Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Sunday, January 30, 2011,
Many observers are comparing what's happening in Egypt to how things turned from a people's revolution in Iran to a brutal theocracy in 1979. First, the comparison misses an important and critical difference. That revolution had a distinctly religious figure behind it. Ayatollah Khomeini was in exile in France and was at the heart of that popular uprising. He managed to stir up passions through his religious sermons famously distributed on audio cassettes throughout Iran. One of the most stri... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Sunday, January 30, 2011,
According to AFP, opposition leaders in Algeria have called for massive demonstrations there on February 12 with "the intention to change the regime." Many Arab countries are following the events in Egypt through Aljazeera and regimes there are bracing for a new era of domestic politics. It's not premature to say that Arab leaders have heard the message loud and clear (even if Mubarak refuses to step down) that ruling with an iron fist can no longer be tolerated. Governance is not an absolut... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Saturday, January 29, 2011,
The famous Egyptian teleIslamist Amr Khaled just appeared on CNN (almost crying) and announced that 50,000 members of his LifeMakers Association will go out tomorrow to fight against the looting of public and private property. The situation is dangerously precarious. It's clear the regime is on its way out and it will be a messy situation for sure. Mubarak appointed his intelligence chief as vice-president. Clearly this is a leader who doesn't make sense anymore and lives in his own world. He... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, January 28, 2011,
It is still unclear whether we have entered a post-Mubarak Egypt, but events on the ground all point to this fact. Egyptian television is reporting now that the head of the parliament says an important announcement will be made shortly. Thousands of people are in the streets welcoming the military and congratulating them on helping them take control. This is a historic development indeed. Aljazeera is reporting that a number of flights are leaving Egypt with businessmen and famous personalit... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, January 28, 2011,
According to AP, thousands of protesters are defying the curfew and are trying to occupy the ministry of foreign affairs and the building of Egypt's official television. Clinton's tone was stronger today in denouncing the violence but it didn't add anything new at this point. I'm sure that Mubarak will now say that he's willing to negotiate power (not in these terms) and he will announce some reform measures much like Ben Ali did in Tunisia at the height of the unrest there. This could be too... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, January 28, 2011,
It's hard to blog about the events in Egypt because they're moving very fast. Aljazeera is reporting that protesters are welcoming the military as they make their way to Al-Tahrir Square. It's unclear whether the military will clamp down on the protesters since the only sign coming from the president of Egypt who is also the commander in chief was to impose a curfew from 6 pm to 7 am tomorrow. Many protesters are hoping for a similar turn of events as in Tunisia when the military turned again... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, January 25, 2011,
Egypt is witnessing some of the biggest riots in many years as thousands
of people took to the streets chanting slogans as "Mubarak Mubarak,
Saudi Arabia is waiting for you." Below is a chilling video of what's
happening in Cairo today. A young protester stood in front of a
water-hosing truck in a moment reminiscent of the Chinese man who
defiantly stood in front of a tank during the Tiananmen Square uprising.
Twitter was blocked in Egypt and cell phone communication was interrupted. L... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, January 24, 2011,
Last night, Aljazeera released documents revealing important secrets about the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. While I believe this unprecedented revelation (more in terms of its details but not so much the substance of its accusations) to be quite useful, I think its timing was poorly planned. It is painful to see how low Fatah has stooped conceding too much to an Israeli side that is clearly not interested in making peace and only concerned about acquiring more land. Saeb Erakat, th... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, January 21, 2011,
An interesting episode of Al-Jazeera English' Riz Khan show on the role of social media in the Tunisian uprising. Sami Ben Gharbia, the co-founder of the Tunisian website Nawaat.org which has been critical these last few weeks to provide news about the events leading to the collapse of the president and his government, appears on the show along with famous Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas.
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Thursday, January 20, 2011,
You may have heard that Republican congressman Peter King of New York, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, will hold hearings in February about the radicalization of Muslims in America. King tells Muslims not to worry because he will not invite Islamophobes like Pamela Geller or Bruce Spencer, but he will appear on the debut episode of Brigitte Gabriel's weekly television show on American Life Network and Family Life. Gabriel, who is notorious for her anti-Muslim screeds, has elected ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, January 18, 2011,
I usually hate to speak in baffling generalizable terms, but the way Western governments have reacted to the remarkable events in Tunisia is outright sickening. The unctuous statements coming out of Western capitals about the bravery of the Tunisian people is hypocritical at best. Only now do we read about the scores of Wikileaks cables detailing the corruption of Ben Ali and his clan as if they were dark characters in a brilliantly-scripted drama. All this information and much more is availa... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, January 17, 2011,
Anthony Shadid said
it well in today's NYT that the year 2011 may be the beginning of the
end of an old Arab order. Citing election troubles in Egypt, the
government collapse in Lebanon, riots in Algeria, the probable
separation of the Sudan, and the street revolution of Tunisians, Shadid
is right to talk about a paradigm shift. His most revealing paragraph of
the article sums up things quite appropriately: "In the streets of the Tunisian summer getaway of Hammamet, in the
seething qua... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Saturday, January 15, 2011,
A
month after protests erupted in Tunisia leaving more than 80 people
dead, President Ben Ali finally heeded the call of his own people to
step down. You wouldn't know this by reading the media in the US, but
what's going on in Tunisia today is nothing short of historic. This is
the first time that an Arab dictatorship is brought down by street
protests. In a region where governance is inherited and the status quo
benefits a privileged few, it was only a moment of time before repressed... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, January 10, 2011,
This is the kind of articles we need to see more often. Denouncing violence verbally is one thing but showing support through concrete and strongly symbolic action is quite another. This past week, a number of prominent and ordinary Muslim Egyptians showed up at a Coptic mass and offered their bodies as a human shield to protect the Christian community. This is a bold first step in the right direction and I hope it will provide some fodder for a frank discussion of a long checkered history of... Continue reading ...
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
