Middle East Universities

Since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein in 2003, Iraq has been in need of a new education system that reestablishes the country to its former prominent seat as a center of learning. Due to the wars with neighboring countries as well as the Gulf War, the Hussein regime severely reduced the country’s education budget to support war efforts. Re-energizing the country’s educational system will require a clearly defined curriculum with performance standards, supported by newly defined sociocultural values that creates a framework towards building successful schools. Considering Iraq’s need to adopt a world policy model in reforming the country’s various infrastructures, the Iraq Ministry of Education must also establish a more efficient and effective accountability system.

This chapter focuses on the Iraqi Kurdish response to the rapid and devastating advance of ISIS. Of course, the Iraqi Kurdish response to the ISIS advance has been a multifaceted, complex, and evolving one that includes military strategy, pragmatic politics, and aspirations of independence. Leaving aside the fact that the ISIS advance has granted the Iraqi Kurds unprecedented access to Iraq’s rich oil reserves and the fact that the initial Kurdish reaction was to ramp up their rhetoric toward complete secession from Iraq, this chapter focuses on two further dimensions of the Iraqi Kurdish response. Firstly, it documents the Iraqi Kurdish seizure of the so-called “disputed territories,” especially
Kirkuk, and their stated intent to hold a referendum on the future of these
regions (effectively to force a resolution to Article 140 of the constitution). Secondly, the chapter documents the Iraqi Kurdish use of the ISIS advance as leverage to enhance Kurdish relations dramatically with the US and Europe via direct military support (including airstrikes and weapons supply) and to become the key launchpad
in the fight against ISIS planned for 2015. The chapter concludes by briefly assessing the efficacy and wisdom of the Kurdish strategy of leveraging the ISIS onslaught to advance their own interests.

French rule over Syria and Lebanon was premised on a vision of a special French protectorate established through centuries of cultural activity: archaeological, educational and charitable. Initial French methods of organising and supervising cultural activity sought to embrace this vision and to implement it in the exploitation of antiquities, the management and promotion of cultural heritage, the organisation of education and the control of public opinion among the literate classes. However, an examination of the first five years of the League of Nations-assigned mandate, 1920-1925, reveals that French expectations of a protectorate were quickly dashed by widespread resistance to their cultural policies, not simply among Arabists but also among minority groups initially expected to be loyal to the French. The violence of imposing the mandate 'de facto', starting with a landing of French troops in the Lebanese and Syrian coast in 1919 - and followed by extension to the Syrian interior in 1920 - was met by consistent violent revolt. Examining the role of cultural institutions reveals less violent yet similarly consistent contestation of the French mandate. The political discourses emerging after World War I fostered expectations of European tutelages that prepared local peoples for autonomy and independence. Yet, even among the most Francophile of stakeholders, the unfolding of the first years of French rule brought forth entirely different events and methods. In this book, Idir Ouahes provides an in-depth analysis of the shifts in discourses, attitudes and activities unfolding in French and locally-organised institutions such as schools, museums and newspapers, revealing how local resistance put pressure on cultural activity in the early years of the French mandate

`This excellent study is a welcome addition to the scholarship on the inter-war mandates of Syria and Lebanon. Ouahes focuses on the cultural institutions through which the French authorities imposed their rule, ably demonstrating the ways in which the mandate system was transformed into a political and cultural framework akin to colonialism. While tracing the disillusion and contestations that ensued, he nonetheless discusses the impact and disparate legacy of the period on both the French and the diverse populations of the two mandates.' - Patricia M.E. Lorcin, Professor of History and Samuel Russell Chair in Humanities, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, `Resisting the imposition of French imperial control in 1920s

'Syria was never solely a matter of violent opposition. Ranging from classrooms and museums, to archaeological sites and vernacular journalism, in this richly evocative text Idir Ouahes reveals how Syrians contested the imposition of French Mandate rule in the realms of cultural heritage, educational provision and print media.' - Martin Thomas, Professor of Imperial History, University of Exeter

The Legacy of Iraq critically reflects on the abject failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. It argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world.

Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq war and denying their connection to contemporary events could means that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.

