Lynch on the Anti-ISIS Coalition, Syrian Options

Marc Lynch was one of the pioneers of Middle East blogging with his "Abu Aardvark" blog. He retired it when he started blogging for Foreign Policy, then shifted to editing their "Middle East Channel." and is now writing for The Washington Post's "The Monkey Cage"  site.

But the blogging bug has never died and he has recently resuscitated Abu Aardvark. True to his old form, his first two regular posts are both worth reading:

• "When Arab Regimes Confront Terrorism" Short version:

But there's just one point I want to throw out there now, because it doesn't seem to be getting much play: when Arab regimes set out to fight "terrorism" they almost always use it as pretext for political repression. When I hear an Arab leader talking with the United States about confronting terrorism these days, what I see is the journalist Mohammad Fahmy and the dedicated activists Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Ahmed Maher and Mahienor al-Masry rotting in an Egyptian prison on trumped up charges while Secretary of State John Kerry opines on Cairo's path to democracy.

•  "Previewing the Syria tourniquet." I can't do this one justice with a pull quote, so just read it already, OK?

Welcome back to the blogosphere, Marc Twitter doesn't leave room for nuance.

But there's just one point I want to throw out there now, because it doesn't seem to be getting much play: when Arab regimes set out to fight "terrorism" they almost always use it as pretext for political repression. When I hear an Arab leader talking with the United States about confronting terrorism these days, what I see is the journalist Mohammad Fahmy and the dedicated activists Alaa Abd el-Fattah, Ahmed Maher and Mahienor al-Masry rotting in an Egyptian prison on trumped up charges while Secretary of State John Kerry opines on Cairo's path to democracy. - See more at: http://abuaardvark.typepad.com/abuaardvark/2014/09/when-arab-regimes-confront-terrorism.html#sthash.4Ihx0wub.dpuf

Huffington Post Starts a Maghreb-Specific Edition

The news and opinion website the Huffington Post, which had previously launched a French-language version of its site, has now launched a version specifically dedicated to the Maghreb countries, called Al Huffington Post Maghreb. The website, which is in French, is here. For an English-language account about the new site, at Tunisialive, see here.

I'm Jealous: Jadaliyya is the Subject of a Conspiracy Theory and I'm Not

Congratulations to Jadaliyya and co-founder Bassam Haddad on making the conspiracy theory hall of fame: Quoting the Turkish newspaper Radikal about a pro-government paper in Turkey:

Under today’s headline of choice, “The Devil’s Triangle,” [pro-government] Yeni Şafak newspaper accused Jadaliyya, an internet-based news feed published in English and Arabic, of conspiring to alter the Gezi Park demonstrations into one that would topple the Turkish government by “transforming them [the demonstrations] into a Turkish Spring everything being under the sponsorship of George Soros and Georgetown University ..."

As a Georgetown product it makes me proud to know the Jesuit plot is still alive and well and still trying to overthrow Turkey. [ For the humorless among my readers, I'm joking.]  More:

"The dirty alliance, forged on the Beirut-Istanbul-Washington line, with foreign media, finance, and academic circles in participation, is becoming more de-classified and decoded every day. Jadaliyya, which has been fanatically feeding the world news about what was happening first and foremost in Istanbul, but also in other parts of Turkey, in the institutional media wing of the Arab Studies Institute of Georgetown University [sic]. The financier behind Jadaliyya, which claims to be a not-for-profit site, is, however, none other than the famous speculator and founder of the Open Society Institute, George Soros—the same name behind the ‘Orange Revolutions’ that started in Ukraine in 2004, and continued in Georgia and Kyrgyzstan. Published as a monthly [sic], and carrying a 1.5 million sales in numbers, the internet site of the journal is supported by a great number of Middle Eastern and Western academics and activists. Even in its very first news reports on the demonstrations, Jadaliyya not only dubbed them as ‘Turkish Revolution’ and ‘Turkish Spring,’ but also generously featured the ugliest adjectives describing Erdoğan, ones that even the demonstrators against him did not dare to mouth."

