And the winner is: Fear
The Italian elections held in April have returned the centre-right government to power. Silvio Berlusconi is once again Prime Minister, leading a coalition that is even more right-wing than the previous one. The Northern League, gambling on people’s fear of foreigners, managed to address a widespread need for social and economic security, and will now play a pivotal role in the government. What are the real reasons for this party’s success? Relations between Rome and Arab capitals are destined to be overturned. In what sense will Italy’s foreign policy change?
MIDDLE EAST
The Saudi Enigma
Although it is still impossible to build a Christian church in Saudi Arabia, King Abdullah has intensified interreligious dialogue with Pope Benedict XVI. The debate addressing women’s right to drive has recommenced, however, the “religious police”, the Mutawwa, continues to rule. Conflicting news from a mysterious kingdom safeguarding Islam’s holy places, but one that is certainly not considered a model by the Muslim world. Riyadh is still a key ally for the USA, not only for its oil but above all due to the anti-Iranian role it plays in this region, and this is one of the reasons for which, while the world fights for Tibet, for some time now silence has fallen as far as human rights in Saudi Arabia are concerned.
UNITED STATES
Who would be better for the World?
Barack Obama has a multicultural and international background. His father is Kenyan, he has lived in Indonesia and his family is spread out over three continents, as far as China. On the other hand, former First Lady Hillary Clinton has more experience in foreign policy issues, although only indirectly. The world cannot vote for either of them, but it is closely watching the race between the two Democrat candidates to the White House. And it wants to know who has more chance of resolving the Israel-Palestine conflict? Who would be better at handling the crisis in Iraq and the difficult relations with Iran?
PEACE NOW
“Iran is not the devil. It’s just a 'crazy country' like Israel”
“War? The most stupid activity of human being. It made me old at the age of 21” says Israeli journalist Yigal Sarna reporting, with a dose of irony and pessimism, an endless conflict. Born in Tel Aviv in 1952, Yigal Sarna is one of the most renowned reporters of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which he has covered for almost 24 years. He’s actually reporter and also member of the editorial board of Yedioth Aharonot, Israeli’s largest daily newspaper. Co-founder of the “Peace Now movement”, he is also a successful writer and novelist. After having served as a tank commander in the Yom Kippur War in 1973, deeply touched by the experience of the war, Yigal Sarna decided to create with other ex-soldiers “Peace Now”, the largest extra-parliamentary movement in Israel.
ISLAM AND CATHOLICISM
Rage and Pride: The Conversion of Magdi Allam
Baptised by Pope Benedict XVI himself during the Easter Vigil and at St Peters, the conversion of Magdi Allam has created a stir, but it’s the ‘spectacular’ approach of the conversion from Islam to Catholicism rather than the conversion itself which has aroused debate. Voices of protest are heard from the Arab and Muslim world, which view this episode as another provocation towards Islam, a bit like the Pope’s well-known speech in Regensburg. The Vatican has kept its distance, stating “they are his beliefs, not ours”. For the disputed controversialist and deputy editor of Corriere della Sera, it is the end result of a turbulent journey. The debate is open: how will the public role of Magdi Christian Allam change? Can Corriere della Sera, the most prestigious daily newspaper in the country, leave the Islamic question in the hands of an enraged convert?
REPLY TO ARATO
Against Integral Cosmopolitanism
I delayed responding to Andy Arato in the hope that Tariq Ramadan and Tariq Ali might clarify some issues by demanding a boycott of the Olympics to protest the killings in Tibet, a poor land occupied brutally since 1951. Alas, I cannot report that Ramadan has called on members of the Arab League or Iran to act against Beijing, which is also a chief patron of Sudan’s genocidal government. Ali does not seem to be urging intellectuals to action on China comparable to his (and Ramadan’s) campaign to deny Israel honors at European book fairs. Perhaps sport must just go on, as did the Olympics in 1972 after the Israeli team was massacred.
