, on "The Representation of Jews, Israel, and Zionism in Indian Muslim and Pakistani Discourse." The lecture is open to the public and will take place from 1-2 p.m. in Room B102 in the Brunei Gallery building at SOAS. For information, visit: http://www.soas.ac.uk/centres/centreinfo.cfm?navid=995.

February 2006. Tehran, Iran. The Institute for Research and Development in Humanities, Center for Research on Russia, Central Asia, and Caucasus (IRAS), and the Central Eurasia Program of the Center for Graduate International Studies of the University of Tehran invite participants to the symposium on "Central Asia, Past, Present and Future." For further information, visit: http://www.iras.ir/_Eng/Banner/Hamayesh.htm.


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MERIA Journal Staff
Publisher and Editor: Barry Rubin; Assistant Editors: Cameron Brown , Keren Ribo,
Yeru Aharoni. Turkish representative: Ozgul Erdemli

MERIA is indexed in the SOAS Library in London's Index Islamicus and CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

MERIA NEWS Volume 9, Issue 7 (November 2005)
*Serving Readers throughout the Middle East and in 100 Countries*
Publisher and Editor: Prof. Barry Rubin
Assistant Editors: Cameron Brown , Keren Ribo, Yeru Aharoni


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MERIA is a project of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya. Site: http://meria.idc.ac.il/. Email: gloria@idc.ac.il .

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Tariq Ramadan on crises in France

Tariq Ramadan on the crisis in France
Europe's leading Muslim intellectual on the futility of violence, the need
for Islamic feminism, and the social apartheid behind the uprising.

By Erich Follath and Romain Leick

Nov. 16, 2005 | Tariq Ramadan is considered by many to be a leading
philosopher and scholar of Islam. In 2000, Time magazine selected him as
one of the most important personalities of the new century. But he's also a
figure of controversy, especially in the post-9/11 era. "The reformer to
his admirers, Tariq Ramadan is Europe's leading advocate of liberal Islam,"
the Boston Globe wrote of the 43- year-old intellectual, who was born in
Geneva and holds Swiss citizenship. "To his detractors, he's a dangerous
theocrat in disguise."

The Department of Homeland Security considers Ramadan to be a radical, and
when Notre Dame University in Indiana offered to hire him as a professor of
religion and conflict studies, the Bush administration refused to provide
Ramadan with a visa to enter the country.

In contrast, Britain's government recently asked Ramadan to join a panel of
experts to advise the government on how to deal with radical Islamists.
Currently, he is a guest lecturer at St. Anthony's College in Oxford.

Ramadan comes from a family well familiar with political philosophy,
activism and conflict: His grandfather, Hassan al-Banna, became a
co-founder of Egypt's Society of Muslim Brothers in 1928, and was
assassinated in 1949 for his religious agitation. In a recent interview,
Ramadan talked about the rioting that has rocked the French suburbs, the
deep-rooted problems with the integration of Muslims in Europe, and the
need for modernization of Islam.

You are one of the most influential and one of the most controversial
Muslim intellectuals in Europe. Where were you when the French riots broke
out?

My Paris office is in one of those banlieues, Saint-Denis, one of the focal
points of the unrest. But I must admit that I had no inclination whatsoever
to expose myself to rocks and burning projectiles on the street at night.

That sounds a bit indifferent. Many Muslims pay attention to what you say
-- they listen to your taped lectures and read your writings. Don't you
feel compelled to make an attempt to convince these youths to turn away
from violence?

Listen, my position is perfectly clear. There is no doubt that violence is
not a solution and that the destruction of buses and cars must end. These
crimes must be punished. There is also no doubt that a certain number of
youths are descending into pure vandalism and uncontrolled anarchy.
Naturally, reestablishing order is of critical importance, especially for
the residents of the suburbs, who are bearing the brunt of the violence.

So you truly have no sympathy for the rioters?

Of course I do. But feeling sympathy and searching for explanations isn't
the same as believing that the violence is justified. I am firmly convinced
that the government's efforts to suppress the riots are inadequate, and
that they will remain ineffective until we understand the message behind
this outbreak.

And how do you interpret this message?

This revolt has nothing to do with Islam. Islam, as a religion, has been
established in France for a long time, and the religious question has been
resolved in this country. Islam does not threaten France's future in any
way. But it is the social question that poses a true danger to the unity of
the republic. Politicians across the political spectrum have underestimated
this reality. They stick their heads in the sand and mislead their
constituents by attempting to denounce Islam as the source of the problem.

No one disputes the magnitude of social rifts in French society. But it
just so happens that these divides run along ethnic and religious lines.
Hasn't Islam promoted or even encouraged the formation of social ghettos,
the isolation of ethnic communities?

The concepts of unity and equality, which are idealized to the point of
excess in France's political rhetoric, are nothing but myths and blatant
lies at the social level. The main purpose of the public debates over
Islam, integration and immigration is to stir up fear. In a sense,
politicians use these debates as ideological strategies, as a way to avoid
confronting reality.

What are they attempting to distract from?

The truth is that certain French citizens are treated as second-class
citizens, if not the leprous members of the national community. Their
children are sent to ghetto schools and taught by inexperienced teachers,
they are crammed into inhumane public housing developments, and they are
confronted with an essentially closed job market. In short, they live in a
bleak, devastated universe. France is disintegrating before our eyes into
socioeconomic communities, into territorial and social apartheid. The rich
live in their own ghettos. Institutionalized racism is a daily reality.

Isn't Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy aware of this when he calls for
targeted assistance for the poor, for dialogue with the Muslims and for
relaxing France's rigorous secularism?

Sarkozy is acutely aware of the potential for votes in the suburbs. In
crises such as the current one, he shows his true face: contempt and
rudeness. If he views entire sections of the population as "riffraff," he
shouldn't be surprised if that's the way they end up behaving. He is giving
the police free rein in a climate characterized by lack of respect. He is
fixated on the 2007 presidential election instead of developing a workable
political structure for 2020. Changes will only take place in this country
when the residents of the suburbs are treated as fully entitled Frenchmen,
as part of the solution, not an expression of the problem.

That's all very well and good -- but doesn't self-criticism have a place
alongside criticism? Are Muslim immigrants truly interested in integration,
or do they prefer segregation?

The attempt to Islamicize social issues perverts and falsifies political
discourse. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in Europe value the fact
that they live in democratic, constitutional states, states that guarantee
them freedom of conscience and religion. But mutual trust is often
shattered, and the result is that fear and racism are deeply affecting
France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. By the time they have
reached the second, third or fourth generation, the descendants of
immigrants should no longer be stigmatized as ghetto children, as "scum"
who are "out of control."

Nevertheless, what makes the integration of Muslims so difficult, compared
with earlier immigrants from Poland, Italy, Spain and Portugal?

