Many stories of the fate of Iran’s young protestors, journalists, and academics have become front page news as allegations of rape and torture on those arrested this summer comes to the front page of papers worldwide. The infamous Evin Prison is where many of those arrested political prisoners have been detained this summer, but what is known by many in Iran and ignored by many outside of the country is that rape and torture of political prisoners did not being this summer, but has been going on over the last thirty years.

Marina Nemat, a victim of Evin Prison who was lucky enough not to be executed during her time there wrote her account in prison in Evin, in her book called The Prisoner of Tehran. In her time there she was arrested for having negative views of the Revolution of 1979 and was put in prison for many years. Her perspective is an interesting one, as one of her interrogators, who was a political prisoner himself under the Shah became her husband in the end. While she was forced to marry him, there was some respect between the couple and the views he held as a prisoner himself. In the end Marina was released from prison and while all these years she has refrained from telling her story, in her book she reveals for the first time her life as a political prisoner. Marina now lives in Canada.

Another account of how foreign journalists were treated in Evin Prison was discussed when a Canadian Journalism of Iranian descent and birth, Zahra Kazemi was beaten to death in Iran in 2003. Acknowledgement of the story and actions by the previous Canadian Government was virtually absent until her son, Stephan Kazemi pushed for public protests and for help from the Canadian Government. Accounts of her ordeal in Evin Prison were that she was beaten to death and raped as well in order to defile her reputation and soul. Her body was then not returned to Canadian authorities amidst much protest. Currently Canadian Newsweek journalist Maziar Bahari is being held with other political prisoners in Iran. He is one of those accused in Iran’s political court for inciting protests in the country.

The Baha’I of Iran, who’s governing council was arrested late last year for false charges echos the past arrest of the Baha’I council in the past, all who were executed after their arrest. Government persecution of this religious minority often is recycled over history via Apostate laws, accusations of anti-state activities and associations with foreign elements, and continuous monitoring of community and community leaders leading to unpublicized tragedies in many forms. One clear example of this repeat of history was the open discrimination in the early 80’s after the Iranian Revolution. In 1980-81 the arrest and the execution of the leaders of the Baha’i religious and community leaders took place. The council, named the National Spiritual Assembly, were collected and imprisoned and eventually murdered by the government. This trend continued against members of the community and any other “political” dissidents in Iran since that time. Since then, little coverage of this issue has taken place in Western and Eastern media.

All these accounts of the terrors of Evin Prison will likely lead to its destruction by the people of Iran. An argument may be made to have the prison destroyed as a means of mercy for those who will certainly be tortured and raped until death for crimes such as speaking their mind and simply being of a different political or religious ideology. To ignore Evin Prison or to be only shocked by recent activities that have been going on there for thirty years when a modern event occurs is to legitimize the history of brutal torture that has been taking place there. By all rights, it should have been destroyed years ago..now that journalists and citizens of foreign nations and peaceful Iranians are there being murdered, international focus should be finally set on and legitimately encouraged against Iran’s dictators. Evin Prison should fall as did the Bastille in France’s Revolution.   

This post can also be found on FPA’s Latin America Blog.

It came as no surprise to those who knew about the past rights abuses by Iran’s government when many Iranians, especially young Iranians, took to the streets in the last two weeks and were met with brutal retribution affecting every sector of Iran’s vibrant society including intellectuals, the media, youth and diverse cultures. While much of Western media sought to compare the protests in Iran to those of Eastern Europe and China, Iran is unique and is forming what must be regarded as its own unique movement that will produce its own unique results. A comparison of best judgment is one that would compare opposite popular political movements to that of the one in Iran, namely those in many left leaning governments in Latin America.

