Middle East Report 235 Press Release

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MER 237 Table of Contents

For immediate release November 23, 2005

Middle East Report 237 (Winter 2005)

FRAGMENTS OF THE STATE

If post-Saddam Iraq is any guide, democratization in the Middle East will be accompanied by the strengthening of ethnic and religious identities -- and more insistent demands by ethnic and religious groups for autonomy from the central government. This dynamic is explored in the winter 2005 issue of Middle East Report, "Fragments of the State."

Political scientist Vickie Langohr considers the various methods of "just" democratic distribution of power in countries with histories of ethnic and religious conflict. Sami Zubaida, long-time contributing editor of Middle East Report, offers a reminder that the disunity of post-Saddam Iraq is firmly rooted in the policies of the deposed regime. Still, the policies of the US-dominated Coalition Provisional Authority and its Iraqi allies rendered sectarian and ethnic identity the formal organizing principle of Iraqi politics for the first time. Analyst Roel Meijer analyzes the ideology of the Association of Muslim Scholars, the preeminent hardline organization formed after the fall of Saddam Hussein to represent Sunni Arabs in the new configuration of communal power.

The transformation of Iraq is reverberating in the region as a whole. Historian Toby Jones demonstrates "the Iraq effect" on the long-suffering Shi'i community in Saudi Arabia. Researcher Kaveh Bayat delineates the relation of events in both Kurdish and Arab Iraq to the resurgence of ethnic politics in Iran. Farther afield, as Joseph Alagha of the Lebanese American University contends, Hizballah is integrating itself into the Lebanese government to defuse allegations -- partly informed by the rise of the Iraqi Shi'a -- that it seeks to be a "state within a state."

Anthropologist Paul Silverstein explains how ethnic difference lies beneath unresolved tensions in the definition of the Algerian and Moroccan nation-states. In a special report, journalists Peter Lagerquist and Jonathan Cook examine the fallout of the August 2005 killings of four Palestinian citizens of Israel by a deserted soldier. Both the killings and the subsequent media coverage, they argue, show that the distinction between Palestinians in the Occupied Territories and those who are citizens continues to erode.

Also featured: Roschanack Shaery-Eisenlohr reports on Iraqi Shi'a of Persian descent living in Lebanon; Arang Keshavarzian reviews the testimonial of an ex-member of the Mojahedin-e Khalq; and more

Subscribe to Middle East Report or order individual copies online at www.merip.org.

For further information, contact Chris Toensing at ctoensing@merip.org.

Middle East Report is published by the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), a progressive, independent organization based in Washington, DC. Since 1971 MERIP has provided critical analysis of the Middle East, focusing on political economy, popular struggles and the implications of US and international policy for the region.

MERIP OP-EDS

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Egypt Stifles Debate in the United States
Northwest Arkansas Times
August 27, 2008
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The Egyptian regime has once again succeeded in stifling freedom of speech, this time not in Egypt, but in the US. Earlier this month, an Egyptian court convicted a prominent Egyptian-American activist for his outspoken criticism of the regime’s poor human rights record in American public fora. The court accused Saad Eddin Ibrahim, of "tarnishing Egypt's image" abroad. The conviction referred primarily to writings he published in the foreign press; most notably among them an August 2007 op-ed in the Washington Post in which he criticized Egypt's human rights record and questioned the reasons behind US aid to Egypt. Full Story>>

Want to Fight Terrorism? Think Globally, Act Locally
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Militant Islam is under global scrutiny for clues to conditions that foster its rise, and to strategies for reversing that growth. But the key is not in Islamic doctrine, US foreign policy or formal ties to various nations, as many analysts have asserted. It lies at the community level, with clan and local leaders. Full Story>>

Iraq’s Kurds Have to Choose
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July 30, 2008
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Kurdish parties have become kingmakers in Baghdad , and they know it. As no federal government can work without them, they are pulling every available political lever to expand the territory and resources they control, trying to build the foundation of an independent Kurdish state. But even more than territory, they need security. If everyone acts quickly and wisely, that understanding could help resolve one of the Iraq war’s thorniest issues. Full Story>>

Exiting Iraq Is Easier Than They Say
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The debate over the war in Iraq follows a yellowing script: The minute someone suggests that the US move to withdraw its troops, war supporters cry “Havoc!” True to form, when no less a figure than Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stated he wants a timeline for a US pullout, John McCain summoned the specter of dire consequences. “I’ve always said we’ll come home with honor and with victory and not through a set timetable,” McCain said. In his major foreign policy speech on July 15, Barack Obama affirmed his support for a withdrawal timetable, adding that the US must “get out as carefully as we were careless getting in.” Obama’s position is the correct one, but he, like many other war critics, has done too little to counter the refrain that withdrawal is simply “cutting and running,” a recipe for disaster. Full Story>>

Presidential Pandering on Palestine
Asheville Citizen-Times
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At the annual policy conference of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) earlier this month, presidential candidates John McCain and Barack Obama competed over who would become the “candidate for Israel.” The match came to a draw when both candidates pledged undying and unconditional support for Israel. While their support for “Israel right or wrong” was unquestionable, at the end of all the commotion, the most pertinent question for Americans and the world remained unasked and unanswered: Who is the candidate for peace? Full Story>>