الديمقراطية مقابل الإشراك

عن مدونة أمارجي

أصبحت الديمقراطية بعد أحداث الحادي عشر من أيلول شعاراً دأب على ترديده العديد من المسؤولين والمعلّقين الأمريكيين، بدءاً بالرئيس ذاته، واستخدم كنوع من السلاح السحري الذي يمكن أن يساعد على تحقيق تقدم ملموس في الحرب العالمية على الإرهاب. ولقد اختزلت الديمقراطية أثناء هذه العملية إلى جانب واحد، وتحديداً الانتخابات، التي أعطت، في أغلب الأحيان، نتائج غير مرغوبة، بتمكينها للممثلين غير الديمقراطيين أصلاً، وبالتالي أدت إلى تعقيد سعي الإدارة إلى انفتاح سياسي وإصلاحات أكبر في المنطقة. Continue reading “الديمقراطية مقابل الإشراك” →

A Heretical Release!

A press release issued by the Reform Party of Syria on October 18, 2006 claims that Ammar Abdulhamid, a Nonresident Fellow at Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, will be opening an office in Washington DC on behalf of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and/or the National Salvation Front (NSF). This is false.

Mr. Abdulhamid is not a member of the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and has never been. He is not opening and will not be opening an office for the Syrian Muslim Brotherhood and/or the NSF in Washington DC. Mr. Abdulhamid is a founding liberal member of the NSF, a broad-based pragmatic coalition of Syrian opposition groups and independent liberal activists. Continue reading “A Heretical Release!” →

Surreal Heresies!

My take on Syrian politics have often been compared to neocon stands, and I have been often accused both in private and in the comment section of this blog of advocating war against the Syrian regime. This is recent response to a private criticism that echoed the above themes: Continue reading “Surreal Heresies!” →

A Few Heresies in Honor of the Ramadan Season!

Ramadan. The most hedonistic time of the Muslim year. So, hedonistic, in fact, it might as well be called the Muslim Christmas or Hanukah. Indeed, human nature, when given the chance, tends to bastardize all rituals and observances meant to celebrate our loftier desires and yearnings. So be it. I really don’t have much problem with this particular human contradiction. I much rather the heterogeneity of individualized bastardization than the homogeneity of collective ritualistic observance.

Continue reading “A Few Heresies in Honor of the Ramadan Season!” →