This week while the protestors in Iran were slowly being arrested and assaulted, Honduras had its own coup with the Judiciary, Legislature and military forcing out the Honduran President Jose Manuel Zelaya. Honduras’ other policy branches sought its own change by placing its own leader in power in order to quell the Executive Branch from leading a populist move to allow the President to stand for election indefinitely. Such a constitutional change for the benefit of the President and the Executive branch was successfully accomplished by Hugo Chavez in Venezuela a few short months ago. This altering of constitutional powers that limit the Executive from seeking election past a designated term in office is a common limit to the power of the President in many nations with a similar political system. While Parliamentary Democracies often have leaders stand for election well past six years (as technically you are electing the party, and not the leader), it is seen as a violation of the democratic system in many nations and allows the tyranny of the majority to rule over all sectors of society in those countries considered a Republic. In those systems, the power of the President is paramount and is only limited by the legislature and judiciary. While Venezuela’s battle over control between the branches took hold in debate and via legal measures, Honduras’ branches of government took the direct route, upsetting many supporters of the President as well as supporters of Zelaya outside of Honduras, including Mr. Obama who often is seen as the culprit of actions against leftist leaders in Latin America.

The irony of these latest popular protests in Iran and Honduras come from the support given by those who ideologically would naturally support “the other” in these conflicts. As mentioned above, Obama, who represents a US that allows for power to be tempered against the Executive by the Judiciary and Legislative branch when the Executive tries to unbalance its influence in the Republic, has openly supported the power of President Zelaya in Honduras and is helping to return the President to his office in the capital. While the support obviously comes from the manner in which Zelaya was removed, the election of Obama and great support no doubt came from the result of accusations of abuse of the Executive branch by Bush and Cheney when in office as claimed by many constitutional experts in the US and abroad. The other twist in this narrative comes from Chavez’s support of Iran’s illegitimately elected president and ruling Religious Council. While Chavez and Ahmedinejad do get a lot of support from rural and urban poor in both their respective countries, popular support for Mosavi and opposition leaders in Iran are coming from the people themselves, who are protesting against unelected leaders via a populist uprising. Hugo Chavez, the poster child for populism in Latin America, won his own support for his government and changes to the constitution via a majority of people who legitimized his power in office, yet seeks to be a populist against populism when supporting the establishment in Iran. While debate continues to whether or not Chavez forcefully silenced his opposition during elections and referendums in Venezuela, support for Iran’s current government by Chavez may have more to do with Venezuela’s geopolitics than the will of the people in Iran. In the end, the fight for power in Iran did not start with hard opposition to Iran’s Ayatollahs, as true reformers were not allowed to run for government in Iran. Iran’s leadership crisis is one of oligarchs in Iran’s leadership pushing to gain more influence and leverage over Iran’s dominant Councils and clerics and to gain support from Iran’s youth that make up more than 70% of Iran’s population as noted by many experts. As a result of violence however, many in Iran wish to move beyond a simple election of Mosavi dominated by the Religious Councils and wish to move towards a free vote and debate in society.

Iran will likely slowly degrade from within, but maintain its same structure in the process. The true measure of change for those outside of Iran is whether or not a new government, in a similar, form will choose to involve itself in the Arab world, continue to divide and conquer diverse political groups, religions and cultures in Iran and decide to promote Iranian culture and economy outside of Iran towards the West or the East. The reposition of the US and the oil market may grow the influence of populists in Latin America and illegitimate governments in the Middle East, but eventually economics and popular movements will create a debate where the people must choose between two unstable alternatives and hope for great leaders to build their nations. At best, Lebanon without political assassinations would be a welcomed outcome for Iran. Lessons from Latin America for Iran may come from those same intellectuals that are currently sitting in Evin prison in Tehran for speaking their views. One academic from Latin America similar to those imprisoned in Iran is Guillermo O’Donnell, a Latin American intellectual who often writes on differing forms of democracy. Many of his theories surround the issues of democratic institutions and voting. Simply voting does not create a democratic society in itself, but the interaction between different ideas, from grassroots movements, journalists, professors, politicians and communities produce institutions which seek to balance power in the hands of the people, and not in that of a religious oligarchy or simply the Executive. Unfortunately in Iran, once violence takes hold of any election, voting becomes not simply the symbol of a healthy democratic society but it transforms and becomes a means of protest when all other democratic institutions become disenfranchised of their legitimate authority. Equality and rights does not come from a simple ballot, as important as the process is, but comes from institution building and seeking of rights in every unique society. This is what many often abuse in Latin America, and seems to not be understood by religious oligarchs in Iran. The original form of ancient Greek democracy has evolved, and will leave those behind who do not understand it beyond its basic elements. Unfortunately as many Latin American oligarchs have known, the end result is always the same, albeit in differing and unique forms of anarchy.