Two things, I believe. First, this immigration no longer occurs in
individual waves; instead, it is a large-scale and continuous immigration.
That's the problem of quantity. And then there is the issue of quality. For
Muslim immigrants, religion is inseparable from their roots and identity.
They feel that transforming themselves from Moroccans or Algerians into
Frenchmen makes them bad Muslims. This makes integration more difficult
because it apparently forces Muslims to choose between two alternatives:
self-abandonment or self-isolation.

But hasn't Islam remained a foreign religion in the Western world, a
religion that has yet to enter the modern age?

There are traditionalists, adherents to a literal exegesis of the Koran. I
have spent the last 15 years campaigning for a genuinely European Islam,
one that requires evolution with respect to time and the environment, as
well as a separation of dogmatism and rationality. Islam cannot place
itself outside of history.

And where is the boundary between dogma and reason, between being faithful
to tradition and being receptive to the modern age?

The dogmatic and, therefore, invulnerable core in Islam is understandably
simple: acknowledgement of faith, prayer, charity and fasting. Almost
everything else is open to interpretation and modification in space and
time.

It does indeed sound clear and simple. Why don't we put it to the test with
an example: Is a Muslim permitted to break with his faith?

Not according to the majority opinion among Koran scholars. But the
prohibition on apostasy arose at a time when the first Muslim followers of
the prophet Mohammed were at war with neighboring tribes. At the time,
changing one's faith was tantamount to high treason or desertion. Nowadays
this context has changed completely.

In other words, the fight against "infidels" is completely outmoded?

Even the concept of the infidel is misleading, because the infidel is
normally someone with a different faith, someone who refuses to recognize
the truth of the words of the Koran, as revealed by God. He has every right
to do so, as long as he does not question my right to believe in my truth.

So each individual must become blessed in his own way? What about atheists?

The logic of freedom of religion implies freedom to be an atheist, even
though, from a historical perspective, this has not been accepted in the
Muslim world...

...and often leads to brutal punishment. How do you feel about equal rights
for men and women?

We need an Islamic feminism. Traditional Islam views the women merely as
mother, wife, daughter or sister. She has obligations and rights in this
capacity. But we must come to a point at which we treat the women as an
independent individual with a right to self-determination, as someone who
can run her own life without coercion.

Should she be permitted to decide for herself whether to stop wearing the
head scarf?

Of course, just as she is permitted to decide whether to wear the head
scarf.

But that's an illusion, at least in the real world. Women and girls are not
emancipated within their families.

You're right. This is often the case, but emancipation can only come from
within; it cannot be dictated by someone else. A law banning the wearing of
head scarves changes nothing, except perhaps external appearance.
Naturally, Islamic feminism must also include the right to education, to
work and the freedom to select one's own husband.

That's all fine and good, but can you explain, then, why you have publicly
called for a moratorium on the stoning of women accused of committing
adultery -- rather than condemning the practice outright? Some would argue
that's hypocritical.

Once again, Islam can only be modernized from within. If I stand there and
state that I condemn the practice of stoning, that this punishment is
despicable, it changes nothing. My fellow Muslims will say: Brother Tariq,
you became a European, a Swiss citizen, so you are no longer one of us. I
want to trigger a process of contemplation and thought within the Islamic
community. Critiques and attacks from the outside can produce tension.
Incidentally, a number of U.S. states have imposed a moratorium on the
death penalty, in an effort to buy time to think about the meaning and
legitimacy of this penalty.

Is a tendency toward violence inherent to Islam? Isn't it true that many
Muslims view jihad as an elementary part of Islamic identity?

Are the Crusades an elementary part of Christianity? No. Every community
has the right to self-defense. The Palestinians have the right to fight for
their independence from Israel. But this goal does not justify all means.
Nothing legitimizes the killing of innocent civilians. The suicide bomber
who blows up Israeli children cannot transform himself into a martyr. The
Palestinian problem is not an Islamic problem.

Where do you see the process of reform and modernization of Islam, of which
you have been a proponent? Has it made any progress anywhere?

In Europe. The impetus must come from European Islam and then influence the
Arab world. There is some overlap between the universal values of Western
democracy and those of Islam -- the constitutional state operating under
the rule of law, the equality of citizens, universal suffrage, the
changeover of power, separation of the private and public spheres. These
are basic principles, and although they are not spelled out in the Koran, I
do not believe that they contradict Islamic tradition.

That is an opinion that many Muslim legal scholars do not share.

An excessively literal interpretation of the Koran ever since the 13th
century has led Islam into intellectual calcification and political
tension. Remaining faithful to the texts must be distinguished from
interpretation of historical and social context. If we begin applying this
exegesis and hermeneutics, we will begin to see progress in Islam thought.

Your words are like those of a rationalist, an enlightened theologian with
purely intellectual ambitions. But in political reality, in France, Great
Britain and the United States, you are suspected of secretly promoting the
expansion of Islam and sympathizing with violence.

Oh yes, I am one of the most maligned Muslim intellectuals. Tariq Ramadan,
the slippery trickster. They talk about people like me the way they used to
talk about the Jews: He is Swiss and European, but his loyalties also lie
elsewhere. He says one thing and thinks something else. He is a member of
an international organization -- in the past, it was world Jewry, today
it's world Islam. I am disparaged as if I were a Muslim Jew.

Could that have something to do with your family history? Your grandfather,
Hassan al-Banna, was the founder of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in
1928, an organization that envisioned an Islamic fundamentalist
transformation.

Thoughts are not genetically inherited traits. I admire my grandfather for
his anti-colonial fight against the British. He was very involved in
education for girls and women. His five daughters -- my aunts and my mother
-- all attended university. And the organization he founded was very
progressive for its time. However, I am highly critical of the Brotherhood,
with its affected, conspiratorial behavior, its hierarchical structures and
its oversimplified slogans.

Were you ever a member of the Brotherhood?

I can assure you that I am no Muslim Brother, despite the fact that my
critics have repeatedly launched this rumor in an effort to slander and
harm me.

Do you ever think about forming your own party, organization or movement?

No. I am not a politician. I have often been approached in this regard in
the past 15 years, but I have always declined these sorts of offers. I view
myself as an independent, critical intellectual, as someone who tries to
stimulate thought on the left and the right, to encourage intellectual
evolution. The Islamic world is obsessed with the notion of strong leaders.
This is a mistake. We don't need powerful leaders, but rather
unconventional, progressive thinkers with the courage to open our minds.

Translated from German by Christopher Sultan.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

This article has been provided by Der Spiegel through a special arrangement
ariq Ramadan on the crisis in France
Europe's leading Muslim intellectual on the futility of violence, the need
for Islamic feminism, and the social apartheid behind the uprising.

By Erich Follath and Romain Leick

Nov. 16, 2005 | Tariq Ramadan is considered by many to be a leading
philosopher and scholar of Islam. In 2000, Time magazine selected him as
one of the most important personalities of the new century. But he's also a
figure of controversy, especially in the post-9/11 era. "The reformer to
his admirers, Tariq Ramadan is Europe's leading advocate of liberal Islam,"
the Boston Globe wrote of the 43- year-old intellectual, who was born in
Geneva and holds Swiss citizenship. "To his detractors, he's a dangerous
theocrat in disguise."

