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"Yassin-Kassab, Robin"
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Burning Country
In 2011, many Syrians took to the streets of Damascus to demand the overthrow of the government of Bashar al-Assad. Today, much of Syria has become a warzone where foreign journalists find it almost impossible to report on life in this devastated land. Burning Country explores the horrific and complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first-hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists among many others. These stories are expertly interwoven with a trenchant analysis of the brutalisation of the conflict and the militarisation of the uprising, of the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of governments in Syria and elsewhere in exacerbating those violent processes. With chapters focusing on ISIS and Islamism, regional geopolitics, the new grassroots revolutionary organisations, and the worst refugee crisis since World War Two, Burning Country is a vivid and groundbreaking look at a modern-day political and humanitarian nightmare.
eBook
Burning Country
*Shortlisted for the Rathbones Folio Prize 2017* In 2011, many Syrians took to the streets of Damascus to demand the overthrow of the government of Bashar al-Assad. Today, much of Syria has become a war zone where foreign journalists find it almost impossible to report on life in this devastated land. Burning Country explores the horrific and complicated reality of life in present-day Syria with unprecedented detail and sophistication, drawing on new first hand testimonies from opposition fighters, exiles lost in an archipelago of refugee camps, and courageous human rights activists among many others. These stories are expertly interwoven with a trenchant analysis of the brutalisation of the conflict and the militarisation of the uprising, of the rise of the Islamists and sectarian warfare, and the role of governments in Syria and elsewhere in exacerbating those violent processes. With chapters focusing on ISIS and Islamism, regional geopolitics, the new grassroots revolutionary organisations, and the worst refugee crisis since World War Two, Burning Country is a vivid and groundbreaking look at a modern-day political and humanitarian nightmare.
eBook
Critical Muslim 4
Ziauddin Sardar questions the question mark that is always placed in front of Pakistan, Robin Yassin-Kassab asks why Pakistan has not imploded, Taimur Khan breaks bread with the gangsters and bookies of Karachi, Muhammad Idrees Ahmad revisits Peshawar, Mahvish Ahmad tracks down the separatist in Quetta, Ehsan Masood watches Pakistani television, Merryl Wyn Davies deconstructs 'imaginariums' of Pakistan, Aamer Hussein discusses Pakistani modern classic fiction, Bina Shah asks if there is boom in Pakistani literature, Bilal Tanweer listens to 'Coke Studio', Muneeza Shamsie discovers the literary secrets of her family, Taymiya R. Zaman overcomes her fear of talking about Pakistan, Ali Maraj assesses Imran Khan, Shazia Mirza tells rude jokes in Lahore, and a fake novel by Ibn-e-Safi is spotted in Bahwalnagar. Plus a new translation of an old short story by A R Khatoon, a new story by Yasir Shah, poems by Ghalib, John Siddique and Zehra Nigah, Atia Jilani's Quranic art, photographs by Ayesha Malik, and 'Ten Things We Love About Pakistan'. About Critical Muslim: A quarterly publication of ideas and issues showcasing groundbreaking thinking on Islam and what it means to be a Muslim in a rapidly changing, interconnected world. Each edition centers on a discrete theme, and contributions include reportage, academic analysis, cultural commentary, photography, poetry, and book reviews.
eBook
Critical Muslim 3
AbdelWahab El-Affendi on Islamophobia and Orientalism in the age of liberal paranoia, Arun Kundnani on English Defense League and the rise of the far right in Europe, Vinay Lal on Hindus who love Hitler, Gordon Steffey on Christian fundamentalism, Fanar Haddad on the sectarian schisms in the Arab world, Gary McFarlane on Tottenham Riots, Farouk Peru on self loathing Muslims, Claire Chambers on 'Four Lions', Peter Clark on Bernard Lewis and Peter Moray on Irshad Manji. Plus a short story by Suhel Ahmed, six poems by Stphane Chaumet, Anita Sethi's dangerous bus ride through Iran, Ten Top Techs for Muslim and Ziauddin Sardar on his pet hate: the beards of Islam.
eBook
Syria Dismantled
In the 27 months since we finished writing the first edition ofBurning Country, Syria’s popular and democratic revolution appears to have been almost comprehensively crushed. The country itself is shattered into zones of foreign influence. The revolution’s erstwhile urban centres are utterly destroyed and for the most part under foreign occupation. Assad’s war against the revolutionary populace has birthed a further series of sectarian, ethnic and regional conflicts. At least half of Syrians are now displaced from their homes. The region primarily, and to some extent the entire global system too, is critically destabilised. Meaningful resolution is nowhere in
Book Chapter
Culture Revolutionised
The land and cityscapes of ‘Assad’s Syria’ were punctuated by statues, altars and slogans to the ‘Eternal Leader’ Hafez. His name was picked out in white rocks on hillsides. His metal hand and impervious gaze rose over shopping streets, college campuses and city squares. Calligraphed messages on motorway flyovers described him as ‘al-Ameen, al-Sadeeq’ (‘the Truthful, the Trustworthy’) – titles previously reserved for the Prophet Muhammad. Official iconography depicted a glowing halo surrounding his mother’s head. On such special occasions as the run-up to one of the allegiance referendums, grim-faced newsreaders wore T-shirts imaging the great man’s face. Official culture
Book Chapter
Scorched Earth
Tormented, bereaved and dispossessed, the Syrian people turned more intensely to religion. This doesn’t mean they became advocates of public beheadings and compulsory veiling; almost all were horrified by the appearance of these phenomena and most still expressed the desire for a civil rather than an Islamic state. A minority, disgusted by the uses to which religion had been put, questioned it more intensely than before. But in general religious emotions were enflamed, and religious references were reinforced.
The first cause was the same one which powered militarisation – the brute fact of extreme violence. In most cultures the proximity
Book Chapter
Bashaar’s First Decade
Bashaar’s personable image was skilfully projected. His pre-presidential role as head of the Syrian Computer Society – credited with introducing the Internet to the country in 2001 – suggested an outward-looking moderniser. Six months after assuming the presidency, he married Asma al-Akhras, daughter of a Sunni family from Homs. Brought up in London, briefly an international investment banker, Asma was now refashioned as a sort of Lady Diana for Damascus, heading development charities and speaking on women’s rights – or as a ‘desert rose’, in the style of a Vogue Magazine puff piece.³ The first couple made seemingly spontaneous trips
Book Chapter
The Grassroots
The Syrian revolution wasn’t led by a vanguard party and wasn’t subject to centralised control. It didn’t splinter, because it was never a monolith. It originated in the streets among people from all backgrounds. The plethora of initiatives that emerged organically to sustain the revolutionary movement were all the more astonishing given the absence of civil and political organisation before 2011.
In the revolution’s first weeks, coordination committees ortanseeqiyatsprang up in neighbourhoods, villages and towns across the country.⁴ This was the first form of revolutionary organisation and would remain the nucleus of the civil resistance. ‘Thetanseeqiyatwere
Book Chapter