Dear HumanDHS network friends
Please find below the Common Ground News Bulletin: 20-26 Novmber 2007.
Kind regards
Brian Ward
Common Ground News Service
Partners in Humanity for constructive & vibrant Muslim-Western relations
20 - 26 November 2007
The Common Ground News Service – Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) aims to promote constructive perspectives and dialogue about Muslim–Western relations. CGNews-PiH is available in Arabic, English, French and Indonesian.
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Inside this edition
1) When making music, faith is incidental by Ani Zonneveld
In this fourth article in our series on joint Muslim-Western business ventures, Ani Zonneveld, a singer, songwriter and president of Muslims for Progressive Values, describes some of the personal connections that develop between songwriter and artist, which help to create music that is “meaningful and multi-layered”. Zonneveld writes that their “willingness to listen to … diverse narratives nurtures an organic creative process.”
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 20 November 2007)
2) Turkey’s foreign policy tug of war by Gürcan Koçan and Jason J. Nash
Gürcan Koçan, a professor at Istanbul Technical University, and Jason J. Nash, an Istanbul-based analyst of Middle Eastern affairs, discuss the domestic and international factors that influence Turkey’s Middle East policy, especially when it comes to the controversial presence of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Iraq.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 20 November 2007)
3) Give Iraqi children their childhood by César Chelala
This International Children’s Day, César Chelala, a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award and a foreign correspondent for Middle East Times International, examines the plight of Iraq’s children as they deal with the consequences of war in their country.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 20 November 2007)
4) Where are the women in Middle East politics? by Rafi’ah Al Tal’ei
Omani writer and program director of the Gulf Forum for Citizenship, Rafi’ah Al Tal’ei discusses the struggle of Middle Eastern women to increase their numbers in the political arena. Describing the political, economic and social barriers they face, she outlines possible solutions for greater female participation.
(Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 20 November 2007)
5) Still time to step back from the brink by Daily Times Editorial
This Daily Times editorial assesses the interplay between the various actors on Pakistan’s political stage and considers the various options available to them as they prepare for a presidential election under President Musharraf’s recent declaration of emergency rule.
(Source: Daily Times, 20 November 2007)
1)When making music, faith is incidental
Ani Zonneveld
Los Angeles - As a songwriter, my business is to write songs tailored to the style of specific artists. Publishers inform me which record labels and artists are looking for songs for their upcoming albums, and with that information I sit down in front of my computer, which is loaded with music software programs and sounds, to recreate what I hear in my head. Within a day, I usually have the beat and melody lines completed. Within two days, the lyrics are in place.
In a collaborative process, an ideal creative environment is one in which a proposed idea is made even better, triggering another idea which is improved upon in turn, and so on. Due to time constraints, one’s personal background, faith or politics are hardly discussed. If there is a connection between songwriters, it stems from the chemistry that the music sparks. In other words, one’s faith, skin colour, age and gender are irrelevant.
The fact that I am a Muslim woman is incidental when it comes to this process. I’m judged based on the success I’ve had as a songwriter, the body of work I have produced and the awards I have won.
Although my faith is largely extraneous to my work, occasionally during conversation my writing partners discover that I am Muslim. When this happens there is an “Ah, let me ask her all these questions I have on Islam” moment. Topics range from the hijab or headscarf, to Muslim men marrying four wives, to my thoughts on politics in the Middle East.
Writing with an artist in the room is a very different process than writing for an artist who is not. As a writer, I have my own style of phrasing a melody, marrying words to the music and so forth, so when I am working with artists I have to allow them to “live” with the ideas I’ve contributed; that is, personalising a musical idea with their own musical interpretation.
Two artists I write with are Keb’ Mo’ and Melissa Manchester. We usually start out by catching up on each other’s personal news, exchanging notes about the music industry and even discussing politics and religion. Their musical genre requires a lot more depth and reflection, and the personal connection we have developed over the years helps in creating music that is meaningful and multi-layered.
An example of faith coming into play is in the song Thank You for Your Faith in Me, which I wrote with Melissa Manchester. The song is thanking God for believing in us and for not giving up on us. In this case, our spirituality comes from the same space, hers through her Jewish faith and mine through Islam.
My relationship with Keb’ Mo’, a multi-Grammy winning Contemporary Blues artist, goes back 15 years when he used to record guitar parts for my songs in the studio. Our professional relationship doesn’t really feel like business because it has evolved into a relationship of mutual respect and friendship based on the common belief in “doin’ the right thing” – a spiritual value that Keb’ Mo’ lives by. One day, he invited me on stage at the Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles to talk about our songwriting process and then unexpectedly sent me a cheque to thank me for my efforts. Such thoughtful actions are rare.
