Turkey
Rohingya camps near the capital Sittwe in Arakan state, Bangladesh. Photo: RNS courtesy Mathias Eick, EU/ECHO via Flickr
At the end of a three-day tour, the Saudi-based Organization of Islamic Cooperation told Buddhist-majority Myanmar to repeal “laws restricting fundamental freedoms” after more than 240 Muslims were killed by Buddhist mobs during the past year.
Before the OIC delegates left Myanmar on Saturday, they visited minority ethnic Rohingya Muslims who fled the violence and are now living in squalid camps along the border with Bangladesh in Myanmar’s Arakan state, also known as Rakhine.
Headed by Secretary General Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, the OIC delegation called on the government to continue legal reforms, The New Light of Myanmar newspaper reported.
Map of the Middle East. Photo courtesy RNS/shutterstock.com.
The backlash against Muslim Brotherhood rule in Egypt comes as secular forces across the Middle East are rising up in opposition to political Islam. Divisions reach from top leaders to the street.
Political leaders in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Jordan have sided with the Egyptian military and secularists who backed the July 3 ouster of President Mohammed Morsi.
On the streets of Cairo over the weekend, mobs and snipers attacked Morsi supporters, forcing security forces accused of slaughtering the Islamists to stand between them and the mob. The violence in Egypt echoes similar, though less deadly, backlashes against Islamic ruling parties in Tunisia, and Turkey.
(minoru suzuki / Shutterstock)
THE PHRASE “a revolution of rising expectations” is now part of the social science literature. When people who are not oppressed have a belief that life is getting better as economies improve, their expectations often outstrip the pace of actual change. Those rising expectations lead to unrest as demands for improvement continue to grow.
This summer we have seen that play out in several countries. As living standards increase, people are less likely to tolerate corrupt and inefficient governments. Washington Post reporters Anthony Faiola and Paula Moura recently wrote, “One small incident has ignited the fuse in societies that, linked by social media and years of improved living standards across the developing world, are now demanding more from their democracies and governments.”
In Turkey, it was the government’s plans to destroy the only public green space in the heart of Istanbul, a park that was to be replaced with a shopping mall. Protests against the plan soon grew into broader concerns about what is seen as increasingly authoritarian rule by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan. They turned violent when peaceful demonstrators were attacked by police, and ultimately an Istanbul court ruled against the plan, although it is not finally settled.
In Brazil, protests that began over a proposed rise in bus fares brought hundreds of thousands of people into the streets. The protests soon escalated into opposition to the large amounts of money the government is investing in facilities for the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics, while neglecting basic health care and education. President Dilma Rousseff has promised political reforms and increased spending on public transportation and other social needs.
The New York Times reports:
The Economist reports on the growing tensions in the Middle East following the shooting down of a Turkish plane by Syrian forces:
"Turkey, a NATO member, was set to hold emergency talks at the alliance’sheadquarters in Brussels on Tuesday. Hillary Clinton, America’s Secretary of State, confirmed that the matter would be also brought before the United Nations Security Council. Meanwhile the European Union has agreed on new sanctions against Syria. These include banning insurance and re-insurance of arms shipments to Syria. Yet, in a further sign of western reluctance to intervene militarily Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign policy chief, stated “We will obviously be looking to Turkey to be restrained in its response.”
"The most Turkey can hope for is verbal condmenations," said a western diplomat in Ankara. Turkish officials insist that Turkey must respond forcefully otherwise its claims at regional leadership will be badly dented as will Mr Erdogan's image at home.
The Turkish media has speculated about an array of options including targeted airstrikes against Syrian military installations and the establishment of a buffer zone along Turkey's 900 kilometre wide border with Syria. But many observers say it is unlikely that Turkey will risk war with Syria."
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A truck bomb has killed at least 70 people in the Somali capital of Mogadishu, including a crowd of young students applying for scholarships to study abroad.
The scenes were stunning: Hundreds of demonstrators pouring across the fence between Syria and the Israeli occupied Golan Heights.
Thirty turkeys per minute. Airport scanners. Hogwarts. Here’s a little round up of links from around the web you may have missed this week:
- Workers in turkey plants handle as many as 30 turkeys per minute.
- How to make the perfect pie crust.
- This Thanksgiving, remember the hands that feed you.
- Opposed to the new airport scanners and aggressive patdowns? So is Captain Sully.
- A photographer turns his aging and depressed grandmother into a superhero.
- Fast Company asks, “Who are the CEOs of Hogwarts?”
- Speaking of Hogwarts, did you read Julie Clawson’s blog about Harry Potter and Social Justice?
- A reluctant uncle witnesses the home birth of his nephew.
The bearded, robed, and bespectacled keynote speaker at Georgetown University's Gaston Hall on Tuesday made a wise first move. His All Holiness Bartholomew I, Ecumenical Patriarch of the Orthodox Christian World, began his speech by naming the elephant in the room.
Just the basic facts about Anna Baltzer make her a provocative presence. She's a 30-year-old Jewish-American woman who is arguing passionately for justice for Palestinians.
Northern Iraq is part of the contested homeland of ethnic Kurds—and until recently a safe haven for those escaping Baghdad’s violence, especially Chaldean Christians.
In what has been described as the largest cross-border attack since the fall of Saddam Hussein, the Turkish military is now into its 6th day of a ground offensive inside the Kurdish [...]
Turkey’s highest Islamic authority, the Diyanet, recently decided to prepare a new collection of hadiths without sexist statements such as “the best of women are those who are like shee
Recently, Turkish TV launched the hottest new program in virtual voyeurism: Who can survive on the country’s minimum wage?