CCAS Newsletter Summer Fall 2012

CCAS

newsletter

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies

Georgetown University

Inside

Summer - Fall 2012

FEATURE STORY

The Changing Calculus of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Electoral Participation

2 Letter from the Director 3 Faculty Memorial: Dr. Barbara Stowasser 5 Faculty News: Recent Faculty publications and awards

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Before Hosni Mubarak's ouster, the Brotherhood's electoral strategy was to effect slow, gradual change through political da´wa. This strategy has now radically changed.

Publications: Moroccan Dimensions published

6 Feature Story: Dr. Samer Shehata on the Muslim Brotherhood (continued from cover)

By Samer Shehata

8 Faculty Showcase: Adjunct Professor Kimberly Katz on the “Islamic” city

Egyptian Muslim Brother-

hood and its political arm, the

Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), has enthusiastically participated in elections in the post-Mubarak period. Earlier this year, the FJP won over 40 percent of seats in the country’s first parliamentary elections after “the January 25 revolution.” And now Mohamed Morsy, the FJP candidate, has made history by becoming the country's first democratically elected civilian president.

10 Public Events: Spring 2012 symposium and other events 13 Educational Outreach: Spring 2012 workshops and activities 15 Alumni: 20 MAAS students graduate

It is easy to understand why Egypt's most popular Islamist movement participates in competitive elections that hold the promise of achieving real political power. What is less obvious, however, is why the Muslim Brotherhood would participate in elections that were routinely fraudulent under the Mubarak regime. But this is, in fact, the group’s history. Samer Shehata

16 Faculty Feature: Dr. Samer Shehata on recent research

The Brotherhood has a long record of electoral participation, competing in every legislative election since 1984, with only one exception. What makes this surprising is that

FJP supporters attend a campaign event for Mohamed Morsy in the Nile Delta city of Benha, Egypt, on May 17, 2012.

during Hosni Mubarak’s rule (1981–2011), Egyptian elections were regularly characterized by widespread electoral fraud, including ballot-stuffing, biased electoral administration, vote buying, regime coercion against opposition supporters and candidates, and violence, often on the part of the regime against its opponents. As a result, elections in Egypt provided neither an opportunity to come to power through the ballot box nor a mechacontinued on page 6 nism for opposition

‫ﻣﺮﻛﺰ اﻟﺪراﺳﺎت اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻴﺔ اﳌﻌﺎﺻﺮة‬

Building on a Legacy

CCAS

Executive Commitee

Letter from the Director: Osama Abi-Mershed

pring 2012 ended on a tragic note for CCAS as our longtime partner, mentor, and friend, Barbara Stowasser, passed away unexpectedly on May 13. Barbara was one of the founders of CCAS, and a former president of the Middle East Studies Association (MESA). Throughout her 46 years of service to Georgetown University, she left her indelible stamp on the academic institution and on the field of Arab and Islamic Studies. Her absence will be deeply felt, but CCAS faculty, staff and students will continue building upon the solid foundation and legacy that she leaves behind. On May 25, members of Barbara’s immediate family joined with colleagues and students at CCAS, the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, and the department of Arabic and Islamic Studies to honor her memory and her numerous contributions to Georgetown University. Our sorrow was only eased by the news that Barbara’s latest manuscript has been accepted for publication by I.B. Tauris. As I near the end of the first year in my directorship, I cannot but express admiration for the impressive vitality and drive of the CCAS staff. As the contents of this newsletter will show, in addition to performing their usual, heavy workload, they also handled a staggering number of unforeseen developments with ingenuity, patience, and good spirit. I am also delighted to welcome our newest colleague, Nicholas Hilgeman, as Office Manager. Nicholas stepped in at a very demanding time in the semester and hit the ground running. I am especially beholden to Marina Krikorian for organizing our successful annual symposium while juggling the assignments of two full-time positions. Finally, I welcome the appointments of Hannes Baumann and Joseph Sassoon as Visiting Professors in International Relations of the Arab World and Political Economy of the Gulf, respectively. Their addition to our faculty roster will greatly enhance our curricular offerings, and enrich the intellectual life of the Center. In the course of the semester, the Center engaged with several initiatives to raise its international profile. In May, I traveled to the Gulf, where I met with my counterparts at Qatar University and Effat University. I was extremely pleased to meet longstanding members of the CCAS Board of Advisors (Mrs. Suad Juffali in Jeddah and Dr. Yousef Al-Ebraheem in Kuwait City), and to discuss with them the Center’s outlook and mission. In Doha, I participated in the commencement exercises for the School of Foreign Service in Qatar (SFS-Q), and attended the annual session of the advisory board for the Georgetown University Center for International and Regional Studies (CIRS). During my time on the board, I hope to cultivate opportunities for partnering with CIRS and SFS-Q. In this regard, Judith Tucker and I are working with SFS-Q Dean Gerd Nonneman to finalize the program for the second joint conference with the Peking University School of Foreign Languages, to be held at Georgetown University in early October 2012. Finally, in June and July, I represented the Center and delivered papers at the international conference on North African historiography at the University of Paris VIII (St. Denis), and at the annual El Watan colloquium in Algiers on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of Algeria’s independence. As always, the spring semester was crowned with the MAAS graduation ceremony. I congratulate the Class of 2012 for their remarkable individual accomplishments, and extend to each my best wishes for the future. It behooves me also to bring to their attention our alumni association, and I wish to compliment and thank Nicholas Oxenhorn and his acolytes for launching and maintaining Al Qawl, the official MAAS student blog. 

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

newsletter

CCAS Newsletter is published twice a year by the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, a component of the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University

Osama W. Abi-Mershed Associate Professor; History-Middle East and North Africa Director; Center for Contemporary Arab Studies Fida J. Adely

Assistant Professor;

Holder of the Clovis and Hala Salaam Maksoud Chair in Arab Studies Elliott Colla

Associate Professor Chair, Arabic and Islamic Studies Department Rochelle A. Davis

Associate Professor

Yvonne Y. Haddad

Professor, Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding Samer S. Shehata

Assistant Professor of Arab Politics Judith Tucker

Professor of History

Director, Master of Arts in Arab Studies Program Brenda Bickett

Middle Eastern and Islamic Studies Bibliographer

Staff Rania Kiblawi

Associate Director Zeina Azzam

Director of Educational Outreach Steven Gertz

Multimedia and Publications Editor Kelli Harris

Academic Program Coordinator Nicholas Hilgeman

Office Manager

Marina Krikorian

Public Affairs Coordinator Liliane Salimi

Development Coordinator Courtney Smith

Grant Administrator

Newsletter design by DesignCordero.

