Follow Us
From the Editors
Jadaliyya Launches DARS Page: Daily Acts of Resistance and Subversion
Tadween Publishing Blog is here! Check it out
Jadaliyya's first book is now available! Click here.
Want to find out about new books? Visit our expanding NEWTON page. Click here.
Interested in writing a Review for Jadaliyya? Visit our Call for Reviews here.
الآن . . . القسم العربي بحلة جديدة
Jadaliyya Launches Photography Page (click here!)
Call for Photos: Become a Contributing Photographer at Jadaliyya
Elections
Flowering of the Arab Spring: Understanding Tunisia’s Elections Results
![[Tunisian election workers count ballots at the end of voting for the election in Tunis. Image by Louafi Larbi of Reuters.]](/content_images/3/sm_tunisia_elections_ballot_vote_count.jpg "[Tunisian election workers count ballots at the end of voting for the election in Tunis. Image by Louafi Larbi of Reuters.]")
In early 1994 a small Islamic think tank affiliated with the University of South Florida (USF) planned an academic forum to host Rachid Ghannouchi, the leader of the main opposition party in Tunisia, Ennahdha. The objective of this annual event was to give Western academics and intellectuals a rare opportunity to engage an Islamically-oriented intellectual or political leader at a time when the political discourse was dominated by Samuel Huntington’s much hyped clash of civilizations thesis. Shortly after the public announcement of the event, pro-Israeli groups and advocates led by Martin Kramer, Daniel Pipes, Steven Emerson, the head of the local B’nai B’rith, and a ...
Keep Reading »From Blogging to Writing the Constitution
![[Amira Yahyaoui (image via her website) and Riadh Guerfali (image via Flickr)]](/content_images/3/sm_YahyaouiGuerfali.jpg "[Amira Yahyaoui (image via her website) and Riadh Guerfali (image via Flickr)]")
In Tunisia, the only country of the Arab Spring revolutions with a definite date set for free elections—October 23, 2011—the consensus among many activists is that the revolution has stalled. The interior ministry, where protestors dramatically demanded the exit of Ben Ali, is now surrounded by barbed wire and patrolled by a police force that the local press has accused of returning to its old ways of torture and intimidation. And recently, concern has been growing that popular sentiment has been taking a turn towards the Islamist. So where are the bloggers who risked everything to send sparks of change through the Internet? At least seven of them are attempting to ...
Keep Reading »Declaration of Municipal Elections Boycott by Group of Saudi Writers and Intellectuals
![[Provinces of Saudi Arabia. Image from mena-electionguide.org]](/content_images/3/sm_ksaksaksa.jpg "[Provinces of Saudi Arabia. Image from mena-electionguide.org]")
[The following statement was recently released in Arabic by a group of Saudi writers and intellectuals in regards to the upcoming municipal elections in the Kingdom. The Saudi Ministry of Municipal and Rural Affairs announced on March 22, 2011, that municipal elections would be held on September 22, 2011. Translation by Ziad Abu-Rish. The Arabic version of the statement can be found here.] Announcement of Boycott of the Saudi Municipal Elections After the experience of the 2005 municipal elections and the postponement--without explanation--of the elections that were supposed to be held in 2009, it was announced that municipal elections would be held by the end of this ...
Keep Reading »في الثورة; الحرية السياسية لا تكفي [In Revolution; Political Freedom is not Enough]
![[Referendum Voting in Egypt. Image from AP]](/content_images/3/sm_fo30no-egypt-elect.jpg "[Referendum Voting in Egypt. Image from AP]")
استحوذ الجدل حول تعديلات الدستور والاستفتاء الذي جرى أمس على عقل وحركة المصريين خلال الأسبوعين الماضيين ليتراجع كل شيء آخر أمام تلك القضية السياسية الدستورية الهامة. ومع اتخاذ المصريين قرارهم بلا أو نعم يتوقف مستقبل الثورة على أن يجسد هذا الموقف نفسه في صورة موقف واضح من باقي مطالب الثائرين، التي لا يمكن فصمها عن السياسة، وهي المطالب التي طرحوها تحت شعار العدالة الاجتماعية. توصف الثورة بأنها ذلك الدخول القسري للجماهير إلى عالم الحكم، عالم تقرير مصيرها. وفي هذا فإن اهتمام جماهير الثائرين بالدستور وما يرتبه من قواعد للعبة السياسية ليس هدفا في حد ذاته، وليس تعبيرا عن رغبتها في الفوز بمسابقة الدستور الأكمل قانونيا، وإنما يفترض أن يكون ذلك مجرد خطوة على طريق ...
