Life on Queen Street

Best Egyptian Protest Signs.

I also have thoughts that it's too late to type up right now on how Mubarak used the Muslim Brotherhood as a bogeyman for Western governments while embracing the most dangerous thing about them - their Islamist rhetoric - to give popular legitimacy to his dictatorship within Egypt (the House of Saud does (did?) the same thing by funding the international Wahhabist movement).

UCSB prof Paul Amar argues persuasively in an essay reprinted on Al Jaz English that Mubarak had appropriated the moral-cultural conservatism of the Muslim Brotherhood while subsuming them into Egypt's financial elite:

Brothers were allowed to enter parliament as independent candidates and have been allowed to participate in the recent economic boom. The senior Brothers now own major cell phone companies and real estate developments - and have been absorbed into the NDP machine and upper-middle class establishment for years. Second, the government wholly appropriated the Brotherhood's moral discourse.

For the past ten or fifteen years Mubarak’s police-state has stirred moral panics and waved the banner of Islam, attacking single working women, homosexuals, devil-worshipping internet users, trash-recycling pig farmers, rent-control squatters - as well as Bahai, Christian and Shia minorities. In its morality crusades, the Mubarak government burned books, harassed women, and excommunicated college professors. Thus, we can say that Egypt has already experienced rule by an extremely narrow Islamist state – Mubarak's. Egyptians tried out that kind of regime. And they hated it.

In recent years, as described in the work of Saba Mahmood and Asef Bayat, people have grown disgusted by Mubarak's politicisation of Islam. Egyptians began to reclaim Islam as a project of personal self-governance, ethical piety, and social solidarity. This trend explicitly rejects the political orientation of Islam and explicitly separates itself both from Brotherhood activities and Mubarak's morality crusades.

Against this backdrop, the future role of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt looks quite different than presented in American media - more Roman Catholic Church in Communist Poland than Ayatollahs-in-waiting. It's hard to make any informed judgement as I have neither on-the-ground experience nor any Arabic but I think it does raise a question of whether the Muslim Brotherhood were not a driving force behind the protests (which seems to be a near universal conclusion among commentators) less because they were canny than because the protests were in-part a rejection of politicized Islam, much as the West once upheld the separation of church and state as a sine qua non of a liberal democracy.

I feel, but can't really articulate why, that the focus on MB is, not misplaced, but misfocused. What I do know is that 30 years of Mubarak's rule, including a near decade as a soldier in the "War of Terror," no more halted the rise of Islamism in Egypt than the blockade of Gaza has eliminated support for Hamas. Quite the opposite - by supporting dictators and the demonstrably illegal actions of our allies in the name of a specious "stability," we have, like the God of Exodus, succeeded only in hardening their hearts against us.

More on that later, perhaps....

Political murder is terrorism whether it occurs in Ireland, New York City or Wichita.

Justifying one act of terrorism rationalizes them all and dishonours the memory of all victims of terror everywhere.

An interesting opinion piece from the Independent about Somali Pirates. The comment section is full of the standard trollish bigots as seem to flock to newspaper websites the world over as the last places to tolerate their putrid drivel under the dubious banner of "free speech" (but I digress) and the essay is not sourced nearly as well as it should be (but it does largley jibe with reports from CBC radio and elsewhere). For all that, Johan Haari raises a good point, albeit almost by accident: there is a terrible hypocrisy on the part of Western nations prepared to leave nine million Somalis to starvation and violence but will send in a fleet of warships to protect oil tankers and passenger liners from the criminal enterprises that have arisen in Somalia's ruins.

Johnathan David Farley sticks it to the man.

Farley wrote and article in 2002 called "Why 'They' Hate America in 'Britain'" about the long-standing anti-Americanism among Britain's liberal classes. Might I submit, as a non-American and now a North American ex-pat myself, that authorizing shit like this while banging on about how Iraqis are thanking God for their freedom might have something to do with it.

Speaking of, every day it grows more and more apparent that George W. Bush and reality are no longer on speaking terms.

Maybe Janis said it best when she sang "freedom's just another word for nothing let to lose": the latest from Riverbend is not the kind of freedom I'd be thankful for.

Meanwhile, school shootings go global (it's official, there's now been a school shooting for each month I've been away from home).

In happier news, J. Lo and the Fug Girls can always be counted on to horrify and amuse in equal measure.