The Department of Homeland Security considers Ramadan to be a radical, and
when Notre Dame University in Indiana offered to hire him as a professor of
religion and conflict studies, the Bush administration refused to provide
Ramadan with a visa to enter the country.

In contrast, Britain's government recently asked Ramadan to join a panel of
experts to advise the government on how to deal with radical Islamists.
Currently, he is a guest lecturer at St. Anthony's College in Oxford.

Ramadan comes from a family well familiar with political philosophy,
activism and conflict: His grandfather, Hassan al-Banna, became a
co-founder of Egypt's Society of Muslim Brothers in 1928, and was
assassinated in 1949 for his religious agitation. In a recent interview,
Ramadan talked about the rioting that has rocked the French suburbs, the
deep-rooted problems with the integration of Muslims in Europe, and the
need for modernization of Islam.

You are one of the most influential and one of the most controversial
Muslim intellectuals in Europe. Where were you when the French riots broke
out?

My Paris office is in one of those banlieues, Saint-Denis, one of the focal
points of the unrest. But I must admit that I had no inclination whatsoever
to expose myself to rocks and burning projectiles on the street at night.

That sounds a bit indifferent. Many Muslims pay attention to what you say
-- they listen to your taped lectures and read your writings. Don't you
feel compelled to make an attempt to convince these youths to turn away
from violence?

Listen, my position is perfectly clear. There is no doubt that violence is
not a solution and that the destruction of buses and cars must end. These
crimes must be punished. There is also no doubt that a certain number of
youths are descending into pure vandalism and uncontrolled anarchy.
Naturally, reestablishing order is of critical importance, especially for
the residents of the suburbs, who are bearing the brunt of the violence.

So you truly have no sympathy for the rioters?

Of course I do. But feeling sympathy and searching for explanations isn't
the same as believing that the violence is justified. I am firmly convinced
that the government's efforts to suppress the riots are inadequate, and
that they will remain ineffective until we understand the message behind
this outbreak.

And how do you interpret this message?

This revolt has nothing to do with Islam. Islam, as a religion, has been
established in France for a long time, and the religious question has been
resolved in this country. Islam does not threaten France's future in any
way. But it is the social question that poses a true danger to the unity of
the republic. Politicians across the political spectrum have underestimated
this reality. They stick their heads in the sand and mislead their
constituents by attempting to denounce Islam as the source of the problem.

No one disputes the magnitude of social rifts in French society. But it
just so happens that these divides run along ethnic and religious lines.
Hasn't Islam promoted or even encouraged the formation of social ghettos,
the isolation of ethnic communities?

The concepts of unity and equality, which are idealized to the point of
excess in France's political rhetoric, are nothing but myths and blatant
lies at the social level. The main purpose of the public debates over
Islam, integration and immigration is to stir up fear. In a sense,
politicians use these debates as ideological strategies, as a way to avoid
confronting reality.

What are they attempting to distract from?

The truth is that certain French citizens are treated as second-class
citizens, if not the leprous members of the national community. Their
children are sent to ghetto schools and taught by inexperienced teachers,
they are crammed into inhumane public housing developments, and they are
confronted with an essentially closed job market. In short, they live in a
bleak, devastated universe. France is disintegrating before our eyes into
socioeconomic communities, into territorial and social apartheid. The rich
live in their own ghettos. Institutionalized racism is a daily reality.

Isn't Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy aware of this when he calls for
targeted assistance for the poor, for dialogue with the Muslims and for
relaxing France's rigorous secularism?

Sarkozy is acutely aware of the potential for votes in the suburbs. In
crises such as the current one, he shows his true face: contempt and
rudeness. If he views entire sections of the population as "riffraff," he
shouldn't be surprised if that's the way they end up behaving. He is giving
the police free rein in a climate characterized by lack of respect. He is
fixated on the 2007 presidential election instead of developing a workable
political structure for 2020. Changes will only take place in this country
when the residents of the suburbs are treated as fully entitled Frenchmen,
as part of the solution, not an expression of the problem.

That's all very well and good -- but doesn't self-criticism have a place
alongside criticism? Are Muslim immigrants truly interested in integration,
or do they prefer segregation?

The attempt to Islamicize social issues perverts and falsifies political
discourse. The overwhelming majority of Muslims in Europe value the fact
that they live in democratic, constitutional states, states that guarantee
them freedom of conscience and religion. But mutual trust is often
shattered, and the result is that fear and racism are deeply affecting
France, Great Britain, the Netherlands and Germany. By the time they have
reached the second, third or fourth generation, the descendants of
immigrants should no longer be stigmatized as ghetto children, as "scum"
who are "out of control."

Nevertheless, what makes the integration of Muslims so difficult, compared
with earlier immigrants from Poland, Italy, Spain and Portugal?

Two things, I believe. First, this immigration no longer occurs in
individual waves; instead, it is a large-scale and continuous immigration.
That's the problem of quantity. And then there is the issue of quality. For
Muslim immigrants, religion is inseparable from their roots and identity.
They feel that transforming themselves from Moroccans or Algerians into
Frenchmen makes them bad Muslims. This makes integration more difficult
because it apparently forces Muslims to choose between two alternatives:
self-abandonment or self-isolation.

But hasn't Islam remained a foreign religion in the Western world, a
religion that has yet to enter the modern age?

There are traditionalists, adherents to a literal exegesis of the Koran. I
have spent the last 15 years campaigning for a genuinely European Islam,
one that requires evolution with respect to time and the environment, as
well as a separation of dogmatism and rationality. Islam cannot place
itself outside of history.

And where is the boundary between dogma and reason, between being faithful
to tradition and being receptive to the modern age?

The dogmatic and, therefore, invulnerable core in Islam is understandably
simple: acknowledgement of faith, prayer, charity and fasting. Almost
everything else is open to interpretation and modification in space and
time.

It does indeed sound clear and simple. Why don't we put it to the test with
an example: Is a Muslim permitted to break with his faith?

Not according to the majority opinion among Koran scholars. But the
prohibition on apostasy arose at a time when the first Muslim followers of
the prophet Mohammed were at war with neighboring tribes. At the time,
changing one's faith was tantamount to high treason or desertion. Nowadays
this context has changed completely.

In other words, the fight against "infidels" is completely outmoded?

Even the concept of the infidel is misleading, because the infidel is
normally someone with a different faith, someone who refuses to recognize
the truth of the words of the Koran, as revealed by God. He has every right
to do so, as long as he does not question my right to believe in my truth.

So each individual must become blessed in his own way? What about atheists?

The logic of freedom of religion implies freedom to be an atheist, even
though, from a historical perspective, this has not been accepted in the
Muslim world...

...and often leads to brutal punishment. How do you feel about equal rights
for men and women?

