...Or Does It Explode?

As-Sahifa Bans Itself

The View from Fez blog has the remarkable - remarkably sad - story. Self-censorship for Moroccan journalists is back in a big way for 2007.

Where Rosa Parks Sat

Care of the National Archives in Washington comes this diagram of where Rosa Parks sat on the bus in Montgomery, Alabama one day in 1955. If you look closely, her seat was not at the very front of the bus. But it was far enough. And that made all the difference.

Monday Monday: Misirlou, the Egyptian Muslim Girl Who Inspired Pulp Fiction

Ok, well, sorta. The story goes way back, but it starts with the iconic surf rock song that defined cool in the movie Pulp Fiction: Dick Dale's cover of "Misirlou." Dale, who was part Lebanese, picked up on an old melody and song that had been floating around the Mediterranean for years. And it turns out, at least according to Wikipedia, that the inspiration of the song was some anonymous Egyptian Muslim girl:

The song was first performed by the Michalis Patrinos rebetiko band in Athens, Greece in 1927. As with almost all early rebetika songs (a style that originated with the Greek refugees from Asia Minor), the song's actual composer was never identified, and its ownership rested with the band leader...

The Greek word Misirlou refers specifically to a Muslim Egyptian woman (as opposed to a Christian Egyptiotissa); thus this song refers to a cross-faith, cross-race, relationship, a risqué subject at its time...

[Translated lyrics from the original Greek]

My Misirlou (Egyptian girl), your sweet glance
It's lit a fire in my heart
Ah, ya habibi, Ah, ya haleli, ah
(Arabic: Oh, my love, Oh, my night)
Your lips are dripping honey, ah

Ah, Misirlou, magical, exotic beauty
I'll go crazy, I can't take any more
Ah, I'll take you away from the African land

My crazed, dark-eyed Misirlou
My life changes with one kiss
Ah, ya habibi, one little kiss, ah
From your sweet little lips, ah

So the Misirlou is the unattainable Egyptian Muslim girl the smitten Greek Christian singer cannot hav, for it is illegal under Egyptian law for a Muslim woman to marry a Christian man (though, tellingly,  Muslim men can marry whomever they choose). To fall for the Egyptian beauty is to slip into the trap of a kind of "miscegenation" that her society will legally and culturally not tolerate. This is the Mediterranean's great forbidden romance, and it inspired quite a song.

As a bonus, here's rare footage of Dick Dale performing the song (note the lefty guitar work and the use of just one string to play each melody line - and try to overlook the zombie backing band and hyper-dancing blonde - it was the 1950s!) in the film "A Swinging Affair":

Download Articles, Face Seven Years in Jail

A few months back we posted about the case of two young Bahrainis arrested for possessing printed materials about boycotting elections in Bahrain. They now face seven years in the slammer:

On November 16, 2006, Dr M. Al Sahlawi (Dentist, age 35) and Mr. H. Al Hebshi (Insurance sales executive, age 32) were arrested by Bahraini authorities after being found in possession of a publication deemed by the authorities to be "subversive literature". This publication, downloaded from the Internet, called on Bahrainis to boycott the parliamentary elections held in November 2006.

Dr. Al Sahlawi and Mr. Al Hebshi had arranged for 1500 copies of the publication to be made and they intended to share it with others. Their expression of support for the ideas contained in the publication was deemed by the Bahraini Public Prosecution to be "favouring and promoting regime change by illegal means, without legitimate reason" and "spreading news and false provocative rumors, which would cause disruptions of public security and damage general interest"...

The two detainees have been in solitary confinement, after spending a few weeks in custody with indicted criminals and drug addicts. Their families have suffered greatly, both economically and psychologically, during the two months of detention so far.

The verdict will come down on Wednesday. In the meantime, here's a petition you can sign on their behalf.

Christian Exodus?

Der Spiegel recently weighed in on the plight Christians in the Middle East. The article is titled "Fighting for Survival," but it doesn't sound like a pretty aggressive fight. More like a quiet attempt to hold on to what can be held onto, at least for now. Here are some excerpts:

The five young men traveling in Ali's red Kia were the last seminary students at the Chaldean Catholic Babel College to leave Baghdad. Four priests have been abducted since mid-August, and two others were murdered. Father Sami, the director of the seminary, was kidnapped in early December. The community managed to raise $75,000 to buy his freedom, but after hesitating for weeks, Emmanuel III, the Chaldean patriarch, decided to withdraw the teaching institutions of his community from Baghdad. He ordered the evacuation of the city's four Catholic churches, the Hurmis monastery and the college in the city's Dura neighborhood...

When Napoleon's troops advanced into the Nile delta in 1798 and occupied Egypt, they noticed strange customs. Coptic women were required to wear one blue and one red shoe. The men were permitted to ride on horseback, but only facing backwards. The French quickly realized that the Copts were subjects "de troisième classe" -- third-class citizens. Some continue to feel that way today.

When Christians apply for an identification card in Egypt, they are occasionally registered as Muslims -- without their knowledge. Once the record is official, it can take up to a dozen visits to the relevant government agency to amend the entry...

