Some good news for girls

Egypt has finally moved to completely ban female circumcision – a truly abominable practice that unfortunately remains far too widespread in Saharan Africa, and is present in certain parts of the Arab world as well.

Better late than never, truly.

It’s worth spending a few minutes to check out this article on women debating the practice in Mali.

Or, take heart in the categorical rejection of female circumcision by this scholar from Egypt’s Al-Azhar University. (That is, the first one – not the one who reminds us of the “curse of the clit woman”!)

Better yet, check out this clip of a debate, between two Egyptian scholars, on a Kuwaiti talk show in 2006.

Here are some highlights:

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: A girl phoned me once - A woman called me - there is no shame in asking questions about religion... A girl called me and said: When I take the Metro, wearing tight jeans... The Metro in Egypt jolts about like this... She said: I get really aroused. What should I do?

...I asked a doctor, I'm telling you what happened... I asked a doctor, who told me this girl's clitoris was very high, and that a small part of it must be cut off.

We must take all girls to a Muslim doctor who specializes in this, who will determine whether she needs a khifadh circumcision or not. If a girl needs a khifadh, we should perform it, and if a girl does not need it, we should not.

Am I supposed to deny one of the rites of Islam and the laws of Allah?

Interviewer: Is the girl asked whether she wants to be circumcised or not?

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: No. We ask the doctor, who makes the decision.

Interviewer: So what about the girl's opinion?

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: What do you mean?

Interviewer: What if she says: I don't want to be circumcised. What happens then?

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: If a girl says she doesn't want it, she's free. No problem.

Interviewer: Is this what happens in reality?

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: I have no relation to reality. I am talking about how things should be.

Interviewer: You are a religious sheik, from Al-Azahar University. You cannot say you have no relation to reality.

Dr. Muhammad Wahdan: Reality is a mistake, we must rectify it.

…Well, on that point, we agree. Reality is a mistake, we must rectify it. Hopefully, this latest move by the Egyptian government will rectify the prevailing reality.

If the queen had, er, a beard, she’d be the pharaoh

We can now report that Queen Hatshepsut really was Queen Hatshepsut. Egyptian antiquities officials have positively identified the mummy of the rare female pharaoh, thanks to the modern miracle of DNA testing.

Hatshepsut ruled Egypt for a span of 22 years in the middle of the 15th century BC. Besides being incredibly fat, she is said to have dressed like a man and worn a fake beard.

Apparently, this made her even less attractive than Michael Moore.

In 1903, Hatshepsut’s mummy was discovered in the Valley of the Kings, on the west bank of the Nile, and has been kept there ever since.

Then, in March of this year, the body was brought to the Cairo Museum, where DNA samples taken from the mummy were matched against those of the queen's equally withered grandma.

The results: excited Egyptologists everywhere tossing their pith helmets in the air.

This post was approved by the censor

Apropos of Thursday's post on the intimidation and oppression of journalists, rights activists, etc. throughout the Middle East, the New York Times has a story on the desperate measures that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's regime is taking to prevent Iranian media from discussing anything that might embarass the little bugger.

Not only can newspapers not discuss the possibility of further international sanctions on Iran, but they may not even report the fact that gasoline prices have risen.

Of course, even the most enlightened and open governments engage in spin doctoring, and in trying to manipulate the media to present news in a light that favors the administration. But when an administration is so fragile that it must terrorize the media into refraining from publicizing facts(!), well, that administration is not long for this world.

On the bright side, this is a fine time to recall the exceedingly laughable "reports" of Mohammed Saeed al-Sahaf, the Iraqi information minister in 2003 who regaled the world with tales of American troops who were "committing suicide by the hundreds on the gates of Baghdad..."

Whenever you need to blow off some steam, just read through some of Baghdad Bob's best one-liners at this homage site.

...It was hilarious to hear him say things like, "The Cruise missiles do not frighten anyone. We are catching them like fish in a river." But, as a British reporter pointed out, al-Sahaf's statements about sucking Western troops into a swamp don't sound so ridiculous anymore. Maybe the buffoon was clairvoyant?

Hamas “didn’t expect to win”

For confirmation of our assertion that Fatah collapsed in the Gaza Strip, check out Khaled Abu Toameh’s article in today’s Jerusalem Post. Abu Toameh quotes a Hamas official describing the movement’s swift capture of the entire strip as shocking even to themselves.

