Islam and Science

This is a very interesting interview done with my very insightful and smart friend, Rouhollah Rahmani. I really enjoyed it, lots of good points made.
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Morsi in Tehran

There's been a lot of buzz in the American press regarding President Morsi's comments in Tehran about Syria. I don't wish to write too much about this except that the main issue here is about balance -- not being one-sided. 

For Iran, a balanced "Morsi Egypt" > one sided "Mubarak Egypt". 

This means the Islamic Republic of Iran gains. 

All that Iran wants is for neighboring countries to act independently and to take into consideration regional problems responsibly -- not to rely on America to cover for disastrous foreign policy measures such as backing war, invasions, and insurgencies.

The fact that Morsi could be so open during the NAM summit about his position is not a bad thing! In fact, Morsi's statements are essentially outlining Iran's position on Syria.

It’s no longer acceptable at all to respect the foundations of democracy on the level of the state and to ignore them on the international level, between states. And it’s also no longer acceptable to observe the principles of pluralism and put them aside in the field of international relations. And from here, and with these meanings, and with this will, and with this conscious look to the future, Egypt believes that one of the core pillars of this new ... international system that we want mainly lies in enhancing the contribution of developing countries in managing and reforming the institutions of global governance to guarantee the fairness of participation in decision making and framing the directions on the international arenas politically, economically and socially.

That could have easily come out of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's mouth. In fact, it essentially did at the very same session of NAM.

Even as this extremely misleading article states (in spite of the title, Morsi did not back the armed rebel insurgency -- in fact rebuking it outright):

Morsi has proposed that Iran take part in a four-nation contact group that would include Egypt, Turkey and Saudi Arabia to mediate an end to the Syrian crisis. Ban also said Iran has a key role to play in finding a solution to end Syria's civil war, which activists say has claimed at least 20,000 lives.

This is what I previously meant by "responsible regional rivalries" -- it's only by fairly including all the players involved that a just resolution can come about.

To end with some of the reasons behind Morsi's statement regarding Syria and why he stayed silent on Bahrain:

"His visit signifies that Iran is an important regional power that cannot be ignored," said Mohamed Abbas Nagi, an Iranian affairs analyst at Cairo's Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies. "However, Morsi's rise came out of Egypt's own revolution, so how can Egypt pursue better ties with Iran now when that country is suppressing a revolution in Syria?" added Nagi, noting that Egypt's immediate priority appears to be restoring relations with Saudi Arabia and other wealthy Gulf states that were close to Mubarak.

History Quote

"To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child" -Cicero

Return to Responsible Regional Rivalries

A return to normalcy. Today's New York Times article highlights how a new Egypt will orient its foreign policy and demeanor in the region.

Instead of relying primarily on heavy-handed foreign powers (i.e. the United States), a post-Mubarak Egypt will look to assert its own independent agenda which for any reasonable power means keeping a balance.

This is good news for the entire region because up until now it was an alliance of interests most fervently pushing for war, occupation, and violence. This alliance was not bearing the brunt of the costs. Mubarak, AIPAC, Neo-cons, and extremist groups who upheld unrealistic ideological agendas resulting in violence and horror were by no means the proponents of justice. They relied on occupation and dictatorship to carry out their agendas.

Now, however, the rules of the game are beginning to shift. Egypt will be at the forefront of a "return to responsible regional rivalries". This means a balance of power and responsible rivalries, not foreign infused, jacked up insurgencies, murdering, and bloodshed in the name of spreading democracy and stability.

As the Washington Post writes,

In the past, “Egypt could not move except with instructions from America and in a direction that benefited America’s interests,” Abdallah el-Ashaal, a former Egyptian deputy foreign minister, said. “Today Egypt does not require permission from Washington.”

It's not just Egypt, either. The new dynamics of world power are seeing justifiably assertive countries assuming their natural roles. Even India, a close celebrated US ally, is sending messages through its Prime Minister's attendance at the Non-Aligned Movement meeting in Tehran.

“This is India’s signal to Iran that we are still balanced and we are not entirely in America’s camp,’’ said Lalit Mansingh, a former Indian ambassador to the United States.

Turning back to Egypt, as the Times article records:

“This is a reconfiguration of the regional and international politics of the region,” Mr. Shahin said. “It will, of course, raise concerns in Washington and Tel Aviv, but I don’t think this is a confrontational foreign policy. It is a regional foreign policy, tacking a regional problem through the capitals of the four most influential regional states, without looking through the prism of Washington and Tel Aviv.”

This does not mean that Egypt will place itself firmly in one camp over another. Pundits and journalists who are used to operating in US government dictated boundaries of thought can only think of things as strictly "pro-US" or "pro-Iran" in the region. Anything Morsi says that is not an outright pledge of allegiance to Iran is seen as a victory for US foreign policy.

However, for those of us unwilling to make neighbors into enemies, the emergence of an awakened Egypt is just what this region needs. Egypt is the most populous Arab country and a cultural, social and political center of gravity in the Middle East. Egypt, like any other mid-ranged power, will yearn for peace, prosperity, and stability.

The most troubling road block to this vision is the Morsi government's eager acceptance of financial handouts from all over the place -- from Qatar and Saudi Arabia to the IMF and American government. If Egypt cannot build its own prosperous economy it may always be held hostage to foreign conflicting interests.

Modern Gender Roles

These are the types of women that are glorified and promoted in our society. As this recent CNN article outlines regarding the death of Gurley Brown, a former major force behind Cosmopolitan Magazine:

"Gurley Brown's 1962 book 'Sex and the Single Girl' encouraged young women to enjoy being single, find fulfillment in work and non-marital relationships with men, and take pleasure in sex, Hearst said. The book was on the bestseller lists for more than a year and became a movie starring Natalie Wood, Tony Curtis, Lauren Bacall, and Henry Fonda.

When Betty Friedan's book 'The Feminine Mystique' ushered in the modern women's movement in 1963, the two books and their authors helped lead the growing national dialogue about the place of women in society and popular culture, Hearst said."

Each society has its own models and types of behaviors that it promotes. Before we rush to judgement about how backward the Middle East is or how oppressed Muslim women are we should take a look at our own gender roles at home and think about the kind of cheap material values we promote.

Breaking the Arab News - By Sultan Al Qassemi | Foreign Policy

"When Al Arabiya and Al Jazeera do comment directly on Syrian affairs, they tend to paper over the rebels' flaws and emphasize the conflict's religious fault lines. Perhaps the low point of both channels' Syrian uprising coverage was when they gave a platform to extremist Sunni cleric Adnan al-Arour, who once said of Syria's Alawite minority that Sunnis "shall mince them in meat grinders and feed their flesh to the dogs" for their support of President Bashar al-Assad. While Al Arabiya referred to "the sheikh" as a "symbol of the revolution," Al Jazeera introduced him as the "biggest nonviolent instigator against the Syrian regime...


A large segment of Al Jazeera's and Al Arabiya's audiences, appalled by the Syrian regime's brutality, no doubt genuinely believes that this is strictly a battle of good versus evil. For the Saudi and Qatari governments, however, Syria's fate directly affects their political future -- they want to see the fall of the regime for either personal or strategic reasons. The looming end of Assad's Syria is yet another chapter in the transformation of the old Arab state order, which began with the fall of Saddam Hussein's Iraq and the end of Hosni Mubarak's Egypt. It is a story that is simply too important to be left in the hands of media outlets looking to advance their own narrow interests."


Breaking the Arab News - By Sultan Al Qassemi | Foreign Policy