Josh Berer posted numerous photos (by Rachael Strecher) and notes about Jews in Yemen.
Posts tagged as:
islam
Isalmic College for Women, Makhachkala, Dagestan. April 2008
My friend Max Reider sent me a link to his interview with Russian photographer Sergey Maximishin – Фотография как поступок. This quote resonates with me:
“Сегодня фотографы заняли в обществе роль, которую в шестидесятые – семидесятые занимали поэты. На встречу с фотографом могут прийти 700 человек – свидетелем тому я был и в Москве, и в Амстердаме. Благодаря развитию техники, фотография становится все более массовой, все более доступной, это – мгновенный способ самовыражения…”
A tea party for the theater club of the Mental Asylum No.7, St.-Petersburg, April 2003
Russia has such a complex and colorful texture. I don’t know if there is a better place to take photographs in the world. In addition culturally people in Russia are transparent, you can read and photograph faces over there… PETA might want to see this photo (NSFW). I guess this is where they make Shtreimels. ►►►read more
The Guardian does a nice job debunking Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Jewish roots claim. Rumours that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s family converted to Islam from Judaism are false. In fact, they are proud Shias. About Ahmadinejad’s mother:
“Moreover, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s mother is a Seyyede. This is a title given to women whose family are believed to be direct bloodline descendants of Prophet Muhammad. Male members are given the title of Seyyed, and include prominent figures such as Iran’s supreme leader Ali Khamenei. In Judaism, this is equivalent to the Cohens, who are direct descendants of Aaron, the brother of Moses. One has to be born into a Seyyed family: the title is never given to Muslims by birth, let alone converts. This makes it impossible for Ahmadinejad’s mother to have been a Jew. In fact, she was so proud of her lineage that everyone in her native village of Aradan referred to her by her Islamic title, Seyyede.”
The analogy to the descendants of King David would have been more appropriate. This reminds me about Christopher Hitchens’ quote posted by Devin Coldewey:
“Nothing is more human and fallible than the dynastic or hereditary principle, and Islam has been racked from its birth by squabbles between princelings and pretenders, all claiming the relevant drop of original blood. If the total of those claiming descent from the founder was added up, it would probably exceed the number of holy nails and splinters that went to make up the thousand-foot cross on which, judging by the number of splinter-shaped relics, Jesus was evidently martyred.”
Tyler Cowen skeptically quotes in Marginal Revolution from the new book by Chris Wickham – “The Inheritance of Rome: A History of Europe from 400 to 1000”:
“The other important feature of the Great Mosque was that, as a space, it was closed off to the outside. Roman cities were structured by wide streets leading to central forum areas, to which processions led and where public participation could be considerable, as continued to be the case in Constantinople for centuries. Amphitheatres (in the West), theatres and racetracks were other major venues for public activity, and the Hippodrome of Constantinople carried on this tradition for a long time. In the Islamic world, the mosque courtyard took over from all of these; major political events, like collective oaths of loyalty, took place there, not in any secular location. And the Arab states did not use processions as a major part of their political legitimization; the assembly in the mosque courtyard was sufficient for that. The need for wide boulevards ended; pre-Islamic Syrian and Palestinian colonnades were quite quickly filled in with shops in the eighth century, some of them commissioned as public amenities by caliphs. The narrow streets of Islamic cities resulted directly from this, for there was no public interest involved in keeping them clear from obstructions like vendors’ stalls, beyond a certain minimum (enough for two loaded pack animals to pass each other, later jurists said). Public display came to be focused on the mosque, and secondarily, rulers’ palaces and city gates, rather on the cityscape as a whole…The caliph and his advisers were nonetheless making a set of conscious symbolic and political points by organizing the Great Mosque as they did; and the way the public space in Islamic cities change, to focus so exclusively on mosques…would have seemed to them auspicious and fitting.”
I don’t know much about urban history of Rome or Greece. Someone in the comments there mentioned chariots, an interesting point worth looking into. But I can say with certainty that historic European capitals were as dense as the cities in the Middle East. Many European cities where build predominantly with wood and burned down. European cities were developed over the old dense grid. For example for military and aesthetic reasons Napoleon III commissioned Baron Haussmann to cut the famous boulevards through the historic maze of Paris. Many “modern” cities copied French boulevards rather literally. For example Commonwealth Ave. in Boston or Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, the latter comes complete with an arch.