The Legacy of Iraq critically reflects on the abject failure of the 2003 intervention to turn Iraq into a liberal democracy, underpinned by free-market capitalism, its citizens free to live in peace and prosperity. It argues that mistakes made by the coalition and the Iraqi political elite set a sequence of events in motion that have had devastating consequences for Iraq, the Middle East and for the rest of the world. Today, as the nation faces perhaps its greatest challenge in the wake of the devastating advance of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and another US-led coalition undertakes renewed military action in Iraq, understanding the complex and difficult legacies of the 2003 war could not be more urgent. Ignoring the legacies of the Iraq war and denying their connection to contemporary events could means that vital lessons are ignored and the same mistakes made again.

The theory of Cultural Capital states that students from "high culture" invest in scholastic pursuits and obtain returns in the form of academic achievement . It was the intent of the researchers to replicate the study conducted by Geoffrey Moss within the context of a university setting with undergraduate Middle Eastern women. This small-scale humanities study highlights the cultural capital of Middle Eastern women and their undergraduate achievement. The data for the study was collected in two surveys handed to a random number of female students from a private university in Riyadh (KSA). The study gives a selected view of the context which includes family background and the importance given to academic attainment. Traditionally, Middle Eastern women have been viewed as not having invested into cultural capital. However, the results of this study have proven otherwise. Middle Eastern women do have cultural capital and likewise pursue scholastic activity.

In addressing the de-Baathification in post-2003 Iraq, this article outlines the efforts by Iraqi lawmakers to codify de-Baathification in Iraq’s new constitution of 2005 as well as in subsequent pieces of more detailed legislation. The article then goes on to study the actual implementation of these laws in relation to the Iraqi parliamentary elections of 2010 and 2014, as well as the local elections of 2013. Throughout the chapter, special emphasis is given to the considerable discrepancies between the principles enshrined in the formal de-Baathification legislation and the way those principles are applied in practice. Finally, this chapter concludes by suggesting that Iraq needs to openly and honestly deal with its Baathist past if it is ever to move beyond patterns of political
sectarianism, violence and autocracy.

First published in American Chronicle, Buzzle and AfroArticles on 30th December 2010
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Here, I would like to merely ask the following question:

When Islam's worst enemies, namely the Zionist - fake Freemasonic regimes of England and France, permeate and penetrate an Islamic country from border to border and determine every aspect of its daily life and international position, does it really matter whether the local people pray five times per day, fast in Ramadan, and abstain from alcohol, pork and premarital sex?

In fact, it is ridiculous to think that Islam exists after the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. In reality, there is no Islam anymore. There is only a fabricated ghost - a spiritual elementary useful for the Satanic needs of the Zionist & Freemasonic gangsters who use printed pages of the Quran to clean their ass or to perform sexual rituals on them.

Without a cultural, educational, scientific, military, socioeconomic, and imperial rule effectuated under total control by the indigenous Muslim population and elite, there is no Islam.

To believe that Islam can possibly exist in a fake country whereby the criminal Freemasonic gangsters of England, France and America, disguised as diplomats, academia, and cultural advisors, move free, contact anyone, bribe and corrupt whomever they like, plot along with their local lackeys, and promote their agenda for total control of the former Ottoman province, is not simply idiotic; it is a crime against the interests of all the indigenous peoples irrespective of their religion, origin, language and culture.

What Kemal Ataturk understood and all the filthy Satanic sheikhs of Mecca, Medina, Riyadh, Jerusalem, Amman, Damascus, Baghdad, Cairo, Algiers, Tripoli, Tunis, etc. cannot understand is the conclusion about the gradual collapse of the Ottoman Empire and the key role played by the Anglo-French Freemasons and Zionists in this ominous process, which spread terror and death throughout the Ottoman territories that the Satanic Western Zionist and Freemasonic mass media mendaciously and ludicrously call "Middle East".

The death of at least 40 militant, highly politicized, and street battle-hardened Egyptian soccer fans in clashes with security forces raises the stakes for general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s efforts to suppress political dissent.