As Bassam explains in an interview with the newspaper Radikal, reproduced at Jadaliyya, the Arab Studies Institute, though founded at Georgetown years ago, has been independent since the 1990s, and the Open Society Institute is one of many organizations to have given support with no policy strings. As he tells Radikal, “It is almost comical what was written about Jadaliyya . . . [t]hey have really overestimated us!”

I'm pleased that Jadaliyya, always worth reading, has made the big time in conspiracy theory. "Devil's Triangle," no less. I'm definitely jealous. I'll bet Jadaliyya's web traffic is soaring.

But, :"forged on the Beirut-Istanbul-Washington line"?

Riverbend Returns, At Least Briefly

During the early and middle years of the Iraq war, a female Iraqi blogger who called herself Riverbend became something of an Internet sensation in those pre-social media days. Her blog, Baghdad Burning,  began after the American invasion and continued until she and her family fled to Syria in 2007. Her  blog also was published in two books.

In conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the US occupation of Baghdad, she has posted one update after a six-year silence, which she says will likely be her last. She left Syria before the fighting got too bad, spent a year in another Arab country "nearby," and is now in still another Arab country, angry about the fate of Iraq.

Perhaps the last word we'll hear from a pioneer Middle East blogger. 

Qifa Nabki on Mikati's Resignation

Amid the hue and cry over the resignation of Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati, Qifa Nabki reminds us, in his ironically titled "Mikati’s Resignation Signals the Collapse of the Lebanese Idea, Renewed Civil War, and the End of the World as We Know It," that it actually means none of those things, being yet another all too familiar case of Lebanon's fragile system seizing up as key transitions (Parliamentary elections and the end of a Presidential term) approach. He's one of the best commentators on Lebanon, and it's a useful antidote to some of the Sturm und Drang. He's not saying Lebanon's not in deep fecal matter, he's just saying this is a familiar place they visit all too frequently, if I read him rightly.

The Economist's New Middle East Blog

The Economist has been around since 1843, and now they're joining the Middle East blogosphere with a Middle East blog known as Pomegranate.  Let me welcome them: more competition makes us all try harder, and I've always respected The Economist and those of their Middle East reporters I've met. The initial post is signed by "M.R., Cairo," which I'm assuming is Max Rodenbeck, whose wonderful book on Cairo led my list of essential books about that city a while back. Welcome, Pomegranate.

Happy Birthday to Jadaliyya at Two

One of the best online magazines on the Middle East, Jadaliyya,is celebrating its second birthday today. If you don't check it out regularly, now would be an excellent time to start.

A Belated Discovery: The Arabizi Blog, Dealing With Issues We Often Discuss Here

Readers are aware that I've posted a lot about the problems of diglossia in Arabic and the debate over the so-called "death of Arabic," usually proclaimed to be imminent. I'm a bit abashed, therefore, to admit that I've only just discovered a highly relevant blog, Arabizi, by Ph.D. candidate Fatma Said, which seems to have been around since 2010 but which I've been sadly unaware of until now. It spends a lot of time devoted to just those issues, among others related to Arabic as it is spoken and used (Arabizi is from Arabiyya and Inglizi, referring to the mixed jargon often heard ins some Arab circles). Don't miss the "Arab Linguistic Imperialism and the Decline of Arabic: Does Anyone Here Speak Arabic?," Parts One and Two, the most recent posts as I post this.

New Blog: Tunisian Literature (in English)

Via the great literary blog Arabic Literature (in English) we are informed of a new blog: Tunisian Literture (in English). run by Tunisian poet Ali Znaidi. It's not only a welcome addition to the limited number of Arabic literature blogs in English, but also a sign of the growing role of English in Tunisia, a country where French remains, overwhelmingly, the second language and the primary cultural language of the elite.

