The New York Times runs two articles, yesterday and today, on the problems young Saudis face in looking for love. Both are worth reading as they take first, the opinions and attitudes of young men, then in the second piece those of girls.
There’s not really much new here to anyone who’s read Girls of Riyadh, excepting perhaps the emphasis on Bluetooth technology. The article tend to focus on those aspect of young Saudi lives that are so very different from those in the West, but how these young men and women behave would seem pretty ordinary to a traditional Hindu in India.
More than a look deep into Saudi culture, the pieces are a look into traditional, conservative societies where parents rule their children well into adulthood. This is a point missed by most of the commenters to the articles who generally use them to bash Islam or Saudis.
There’s no doubt that being a young Saudi is a tough job and that most Westerners would happily avoid it. But the articles do capture, slightly, the pleasure and comforts of living in a restricted realm.
Young Saudis, Vexed and Entranced by Love’s Rules
Love on Girls’ Side of the Saudi Divide
Interesting piece in Arab News on how young Saudis are being tempted into the world of tattoos and body piercings. The article notes that tattooing is actually forbidden in Islam, under the general category of challenging the work of God in creation. It does not mention the tensions concerning tribal tattoos, to be seen on many women of Bedouin or Berber origin, or those who follow other, local traditions and customs.
Increasing Interest in Tattoos, Body Piercing Fueling Underground Business
Hasan Hatrash, Arab NewsJEDDAH, 10 May 2008 — Young Saudi men and women are increasingly getting their bodies tattooed and pierced, something that is fueling a growth in underground tattooist and body piercers, who are often not only unhygienic but also expensive. Tattooists and body piercers that operate in Jeddah are generally Filipinos, who work from their homes and advertise their services by word-of-mouth.
Matar, a young Saudi who works for an advertising agency, had a large, permanent tattoo done on his back three years ago. “I heard about a tattooist from one of my Filipino work colleagues, who told me that he knew a professional,” he said.
… However, the Kingdom’s religious scholars do not approve of the practice. Sheikh Ahmad Al-Amri, imam of Al-Rajih Mosque in Jeddah, said tattoos are forbidden in Islam and considered sinful. He added that the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) clearly stated that tattoos are forbidden as they are an attempt to change Allah’s creation.
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This piece from The New York Times is focused on Kuwait and its parliament, but the issues it addresses are those that face most Gulf States—including Saudi Arabia—as they move toward democratic governance. Going through the motions of holding elections for a parliament, even expanding the voting pool to include women, does not guarantee a functional democracy or even a functional government. What’s needed is a change in mindset. No longer can individual parliamentarians work for their own (or their family’s or tribe’s) interests; they must work for national interests.
While Kuwait is a very civil society, it is not a civil society. Parliamentarians and government officials are still too focused on how they can individually benefit from specific government policies and how their opponents (in whatever realm of competition) might benefit to their own disadvantage.
This is, of course, not a problem exclusive to Kuwait. The US Congress, with its billions of dollars of budget ‘earmarks’ (also known as ‘pork’) suffer from the same weaknesses. Nothing quite cheers up congressmen as having hundreds of millions of tax dollars being spent for the benefit of the voters in their own districts. But it still remains bad governance and, in the long run, bad politics.
In Democracy Kuwait Trusts, but Not Much
ROBERT F. WORTHKUWAIT — In a vast, high-ceilinged tent, Ali al-Rashed sounded an anguished note as he delivered the first speech of his campaign for Parliament.
“Kuwait used to be No. 1 in the economy, in politics, in sports, in culture, in everything,” he said, his voice floating out in the warm evening air to hundreds of potential voters seated on white damask-lined chairs. “What happened?”
It is a question many people are asking as this tiny, oil-rich nation of 2.6 million people approaches its latest round of elections. And the unlikely answer being whispered around, both here and in neighboring countries on the Persian Gulf: too much democracy.
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Khaleej Times runs this article on efforts by the Saudi Control & Investigation Board to ensure that Saudi bureaucrats are in their offices when they’re supposed to be. While not as cumbersome as some bureaucracies—I’m thinking of India and Egypt as good examples of bad bureaucracies—the Saudi version has its own problems, starting with empty offices. Whether the Board can address the issue of constant interruptions from office visitors and phone calls remains an open question…
Govt employees told to be punctual or face action
JEDDAH — It is said that they also serve who wait and watch. But when it comes to government servants at large, anywhere in the world, they more or less just wait and watch.