This post can also be seen in FPA’s Latin America Blog.

BBC World and BBC Persian services have done a remarkable job in the last two weeks highlighting the Muslim world after President Obama’s speech in Cairo, elections in Lebanon and today’s election in Iran, as well as international links to changing events in the region. To begin, various stories put out by BBC, while not directly linked, do have an effect in relation to each other. I thought an interesting comparison would be Obama’s speech in Cairo and a story this week on Youssou N’Dour, a famous singer from Senegal who put out an album a few years ago ironically called “Egypt” which won critical acclaim and awards internationally. N’Dour is well known for his music worldwide, but as he stated, he felt that the music, liturgy, and peaceful side of Islam was not being portrayed properly in many forms of media globally. His album, which is a combination of well-known religious songs in Arabic makes up most of the tracks and is quite remarkable. N’Dour noted in the interview that many believed that because he was African, he was not Muslim, and as a result he has been touring and will tour into the United States to not only show the multi-ethnicity of Islam, but to also show the brighter side of the faith which has inspired much of his talent.

Obama’s speech in Cairo touched on many of the same issues but instead of focusing a speech on the entire Muslim world, it was focused more on the Middle East, namely Arab and perhaps the Persian world, leaving much of Africa, The Balkans, South East Asia, India, Pakistan and Turkey and Central Asia out of the main focus of the dialogue. Beyond focusing on solely the Middle East, the speech really came to represent Muslim Arabs, leaving out the recognition of the various other groups which have resided and built up communities in Arab lands over many generations and thousands of years who are not Muslims but are Arab and Persian just the same. While many of these groups have lived in the Middle East peacefully, many have outstanding issues in their respective countries that should have been addressed by the President, especially when concerning issues of human rights. While there are many cases and many cultures that deserve attention in the region, Iran’s detention of the leaders of its Baha’I community should be paramount in any speech and policy in the region as it is recent, shows evidence in the past of a likely negative result for the detained leaders, and comes from generations of persecution of this group above all others in Iran. N’Dour’s music and respect for Islam in many ways adopted the focus that Obama’s speech should have used in speaking to a Muslim world that is as diverse, multicultural and politically energetic as N’Dour’s view of a religion and culture. The challenge is not simply to build bridges between Muslims and Americans, it is to challenge the cultures that dominate North America, the Middle East and the entire Muslim world to break bread and open communications between all cultures and faiths which have roots and seek influence in the Middle East. Acknowledging all Muslims and non-Muslims who live in Islamic societies is crucial and still lacking in much of the dialogue in the region. It may be the result that people who live in the Middle East will create a change on their own, as opposed to waiting for Obama to create change for them.

The best example of real change in the Middle East came from the recent elections in Lebanon. Lebanon is the most diverse country in the region religiously as groups living in this tiny nation are relatively numerically balanced between different faiths and different perspectives on the same faith. Many believe that the coalition supported by Hezbollah would finally defeat the government of Lebanon in this last election. After years of direct protest, assassinations and political manoeuvring against Lebanon’s elected multi-party legislature and the Hariri family; who lead many of the reforms and were victims of many assassinations over the last few years, Lebanon’s people decided to give the mandate to the current government and challenge the popularity of Hezbollah in Lebanon. Many Muslims, Christians and other groups in Lebanon fought for the right for fair elections and a popular vote that challenges not Hezbollah’s work with many of the poorer communities and lack of health care in the country, but with a perspective that would likely take Lebanon back into a time of civil war and conflict with its neighbours in the region. This power to change did not come from Obama or his reengagement with the Muslim world, but from the needs and perspective of many of the people inside Lebanon itself.

