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 ...

Radical Arab Nationalism and Political Islam

Capital expansion has no religion "The treatment of the Rohingya is sometimes described as a crime against humanity. But we need to interrogate its sources. If we bring in some of the larger trends affecting modest rural communities, two major facts stand out. One is the far larger numbers of Buddhist smallholders who have also been expelled from their land in the last few years. And the other is the fact that large-scale timber extraction, mining, and water projects are replacing the expelled." Is Rohingya persecution caused by business interests rather than religion?

Behind China's $1tr plan to shake up the economic order

"China has already overtaken in per capita GDP or in PPP all of the world's other largest developing economies - India, Indonesia and Brazil. By 2020 China's per capita GDP will be higher than several Eastern European countries. As China has 19 percent of the world's population, quite literally never in human history has anything approaching such a large proportion of the world's population had its conditions of life improved so rapidly. That will be the astonishing measure of China's success in achieving "moderate prosperity" - it is, without comparison, literally the greatest economic achievement in human history." What China achieving 'moderate prosperity' means

The Peculiar Modalities of Capitalism in the Arab Region Excerpts and notes from  The People Want: A Radical Exploration of the Arab Uprising  Gilbert Achcar  2013  The 23 July 1952 coup of the Free officers led by Gamal Abdel Nasser "unquestionably led to a transformation of Egypt much more radical than anything that has so far resulted from the Revolution of 25 January 2011.  The 1952 coup led to the overthrow of a dynasty, the abolition of the monarchy and parliamentary regime, the creation of a republican military dictatorship, the nationalisation of foreign assets, the subversion of the old regime's property-holding classes (big land property, commercial and financial capital), a major drive to industrialise and far-reaching progressive social reforms. These changes certainly better deserve to be called a 'revolution' than do the results of the uprising set in motion in January 2011..." The People Want, p. 15  "The Tunisian and Egyptian political re...