There is some spin from the official about the validity of the Palestinian security forces in their Fatah-dominated makeup… and he also points out that Fatah’s fighters were demoralized by the fact that their leaders had fled the area, leaving them totally adrift...

Even so, you would expect people to fight if they had been inculcated with a defensive spirit. That Fatah lacked this spirit became glaringly obvious during the confrontations with Hamas.

As the official in the Jerusalem Post story says:

“It was not a matter of a military victory for Hamas as much as it was a psychological defeat for Fatah.”

The groundwork for that psychological defeat was laid well before the Hamas uprising…

Watch your mouth!

You don’t have to carry a rifle or an explosives belt to be a threat to the government these days. Throughout the Middle East, it is enough to merely speak your mind.

In recent weeks, Morocco has rounded up left-wingers and rights activists for ostensibly “insulting sacred doctrines.”

Tunisia, meanwhile, has locked up an Islamist journalist; harassed the leader of a journalist’s union; and shut down a magazine for publishing common Tunisians’ jokes about religion, sex and politics.

In Syria, where arresting “dissidents” is something of a sport for the government, an anti-Baathist journalist was recently sentenced to three years in jail.

Iran’s treatment of former Revolutionary Guard turned anti-government snitch and pro-democracy activist Akbar Ganji is but the most prominent example of a widespread practice.

Ditto for Egypt, Saudi Arabia, etc.

It should come as no surprise, then, that the Muslim countries routinely occupy some of the lowest spots in the Reporters Without Frontiers annual rankings of press freedom, or that protests against censorship through intimidation and violence have come from such groups as the Arab Press Network and Arab Press Freedom Watch.

Interestingly, the press freedom index closely resembles the economic freedom index.

In fact, both closely resemble the broad series of indicators in the UN's Human Development Report. More freedom, apparently, really does mean a better life.

The Crusaders of Gaza

Apparently, the Huda Army does not read The Christian Post.

On Saturday, the newspaper published a ridiculously optimistic forecast of interfaith relations in the Gaza Strip:

Hamas-Christian Friendship Gives Hope for Believers' Safety in Gaza

While looting, sporadic violence, and instability still plague the newly Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, a Christian persecution group [sic] hopes that a long-established friendship between it and Hamas will keep the small Christian community relatively safe from targeted attacks.

Open Doors, an international ministry working with persecuted Christians, said although it fears a worsening of living conditions for Gaza inhabitants, it does not think Christians will be attacked by the Islamic fundamentalist group.

“I am afraid it is going to get worst now that the border with Israel will be sealed tight,” Al Janssen, director of communications for Open Doors International, said to The Christian Post on Friday. “If food isn’t getting in and water isn’t getting in then there is going to be a humanitarian crisis.”

However, Janssen noted that he hopes the conversations between Hamas leaders and Open Doors founder Brother Andrew “will bear some fruit.”

Brother Andrew had built a relationship spanning over a decade with Hamas leaders. In December 1992, over a thousand Hamas leaders were deported from Israel and left on the side of a mountain in Lebanon.

Brother Andrew had flew in [sic] and visited the Hamas camp in a humanitarian way and gave Bibles and his book “God’s Smuggler” to them, who in turn invited Brother Andrew into their tent for a meal.

When the Hamas leaders later were able to return to their countries, Brother Andrew in turn hosted meals for Hamas leaders where he would testify about the Gospel. The two built a friendship where they would mutually challenge each other's religious beliefs but would do so with respect.

“Hamas are still people who need to hear the Gospel,” Janssen said. “Maybe at night, one of them would think about God and where he will go when he dies. We as Christians should spread the Gospel and not just cut them off.”

On Sunday, two Christian institutions in Gaza City were attacked.

As the Jerusalem Post story relates:

Masked gunmen in Gaza City set fire to the Latin Church and went on a rampage inside the Rosary Sisters School on Sunday. The attack was the first of its kind since Hamas took full control over the Gaza Strip last week.

Leaders of the Christian community in the Strip expressed deep concern over the fate of the Christians living under Hamas. They said most of them wanted to leave the Gaza out of fear for their lives.

An estimated 2,500 Christians live in Gaza City.

...

A group calling itself the Huda (Guidance) Army Organization threatened to target all Christians living in the Gaza Strip following remarks against Islam and the Prophet Muhammad that were made last year by Pope Benedict XVI.

“We will target all Crusaders in the Gaza Strip,” the group said in a leaflet, “until the pope issues an official apology. ”

The group also threatened to attack churches and Christian-owned institutions and homes.