faculty memorial

Remembering Dr. Barbara Stowasser (1935-2012) Georgetown University and the fields of Arabic and Islamic studies have lost an erudite scholar, wise mentor, and dear friend. By Steven Gertz

hen I began my job as editor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Dr. Barbara Stowasser was the first CCAS faculty member to call me and congratulate me on my position. We spoke a little about my educational background, how her academic interests intersected with mine, and about her research on the Islamic calendar, then culminating in a book project. Dr. Stowasser’s warmth and welcome were genuine and heartfelt, and her love for the field of Islamic studies and her profession as an educator were contagious to this young editor just recently out of graduate school.

looking quite frail, but astutely interacted with student presentations, while sipping champagne that students brought for her. As I recall, she was literally wheeled out of class with a huge smile on her face in an atmosphere of celebration. May she find God’s rich mercy.” Dr. Stowasser passed away less than two weeks later. A Scholar of Scholars

CCAS

If one word could describe Dr. Stowasser well, it might be “vivacious.” She was a teacher, colleague, and scholar who passed on a love for life and learning to all who knew her. Her accomplishments were impressive. Having earned her PhD from the University of Münster in Germany, she taught Arabic and Islamic studies at Georgetown for 46 years, directed CCAS three different times, and wrote what is a definitive book in the field of Islamic studies, Women in the Qur’an: Traditions and Interpretation (Oxford, 1994). She held the Sultanate of Oman Chair in Arabic and Islamic Literature at Georgetown, and was for a term the president of the Middle East Studies Association. She was a powerhouse of scholarship and learning, and inspired both students and colleagues in her drive for excellence. Her passing, then, on May 13, 2012, came as a shock to us all. We at CCAS knew that not all was well with her, but her decline was unexpectedly steep and swift. Yet she was determined to work to the end. “It was my privilege to learn from her in one of her final classes,” wrote Matthew Anderson, one of her students. “She came to class

On May 25, 2012, CCAS held a small memorial in Dr. Stowasser’s honor, and invited close friends, family, and colleagues to the event. (Georgetown University will hold a much larger gathering in the fall, 2012, to remember Dr. Stowasser.) Several faculty members of CCAS who had known her well shared stories of a woman who was a pioneer in Islamic and Arabic studies. CCAS Professor Judith Tucker said that “Barbara was a scholar’s scholar. . . . Her Women in the Qur’an is a marvelous piece of work that really stands the test of time. It was a great choice of topic. No one had done anything similar [to it]. She focused on the portrayal of female figures in the Qur’an and their subsequent reshaping over time in rhythm with changing historical context. She was, as a result, one of the pioneers in the matter of understanding how gender came to be constructed in Islamic texts across the history of Islam.” Dr. Stowasser was, without doubt, an accomplished linguist. CCAS Professor Emeritus Irfan Shahid spoke about how she had studied in Germany all three Islamic languages: Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. “She had 

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

STOWASSER continued from page 3

a very good knowledge of Turkish and Arabic,” Dr. Shahid said, “and this helped her in expanding the department from one of Arabic [only] into a department of Islamic languages.” He went on to say that Dr. Stowasser’s knowledge of Turkish was so impressive that she was able to give a speech in Turkish to the Turkish National Assembly. By some faculty, Dr. Stowasser will be best remembered for the stimulating conversations and dialogue she initiated. “Georgetown University was more than a mere workplace for Dr. Stowasser,” said Professor Elliott Colla. “It was her seminar room where she could carry on discussions with fellow scholars . . . Dr. Stowasser was famous for her lively conversation, and those of us lucky enough to converse with her will never forget what a gift her mind and her perspective could be.”

saying she missed us and loved us. She was genuinely interested in all of us.” Zeina Azzam, the director of educational outreach at CCAS, who worked with Dr. Stowasser for many years, said that when asked, Dr. Stowasser was not afraid to broach personal subjects. “She was an intensely private person, but at the same time, she was very sensitive regarding her relations with others. When I asked, she gave me advice on everything, from the use of commas in Arabic, to speakers to invite to my workshops, to how to raise my children,” mused Ms. Azzam. “Barbara liked to communicate through letters. I will miss her long, handwritten missives.” Dr. Stowasser did not only impact her colleagues and students; she also left behind a

Steven Gertz is Multimedia and Publications Editor at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Religion and Political Development: Comparative Ideas on Ibn Khaldun and Machiavelli by Barbara Stowasser

Other CCAS faculty members spoke about Dr. Stowasser’s scholarly tenacity even in the face of great pain. “The last two months before she died,” said Professor Yvonne Haddad, “she was working on her manuscript [The Day Begins at Sunset: Calendars, Globalizations, and the Islamic Impulse]. She said to me, ‘I have to finish those footnotes. . . . I want to make sure that every footnote is exactly the way it should be.’ . . . She probably had some premonition of what was going to happen, but she never let anybody know. She was that determined.”

Occasional Paper

Religion and Polit ical Development: Com parative Ideas on Ibn Khal dun and Machiavelli

Improving on two earlier versions of her paper, Dr. Stowasser’s last Occasional Paper presented an interesting and unusual comparison of the political philosophy of two great medieval thinkers: Ibn Khaldun (d. 1402) and Machiavelli (d. 1527). Stowasser probed the idea that Ibn Khaldun was Machiavelli’s predecessor “in developing a truly ‘modern’ (i.e., secular) science of politics and society,” but concluded that Ibn Khaldun “never perceived government as an autonomous secular activity capable of making its own morality which could be considered apart from religion.” Along the way, she explored Ibn Khaldun’s concept of ‘asabiyya (social solidarity) and Machiavelli’s concept of virtù as the thinkers applied them to understanding why some nations succeed while others fail. And she contrasted Ibn Khaldun’s admiration of the political strength of early Islam with Machiavelli’s disgust with the political weakness of Christianity.  Barbara Freyer Stowa sser

Friend and Counselor

Above, Dr. Stowasser stands in the Crusader fortress Krak des Chevaliers in Syria. To the left, she poses with former CCAS staff, while to the right, she teaches a class at Georgetown.

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Bottom left and right: CCAS; Top right: Zeina Azzam

Dr. Stowasser, while wholly committed to her work, also cared deeply about the people in her life. PhD student Enass Khansa, who helped Dr. Stowasser with the research on her final book, spoke about how “Dr. Stowasser cared for each and every one of us, followed everything in our lives, and was supportive and gracious. She sent emails checking on us,

family who loved her. Andy Stowasser, one of Barbara’s two sons, attended CCAS’s remembrance event with his family. “Life is about time and cycles, “ said daughter-in-law Teresa Stowasser. “Mom wrote about time, calendars, and religion. We always think that life is going to go on forever, and that we will last forever. But we . . . also have an end. Unfortunately hers came much too soon.” 

