MER Article Editor's Picks (Summer 2012) Bahrain Centre for Human Rights. Post-BICI Report (Manama, March 2012). Brown, Nathan. When Victory Is Not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2012). Caridi, Paola. Hamas: From Resistance to Government (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2012). Davis, The Editors • 1 min read
MER Article Gulf Juggernaut Adam Hanieh, Capitalism and Class in the Gulf Arab States (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011). Karen Pfeifer • 6 min read
MER Article Jewish Property Claims and Post-Qaddafi Libya As Libya looks to its future, one chapter from its past already has reared its head, one that could touch on everything from finances to future relations, if any, with Israel: the fate of the country’s former Jewish population. The highly publicized return to his native land made by Michael R. Fischbach • 8 min read
MER Article In Between, Fragmented and Disoriented It is argued that the celebrated Arab protest movements have changed the path of visual arts in the region. Headlines predict that art inspired by the uprisings will be freer and more critical. Artists have partaken in the displays of mass dissent, demonstrating in the streets and protesting further Nada Shabout • 15 min read
MER Article Syria's Radical Dabka A clip circulating on YouTube begins with two sets of feet stepping on a portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Asad, defaced with a blood-red X and tossed on the ground. It soon becomes apparent that “dirty Asad” lies inside a ring of protesters, who circle the head shot stomping rhythmically -- on Shayna Silverstein • 12 min read
MER Article Protest Song Marocaine A familiar song accompanied the massive protests that began on February 20, 2011 in Morocco. The song, “Fine Ghadi Biya Khouya” (Where Are You Taking Me, Brother?), was first released in 1973 by Nass el Ghiwane, the venerable folk-pop group that continues to dominate Moroccan popular music -- its a John Schaefer • 18 min read
MER Article Festivalizing Dissent in Morocco The website of Morocco’s National Tourist Office, a government organization, advertises the North African country as a land of cultural festivals and moussems (traditional fairs honoring a saint). According to the Ministry of Information, about 150 such festivals take place each year. The Ministry o Aomar Boum • 10 min read
MER Article Revolution in Socotra At the beginning of 2012, as Egyptians and Syrians marked the second year of their revolts, protesters also took to the streets of Hadiboh, the tumbledown capital of Yemen’s Socotra archipelago (pop. approx. 50,000). Like demonstrators elsewhere, the Socotrans were calling for both local administrat Nathalie Peutz • 18 min read
MER Article The People Want Many of the slogans of the Egyptian revolution have been poetry, and as compositions with rhyme, meter and purpose, they resonate with very old conceptions of lyrical form. But slogans are not literary texts whose meanings can be reduced to a purely semantic level. Most often, they are part of a per Elliott Colla • 17 min read
MER Article Culture, State and Revolution The Arab uprisings have brought major challenges, as well as unprecedented opportunities, to the culture industries. According to a flurry of celebratory news articles from the spring of 2011 onward, protest art is proliferating in the region, from graffiti in Egypt to hip-hop in Morocco to massive Sonali Pahwa, Jessica Winegar • 15 min read
MER Article From the Editor (Summer 2012) According to data collected by the London-based Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Yemen has been struck more than 40 times by US drones -- perhaps twice as often as Pakistan -- in 2012 so far. On April 25, the New York Times reported a White House directive to CIA and military The Editors • 3 min read