This chapter argues that one key legacy of the US effort to bring democracy to Iraq has been that many elements within Iraq’s Shia Arab political elite have viewed democracy through the lens of a cynical majoritarianism and manipulated it to catapult themselves to power. This has had a further legacy, enabling the democratically elected government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to utilise his incumbency to maintain the veneer of democracy while becoming increasingly dictatorial and authoritarian. Although Maliki has been widely criticised for deploying a host of authoritarian strategies to retain power – including blatant sectarianism, undermining key state institutions, the creation of a shadow state loyal to himself, and the concentration of military and political power in his own hands – this chapter focuses on his less well-known efforts to shatter the unity of his Shia Arab political opponents. It focuses on his first two terms in power and examines the ways in which he has been able to systematically fracture the Shia political elite to such an extent that once tenuously united factions now stand bitterly divided. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the reasoning behind such an approach and the prospects of Iraq’s democracy moving beyond the blatant power grab of the Maliki government.

Said Moshagheb, a mesmerizingly charismatic, under-­‐educated and unemployed leader of a prominent group of militant, well-­‐organized, and street battle-­‐hardened soccer fans, staged a coup five years ago against the founders and original leaders of the Ultras White Knights (UWK), the storied support group of Zamalek SC, one of Egypt’s most celebrated clubs.

The impact of the takeover is today increasingly evident on the embattled campuses of Egyptian universities and in poorer neighbourhoods of Egyptian cities, the focal points of protest against the military coup in 2013 that toppled Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first and only democratically elected president, and brought general-­‐turned-­‐president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi to power.

This article focuses on the Iraqi Federation of Oil Unions (IFOU), Iraq’s largest and most powerful independent workers’ union. Leaving aside IFOU’s resistance of foreign occupation and its fight against privatisation, this article focuses on the tensions between IFOU and the Maliki government and examines the extent to which IFOU has served as a bulwark against the state’s rising authoritarianism. The chapter begins with a brief history of Iraqi trade unions under the Baathist regime and concludes by arguing that examples of civil society movements such as IFOU are perhaps Iraq’s only real hope for genuine democratisation.

This chapter offers a bold critique of the notion that Baathist rule in Iraq was a product of a culture of authoritarianism in Iraq. It is important to acknowledge from the start that while this chapter does offer a more nuanced view of the Post-Colonial period, it is no way a defence of the tyranny of the Baath and the brutal megalomania of Saddam. Specifically, the first section examines the quashing of Iraq’s civil society and the tight restraints exerted over the nation’s media throughout the period. It also addresses the ways in which various Post-Colonial regimes, but especially the Baath, were adept at manipulating the discourses of democracy in order to mask their tyranny and coerce people into patriotism. Moving beyond this, however, the second section documents the various clandestine opposition groups that began to emerge across Iraq’s divergent ethno-religious and political divides who resisted Baathist oppression and agitated for democratic change. They produced their own media outlets which proved effective in voicing the various frustrations and grievances of Iraqis of all backgrounds and shades of opinion, giving way to a renewed public sphere. The Post-Colonial era, therefore, alternative history of Iraq from the mid-twentieth through to the early twenty-first century in which one finds a sophisticated political culture deeply concerned with the issue of democratic governance.

While the idea that Saudi Arabia has functioned as a beacon of ultraconservative religious influence since the 1970s oil boom is commonplace, the modalities of this influence have rarely been seriously interrogated. As a window onto this issue, this article considers the history of the Islamic University of Medina, an influential Wahhabi missionary project with global ambitions. It pays particular attention to the role played by non-Saudi staff, who for long periods made up a majority of the university's faculty. Previous accounts of migrants working in Saudi religious educational institutions have tended to focus on the contested question of their contribution to the rise of politically activist modes of Islamism within the kingdom. In contrast, the account offered here draws on the concept of spiritual capital to argue that they also played an important part in legitimizing the expansion of the Wahhabi mission to diverse Muslim communities around the world.

"The latest 2013 ranking of all universities in the middle east below;

http://www.academia.edu/2949805/Top_10_World_Class_Middle_East_Universities_March_2013"

http://www.academia.edu/3289124/Top_100_Asian_University_Ranking_April_2013

This book proposes a significant reassessment of the history of Iraq, documenting democratic experiences from ancient Mesopotamia through to the US occupation. Such an analysis takes to task claims that the 'West' has a uniquely democratic history and a responsibility to spread democracy across the world. It also reveals that Iraq has a democratic history all of its own, from ancient Middle Eastern assemblies and classical Islamic theology and philosophy, through to the myriad political parties, newspapers and protest movements of more recent times. This book argues that the democratic history of Iraq could serve as a powerful political and discursive tool where the Iraqi people may come to feel a sense of ownership over democracy and take pride in endorsing it. This could go a long way towards mitigating the current conflicts across the nation and in stabilizing and legitimating its troubled democracy. Taking an interdisciplinary approach and referring to some of the most influential critical theorists to question ideological assumptions about democracy and its history, this book will be useful to those interested in political and legal history, human rights and democracy.

