Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Daniel Bax has missed to mention some fundamentals in critiquing " The Derelict House of Islam " One needs to begin with how the "West" developed economically and technologically, framing the issue in the pre-capitalist and capitalist formation(s). Bax has missed the political-economy sphere. The reference for writers like Ruud Koopman is the capitalist West. Hence the question is: why has capitalism in some countries developped "better" in others or has developed "unevenly" in general? It is capitalism that brought new ways of education, innovation, science and exploitation of nature and labour. Technological development, accumulation of capital (with violence at home and abroad) and productivity propelled development. Two world wars and the Holocaust also played a role and were part of capitalist development. Why did the attempt of industrialisation and capitalist development by "secular" states such as Egypt, Iraq and Syria in

Can the Arab uprisings move towards a successful revolution?

An interview with filmmaker Mariam Ghani

Not the only Nazi ideologue ... Related Islamist violence

A review of Shoshana Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

Tehran's Universal Studios (A good mapping of the Iranian cinema, but subscription is required) Further reading Tehran: Paradox City  (free access) Hollywood's New Wave  (subscription required)

The Housing Crisis

G20 and Covid-19

Manchester: Students join lecturers on the picketline

A rhetoric of "justice" that has never been heard of by an American presidential candidate. However, what strategy does Bernie have to fundamentally change the foreign policies of the strongest imperialist state in the world, and thus to lay down the conditions for a possible "justice" for the Palestinians. Why Arab Americans and Muslims are voting for Bernie 

Death is Hard Labour by Khaled Khalifa 2019 Banipal Prize for Arabic Literature The novel is available in its original Arabic

The new socialism of fools

The Lebanese uprising continues

Separating science from the social and political, the BBC attempts to debunk myths adopted by the far right, but it ignores that the main perpetuators of racism are established institutions, domestically and globally, which lay down the conditions and grounds of racist behavious, the corporate media and political parties that play the "immigration card", especially in times of crisis of capitalism. The mainstream liberal ideology that claims inclusiveness in the name of "free market liberalism" but practises exclusion in employment, through Fortress Europe, and through the forms of "development" (e.g. uneven development), cultural essentialism, the nation state that embodies superiority and nationalism of the "imagined community" (including selective history and filtered school curricula and how "the West" and the white 'race' got welathier and more powerful) and the fear of the Other and the fostering of the irrational in an

إذا أردنا محمود درويش

The revenge of the middle-class anti-elitist

Just as the Protestant work ethic can be construed as an ideology propagated by the bourgeoisie and inculcated into the working classes, the current discourse of love and happiness at work undoubtedly finds its greatest resonance within the professional and managerial classes. But just as the work ethic in the U.S. today circulates widely in the culture — as well as among employers, public officials, and policymakers — as an unquestioned value, the mandate to love our work and be happy with it is arguably becoming increasingly hegemonic as a cultural script and normative ideal. How do we make ourselves happy and in love with our job? Here is a typical response: add new responsibilities, get more involved, learn additional skills, add qualifications, and upgrade your game (Hannon 2015, 22, 152-153). Happiness at work, “a mindset that allows you to maximize performance and achieve your potential,” is, as is often repeated, “strongly related to productivity” (Pryce-Jones 2010, 4, 10).

The fat tail risk

Whatever "growth" means nowadays amid the destruction of the environment, according to the Trade Union Congress the UK has experienced The worst decade for growth in two centuries

"Freedom without constraints" or the American definition of freedom  by a conservative who sounds liberal

Muqtada al-Sadr's double game

Britain complicit in the crushing of Iran's Tudeh party

How the commodification of knowledge is creating a new age of colonialism

Palestinians have indeed 'missed an opportunity'

Clause IV: the enduring controversy