We need an Islamic feminism. Traditional Islam views the women merely as
mother, wife, daughter or sister. She has obligations and rights in this
capacity. But we must come to a point at which we treat the women as an
independent individual with a right to self-determination, as someone who
can run her own life without coercion.

Should she be permitted to decide for herself whether to stop wearing the
head scarf?

Of course, just as she is permitted to decide whether to wear the head
scarf.

But that's an illusion, at least in the real world. Women and girls are not
emancipated within their families.

You're right. This is often the case, but emancipation can only come from
within; it cannot be dictated by someone else. A law banning the wearing of
head scarves changes nothing, except perhaps external appearance.
Naturally, Islamic feminism must also include the right to education, to
work and the freedom to select one's own husband.

That's all fine and good, but can you explain, then, why you have publicly
called for a moratorium on the stoning of women accused of committing
adultery -- rather than condemning the practice outright? Some would argue
that's hypocritical.

Once again, Islam can only be modernized from within. If I stand there and
state that I condemn the practice of stoning, that this punishment is
despicable, it changes nothing. My fellow Muslims will say: Brother Tariq,
you became a European, a Swiss citizen, so you are no longer one of us. I
want to trigger a process of contemplation and thought within the Islamic
community. Critiques and attacks from the outside can produce tension.
Incidentally, a number of U.S. states have imposed a moratorium on the
death penalty, in an effort to buy time to think about the meaning and
legitimacy of this penalty.

Is a tendency toward violence inherent to Islam? Isn't it true that many
Muslims view jihad as an elementary part of Islamic identity?

Are the Crusades an elementary part of Christianity? No. Every community
has the right to self-defense. The Palestinians have the right to fight for
their independence from Israel. But this goal does not justify all means.
Nothing legitimizes the killing of innocent civilians. The suicide bomber
who blows up Israeli children cannot transform himself into a martyr. The
Palestinian problem is not an Islamic problem.

Where do you see the process of reform and modernization of Islam, of which
you have been a proponent? Has it made any progress anywhere?

In Europe. The impetus must come from European Islam and then influence the
Arab world. There is some overlap between the universal values of Western
democracy and those of Islam -- the constitutional state operating under
the rule of law, the equality of citizens, universal suffrage, the
changeover of power, separation of the private and public spheres. These
are basic principles, and although they are not spelled out in the Koran, I
do not believe that they contradict Islamic tradition.

That is an opinion that many Muslim legal scholars do not share.

An excessively literal interpretation of the Koran ever since the 13th
century has led Islam into intellectual calcification and political
tension. Remaining faithful to the texts must be distinguished from
interpretation of historical and social context. If we begin applying this
exegesis and hermeneutics, we will begin to see progress in Islam thought.

Your words are like those of a rationalist, an enlightened theologian with
purely intellectual ambitions. But in political reality, in France, Great
Britain and the United States, you are suspected of secretly promoting the
expansion of Islam and sympathizing with violence.

Oh yes, I am one of the most maligned Muslim intellectuals. Tariq Ramadan,
the slippery trickster. They talk about people like me the way they used to
talk about the Jews: He is Swiss and European, but his loyalties also lie
elsewhere. He says one thing and thinks something else. He is a member of
an international organization -- in the past, it was world Jewry, today
it's world Islam. I am disparaged as if I were a Muslim Jew.

Could that have something to do with your family history? Your grandfather,
Hassan al-Banna, was the founder of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt in
1928, an organization that envisioned an Islamic fundamentalist
transformation.

Thoughts are not genetically inherited traits. I admire my grandfather for
his anti-colonial fight against the British. He was very involved in
education for girls and women. His five daughters -- my aunts and my mother
-- all attended university. And the organization he founded was very
progressive for its time. However, I am highly critical of the Brotherhood,
with its affected, conspiratorial behavior, its hierarchical structures and
its oversimplified slogans.

Were you ever a member of the Brotherhood?

I can assure you that I am no Muslim Brother, despite the fact that my
critics have repeatedly launched this rumor in an effort to slander and
harm me.

Do you ever think about forming your own party, organization or movement?

No. I am not a politician. I have often been approached in this regard in
the past 15 years, but I have always declined these sorts of offers. I view
myself as an independent, critical intellectual, as someone who tries to
stimulate thought on the left and the right, to encourage intellectual
evolution. The Islamic world is obsessed with the notion of strong leaders.
This is a mistake. We don't need powerful leaders, but rather
unconventional, progressive thinkers with the courage to open our minds.

Translated from German by Christopher Sultan.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

This article has been provided by Der Spiegel through a special arrangement

Amazon.com: A Peaceful Jihad : Negotiating Identity and Modernity in Muslim Java (Contemporary Anthropology of Religion): Books

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Rapture and the American Psyche-Peter Michaelson

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Rapture and the American Psyche (copyright 2005)

Millions of Americans, believers in the Rapture, are wishing fervently for the world to end. They would end the world to escape it, such is the pain of their psychological misery.

Their vision is deeply negative and basically neurotic. It stems from experiencing ourselves through our passive side, whereby we doubt our essential value or worth, feel overwhelmed by life’s complexity and uncertainty, and are entangled in negative beliefs and impressions about ourselves.

People tend to take this negative inner state for granted, and are not aware that it is a measure of emotional illness and that it can be overcome.

Prophecy itself, when we are emotionally invested in it, takes power from us. That’s because it leaves us feeling that a future is approaching which we are helpless to influence.

It is tempting to feel this helplessness because doing so is easy and effortless. Like children, we can remain in a state of passive trust and hope. This is why some of us are so literal in reading, say, the Book of Revelations. When we carry the emotional baggage of childhood, especially unresolved negative attachments, we are prone to relate emotionally, in an infantile manner, to what we read and study or to the facts of life.

Our inner refusal to grow emotionally carries a price in fearfulness, self-doubt, depression, and passivity—the pain of psychological misery and the neglect of our democracy.

When we believe in ourselves and have cleared away enough inner negativity, we realize we are the creators of an evolving, improving life. We understand that we can each be a hero in the drama of our own life and the star of our own important destiny.

I remember back in the 1970s, reading Hal Lindsay’s The Late Great Planet Earth, and being emotionally captivated by its powerful prophetic vision. I wondered intensely, Can this all be true? I easily could have plunged deeper into the subject, but some instinct or intelligence helped me to reject the significance of the material. So I know from experience its emotional appeal.

The emotional seduction of the Rapture is unconscious and it goes like this:

Since Jesus will descend to save me, I don’t have to be concerned that I am not amounting to much and that I have forfeited a belief in myself. The inner voice that criticizes me can no longer assail me for my lack of direction and motivation. Now I can say, “What does it matter anyway? All my efforts are puny through no fault of mine.” True, I can’t believe in my self, but I can believe in Jesus. He loves me, and that is how I know my value. And, hey, I’m not interested in indulging the feeling that I am a worthless non-entity. I want Jesus here, on my doorstep, right now, with my personal pass to His Kingdom. And I am not wishing ill toward all those liberals, secularists, and whatnot who scorn me and my belief. It is Jesus who knows who and what is good or bad, and He is the one who will destroy those who have rejected Him.

