Justification for the Iraq War

Yesterday in class we talked about what we knew about the Iraq War. In answer to the question, how many students in this class believe that there was some kind of link between Saddam Hussein and 9/11? half of the class raised their hands.

This is obviously a very important question when it comes to the justification for the Iraq War. Once again, it is very instructive to turn to Wikipedia, this time their extensive page on Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. According to this resource, "The intelligence community (CIA, NSA, DIA, etc) view, confirmed by the conclusions of the 9/11 Commission Report and the Senate Report of Pre-war Intelligence on Iraq, is that there was not a cooperative effort between the two and that Saddam did not support the 9/11 attacks." And, "the joint FBI-INS-police PENTBOM investigation, the FBI program of voluntary interviews and numerous other post-9-11 inquiries, together comprising probably the most comprehensive criminal investigation in history—chasing down 500,000 leads and interviewing 175,000 people -- has turned up no evidence of Iraq's involvement; nor has the extensive search of post-Saddam Iraq by the Kay and Duelfer commission and US troops combing through Saddam’s computers."

Michigan's senator, Carl Levin, has stated, "The bottom line is that intelligence relating to the Iraq-al-Qaeda relationship was manipulated by high-ranking officials in the Department of Defense to support the administration's decision to invade Iraq. The inspector general's report is a devastating condemnation of inappropriate activities in the DOD policy office that helped take this nation to war."

Another question that came up in class was did Iraq have weapons of mass destruction, specifically nuclear weapons? Wikipedia also has an extensive page on this question. Another very interesting person arguing about the presence of weapons of mass destruction is Scott Ritter, former head of the United Nations weapons investigating team in Iraq.

The same argument is now being used to present an argument that Iran is preparing nuclear weapons.

The Wall

One of the most disturbing things that Jimmy Carter talks about in his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, is the building of a wall, or walls, around the Gaza Strip and throughout the West Bank. I tried to see what I could learn about the wall on the internet. One website is the Anti-Apartheid Wall Campaign with regular news reports on the wall's progress and their succinct Fact Sheet. The Quaker organization, American Friends Service Committee, also has a useful Fact Sheet (AFSC).

There are videos about the wall on U-Tube, including one where a man walks by the wall in his neighborhood, and one where Palestinian youth rap about the wall. There were also a number of videos that added interesting perspectives, including one called If American's Knew what Israel was Doing, News Israel Doesnt' Want You to See, and a debate on Larry King Live between Rabbi Lerner and Dennis Prager.

There is irony and great loss of historical memory in the building of the wall in Palestine. I remember the wall Jewish people were forced to make by the Nazis around the Warsaw Ghetto, where they were squeezed into a confined area, kept from working, starved, and killed.

Palestinians "Detained"

In the novel we are reading, Wild Thorns written in 1976, there are scenes of Palestinians detained in an Israeli prison. This is still an on-going issue in 2007. During the the second Intifada, from 2000-03 there were 28,000 Palestinians incarcerated in prisons or prison camps, according to a Fidh report, a French human rights organization. Such imprisonment includes children and may involve torture according to The Jerusalem Fund. Conditions remain harsh according to the BBC. The website Islam On Line claimed in 2006 that 20% of the Palestinian population has been detained at one point or another. News last week in the Boston Globe about a prisoner release for Ramadan.

1948 War and Palestinian Refugees

"The war will give us the land. The concepts of 'ours' and 'not ours' are only concepts for peacetime, and during war they lose all their meaning." David Ben-Gurion, first Prime Minister of Israel

The Palestinian literature we are reading often has as a reference point the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, the loss of Palestinian land, and the Palestinian refugee crisis. Under the British "mandate" or colonial rule of Palestine (Trans-Jordan) the British supported Jewish immigration, many escaping terrible persecution in Europe. (Many Jewish refugees were turned away from European countries and the United States, and returned to Germany where they died in extermination camps.)

From 1936-39 Arabs in Palestine revolted and were brutally suppressed by the British and Jewish auxiliary troops, and "Special Night Squads" attacked Palestinian villages. By 1947-48 there was civil war in Palestine, and when David Ben-Gurion, a Zionist leader, proclaimed the state of Israel in May of 1948 troops from the surrounding Arab league countries invaded. Eventually Jewish troops prevailed and something over 700,000 Palestinians became refugees, and many Palestinian villages were destroyed.