Faculty NEWS

ssistant Professor Fida Adely published the article “‘God Made Beautiful Things’: Proper Faith and Religious Authority in a Jordanian High School” in American Ethnologist 39:2, 297312, and she has a forthcoming book to be published in August, 2012, titled Gendered Paradoxes: Educating Jordanian Women in Nation, Faith, and Progress (University of Chicago Press, 2012). Associate Professor Rochelle Davis completed a fellowship at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars researching the U.S. military’s conception of culture in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In January she participated in a workshop for professors at ‘Ayn Shams and Cairo Universities about how to create assignments for students to contribute content to Arabic Wikipedia. Davis also contributed to a collaborative report on urban refugees in Jordan and Egypt.

She continues work with the Palestine Poster Project Archive, is on the executive board of the Palestinian American Research Center, and is as an editorial board member of Middle East Report. Assistant Professor Samer Shehata published the article “Political da‘wa: understanding the Muslim Brotherhood’s participation in semi-authoritarian elections” in a volume he edited titled Islamist Politics in the Middle East (Routledge, 2012) (see newsletter’s cover for abridgement of article). Dr. Shehata also published two articles: “The Muslim Brothers in Mubarak’s Last Decade” (with Joshua Stacher) in Jeannie Sowers and Chris Toensing (eds.), The Journey to Tahrir: Revolution, Protest and Social Change in Egypt (London: Verso, 2012), 160-177; and “Egypt: the Founders,” in Robin Wright, ed., The Islamists Are Coming (Woodrow Wilson Center Press, 2012), 21-30.

Adjunct Professor Joseph Sassoon published in French and English “The Competence of Tyrants” in the February, 2012 edition of Le Monde Diplomatique, and he published “Economic Lessons from Iraq for Countries of the Arab Spring” in the Middle East Program Occasional Paper Series, Spring 2:2012, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. He also gave more than 10 talks about his recent publication Saddam Hussein’s Ba`th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime (Cambridge University Press, 2012). Professor Judith Tucker was the distinguished lecturer at the Journal of Middle East Women's Studies Distinguished Lecture and Research Workshop on May 3, 2012, at Yale University. She also reviewed Susan Spectorsky’s Women in Classical Islamic Law: A Survey of the Sources in the International Journal of Middle East Studies 44:1 (February, 2012), 183-185. 

PUBLICATIONs

Announcing Publication of Moroccan Dimensions

CAS is pleased to publish Moroccan Dimensions, a 60-page compendium of four articles written by leading scholars on various dimensions of Morocco’s history, culture, and literature, and illustrated by images in the center of the book. In the first article, Valérie K. Orlando asks why French has dominated the literary scene, when it is not the mother tongue of Morocco. Abdelfattah Kilito ponders the use of ‘ā mmiyya in works of Moroccan literature, and questions more generally what types of work constitute a literature. Rahma Bourqia reviews the reform of Morocco’s

family law in the endeavor to expand women’s rights, and demonstrates how widespread change in social mores are challenging traditional positions in Moroccan law. Mo241 Intercultural Center 37th and O Streets N.W. hammed Kenbib writes on the Washington, D.C. 20057 202-687-5793 ebbing fortunes of Morocco’s http://ccas.georgetown.edu Jewish minority in the wake of the political and military conflicts that engulfed the region in the mid-twentieth century.

Rahma Bourqia Mohammed Kenbib Abdelfattah Kilito Valérie K. Orlando

Moroccan Dimensions

CCAS is selling Moroccan Dimensions at $15 per copy. To purchase, go to ccas.georgeCover photo: Ragne Kabanova / Shutterstock.com town.edu/research/books, and Cover design: DesignCordero click on "Request Publications" to order your copy.

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

feature story brotherhood continued from cover

parties and groups to influence policy. Moreover, the Brotherhood — its candidates and supporters — often paid a heavy price for contesting elections under Mubarak (e.g., intimidation, repression, imprisonment). Faced with this situation, why did the Muslim Brotherhood consistently participate in elections that were unlikely to yield the expected benefits of electoral participation?

Bushra al-Samni, a Muslim Brotherhood candidate for parliament in Alexandria, campaigns in a coffee shop during the 2010 elections.

Political Da‘wa

For the Muslim Brotherhood, electoral participation (and, later, membership in parliament) served as a mechanism to propagate its ideas and disseminate its ideology to wider segments of society. I call this political da‘wa. The word has specific Islamic connotations, but here I use it to describe the Brotherhood’s efforts to use both elections and parliament to communicate its political message. Electoral participation during the Mubarak era was not primarily about winning votes, gaining seats, or influencing policy, but rather, disseminating the group’s message and expanding its influence, with the ultimate goal of effecting social and political change.

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

What I call political da‘wa also continued once inside parliament, when those fortunate Muslim Brotherhood candidates became Muslim Brotherhood parliamentarians. And Brotherhood parliamentarians were particularly skillful at using parliament (and their status as MPs) as a stage or platform to make their views heard, criticize the Mubarak regime, publicize certain issues, and present themselves to the public as serious, responsible, sincere, hard-working, and reliable leaders. Brotherhood MPs also used parliamentary membership to effectively undertake political da‘wa in a number of other important ways. Two of these were by opening district offices (and their associated community outreach programs) and through the parliamentary bloc’s “media center.” Across the country, Brotherhood parliamentarians opened district offices, often opening multiple offices in different neighborhoods in a single district. These offices provided a legal and semi-permanent presence for Brotherhood MPs—and, by extension, for the Brotherhood organization—to connect with local residents. They were also places where residents would come to present their problems and seek assistance; Brotherhood MPs and their office staff met with district residents and provided constituent services, one of the primary functions of Egyptian parliamentarians. The importance of such offices cannot be overstated: they constituted a physical presence in the community, providing services to residents, engaging in outreach activities, and propagating the organization’s message (through da‘wa and action). District offices afforded the organization legal and institutional proximity to the populace to further engage in political da‘wa. Raising Reputations

The Brotherhood also derived other benefits from participating in semi-authoritarian elections. Electoral participation and parliamentary membership can provide reputational benefits for Islamist groups such as the Muslim Brotherhood and other supposedly “radical” organizations. Participating in elections demonstrates to the general public, the regime, and the international community that the Brotherhood is neither radical nor revolutionary, but willing to play within the existing political system, despite the rigged rules of the game. Electoral participation under Mubarak became a demonstration of the group’s commitment to peaceful political activity, despite regime repression and electoral manipulation.