To the outside world, the Middle East and North Africa is a cauldron of intractable conflicts within intractable conflicts, much like sets of Russian matryoshka dolls of decreasing size placed one inside the other. The list of animosities is endless: Palestinians and Jews hate each other; Arabs detest Persians; Turks distrust Kurds as agents of colonialism; Sunnis despise Shiites; Israelis see black African refugees as a mortal threat; Gulf citizens envision hordes of Asian and Arab workers claiming title to their family-run states; and Muslims eye non-Muslims as impure encroachments.

This---Haack's first paper in Farsi---acknowledges that professional philosophy is in bad shape, but argues that the reason is not, as the Editor of Free Inquiry had suggested, the rise of religious approaches. The scientism fashionable today, she continues is a much worse threat.

Translated by Muhammad Asghari, University of Tabriz; who tells Prof. Haack that universities in Iran have the same problem of administrative bloat as US universities---though Iranian administrators, he says, have an anti-religious bias.

Fleeting hopes that Egypt’s militant, street battled-hardened soccer fans may have breached general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s repressive armour were dashed with this week’s sentencing of 15 supporters on charges of attempting to assassinate the controversial head of storied Cairo club Al Zamalek SC.

This chapter documents the debates that circulated in the Iraqi press at the time of the British occupation and Hashemite monarchy and details their role in fostering vitriolic critique of the incumbent regime, in mobilizing the public to protest and in serving as the people’s watchdog over the elite. It is precisely the egalitarian and democratic tendencies found throughout the media/political nexus of Colonial Iraq that provide for us a new vision of Iraqi history that is directly at odds with traditional views of Iraqi and Middle Eastern political culture. This chapter also exposes the contradiction between Britain’s rhetoric as a harbinger of democracy and its contemporaneous
attempts to quell Iraq’s free press and to curtail democratic reform.

Egypt has moved closer to banning as terrorist organizations militant soccer groups that form the backbone of opposition to autocratic rule with the arrest and pre-trial detention of five alleged members of the Ultras White Knights (UWK), the highly-politicized, street battle-hardened support group of storied Cairo club Al Zamalek SC.

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s investment of $1 billion and option to pump a further $480 million into Richard Branson’s ventures in space, confirmed during the prince’s recent visit to the United States, was more than just another headline-grabbing move.

By focusing on space sciences, long a field rejected by ultra-conservative Islamic scholars, some of whom insist that the earth is flat, Prince Mohammed was setting the outer limits of his top-down redefinition of Saudi Arabia’s austere interpretation of Islam.

A series of recent mass protests in several Arab countries have called into question suggestions that civil wars, brutal crackdowns and military coups and interventions have quelled popular willingness to stand up for rights in the Middle East. The protests, although focussed on specific social and economic demands, fundamentally have the same objectives as popular revolts four years ago that toppled four autocrats: dignity, social justice and greater freedoms.

Some time after having come back from the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen to Kraków, Tadeusz Kowalski (1889-1948), a founder of Oriental Studies in Poland, was offered a chair at Istanbul University. The present author’s aim is: (1) to show that the only report on this event (Lazer 1994) is contradicted by archive materials, (2) to reconstruct the possibly most reliable course of events and their chronological order, as well as (3) to find the true reason why T. Kowalski eventually resigned from coming to Istanbul, even if all formalities were settled, and the relocation guaranteed his and his family’s safety.

After the beginning of the new academic year, superior security measures have been implemented in Egyptian universities, fuelling clashes the government was supposed to prevent. In facts, a long sequence of protests erupted in main Egyptian campuses, leading to a bloody repression by the central State, unable to address the root causes of tensions. Hundreds of students have been objects of strict control, finally causing violence and the killing of students or their arrest, search or intimidation.