Keep Reading »Boutros Harb For President
![[Boutros Harb: Image From Unknown Archive]](/content_images/3/sm_images-1.jpg "[Boutros Harb: Image From Unknown Archive]")
In my capacity as a founding editor of Jadaliyya, I hereby endorse Boutros Harb, current Lebanese Minister of Labor, for the office of President of the republic. If Lebanon were a country where presidential candidates actually stood for elections and citizens actually voted to choose who would occupy the office of the President[1], I would certainly vote for him. I would even campaign for him. Throughout a long career of public service to his country, Mr. Harb has demonstrated an uncanny understanding of and dedication to the whole of Lebanon, and not only to the community that his detractors say his only concern is; the Christians of Lebanon. While his detractors see ...
Keep Reading »Mardomi-Nejad VS. The Greens: Iran's Political Struggle Captured in Election Posters
Iran’s hotly contested 2009 presidential elections and its tumultuous aftermath have been a source for numerous op-eds, policy speeches, and activist events from Tehran to New York and everywhere in between--to this day. The mass protests and violence that followed the announcement of Ahmadinejad’ s victory overtook the several weeks of campaigning that preceded the June 12 elections that brought 85% of the electorate to the ballot boxes. One of the vehicles for expressing the platforms of the candidates as well as inspiring voters were the colorful and ever-present election posters. While previous elections also included banners and posters as ...
Keep Reading »Celebrating Illiberal Liberalism: The Egyptian Elections (Why The Wafd Has To Participate In The Upcoming Elections-Part 2)
![[Police arresting an activist in an election rally. Image from unknown archive]](/content_images/3/sm_wp2.jpg "[Police arresting an activist in an election rally. Image from unknown archive]")
In Part 1 we saw some of the salient features of the story that punctuate Election representation and politics in Egypt. This narrative presumes that the ruling regime is conspiring to reduce the Brotherhood’s share in the parliament form 88 seats to maybe 15, and divide the rest between itself and the “official opposition parties,” especially the Wafd (for a plethora of reasons that were detailed in Part 1). Only two days ago, Al-Youm Al-Saibi’ estimated that regime will take away 61 seats from the Brotherhood, 33 of which it will supposedly give to the Wafd and 7 to the Naserites (both the main party and Karama), keeping most of the what remains to itself. Noteworthy ...
Keep Reading »Mubarak's "Mubarak?" (Part 3)
![[President Hosni Mubarak's sons Alaa (right) and Gamal (left) attend the 2010 World Cup qualifying playoff soccer match between Egypt and Algeria in Khartoum, November 18, 2009. Image from Reuters]](/content_images/3/sm_gamal3.jpg "[President Hosni Mubarak's sons Alaa (right) and Gamal (left) attend the 2010 World Cup qualifying playoff soccer match between Egypt and Algeria in Khartoum, November 18, 2009. Image from Reuters]")
[Note: This is the third in a series of posts titled “Mubarak’s “Mubarak?”” Click here to view the first post and here for the second post in the series] In my last post I argued that there are some signs that individuals within the opposition are starting to believe that Mohammed ElBaradei’s initiative to offer an alternative to Egypt’s de facto royal family is not working. Since then, ElBaradei announced that he is no longer attempting to run for the presidency, conceding what everybody has known for quite some time: the next president will come from the ruling National Democratic Party (NDP). Since his return to Egypt, the regime never gave him a chance—for obvious ...
Keep Reading »Slogans and Posters of the 2010 Jordanian Parliamentary Elections
In November 2009, King Abdullah II of Jordan dissolved the Jordanian Parliament (elected in 2007) and called for early elections to be held on November 9th, 2010. These new elections feature various amendments to the previous set of laws governing elections. However, several opposition groups, including the Islamic Action Front (IAF), have boycotted the 2010 elections citing the lack of an independent monitoring mechanism and bias in the redistricting of the electorate that continues to provide rural areas (traditionally supportive of the regime) greater representation than they deserve. The Jordanian National Assembly is comprised of an elected lower house (Majlis ...