Today, nearly sixty years later, the Palestinian refugee problem has not been solved and 5 million Palestinians live as refugees, stateless, and lacking citizenship in any country. 8 million Palestinians live directly or indirectly under Israeli military occupation in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and in Israel.

Men in the Sun

Ghassan Kanafani has written a disturbing story about four Palestinian refugees seeking work in Kuwait. Geoff Ferris, a former student of mine, has created a web page of useful information about the novel and resources for teachers.

In 1972 Kanafani was killed by a car bomb in Lebanon he was 36 and had young children. His niece was killed with him. According to Wikipedia Mossad has claimed responsibility. Mossad is Israel's intelligence agency and is responsible for intelligence collection, counter-terrorism, covert operations such as paramilitary activities, and the facilitation of Jewish immigration to the land of Israel.

Steven Spielberg's recent film, Munich, explores the actions of Mossad at the time of Kanafani death.

Ottoman Collapse, Europe, America, and the Modern Middle East

Allen's quick history:

From 1700 the Ottoman Empire began to decline. In 1798 Napoleon took Egypt (which became English in 1882). The rise of nationalism led territories to rebel, Greece (1829) and Serbia, Romania, Montenegro and Bulgaria (1875). Despite a series of modernizing reforms (constitutions, factories, banking, military), the Ottoman Empire was the "sick man of Europe." Just before WWI, Libya was taken by the Italians.

Joining WWI on the side of the Germans the Turks had early victories (the photograph is Kemal Ataturk at Gallipoli). The British fostered an Arab revolt (see the film "Lawrence of Arabia") making promises of independence to the Arab peoples, including Saudis, Syrians, and Palestinians if they would fight with them against the Turks. In a secret deal before the end of the war plans were laid to partition the Middle East and put it under English and French domination. At war's end Istanbul was occupied by the British and French, the sultanate ended, and the empire taken over. In 1922 a rebellion against the Europeans in Turkey led by Kemal Ataturk established modern Turkey as an independent state instituting European laws and dress.

Betraying their promises to the Arabs, the British and French divided the Middle East between them (based on their secret plan) and promised Palestine to the Jews (Balfour Declaration). The British and French created regions of administration to suit themselves. Based on the British promise Jews migrated to Palestine, especially after WWII (see Aliyah). In 1948 an uprising of Jews drove many Palestinians out of Palestine and the state of Israel was declared. Jews from Europe, the Middle East, and, later Russia, flooded in. The 1940s also saw many territories created by the Europeans gaining independence (Iran, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt).

The increasing importance of oil and the discovery of vast reserves led to major intervention in the region by American oil companies and the American government -- in many ways taking the place of the retreating British and French empires. The CIA overthrew a democratic government and installed the Shah of Iran in 1953, for example. The Cold War with Russia led Americans to see nationalists and socialists such as Gamal Abdel Nasser and Sadam Hussein (originally on the CIA payroll) as potential Russian allies and, thus, American enemies. In the Six Day War of 1967 Israel, seen as a client state of America, defended itself from an Arab attack and captured significant land in Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon. Although portions were returned, there are still calls by the UN and states in the region for a return to the 1967 borders.

In 1979 an Islamic uprising in Iran toppled the Shah (and led to Americans held as prisoners at the embassy). Soviet intervention in Afghanistan to support a socialist regime inspired the United States to lead a long, "secret" war supporting Islamic "freedom fighters" from the whole region, including the Islamic Brotherhood from Egypt and money from elites in Saudi Arabia. (Osama Ben Laden, a Saudi, was then also on the CIA payroll fighting "godless" communists.)

American efforts against the nationalists and support of traditional kingdoms (who work with American oil companies) and of Islamic fundamentalists (against the "communists" and "socialists") has typically undermined democracy in the region.

Anger against the United States is much intensified by continued American support of Israel (30 billion in military aid now committed for the next ten years) and disregard of the the Palestinians and other Arabs in the region. Add the War in Iraq -- 1 million Iraqis dead -- and the United States is certainly hated by many people in the Middle East.

How does this history influence the way we view 9-11 and "Islamic terrorists"? Who are the terrorists?

Rubaiyats

I admit that I find the Rubaiyat beautiful poetry, though I know it partakes of stereotypes and repetitions about the Middle East, likely magnified by translators. The idea of a paradise of ease, sensuality, wine, and carelessness is just so alluring... The orientalist images from publications of the Rubiayat that we examined in class are especially troubling -- like the one I have included here by Arthur Szyk from the 1946 Heritage Press edition.