“All centers belonging to Crusaders, including churches and institutions, will from now on be targeted,” it said. “We will even attack the Crusaders as they sit intoxicated in their homes.”

The Huda Army Organization said preparations had been completed “to strike at every Crusader and infidel on the purified land of Palestine."

Looks like Brother Andrew might have overestimated that mutual respect.

Peace in our time

Shi’ite rebels and government officials agreed to a cease-fire on Saturday, ending hostilities that have cost 4,000 lives so far this year.

In Yemen.

The rebels, the Young Faithful Believers, started fighting the government three years ago. During a spate of attacks in March, five members of the group were caught dressed as women, planning terrorist attacks.

The group, whose slogan is “Death to America, death to Israel, a curse on Jews and victory to Islam,” denies allegations that it is supported by Iran.

Fatah gives up the ghost in Gaza

Well, that was fast.

Hamas has taken over the Gaza Strip in what can only be called a military coup. The gunmen did a pretty good job of planning and carrying out a lightning operation… in fact, they succeeded so much that an entire clan of Fatah supporters, with a few hundred men under arms, surrendered rather than face a fight. Those Fatah gunmen who haven’t turned themselves over, been kidnapped or killed, are fleeing to Egypt by the dozens.

In trying to understand how this happened, some will undoubtedly lay the blame on Israel for failing to support Mahmoud Abbas and those parts of the Palestinian Authority security services that are under the control of his Fatah Party. And, they’ll say, Israel should have helped Fatah fend off Hamas.

The fact is, though, that Israel did just about all it could.

Israel took the diplomatic initiative to marginalize and weaken Hamas politically by inducing the imposition of an international embargo on their government ministers. Fatah could have used that to tell the Palestinian public that only it (Fatah) would be able to deliver diplomatic achievements. Yet it squandered that opportunity by identifying with Hamas and reinforcing its martyr’s image.

Israel has funneled or facilitated the delivery of funds and weapons to Abbas, to help him maintain an advantage over Hamas. This too he has squandered. (It should be noted that Fatah folded this week despite enjoying a numerical advantage over Hamas.)

Most dramatically, though, Israel has fought Fatah's battles for it -- by overwhelmingly focusing on Hamas activists in its military operations. The data are unequivocal: in its arrest raids and in its assassinations of senior and mid-level activists, the Israeli army has disproportionately targeted Hamas. In the years 2000 through 2004, for example, 80% of Israeli air strikes were carried out against Hamas figures. Since then, the trend has only continued, and even increased. In addition, Israel has carried out assassinations and “interceptions” of Hamas men almost exclusively in the Gaza Strip for the past three or four years.

You would think, then, that Hamas would have grown weaker vis-à-vis Fatah in Gaza, instead of stronger.

How ironic it is that Yasser Arafat used to say that he couldn’t control the “rogue” Hamas. Well, it came true in the end.

Why did Hamas’s political and military might grow? It grew, not only because Hamas took the initiative to grow and challenge Fatah, but because Fatah did not respond to that challenge. The plain truth, it must be said, is that Fatah committed suicide. It took a few years, sure, but it was suicide just the same. In Gaza at least, Fatah has given up the ghost.

What is this, if not a war?

The death toll in factional violence in the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the year is fast approaching 200. Over the past few days, Fatah and Hamas have taken turns throwing each other’s members off tall buildings. Gunmen from each group are shooting at each other inside hospitals, assassinating each other’s officials, killing women and children, and preachers too. They are storming each other's headquarters.

As one Fatah spokesman said, “What is this, if not a war?”

So much could be said about how utterly unsurprising these clashes are, about the culture of hatred that both Fatah and Hamas have cultivated and how it is finally consuming them, about the complete failure of the Palestinians and of anyone who has ever taken an interest in their fate to affect the development of a fruitful society amongst them... but the simplest and most salient point of all is that this is, indeed, a war. And it is gruesome.

In Memoriam: Sahar Hussein al-Haideri (1962-2007)

Sahar Hussein al-Haideri knew her life was in danger. For three long years, she had reported critically on the rise of fundamentalism in her hometown of Mosul and, as a result, drew the attention of the self-styled Islamic Emirate of Iraq.

In fact, she was No. 4 on a hit list issued by a local jihadi boss.