The apocalyptic conviction that the world is filled with evil creates the impression that political negotiation or diplomacy is futile. The more “evil” we “see” in the world, the deeper the state of passivity we can induce. The black-and-white feeling is:

Even Jesus can’t talk to those lost souls. Better to withdraw and shun or reject the world, or else we’ll have to destroy that evil through force, meaning we must build up our military and keep open the nuclear option.

This is a projection on to others of one’s own intransigence, meaning one’s own unwillingness to see and clear away inner negativity: They’re the ones who refuse to change, not me.

George W. Bush must be under the spell of the Rapture because he has concocted a foreign policy that mimics it. He believes in combative intervention (in the Middle East), a model based on Jesus coming to save some of us and allowing the rest of us to be destroyed (as in the Great Tribulation). Believing in salvation, Bush “saves” the people of Iraq, delivering them from evil, while allowing many to be destroyed.

The secular option is less passive than the fundamentalist one. The secular choice is an expression of our belief in ourself. It says, “We can be stewards in our own domain. This earth is our domain, and we are grateful for the opportunity to discover and to express our very best. Let’s see what we’re made of!”

We secularists are inwardly braver than those escapists, so we want the chance, as in Star Trek’s non-intervention philosophy, to do our thing without interference from on high. Otherwise, it’s like a parent always telling us how to do something, when the greater satisfaction is often in learning or discovering for ourselves.

The Rapture ought to be called the Rupture. It is like taking a butcher knife to our destiny and hacking at it like a fiend. Who would do that other than someone too afraid to face himself?





Rapture and the American Psyche (copyright 2005)
Millions of Americans, believers in the Rapture, are wishing fervently for the world to end. They would end the world to escape it, such is the pain of their psychological misery.
Their vision is deeply negative and basically neurotic. It stems from experiencing ourselves through our passive side, whereby we doubt our essential value or worth, feel overwhelmed by life�s complexity and uncertainty, and are entangled in negative beliefs and impressions about ourselves.
People tend to take this negative inner state for granted, and are not aware that it is a measure of emotional illness and that it can be overcome.
Prophecy itself, when we are emotionally invested in it, takes power from us. That�s because it leaves us feeling that a future is approaching which we are helpless to influence.
It is tempting to feel this helplessness because doing so is easy and effortless. Like children, we can remain in a state of passive trust and hope. This is why some of us are so literal in reading, say, the Book of Revelations. When we carry the emotional baggage of childhood, especially unresolved negative attachments, we are prone to relate emotionally, in an infantile manner, to what we read and study or to the facts of life.
Our inner refusal to grow emotionally carries a price in fearfulness, self-doubt, depression, and passivity�the pain of psychological misery and the neglect of our democracy.
When we believe in ourselves and have cleared away enough inner negativity, we realize we are the creators of an evolving, improving life. We understand that we can each be a hero in "

Informed Comment

Monday, November 07, 2005

Human rights in Afghanistan `of great concern`: UN 44

Afghan Women's Mission would like to share the following article with
you:

From PakTribune http://paktribune.com/news/index.php?id=123902

Human rights in Afghanistan `of great concern`: UN 44

KABUL: Escalating violence, torture and force child marriages are some
of the rights abuses still blighting Afghanistan four years after the
removal of the fundamentalist Taliban government, the United Nations
says.

While the country has made great strides since the Taliban were forced
from power, the human rights situation "remains of great concern," a
report released this month by UN High Commissioner for Human Rights
Louise Arbour says.

"Factional commanders and former warlords remain major power brokers,
and the activities of anti-government entities and of the government and
international forces combating ! them continue to take a toll on
civilians," it says.

The Taliban took control of most of Afghanistan in 1996 when the
country was torn apart by fighting between rival ethnic factions that killed
tens of thousands of people.

The ultra-conservative Taliban imposed a brutal and intolerant version
of Islam until they were removed in a US-led attack in late 2001. They
have since vowed to topple the new government, playing a major role in
an insurgency that has claimed about 1,400 lives this year.

The report praises moves to ensure there is no amnesty for past abuses
but says there is nonetheless a state of impunity.

"Little progress has been made to date towards bringing to account
those most responsible for serious human rights violations during the
decades of conflict, some of whom remain in positions of influence if not
authority.

"In addition, violations continue to be perpetrated with apparent
impunit! y by armed strongmen in many parts of the country," it says.

Afghan and international security forces hunting down the insurgents
are also implicated in abuses.

"Arbitrary and prolonged pre-trial detention remains frequent
throughout Afghanistan. Torture appears to be a common practice in order to
secure confessions," the document says.

Detainees of the international coalition forces had reported having
their property stolen, forced nudity and "a particularly harsh and
arbitrary detention regime."

The formal justice system is meanwhile undermined by corruption and
"the ominous influence of warlords and local commanders," according to the
report.

Detention facilities do not conform to international standards and some
local authorities operate private prisons, including for women who are
forced to work for their jailors.

The situation of women, denied basic education and health care under
the Taliban! , had improved only in certain respects, with more of them in
the paid workforce and education system.

"However, the stark reality is that women in Afghanistan, especially
outside of Kabul and urban areas, and particularly among the poor, are
generally still viewed as the property of men," the report says.

Another major concern is child marriage, which some estimates say makes
up more than 40 percent of all marriages in Afghanistan. "Girls as
young as seven years of age are made to marry much older men, sometimes
30-40 years older," often to settle debts or disputes.

The practice is in part to blame for regular reports of cases of
self-immolation, with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission
saying there had already been 85 cases this year.

Women are also killed in the name of honour, forced into prostitution,
raped and subjected to sexual and domestic violence, the report says.

However their recou! rse to justice is limited and offenders rarely
prosecuted.

Children also suffer: some as young as six have to work and boys are
reportedly still being recruited by the Taliban.

More than 4,750 child soldiers had however been demobilised since the
beginning of 2004 in a project run y the UN children`s programme,
UNICEF.

The enrolment of boys in schools has risen to 67 percent but that of
girls is among the lowest in the world: 40 percent overall and just 10
percent in secondary school, the report says.

Maternal mortality rates are also exceptionally high: about 1,600 out
of every 100,000 Afghan mothers die while giving birth or because of
related complications.

And about 20 percent of Afghan children are dead before their fifth
birthday, with most children dying from preventable diseases.

The report contains other dismal statistics: the life expectancy of
Afghans is 44.5 years; one in five suffer from! mental health problems;
only 23 percent have access to safe water and only 12 percent to adequate
sanitation.

It outlines steps the authorities could take to improve the situation,
stressing elections such as last month`s parliamentary vote, the first
more than three decades, are not enough.

"No matter how many elections are held in Afghanistan, the people will
not be able to enjoy their human rights until the rule of law is a
fact, impunity is a feature of the past, state institutions are credible
and effective, and women are treated equally with men," it says.