My poor efforts to write in the style of the Rubiayat are below. I apologize in advance!

Fitzgerald:

Oh, come with old Khayyam, and leave the Wise
To talk; one thing is certain, that Life flies;
One thing is certain, and the Rest is Lies;
The Flowr that once has blown for ever dies.

Webb:

Oh, come with Allen Webb, and leave the rest
To study, read and write, prepare the test
One thing is certain, they may pass
But do they really, truly enjoy the class?


A bolt of thunder, and dark skies
Sudden drops of rain around me fly.
I walk, I run, -- ahead the door is neigh
Yet I am soaking, sloshing wet, Oh my!

Arabian Nights and Oral Traditions

Tim Rimer notes, "The original Arabian Nights stories can be traced back to Indian, Persian, and Arab oral traditions which were passed down from generation to generation before they were eventually written down sometime between the ninth and fourteenth centuries."

Oral traditions of many peoples and languages often break the codes of proper conduct -- codes that in the Jewish, Christian, and Islamic traditions are associated with "the book." Oral traditions and village story telling are often surprisingly direct about matters of sexuality and daily life -- they have an immediate human vitality, are full of surprising events, tricksters, and direct humor.

Certainly one example is the story Heather told us about in class last week, "Three Unfortunate Lovers," where a woman dies for her love for another women. Homoerotic affection might have been unacceptable in the world of the book (the Torah, the Bible, the Koran) but is natural in these tales that arise from daily life.

The story "How Abu Hasan Brake Wind" is, believe it or not, a story about a man who becomes famous because of a huge fart he passed on his wedding day! Just the kind of course humor of oral traditions -- there are many Native American stories about the trickster Coyote that have a similar theme. "The King's Daughter and the Ape," about a Sultan's daughter who is so addicted to sex she has a relationship with a baboon has a "locker room" oral tradition sense to it.

Another feature of oral stories is the inclusion of verse and poetic passages, perhaps mixed in places where they might not be expected. A story, "Al-Amin and His Uncle," about a man who won't sleep with his uncle's slave girl because he thinks his uncle already had -- and so the uncle has the following verses sown onto her skirt,

• “No! I declare by Him to whom all bow,
• Of nothing ‘neath her petticoat I trow:
• Nor meddle with her mouth; nor aught did I
• But see and hear her, and it was enow!”

It doesn't surprise me that this kind of literature was suppressed in the name of religion, or propriety. How unfortunate!

Image of the African in The Arabian Nights

There is much that is fascinating in the famous 1001 Nights. Reading Richard Burton's late 19th Century translation (1885-1888) I found the representation of Africans troubling. For instance in the framing story of "King Shahryar and his Brother" there is a racist depiction of two Africans, "a big slobbering blackamoor" and a "black cook of loathsome aspect" both of whom appear as lovers or sexual partners of the wives of the sultans. Not only were the descriptions clearly racist, and the Africans described as deceitful and lustful (though the wives were certainly their willing partners!), but they are positioned in the text so that the very idea that the wife should "make love" with an African becomes especially abhorrent.

I wonder to what extent these portrayals are Burton's doing, and how much is in the original. I know that the Arabic and Turkish empires did take slaves from Africa for many centuries in the Arab slave trade, and that were at war with Africans from the subsahara for centuries. (Indeed, that kind of struggle could still be seen to be going on in Sudan and Darfur.) I am curious about these political relations of power play into the existence of the stereotyping... perhaps going back to the 15th Century when the tales were composed.

The Moor at a Distance

In his essay "Turning Turk in Othello" Daniel Vitkin talks extensively about English attitudes toward the Turks, black Africans, Muslims, and Moors. One thing that both confused and intrigued me in the essay was the living presence of Turks and Moors in actual relations with the English, and also a sense that the English were so distant from Middle East and North Africa that they frequently confused and conflated terms as different as "Turk" and "Moor," even linking Mohamed and the Pope as devilish enemies to good Protestant Christians.