A New Blog on Eastern Berber Languages

For those of you interested in the Berber (Tamazight) languages, there's a new blog concentrating on those spoken in Libya and Egypt (Siwi in the Siwa Oasis, the only Berber language spoken in Egypt). The author calls it Oriental Berber, (I can see the name may raise questions, since "Oriental" carries a lot of baggage when "Eastern" might have done fine, and "Berber" may annoy some activists. It's a collaborative blog by three authors, one of them Lameen Souag of the Jabal al-Lughat and more recently the blog on Algerian Dardja etymology, الأصول التاريخية للدارجة الجزائرية, which I introduced here recently. Souag's post about the new blog is here. His other collaborators are Marijn van Putten of Phoenix's Blog, and Adam Benkato.

They helpfully describe the Berber languages they plan to cover:

We will finish off with a short overview of some of the languages to be discussed on this blog:

• Aujila Berber (Aujili) is spoken in the oasis of Aujila, Libya. From a historical point of view, it is a fascinating language, as it is one of the few that retains Proto-Berber *β (as v). Other languages that have retained this consonant are the Tuareg languages (as h) and Ghadamès (as β). Syntactically and morphologically Aujila is an interesting language, as it has lost much of the typically Berber features such as ‘state’, clitic fronting and has quite a different verbal system from other Berber languages.
• The only Berber language that is spoken in Egypt is Siwa Berber (Siwi), in the oasis of Siwa in the western desert. Like Aujila, it has undergone intensive restructuring of the grammatical system, and fascinatingly, seems to share several of these grammatical features with Aujila.
• Ghadamès, an oasis in western  Libya on the border with Tunisia, is the home of Ghadamès Berber (Ghadamsi), the other Libyan language that retains the Proto-Berber *β. Ghadamès is a fascinating language for historical linguists as it also shows some traces of the long lost Proto-Berber consonant *ʔ. Patterns in the oriental Berber languages are the lack of ‘state’ marking, and a radically different verbal system than the more familiar Berber languages of western North-Africa. The verbal system of Ghadamès may just be the most exotic reconfiguration of all the languages of this region.
• North of Ghadamès, still in western Libya, we find the Nefusa Berber (Nefusi) languages spoken around the Nefusa mountains, in the cities of Nalut, Jadu, Kabaw, and Yefren (to name a few). These languages have received quite substantial academic attention, from the perspective of oriental Berber. Nevertheless, further research, especially into its linguistic history, will be well worth it.
• High up north on the coast of Libya, we find Zuara, where the Zuara Berber language is spoken. This language has received quite considerable attention due to the recent publication of Mitchell’s work, edited by Harry Stroomer and Stanley Oomen (Mitchell et al. 2009). The Zuara language is not generally considered to be part of the Eastern Berber languages, and is sooner associated with the Northern Berber languages, similar to Tunisian Berber. Nevertheless, this language could use more attention, and maybe in the future of this blog we will focus on it.
• Sokna Berber (Sokni) was (or is still) spoken in the oasis of Sokna in west-central Libya. Our only record of Sokni comes from 1924, when only a few dozen people were reported to still speak the language. Though distinct from Fogaha Berber, there is some historical relationship between the two.
• El-Fogaha Berber, traditionally considered to be the same language as Sokna Berber, seems to be lexically quite divergent. A more in-depth study of this language, will definitely give a clearer indication of the underlying relations between these two languages.

New Blog on Foreign Words in Arabic

 A relatively new blog has just come to my attention, with the earliest posts seeming to date from the first of the year: Words Without Borders/كلمات بلا حدود

It concentrates on foreign words that have come into Arabic — not the modern borrowings like television that everybody can figure out, but the older ones. (Everybody knows "Efendi" comes from Turkish, but I didn't know the Greek from which the Turkish was derived: that sort of thing.)

The first several posts are just in Arabic but the recent ones have both Arabic and English explanations. For the language buffs out there.

