Her Journey in the Cave- Part I.My Memory of the Past

It is a Pakistani Culture not a Muslim Culture. In the Levant we are Levantians

Why do Pakistani journalists and writers in Canada atheist or religious assume that there is such a thing called the "Muslim World", "Muslim culture" and "Muslim way of life". If Pakistanis are all Muslim and if Pakistanis are forced to declare they are Muslims to be issued a passport, this does not apply to the Levant. What Pakistanis see as Muslim world in the Levant is not the "Muslim" world. Levantian history is Christian and Samaritan, Syriac and Aramaic. One serious problem people face in the Levant is this universal Islam coming from Pakistan and Afghanistan. It is an Islam financed by Saudis and blessed by the Western converts into this newly born and assumed universal culture. Western, Paksitani and Afghan amongst other universalists are a people that cannot read Arabic. Regardless, they claim they follow the book of Mohamed which was revealed in Arabic. What is the language of universal Islam, and why doesn't this universal culture speak one language is why there could never be something called universal Islam or a Muslim way of life. Simply language defines meaning and culture.

There is not such a thing that is called Muslim culture. I am certain that the Greeks and the Hindus did not share anything in common culturally. Nor did the Persians and the Arabs. Iraq was Persian Saasanide Empire and the Levant was the Greek Byzantine Empire before the Arab Conquest. The Levantians were assimilated linguistically and not culturally. Universal Islam which is preached in the West by Pakistanis, and financed by Wahabi Saudis assuming that Islam is universal is the problem, and people in the Levant are sick and tired with some aliens coming to the Levant preaching their theory of "Islam" and an "Islamic" state. It is not a hidden fact that a large number of terrorists are trained in the Taliban camps in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and are recruited in "Muslim" mosques and schools in the West. These schools and mosques are financed by Saudi Wahabi money.


In the Levant  Muslims enjoy Araq and wine and they love nightlife. In Lebanon Levantians built a temple for Baal and still hold festivals at the temple of Baal called Baalbeck. In the Levant Muslim women wear swimming suits and go to the beach to get a suntan. In the Levant women are free to wear or not to wear the hijab. In the Levant Muslims marry Christians. There is not a Muslim culture in the Levant. In the Levant there are Muslims and Christians that enjoy a Levantian way of life and a Levantian culture. 

I suggest that the media abandon this generalization called "Muslim" world and be specific about who are they talking about in this world. The war raging in the Levant is not a war of Muslim killing Muslim. It is the war of the Levantian defending his/her way of life against Western, Pakistani and Afghan invasion of universal Islamists. It is the war of the survival of the Levant and its culture. Levantians do not share any culture with Pakistanis or with Afghans not with Chechen and Canadian Muslims. No one in the Levant is a Wahabi. So enough of these very "intellectual" Pakistanis that seem to talk about a people that they do not represent in disguise under the idea of the secularism of "universal" Islam.

ISIS, the State and Discourses of Recruitment

By Abir A Chaaban

It is quite implausible to assume that ISIS emerged outside a state operation.  Only ten years ago in 2004, King Abdullah of Jordan voiced concerns about the emerging Shi’a Crescent, out of the war in Iraq. ISIS area of operation is clearly defined within the Fertile Crescent, which emerged to become a Christian, Yazidi, Mandani, Sunni and Kurd and not only a Shi’a Crescent.  For ISIS to come into existence a discourse of recruitment must have been put in place. This discourse must be associated with states that are harboring the dissemination, indoctrination, recruitment and mobilization of the militancy. 

Famous nationals of Al-Qaeda, the mother of ISIS, are Jordanian Zarqawi, Saudi Arabian Osama Ben Laden and Egyptian Zawarhi. These nationalities reflect the nation-states that supported and empowered militant organizations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Egypt of Hosni Mubarak, Jordan of King Abdullah and Saudi Arabia of King Saud, are some of the strongest allies to Israel. ISIS may only be a Zionist-Arab effort to help support Arab domination in the Fertile Crescent under the pretext of the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant.  This would also give legitimacy and recognition to their ally the Jewish State. 

From within Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan, the discourse of recruitment of Islamist militancy that would operate in the Fertile Crescent to combat the Persian and Shi’a emerged. These are the states threatened by the emergence of a pluralist Fertile Crescent that does not identify with its Sunni Arab heritage, but of its Persian and Greek, Syrian and Aramaic heritage.

Her Journey in the Cave- Documentary Video

By Abir Chaaban

"Her Journey in the Cave" is a post-modern musical documentary that tells the story of a female academic/researcher in her late-forties. Abir is the main character. She is a citizen of Canada born in Kuwait to a Lebanese father. She experienced the Lebanese civil war during the eighties. She is working independently on a research project in Lebanon between the years 2010-2014. She is an Instructor of Political Communication at the Lebanese American University. This period produces the “Arab Spring “, a bloody conflict in Syria, one million Syrian refugees in Lebanon and a wave of terrorist attacks on Lebanese civilians.