Currently the votes in Iran’s elections are being counted, and the various minds and debates in Iranian society has come to represent itself verbally as well as through a large popular movement via waves of voters to choose the future of Iran. Iran’s current leader appeals to the rural and poorer urban voters and seeks to take the country’s oil profit and gear them towards social programs, challenged by the candidate Mosavi who seeks to open Iran internationally and build bridges between Iran and the West, representing many in the urban perspective of Iranian society. The internal debate in Iran is very much a local debate on where Iran’s future may be. With one of the largest and youngest populations in the world, the result of Iran’s election could make the country into an international power via economic and cultural opening, or could make Iran into a regional power where nuclear proliferation will become the main focus on the region. With North Korea pouring onto the scene and US involvement in Pakistan, any support for a nuclear Iran my illicit a strong reaction from the US and its allies. This week the BBC sought to detail links between Venezuela, Iran and Bolivia. While leaders in Venezuela and Bolivia often appeal to rural and urban poor as well, and seek to support those communities with revenue from oil profits, the ever growing connection between Bolivia’s uranium deposits and a possible sale to Iran may become the first issue Iran will have after the election. The end result and the difference between one candidate and another may be the difference between threats to others in the region and a strong US response, and Iran becoming the darling of the region’s economy with great natural wealth and a young, well travelled and educated population. While Venezuela and Bolivia might be dominated by the effects of poverty and class issues, Iran has a third element as it is in the middle of one of the most militarized regions of the globe and seeks to become part of a dialogue which would surely result in direct conflict with influential powers in the region. In reality, Islam is only part of the issues dominating the election in Iran, with culture, politics and diversity of class becoming part of the dialogue between Iranians and its leaders. The end choice is one for Iranians, but the end result will involve everyone in the region no matter what their faith.

The BBC World Service this month broke from their usually news and debate programs and showed an interesting documentary series on Iranian culture and flavour, in a four part series called The Taste of Iran. The host, Sadeq Saba goes through much of the country and explores the food which makes up a great part of Iranian culture. With each new reason for a meal, Saba also explores the history of the region of the country and festivals and traditions which come with each meal, tea and pastry. His adventure brings Saba from the top of mountains to cemeteries, from Mosques to Churches, and parks to tea houses across Iran.

In the most recent part of the series, Saba takes to Esfahan and explores many religious festivals surrounding different events and communities in the city. He discusses not only Shi’a festivals, but the history of Sunni and Armenian Christians in the city as well. The city, sharing a diverse past much like other Eastern cities such as Alexandria in Egypt in the 16th to 19th century and Damascus and Seville in the Medieval era, Esfahan was home to a mix of cultures and religions, which prospered under kingdoms of the past. Food of course, the focus of this programs was changed by this fact as well, but what stood out and what has become forgotten since after the First World War is that Eastern countries have had as much tolerance in the past as it is seen as having restrictions today. Addressing this past might help determine its future, not in Iran alone, but in the region as a whole.

While recent governments have moved more towards oil profits and agreements with Venezuela and North Korea as opposed to diplomacy with the West, the opening of culture and cooperation might help Iranian culture, and food, reach outside of the country and promote respected dialogue between the people in Iran and nations opposing the current government. Some important developments recently have taken place which might aid this progression. Firstly, former President Khatami had issued a statement that he will run again for the Presidency. While still part of the powerful elite in Iran, his pro-reform stance and support from a large youth community in Iran kept Iran on friendly terms for the years he was formerly leader of the government. Statements from many anti-Bush politicians also have taken place, offering some sense of a new dialogue with the US and Mr. Obama, likely a way to save face, but also a reality of unpopularity by many in Iran and other OPEC nations like Venezuela, and of course the cutting in half of oil prices worldwide. With so many negative relations due to past historical issues and threats of nuclear conflict surrounding the debate between the US, EU, Russia and Iran, a few positive developments in the region could not hurt. Culture, the root of pride for many Iranians can become a valued commodity outside Iran, and perhaps an export which is not produced by petrochemicals to boot.