MEDIA
Blogging in Egypt
With the increasing importance of citizen journalism on the Internet, which has burgeoned since blogging started to gain popularity in 2003, the new media are not only impacting mainstream journalism but the political process itself. Last year the World Bank reported that Egypt, with more than 4 million Internet users, had the highest rate of Internet access among non-oil Arab states. But having expanded access, Mubarak is now trying to reassert state authority over cyberspace by expanding the state security service into the virtual public arena. The more promising hope of the Internet for citizens in their quest for political reform lies in the potential for blogs to galvanize, inspire and organize.
ELECTIONS
No country for immigrants
In the Democratic Party primaries, immigrants took part en masse, but Walter Veltroni’s party has not even proposed one as a candidate for the forthcoming national elections on 13th April. On the contrary, he has excluded the only outgoing representative, Khaled Fouad Allam, from the list. The centre-right chose Souad Sbai, although she risks not being elected. Italians abroad who are not living in Italy can vote, whilst the children of immigrants, who support the Italian national football team, speak local dialects and have possibly always lived here, cannot vote. Why do Italian politics dismiss immigrants? Because they don't vote? Because politicians think that they make them lose votes?
A REPLY TO MITCHELL COHEN
“Supporters of Israel often come close to the most obvious ethnocentrism”
As far as I now see it the 1967 War was an aggressive Israeli war. But the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank in 1948, and its subsequent Israeli quasi annexation in 1967 are illegal irrespective whoever attacked first. What about the Arab citizens of Israel? Will Cohen follow Lieberman and those who propose forcible transfer, loss of citizenship, and thus a soft form of ethnic cleansing? Unfortunately supporters of Israel often come close to the most obvious ethnocentrism, that is so at variance with the Jewish tradition since the 18th century.
LETTERS
"Dear Andy Arato, you miss the point"
Tariq Ramadan is quick and unequivocal when it comes to a call to boycott Israel at book fairs, but needs a moratorium to initiate a process of deliberation about religious justification of stoning women. The real philosophical dispute between Arato, whose work I respect highly, and myself concerns his definition of a state as “a people, a territory and coercive organization.” I disagree. States exist in history and not just by definition or in law books. Arato objects to Israel’s “Law of Return.” He must also object, I suppose, to affirmative action programs for Blacks or women in the US (or for poor Muslim immigrants in Europe) because they use the same logic.
DEBATES
What is that on your Head? Turkey’s new Legislation Concerning the “Headscarf”
The rift that I saw one afternoon within an educated, affluent Istanbul family is running through the hearts and minds of millions of Turkey’s citizens in the aftermath of the Parliament’s resolution on February 10, 2008 to abolish strictures on the wearing of the headscarf in institutions of higher learning. I support removing the headscarf ban, as I would support reforming Article 301 (prohibiting “insulting Turkishness”), and I believe that the legislative package which the AKP has put forth so far carries within itself the potential for many progressive “democratic iterations” in Turkish society, whose reach will go beyond the ban on the scarf alone.
BOOKS
Multiculturalism, Politics and Conflicting Values
“That Moroccan family next door was back home again. They steal bikes like a magpie. And there sits this monkey, this little Moroccan”. This is one of the phrases gathered up by Paul M. Sniderman and Louk Hagendoorn for their informative and scientific investigation, the central theme in their latest book, When Ways of Life Collide (Princeton University Press 2007, 176 pages), which discusses the state of Muslim integration in Holland. Despite two main drawbacks (research was carried out prior to 11 September; and it confronts a theme written at the same time as bestsellers such as Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma, albeit with a very different approach), it’s a piece of work which is able to provide an analysis and an in-depth reflection on the limitations of multicultural society.
DEBATES
Boycotting Israel? Surely not
Various Communist politicians and Muslim intellectuals have called upon people to boycott the Book Fair in Turin, “guilty” of asking Israel to be its guest of honour. This has sparked off a heated debate in Italy, where the reasons of those against the boycott have come across as much more balanced and sound (one cannot compare the Israeli government with its writers, and the authors invited, such as Oz and Yehoshua, are men of peace and dialogue). Someone however (who really could not wait) has seized the occasion to expose some anti-semitism and "Islamic fascism" in someone who in reality only reacted due to political reasons, such as Tariq Ramadan.
