MER Article The Ethnic Question in Iran Iran is not a Persian monolith, as it is often portrayed. Owing to waves of migration and foreign invasion over its long history, the Iranian plateau has become home to a diverse assortment of people speaking a range of languages and adhering to numerous creeds. The “Iranian” languages spoken in Ira Kaveh Bayat • 10 min read
MER Article 'Ajamis in Lebanon It is Muharram, the month of the martyrdom of Imam Hussein, and the female-run husseiniyya in West Beirut is packed with women dressed in black. As the sounds of Lebanese and Iraqi Arabic dialects, as well as Persian, fill the hallways of this Shi‘i community center, the female religious performer ( Roschanack Shaery • 7 min read
MER Article Hizballah After the Syrian Withdrawal Since the passage of UN Security Council Resolution 1559 in September 2004, Hizballah has been in the international spotlight. In addition to demanding the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon, the resolution calls for the “disbanding and disarmament of all Lebanese and non-Lebanese militias,” p Joseph Alagha • 15 min read
MER Article The Iraq Effect in Saudi Arabia Shi‘is in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia have watched Iraq’s political transformation with a combination of horror and optimism. Iraq’s slide toward civil war, the carnage wrought by militant violence and the targeted slaughter of thousands of Iraqi Shi‘is by Sunni insurgents have sown fears among Shi‘ Toby Jones • 15 min read
MER Article The Association of Muslim Scholars in Iraq The October 15, 2005 referendum on the new Iraqi constitution, like other stages in the US-sponsored political transition after the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime, drew fresh attention to the many opponents of that transition and the US occupation who are not directly involved in the ongoing insurg Roel Meijer • 15 min read
MER Article Communalism and Thwarted Aspirations of Iraqi Citizenship Many commentators on the state of Iraq after the removal of the Baathist regime in 2003 have attributed the chaos and sectarian-ethnic conflict to some essence of Iraqi society: fissiparous and tribal, only governable by the firm hand of authoritarian dictatorship. This is, of course, an ahistorical Sami Zubaida • 11 min read
MER Article Experiments in Multi-Ethnic and Multi-Religious Democracy Democracy’s succinct definition, and perhaps its best attribute, is majority rule. But it is unclear that majority rule equates to democracy in places like Lebanon, Iraq and other Middle Eastern countries that are contending with past and present religious or ethnic conflict. Clearly, democracy in s Vickie Langohr • 11 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Winter 2005) Here we go again. A Baathist dictatorship is widely suspected and pointedly accused of an indefensible act. The United States, backed strongly by a European ally on the UN Security Council, is pressing the “international community” to penalize and isolate that regime until it makes “a strategic decision to fundamentally The Editors • 8 min read