With artists such as Melissa Manchester and Keb’ Mo’, I’m comfortable talking about my non-professional life – my social activism as a Muslim, and listening to their religious and political perspectives. Perhaps surprisingly, it is these broad personal conversations and the acceptance of each other’s diversity that often trigger a song title or theme. Our willingness to listen to our diverse narratives nurtures an organic creative process.
Even though we may be engaged in a business relationship, at the end of the day we are all part of humanity. And the foundation for peaceful relationships, no matter what the nature, is our respect and acceptance of each other as equals.
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* Ani Zonneveld is a singer/songwriter in Los Angeles (www.a-n-i.net) and the co-founder and President of Muslims for Progressive Values (www.mpvusa.org). This article is part of a series on joint Muslim-Western business ventures distributed by the Common Ground News Service.
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 20 November 2007, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
2)Turkey’s foreign policy tug of war
Gürcan Koçan and Jason J. Nash
Istanbul - Turkey has recently ratcheted up pressure on US and Iraqi authorities to end the presence of the violent separatist group, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), in northern Iraq.
The slow build-up to the present crisis has involved more than Turkey’s need for security on its southern border and for internal unity. There is a finely balanced interplay occurring between the demands of different domestic actors within Turkey, on the one hand, and the interests of Turkey’s regional and strategic partners on the other.
The northern Iraq issue has begun to hijack Turkey’s foreign policy agenda. The Turkish military and the bureaucracy have traditionally dealt with security threats to Turkey’s territory. And Turkey’s typically unstable coalition governments of the past have usually deferred such decision-making to these longstanding policy generators.
These two main political actors – the military and the bureaucracy – with their own internal divisions on policy response, have sought to posit the domestic interests of Turkey as they see them within the framework of its international obligations and treaty arrangements with the EU, the United States and NATO.
Until relatively recently, Turkey’s Middle Eastern policies were the result of the interplay between these larger strategic factors and did not take into account the complications of the regional environment. The close relationship Turkey has developed with Israel is one indication of how outside actors have influenced its Middle East policy along strategic lines and away from more popular considerations, such as those emanating from a sense of Muslim affinity among the public.
Turkey’s ruling Justice Development Party (AKP) is re-evaluating these factors. In opposition to the wishes of the Bush administration, the Turkish government has built up increasingly close relationships with Syria and Iran, despite running the risk of disturbing the strategic web of Western alliances that have determined many of Turkey’s foreign policy interests since World War II.
Yet what is interesting, and different from previous Turkish governments, is the AKP’s attempt to legitimise its actions as it seeks to defend its interests. Unilateral action against the PKK in northern Iraq, in other words, is no longer possible.
The Bush administration has been caught flat-footed by this sudden push from Turkey, enmeshed as it is in a web of opportunistic alliances with northern Iraqi leaders. It now faces in Turkey a NATO ally intent on using the issue of PKK terrorism as the basis for armed response, much as the United States did when justifying its own interventions in Afghanistan and Iraq.
However, it is not merely the US administration that finds itself in a tight spot. The Turkish government too is finding itself drawn into the need for action at the popular level. As the desire for intervention in northern Iraq has gained strength in Turkish public opinion, the AKP government has looked for ways to mitigate this demand to employ force. The government has sought to balance the interests of using actual force with the virtual power of the media at both national and international levels.
The use of force in northern Iraq is tempered by Turkey’s economic considerations and business leaders. The extensive trading links between northern Iraq and the larger Middle East, tied as they are into Turkey’s own economic resurgence, especially in the troubled southeast region, could be threatened by too bold a response.
An overreaction on the part of Turkish authorities could feed into EU suspicions regarding the country’s suitability as a member of the “European club”. The rise of nationalism as a force in Turkish politics sits uneasily, not only with its foreign partners, but with the ruling party as well. Requesting local media reduce the level of sensationalism when covering attacks in southeast Turkey, the government is acting to safeguard this vehicle of “virtual” force, and to maintain its long-standing strategic relationships, by resolving the situation without resorting to “actual” force that may threaten US interests in Iraq.
Turkish foreign policy formation has undergone a significant change over the past five years, though is having a difficult time adjusting to regional realities. The presence of the United States in Iraq complicates the traditional armed response option, just as growing economic and strategic ties with the Middle East and the EU compel foreign policymakers in Ankara to take into account these new boundaries when it comes to military action.
