My fourth panel discussion was titled "Religion, Politics and Violence: The Middle East and Beyond." There were two panelists.
The following short biographies were taken from the LA Times Festival of Books website:
Laurie Brand is the Robert Grandford Wright Professor of International Relations and Middle East Studies at USC. A four-time Fulbright scholar, recipient of Rockefeller and Carnegie fellowships and former president of the Middle East Studies Assn., Brand is a widely published author on inter-Arab politics and on migration and diaspora politics in the Middle East and North Africa.
Veli Yashin is an assistant professor of comparative literature at USC. His work focuses on modern Arabic and Turkish literatures and the complex entanglement between cultural and political representation. He is currently at work on a book on 19th century Ottoman (Arabic and Turkish) literature, tentatively titled “Disorienting Figures: The Rhetoric of Sovereignty between the Arab and the Turk.”
The following are my notes from the panel discussion. There are potential misinterpretations to what I heard so take that into consideration.
Brand. She studied how state leadership regimes can re-script history. She looked at school books to see the messages given young people.
There can be differences by region. Also, urban vs rural. If one looks at post colonialism, one sees very little focus on religion. In the 1950s, the focus turns to pan Arab. The next focus shifted towards being Egyptian.
Today is dreadful in Egypt. The el-Sisi regime is attempting to put state control over religion and delegitimize the Muslim Brotherhood. It is part of process to gain control of the religious narrative.
The Middle East was greatly ensnared by the Western world. The Western world attempted to penetrated the political system. This abuse by outside forces has never been complete; however, it also hasn't ever been free. As the West attempted to gain control, the Middle East has rejected these attempts. Examples of the West attempting to gain control: French invasion of Algeria, British invasion of Egypt, Allied blockade in World War I of the Ottoman empire, British support of Israel, Iraq war over Kuwait, Yemen civil war via Western support for Saudi Arabia.
Many young people in Egypt who were involved in the overthrow are now oppressed. They can be thrown into jail due to how they use Twitter and Facebook. Many are now in jail, underground or have disappeared. There is no direct criticism of the government, more of a mocking stance. This might be the new narrative: mocking of government. It is very dangerous in Egypt.
What happened in Egypt was not a revolution. The bureaucracy in Egypt is a beast. Even though key people were put in prison, the bureaucracy still exerted itself.
Libya has been a disaster that is impacting potential success in Tunisia.
Yishin. The Saudi king recently visited Egypt. A statue was covered up. The statue was of an Egyptian leader who led an Egyptian/Ottoman effort to destroy the house of Saud. Egyptian leader el-Sisi who receives aid from the US and has connections to theocratic Saudi Arabia leader, toppled the Muslim Brotherhood. So it topples the Muslim Brotherhood, but has close ties to another theocratic regime.
Focus on religion and terrorism results in us over-looking the political interest. We need to look at the post Ottoman World. Traditional vs modernity. We can't capture what is happening in the Middle East by just focusing in on Islam.
Much has changed in Turkey over the last fifteen years. There was secular oppression of Islam, but it has now reemerged. Who is governing the public space? We also need to understand how the Middle East conflict has impacted Turkey. It supported certain fractions in Iraq and Syria and the result is some blow back due to this support. Turkey threw its weight around in the region and is dealing with the consequences.
We should focus on how we contribute to the violence in the Middle East. We need to take into account the historical context and not just focus on Islam. We need to ask: how are we complicit?
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