MB's Popularity Declining?

Would the Muslim Brotherhood do as well in Egypt's Presidential elections — at least if Khairat al-Shater rather than the less inspiring Muhammad Morsi was its candidate — as it did in the Parliamentaries? Steve Negus at The Arabist argues probably not, citing polls showing significant drops in the Brotherhood's popularity. I can't speak for his conclusions but it does seem clear that Parliament, so far, seems to have done little to address the country's real problems, and the  Brothers may get the blame. Worth a read.

New Blog on ME Arms Control and Regional Security

There's a new blog in the Middle East blogosphere, and it looks like it's off to an impressive start. It's called Arms Control and Regional Security in the Middle East, and it's about, well, what do you think it's about with that title? It's run by Bilal Y. Saab and Chen Kane, both of the James Martin Center for Nonproliferation Studies of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. The initial articles are by the two of them but they also say they'll welcome outside contributors. Both are accomplished specialists in the field.

I will note that though many of you will be familiar with the work of Bilal Saab on security issues either in is present or his previous positions, if you drill down in his resume (there's a link on his blog profile to the fuller one, which is the one you need), you'll see that he was once (way back when, though I was there at the time) a researcher  at the Middle East Institute. He has since passed through several great universities on several continents, not to mention some major think tanks, but I'll nevertheless assert my profound conviction that MEI taught him all he knows. I hope he will be gentleman enough not to contradict me since I am plugging his blog. It's my story and I'm sticking with it.

It should be worthy of a bookmark, from the looks of early indicators.

Lameen Souag Starts a Blog on Algerian Darja (Colloquial Arabic)

I've linked several times to Lameen Souag's Jabal al-Lughat linguistics blog; Souag is the Algerian SOAS-trained language specialist who studies Berber and other Saharan/Sahelian languages and often discusses them in conjunction with Arabic. So who better to start a blog on the origins of Algerian darja (colloquial Algerian Arabic)? It's called   الأصول التاريخية للدارجة الجزائرية  (The historical sources of Algerian Darja) and is primarily in Arabic; only two posts so far. He explains at Jabal al-Lughat:

I've often talked about why it's not enough for developing countries to use English or French as a working language for research and leave the majority of their own citizens in the dark. So I'm putting my money where my mouth is (so to speak) and starting a blog in Arabic focused on dialect etymology, a subject rife with popular misconceptions: الأصول التاريخية للدارجة الجزائرية (Historical Origins of the Algerian Dialect). Some of this blog's readers may be interested.

Since diglossia and dialects are a frequent subject here, so may some of this blog's.

And at least a few of you may well find his other links of interest:

I've written up a finding first posted here - Songhay words in El-Jadida, Morocco - as part of a recently submitted article on sub-Saharan loanwords into North African Arabic. (There aren't many, but more than you might think: one of them, شطة šaṭṭa "Cayenne pepper" from Hausa cìttā, has even made it into Modern Standard Arabic via Egyptian dialect, and another, كابوية kābūya "pumpkin" from Hausa kàbēwā̀, is quite widespread in Algeria.)

MNAMON have posted a video of my talk about Libyco-Berber at Pisa - if you can stand the poor delivery, the content may be interesting. Among other things, I discuss the question of where LB fits into the Berber family tree.

He's amply demonstrated his linguistic qualification to blog on Algerian darja. It should be interesting, especially if he can post frequently.

"Egyptian Student Abroad" Blog

I wanted to call to your attention the Egyptian Student Abroad blog/website, which has essays and articles by (can you guess it?), Egyptian students abroad (mostly in the US and Canada from what I've seen). It addresses many of the sorts of issues I've addressed here and is of course Egyptian-oriented. I should also note that the Editor, Adel El-Adawy, is a graduate student at The American University here in DC, and is also interning as a Research Assistant with us here at the Middle East Institute this semester.