Realising this, the Control and Investigation Board has issued a circular instructing government employees in Saudi Arabia to strictly follow their working hours or face punitive action.
The board, which was established to monitor activities of government departments and employees and their performance, reports directly to Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz.
The circular, which has been sent to ministries and government departments, told public servants that arrival at and leaving of offices would be strictly monitored to make sure they follow the working hours.
The board has insisted that officials holding high positions must be the first to follow their duty hours to set a good example for others. “Nobody is allowed to arrive late at offices even by five minutes and to leave before the end of duty hours,” it added.
The circular contained a list of officials who have been found not following their working hours in the past. “No leniency will be shown to employees who do not abide by official instructions,” it said.
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The New York Times gives us this fascinating piece on Irshad Manji and Ayaan Hirsi Ali, two of the better known (in the West) female critics of Islam. The article focuses on the similarities and differences between the two, all the while noting that neither has much of a following in the Islamic world itself. It’s interesting to note that both, while not seeing feminism as the central point of their argument, do see is as a major factor. More interesting is how one seeks the reform of Islam from the inside while the other seeks to push it to the margins of the philosophical world. Both view the influence of Arabs—and particularly Saudis—as negative.
Very much worth reading.
Muslim Rebel Sisters: At Odds With Islam and Each Other
BARRY GEWENAYAAN HIRSI ALI and Irshad Manji are two of the most prominent and outspoken critics of what they and others see as “mainstream Islam.” Brilliant, dynamic women — the overused word “charismatic” is not inappropriate for either one — they have each rebelled against a Muslim upbringing to become public figures with large and devoted followings. Both are successful authors: Ms. Hirsi Ali’s autobiography, “Infidel,” was a New York Times best seller; Ms. Manji’s combination memoir-polemic, “The Trouble With Islam Today,” has been published in almost 30 countries. They are firm and unyielding in their support for the West, feminism, reason, freedom — and they have paid a price: both have been targets of death threats and have required protection; in Ms. Hirsi Ali’s case, around-the-clock protection.
Yet though they are allies on one level, their approaches to Islam are strikingly different, with one working outside the religion and one within. Neither one can be considered a spokeswoman for a significant Muslim constituency in the Middle East. (Indeed, their most sympathetic audiences are probably Western.) But their differences have implications for all the big issues the West grapples with in considering the Muslim world. How much popular support do terrorists have? Is a secular Middle East possible, and what’s the best way to promote it? Is Islam itself an enemy of the West?
Ms. Hirsi Ali is an avowed atheist whose criticisms can be seen as attacks not only on radical Islamism but on the religion of Islam over all. George W. Bush was wrong, she says, when he announced that Islam was being held hostage by a terrorist minority: “Islam is being held hostage by itself.” About the 9/11 attacks, she declared: “This is Islam,” and “not just Islam, this was the core of Islam.” The attacks forced her to decide “which side was I on?” she writes in “Infidel.” And further, “Where did I stand on Islam?” Her book is the story of how she chose the West.
For Ms. Manji, there has been no such either-or choice. She is a practicing Muslim who — though she can be as caustic about her coreligionists as Ms. Hirsi Ali — seeks to change her faith from within. As founder and director of the Moral Courage Project at New York University, she assists other maverick writers and scholars who dissent within their communities. “What I want,” Ms. Manji has said, “is an Islamic Reformation,” and in contrast to Ms. Hirsi Ali, she adds, there is “no need to choose between Islam and the West.”
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How to form a democracy is not a trivial problem, as this Asharq Alawsat article makes clear. In Kuwait, there’s an issue of whether democracy represents the wills of individuals or the will of individuals as members of tribes. Arguments can be made for both side of the question, but present Kuwaiti law disfavors the tribal view. Some tribes disagree to the point that police and riot squads have to be called in.