Internally, the Turkish government is also facing conflicting calls for action and restraint. “Virtual” power is slowly being used to satisfy these demands, while restricting the use of “actual” force. However, even if more measured restraint is achieved, this will not necessarily solve the long-term issues resulting from the resurgence of PKK violence. Different stakeholders, at both the domestic and regional levels, also need to be engaged to ensure a more lasting period of stability in the region.
If the monolithic face of foreign policy formation from Ankara ever did truly exist, then it is safe to say that such an age is firmly over. Turkey’s response to current events shows that it is learning to adapt its foreign policymaking to take into account the complex relationships that it must now deal with. For the EU, it is time to come to grips with its relationship with Turkey in a more constructive manner. For the United States and its troubled Middle East policy, even more so.
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* Gürcan Koçan is a professor in the department of humanities and social sciences at Istanbul Technical University, and Jason J. Nash is an Istanbul-based analyst of Middle Eastern and Turkish affairs. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 20 November 2007, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
3)Give Iraqi children their childhood
César Chelala
New York - International Children’s Day will be celebrated throughout the world on the 20th of November. The United Nations marks this day as “a day of worldwide fraternity and understanding between children”. In Iraq, unfortunately, this day will not be celebrated with much fanfare, as children have become the most vulnerable victims of an unconscionable adult war. One glance at photographs of Iraqi children maimed by the war, and they are unforgettable.
One child dies every five minutes in Iraq. Many more are maimed for life. Of the estimated 4 million Iraqis – a number equalling the entire population of Ireland – who have been displaced inside the country or have left Iraq, 1.5 million are children. For the most part, they do not have access to basic health care, education, shelter, water or sanitation.
70 percent of the population lacks access to adequate water supplies, and 80 percent lacks effective sanitation, conditions that create a breeding ground for intestinal and respiratory infections primarily affecting children. “Children are dying every day because of the lack of essential medical support. The bad sewage system and lack of purified water, particularly in suburbs, has been a serious problem which might take years to solve,” warns Ahmed Obeid, an Iraqi health official.
Another major concern is malnutrition. Levels among children are continuously increasing; incidents of malnutrition have doubled since the US-led invasion so that Iraq is now at par with Burundi, the central African country torn asunder by a brutal civil war, and higher than Haiti, the poorest country in the Americas.
The number of children born underweight is also higher than before the invasion, according to a report published by OXFAM and 80 other aid agencies. Some 8 million people – approximately one-third of the population – require emergency aid, and more than 4 million Iraqis depend on food assistance.
“Sick or injured children who could otherwise be treated by simple means are left to die in the hundreds because they don’t have access to basic medicines or other resources. Children who have lost hands, feet and limbs are left without prostheses. Children with grave psychological distress are left untreated.” This is the assessment of 100 British and Iraqi doctors.
A variety of environmentally-related chronic diseases are appearing among children due to their exposure to contaminants. Many cases of congenital malformations and cancer among children are believed to be the consequences of exposure to chemicals and radioactive materials. Add to that what is euphemistically called “collateral damage”, meaning the thousands of children killed by roadside bombs, suicide attacks or military and security operations.
Also of concern is the growing number of children, both girls and boys, who are being abducted and trafficked for sexual exploitation. This is the result in part to the rise of armed groups throughout the country.
It behoves the international community – Western and regional players alike – to take steps to come together to end the spiral of violence in Iraq for the sake of our very humanity. When we read or hear about the endless reports of violent incidents in Iraq, how often do we stop to think how a single such event impacts the bodies, minds, hearts, daily lives and futures of the people it touches, whether directly or indirectly?
I look again at the face of an anonymous Iraqi child, a photograph by Dan Chung for The Guardian, his features burned almost beyond recognition, whose sad eyes seem to say, “What did I do to deserve this?” Such little people, carrying the tragic consequences of war on their frail shoulders.
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* César Chelala, MD, PhD, is a co-winner of an Overseas Press Club of America award. He is also the foreign correspondent for Middle East Times International (Australia). This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 20 November 2007, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
4)Where are the women in Middle East politics?
Rafi’ah Al Tal’ei
Washington, DC - Although women struggle to participate in politics around the world, the number is particularly low in the Middle East. Women have had some access to political office for decades, but progress, cheered on from the sidelines by many Western organisations, has been slow. What is holding women back from greater representation in the political sphere and what can be done to encourage their participation?