Keep Reading »Mubarak's "Mubarak?" (Part 2)
![[Image from unknown archive]](/content_images/3/sm_GamalMubarak.jpg "[Image from unknown archive]")
[Note: This is the second in a series of posts titled "Mubarak's "Mubarak?.” Click here to view the first post in the series] I argued in my previous post that the transition to a Gamal presidency has been underway for almost a decade now. There are many reasons to believe that the president’s son has already established control over major decision-making bodies and is president in all but name. Passing on formal presidential powers to Gamal, therefore, will not require any major overhauls of the political system—the government and the ruling party, the constitution, and (arguably) the opposition have already been remolded to accommodate the smooth advancement ...
Keep Reading »Neoliberalism's Populist Engine and Race in America
![[Image from Manishtama.blogspot.com]](/content_images/3/sm_ob.jpg "[Image from Manishtama.blogspot.com]")
What began as an entertaining spectacle of Americans reenacting the Boston tea party across the country in early 2009 has congealed into a viable and tangible political force. In the recent primaries leading up to the November mid-term elections, Tea Party candidates both challenged long-time Republican incumbents, and dominated the terms of reference thereby forcing Republican nominees to shift to the right. Senator John McCain’s bid for the Republican Senatorial nomination in Arizona is especially telling. Despite serving as a senator for four terms and securing the Republican Party’s Presidential nomination in 2008, McCain went head to head against his Tea Party ...
Keep Reading »De Blogueros a Redactores de la Constitucion
[This article was written in English by Mischa Benoit-Lavelle and translated/published in Spanish by www.rebelion.org] De Blogueros a Redactores de la Constitución [Traducción para Rebelión de Loles Oliván] En Túnez, el único país de las revoluciones de la primavera árabe con fecha fijada definitivamente para [celebrar] elecciones libres —el 23 de octubre de 2011— el consenso entre muchos activistas es que la revolución se ha estancado. El Ministerio de Interior, donde los manifestantes ...
Keep Reading »الانتخابات أولاً": شعارٌ مفرغ من المضمون"
تقوم توجهات سياسية شتى اليوم بتوظيف شعار "الانتخابات أولاً" للهجوم على من يطالبون "بالدستور أولاً"، وعادة ما يستند هذا الشعار لاتهام المعسكر الأخير "بالالتفاف" على نتائج الإستفتاء، متجاهلين أن المجلس العسكري عينه قد التف على الاستفتاء بالفعل من خلال إعلان دستوري خرج عن حدود المواد التى أقرت في الإستفتاء، وعدل بالفعل المواد التي أقرها الاستفتاء، لكن لم تثر عملية الالتفاف السافرة تلك حفيظة حاملي شعار "الانتخابات أولاً" حينها. وفي المقابل يرد معسكر ...
Keep Reading »Draft Program of The Popular Socialist Coalition Party (Arabic)
[This draft program was released by Egypt's Popular Socialist Coalition Party.] نجحت ثورة 25 يناير بما طرحته من شعارات تلقائية منحازة الى الحرية و العدالة الاجتماعية، و محاربة الفساد الذى استشرى فى جسد الوطن، في مواجهة تحالف الرأسمالية والاستبداد السياسي الذي حكم مصر على مدى عقود. كما بشرت الثورة بميلاد وطنى جديد يحكمه قانون يساوى بين ابنائه بصرف النظر عن الجنس أو الدين أو المعتقد السياسى. ولقد جاءت الثورة لتسلط الضوء من جديد على واقع الحياة السياسية البائس فى بلادنا الذى اخضع الاحزاب و النقابات ...
Keep Reading »Egyptians Brace for Change...But What Kind? [Updated from Egypt]
[This post will be updated regularly as relevant events unfold.] Tomorrow (Saturday) Egyptian voters will head to the polls to either accept or reject a set of constitutional amendments that could guide the direction and pace of Egypt’s transition. The amendments to the 1971 constitution were prepared by a panel of legal experts at the request of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, Egypt’s de facto ruler. If passed, they would (among other things) limit presidential terms and the use of emergency ...
Keep Reading »Liberal Elite Discourse and the "Realities" of Jordan
For over a decade now, a diverse array of English-language publications have emerged in Jordan, which in turn have reflected and facilitated discussions amongst the country’s liberal elite circles. Despite a diversity of specializations as well as differences in readership, these publications, which include magazines and blogs, have coalesced around a dominant narrative about contemporary dynamics in Jordan. This narrative, which I refer to as the liberal elite discourse, positions Jordan (its government ...