If pride and culture is exported from Iran, and exchange of ideas and interest in the country will inevitably take shape. Much of the problems surrounding issues in the region is that whether speaking about Gaza or Israel, Iraq and Syria, or Lebanon and Iran, often the view from those in the EU and US are either limited, overly positive or overly negative, or completely enlaced in short term policy that may benefit elites in both regions, but do not take account of those communities in the Middle East that are is grave poverty, are oppressed minorities throughout the whole region, or oppose the common lingua franca of Middle Eastern policy by local governments, foreign diplomats and radical groups which produce current problems. With a new dialogue, comes the responsibility to protest in a just manner, progress in the golden age of Iranian culture would have never existed without this ability to encourage tolerance. With history, food, and politics, another Middle Eastern tradition is recognized, that of some discussion to ponder over dinner…

Many in America do not realize that 89,000 of their neighbours living in their towns and cities were born in Iraq or have parents from that country. With so many US troops going to Iraq and serving in the conflict there, the immigrant communities living in the US have had surprisingly very little media attention. While having the middle name Hussein would not help anyone in becoming the next President, many who live in the US and have a vote in this election are Iraqi and have similar concerns and interested as many other Americans, immigrants or otherwise.

In an IPS article last month, some Iraqi-Americans were asked about their concerns for the US and their place of birth for the next election. With such a diversity of class, ethnicity, language and culture in Iraq and among Iraqi-Americans, the opinion on McCain and Obama tend to reflect those of their neighbors. One engineer when asked about her concerns, said for domestic policy she supports Obama, but also appreciates McCain's position as many of the concerns in the past about security in Iraq have been quelled as it seems a lot safer now than in the past. Much debate surrounds the timetable for leaving Iraq, seeing Obama as better for the economy perhaps, but supporting McCain for security reasons, stated one Iraqi-American journalist in Washington DC.

On of the major issue for new Americans in the Iraqi community are the 2 million refugees which have left Iraq since 2003. A recent older gentleman who had come as a refugee to the US claimed that McCain would likely get support as no one wants a withdrawal right now, but another Iraqi translator which just arrived in the US as well was concerned about the lack of compassion for the Republican immigration policies, which have been seen as soft for the most part on immigration from Mexico and Central America, but have done little to help the 2 million refugees from Iraq.

In the end, the image of the US internally for many new Americans and historically outside the US has always been one of a land of freedom and opportunity. With recent troubles and 8 years of disastrous policies internationally, and as seen this week in the US financial markets, internally as well, any change will be a change for the better, and whoever inherits the seat of the Presidency will likely spend the first four years putting the US back to normalcy as opposed to having the glory of being the US President whop must work with nothing to achieve simple stability. The economy and Iraq, possibly not in that order, will be the issues dominating the next Presidency, with a few months of unsolved immigration debate somewhere in the middle for Obama or McCain.

Over the last few years there has been a great deal of media coverage involving Iran, but the only issues being discussed often follow stories about nuclear deterrence or support for terrorism outside of the country. Like many stories coming out of the Middle East, the issues surrounding the people of the region is often overshadowed for more sensationalized stories which turn the region into more of a weekly soap opera than a serious discussion of human rights and foreign policy. With a lack of proper media coverage and a misunderstanding of the region, the attention given may do more to hurt the people living there than helping them.

As discussed in the April blogpost "Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries: Forgotten or Never Acknowledged?" Minority groups in the region are often not acknowledged in the dialogue surrounding the Middle East. The result of this, as mentioned in the previous article, is that many of the communities like the Jewish ones from Arab and Persian lands, have been mostly dismantled after thousands of prosperous years and relegated to history books. Only in the last 10 years has the existence and legitimacy of those small communities been acknowledged, far too late for media coverage or policy to change the outcome of past persecution.

In the modern world, the lack of media coverage of a community under stress in the Middle East could possibly result in a similar outcome of persecution. One example of a community that mirrors those of the past is that of the Baha'i community of Iran. With little media coverage and knowledge of the Baha'i in Iran by the international community, Persian Baha'i struggle to become part of the narrative of the discussion of the region, often struggling to maintain themselves in silence.