Under the circumstances, no one would have blamed her if she had fled to Syria, but Sahar stayed with the Institute of War and Peace Reporting (IWPR). She stayed – and she paid the price. On June 7, she was gunned down outside her home.

Ansar al-Sunna took credit for the slaying.

Susanne Fischer, Iraq Country Director of IWPR, had known Sahar ever since she started her first journalism training session in May 2005. In her obituary (the third one Fischer has had to write for a fellow journalist in a year), the IWPR director recalls:

Haideri was a remarkable woman in many regards. Strong, independent, dedicated
to the job, and at the same time a loving wife and caring mother of four.
Whenever she visited our training centre in Suleimania, she would seize the
kitchen and cook opulent meals.

Six months ago, her son-in-law was killed in a carjacking, so Sahar sent her family to live in Syria. But despite the danger, she continued to write about the transformation of her beloved Mosul into a neo-Taliban hell.

The fundamentalists were forcing women to wear the veil, blowing up statues and ordering the decapitation of mannequins. Restaurants even stopped mixing cucumbers and tomatoes (apparently “male” and “female” produce) in their salads.

Eventually, even Sahar felt the heat, and she jumped at the chance offered by IWPR to join her family in Syria. She lived there for only a month before coming back to Iraq.

An inexplicable choice to some, but Fischer knows why the Iraqi reporter returned. It had to do with the question that had tormented her throughout these years of violence: “What will become of Iraq when all the Sahars leave?”

In the past six months, according to the World Association of Newspapers, close to 30 journalists have been killed in Iraq.

Blood money

The son of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi is negotiating with EU officials over the fates of five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who are on death row for what Libya says was the intentional infection of more than 400 children with HIV in 1998.

Foreign experts who studied the case – including one of the men who discovered the AIDS virus – testified during the medical workers’ trial that many of the children had contracted the virus before the accused even arrived in the country, and that the spread of the disease in the Benghazi children’s hospital was not a plot on the workers’ part but the fault of substandard sanitary conditions and practices at the hospital.

Libya, of course, rejected those findings out of hand, preferring the much more convenient and diversionary explanation of a foreign plot. (Gaddafi blamed the CIA and the Mossad.)

The medical workers said they were tortured – police have even admitted to using attack dogs and electric shock equipment in the interrogations (see here and here) – before confessing to the crimes, for which they are to face a firing squad.

Perhaps by sending the children to Europe for treatment last year on its own dime (or dinar) Libya made an admission of sorts… or perhaps it was just part of a PR campaign in what is already an elaborate farce.

As mentioned above, Gaddafi’s son is negotiating with EU officials. The word “negotiating” is significant because the families of the infected children are asking for 10 million euros each for their suffering. That’s up from 10 million dollars a while back, up from less than 4 million bucks before that. It’s an interesting tactic: the less of a case you have, the more money you demand!

“I fought the law and the law won…”

Quick question: Which country arrests the most Islamists?

Answer: Not the one you’re thinking of. In fact, the United States, England and France aren't even close.

A sampling of yesterday’s Associated Press news reports highlights the fact that the real crackdown on Islamists is taking place not in Western countries, but in Arab ones. Let’s peruse the news:

Jordanian police arrest 7 Islamists for allegedly forming armed militias

AMMAN, Jordan (AP) – Police arrested seven members of Jordan’s largest Muslim opposition group for allegedly setting up armed militias with the aim of destabilizing the kingdom, the group’s leader said Thursday.

The latest arrests bring to nine the total number of activists with the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood Movement, who were detained by police since May 22.

Saudi authorities arrest 11 alleged militants in the past 48 hours

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) – Saudi police have arrested 11 suspected militants, including one allegedly involved in last year’s foiled suicide attack on the world’s largest oil processing facility, the Interior Ministry said Thursday.

The official Saudi Press Agency, quoting an unidentified ministry official, said the men were all Saudi and belonged to “the deviant group,” the term Saudi officials use to refer to Islamic militants and members of al-Qaida.

...In April, police arrested more than 170 al-Qaida-linked plotters accused of planning to replicate the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks by dispatching suicide pilots to military bases and launching attacks on the oil refineries that drive the economy in Osama bin Laden's homeland.

Egyptian police arrest 41 more members of Muslim Brotherhood

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) – Authorities on Thursday detained 41 more members of Egypt’s banned Muslim Brotherhood, a police official said. The arrests were the
latest in an ongoing crackdown on the country’s strongest opposition group.