Abir was a Radio/TV and Film student during the civil war. She had in her possession footage of Beirut when it was destroyed. She left Lebanon after graduating in 1989. The footage remained with her for 24 years. In 2014 it comes back to a full cycle where it is used to construct the contrast between destruction (1988) and construction of Beirut  in 2004 in a film about violence, peace and security in Lebanon.
The story  is composed of two parts. The first part is entitled “My Memory of the Past”. This part is at post production stage. It requires funding for professional editing and professional shooting and re-shooting of some scenes using professional equipment and a camera man. A rough cut using available footage is uploaded on YouTube.  It tells the overall story of part I. Abir's memory of the past is documented as flashbacks into images of the civil war, reconstructing the main events of the Lebanese civil conflict from 1975-1983. It uses music and musical lyrics of Pink Floyd the Wall and Micheal Franti as core to the development of the story between the past and the present. Flashbacks are constructed within an interactive dialogue emerging in class from student’s read assignments and the researcher’s reflections about the assignments.
The assignments dealt with three issues associated with conflict in Lebanon. The first issue is the documentation of history, the second is the construction of identity and the third is peace and security. Two generations stand in contrast. The first is the generation that experienced the civil war as children. Second is the generation that only heard about the war and lacks a comprehensive history book of the war.
Part II. of the film is called “Genealogies of the Construction of Race. It takes the audience to the present of Lebanon and associated sectarian mobilization as it develops with the Syrian conflict. It starts with wave of terrorist explosions that overwhelmed Lebanon. Abir then starts exploring the dichotomy between what the media paints as spring, and the deadly battles and racial mobilization in the midst of the burning of towns that had engulfed Lebanon and Syria.
The story develops as Abir moves into the journey inside the Syrian refugee camps in the Bekka Valley. Abir is working on the depiction of the historic identities utilized by the Islamist militancy to mobilize into conflict in Syria and the utilization of this discourse to recruit militants in Lebanon.
The emphasis is placed on the shift of the identity discourse from Arab and non-Arab as it was core to the Lebanese civil conflict to Shi’a and Sunni which is core to the Syrian conflict.

The Impact

The aim of this story is to establish a dialogue between two generations in a country that does not have a unified history book.  “My Memory of the Past” exposes the role of myth in the construction of identity by the narrative of Abir, of her experience of the past. The story takes the audience through out the First World War, going through the Holocaust and problematizes the concept of the historical nation-state and its relationship to displacement of population and ethnic cleansing.  It brings to the Lebanese youth issues that are not discussed within the locality of Lebanon, primarily the Holocaust and its relationship to the displacement of the Jews and the consequent problem of the Palestinian refugees. It leaves the audience with open questions and highlights the importance of peace as the only option for coexistence.
Part II. takes the youth to the present and demonstrates the role of historical discourse in the process of the mobilization of Sunni-Shi'a conflict in Syria. The idea is to get the audience out of the box of journalistic analysis of the conflict and bring to the front radicalism associated with any religious and ethnic conflict dividing the population into superiors and inferiors by the utilization of historical discourse of identity.
The target of this documentary is the youth that is disinterested in reading about history. This documentary aims to educate, and create awareness to the youth about the complexities associated with the documentation of the history of conflict, the destruction associated with conflict, and the threat Lebanese society faces today with the production of historical discourse aiming to mobilize into sectarian conflict. Informal research was conducted with a small sample of youth at the Lebanese American University, unanimously they desire more visual than talk. Thus, incorporating music and lyrics aims at simplifying the intake of complex historical information.

The Road To Peace

By Abir A Chaaban

The Jewish state claims a “right to exist” in Mandated Palestine. I am not going to argue if the Jews have this right at all. Since, in fact neither Moses, nor the Israelites or King David were Jews. Regardless to the Biblical argument, in the legal books of modernity of legal rights, every right has a corresponding duty. Thus, the European Jews had a duty to co-exist with the people that inhabited Mandated Palestine. This is not what the European Jews did.

Resolution 181(II), gave the Jews a Jewish state. It also gave the Arabs an Arab State. The Lower Galilee belonged to the Arabs. The Jews expelled 750,000 Palestinians from territories that were allotted to the Arabs in resolution 181(II). In 1949 Israel applied for admission to the United Nations. The General Assembly adopted General Assembly Resolution 273(III) admitting Israel to the United Nations as a member. Upon her application for admission to the United Nations, Israel pledged in its Declarations and Explanations to the General Assembly its commitment to implement Resolution 181(II) and 194(III). Thus, Israel formally consented to all the terms of Resolution 181(II) and 194(III), both legally binding upon Israel.