Samer Shehata

Thus, for the Muslim Brotherhood, electoral participation under Mubarak was its own reward, irrespective of whether elections were free or fair or opposition candidates won parliamentary seats. The Brotherhood used elections to augment the organization’s ability to connect with members of the general public. Elections provided a legal and institutional mechanism for doing so. (Elections in semi-authoritarian regimes often provide opposition groups with moments of opportunity to publicly engage in politics, which are often lacking in such polities.) For example, during elections, Brotherhood candidates campaigned much like others: they opened offices when al-

lowed, took campaign walks in their districts, met potential voters, printed campaign material, held rallies, gave speeches, and presented their views to the public.

In fact, in Mubarak’s Egypt and in other authoritarian contexts, Islamists made concerted efforts to limit their electoral participation so as not to threaten incumbent regimes. Islamist organizations intentionally fielded fewer candidates than possible in order to signal their limited political aspirations: to be included in politics but not to dominate. “Participation not domination” was one of the Brotherhood’s slogans during the 2005 and 2010 elections. This was the logic behind the Brotherhood’s initial pledges following the Egyptian "revolution" that it would only contest a limited number of parliamentary seats and not field a presidential candidate. Of course, the Brotherhood soon realized that the political game had radically changed after Mubarak’s ouster and the group’s electoral strategy changed as a result. The Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party eventually contested all of the parliamentary seats and then ran two!— not one — presidential candidates (i.e., Khayrat Al Shater and Mohamed Morsy). In the past, participation in “authoritarian elections” also served as a vivid reminder to audiences, both foreign and domestic, that the Mubarak regime lacked electoral legitimacy. Contesting fraudulent elections exposed the regime as unpopular, based in great measure on violence and electoral manipulation. While exposing the regime’s democratic façade, electoral participation under Mubarak simultaneously won the Brotherhood sympathy as a victim of electoral fraud and repression. Side Benefits

AFP/Getty Images

Membership in parliament also had its privileges. Both individual MPs and the Brotherhood as an organization benefited from having representatives in the People’s Assembly. In Egypt, parliamentary membership provides MPs with “immunity” and some, although not complete, protection from the regime and its often arbitrary exercise of power. For example, Muslim Brotherhood MPs had more freedom of maneuver and movement than their colleagues in the Brotherhood, including the ability to travel abroad. And despite the Mubarak regime’s crackdown on the organization beginning in 2006, not a single Brotherhood MP was arrested. Although the regime could harass parliamentarians, membership in parliament made repression against MPs more costly as a regime strategy. Membership in parliament also provided connections and some access to state resources, and hence opportunities to serve constituents. Even though the regime was likely to limit the access of opposition MPs to government coffers, their status as parliamentarians provided connections to

Muslim Brotherhood members of Egypt's parliament protest the renewal of the Emergency Law under Mubarak in 2006. The members' sashes read Lā lil-t·awā ri’ (No to Emergency [Law]).

ministries and local officials that could potentially be useful for local residents. Participating in elections also afforded the Brotherhood some of the usual benefits of electoral participation: training, educating cadres, and mobilizing members. Competing in national elections involved mobilizing thousands of people from across the country and actively including them in the group’s political activities. Thus, elections allowed the Brotherhood to “mobilize the base.” Elections also provided opportunities for members to gain valuable political experience and skill. Muslim Brothers managed district campaigns, organized events, interacted with the public, disseminated a “message,” and ran against other candidates. In the process, they learned about strategy, political communication, and gained organizational experience and skills. Looking Ahead

In the wake of the “January 25 revolution,” the establishment of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party, and the holding of competitive elections, the logic of the group’s electoral strategy has fundamentally — and forever — changed. Political da‘wa is no longer the Brotherhood’s primary goal, and the Islamist movement, through its Freedom and Justice Party, is now intensely, and ambitiously, competing for votes, office, and ultimately state power.  Samer Shehata is Assistant Professor of Arab Politics at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies. This article was adapted from “Political da‘wa: Understanding the Muslim Brotherhood’s participation in semi-authoritarian elections” in Islamist Politics in the Middle East (Routledge, 2012). The book features 11 articles, with chapters on other leading Islamist movements, such as Hizbullah and Hamas.

Samer S. She

hata

Islamist Politics in the Middle East Mo vements and Change

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

faculty showcase

Revisiting the Notion of the “Islamic City” The idea that cities were built according to Islamic dictates survives into the present day, but it is time to move on. By Kimberly Katz

hile most people live in cities, few stop to think

Many “Islamic” cities have in fact never been entirely Muslim in composition. To the far left is a street of the Juderia, or the Jewish section of the old Arab city of Cordoba, Spain, while to the right is an alley in the Christian quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem. Above, the city of Granada (also in Spain) sprawls in winding fashion across outlying hills of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.

that there is something called the “Islamic city.” The first half of the twentieth century witnessed the birth of the idea of the “Islamic city” by the Frenchman, William Marçais, based on the premise that Islam is essentially an urban religion, a notion further popularized by his brother, George. The idea that emerged effectively identified religion as having given shape to cities populated and ruled over by Muslims and governed by Islamic law. The Marçais brothers erroneously attributed an Islamic identity to, for example, the ḥammāmāt (bathhouses) and aswāq (marketplaces) of the cities under French colonial rule, particularly in North Africa. While the notion of the “Islamic city” has been largely debunked by scholarship of the late twentieth

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

century, the term continues to exist as scholars, and others writing about the region’s urban areas, grapple with how to categorize the cities that are located in the Middle East, North Africa, and the Gulf. Using Islam as a category of analysis to identify cities across the region (not to mention cities in sub-Saharan Africa, India, and Southeast Asia) has proven largely unsatisfying. It is true that cities have become what they are in part because they have been ruled over by Muslims or have a majority population that is Muslim. Additionally, aspects of Islam (such as laws on building and neighbors’ rights) have influenced the construction of cities. But the overriding premise for the notion of the “Islamic city”—that such cit-

Granada (above): Lisa Gertz; Alleyways of Cordoba (left): Steven Gertz

about how cities were conceived and built and how they developed over the centuries. Rarely do people consider how culture has both changed cities and been changed within cities, and perhaps even less do they consider urban environments outside of their own historical and cultural contexts. Urban space is a complex environment— various groups pass through or settle in cities and leave their mark on the architecture and building styles, the local markets and the long-distance commerce, and the religions, pilgrimage sites, and houses of prayer. The population inhabiting cities also changes the social and cultural aspects of urban space. In addition to those topics, examining cities in the Arab world requires consideration of the major imperial powers, whose wealth and interest, or lack of interest, has helped shape cities as diverse as Baghdad, Cairo, Damascus, and Cordoba. The Abbasids and the Fatimids founded and ruled over the first two, while the Umayyads ruled over the latter two, both of which existed before their imperial presence. Imperial dynasties like these also ruled over smaller cities, including holy cities like Jerusalem, Qayrawan, and Karbala. This variety suggests that cities can be studied for their function—as port cities, religious cities, capital cities, caravan cities, or garrison cities—just as they can be examined through the people who live or lived there. Limited familiarity with cities in the Arab-Islamic world leads to misconceptions about the morphology and taxonomy of urban space in the region, including the notion