Vitkin describes the expanding Turkish empire as a threat to Europe and to England, one that the English were very much concerned about. In fact, Vitkin quotes sources to argue that the Turks regularly captured British ships and even directly raided the English coast line, in part in order to capture Englishmen (and women, I suppose) to enslave them, make them work on their ships, and so on. Apparently, these captured Christians would sometimes convert, either to save their lives or to be able to enter into commerce with the Muslims. Sermons were regularly preached in English against this type of "conversion." Apparently there was a group of Moorish ambassadors who visited and were well received in England only a couple of years before Othello was written -- so not all contacts with Islamic people were negative.

In contrast, or in addition to, these "real" contacts there was a great deal of myth making about Islamic, African, Turkish, and/or Moorish people in 17th Century England. Lumped together they were stereotyped as "violent," "cruel," "lustful," "sensual," "arbitrary," and "deceitful." And I wonder how much Othello bears these out... And, hmmm.... These terms sound a bit familiar. Consider the comments on the website Islam and the Western Media

• This ignorance that the West accumulates from the media leads them into making stereotypes about Islam and associating all Muslims and Arabs together. The West often times views Islam as "fundamental" "extremist" or "discriminatory", but all of these terms have be manipulated, purposely because of biased feelings and accidentally because of ignorance, by the media to present a negative image about Islam.

Othello and Images of the Orient in England

Along with reading Othello, I have been looking into some of the scholarship on the representation of Moors and Turks in English literature of the period. One book I looked at, The Moor in English Renaissance Drama, describes a rich and complex historical relationship between Moors and the English. An essay "Ethiops Washed White: Moors of the Nonvillainous Type" strongly emphasized the sexualizing of men of African background in English discourse and how that effects the portrayal of Othello. Reading this essay I wondered how modern stereotypes might be affecting the argument. An essay that seemed more careful to me was "Turning Turk in Othello" by Daniel Vitkus -- this essay we will all read for Monday. One thing I found fascinating in the essay was the fact that the Turks were seen as a threatening empire and that the English would understand the urgency that the Duke of Venice and the other Venetian characters express to defeat the Turkish threat and, thus, their turning to Othello to protect them. Wikipedia has an excellent article on the history of the Turkish empire and the threat it posed to Europe. Memhid II conquered Constantinople in 1453 and made it the new capital of the Ottoman Empire. That's Mr. Mehmid II himself pictured above.

Rashidun Empire

I knew that there was a large Islamic empire that included North Africa and the Middle East, but when I started researching it, I wanted to know more and get the specifics. I read a long article about the Rashidun Empire on Wikipedia that told an amazing story about the expansion of Islam after the death of Mohamed (632 AD). Within 24 years the successors of his religion had conquered an enormous territory, from what is now Afghanistan, across the Middle East to North Africa and the Mediterranean Sea and Spain. (Click on the map image -- it will get bigger and you can see how truly enormous this empire was!) This was all the more remarkable because there was, apparently, a great deal of dissent and disagreement about who should be the leader of the faith after Mohammad. One the one side, the Sunni's believed that the Caliph should be elected and they selected Abu Bakr. On the other side the Shi'a's believed Mohamed's son-in-law Ali ibn Abu Talib should be the leader -- setting the stage for a disagreement that has lasted to this day. The Islamic Arabs defeated other empires, notably the Byzantine, Persian, and North African empires in a series of battles. They taxed the people they conquered, but, apparently at a lower rate then their former colonial masters, and they had some legal protections for citizens, especially if they agreed to become Islamic. These measures, along with a carefully organized administration and military force, allowed them to set up and establish their long lasting rule. Other interesting sources on the Rashidun Caliphate include The Encyclopedia of World History and the Encyclopedia of the Orient, which claims that, "Modern Islamism as headed by the Muslim Brotherhood, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and Osama bin Laden and others have contented that the reestablishment of the Caliphate is the ultimate goal for their struggle against secularism and Western societies."

The Decameron, 10th day, novel 9: There is much to notice in this story of encounters between an Italian noble, Torello, and the leader of the Islamic leader of Babylon, Saladin, at the time of the crusades. I was especially charmed by the vivid scenes of banquets, night-time torch parades, and hawking. I loved the feeling of entering into this world of 800 years ago! I am really curious about what students found of interest.

Welcome to Oriental Interpretations

This academic blog will reflect and record the experience of a team of highly motivated literature students at Western Michigan University as we examine representations of the Middle East in classical and contemporary literature and film, and as we reflect on American understanding and involvement in this crucial area of the world.