26 FEBRUARY 2008
Global Media, Reset Doc International Conference in Doha
From mass-media and satellite TV to the spread of blogging, from vertical to horizontal communication. Reset Doc, in cooperation with the Center for International and Regional Studies (Georgetown University), will host an International conference addressing the issue of how TV and other media shape the mutual (in)comprehensions between peoples belonging to different cultures and faiths.
ELECTIONS
“For Russia, Islam is no longer a threat”
The situation is calm, so far from the one Moscow had in the Nineties. The second Chechen war is over and Vladimir Putin, the outgoing president of Russia, no longer has to deal with Islam as a threat, nor does his dolphin Dimitri Medvedev. “Today the Muslim community in Russia has good relations with the central state”, says Alexey Malashenko from Carnegie Endowment for Peace. Malashenko is an appreciated expert of Islamic issues in Russia and has written several books and essays on the topic.
LETTERS FROM OUR READERS
An e-mail on “Orianism”
Giancarlo Bosetti is right in saying that "Orianism" is just a form of racism and is found in all groups of society, intellectual and illiterate - Patricia Wilson, one of our readers, writes - If one takes each of the attacks separately, each was done for a different reason by a person or persons from a different ethnicity. Time and skin color are the least important qualities.
DEBATES
The Oriana Phenomenon, a sociological perspective
One year after her death, an exhibition dedicated to Oriana Fallaci has met with the usual success with audiences in New York, Milan and Rome. And once again it resulted in moved memories expressed by the media (most of all Rizzoli and Mediaset). Two sociologist, one French and the other Italian, once again ask themselves why Italians love Oriana Fallaci and her Lepenist school of thought so much. Are they racists? Her success in Italy and abroad reveals interesting information not only about those who love her last books, but also about our societies. This is the thesis embraced by Giancarlo Bosetti, Reset’s editor in chief, who has written a book about Fallaci, about “orianism” and thinking-in-terms-of-the-enemy.
MEDIA
The Al Jazeera revolution
“We lay down the revolution”. In this interview, Faisal Al-Kasim, a well-known face of Al Jazeera and manager of the much discussed programme, “The Opposite Direction”,tells Resetdoc the philosophy of television in Qatar (“We were the first to deal with such delicate issues, politics culture and religion”), defends himself from the critics and attacks Western media: “I don’t think they are doing their job. The Western media are directed by political and commercial interests, and many Arab people think that Western media are manipulated by an Israeli lobby. We are sending many journalists and correspondents to Europe to give us a fair impression of the situation in the West and I think you should do the same”.
MEDIA
“Islamic and yet modern television”
“So many people are spreading hate and fighting, that we feel we should spread peace and love by means of the true message of Islam. We only represent moderate and modern Islam”. Tareq Al-Suwaidan, producer of a new religious channel in Kuwait (Al-Risala), tells us about the goals of their television programme: “We show that being Muslim also means appreciating beauty, as Muslims we can enjoy ourselves, live in peace and love everyone – says Al-Suwaidan, Kuwaiti businessman who lived in the United States for 17 years. Thanks to new forms of media, freedom of expression has taken a huge step forward in comparison to twenty years ago. I truly believe that in 20 years the Arab world will be very different, more modern, and able to compete with the leaders of the world”.
DEBATES
Cairo-New York. A dialogue on democracy
What does 'democracy' mean for you? Reset posed the question to two prominent intellectuals – one belonging to the Western tradition and one from the Arabic tradition. The result is the dialogue published below, which takes its starting point from a text written for Resetdoc by Carlo Galli. Andrew Arato, the editor of Constellations and professor of Political Theory at New York's New School, does nothing to mask the limits of current Western liberal democracies, but states that democracy represents “the only response the the profound crisis of the Arab world.” The response of Hassan Hanafi, professor of philosophy at the University of Cairo, is caustic: "Democracy is a means, not an end, and liberal democracy is not the magic key that opens all the secrets of the world."