The reality of the Baha'i is that since the creation of the faith, there has been a lack of equality and rights for the community in Iran over its existence. While being the largest religious minority in Iran, numbering 350,000 followers, they were often considered as apostates of the state religion and subject to discrimination and persecution by the local government. In most cases, media coverage of the community has come only briefly after a tragedy, allowing for continuous and persistent threats to become the mainstay of being part of the Baha'i community in Iran. Government persecution of this religious minority often is recycled over history via Apostate laws, accusations of anti-state activities and associations with foreign elements, and continuous monitoring of community and community leaders leading to unpublicized tragedies in many forms. One clear example of this repeat of history was the open discrimination in the early 80's after the Iranian Revolution. In 1980-81 the arrest and the execution of the leaders of the Baha'i religious and community leaders took place. The council, named the National Spiritual Assembly, were collected and imprisoned and eventually murdered by the government. This trend continued against members of the community and any other "political" dissidents in Iran since that time. Since then, little coverage of this issue has taken place in Western and Eastern media.

With the US election dialogue from the last two years sparingly debating Iran's nuclear policy, there has been little attention given to any of the people of Iran by political leaders or the mainstream media. In some smaller media however, there were concerns raised about state sponsored media in Iran promoting the monitoring and suppression of minorities in the country in which they live. In 2006, Former Canadian General Romeo Dallaire, who commanded UN forces in Rwanda issued a statement from his office warning of possible implications of state sponsored repression of the Baha'i in Iran. He stated in a September 26th 2006 news release that:

 "My experience in Rwanda and with other conflicts tells me that the world had better pay close attention whenever a country's media begin to spread hate propaganda against one particular group,"

Dallaire was right to raise concerns, as many of the Baha'i have not only been monitored by the government in the last few years with increased intensity, but national media and official policy have set to place the community in a negative light. The end result was a partial repeat of 1980-81, when a member of the Baha'i National Spiritual Assembly was arrested in March 2008, followed by 6 more members being arrested at the end of May 2008. They are currently being held in prison in Iran.

While the arrests have taken place and human rights in Iran continue to degrade further, there have been some responses by world leaders on behalf of the 7 arrested Baha'i leaders. The US State Department as well as the Presidency of the EU have condemned the actions. As well, human rights groups have issued their condemnations, with some coverage from CNN and mainstream media mentioning the issue at the end of May as well. Despite these small efforts, there has been no real pressure on Iran or its leaders to release the Baha'i leaders from their arbitrary sentences. Despite having false accusations placed against them, even as far as accusing them of working with Israeli Zionists, there has been no concrete display of action or noticeable protests over the issue by anyone who could influence the Iranian government.

Democracy and media, while never in perfect balance, cannot live as separate entities. Freedom of Speech, and the responsible use of media to effect this human right is the only freedom that allows for other rights to be achieved and to be maintained. Without Freedom of Speech, we can see that Freedom of Religion and Political Assembly cannot exist on their own, and can be easily extinguished when debate is repressed or ignored. In the example of Iran, media misplaced, or not effectively used can do as much harm to a society as it can help it, promoting or repressing liberty and equality. Democracy, as discussed by Guillermo O'Donnell is not simply voting, but is a combination of institutions and rights, including media to be free of state control, and in a free society, openly discuss persecution of minorities in addition to nuclear policy and international relations. It is not only a right, but a duty to address these arrests for not only one community in Iran, but for society as a whole.

The Mezze plate, if unknown to readers is a mix of different appetizers of various Middle Eastern foods, often combined together in a mix of powerful flavours and textures. Food in the region is often like its people, a combination of tastes that while creating a wonderful mix of culture and language also can create indigestion in some cases. The following is a mix of issues that have charged the region and its people abroad in the last week, often celebrating victory in conflict and enraging further problems.