...The police official gave no reason for the arrests, but said the detained were posting religious banners in their districts.

...A statement posted later Thursday on the Brotherhood’s official Web site claimed that so far, 814 of its members are in detention since December, including 646 members arrested following a recent police step-up in the crackdown ahead of nationwide elections for the upper house of Parliament, known as the Shura Council.

This is by no means an exhaustive list; it is but a single day’s tally in only three Arab states. Just tiles in a larger mosaic, if you will, that will be the topic of future posts here.

Those in glass houses…

Left-wing Israeli activists protesting “the occupation” in Hebron isn’t news.

Palestinians throwing stones at Israelis isn’t news either.

But when Palestinians throw stones at left-wing Israelis protesting “the occupation” in Hebron, it’s news (see the story here or here). ‘Cause it’s just hilarious.

...Fortunately, of course, no one got hurt.

Can we talk?

Talks between Syria and Israel – the possibility of which has the media abuzz – make perfect sense. If you’re Bashar Assad, that is.

The latest notion is that, with the diplomatic process between Israel and the Palestinians at a standstill, Israel could use a breakthrough on the northeastern front. (By “Israel,” one might infer Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, whose approval rating has sunk to the single digits.) Syria, of course, desperately needs a break – from America, because Syria allows jihadists to file into Iraq through its border, and from the United Nations, because Syria is the only real suspect in the assassination of Lebanon’s former prime minister Rafik Hariri.

There’s a pretty convenient deal for everyone, right?

Well, if the idea were to talk about peace for peace, then it could definitely be a good thing. But everyone knows that Syria’s asking price for making peace with Israel is a full return of the Golan Heights, and that its offer in return is the mere promise to consider “normalization.”

Want to put such a deal in historical context? Here’s an analogy that springs to mind: Israel selling the Golan to Syria for a cold peace is the Middle East equivalent of the Boston Red Sox selling Babe Ruth to the New York Yankees.

The Golan provides Israel with vital water resources, a tourism goldmine, and militarily strategic high ground. It is enormously popular with Israelis – far more so than the Gaza Strip, which the country gave up two years ago with no small amount of heartache. Yet Syria wants it back.

What is it, exactly, that supposedly makes the Golan Heights – which is home to numerous remains of the ancient Israelites – a Syrian territory? Israel has already ruled the Golan for twice as long as Syria. (Syria gained its independence from France in 1944, so it only held the Golan for 23 years. Before the French mandate, the Ottoman Turks controlled the territory for 400 years. Before them, the Mamluks had it for two and a half centuries.) And while Syria was in charge, it did little with the territory other than use it as a launching ground for mortar fire on Israeli farms and for Palestinian fedayeen to carry out cross-border raids into Israel.

Olmert’s administration may be more interested in giving the appearance of willingness to talk with Assad, and not actually be interested in talking with him. A parallel situation is likely the case where Assad is concerned. But it is strange that Israel would even fly this trial balloon right now. Wouldn’t it benefit more by letting Assad twist in the wind while the UN’s Hariri tribunal starts presenting its evidence against him and his intelligence agents?

Maybe that’s why US Secretary of State Condolleeza Rice put the kibosh last week on Israeli reports of interest in talks with Syria. Of course, she did so just after meeting with Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem, and while the State Department was trying to set up the first high-level talks between America and Iran in 30 years. Not exactly a consistent line of reasoning there.

(Speaking of that, this report on last week's meeting between the foreign ministers of Iran and Syria is good for a chuckle. Oh, sure, they both want to see Iraq and Lebanon stabilized!)

America, at least, has an urgent need to stop the bleeding in Iraq. Apparently, it is willing to lose a little face to Damascus and Tehran in the (futile) hopes of getting some cooperation there.

What about Israel, though? Does it really need to stave off a Syrian attack? The argument is that, if Israel doesn’t agree to surrender the Golan via diplomacy, Syria will be forced to demand it through war. To clarify that point, a Syrian MP has said that the armed forces are preparing for war with the Zionists.

The fact is, though, that Israel has enjoyed a pretty cushy state of war with Syria ever since 1973. The vastness of the qualitative gap between Israel’s military and Syria’s has been proven time and again since then, and it is not about to be bridged any time soon. So you have to ask yourself why Syria has not tried a direct assault on Israel in 34 years. Is it because it thought that a diplomatic breakthrough was right around the corner, or because it feared such a confrontation?

Olmert and Assad talking about that – now that would be interesting.