Sectarianism

About Last Night

Last night the sound of gunfire punctuated the Beirut soundscape. Supporters of the anti-Syrian and majority Sunni Future Movement clashed with members of the pro-Assad and Sunni Majority Arab Movement. The fighting, which was most intense around the Beirut Arab University, continued until the early hours of the morning. The area around the Beirut Arab University is mixed. For the last several decades, “mixed” used to refer to Christian and Muslim co-habitation in this city, but today it is increasingly used to describe areas where Sunni and Shiite Muslims live side by side. This shift, or more accurately this proliferation in categorizing self and other encompassed in ...

2011, A Memory From Lebanon

When the revolutions began in March of 2011, I was envious. It is not easy to admit this. Back then, before the revolutions turned bloody, before Libya and Bahrain and Syria and before the continuation of a military state in Egypt, the possibilities seemed contagious. But even then, while in the fever of January, beneath a desire for revolution, I understood that I would not see a similarly broad based and successful uprising in Lebanon. Watching the swell of people in Tahrir Square on television, I was envious of the memories they would have of that moment. Where were you the night Mubarak was finally overthrown? What were you doing when Ben Ali finally boarded that ...

Three Versions of Copt

Not quite a day later, a secular Muslim employee at one of Egypt’s largest media institutions begins to unpack the events of 9 October at his office, not far from the site of blood in downtown Cairo -I- Yesterday evening, while I sat at this desk dreaming up cultural content for the pages I am in charge of, Twitter began turning up news of protesters being fired at and pelted with stones – but not run over by combat armored vehicles, not beaten repeatedly after they were dead, nor thrown into the Nile as bloodied corpses. Not yet. The location was outside the Radio and Television Union Building, along a stretch of the Nile known as Maspero. This fact (of protesters ...

The Maspero Massacre: The Military, the Media, and the 1952 Cairo Fire as Historical Blueprint

The Maspero Massacre and the official media policy that emerged in its wake can only be understood in the context of the ongoing struggle between the national security state and forces working to achieve a fledgling democracy in Egypt. The January Revolution was a transformative moment in the country’s history: a moment of transition from a security regime that had grown rotten to the core after sixty years in power towards a nascent democratic state. Freedom of speech and the personal dignity and political agency of citizens are understood to have become natural rights in the struggle for justice and progressive social change. The revolution unfolded, however, ...

Sectarianism and the Revolution

There is a great deal of discussion in media circles of the attacks on Coptic protesters that took place this past Sunday. Much of this discussion has framed the attacks as sectarian and, specifically, as anti-Christian. Indeed, the language used in the headlines of various op-ed pieces is extremely evocative, if not verging on the hyperbolic. The religion blog in the Canadian National Post has featured a "question and answer" discussion under the title “Are Coptic Christians safe in the new Egypt?” Steven Cook of the Council on Foreign Relations ventured so far as to describe Sunday’s events as “an anti-Christian pogrom” in a recent blog ...

Cartoons: Carlos Latuff on Egypt

Hate Speech Finds a Mainstream Platform

It is not often that major international publications respond to crackpot opinion pieces in other newspapers. Yet Robert L. Bernstein’s latest tantrum against the Palestinians, which the Washington Post published instead of steering the author to an extremist website, was so far beyond the pale that The Economist felt compelled to issue a rejoinder. Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 Keep Reading »

Statement of Syrian Christians in Support of the Revolution

[The following statement was issued in English, French, and Arabic by a group of Syrian Christians on July 10, 2011.] Statement of Syrian Christians in Support of the Revolution I. Christianity being a religion of truth, justice, equality and love, Syrian Christians can not but be with their fellow citizens in their peaceful movement toward freedom, justice, and equality. II. We, as Syrian nationals and an active part of Syrian society, declare our early participation in this blessed revolution which aims to build a civic nation for all its citizens. We have not stopped protesting since, and have taken the mosques and neighborhoods of Damascus and other cities as a ...

Top Ten List: What To Expect In Lebanon Now That The STL Indictment is Out

1-Sa`ad al-Hariri will release a videotaped statement from Paris saying that everyone in Lebanon must be brave and steadfast in pursuing justice for assassinated Prime Minister Rafik al Hariri. He will then go out for a five course meal, in Paris. 2-Hassan Nasrallah will release a videotaped statement from an unknown location where he announces that there will be peace and stability in Lebanon. He will sweat profusely, smile, and point his finger at the camera.He will then dispatch armed forces around the country to “enforce” this peace and stability. 3-Walid Jumblatt will provide the answers as he blows, and blows with the changing winds. A remake of the Bob Dylan ...