The groundwork for Egypt and Tunisia’s days of rage took years. In isolated Syria, there is much grassroots work to be done.
Ammar Abdulhamid, guardian.co.uk, Monday 7 February 2011 11.00 GMT.
A “day of rage” called for by Syrian opposition members living abroad and scheduled for last Friday and Saturday came and went: the only mass presence detected on the streets of major cities in Syria was that of security forces. Continue reading “Syria is not ready for an uprising”
One manifestation of the troubled state of current identity politics within Muslim communities is evident in the way some elements are targeting the region’s Christian communities. While Al-Qaeda style violence might the new development in this regard, the trend itself is not that new. Continue reading “The Future of the Christian Communities in the Muslim World”
First posted on my short-lived blog Tharwalizations.
Indeed, and as this article by Lee Smith illustrates, we need to focus on the real issues in our beleaguered part of the world, namely: the problems and challenges posed by our intricate ethnic and religious diversity and the enduing communal modes of belonging and organization in our midst. The potential for violence posed by our continuing neglect to seriously address these issues is rising by the day as more and more radical forces rush to fill in the vacuum left by the reticence of the moderates. The chances for peacebuilding development and enlightenment are practically non-existing in this climate and this could only spell disaster sooner than we’d like to think.
The Ammar Abdulhamid Archive 