Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

I recommend

Arab Studies Journal

Lessons from the Arab Spring

The persistence of communal cleavages "complicates rather than nullifies social class consciousness and struggle. This persistence of communal cleavages and vertical loyalties in some Arab countries is owing to the perpetuation of traditional systems in which communities are linked to their local za'ims (traditional leaders) through patron-client relationships. To the extent that constructive change can be introduced in these areas, such traditional systems will give way, increasingly, to other social and class relationships.  "... Western functionalists ... view these communal cleavages as 'a premodern phenomenon, a residue of particularism and ascription incompatible with the trend toward achievement, universalism and rationality supposedly exhibited by industrial societies.' Western sociologists whose point of departure is a sociobiological paradigm have argued that ethnic and racial solidarity are extensions of kinship sentiments. For instance, Pierre van d...

The Revolutionary Projects of Two Lebanese Communists Note: you may need a free subscription to download the PDFs file.

" Benzema received less tentative backing from the maverick Socialist politician and former Education Minister Benoît Hamon, who  said  Benzema had “evoked a reality.” We are, he continued, a nation in “denial over the rise of intolerance.” In today’s France, he concluded, “we can all too easily say that we don’t like Benzema because he has the mug of an Arab.” This is the same France, Hamon had no need to add, where former President Nicolas Sarkozy referred to Arab youths as “ scum ” and whose interior minister, Brice Hortefeux, once  joked  that : “One Arab is OK. It’s when there are more that there are problems.” "Does French Soccer Have an Arab Problem?" Related The culturalization of social antagonisms Anti-Muslim Racism from Above and From Below Racism: the achilles heel of middle class liberalism " I sure as hell would not be able to sleep soundly if I thought my fate rested upon the European liberal middle classes."

In early May the website Vox made a small splash on the Internet with “ 40 Maps That Explain the Middle East .”

After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts ‎"After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked the Middle East Revolts" "If like me you are sceptical of what the media is telling us about the Arab Spring, or at least feel you are not being given the whole picture, you'll benefit from reading this powerfully argued and passionately written book. John R. Bradley turns conventional wisdom on its head, arguing that the revolts were not initially about a thirst for democracy but brought about because of economic misery and questions like personal dignity. He covers Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and other countries to show how the Islamists then went on to hijack the revolutions everywhere because the progressives were disorganized and have not broad constitutency among the amsses. This counterrevolution was carried out with crucial backing from Saudi Arabia -- and, yes, the West too." (J, Maynard, USA) And......

The Securitisation of Political Rule

Paradoxes of Arab Refo-lutions by Asef Bayat

Selection from previous shows - "The Myths of Zionism" by John Rose (May 2008) "Class and Sect in the Middle East" by Anne Alexander (Jan 2008) "Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World" by Lina Khatib (August 2008)

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or resonancefm.com (worldwide) An interview with Yasser Alwan about his work " The Liberty of Appearing - Photographs of Egyptian Working People " ( Peacock Imprint , 2008, edited by Richard Peacock with an introduction by John Molyneux, Senior Art theory Lecturer, University of Portsmouth). "Yasser Alwan's subjects are sometimes alone, always in a crowd, recognisably Egyptian, resembling everybody else ... Global struggle corralled into an Arab street corner. Still life speaking to the world of how it sees itself..."(Eamonn McCann, author of War and an Irish Town). "These are wonderful photographs. They are very simple, the subjects shine out, and here is humanity without any sentimentality." (Red Saunders, photographer & founder Rock Against Racism).

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or Resonancefm.com (worldwide) The Arab Communist Movement , featuring the views of Tareq Ismael , author of 5 books on the subject, and Hussam Al-Hamalawy , blogger, journalist and socialist activist from Egypt. Dissection of " The Unwinnable War in Afghanistan ."