"Enjoyment of human rights is a key indicator of the transition of a
nation from a state of armed conflict to one of peace and stability."

Bush Declares: 'We Do Not Torture' - Yahoo! News

CIA uses secret prisons abroad: report - Yahoo! News

CIA uses secret prisons abroad: report - Yahoo! News

What goes round... The popularity in the US of Rumi, a 13th-century Turkish poet, is a tragic irony, as the order of Sufi dervishes he founded is ban

Lives and letters


What goes round...

The popularity in the US of Rumi, a 13th-century Turkish poet, is a tragic irony, as the order of Sufi dervishes he founded is banned at home, writes William Dalrymple

Saturday November 5, 2005
The Guardian

It seems almost unbelievable in the world of 9/11, Bin Laden and the Clash of Civilisations, but the bestselling poet in the US in the 1990s was not any of the giants of American letters - Robert Frost, Robert Lowell, Wallace Stevens or Sylvia Plath; nor was it Shakespeare or Homer or Dante or any European poet. Instead, remarkably, it was a classically trained Muslim cleric who taught sharia law in a madrasa in what is now Turkey.



Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi lived in Central Anatolia in the early 13th century, and he died around the time of Dante's eighth birthday. How Rumi came to outsell any other poet in America in the late 1990s, at least according to the LA Times, is an unlikely story - but not quite as unlikely as the way Rumi has been mysteriously morphed from a medieval scholar of Islamic law, or fiqh, into an American New Age guru.

A selection from the "arousing" Rumi translations by the poet Coleman Barks has been set to music with his verses mouthed by such spiritual luminaries as Madonna, Goldie Hawn and Demi Moore (the cover blurb of this CD describes it as all about "Passion. Music. Romance. Transcending the boundaries of ecstasy it creates a musical tribute to the Act of Love.") Sarah Jessica Parker is reported to do her aerobics to rock'n'roll settings of Rumi, and he is also available in a self-help audiobook version aimed at stressed New York commuters. Rumi has even been hailed as one of the torchbearers (according to one book on the subject) "of homoeroticism and spirituality".

Very little of this, of course, seems to have much connection to the original, historical Rumi, or the voluminous pages of profoundly mystical Persian religious verse he wrote. According to his most authoritative modern biographer, the Persian scholar Franklin D Lewis, "while Rumi seems slightly out of place in the company of Ginsberg, and seriously misunderstood as a poet of sexual love, it simply defies credulity to find Rumi in the realm of haute couture. But models draped in Donna Karan's new black, charcoal and platinum fall fashions actually flounced down the runway to health guru Deepak Chopra's recent musical versions of Rumi."

There is an additional layer of paradox and absurdity here: although Rumi lived and wrote in central Turkey, he is almost unread in his homeland and there is no accessible modern edition of his work in contemporary Turkish. According to Talat Halman, the leading Turkish Rumi scholar, whom I went to see in Istanbul, "Rumi is certainly not the bestselling poet in Turkey - far from it. For one thing, his poems have not been translated as extensively as they should have been, and the translations that exist are not poetic enough. People here simply don't have the patience to read a huge book like [Rumi's masterpiece] The Masnavi."

But it is not just that Rumi's poetry is unread. The order of Sufi dervishes that Rumi was father to, the Mevlevis, have been officially banned since the time of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, and their beautiful lodges or tekkes lie locked and left to decay or seized by the state, in order - a tragic irony - to westernise Turkey, and bring it closer to Europe and the US. Although discreet expressions of Sufism are now openly tolerated, and pictures of Whirling Dervishes are prominently used in Turkish government tourist brochures, the open practice of the Sufi mysticism that Rumi represented can still technically result in a seven-month prison sentence. While in Turkey making a Channel 4 documentary on Sufi music this summer we found it almost impossible to get any genuine Turkish Sufi group to allow us to film them, so nervous were they of the reaction of the authorities.

It all adds up to an archetypal - if unusually poignant - case of east-west misunderstanding: a west earnestly looking eastwards for an ancient spiritual wisdom, which it receives through the filter of sexed-up translations that most Persian scholars regard as seriously flawed, and which recreate a Rumi wholly divorced from his Islamic context; while in the east, a Republican Turkish government anxious to integrate Turkey with Europe bans Rumi's Sufi brotherhood as part of its attempt to embrace a west it perceives as rational, industrial, intolerant of superstition and somehow post-mystical.

In the middle of this confusion of civilisations, Sufism or Islamic mysticism, the most accessible, tolerant and pluralistic incarnation of Islam, and a uniquely valuable bridge between east and west at this moment of crisis, finds itself suppressed by the Islamic world's two most pro-western governments: the fundamentalist Saudi Wahhabis, who see it as a heretical threat to their own harsh, literal and intolerant interpretation of the Qur'an; and secular Turkey, which regards it as a token of their embarrassing, corrupt and superstitious Ottoman past.

It is, as Halman says, a major missed opportunity. He believes that Rumi's brand of Sufism represents "the free spirit of Islam ... the liberal spirit that I think needs to be recognised at a time when Islam has come to be considered almost synonymous with terrorism. The Sufi spirit softens the message of the Qur'an by emphasising the sense of love, and the passionate relationship between the believer and the beloved, God of course being the ultimate beloved. So in the eyes of Rumi and the Sufis, God becomes not the angry god of punishment, nor the god of revenge, but the god of love."

At this moment, more than ever, that message desperately needs to be heard.

Like most medieval saints in both the east and west, the life of the historical Rumi lies clouded in a fog of later hagiography. Some facts do however stand out. He was born in Balkh, capital of Khorasan, in what is now Afghanistan, on September 30 1207, and migrated with his family to Anatolia shortly before his home city was destroyed by the Mongols in 1221. After training as a Muslim preacher and jurist, he taught sharia law, of the Hanafi school, in a madrasa in Konya where he died on December 17 1273, and where his shrine, the Yesil Turbe, or Green Tomb, still stands.

At 37, Rumi's life was transformed when he met an enigmatic wandering dervish called Shams Tabrizi, who brought about a major spiritual epiphany in the respectable and bookish jurist. The two quickly became inseparable (though judging by Rumi's writings, it is most unlikely there was any sexual relationship as some have claimed). When Tabrizi mysteriously disappeared, Rumi's grief was expressed in one of the greatest outpourings of longing and separation ever produced in any language: a great waterfall of Persian verse - some 3,500 odes, 2,000 quatrains, and a massive mystical epic, The Masnavi, 26,000 couplets long, a rambling collection of tales, teaching stories and spiritual anecdotes built around the theme of "the Nightingale who was separated from the Rose". It is, in the eyes of many, the deepest, most complex and most mellifluous collection of mystical poetry ever written in any language, and from any religious tradition. It certainly stands as the supreme expression!
of mystical Islam.