The Palestinians, that Israel calls terrorists had the right to self-defense and had the right to fight back to get what was originally theirs, not in history, but in Resolution 181(II). These Palestinians were actually fighting Jewish terror, which did not only target the Palestinians but also targeted the British Mandate.

The Jews were not satisfied. They decided to invade Lebanon and occupy Lebanese territories of the Upper Galilee ( South Lebanon) to protect occupied land given to the Arabs in Resolution 181 (II) in the Lower Galilee. The Jews were not defending the territories of the legally acquired Jewish state. They were occupying territories to defend territories to which the Jews did not have a legal right.

Hezbollah along with the Lebanese Resistance, which is composed of Lebanese nationalist and communist parties, brought liberty to South Lebanon. Hezbollah played the role of the defense of Southern Lebanon in times of a bloody civil war, that led to the collapse of the Lebanese Army and government along sectarian lines. Today it Hezbollah remains to be the only entity that is equipped militarily to defend South Lebanon.

The regional war between Israel, Lebanon and Syria war will not stop by lobbying Western states with the aim of calling an organization a terrorist organization, only because it threatens the existence of a state founded on illegal occupation and displacement of Palestinians. Name calling will not stop the war. It will not give the Jews any right to the Galilee. Only negotiations will resolve outstanding matters.

The condition between Syria, Lebanon and Israel is a condition of war. Peace was never achieved between these three states. The armistices of 1949 were based on the implementation of the terms of Security Council Resolution (73)1949. Armistice demarcation line was not meant to establish the boundaries between Israel and her neighbors. The Armistices were established to achieve a state of ceasefire following the 1948-1949 conflict. The object of Resolution was the peaceful negotiation of the territorial dispute and the refugee problem under Security Council Resolution (73) article 1, which calls for the implementation of General Assembly Resolution 194(III). 

The designation of one side that is involved in this war a terrorist organization indicates that globally the world intends to resolve the matter by war. Since in essence the parties involved in the conflict in the current day of conflict are Lebanese Hezbollah, Syria and Israel.

It is our choice to start negotiating for a just peace, or continue this war. A just peace is the peace that will get the Palestinians out of the camps and back to what is their right by law.  A Just peace cannot be based on Israel’s pumping natural gas from territories over which it is not sovereign and were annexed in 1949, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are living in camps since 1949.

Without the Lebanese Resistance, which includes Hezbollah, South Lebanon was never going to be free. This resistance will continue as long as there are displaced Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and Syria.  The road to peace would not be achieved by negotiating with the Palestinian Authority over sovereignty in the West Bank and Gaza, when in fact this is not the cause of the war leading to the armistices between Syria, Lebanon and Israel, the sovereign states parties to this conflict.

Lebanon, Syria and Israel Politics: Book Chapter

Lebanon, Syria and Israel Politics: Book Chapter: Archeology, Genealogy and the Communication of Subjectivity: The Uses Made of Historical Discourse in Tactical Military Operations in...

Book Chapter

Archeology, Genealogy and the Communication of Subjectivity: The Uses Made of Historical Discourse in Tactical Military Operations in the Syrian Conflict (2013) 
(click on link above for full version)

by Abir Chaaban

Abstract

Archeology and genealogy are combined method of inquiry into the question of the how of power. In Society must be Defended Foucault aimed to methodologically de-scientify the theory of sovereignty by applying the combination of both methods. He first demonstrated archeologically the discontinuity of the conceptual formation of the concept of the legitimacy of sovereignty. Then he genealogically demonstrated the uses made of historical discourse to construct a discourse of an historical legitimacy of sovereignty. This discourse aims at constructing immediate identities of adversaries to tactically mobilize into conflict. In the midst of such conflict the state and its sovereignty were born. This study takes archeology and genealogy schematically as methods of inquiry into the question of the how of power. It brings into question the thesis of an assumed origin and continuity of a Sunni- Shī’a historical sectarian conflict that is being revived in Syria. This study takes three levels of analysis. The first level of analysis brings the assembly constructing the thesis of an origin and continuity of a historic sectarian conflict by institutions of knowledge, the media and think tanks into question. The second level takes the historical dimension to study the archeology of the construction of the constituent points assembling the thesis of origin and continuity. The aim is to genealogically release subjugated knowledges that were abstracted in the process of formal systemization of the origin and continuity thesis. The third level of analysis takes the historical discourse of militancy in Syria. The Salaf militants appeal to a discourse of superiors and inferiors, a sub race and an inferior race of Salaf and Shi’a to mobilize into battle. Foucault did not utilize his analysis into the currency of conflict. I take Foucauldian analysis into the immediacy of conflict.  I take internet and social media as discourse constructing antagonist sectarian identities around a historical content. I bring into play the subject speaking the discourse of news objectivity into the interplay of adversaries and allies mobilizing into conflict to de-scientify the hypothesis of the sectarian divide.