Alleyways of Jerusalem (right): Steven Gertz

ies, in contrast to the medieval western ones, have no tradition of municipal planning and organization—is false. The notion that labyrinthine “old cities” lack the order and organization of their western medieval counterparts cannot be accurately applied to all cities in the dār al-Islām (the "abode of Islam," where Muslim rule holds sway) or in the places where large Muslim populations live. Now there may be similarities in the cities ranging from North Africa to the Middle East to the Gulf and beyond this region, and such similarities may be due to the fact that juridical and spatial interpretations by Muslims weighed heavily as cities developed. But relying solely on the idea that Islam somehow created a plan for how cities could be built and that these cities would be “Islamic” overlooks a more significant issue. To quote Janet Abu-Lughod, “cities are living processes rather than formalistic shells for living.”1

Urban centers have not developed exactly the same everywhere, for that would ignore the political, legal, social, cultural, and religious differences that exist across different regions. It would ignore minority groups, for example, who live in many of the “Islamic” cities one might examine and who may not necessarily utilize the space deemed specifically “Islamic.” Minorities also contribute their own social, cultural, and religious sensibilities to the evolution and development of the cities in which they live. Debunking the notion of the “Islamic city” has taken most of the second half of the twentieth century and, 1. This article draws on the work of Janet Abu-Lughod in “The Islamic City—Historic Myth, Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance,” which appeared in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, 19:2 (May, 1987), 155-176.

fortunately, scholars have a greater variety of analytical tools to help us understand cities, both old and new, along with their function, their character, the role that they play in commerce and politics, and the ways that people create meaning in them. In thinking about the fast-changing region of today, one can only imagine the potential changes that might come to Arab cities. The ideologies of the twentieth century that have affected the cityscape and built nationalist monuments are tied to leaders whose citizens have rejected their leadership. Can it be long before the new regimes begin making morphological changes to Tunis and Cairo and Benghazi? In parallel to this, authoritarian regimes continue to try to exert their control over the populations and the cities in which they live. The symbols of the past, like Bahrain’s Pearl Square in Manama, have been torn down by a leadership seeking to reclaim urban space for itself. How will people respond in a way that will create the new cities and urban environments that reflects the kind of life they wish to live in the twenty-first century? The study of cities will continue to evolve as their inhabitants seek new ways to make their urban environments suit their social, political, religious, economic, and cultural needs.  Kimberly Katz is Associate Professor of Middle East History at Towson University in Towson, Maryland, and an adjunct professor in the Department of History at Georgetown University. She presented her ideas on the "Islamic" city to Washington, D.C.-area teachers during the CCAS-sponsored seminar, “The Arab City in History,” on April 14, 2012. (see page 14.)

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

PUBLIC EVENTS

“The People Want the Fall of the Regime” CCAS highlights some of the 2012 Symposium’s presentations from experts on the “Arab Spring.” By Marina Krikorian

n the wake of unprecedented protests

across the Arab world, the faculty and staff of CCAS decided that the Arab uprisings would be the most appropriate and engaging topic for the Center’s 2012 symposium. On March 22 and 23, 2012, Assistant Professor of Arab Politics Samer Shehata chaired “‘The People Want the Fall of the Regime’: The Arab Uprisings and the Future of Arab Politics” in Georgetown University’s Lohrfink Auditorium. Seven expert panels explored important themes that emerged out of the uprisings and analyzed events in particular countries or sub-regions. and popular mobilization

brutally repressed protestors, such as Bahrain, the autocratic regime survived.

military refused to fire upon protestors, the ruling autocrat was forced to flee; in cases where the military stood by the autocrat and

Speakers on the third panel addressed the role of social media in facilitating mass mobilization across the Arab world. Dr. Marwan Kraidy contended that the role of social media in the uprisings has been overhyped. He argued that “blogs and social media are in many ways a large echo chamber, shared at once by the foot soldiers of the uprisings, by cyber dissidents, by Arab and foreign intelligence agencies, and a motley crew of loose cannons and crackpots,” and he illustrated the ways in which mainstream media have become dependent on unverifiable

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

The fourth panel assessed the topic of civilmilitary relations in the Arab uprisings. Dr. Robert Springborg surveyed these relations across the region, stating that Tunisia is the only country where there has been a happy outcome between the civilian population and the military in the wake of the uprisings. He outlined variables that illuminate civil-military relations in the Arab world, showing, for example, that countries without hydrocarbon wealth (Jordan, Lebanon, and Morocco) and those with the greatest hydrocarbon wealth (the five GCC countries, minus Bahrain) have had the least amount of political violence,

Above, Dr. Robert Springborg presents his ideas, while to the right, Dr. Marwan Kraidy speaks from his panel. To the left, MAAS student Line Zouhour Adi poses her question.

whereas the states in between have had much more. Other variables that he highlighted were the strength of Islamism, the role of external actors, and the type of state (i.e. monarchies continued on page 12 versus republics).

Z. Shah

The first panel of the conference deliberated over what these revolts say about the durability of authoritarianism in the Arab world and whether the “Arab Spring” should prompt political scientists to reevaluate the notion that the Arab world is “impervious to democracy.” Dr. Eva Bellin contended that the events of the Arab Spring confirmed important truisms that shape authoritarian regime survival, arguing, for example, that the military’s decision over whether or not to shoot protestors was the most important factor in deciding the fate of the authoritarian regime. In the cases of Tunisia and Egypt, where the

Dr. Asli Bali’s presentation on intervention in Libya in the second panel was perhaps the most controversial of the conference. Her analysis raised legal and ethical questions about international military action, and she questioned the use of the term “revolution” to describe cases where outside actors assisted indigenous uprisings. She asserted that western countries have often intervened in the affairs of countries with priorities other than those held by insurgents leading the uprisings. Dr. Bali questioned the logic of using military intervention with the humanitarian intention of saving lives, especially when the number of civilian deaths that occurred as a result of intervention in Libya was never examined.

information from social media sources. He traced the history of actual media uses for social change, calling into question the argument that the recent uprisings were unique and unprecedented. In a sentiment echoed repeatedly throughout the symposium, Dr. Kraidy cautioned that we need more time to elapse before we can attempt to understand the revolutions.