You can be sure that the Saudi government and the Saudi population are watching events in Kuwait (in Bahrain, too, but that involves somewhat different factors). The traditionalists will tend to come down on the side that most favors them, so the limits of tribal power will be tested. Ultimately, the question will come down to asking whether one is a Saudi first, or a member of a tribe first.
Kuwait: A Tribal or Democratic State?
Ahmed EissaKuwait City, Asharq Al-Awsat - As Kuwait prepares for its twelfth legislative elections since the constitution was adopted in 1962, the state has been witnessing clashes between the security forces and a number of tribal figures over the past two weeks. Several tribesmen have been accused by the government of organizing preliminary elections [among the tribes] that are deemed illegal by the Kuwaiti constitution to select their representatives in the upcoming parliamentary elections to be held on May 7, 2008.
The tribes resort to this practice as a means of ensuring that their votes will be united – but the government is against it and is furthermore supported by a law that views this phenomenon as prioritizing the tribe at the expense of the state and believes that tribal members are attempting to propagate sectarian loyalty over national affiliation.
Over this past year alone, numerous clashes have broken out leading the Interior Ministry to intensify its confrontational forces, which include plainclothes security officers and anti-riot forces, in addition to conducting raids that are supported by the Public Prosecution Office. In the later stages of the conflict, tear gas and rubber bullets have reportedly been used to disperse the crowds.
Two confrontations took place between the security forces and a group of tribesmen; the first happened last month in front of the Criminal Investigations Department after a crowd of Ajman tribesman stormed the building in an attempt to free their fellow tribesmen who were detained within. Those in detention were accused of organizing illegal tribal elections. Security forces were compelled to resort to anti-riot police and use tear gas to quell the chaos.
… Following the clashes, tribal representatives threatened to hold Minister of Interior Sheikh Jaber al Khalid and Prime Minister Nasir Muhammed al Sabah accountable if they won seats in parliament, stating that the ministers are legally and constitutionally responsible for the damage and injury suffered by tribes during these confrontations.
But despite the Interior Ministry’s attempts to curb the tribal elections by force, tribal members in Kuwait were able to hold the elections and choose their representatives.
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It’s not often that you’ll find me citing Daniel Pipes with even partial favor, but this piece, published in the Israeli Jerusalem Post merits some attention. I’ll argue with his use of the word ‘Islamism’ to describe the problem; more properly, it’s ‘violent, extremist Islamism’. He uses that term preferentially in his writings and in the style-book of his Middle East Forum (publisher of the study noted below).
‘Islamism’ is the political philosophy that Islam has a place in the day-to-day political activities of a state. It does not define that place, however. There’s a huge expanse of political space between those who think Sharia law, for instance, should ‘inform’ secular law and those who seek to reinstitute the Caliphate. Pipes, his co-writers, and organization close off the debate when they mischaracterize what their ‘opponents’ actually seek and who they actually are.
A democratic Islam?
DANIEL PIPESThere’s an impression that Muslims suffer disproportionately from the rule of dictators, tyrants, unelected presidents, kings, emirs, and various other strongmen - and it’s accurate. A careful analysis by Frederic L. Pryor of Swarthmore College in the Middle East Quarterly (“Are Muslim Countries Less Democratic?”) concludes that “In all but the poorest countries, Islam is associated with fewer political rights.”
The fact that majority-Muslim countries are less democratic makes it tempting to conclude that the religion of Islam, their common factor, is itself incompatible with democracy.
I disagree with that conclusion. Today’s Muslim predicament, rather, reflects historical circumstances more than innate features of Islam. Put differently, Islam, like all pre-modern religions is undemocratic in spirit. No less than the others, however, it has the potential to evolve in a democratic direction.
Such evolution is not easy for any religion. In the Christian case, the battle to limit the Catholic Church’s political role lasted painfully long. If the transition began when Marsiglio of Padua published Defensor pacis in the year 1324, it took another six centuries for the Church fully to reconcile itself to democracy. Why should Islam’s transition be smoother or easier?
To render Islam consistent with democratic ways will require profound changes in its interpretation. For example, the anti-democratic law of Islam, the Shari’a, lies at the core of the problem. Developed over a millennium ago, it presumes autocratic rulers and submissive subjects, emphasizes God’s will over popular sovereignty, and encourages violent jihad to expand Islam’s borders. Further, it anti-democratically privileges Muslims over non-Muslims, males over females, and free persons over slaves.