The results of the recent elections in Morocco brought the debate on female political representation back into the political arena. Only 34 women won seats in the legislature’s lower chamber, compared to 35 in the previous elections, a mere 5% of all representatives.
In Turkey, women won 50 out of 550 seats in the Turkish parliament. Although this is still only 9% of the total, it is an encouraging sign since the number of elected women more than doubled from the last parliamentary elections. This percentage of female representation is the second largest in the region after Iraq, where there are 70 women in the 275-member Iraqi parliament.
Women in the Middle East often suffer from very sensitive and complicated political, social and cultural conditions that restrict their ability to easily engage in the political arena. Many women shun political participation to avoid controversy. Conservative religious interpretations sometimes restrict female participation in public life, or prevent them from mixing with men or assuming public posts. There is also the family dimension to consider, with women still traditionally responsible for household duties.
Women are also often seen as less experienced in public affairs, and as a result, voters – both male and female - are less likely to vote for them. Consequently, women either refrain from running for political office or drop out early from a lack of local support.
This usually helps explain why only a small number of female candidates run for public office. For example, of the 800 candidates in the 27 October Oman elections, only 25 were women.
In addition, there are other factors that serve as obstacles for women to run for political office. These include varying and often unsatisfactory levels of democracy, freedom of expression, pluralism, respect for diversity and open dialogue.
Although these factors affect both women and men alike, when coupled with social and cultural structures that favour men over women in the political arena, women are more severely affected. This tends to influence the development and growth of political awareness among citizens.
Advancing the effective participation and genuine representation of women in politics means raising the awareness of the role of women in public life, training women to assume public posts, and encouraging them to enter the political arena in order to enrich their experience, gain voter confidence and prepare future generations of women to participate in even greater numbers.
One means of improving women’s participation is through a quota system, which allocates a percentage of seats for women. In countries where such measures have been adopted, such as Tunisia, Iraq and Jordan, we see more women in politics. Most recently, women fought for and won a 15% quota in the upcoming Yemeni elections.
In addition to adopting quotas, leaders of political parties and heads of civil organisations should be persuaded to nominate women to their election lists and assign them positions of greater authority. Promoting a culture of fundraising to support candidates is also an effective way to overcome the difficult economic situation that may hinder women’s participation since in many traditional societies men handle much of the family’s finances.
In most Middle Eastern countries, there exist several organisations concerned with women issues and human rights. Networking among civil society institutions concerned with the participation of women, whether in a single country or at the regional and international levels, would help to enrich and support women politically.
Many Middle Eastern countries have a Ministry of Women’s Affairs. Though this appears to be a step in the right direction, these institutions often work independently of other ministries rather than taking advantage of the role each ministry could play in promoting a cohesive national strategy to increase female representation.
At the international level, a number of organisations have dealt with local organisations in the Middle East to train women for politics, as well as help them overcome some of the problems they face. In past yeas, American non-governmental organisations such as the National Democratic Institute (NDI) and the International Republican Institute (IRI) have hosted joint activities, such as women’s political training in the Levant, the Gulf and North Africa during recent election campaigns. NDI and IRI have also continued to organise conferences and workshops to help women gain experience in this field.
Joint coordination and networking among these organisations and individuals will help resolve obstacles to women’s political participant at the grass-root level. Helping women realise the importance of their engagement in politics can lead to greater female participation on all levels.
The road to complete political gender equality is long but the struggle continues. These small advances are signs that there are many people working behind the scenes to shift the balance in the future.
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* Rafi’ah Al Tal’ei is an Omani writer and program director of the Gulf Forum for Citizenship. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Common Ground News Service (CGNews), 20 November 2007, www.commongroundnews.org
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
5)Still time to step back from the brink
Daily Times Editorial
Lahore - Pakistan is going through a period of acute tension between two options – a cooperative but relatively imperfect transition from military rule to democracy, or a blunt but relatively ineffective confrontation in either case. In either case, it must let the chips fall where they may in the hope that when the debris is cleared, Pakistan will land on its feet.
Talking to CNN, Benazir Bhutto has said that she is still waiting for an answer from General Musharraf. Feeling public pressure, she has asked him to take off his military uniform, end the state of emergency, revamp the Election Commission and the interim government, free the media, and scrap the local government setup to facilitate free and fair elections in January. If he doesn’t agree, he could conceivably face public protest and a possible collective opposition boycott of the elections. But if he has rebuffed America’s latest recommendations, brought to Islamabad by Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte, what are the chances he will respond to Bhutto?
