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.

Put up or Shut up, Pakistan.

Today the Pakistani Government and people have been complaining about CIA drones that have been flying around the country. I have only one thing to say to this; Pakistan, stop harboring terrorists and we will stop the drones. It is widely known that Pakistan is a safe haven for many terrorist organizations, therefore drones are necessary. I hope that some of you (classmates and followers) will be tempted to challenge me on this, I will defend this statement to the end. The article from the WSJ is here.

Japanese Crisis vs. Middle East Crisis

This is somewhat of a random blog post but it has been on my mind throughout this whole situation in the Middle East and Japan. I find to to be quite unbelievable how quickly and easily the American media can shift gears and transfer their focus onto a different crisis/situation. For example, for months we were dealing with the situation in the Middle East and then all of a sudden, the crisis in Japan occurred. As this crisis (Japan) evolved, it seems that the Middle East was put on the back burner while the US attempted to provide coverage of the situation in Japan. I only read one newspaper consistently  (The Wall Street Journal) but this one in particular has made the Middle East seem to be almost a petty issue at this point;  something that will eventually be solved but is not in our front conscience at this time. Does any one else feel this way or am I over-thinking it? Are other countries besides the USA able to switch their media coverage so efficiently and quickly?

Trouble with Ivory, Ripple Effect

While this blog has been focusing on primarily Middle East political issues, REMEMBER, this blog is named, "Middle AND North Africa Media and politics." Meaning that I will include North African issues when I think that it is nececessary. Whats going on in the Ivory Coast is a necessary situation to talk about. Yesterday troops who side with President Elect Ouattara raided the house of his rival, Lauren Gbagbo who has refused to leave his office. There were reported gunshots and violent noises coming from the area as neighbors of the community began to wonder what was going on. This is an interesting story that this blog will follow as we get more detail as to what is going on with Ivory. I have mentioned this before but there seems to be a "ripple effect" going on in the eastern world right now. As violences begins and ends in a country, ANOTHER country starts to revolt and protest with violence. Here is a link for the Ivory Coast Story.
Above is a picture of Ouattara's troops.

Quran Burning?

This is just straight up embarrassing for America. A few floridians were burning a Quran which ignited a spur of protests in Afghanistan. There really isn't much more to say about this other than EMBARRASSING. Although, the middle eastern world has had its fair share of burning Old Glory....

Here is a video of the protests that occurred as a result of this Quran burning.