For Muslims to build fully functioning democracies, they basically must reject the Shari’a’s public aspects. Atatürk frontally did just that in Turkey, but others have offered more subtle approaches. Mahmud Muhammad Taha, a Sudanese thinker, dispatched the public Islamic laws by fundamentally reinterpreting the Koran.
ATATÃœRK’S EFFORTS and Taha’s ideas imply that Islam is ever-evolving, and that to see it as unchanging is a grave mistake. Or, in the lively metaphor of Hassan Hanafi, professor of philosophy at the University of Cairo, the Koran “is a supermarket, where one takes what one wants and leaves what one doesn’t want.”
Islam’s problem is less its being anti-modern than that its process of modernization has hardly begun. Muslims can modernize their religion, but that requires major changes: Out go waging jihad to impose Muslim rule, second-class citizenship for non-Muslims, and death sentences for blasphemy or apostasy. In come individual freedoms, civil rights, political participation, popular sovereignty, equality before the law, and representative elections.
Two obstacles stand in the way of these changes, however. In the Middle East especially, tribal affiliations remain of paramount importance. As explained by Philip Carl Salzman in his recent book, Culture and Conflict in the Middle East, these ties create a complex pattern of tribal autonomy and tyrannical centralism that obstructs the development of constitutionalism, the rule of law, citizenship, gender equality, and the other prerequisites of a democratic state. Not until this archaic social system based on the family is dispatched can democracy make real headway in the Middle East.
Globally, the compelling and powerful Islamist movement obstructs democracy. It seeks the opposite of reform and modernization - namely, the reassertion of the Shari’a in its entirety. A jihadist like Osama bin Laden may spell out this goal more explicitly than an establishment politician like Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, but both seek to create a thoroughly anti-democratic, if not totalitarian, order.
Islamists respond two ways to democracy. First, they denounce it as un-Islamic. Muslim Brotherhood founder Hasan al-Banna considered democracy a betrayal of Islamic values. Brotherhood theoretician Sayyid Qutb rejected popular sovereignty, as did Abu al-A’la al-Mawdudi, founder of Pakistan’s Jamaat-e-Islami political party. Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Al-Jazeera television’s imam, argues that elections are heretical.
Despite this scorn, Islamists are eager to use elections to attain power, and have proven themselves to be agile vote-getters; even a terrorist organization (Hamas) has won an election. This record does not render the Islamists democratic but indicates their tactical flexibility and their determination to gain power. As Erdogan has revealingly explained, “Democracy is like a streetcar. When you come to your stop, you get off.”
Hard work can one day make Islam democratic. In the meanwhile, Islamism represents the world’s leading anti-democratic force.
This Middle East Times editorial enthuses about how some Arab governments are seeking to make up the short-fall in the publication of Arab (and other) books in the Middle East. The piece focuses on the huge success Arab book publishers have had at the recent London Book Fair, but also sees governmental efforts to publish and translate more books as critical. I couldn’t agree more.
Arab cultural integration through books
One of the constant warning themes of annual reports on the Arab world published by the United Nations Development Program has been the danger of cultural isolation.
The first and seminal report of 2002 noted that more books were translated into Spanish each year than had been translated into Arabic over the past eight centuries. The 2003 report noted that fewer than 50 Arabic books a year make it into another language.
So it was striking to attend this year’s London Book Fair and see Arab publishers and writers taking pride of place, with Saqi books and the literary magazine Banipal both prominent.
There was a special stand for the foundation of Dubai’s Sheik Makhtoum, who has launched a project to subsidize the translation and publications of 1,000 books a year into Arabic.
The Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture and Heritage has launched a parallel project, called Kalima, to subsidize the translation and publication of Arab works into other languages.
Such state-backed ventures are probably essential at this early stage, but if the increased literary opening is to endure it will need the support of the private sector and of independent publishers, which means it will have to become financially viable.
