Islamic Societies Review WEEKLY: Events

Showing posts with label Events. Show all posts

Saturday, January 18, 2025

Islamic Societies Reviews' (ISR's) most popular news stories of 2024

Saturday, January 18, 2025 No comments

The year 2024 was another pivotal year in terms of events and coverage of those events. Here are the most popular news stories of 2024, as determined by what drew the most readers. We also have a collections of ISR MONTHLY.

Tuesday, May 07, 2024

Media Review; François Burga: Zionism is a racist ideology, two models for apossible solution--Algerian or South African model

Tuesday, May 07, 2024 No comments

This weeks media review focus on a conversation with the French intellectual and Middle East Studies expert, François Borga. In this summary of the interview with Aljazeera, we highlight some of his insight about the ongoing war on Gaza and the future of the conflict in general.

French academic and researcher François Borga said that October 7 helped a large number of southern countries, including South Africa, Ireland and Spain to some extent, demonstrate an awareness that all measures indicate is irreversible.

The professor of political science and researcher at the French National Authority for Scientific Research in the city of Aix-en-Provence, southeastern France, added, “The Zionist ideology, as adopted by the current ruling elite, and also by the majority of Netanyahu’s opponents, is a racist sectarian ideology very similar to the ideology of Netanyahu.” ISIS, which does not allow any form of coexistence.”

He considered - in his interview with Al Jazeera Net - that Israel has never sought peace, but only for land, by all means, even illegal ones, and Israeli leaders have received blind support in this matter from their Western partners.

He explained that last October 7 “launched a process that means that Israel may not be able to continue with impunity to follow such shortcuts with regard to international law, or basic humanitarian principles.”

How to understand the West’s financing of the Israeli war on Gaza in exchange for protests from Western people and youth against this war?

On the international scene, the position of Western governments is certainly irrational in light of their well-understood economic and political interests in the medium and long term, but unfortunately it is still almost consistent with their “following” the direction of their voters.

"It is necessary to understand that the weakness of popular support for the Palestinian cause results from changing positions within the two main political families in France: the right and the left... The right rejects various expressions of decolonization, and as for the left, its stated reluctance to support the Palestinian resistance is based on the fact that since 2006, when Hamas came to power, the resistance leadership has come to be considered “Islamist.”"

Can the two-state solution, which America opposed at the United Nations, lead to empowering the Palestinian people with their right to self-determination and resolving the Palestinian issue?

There are currently two ways out of the crisis that resulted from the establishment of Israel in 1948 and its current expansion, either to exit “according to the example of South Africa," [alsoo mentioned by the American thinker and Jewish historian, Norman Finkelstein] which implies that, whatever the institutional form, two states or one state, there will be a reconciliation between the political imagination, ambitions, and agendas of the Israeli and Palestinian parties.

However, everything indicates that the Israeli side, more clearly, is doing its utmost to prevent the emergence of such a perspective, because Zionism, as an ideology and as adopted by the current ruling elite, and also by the majority of Netanyahu’s opponents, is a racist sectarian ideology, very similar to the ideology of ISIS, which does not It allows any form of coexistence.

Then there remains the other exit door, and it may be of the “Rhodesian” or “Algerian” type, meaning that it will force the departure of one of the two communities or strict control over it. This is the option that Israel has exercised with impunity since its establishment, as it has never sought peace, but only To the ground by all means, even illegal ones, and the Israeli leaders were blindly supported in this matter by their Western partners.

However, last October 7 launched a process that means that Israel may not be able to continue with impunity to take such shortcuts with regard to international law or basic humanitarian principles.

Saturday, May 04, 2024

Current Events: What should the world think when a majority of the people in a country support a Genocidal regime?

Saturday, May 04, 2024 No comments

How should a nation whose majority support extremists be treated?

It depends.

If such a country is a non-Western nation-state, then that will make the entire country a terrorist country and genociding them by a “civilized” state will be acceptable.

If such a country is a “Western” nation-state, the will of the majority is sacred. That is what seems to be the implication of the extraordinary admission by head of the US State Department, Anthony Blinken.

US State Secretary Anthony Blinken said on 4 May that the genocidal actions undertaken by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza are "a reflection of where a large majority of Israelis are in this moment.”

“This is a complicated government. It’s a balancing act when you have a coalition. And if you’re just looking at the politics of it, that’s something that he has to factor in,” Blinken said at an event in Arizona.

"What’s important to understand is that much of what [Netanyahu is] doing is not simply a reflection of his politics or his policies; it’s actually a reflection of where a large majority of Israelis are in this moment,” the top US diplomat said.

Last month, a survey conducted by the Israel Democracy Institute revealed that three-quarters of Jewish Israelis support Netanyahu's much-anticipated ground invasion of Gaza’s southernmost city, Rafah, where about 1.3 million Palestinians are sheltering after being violently displaced from their homes.

Surveys conducted over recent months have shown a similar trend despite growing pressure to see Netanyahu removed from office.

In January, opinion polls showed that Israelis overwhelmingly agreed that “the best way” to obtain the release of captives held inside Gaza was “military pressure” against Hamas, falling in line with the same rhetoric Netanyahu and his war chief have been repeating daily since 7 October.

Polls have also shown a stern objection to delivering humanitarian aid to Gaza, even if the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) is “replaced.”

The problem of seeing a majority electing demonstrably authoritarian, supremacist bigots is the true test of the limits and flaws of democracy. In the past, when such processes happened in non-Western nation-states, it is often blamed on corruption and processes being flawed. Turkey, for example, over 4 decades voted for a conservative party and a conservative leader. The West dismissed these elections, because they simply thought of all Turkish people as backward, incapable of embracing "true democracy".

However, with rise of extremist politicians through democratic processes, the West is now facing a moment of truth about democracy. In the past, when democracy did not represent any problems at home, Western leaders used it abroad as a political instrument to intimidate and subjugate other nations.

Monday, July 18, 2022

The Week in Headlines: News Coverage of current events, which stories matter, and which do not

Monday, July 18, 2022 No comments

News Coverage of current events, which stories matter, and which do not.

History is made one headline, one image, one sound at the time. Here, we freeze time to explore how the global media outlets saw the events of the week ending July 16, 2022.

The story is not only which event was covered and how, but also which stories were not covered and why.

Review the Week in Headlines here:

Week ending July 16, 2022 |