It might as well be true that the classical Roman parades where not part of the Arabic culture but it would hardly excuse or explain the density. More interesting question is if Islam’s Mosque plagiarized from Judaism were designed to mirror the traditional urban role of the Jerusalem Temple?
As a Jew I am jealous about the uprising in Iran. It’s inevitable; they are going to take down the mullahs, if not now than in four years. They will do what Catholics learned form the Protestants, how to shove the oppressive hypocrisy into the irrelevant corner of society (with luck, before they manage to rape all the boys). Alas Iran is a closed system; they never developed the “letting off steam” mechanism perfected by the Jews throughout history. Jews have this down pat; the natural attrition is allowed and often encouraged, if not from the outside then from the inside. They want you to leave. If you still stubbornly insist on the internal change, don’t like indoctrination in lieu of education and challenge the hierarchy, the tribal culture makes sure you life is unbearable. Just ask Uriel Da Costa and thousands like him. Hey, you are suffocating and want to split into a new movement, no problem, chose as you like – the conservative, reform, modern, postmodern, whatever. You are on your way out, unrecognized by the world governed by the black robed fundamentalism. Hey Jew, you want to die for the Russian or any other revolution – have lots of mazal! The tradition is pervasive, and if you don’t like the Zionist experiment – b’seder. No wonder I can’t get a cup of coffee in Brookline without hearing Ivrit. And so it goes, on the same week that Teheran youth is fighting for the Persian civilization, Jerusalem is shut down because of a parking lot fight. It’s hopeless for the Jews.
Guardian – Iran elections: Khamenei warns protesters to stay off streets:
“The Islamic republic will never manipulate votes and commit treason,” he said. “The legal structure in this country does not allow vote-rigging.” He said that the margin of Ahmadinejad’s victory – by 11m votes over Mousavi – proved that the election could not have been fixed. He added: “If some people have doubts and evidence it should be dealt with through legal ways – only through legal ways. I will never accept illegal innovations.”
A religious leader normally tells lies for living. The only difference is motivations. There are roughly three categories:
- A leader is deliberate, scheming manipulator who believes (this is his only real belief) that to control the human beasts he must protect them from the truth, for their own benefit. He is The Grand Inquisitor.
- A leader indoctrinated into lies (brain washed), lying all his life and no longer can tell the difference or be honest with himself.
- A Leader that is a natural born moron, he can’t process and can only regurgitate back the pack of lies the fate sold him at the bazaar of life.
Finally, it is unlikely that anyone but the No.1 type leader would be able to ascend to real power.
Christopher Hitchens is a great man! He is the voice of clarity. He writes in Slate – Don’t Call What Happened in Iran Last Week an Election. The quotes are timeless:
“Iran and its citizens are considered by the Shiite theocracy to be the private property of the anointed mullahs. This totalitarian idea was originally based on a piece of religious quackery promulgated by the late Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and known as velayat-e faqui. Under the terms of this edict—which originally placed the clerics in charge of the lives and property of orphans, the indigent, and the insane—the entire population is now declared to be a childlike ward of the black-robed state. Thus any voting exercise is, by definition, over before it has begun, because the all-powerful Islamic Guardian Council determines well in advance who may or may not “run.” Any newspaper referring to the subsequent proceedings as an election, sometimes complete with rallies, polls, counts, and all the rest of it, is the cause of helpless laughter among the ayatollahs. (“They fell for it? But it’s too easy!”) Shame on all those media outlets that have been complicit in this dirty lie all last week. And shame also on our pathetic secretary of state, who said that she hoped that “the genuine will and desire” of the people of Iran would be reflected in the outcome. Surely she knows that any such contingency was deliberately forestalled to begin with.”
(the chart via Andrew Sullivan) Notice how every branch of the government, even mullahs got their own army. Christopher Hitchens concludes:
“Mention of the Lebanese elections impels me to pass on what I saw with my own eyes at a recent Hezbollah rally in south Beirut, Lebanon. In a large hall that featured the official attendance of a delegation from the Iranian Embassy, the most luridly displayed poster of the pro-Iranian party was a nuclear mushroom cloud! Underneath this telling symbol was a caption warning the “Zionists” of what lay in store. We sometimes forget that Iran still officially denies any intention of acquiring nuclear weapons. Yet Ahmadinejad recently hailed an Iranian missile launch as a counterpart to Iran’s success with nuclear centrifuges, and Hezbollah has certainly been allowed to form the idea that the Iranian reactors may have nonpeaceful applications. This means, among other things, that the vicious manipulation by which the mullahs control Iran can no longer be considered their “internal affair.” Fascism at home sooner or later means fascism abroad. Face it now or fight it later. Meanwhile, give it its right name.”