Keep Reading »Why The Wafd Has To Participate In The Upcoming Elections (Part 3)
[See Part 1 here and Part 2 here] The way to critique the Wafd As per the rules of our méconnaissance, most, critical analysts tend to critique the Wafd for whitewashing a brutally rigged election only. That is to say, they limit the problem of the Wafd’s participation to normalizing false elections. So, while the Wafd is committing a mistake, it remains a victim of rigging, nonetheless—as if it were like the Brotherhood or Karama. For some reason no one wants to say that the Wafd, and its siblings, ...
Keep Reading »Rigging The Egyptian Elections: The Organizing Narrative (Why The Wafd Has To Participate In The Upcoming Elections-Part 1)
On 17 September, a number of opposition movements organized a “youth” protest in front of the headquarters of the Wafd Party (the old liberals) to persuade it to boycott the upcoming parliamentary elections. The protest was set to coincide with the Wafd’s general assembly meeting that gathered to determine the party’s position on the elections. The protestors chanted slogans against taking part in the upcoming “charade of elections,” threatening the party that participating in these elections would ...
Keep Reading »Jordan, Liberalism, and the Question of Boycott
In the build-up to the 2010 Jordanian parliamentary elections (see slogans and posters here), a lively debate has taken place in Jordan about the efficacy of elections as a form of political practice. This article will discuss some of the major issues animating such debates, with a particular interest in critiquing the discourse emanating from the liberal elite circles in Amman (most represented by a diverse array of English-language magazines and blogs). The Jordanian liberal discourse posits the ...
Keep Reading »The Increasing Absurdity of the "Terrorism" Accusation . . . in Light of “Democracy” and Resistance
The only thing more sickening than the United States cracking down on groups/human beings it does not like in the name of fighting terrorism is when Arab regimes do it. The same goes for Israel except that one should be increasingly prepared to expect literally anything, no matter how morally or politically reprehensible, from its governments. In any case, for those interested in the struggle for any number, or kind, of rights in the Arab world, that phony specter has come to reek of hypocrisy and ...
Keep Reading »Mubarak's "Mubarak?" (Part 1)
With parliamentary elections only a few months away and a widely anticipated presidential election due next year, many observers have projected that change is coming to Egypt, possibly the kind of change that partisans of democracy can believe in. Looking at Egypt from the outside, there are many reasons to believe that a real transformation is in sight. After all, news reports from Egypt over the past few years have tended to focus on the deteriorating health of the 82-year-old president, street ...
Keep Reading »Hot on Facebook
In Syria, no matter what the outcome of the uprising, there will be new checks and balances on the regime and its coercive apparatus. ... Politics, in short, has returned to the Arab world.click | email | tweet
.jpg){kind=small}
From Jadaliyya Reports
Top Jadaliyya Tags
Jadalicious / جدلشس
Noteworthy
Twitter Updates
Jadaliyya Features
.jpg)
Latest Entries
View All Entries »- يافا والموسيقى و"فوائد" النكبة
- O.I.L. Media Roundup (24 May)
- Islamists and Transitional Justice
- Maghreb Media Roundup (May 24)
- أوهام ليبرالية
- Tadween Roundup: News and Analysis from the Publishing/Academic World
- Syria Media Roundup (May 23)
- Asfari Institute Inaugural Conference: New Spaces of Civil Society Activism in the Arab World (Beirut, 23-24 May)
- Women's Rights in the Egyptian Constitution: (Neo)Liberalism's Family Values
- مسخ الذاكرة
- New Texts Out Now: Louise Cainkar, Global Arab World Migrations and Diasporas
- Arabian Peninsula Media Roundup (May 21)
- إعادة الحساب الدائمة: إساءة فهم سوريا بعد سنتين
- From al-Araqib to Susiya: Forced Displacement of Palestinians on Both Sides of the Green Line
- إعجام
- كارل ماركس واليسار في لبنان
- Picturing Algeria
- Egypt Media Roundup (May 20)
- Last Week on Jadaliyya (May 13-19)
- Jadaliyya's Occupation, Intervention, and Law Page Resonates
Pages/Sections
Archive
©2010-2013 by the Arab Studies Institute. All Rights Reserved. info@jadaliyya.com
site by concepcion design