CCAS 2012 sium Annual Sympo

WANT E

THE PEOPL

Symposium Panels Panel 1: Authoritarian Politics in the Arab World: Explaining Regime Durability, Breakdown, and Protest Lisa Wedeen (University of Chicago): “Syria’s Uprising and

THE

E REGIME LS OandFtheTH LING POLITICS FA FUTURE OF ARAB UPRIS

THE ARAB

Generational Change: Class, Ideology, and the Importance of Social Theory” Eva Bellin (Brandeis University): “Reconsidering the Robust-

ness of Arab Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring” Joseph Sassoon (Georgetown/Oxford University): “Durability

of Authoritarian Regimes: the Role of Security Services and Informants” Panel 2: Revolutions, Rebellion, Uprisings, or Authoritarian Survival? Understanding Political Change in the Arab World Mohammed Bamyeh (University of Pittsburgh): “From Old

Nationalism to New Patriotism: A Preliminary Sketch of the Ideology of the Arab Revolutions” Asli Bali (UCLA): “Uprisings and Intervention in the Arab

World after 2011” Panel 3: Economics, Youth, and Technology in the “Arab Spring” Joel Beinin (Stanford University): “What Have Workers

Gained from Egypt’s January 25 ‘Revolution’?” Adel Iskandar (Georgetown University): “Are We All Khaled

Said? Social Media, Dissidence, and Participatory Governance in Egypt” Marwan M. Kraidy (Univ. of Pennsylvania/American Univ. in Beirut): “Plato’s Digital Cave: The Hypermediation of the

Arab Uprisings” Panel 4: Civil-Military Relations in the Arab Uprisings Noureddine Jebnoun (Georgetown University): “In the

Shadow of Power: Civil-Military Relations and the Tunisian Popular Revolution” Robert Springborg (Naval Postgraduate School): “Civil-

Military Relations in the Wake of the Arab Uprisings: Arab Exceptionalism Redux” Panel 5: Tunisia and Egypt Eric Gobe (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France & Centre Jacques Berque, Rabat, Morocco): “Law-

yers and Revolution: Political Mobilization and Professional Power in Tunisia”

Panels

• Authoritarian Poli Regime Durabilit tics in the Arab World: Exp laining y, Breakdown, and Protest • Revolutions, Reb Understanding ellion, Uprisings or Authorita Political Change rian in the Arab Wor Survival? • Economics, Youth and Tech ld nology in the • Civil-Military “Arab Spring” Relations and the Arab Upri • Tunisia, Egy sing s pt, and Libya • Bahrain, Yem en, Syria & Saud i Arabia • Politics afte r Auth or Authoritarian oritarianism: Democratic Transitions Adaptation?

March 22 &

Rafik B. Hariri

23, 2012

Building • Lohr

fink Auditorium RSVP Day one • Georgetown - http University Day two - http ://2012symposium1.eventbr ://2012sympo sium2.eventbrite.com/ For a detailed ite.com/ agenda and spea please visit http ://ccas.george ker details, town .edu For more infor ccasevents@g mation contact eorgetown.ed u or 202-6876215 PHOTO CREDITS: Left

and right: Timot

hy Kaldas; Middle

: Creative Comm

ons

Dina Bishara (George Washington University): “Mismanaging

Dissent: The Unintended Consequences of Regime Response to Labor Protests in Egypt 2006-2011” Elliott Colla (Georgetown University): “The People Want?:

Poetry, Slogan, and Revolutionary Repertoire in Egypt” Panel 6: Yemen, Syria, and the Gulf States Stacey Philbrick Yadav (Hobart and William Smith Colleges):

“(Dis)Unity in Difference? Opposition Responses to the GCC Process in Yemen” Bassam Haddad (George Mason/Georgetown University):

“The Limits of Authoritarian Resilience in Syria” Gerd Nonneman (Georgetown University SFS-Qatar): “The

GCC and the Arab Spring: Omnibalancing and Regime Quirks in Riyadh and Doha” Panel 7: Politics after Authoritarianism: Democratic Transitions or Authoritarian Adaptation? Christopher Alexander (Davidson College): “Tunisia: Reflec-

tions on Politics in the Early Second Republic” Thomas Husken (Facheinhet Ethnologie, Universitat Bayreuth): “Political Culture and the Revolution in the Cyre-

naica of Libya” Heba Raouf Ezzat (Cairo University): “The Republic vs. the

State: Reflections on the Egyptian Revolution”

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

PUBLIC EVENTS symposium continued from page 10

The fifth and sixth panels examined specific features of the countries that had been most impacted by the uprisings. Of particular interest was the presentation by Dr. Elliott Colla, who analyzed the popular rallying cry of the Arab uprisings “ash-sha‘b yurīd isqāṭ an-niẓām,” from which the CCAS symposium took its name. Dr. Colla looked at how the slogan “the people want” entered into “the contentious performances of Egyptian activists.” He discussed the importance of familiarity and repetition as verse-makers developed slogans for activism, demonstrating how the slogan was able to move seamlessly from Tunis to Cairo through activist

networks. He also showed how the opening lines of the famous twentieth-century poem by Tunisian Abu al-Qasim al-Shabbi, “The People Want to Live,” inspired the slogans, and how the slogans’ sound patterns were taken from Arabic protest music. The final panel concluded the symposium by reflecting on post-authoritarian politics in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia. Dr. Christopher Alexander outlined how the relative success of the Tunisian case is partly a byproduct of policies enacted by the former regime itself, and is also a result of the historic cooperation between Islamists and secularists. With

guarded optimism, he went on to identify challenges that Tunisia faces today, among them economic crisis, electoral policies, and the role of religion in politics. As with many presentations throughout the symposium, his paper raised issues that, while particular to a certain country, have resonance across the region, and highlighted the fact that much more time will need to pass before we can truly assess the successes or failures of the “Arab Spring.” 

Marina Krikorian is Public Affairs Coordinator at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Public Affairs Spring Semester Highlights By Marina Krikorian

CCAS annual symposium, the CCAS Public Affairs program also hosted several faculty lectures, book talks, musical performances, and film screenings throughout the spring semester, some highlights of which are listed below. n addition to the

Joseph Sassoon: Saddam Hussein’s Ba‘th Party January 24, 2012 CCAS Adjunct Professor Dr. Joseph Sassoon spoke at a celebration of his new book, Saddam Hussein’s Ba‘th Party: Inside an Authoritarian Regime. Dr. Sassoon, who was born in Baghdad and studied at St. Antony’s College, Oxford, described his book as “an attempt to understand the inner working of a modern Arab state from its own meticulous records rather than from journalistic or secondary sources.” Analyzing the vast number of documents captured by the U.S. in 2003, Dr. Sassoon compiled an in-depth picture of the Ba‘th party’s strategies and operations.

Dr. Rania K. Sweis: Taking Care of Wounds: An Ethnography of Humanitarian Medicine and the Condition of Child Homelessness in Cairo February 9, 2012 CCAS’s Qatar Post-Doctoral Fellow Dr. Rania Sweis presented some of her latest anthropological research on street children (or

“children at risk”) in Cairo, Egypt. In her talk, Dr. Sweis asked how transnational humanitarian organizations (also known as non-governmental organizations) in Cairo were relating to the Egyptian government, and she examined this question through a case study of a street boy who was making use of the services offered by western humanitarian projects in Cairo.