As I type this on my beloved Mac Powerbook, Salon has posted proof that buying Apple is cheaper than buying a PC, which is pretty much what I've been saying all along. The article mostly looks at resale value rather than what sold me on a Mac when I went looking for my first new computer all of my own - more bang for my buck in terms of audio/visual/Internet capacity and a robust operating system less susceptible to viruses and other nasty crap. Macs rule.

Eric Lindros may be one of the most bittersweet examples of athletic promise undercut by the business of pro sports but I'd have to say his career on the ice just doesn't merit the Hall of Fame.

Ah, the privilege of age - to say out loud what other people only think.

Of course, sometimes, this comes back to bite you in the ass. Yes, I'm looking at you, Dr. Watson.

I was going to write out my thoughts on the whole thing, particularly those lining up to tsk and glower and tut at those who rescinded speaking invitations to Dr. Watson in the wake of his latest attack of verbal diarrhea but the Guardian has, once again, done it for me.

Although, I feel I must point out that had I edited his piece, I would have revised the last sentence of the third paragraph to say "people can talk rubbish in the street if they insist, but liberty does not require one to welcome them into their home" rather than "liberty requires no one to welcome them into their home." Sometimes a little poetry needs to be sacrificed for greater clarity.

Daniel Radcliffe puts on a uniform, Katie goes *squee* and *melt* - my kinks and their unfortunately Oepdial - je pense qu'Electra est beacoup plus different - quality so very much on display here.

Meanwhile, my thoughts are with those who have friends and family in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area. I hope everyone has tracked down their loved ones and God be with you tonight.

Corporal Matthew McCully, 25, Orangevill, Ontario.

Turns out Prince Harry will not deploy to Iraq with his troop after all.

There are a number of things wrong with how this whole situation was handled from an operational standpoint. Regardless, I can't help feeling that this latest reversal is an insult to every serving British man and woman in Iraq - a clear indication that when it comes to Tony Blair's crusade, some lives are just more important than others.

And that's not even getting into the question of what this means for the monarchy.

I'm more and more conflicted over Canada's military role in Afghanistan, less whether or not Canada should be involved than whether or not our tactics are making a difference. The cost in lives and money is worth it only if Canada is making a difference. Make no mistake - the Taliban are proponents of an ahistorical, monolithic and self-righteous Islamic sect that takes its justification from a literalistic interpretation of the Qu'ran so utterly devoid of context and perspective as to border on perversion. They systematically repress and oppress women and anyone who takes issue with their singular interpretation of Islam, which recokons - among other things - that paradise on earth was achieved in the 7th century. They are also, by large measure, Afghans - and for this reason, we need to find a better way to fight the resurgence of Talibanism than violence. Broad thinking is needed to address the problems that face Afghanistan, of which endemic, crushing poverty and scarcity of resources that afflict the largest part of the nation is only the most pressing. Poverty and lack of opportunity crush hope and breeds frustration. Pathological, dogmatic, violent movements like the Taliban feed on the frustrations and hopelessness of young men. Until some form of security and prosperity can be achieved in Afghanistan, no amount of military action will choke off the trickle of young man into the Taliban's fold. Unfortunately, it seems like Canada's gearing up for more of the same-old, same-old this spring, since the simplest thing that we could doom to improve security and prosperity in Afghanistan was to buy their poppies. In fact, the price of purchasing Afghanistan's poppy crop, which IIRC is worth $2 billion a year, is less than half of what Canada is spending on our battlegroup in Khandahar. Naturally, no one in government is seriously considering this options and NATO argues over whether or not to destroy this year's poppies while direly predicting the need for newer, bloodier offensives come spring, instead.

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It was a story I read in the Toronto Star about one soldier's rehab that started all this spinning in my brain this morning: "his body shattered in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan, Mike McTeague is winning the battle to heal." What particularly struck me was the response of his family and friends who responded to McTeague's wounds by creating the The Sapper Mike McTeague Wounded Warriors Fund to help support "all Canadian Forces members wounded on operations, at the outset of their healing process. The fund aims to improve the general morale and welfare of the soldiers and their families by working through first-line caregivers, medical staff, chaplains and assisting officers."

I plan to send them a cheque.

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In far less serious news, King Leonidas is exhorting my paperwork to stand and fight him, if it dares. Hawgirl is standing behind him to the left, looking formidably nonchalant, her morning star resting against one thigh, while Nightwing stands in his disco suit just infront and to the left of her, grinning - he doesn't seem to appreciate the potential gravity of the situation. Or he thinks Leonidas is crazy.

Could go either way at this point.

*Cool for a certain value of coolness.