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Here’s a tantalizing little piece from Khaleej Times. King Abdullah University of Science & Technology (KAUST) is entering a collaborative effort with the US Library of Congress (LOC)to digitize materials pertaining to the ‘Arab and Muslim scientific heritage’. That sounds very interesting, but the story doesn’t describe just what those materials might be. Neither the Library of Congress nor the KAUST websites have any information on this project, at present.
Move to digitise Arab and Muslim scientific heritage records
Habib ShaikhEDDAH — A project to digitise Arab and Muslim scientific heritage records is to be carried out jointly by the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (Kaust) and the US Library of Congress, according to the Saudi Press Agency (SPA).
Quoting a Kaust statement on Sunday, SPA explained that the aim is to document the heritage in the World Digital Library. “The cooperation with the Kaust will enable us to get the help of leading scientists, librarians and museum curators in the Muslim world, Europe and the United States to develop this important content in the World Digital Library,†said James Billington, librarian at the US Library of Congress.
Over on my Books page, I’ve a review on Hugh Kennedy’s The Great Arab Conquests: How the Spread of Islam Changed the World We Live in. It’s a book I strongly recommend for those interested in how, over a period of barely 100 years, Islam spread from the Hijaz of Saudi Arabia to become the dominant political force in an area larger than the classical Roman Empire.
Kennedy deals systematically with each of the regions being conquered, discussing the pre-existing political climate, the demographic facts—including a major plague—, and the various vested interests that worked for and against the forces that did indeed change our world.
Perhaps even more interesting than the story of the conquests is Kennedy’s commentary on the problems (and solutions) of dealing with difficult source materials. He does an able job, in my opinion, of sorting out the conflicting, contradictory, biased, and self-serving histories (Islamic, Byzantine, Persian, and other) to find basic truths.
This piece from Saudi Gazette takes a look at how Saudis communicate, effectively and otherwise. It strikes me as pretty much on target. Of particular note is that Saudis are learning new techniques, some brought on by the program of ‘National Dialogues’ initiated by then-Crown Prince Abdullah, and starting to listen to other voices rather than simply raising their own.
Arabs are classified as multi-active in their communication style by many cross-cultural gurus. This means that Arabs in general and Saudis in particular tend to be unpunctual, people oriented, seek favors, place importance on completing human transactions, flexible, extrovert, inquisitive, gregarious, very emotional, use unrestricted body language to get their point across, and talkative.
Through studying and researching the Saudi communication styles, I have been able to prove many such hypotheses made by American or British cross-cultural experts.
But what was very interesting for me was to sit and talk to a Saudi trainer in communication and discover that she herself came to some of the same conclusions on Saudis’ communication style just by observing her students.
Fatima Al-Otaibi, the head communication trainer at the National Dialogue, said that interrupting, and stubbornly defending their ideas without considering what the other has to say were the most common problems Saudis face in general while communicating with others.
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Saudi Gazette reports on efforts to educate Saudis about domestic violence. This starts, the piece says, with trying to find a definition of just what domestic violence is. The article credits Rania Al-Baz, a Saudi news presenter who went public after being brutally beaten by her husband in 2004, with offering the first opening into an ugly picture.
The article notes that some seem to find justification for this violence in the Quran, but is highly skeptical about that argument.
Domestic violence no longer a social taboo
Sabah Abdul HadiDAMMAM – Thanks to women who had the courage to openly discuss their anguish because of violence against them, domestic violence is no longer a taboo in Saudi Arabia.
Officials of the Ministry of Social Affairs and the National Society of Human Rights (NSHR) say that more women in Saudi Arabia are willing to blow the violence that goes on behind closed doors wide open and raise their voices in protest.
They said it is a new beginning to end the cycle of violence that plagues many homes and scars families, and especially children.Coming out
“There are more women and children who report cases of violence against them now than before,†said Dr. Saleh Al- Khathlan, head of the Monitoring and Follow-up Committee at the NSHR. “It is a positive change which means that more women are standing up and saying no to aggressive behavior (within their families.)â€
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In a separate article, Princess launches campaign against domestic violence, the paper also reports that Princess Hissah Bint Salman Bin Abdul Aziz, a member of the Saudi Human Rights Association, called for legislation that protects victims of domestic violence and punishes the perpetrators.