About the political ideas of Plato influence on Khomeini. Time Magazine – The Unknown Ayatullah Khomeini:
“It was during these years that Ruhollah [Khomeini] embraced mysticism, studying Man, which is the conceptual foundation of mysticism, and a kind of Islamic existentialism taught by the scholar Mohsin Faiz. He also became fascinated with Aristotle and Plato, whose Republic provided the model for Khomeini’s concept of the Islamic republic, with the philosopher-king replaced by the Islamic theologian.”
There is also a quote from the book by Kenneth M. Pollack – The Persian Puzzle in Agonist:
“The core of Khomeini’s political philosophy was a concept known as veleyat-e faqih, which means “rule of the jurisprudent.” Khomeini was a devotee of Plato (a rarity among mullahs), and in his utopian Islamic society, the state would be ruled over by a theocratic philosopher-king–a man so learned in Islamic law that all of his peers and all of his countrymen would recognize that only he could provide “right-minded” guidance. Michael Fischer notes that Khomeini was never able to cite textual bases for the concept of velyat-e faqih, largely because it was derived essentially from The Republic rather than from the Quran.”
Khomeini in Bursa port in Turkey in 1964 with his son. It's (was?) prohibited to wear turban in Turkey.
Any totalitarian system has elements of The Republic. To say that Khomeini was specifically influenced by The Republic is a different matter. As I wrote many times Shia to Islam is what Chassidim are to Judaism. Specifically the textual is downplayed and personalities of the leaders are overplayed. The references to the “theocratic king” is the traditional role of the Marja Taqlid as described by the Usuli teaching:
“An important tenet of Usuli doctrine is Taqlid or “imitation”, i.e. the acceptance of a religious ruling in matters of worship and personal affairs from someone regarded as a higher religious authority without necessarily asking for the technical proof…However, his verdicts are not to be taken as the only source of religious information and he can be always corrected by other muqalladeen (the plural of muqallad) which come after him. Obeying a deceased taqlid is forbidden in Usuli.”
Here is the list of the recent Marjas (they all got web sites!). Grand Inquisitors Unite!
via Gene Expression and Joshua Trevino
BDonline reports that a proposal by the British design firm Atkins for the expansion of the Haram Mosque square appeared (has been leaked) on the Internet:
I would like to comment on this video. The pseudo Arabic accent of the narrator notwithstanding the pointed arches and arches in general were developed by the Romans and later used as a construction technique in the Islamic world. The Greco-Roman architects curved the famous arches over the great Sofia of Constantinople before it became a mosque.
Pointed Roman arches at the Aqueduto das Águas Livres em Lisboa, Portugal
The shape of the proposed structure is complex parabolic surface has everything to do with the advances in the computer modeling in the last 20-15 years and much less to do with the Roman or any other arches. If I were trying to sell this thing I would have said that it looks like the Islamic symbol of the Crescent Moon (actually a crescent that has been doubled up over a string). ►►►read more
Almost three years ago I passed on an opportunity to work in Dubai. Firstly, I heard from my colleges that there was a sign or an instruction in the airport saying you can’t enter the country if you passport was stamped “Ben Gurion”. Secondly, after growing up in Russia, I am allergic to any country or a group framed by a cult of personality. Thirdly, I suspected that the slavery problem was practically and morally much more serious than people were willing to admit. And now there is this article in The Independent – the Dark Side of Dubai. An eye opener. Why do the American banks lend to Dubai, despite the blatant slave labor? Why CNBC and most newspapers did one puff piece after another, completely ignoring the slaves? It’s the nameless Indian, Bangladeshi, Pakistani and Korean untouchables whose blood is mixed into the pyramids under the shining portraits of the Sheikh. Read the amazing journalism by Johann Hari. Truly this is what offline or online storytelling is all about. (via Gene Expression)