Rumi advocated an individual and interior spirituality, and it is the love, rather than the fear, of God that lies at the heart of his message. He attempts to merge the spirit of the human with the ideal of a god of love, whom Rumi locates within the human heart. Rumi's first biographer, Aflaki, tells of a man who came to Rumi asking how he could reach the other world, as only there would he be at peace. "What do you know about where He is?" asked Rumi. "Everything in this or that world is within you."

Because God can best be reached through the gateway of the heart, Rumi believed you did not necessarily need ritual to get to him, and that the Divine is as accessible to Christians and Jews as to Muslims: "Love's creed is separate from all religions," he wrote. "The creed and denomination of lovers is God." All traditions are tolerated, because in the opinion of Rumi anyone is capable of expressing their love for God, and that transcends both religious associations and your place in the social order: "My religion," he wrote, "is to live through love."

Yet for all this, Rumi himself always remained an orthodox and practising Sunni Muslim. As Lewis rightly notes, "Rumi did not come to his theology of tolerance and inclusive spirituality by turning away from traditional Islam, but through immersion in it." He was not a "guru calmly dispensing words of wisdom capable of resolving, panacea-like, all our ontological ailments", as he is presented in the translations of Coleman Barks, so much as "a poet of overpowering longing, trying to grope through his shattering sense of loss". Likewise the poet and fellow of All Souls Andrew Harvey, who has produced some fine recreations of Rumi's verse, emphasises Rumi's "rigorous, even ferocious austerity". It is a far cry, he believes, from the New Age construct, "Rosebud Rumi, a Californian hippy-like figure of vague ecstatic sweetness and diffused warm-hearted brotherhood, a kind of medieval Jerry Garcia of the Sacred Heart".

One way Rumi did, however, most certainly diverge from some of the more austere ulema of his time was in that he believed passionately in the use of music, poetry and dancing as a path for reaching God, as a way of, as he put it, opening the gates of paradise. For Rumi, music helped devotees to focus their whole being on the divine, and to do this so intensely that the soul was both destroyed and resurrected. It was from these ideas that the whirling of Rumi's Mevlevi Sufi brotherhood - known in the west as the Whirling Dervishes - developed into a ritual form. The intention was to help devotees focus on the God within: as one Mevlevi Whirler we interviewed put it, there is a "palpable stillness you discover at the centre of the whirling ... everyone disappears and you feel as if you're in the eye of a hurricane".

Beautiful as it is, this use of poetry and music in ritual is one of the many aspects of Sufi practice that has attracted the wrath of modern Islamists. For although there is nothing in the Qur'an that specifically bans music, Islamic tradition has always associated music with courts, dancing girls and immorality, and there is a long tradition of clerical opposition to music. Today, Islamic puritans, like those of 17th-century England, firmly regard all music as unacceptable, and work to ban it wherever they come to power.

While filming in Pakistan we interviewed Maulana Mohammad Abdul Malik, a senior cleric with the Islamist political party, Jamaat-i-Islami, which has just banned the public playing of music within the Frontier province. For him the matter was quite simple. "Music is against Islam," he said. "These musical instruments - the tabla, sarangi, dhol - lead men astray and are sinful. They are forbidden, and these musicians are wrongdoers." This attitude is on the ascendant across the Islamic world and the pacifist Sufis have frequently faced violence from their Islamist opponents: several Sufi shrines and brotherhoods, for example, have recently been bombed in Iraq.

In Turkey, however, the Sufis have suffered far more from the secular Republicans than from the country's relatively quiescent Islamists. Before the first world war there were almost 100,000 disciples of the Mevlevi order throughout the Ottoman empire. But in 1925, as part of his desire to create a modern, western-orientated, secular state, Atatürk banned all the different Sufi orders and closed their tekkes. Pious foundations were suspended and their endowments expropriated; Sufi hospices were closed and their contents seized; all religious titles were abolished and dervish clothes outlawed. Turkish intellectuals were encouraged to study the western classics, while Rumi's writings, along with those of all his Sufi peers, were treated as an intellectual irrelevance. In 1937, Atatürk went even further, prohibiting by law any form of traditional music, especially the playing of the ney, the Sufis' reed flute.

While filming in Istanbul, we visited one beautiful old Ottoman tekke, by the Mevlana gate of the old walls: since 1925 it had been used as an orphanage and warehouse, before its priceless library was finally destroyed in a fire in the 1980s. It has now fallen into ruins and lies locked and abandoned. All one can do is peer through the barbed wire at the domes and semi-domes and the overgrown panels of Ottoman calligraphy half covered with vines and creepers. Other Mevlevi centres, like the magnificent Galata tekke in the centre of Istanbul, have become museums.

As far as the Turkish state is con-cerned, the Mevlevis are little more than a museum culture to be exploited as a tourist attraction. This process began in the mid-60s when the wife of a senior US army officer came to Konya and asked her government escorts about the dervishes. The officials were thrown into a panic. The local mayor eventually found an old dervish and forced him to teach the local basketball team how to turn; soon a "folkloric" festival began to be mounted in the Konya sports hall every year to attract foreign tourists. For a while there was even a brief attempt made to replace the Sufi musicians who accompanied the dancers with the town's brass band, which was judged to be more modern and republican.

One man whose life has been shaped by this official Turkish hostility to Sufism is the great Turkish ney player, Kudsi Erguner. Erguner, who has for years lived in Paris working with Peter Brook, Didier Lockwood and Peter Gabriel, was born into a family of hereditary ney players of the Istanbul Mevlevi brotherhood. His recent autobiography, Journeys of a Sufi Musician, gives a wonderful picture of the trials of being a Sufi devotee in the early years of the Turkish Republic after the Sufi orders were banned. He describes the strict secrecy in which his father and the other Mevlevis were forced to organise their spiritual life: "Though I must have been hardly five years old, I remember those old men with luminous faces whose eyes always appeared moist as if they had just wiped away a tear at the sound of the ney, or the recitation of a Rumi poem."

Every time the brotherhood had a musical gathering (sama), members of the brotherhood would be posted at each end of the street as lookouts to give warnings of a police raid. It was not dissimilar to the US during Prohibition - except that in the case of the Sufis, bottles of raki were kept in a fridge as a cover: "This alcohol was practically considered a symbol of the republic, so it was unthinkable for the authorities to believe that it could be drunk by 'religious fanatics'. If the police came in, the sheikh could always bring out the bottle and say they were only having a little party among friends."

All his professional life, Erguner found both his music and its Sufi inspiration blocked by Turkish officialdom, so that even his sell-out tours in Paris and London were disapproved of by the respective Turkish embassies, which accused him of "projecting a retrogressive image of Turkey abroad". More shocking still is the description Erguner gives of the government's refusal to conserve Turkey's Sufi heritage. On one occasion he found a priceless stash of Ottoman Sufi music and instruments in the cellar of the Istanbul mosque of Yeni Cami, where they had been dumped in the 1920s after being confiscated from various tekkes. Despite all his efforts, Erguner could not get permission to conserve any of the material: "In this damp underground vault these venerable relics, including flags, books, clothes and musical instruments were left to rot. My begging was of no avail, and none of it could be saved."