The patriarch's voice is melancholy as he discusses the consequences of political upheaval, especially the growing numbers of Christians now leaving Lebanon. According to Maronite church leaders, more than 730,000 emigrated during the Lebanese civil war from 1975 to 1990, with another 100,000 abandoning the country this past summer.

According to Sfeir, other Christian denominations, including the Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic and Armenian Christian communities are also dwindling, leading to a decline in Christian political influence in Lebanon. "It is unlikely," says Sfeir, "but if Hezbollah were to assume power one day, the Christians in this country would emigrate in even greater numbers."

Much of this will be familiar to most readers. One unusual item, though, is a report of a new Christian militia forming in Iraq:

Units of the 750-member Hamdaniyah Brigade -- a Christian militia that defends its churches with the same tactics Sunni and Shiite militias use in central Iraq to defend their mosques -- are already patrolling the streets of Bartalla, a fast-growing Christian settlement 20 kilometers (12 miles) east of Mosul, the violence-ridden provincial capital. Bearded men wielding Kalashnikovs stand guard at a barrier in front of the town's Syrian Orthodox Church of the Virgin Mary. Photography is strictly forbidden.

"What else can we do?" asks Ghanem Gorges, the 43-year-old mayor of Karamlis, a Chaldean village a few kilometers south of Bartalla. Armed men, presumably mujahedeen from nearby Mosul, forced their way into the village four times this fall. Two weeks ago they kidnapped and murdered Shakib Paulus, a 25-year-old crane operator, whose body was found on the street in Arbil a few days later.

Anyone wishing to attend services at St. Peter's Cathedral in Arbil must first pass a guard carrying an automatic pistol. A huge new building, to be used as a dormitory for the Babel College students who fled Baghdad, was dedicated at Christmas on the cathedral grounds, which are surrounded by a tall fence.

Check out the whole article.

Foto Friday: A Man of Many Faces

Whose job is it in the Syrian government to print and distribute these photos? Is there some lowly student intern in the Ministry of Information they send down to Kinko's each week to run off a few hundred glossy posters of Bashar and then plaster them up around town?

Spanish Minister in Sexism Show-down at Saudi School

Enjoy the excessive alliteration in this post's title, but do also note that the minister in question is not a religious figure, but rather Spain's justice minister. No Spanish ministers (of the clergy) get to do much of anything in Saudi. Still, despite the ban on any public religious practice for the millions of Christians in Arabia, European (and other) leaders continue to make the diplomatic pilgrimage to this Mecca of crude oil.

But Justice Minister Fernando Lopez Aguilar has taken a small stand for basic civil rights. Apparently, he showed up at the Imam Muhammad bin Saud Islamic University in Riyadh to lecture on international terrorism  (we assume on how to stop it, not how to advance it), and the school officials would not allow female Spanish reporters accompanying him into the university.

Amazingly, the ban came even though the women showed up totally "in costume" - in other words, robing themselves to fit the official mores of Saudi's religious police: "The women... had arrived at the university dressed in black from head to foot and wearing black headscarves, the dress they had been advised by the Spanish embassy to use during the two-day visit to Saudi Arabia."

As one news source reports: "The university said it was an exclusively masculine institution  and that there was no precedent for the presence of women. Spanish government sources said the minister could not participate in a discriminatory act and sent a copy of his lecture instead."

Well, good on you, mate! It would be nice to see more principled stands like this. Might actually send a message...

Love the Shades

Mubs and Qaddafs walk the red carpet yesterday outside Tripoli (in Libya, not Lebanon). What do these guys manage to talk about at all their summits? Maybe they just compare the latest trends in dictatorial sunglasses.

What a Difference Two Years Make

The blues from yesterday's Blue Monday haven't entirely dissipated. But it is worth noting that - contrary to point #3 in yesterday's post - Hezbollah & Co., Inc. appear to have abandoned non-violence, at least partially. And thus we have the remarkable photos from the streets today in Lebanon.

The title of today's post is a reference to the contrast between the protest rally during March of 2005 and those of January 2007. We offer below a montage of photos. Do your best to guess which are two years old and which are only a few hours old. And then do your best to figure out when Lebanon might return to its finer form - and re-energize the Middle East civil rights movement as it did two years ago.

Reasons to Get into the Spirit of "Blue Monday"

British psychologists call today "Blue Monday" and the "gloomiest day of the year." Apparently the factors behind today being the ultimate in doldrums include unpaid holiday bills, bad weather, and failed resolutions. But here are few other developments - e.g., civil rights setbacks - to help get you down:

1. Victims of civil rights abuses are routinely getting punished, from Egyptians tortured by police (convicted of obstructing justice) to Saudi victims of gang rape (lashed for morals violations).
2. Speaking of blaming the victim, Abdelkareem Soliman, the outspoken Alexandria blogger from Alexandria, goes on trial later this week after being detained for two months. He faces 9 years in the slammer. The implications for blogging in Egypt are many, none of them good.
3. The only civic group that appears to be mastering the art of street demonstrations is Hezbollah.
4. The annual freedom index just released by Freedom House reports no substantial increase in civil liberties in Middle Eastern countries. Nearly 2/3 of the region is classified in the direst category: "Not Free."
5. Muammar Qaddafi is not only enjoying his 37th year in power, but is erecting a memorial statue to Saddam Hussein.

Happy Blue Monday!