ARAB WORLD
Islamism and human rights: an impossible dialogue?
The possibility of an effective process of assimilation of human rights in the Arab world is dependent on an inclusive dialogic process reflecting the pluralism of this context. Despite the common belief that Islamism is hostile to human rights, its rise has been accompanied by the development of a literature and a set of documents that embrace the language of human rights and project it onto the Islamist political ideal. In order to frame this issue in a more familiar way, we may consider Islamism as a kind of communitarianism that recognizes the legitimacy of social institutions (human rights included) conditionally to their foundation on the constitutive values of the community of membership. Islamism has had a relevant role in the affirmation of an Islamist way to human rights.
DEBATES
Islam and the Left. Dialogue or cold war?
What stance should the left adopt with regard to Islam and a multicultural society? Dialogue or cold war? In an article published in the magazine Reset, Nadia Urbinati of Columbia University initiated a long discussion with the Princeton philosopher Michael Walzer, editor of Dissent. Urbinati evoked post-war categories, internal criticism from Eastern dissidents, and the rejection of 'block thinking'. Walzer adopted a more sceptical stance on dialogue, saying that criticism of extremists must come from within their own ranks. It is a crucial issue for today's world, on which the philosopher Charles Taylor has also shared his views.
MIDDLE EAST
More yawns than hopes
Even symbols have a certain importance. This is why the Annapolis handshake between Abbas and Olmert can bring hope with the new talks between Israelis and Palestinians. But an agreement is still far away and two very serious conundrums are weighing down on the future of the region. Hamas, locked away in the prison that is Gaza, still does not want to recognize Israel. Meanwhile, Iran feels more and more surrounded, following the Syrian and Saudi participation in the conference. The Annapolis summit, which was lived out with more enthusiasm in Washington than in the Middle East, will be the umpteenth false start, a film which has already been seen? Or, despite the general skepticism, will represent the beginning of a new road to peace?
BOOKS
Reading Legitimation Crisis in Iran
"Liberalism" in the context of contemporary Iran is quite revolutionary. The quest for human rights, women's rights, civil liberties, pluralism, religious toleration, freedom of expression and multi-party democracy, are indeed nothing but a radical attempt to bring about liberation to majority of Iranians who have been in bondage to various forms of tyranny for centuries. The progressive forces, the NGO's and intellectuals can do much more that just opposing a war in Iran; they can and should actively get involved in supporting the reforms in Iran. Danny Postel's plea in this direction – in his last book Reading Legitimation Crisis in Iran (Prickly Paradigm Press) – is quite helpful and persuasive.
EUROPE
Kosovo, time to decide
The parliamentary elections on the 17th November saw victory for those in favour of secession from Serbia. It is likely that with effect from the 10th December Kosovo will unilaterally declare its independence. What will the consequences of this decision be for the region? The Kosovars see no other alternative. Serbia considers independence to be inadmissible, and has the support of Russia. The international community is divided. And so is Europe, which urges caution but risks proving itself once again to be impotent in the face of crisis in the Balkans. Yet now more than ever there would seem to be a need for an inequivocal stance.
ROMA AND ROMANIANS
“Integration is not achieved with diggers”
“Of course security is a problem, and it needs a well thought out response. But it makes me shudder when I see the virile exultation of bulldozers razing camps to the ground. It makes me think of Marchais driving his caterpillar lorry to demolish the small dwellings on the outskirts of Paris”. Andrea Riccardi, President of the Community of Sant'Egidio, has always been in close contact with immigration and diversity. His experience has taught him that “with correct integration policies foreign nationals can be integrated well, and without difficulty.” Which is why, in the wake of recent news events concerning Romanian nationals, he calls for the identification and punishing of individuals, not groups. And puts forwards an original proposal – to strengthen the presence of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Italy.