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anese nationality law on trial posted by ms tee under citizen and state 2 comments on sunday the lebanese government was on trial on beirut s seaside corniche the presiding judge peddled the language of rights and weighed melons on the scales of justice the jury was a group of citizens and non citizens many of the latter born and raised in lebanon to lebanese mothers yet unnaturalized because a lebanese woman cannot pass on her citizenship to her husband and children a lebanese woman married to a non lebanese as well as a girl and a young man born to lebanese women presented their cases in this public court giving accounts of the legal hardships they face the lebanese government sat on the raised platform unmoved and redundant puffing on his cigar we the jury got to vote in the end and the verdict was a unanimous and resounding guilty you can read more about the protest in the daily star and here are some photographs may 15 2010 back to the secularism march posted by ms tee under political system 3 comments as expected there has been a lot of discussion on the topic of secularism following the laique pride march on april 25 i hope to find the time to post more on this shortly for the time being here is a translation of an op ed piece i wrote published in the may 7 print edition of the left of center norwegian weekly ny tid a scan of the original norwegian version can be found here on sunday the 25th more than 3000 people marched for secularism in beirut civil society groups feminists student clubs and lgbtq and cultural activist were brought together in protest of the current lebanese political system the atmosphere was festive and spirits were high the question is can slogans ranging from queers for secularism to civil marriage not civil war succeed in giving birth to a movement for political and social change some paragraphs on the lebanese political system and the main demands of the march the march on april 25th exceeded expectations organized solely at the initiative of civil society organizations and young cultural activists it was a political rarity in lebanon the organizers did not have access to the usual media outlets mostly reigned in by predetermined loyalties when it comes to political mobilization the organization and recruitment took place primarily on blogs facebook and twitter it remains to be seen whether this colorful blend of activists can develop into a more concrete political program and if it does the question remains whether it will find wider support in a country all too often driven to violence in the name of sect and religion lebanon s political system has grave shortcomings and can at best be described as a stunted parliamentary democracy but in contrast to most countries in the middle east lebanon does not have an official state religion at the same time the majority of lebanese are protective of their religious identities for the ideas behind the march to find broader support the greatest challenge is to shape a vision of secularism which embraces both lebanon s religious and non religious identities as participants in the protest march were shouting neither turkish nor western lebanese secularism such a secularism would entail something so rich as to transform the country s pluralism from weakness to strength in many ways this problematic resembles the difficulties faced by several european countries trying to reconcile themselves with growing religious divides the difference is that in lebanon it is the secularists who constitute a minority april 24 2010 laique pride a historical take posted by ms tee under political system 5 comments one of the popular criticisms leveled at the laique pride and secularism in general is that whereas sect is an integral part of lebanese identity secularism is a foreign import my problem with this reasoning is that it somehow assumes that sect is the most authentic form of political identity whereas in fact it crystallized as a modern phenomenon in the course of the 19th century both waddah sharara fi usul lubnan al ta ifi and usama makdisi the culture of sectarianism have made convincing arguments on this point the collapse of the quasi feudal system in mount lebanon around the mid 19th century left a political gap the language of religious equality that characterized ottoman reforms and a european production of knowledge that understood our region in terms of sects tribes and clans intersected with local political aspirations to produce sect as a modern political identity the sect is an integral part of lebanese identity argument overlooks the other narratives that emerged in parallel in the aftermath of the 1860 war butrus al bustani published nafir suriyya where in an explicit reference to sect as political identity he called upon people to forgo religious solidarity at the same time there were various ideals for society that could be labelled secular the founders of al muqtataf scientific journal and graduates of the syrian protestant college today american university of beirut ya qub al sarruf and faris al nimr are one example they and the clique around them embraced darwinism much to the chagrin of the missionary men who ran the college and the conflict ended with al muqtataf and its founders leaving for egypt in 1884 while sarruf and nimr were more concerned with free scientific inquiry shibli shumayyil tied these views more explicitly to politics preaching the separation of religion from political life all these individuals and others like them were as much a product of their environment as any of their adversaries be they christian and muslim to imply somehow that sect is a more authentic basis for a political system is a gross simplification of the vibrant currents of thought that constituted and continue to constitute the political and public identities of lebanese citizens the idea of a national community with a non sectarian basis has run parallel to sect as political identity and has had considerable appeal at various junctures in the 1943 elections for example pro communist candidates won 12 of the vote based on a class based political program unthinkable in today s lebanon that none of these narratives ever became hegemonic or acquired a clear political articulation does not make them any less authentic and until the writing of lebanon s history manages to integrate these narratives sect a political fiction like any other will continue to perpetuate itself as the only admissible political identity for a history that does other political identities justice see the recently published the eastern mediterranean and the making of global radicalism 1860 1914 by ilham khuri makdisi there are criticisms leveled at the laique pride that i agree with primarily its lack of clarity and the confused and uninformed nature of its early demands there is also the assumption that secularism is a self explanatory concept although norway france and the united states have all been called secular countries they are based on different political systems and different relations between state and church rooted in their respective histories i doubt any of them will work for lebanon despite these reservations if i were in lebanon i would have participated in tomorrow s march pretty much for the same reasons elias muhanna gives in his excellent piece for the guardian the current political system in lebanon is not working and the lack of an alternative to sect as political identity is one reason though not the