General Musharraf has been gradually trimming his sails to accommodate criticism but is hesitant to make the deal that can bring about the transition he still wants. He has given 8 January as the date for the general elections, having first said “before February 15″ and then “before January 9″. He has begun the process of removing the ban placed on the media after the imposition of emergency rule, and the establishment is making conciliatory sounds about letting the two big TV networks resume their work.
There is a distinct possibility that he might suspend local governments too. And although he remains vague about when he intends to lift the state of emergency – because he first wants to get himself validated as president for another five years – there is a possibility that he might remove the emergency rule before the month is out, after first amending the Provisional Constitution Order to ensure his safety from prosecution. If he makes the right decisions now, he can still recover from the situation somewhat; otherwise, the list of demands from the opposition will grow until it becomes a single-item challenge aimed at making him go.
Bhutto faces her own challenges with the rest of the opposition in the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM). Her leverage with General Musharraf will increase as she negotiates the future course of action with the Pakistan Muslim League leader, Nawaz Sharif, and his APDM allies. But to gain this leverage vis-à-vis the General, she has to agree to some of Nawaz’s fundamental demands.
The foremost demand from the six-party alliance is to boycott the January polls. The alliance will not come to the all parties conference called by Bhutto unless she makes her position clear on the planned boycott. The boycott was called when the APDM felt that Bhutto was still trying to get General Musharraf to agree to a “power-sharing” arrangement, so she will have to choose quickly between the idea of a chancy boycott and the idea of having a go at the elections in a less-than-level playing field.
It is General Musharraf who will have to “give”. The ability to consider other options and reject confrontation is his. And if General Musharraf thought he could get out of trouble because of cracks in the opposition, he should take another look.
It is not difficult to see which way the country is hurtling, even if General Musharraf relies on the Pakistan Television Corporation’s images showing what is happening in the streets. The Pakistan People’s Party is demonstrating to the maximalists in the APDM that it has the capacity to agitate and confront the government, its demands stiffening by the day in tune with the emotions of the people. But by securing its votes from leaning towards its more radical opposition rivals, it is also gradually pulling the rug from under its own feet as far as negotiations with General Musharraf are concerned.
The army is finally head-to-head with Al Qaeda in the tribal areas, but this war is going to be very difficult to execute in a vacuum of political support, as was seen during earlier military operations. Al Qaeda is in control of a large swath of territory where the population has now more or less accepted its rule and is seen to be arrayed against the Pakistan army as if it were an invading force. If General Musharraf opts for confrontation, he might have to fight two wars at the same time: one with Al Qaeda and the other with the people of Pakistan.
After that, victory or defeat will lose its meaning. If the people win and General Musharraf goes, the politicians who take over will have to negotiate with Al Qaeda on a totally different premise. They will have to enter into talks on Al Qaeda’s terms, without the support of the clerical parties. So, for the sake of Pakistan, General Musharraf must open the way to a free and fair election as demanded by the opposition.
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* This article appeared as the daily editorial piece in Pakistan’s Daily Times. This article is distributed by the Common Ground News Service (CGNews) and can be accessed at www.commongroundnews.org .
Source: Daily Times, 20 November 2007, www.dailytimes.com.pk
Copyright permission has been obtained for publication.
Youth Views
CGNews-PiH also regularly publishes the work of student leaders and journalists whose articles strengthen intercultural understanding and promote constructive perspectives and dialogue in their own communities. Student journalists and writers under the age of 27 are encouraged to write to Chris Binkley ( cbinkley@sfcg.org ) for more information on contributing.
About CGNews-PiH
The Common Ground News Service - Partners in Humanity (CGNews-PiH) provides news, op-eds, features and analysis by local and international experts on a broad range of issues affecting Muslim-Western relations. CGNews-PiH syndicates articles that are constructive, offer hope and promote dialogue and mutual understanding, to news outlets worldwide. With support from the British, Norwegian, Swedish and US Governments, the United States Institute of Peace, the National Endowment for Democracy and private donors, the service is a non-profit initiative of Search for Common Ground, an international NGO working in the fields of conflict transformation and media production.
This news service is one outcome of a set of working meetings held in partnership with His Royal Highness Prince El Hassan bin Talal of Jordan in June 2003.
The Common Ground News Service also commissions and distributes solution-oriented articles by local and international experts to promote constructive perspectives and encourage dialogue about current Middle East issues. This service, Common Ground News Service - Middle East (CGNews-ME), is available in Arabic, English, and Hebrew. To subscribe, click here.
The views expressed in these articles are those of the authors, not of CGNews or its affiliates.
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