Filming the Damascus Spring and Political Art in Assad’s Syria April 18, 2012 With the assistance of MAAS student Line Zouhour Adi, CCAS screened two Syrian films about political imprisonment and the struggles of political dissidents in Syria. Al-Layl al-Ṭawīl (The Long Night), by Haitham Hakki (2009) narrates the release of three inmates following President Bashar al-Assad’s amnesty of hundreds of political prisoners when he took power in 2001. Following their liberation, they face the challenges of going back to a normal life and the reactions of their families. The Long Night portrays the life and struggles of dissident Syrians artists and intellectuals in the context of the Damascus Spring. Riḥla ilā al-Dhākira (Journey into Memory) by Hala Mohammad (2010) chronicles three writers (Ghassan Jba’i, Yassin Hajj Saleh, and Faraj Bera’qdar) as they embark on a journey back to the infamous jail of Palmyra where they spent years as political prisoners, recalling the spirit that helped them survive torture and isolation. The screening was followed by a discussion moderated by CCAS Adjunct Professor Bassam Haddad.  For information about upcoming events, please visit: http://ccas.georgetown.edu/events/

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Educational OUTREACH

Arab Music and Popular Culture in the Mediterranean By Zeina Azzam

CCAS

or five Tuesday evenings in FebruaryMarch 2012, the CCAS outreach program ran the mini-course, “Mediterranean Crossings and Cultural Connections,” for K-14 educators. Ted Swedenburg, who teaches at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Arkansas and was at Georgetown for the school year 2011-12 as the Jamal Daniel Visiting Professor of Levant Studies, taught this series, exploring rai, rap, Nubian, and Mizrahi music. Dr. Swedenburg said that rai music, popular among Algerian youth, has been influenced by Western pop music and become mainstream in France through migration. It started in Algeria in the 1930s but did not become known in the West until the late 1980s, after the state lifted its controls on rai musicians and their rebellious lyrics. The word rai has been variously translated as “destiny,” “fate,” “opinion,” or “bad luck.” Rap music has found an outlet in Palestinian musicians. But those performing hiphop feel that Western interest has focused on hip-hop to the exclusion of other genres of Palestinian music, and that this attention has highlighted the “resistance model” of their music—as if no other styles existed. Palestinian rap artists, in particular, want to be appreciated as artists and poets, and not solely as rapping to push a political agenda. One of the first groups was DAM, whose members hailed from Lydda with origins in the Israeli Jewish rap scene. Their hit rap song, “Meen Erhabi,” has received almost half a million hits on YouTube. Nubian music and dance have had a significant impact in Egypt’s main cities and beyond. This music from southern Egypt and Sudan consists primarily of singing accom-

Arab Music on Display By Zeina Azzam

Above, Ted Swedenburg lectures on Arab music.

panied by the tar (frame drum) and clapping. Based on the pentatonic scale, this music is heard mostly at weddings and collective celebrations of Nubian pride. Mizrahi music combines Arab and Western instruments with Hebrew and Arabic lyrics, and features primarily Arab melodies. Many of these Mizrahim, or “Arab Jews,” make up over 50 percent of Israel’s population, but were pressed to leave their Arab cultural roots behind; however, their impulse for Arab music resurfaced with the cassette revolution in the early 1970s. Dr. Swedenburg wrapped up the series with a screening of the recent Egyptian film, “Microphone.” It depicts the vibrant alternative art and music scene in the port city of Alexandria. Filmed in late 2010, it is an account of young artists and their struggles to find public spaces to display and perform their work. In some sense, the film prefigures the Egyptian revolution of January 2011, as it captures the dissatisfaction, marginality, and grievances of many people in Egyptian society.

Karim Nagi, an internationally acclaimed Egyptian musician, percussionist, folk dancer, and performer who has been introducing traditional Arab music to teachers and educators for many years, offered an exciting workshop for teachers on April 19, 2012, on Arab music. He explained Arab rhythms, melodies, styles of music, regional differences, folklore, and context. The event included hands-on and participatory exercises for musicians and non-musicians. After the workshop, Mr. Nagi presented a public performance of his original work, “Arabized” that mixes traditional dancing, drumming, buzuq (a long-necked stringed instrument), and narration with remixing and mash-ups of famous Arab and Western songs. 

Zeina Azzam is Director of Educational Outreach at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

Educational OUTREACH

The Evolution of the Arab City By Courtney Elizabeth Smith

April 14, 2012, the National Resource Center for the Middle East and North Africa and CCAS’s Community Resource Service program sponsored a seminar titled “The Arab City in History: A Saturday Seminar for Teachers.” This interactive event utilized a variety of media to educate 25 K-12, community college, and adult education teachers about the history of urban centers in the Arab world. n

Dr. Salim Tamari, Visiting Professor of Sociology and History at CCAS, and Dr. Kimberly Katz, Associate Professor of Middle East History at Towson University, presented the historical and social processes that shaped Arab cities and their populations. Dr. Katz began by showing how the study of Islam’s expansion has been intricately connected to the study of its cities. Presenting a typology of cities and distinguishing those that developed (or reemerged) as centers of sacred, economic, or political importance, she asked if there was such a thing as an Islamic city (see pages 8 and 9). Dr. Tamari then built on this by explaining the process by which religious sites became enmeshed in national politics, which in turn led to practices of segregation.

ment began, resulting in the “futuristic” and built-up city that we know today. Dr. Tamari traced the history of Jerusalem, focusing on the Ottoman Empire. He characterized Ottoman Jerusalem not as a “religious city” but rather as a “city of religion,” home to Jewish, Muslim, and Christian peoples who were free to mix (although the Armenian quarter was fully segregated). During the British colonial period, the old city of Jerusalem was divided into four quarters along religious lines; passports were issued with one’s religion stamped on them, and the British segregated these areas in order to facilitate

While the old city of Fes (above) retains many of the features of the medieval town, Dubai (below) has been thoroughly remade into a “modern” metropolis.

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Courtney Elizabeth Smith is Grant Administrator at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

Fes: Zeina Azzam; Dubai: Rana Khoury

Drs. Katz and Tamari then explored case studies of cities in the modern Arab world. Using clips of a movie set in 1937 Algiers, Dr. Katz observed how the maze-like old city of Fes allowed the local population to evade the colonial administration in its winding streets. Continuing with a video tracking the modernization of Dubai over the past two decades, educators learned that while Dubai has always been important as a port city on the Indian Ocean, it was seen as an architectural blank slate when in 1990 intensive develop-

their rule. It was during this time that religion was transformed into a marker of nationalism despite the many aspects of belief shared by all of Jerusalem’s inhabitants. 