only one lebanon is in dire need of a vision one that incorporates the other identities it engenders such a vision cannot simply drop from the sky full formed and ready for implementation nor will it be handed on a silver platter by a self preserving political elite it needs to be formed and no matter what the criticism leveled at the laique pride initiative one has to grant it at least this it has managed to renew the debate on these issues february 6 2010 muslims islamists and conspiracy theorists posted by ms tee under europe religion turkey 2 comments why is it that islamic movements and sometimes the mere whiff of islam often give rise to conspiracy theories about a political takeover this is true of completely different categories of actors such as the akp justice and development party in turkey hizballah in lebanon and muslim groups in various countries of europe akp is a political party functioning within a democratic system of governance in a majority sunni country and with an economically liberal and eu friendly agenda while the shiite hizballah is also a political party albeit in a barely functional democracy its organization is much more opaque than akp s and it also commands a paramilitary organization and finally muslims in europe are a panoply of barely politically organized individuals and groups who do not even speak the same language nevertheless all three have been accused of secretly wanting to subvert and islamisize an existing democracy despite public proclamations to the contrary there are doubtless many reasons for this tendency first there is the fact that many people have interpreted islam to offer a theory of state or a mode of governance then there is also the past of the aforementioned political parties although hizballah s open letter of 1984 acknowledges people s liberty to choose the form of government they desire it also expresses a belief that islamic governance alone can guarantee justice and liberty for all as for akp some members have a political history in now banned parties that openly advocated a religious political agenda and or islamic values still it is intriguing that very different categories of islam and very different relationships between islam as a religion and islam as politics elicit similar structural reactions not to mention that these accusations of take over have also been directed at disparate islamic minorities in europe many of them socioeconomically marginalized and politically underrepresented an earlier post on this blog deals with some of the issues concerning islam in europe the more interesting part of the post is the discussion actually the dutch anthropologist and scholar of religion peter van der veer offers another perspective on the matter he basically links the phenomenon to a modern form of governance the state that renders political activity falling outside its purview as suspect here is an excerpt emphasis mine not only are communication and openness crucial to civil society public sphere and religion but also paradoxically so is publicity s opposite secrecy reinhart koselleck has argued in a book that appeared three years earlier than that of jürgen habermas the structural transformation of the public sphere that the emergence of secret societies of freemasonry were crucial in the development of enlightenment critique of the absolutist state in the mid 18th century masonic lodges saw an immense increase in membership and can be seen as the most important sites for the new sociability of the enlightenment besides the more public ones such as coffeehouses clubs salons and literary societies the important point here is that these lodges were able to erect a wall of protection for their debates and rituals against both intrusion from the state and intrusion from the profane world religion is a privileged site for examining an aspect of secrecy that is simultaneously the opposite of the public sphere and foundational for it religious movements and religious sites are often suspected of secret conspiracies by the powers that be and it is precisely the moving away from state institutions and official politics that gives possibilities for fundamental moral critique it should also be clear that this critique can take an unpleasant and terrorist form as it did in the jacobin ideology fo the french revolution this uncomfortable dialectic is what german theorists like koselleck and habermas were interested in after the nazi period source secrecy and publicity in the south asian republic arena in public islam and the common good edited by armando salvatore and dale f eickelman 31 32 leiden brill 2004 it follows logically from this that the dialectic between the state and political religious movements is more potent the longer the distance between the two once they become one and the same as for example with an islamist regime then islam s location as a site for the critique of the model of modern state government is weakened admittedly this poses more questions than it answers but if you have spent too much time dwelling on these issues then the van der veer excerpt can at least offer some food for thought january 30 2010 laique just do it posted by ms tee under events 9 comments rayess bek raps the lebanese laique pride song the lebanese laique pride parade is on 25 april 11am more info can be found on twitter facebook and the llp blog spread the word january 29 2010 the black box is the lebanese state posted by ms tee under citizen and state tags beirut et409 ethiopia ethiopian airlines lebanon 2 comments the aftermath of the ethiopian airline crash has demonstrated how the events of the past five years the targeted assassinations and the wanton bombings have turned us as a nation into quasi experts in collecting debris bucketing body parts taking samples testing for dna etc this is not to belittle the efforts being put into this by various state and other institutions but it is truly sad how throughout the haze of collective mourning the sweeping up took place rather automatically this time even as citizens many of us have become adept at collecting information checking their sources verifying them through various social networks and weeding out rumors from a veritable media mess an article by hassan al zayn in today s issue of al akhbar managed to eloquently capture an aspect of this sad state of affairs this is a quick translation of some parts this is the lebanese political crew s understanding of the state a spectacle concealing behind it several realities the reality about administrations their capacities and their black holes the reality of disaster have citizens been able to observe how these administrations function and have functioned it is almost self evident to admit that the state is incapable of playing a role beyond collecting corpses and plane parts thrown up by the sea what have these administrations done except wait and play the role of the mother of the bride i e soaking in the attention when it is not her day circling aircrafts spreading boats at sea calming families playing the role of a caretaker who is true to the slogan of honoring the dead by burying them standing in front of cameras and playing the roles of technocrats taking care to exonerate the airport control tower and stressing the unlikeliness of sabotage and lest we forget singing the praises of dna this charm repeated by officials the way conjurers repeat their gratuitous phrases despite the wizardry performed...
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