Last Post of MENA Class

Last blog post of this class. However, I hope to continue to blog as this has become something that I enjoy tremendously.

One thing I wanted to mention to our class; I thought that the past few discussions we’ve had have been the best of the class. We got to hear many different opinions and I feel that is something we haven’t done very much over this semester. Of course we are commenting on people’s blogs and that is great and all. However, I believe that there is much more significance in talking with people, one on one or in a group forum. I urge people, however, to keep in mind that when making an argument, make sure not to talk just for the sake of talking. You can make your points much stronger when you are succinct and to the point. Of course it is important to make sure that your voice is heard; however, make sure you don’t add too much outside information that is not relevant. I am being quite critical here but I think that for future Dickinsonians this is important. Thanks for a great class.

Dickinson Riots?

Really, these were riots? What constitutes a riot? Dictionary.com says that a riot, is a "a noisy, violent public disorder caused by a group or crowd of persons, as by a crowd protesting against another group, a government policy, etc., in the streets." Violent? I don't think this crowd of people at Dickinson was violent. And this WAS NOT A PUBLIC DISORDER. People were celebrating the death of a terrible criminal who helped plan a killing of thousands of innocent Americans. Dickinson administration and anybody who had a problem with this "riot", let us be happy for this. Don't come at us with all your BS about how we should not celebrate someone's death. This gave some people who lost loved ones on Sept. 11 a chance to feel like there was some sort of justice. If you want to disagree with things, bark up another branch. Because I do not think that there is ANYTHING wrong with celebrating Osama Bin Laden's death. I also will never change my point of view on this. Above is the supposed "Riot." People really seem to be angry!! That is sarcasm.

Sometimes bored Posts are the Best Posts

I've been sitting here thinking about a blog to write and could not come up with anything. So, in my bored state of mind I typed into a google search, "Interesting Things About the Middle East." After searching around for a while I found something that I thought to be significant and of importance to this class. The website page was entitled "10 Things that Everyone Should Know about the Middle East."  While I knew most of these things, I definitely needed a reminder for a few, especially #1. The Website Page is here. Below is the list of the 10 things that Everyone should know about the middle east. Enjoy!

1. Arabs are part of an ethnic group, not a religion. Arabs were around long before Islam, and there have been (and still are) Arab Christians and Arab Jews. In general, you’re an Arab if you 1) are of Arab descent (blood), or 2) speak the main Arab language (Arabic).
2. Not all Arabs are Muslim. There are significant populations of Arab Christians throughout the world, including in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Northern Africa and Palestine/Israel.
3. Islam is a religion. A Muslim (roughly pronounced MOOSE-lihm) is someone who follows the religion. So you wouldn’t say someone follows Muslim or is an Islam, just as you wouldn’t say someone follows Christian or is a Christianity.
4. Shia Muslims are similar to Roman Catholics in Christianity. They have a strong clerical presence via Imams and promote the idea of going through them to practice the religion correctly. Sunni Muslims are more like Protestant Christians. They don’t really focus on Imams and believe in maintaining a more direct line to God than the Shia.
5. People from Iran are also known as Persians, and they are not Arabs.
6. Arabs are Semites. We’ve all heard the term anti-Semitism being used — often to describe Arabs. While antisemitism does specifically indicate hatred for Jews, the word “Semite” comes from the Bible and referred originally to anyone who spoke one of the Semitic Languages.
7. According to the Bible, Jews and Arabs are related [Genesis 25]. Jews descended from Abraham‘s son Isaac, and Arabs descended from Abraham’s son Ishmael. So not only are both groups Semitic, but they’re also family.
8. Sunni Muslims make up most of the Muslim world (roughly 90%). ¹
9. The country with the world’s largest Muslim population is Indonesia. ²
10. The rift between the Shia and Sunni started right after Muhammad’s death and originally reduced to a power struggle regarding who was going to become the authoritative group for continuing the faith.

Syria Problems Begin, Big

The Syrian army has started to utilize tanks to disrupt the protests that have plagued the country for the last few months. In my last blog I talked about planning for Syria. The plan needs to start now. Here is a New York Times article about the situation. 

Planning for Syria

Looks like Syria is in big trouble. An article in the New York Times noted that authorities were playing off the assassinations as something done by no-governmental forces. Is this true? Personally, I am leaning towards NO. I feel as though Middle Eastern governments has spun off their own mistakes in the media by the simple task of blaming someone else. The next few days will be interesting as we see what transpires with the assassinations and protests.
Here is the article from the NY Times.

Follow Up

I wanted to follow up on the video that I posted previously. This video was made by a source that was looking to show how Israeli defense forces had brutally attacked this group of protesters (not sure if they were protesting or not). In response, the Israeli government tried to mark up the video to make it look like it was necessary to use force at the time.

For our case study we are studying Israel and I plan on using this video to demonstrate the penetration of digital social media into the Israeli society. It is fascinating that the government is now using YouTube channels to relay messages that help to save Israel's reputation. I am very curious to see if any other classmates who are studying different countries have found something similar to this? Have other Middle Eastern countries been using YouTube or Twitter to relay messages to their people and the outside public?

Interesting Video

Found this interesting video while doing some research for our group project on Israel.