Alumni

Mabrūk, MAAS Class of 2012! By Kelli Harris

n Friday, May 18, 2012, CCAS congratulated 20 students on their graduation from the Master of Arts in Arab Studies program with an after-ceremony reception. CCAS Professor Judith Tucker creatively introduced each student by reading sections of their applications to the program, and asking the graduates to guess who wrote which statements. Dr. Tucker then went on to summarize what the students actually studied during their programs, and what they intend to do after graduation.

The Center is also happy to publicize the achievements of this year’s class. In an impressive show of scholarship, every student defending his or her master’s thesis earned distinction, as did many who took comprehensive examinations. In addition to the names listed below, three other students (Andrew Haak, Schadi Semnani, and Dan Walsh) also graduated in December, 2011. Students are listed in alphabetical order, along with their thesis topics, if they had one. Asterisks indicate distinction. *Adrieh Abu Shehadeh Nicole Anderson Sebastian Anstis *Reneta Dimitrova *Adam Farrar—“To Engage or Not Engage: Exploring Perceptions and Issues of Engagement Among Academics, Government, and the Military in Wartime” *Mercedes Fernandez-Gomez—

“Struggling for Liberation in the Sahrawi Refugee Camps: A Generational and Gender Perspective” Tighe Flanagan *Patrick Friedel

Kelli Harris

*Anny Gaul *Nour Joudah—“Palestinian Youth Per-

spectives on Exile Politics: Between Solidarity and Leadership”

Front row (left to right): Macey Stapleton, Reneta Dimitrova, Adrieh Abu Shehadeh, Nicole Anderson, Mercedes Fernandez-Gomez, Nour Joudah, Dorothée Kellou, Kim MacVaugh, Diana Shin, Priscilla Yoon; Back row (left to right): Adam Farrar, Tighe Flanagan, Andrew Haak, Patrick Friedel, Tyler Logan, Nick Oxenhorn, Joel Vecere, Abbie Taylor.

*Dorothée Kellou—“A Micro-history of the Forced Resettlement of the Algerian Muslim Population during the Algerian War of Independence (1954-1962): Mansourah, Kabylia” *Rana Khoury *Tyler Logan—“When Authoritarianism Failed in Tunisia: An Investigation of the Ben Ali Regime and the Factors that Led to its Downfall” Kim MacVaugh Nick Oxenhorn Diana Shin

*Abbie Taylor—“Intricacies and Implications of Iraq’s Health Predicament” Joel Vecere Priscilla Yoon Kelli Harris is Academic Program Coordinator at the Center for Contemporary Arab Studies.

What’s new with you? CCAS would like to know! If you have any news or updates, please email Kelli Harris at maas@georgetown.edu.

Macey Stapleton

‫مركز الدراسات العربية املعاصرة – جامعة جورجتاون‬

Faculty Feature Interview with

samer shehata How long have you been at CCAS, and what was the educational and professional road that you took to get here?

I arrived at CCAS in 2001, one month before the September 11, 2001, attacks. I finished my dissertation at Princeton University, and prior to coming to Georgetown, I completed a post-doc at Columbia University’s Society of Fellows followed by a year at New York University’s Center of Middle Eastern Studies. What would you say drew you into Middle Eastern politics?

I’m Egyptian American, was born in Alexandria, and have continuing links to and a strong interest in Egypt and the wider Arab region. My interest in the Middle East, and more specifically Middle Eastern politics, is both personal and professional. What has been the focus of your research?

My first major research project culminated in my book Shop Floor Culture and Politics in Egypt (SUNY Press, 2009). It was an ethnographic study of workers in two textile factories in Alexandria. I used the method of participant observation, and worked on a winding machine in a textile factory for ten months, in addition to learning about the structure, rules, and history of the enterprise. Although the research was empirically about Egyptian workers, it was also about the ways work environments produce social boundaries. How work is organized profoundly shapes the way people think about themselves and their relationships with others.

My work on Islamist politics in Egypt has taken me in a significantly different direc-

Do you think the strategy of political da‘wa is the reason why the Muslim Brotherhood won a plurality in Egypt’s parliament after Mubarak was removed?

I think it is one of the reasons. Clearly the Brotherhood’s mission of political da‘wa has been to transform Egyptian society from the bottom up by changing people’s values, sensibilities, and their understanding of Islam and religious practices. Given what we have seen since the Brotherhood performed well in parliamentary elections in 2012, do you think they will continue to hold to their commitment to free and open elections?

Yes, I have no doubts that the Brotherhood will continue to hold to its commitment to democratic elections. However, there is a difference between democracy and liberal democracy, with the latter guaranteeing

equality and full rights for minorities. Stated differently, the Brotherhood believes in democracy but it is not a liberal force; it does not champion equality between men and women, and it has only recently claimed to support political equality for Coptic Christians. But their ideology is one that values democratic elections—it is considered a kind of shūrā, or consultation. Do you think their strategy will change now that they are in power?

It has already changed. They are no longer operating in an authoritarian context, with the limitations and pressures this entails. Now they can compete for the “whole pie.” The intent of political da‘wa was not primarily to win votes, win seats in parliament, or change laws, but now the Brotherhood is trying to do precisely these things. What is likely to happen now that the Supreme Constitutional Court has dissolved the Egyptian parliament and new parliamentary elections will take place? Will the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) do as well as they did in the previous elections?

First, I believe that the Freedom and Justice Party will compete for all of the seats in the Egyptian parliament, either by themselves or in some sort of a coalition with other parties. This is in line with their new strategy postpolitical da‘wa. Second, it would be difficult for them to perform as well as they did in the previous elections and secure more than 40 percent of seats. I think they’re likely to do less well, and this is precisely what the ostensibly liberal parties and secular forces are hoping will happen. 

An online version of this newsletter is available on CCAS’s website: http://ccas.georgetown.edu/

Center for Contemporary Arab Studies - Georgetown University

Georgetown University

Where are you heading with your current research?

tion. My previous work was thoroughly ethnographic, but in this most recent work, I have used multiple methods, combining interviews with Muslim Brotherhood leaders, ethnographic research about Brotherhood campaigns and election– related activity, following the activities of the Muslim Brotherhood in the press, and examining the discourse about the organization by non-Islamists. One of the questions I address concerns the Brotherhood’s electoral activity and more specifically, why the Muslim Brothers participated in rigged elections under Mubarak, despite the tremendous costs of doing so and the seemingly little benefit. This is the topic of my chapter in my new edited book, Islamist Politics in the Middle East: Movements and Change (see newsletter’s cover for adaptation).