-Israel at 60: Last week was the 60th anniversary of Israel's independence as a sovereign nation. At the same time, for many Palestinians it was the remembrance of the Naquba, or ”Catastrophe” of the migration of many from their original homes and towns upon the creation of the new state of Israel. Festivities took place in Israel and among Israelis and Jewish communities all around the world. In 1948, the State of Israel was created as a home for the Jewish people after the mass genocide of the European Jewish community and pogroms of Eastern Jews bringing many into the newly formed nation. While 1.5 million Israeli-Arabs live inside Israel and are a part of Israel society with full legal rights, legal challenges for increased rights for Israel's Arab minority, Palestinians and even some Jewish people with Eastern roots push the system to promote a better equality among the multicultural Jewish State. Separate from the systemic stresses faced in the Israeli context, the West Bank and Gaza Strip are embroiled in a Hot Peace between Fatah and Hamas who periodically debate and often fight for power and control of a future state of Palestine. While some movements for peace between Israel and Fatah in the West Bank have started to produce results, rocket attacks coming in from Gaza leaves little chance for change despite the best and very last minute efforts of Carter or Bush. Unknown to most outside Israel, the conflict in 2006 did not produce the release of Gilad Shalit who was kidnapped by Hamas at the time. The continued attacks and retaliations, blockades, increased poverty and the maintained hostage taking of Shalit will not help produce any peace in Israel anytime soon and will give more support for creating more walls between the various people in the region.

-Muslim Immigrants to Europe: In a Foreign Policy Association Religion and Politics blog post by one of our charming and intelligent bloggers, Karin Esposito, the integration of Muslims into European society is discussed on her posting: Integrating Immigrant Communities. Karin points out in refer to author Olivier Roy, that after 9/11, the French immigrant riots and the killing of Dutch filmmaker Theo Van Gogh there is a feeling that assimilation and multiculturalism was a failure in the European context. In reference to a HRW report in Immigration in the Netherlands, she points out that tests sent to the home countries of many immigrants may act as indirect discrimination, targeting specific immigrant groups even before they come into the country as detailed in the report. The challenge is far from being resolved, as a new way to view integration will likely have to be created to promote any dialogue between communities, preferably without the use of Cartoons.

-Beirut the next Baghdad?: In a May 18th New York Times article and among media worldwide, the issue of sectarian violence taking charge over the fragile democracy that exists in Lebanon is becoming a great concern to the region. After Hizbollah attacks against Sunni citizens, media and political parties put the Lebanese government and the often targeted and assassinated Hariri family into the spotlight again, Lebanon may be approaching a large conflict between its Shi'a and Sunni communities. Like in Iraq, indiscriminant violence by one community over the other has lead to the declaration of blood feuds among Lebanon's communities. In the Middle East the extremity of violence often intentionally created humiliation and dishonour to many proud groups and cultures which can only be met by delicate diplomacy or outright revenge and conflict. While the international community often focused its attention on the Israel-Lebanon conflict in 2006, attention and understanding of the divisions now taking place needs to have the attention it deserves to avoid an all out civil war in Lebanon.

Since the early 1900s, hundreds of thousands of refugees in countries throughout the Middle East left or were forced to leave without a Pound or a Franc from lands where they had lived in since biblical times. What is often not addressed in English language media or worldwide as a whole, is that many of these people were Jewish communities which were slowly destroyed for political, cultural and religious reasons in the 20th century. Many of these communities eventually inherited the fate of the Jewish Community in Spain during the Spanish Inquisition, leaving towns and villages where their cultures and communities thrived for generations for new destinations abroad, slowly losing their heritage and homes to satisfy the desires of the political majority. While not all countries in the Middle East treated their Jewish communities with severe contempt and some communities were given some equality in their respective societies, the majority of Jewish people who had lived for thousands of years in the Middle East were forced to leave for Europe, the Americas the new state of Israel and even Asia.