We filmed Erguner playing his ney after hours in one of Sinan's great mosques in Istanbul. It is one of the most elegiac sounds in all world music, and for Rumi the supreme symbol for man's separation from God. As the opening lines of The Masnavi puts it: "Listen to the song of the ney, how it laments its separation from the reed bed." Afterwards I accompanied Erguner to the south-east of the country to visit the marshy reed beds where he, and his father before him, have always found the reeds which they turn into neys. As we walked through the reeds, looking down at the Mediterranean sparkling far below us, he talked sadly of all that had been lost.

"In Turkish culture," he said, "Sufism has always provided the religious justification for the fine arts. It is like the sea and a boat: one cannot exist without the other. All our fine arts found themselves in Sufism. In Istanbul alone there were 700 tekkes. This is where the arts of poetry, music and calligraphy were all developed and passed down."

Erguner selected a fine reed of the right length and width and got out his knife: "When you look at the history of classical music in the Ottoman empire," he said, "there is not a single composer who was not a follower of Rumi. That is why in Turkey you cannot distinguish classical music from religious music. So what happened [under Atatürk] in the 1920s was like a cultural revolution: it turned everything upside down."

We walked on through the reeds, Erguner expertly fingering them in search of the perfect ney: "The buildings and the foundations disappeared," he said, "and the poets and musicians found themselves out on the streets. Successive generations of children were taught to look west, were told that civilisation lay elsewhere. So the deep continuity, the exchange between human beings, the continuity of teaching, all that was utterly lost."

He shook his head: "Once such a tradition is broken," he said, "it can never really be recovered. Today people in Turkey are beginning to understand that western civilisation is not the only answer, that our own civilisation had great worth. But in so many ways it is too late now: too much has already been lost, and can never be recovered."

• William Dalrymple's film Sufi Soul: The Mystic Music of Islam will be broadcast on Channel 4 at 11.30pm tomorrow. There will be a special screening at the Barbican earlier in the day at 4.15pm, followed by a Q&A with Dalrymple and the director Simon Broughton. This will coincide with a Barbican festival of Sufi music featuring many of the musicians in the film. www.barbican.org.uk/contemporary and www.williamdalrymple.com


for the 2005-2006 Academic Year:
Resit Galip cad. Hereke Sok. No 10
GOP, Cankaya, Ankara, TURKEY

Department of Religious Studies
College of the Holy Cross
1 College Street P.O. Box 78A
Worcester, MA 01610
508-793-3948


http://www.holycross.edu/departments/religiousstudies/ikalin/
>>> anna_bigelow@NCSU.EDU 11/06/05 5:23 PM >>>

Dear Everyone,
If anyone is looking for a way to get a firsthand crash course in the
Middle East conflict, this is a good way to do it. Many of you may have
seen delegations of speakers, students and faculty, from Israel and the
occupied territories who tour campuses all over the US and Europe (past
delegations have included Rema Hammami and Oren Yiftachel). They also
run a trip to Israel and Palestine, based mostly in Jerusalem but with
some nights in Ramallah, Bethlehem, and Tel Aviv. You mostly meet the
peace camp people, but you meet lots and lots of them. I went this
summer and we met politicians like Saeb Erekat, Hanan Ashrawi, Yasser
Abed Rabbo, etc., but even more interesting was meeting activists like
Ghassan Andoni of the Int'l Solidarity Movement, Muhammad Khatib who is
organizing non-violent actions in a village called Bil'in currently
being divided by the wall, and Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli
soldiers speaking out about the kind of things they did serving in the
territories, and lots of other groups.
If anyone is curious about the group see www.ffipp.org or feel free to
email me.
Anna

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace, FFIPP Bulletin -
November 2005
Date: Fri, 04 Nov 2005 15:54:12 -0400
From: yoav elinevsky
To: FFIPP List A



*Faculty For Israeli-Palestinian Peace, FFIPP
Bulletin - November 2005

**Winter Delegation More Affordable!
*
Dear Friend of FFIPP,

To make the winter delegation to Palestine/Israel more affordable we are
offering a number of options for accommodations on the trip and we have
also reduced the general fee to FFIPP to $400 for faculty and $300 for
students (to cover the cost of transportation and guides).

Members of the delegation, faculty and students, can choose from the
following options for accommodations:

Hostel Option
Staying in hostels, sharing a room. This option will reduce the overall
cost to about $700-$800 excluding airfare. This estimate includes $400
or $300 FFIPP fee, $200 for hostels, and $200 for food.

Private homes/ Hostel Option
Whenever possible, members of the delegation will stay in private homes
of students in Palestine and in Israel.
This option will reduce the overall cost to about $650-$750 excluding
airfare.
This estimate includes $400 or $300 FFIPP fee, $150 for hostels/private
homes, and $200 for food.

Standard Faculty Option
Staying in 3-4 star hotels in a single room. The overall cost under
this option will be about $1250 excluding airfare.
This estimate includes $400 FFIPP fee, $600 for hotels, and $250 for food.

*Each member of the delegation needs to pay the FFIPP fee before the
trip. Please visit our website to pay online or send a check** **payable
to Vanguard Public Foundation/FFIPP, mail to: FFIPP PO Box 2091, Amherst
MA 01004.
*
*Each member of the delegation will pay for hotel and food on their own.
FFIPP will make all the reservations.
*
*We hope to raise funds and give students additional discounts.
*
*Highlights of the next delegation:
*
*Seminars* at Al Najah University, Nablus and at the Islamic University
in Gaza. Mini-conferences in Bethlehem and Tel-Aviv University.

*Meetings* with Dr. Eyad Sarraj, Chairman Gaza Community Mental Health
Program, President FFIPPI *** Prof. Salim Tamari, Birzeit University,
Director Institute Jerusalem Studies, FFIPPI Board *** Prof. Ilan Pappe,
Haifa University *** Prof. Anat Biletzki, Tel Aviv University, B'Tzelem
Board Chair, FFIPPI Board *** Prof. Yehuda Elkana, President Central
European University Budapest, Co-chair FFIPPI Advisory Board *** Luisa
Morgantini, Member EU Parliament *** Shulamit Aloni, former minister and
Knesset member, former head of Meretz, human rights activist *** Dr.
Danny Rabinovitz, Tel Aviv University *** Akiva Eldar, Diplomatic
Affairs analysis and political commentator, Ha'Aretz newspaper ***
Reserve Major General Danny Rothschild ** *Faculty and students of Abu
Dis Campus and a Vigil at Abu Dis Wall *** Prof. David Shulman, Hebrew
University, Jerusalem *** Knesset Member Dr. Azmi B'shara, Chair
National Democratic Assembly Party *** Meron Benvenisti, author and
political scientist, former Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem.

An application to join the delegation is attached.

We hope you will join the next delegation and urge your colleagues to
join too.