A New, Bilingual Egyptian Opinion Journal: Midan Masr

A new, bilingual monthly newspaper and online site called Midan Masr has launched; they publish their content in both English and Arabic, and translate articles so that the content is the same in both languages. Their English homepage is here and their Arabic here.

They offer a lengthy statement of purpose stating that they welcome all points of view on matters Egyptian. Excerpts:

Midan Masr’s mission is to be a focal point for this rich, passionate, and heated explosion of voices and opinions. Midan Masr will commit to reflecting the full spectrum of discussion and debate taking place regarding issues that affect Egypt. 

We are a neutral and independent monthly paper that solicits and publishes opinions from a cross-section of political, religious, ideological, and philosophical persuasions that reflect the full spectrum, richness, and complexity of the debate taking place in Egyptian society.   

We strongly encourage and welcome first-time writers, seasoned writers, bloggers, photographers, cartoonists, and ultimately anyone who wishes to express his or her opinion on any of the issues affecting Egypt to submit their contributions in Arabic or English to info@midanmasr.com. The newspaper is available throughout Egypt . . .

While our inaugural site covers a broad range of topics and points of view – we are acutely aware that there are many points of view and ideologies that are not reflected in this issue. This is not for lack of attempting to cover those points of view; rather it is a reflection of the authors that we have been able to reach. We will actively continue to broaden the ideological and geographic diversity of contributors – with a particular focus on Egyptian authors from provinces outside of Cairo.

It looks promising, but I'm glad there's both an Arabic version and a print version, giving it some chance to be read outside just the Cairo intelligentsia.

Juan Cole on "God's Way of Teaching Americans Geography"

Citing Ambrose Bierce's quip that "War is God's way of teaching Americans geography," Juan Cole notes that a majority of Americans, despite the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the confrontation with Iran, still can't locate those countries on a map:

And he has a modest proposal:

I suggest a new regulation on war. If a majority of your country cannot find the enemy country on the map, they aren’t interested enough to justify making war against it.

#FreeRazan is Free Now: Can We Work on the Rest of Syria?

Arrested Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi is now apparently free, according to her sister.

Good, wonderful in fact, but don't forget the thousands who have died and the unknown numbers still in prison who  had no international campaigns and Facebook pages and #FreeRazan Twitter hashtags working for them. Let's not forget them. And for all those Syrians who aren't technically in prison, but are virtually so.

Another Voice Silenced: Syrian Blogger Razan Ghazzawi Arrested

Yet another high-profile dissident blogger has been arrested, Syrian blogger Razan Ghazzawi. She was arrested Sunday trying to cross into Jordan for a conference, in her position as Media Officer for the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression. Rare among Syrian bloggers, she blogged under her own name. Jillian York profiles her at The Guardian.

Though a US citizen by birth, she seems to have primarily identified with her Syrian home. She reportedly closed her Facebook and other online accounts, expecting arrest, to protect friends. Her Twitter account @RedRazan, is apparently still live, though she is of course not posting to it.

There is now a "Free Razan" Facebook support page, as well as the Twitter hashtag #FreeRazan.

On her blog, a new banner has gone up with the slogan, apparently a quote from Razan herself, noting that "The Syrian regime does not fear those imprisoned but those who do not forget them."

:"The Republic of Heliopolis"

Egyptian blogger The Big Pharaoh is unhappy, like a lot of other Egyptian liberals, with the election results, so he's proposing the Republic of Heliopolis. Amr Hamzawy, democracy activist and former Carnegie wonk, was one of the few liberals to win outright and not have to face a runoff, and he ran in Heliopolis. It's satire of course, but I notice from his map that he seems to want to take the airport with them:

I just hope the Republic of Heliopolis makes their Presidential Palace my own favorite building, the Qasr al-Baron, Heliopolis planner Baron Empain's improbable taste of Angkor Wat in Egypt:

Qasr al-Baron

On that note, enjoy your weekend.