Many Jewish people from Arab lands settled in France where Algerian, Tunisian and Moroccan Jews could speak French and integrate into society. Jewish people from Iraq and other former British colonies settled in London and the United States, even making it as far as China and Singapore. Many settled in Latin America as well, with Syrian, Lebanese and Iraqi Jews creating communities in Brazil and Argentina and many Turkish and Syrian Jews settling in Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela and even Cuba. In one community in Havana alone, an entire village with all their religious texts and chattels from their original town in Turkey were transplanted into Cuba in the early 1900s. They moved to live in the US Protectorate at the time of Cuba, which spoke Spanish, similar to the dialect of Ladino they inherited from their ancestors who escaped from Spain to live in Turkey, Italy, France and Greece. In 1948, half of Israel's population alone was made of Jewish people who came from Arab, Persian, Central Asian and Turkish lands. These refugees were often forced to leave their birthplace and all their funds and land built up upon generations in order to arrive poor and homeless in Israel and abroad. While these people often had a difficult time in their birth countries and in Israel upon arrival, their situation has only been given some slight attention in the last 10 years. Almost none of their original communities exist today; making Jewish culture from Arab lands some of the oldest decimated cultures to have been lost to the world in the last 100 years.

Some slight progress has been made in addressing the issue of Jews from Arab and other Middle Eastern lands. On April 1st 2008, the U.S. Congress passed House Resolution 185, which grants first-time-ever recognition to Jewish refugees from Arab countries. For the first time those hundreds of thousands of refugees and emigrants who lost their homes and were turned into poverty were recognised 60 years later as being not simply a forgotten people. US Rep. Ros-Lehtinen made a statement saying:

“Far fewer people are aware of the injustice faced by Jewish refugees from Arab lands and Iran. Many Jews saw their communities, which had existed vibrantly for centuries systematically dismantled. They lost their resources, their homes, and their heritage sites, fleeing in the face of persecution, pogroms, revolutions and brutal dictatorships.”

With many smaller cultures in the Middle East facing persecution in the last 50 to 100 years, the first steps to addressing refugees beyond those well known refugee groups are beginning to take place. Beyond those Jews from Arab lands, other groups such as Zoroastrians, Armenians, Kurdish, Bah'ai, Assyrians, Christians, recent Iraqis and various other oppressed groups and political refugees need to be acknowledged. After 60 years of unknown suffering, this small group of people are finally able to reconcile their history and future as a recognized people and culture in the world community.

The British government is committing GBP 70 million to bolster the confidence of Muslim women, in an effort to shield them from becoming targets of radicalization. Hazel Blears, Communities Secretary in the Brown government announced that the funds would go toward supporting “assertiveness” training, communication and mediation skills. The courses are part of a wider initiative to get members of the Muslim community to actively participate in public life. Officials hope that empowering women will lead to increased visibility of positive role models while insulating a vulnerable part of the community against radical rhetoric and extremist tendancies. Mentoring programs, leadership training and management skills are to show women alternatives to their more traditional role within the Muslim social construct, government representatives hope. They argue that this new initiative reflects a growing desire by Muslim women to play a greater role in British society and to work toward changing the generalized suspicions that remain following terrorist activity in the country.

Muslim groups, meanwhile, are accusing the government of dividing the community. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Inayat Bunglawala, assistant secretary-general of the Muslim Council of Britain, said: “The government at first wanted our imams to act as spies on young British Muslims and now they seem to want Muslim women to do the same.”

German newsmagazine, Der Spiegel, suggests that the government decision in favor of additional funds for adult education comes in response to two widely-publicized cases of differential treatment of Muslim women by the authorities. Aisha Azmi, 24, was fired from her job as an elementary school teacher after refusing to remove her headscarf. School officials had argued that children could not learn the English language from a teacher with a veiled face. Azmi's lawyer has taken the case to the European Court of Human Rights. Samina Malik, meanwhile, branded herself as an “lyrical terrorist” was the first woman to be convicted under the controversial UK Terrorism Act. Supporters have criticised the verdict, based on contacts she had and internet poetry posted to radical web pages as a “wrong signal to Muslims” demonstrating that a judicial double standard is at work in the UK.

For more on this story, see the BBC, The Telegraph and The Times.