Muhammad Ali and the Middle East

With Nasser, 1964

The late Muhammad Ali, who died this weekend, was often described in his heyday as the most famous man on earth. It may well have been true, especially in the Third World, where his embrace of Islam, his willingness to give up his title rather than support the Vietnam War, his staging championship bouts in Kinshasa and Manila, all added to his global fame.

When he announced his conversion to Islam, it was to the extremely unorthodox Nation of Islam, which many Muslims did not accept as Islamic. Later, in 1975, he converted to mainstream Sunni Islam. In 2005, he announced himself an adherent of the Universal Sufism movement led by Inayat Khan.

Praying at Hussein mosque, Cairo

Throughout his career, he made many visits to the Middle East, beginning with a visit to Egypt in 1964, where he met with Nasser and visited the High Dam under construction at Aswan. It should be remembered at the time meeting with Nasser was itself cause for controversial, as was his meeting with Mu‘ammar Qadhafi in Libya. It added to his reputation as a rebel.

At the Kaaba

In 1972, Ali famously made the hajj. He would thereafter speak of how moving he found the experience.

He would make many other visits to the Middle East. He was decorated by heads of state from Morocco to the Gulf, He generally drew crowds wherever he went. In 1982, having retired from the ring, he held two exhibition fights in Abu Dhabi and Dubai.


In 1986 he visited Egypt for the second time, posing at the pyramids.

This is only a partial catalog of Ali's love affair with the Middle East, which was very much mutual.

Receiving a decoration from King Hasan II of Morocco

Sports Notes: Triple Crown Winner's Owner Once Ran Egypt's Stella Brewery

The main news on  Saturday was the victory of thoroughbred American Pharoah (officially so spelled on his registration, so racing fans will never spell "pharaoh" correctly again) in the Belmont Stakes, making him the first horse in 37 years to win the Triple Crown. You may already know that he is owned by Egyptian-American businessman and breeder Ahmed Zayat. I thought it worth mentioning that Zayat (besides identifying himself variously as both Muslim and an Orthodox Jew; a Yeshiva graduate and living in an Orthodox neighborhood in Teaneck, New Jersey) used to run Egypt's Al Ahram Beverages Company, which among other things brews Stella Beer, a number of other beers, and produces Gianaclis wines.

Al Ahram beverages had been nationalized under Nasser and its quality control suffered; when it was privatized in 1997 Zayat  and a group of investors bought it, expanded its product line (including a non-alcoholic beer) and improved quality control. In 2002 the company was sold to the Heineken group, though Zayat remained involved in its management until 2007.

So if you have access to a bottle of Stella, raise a glass to a record-making three year old thoroughbred with a misspelled name.

The Middle East Connections of Both NBA Championship Coaches

A very busy day so not much blogging. I'm not that big a basketball fan unless my alma mater or a local pro team is involved, but with the NBA finals underway, I should note Haaretz' piece "Middle East veterans to meet in NBA finals." 

Cleveland coach David Blatt is an Israeli dual citizen and former coach of Maccabi Tel Aviv, and Golden State coach Steve Kerr is a Beirut-born son of the late, great scholar and AUB President Malcolm Kerr, assassinated in Beirut in 1984. I met Malcolm Kerr a few times but had no idea of this connection
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Egypt: The Return of Soccer Violence

The number of dead in Sunday's football (soccer) riot/clash with police in Cairo is now at least 30, the worst soccer violence since the Port Said clashes that took 70 lives in 2012. After that event, the authorities banned spectators from attending matches for some time, and were just beginning to relax that by selling only 5000 tickets to this match between Zamalek and the ENPPI Club. Many non-ticketholders tried to rush the stadium gates, and the rabid Zamalek supporters known as the Ultras White Knights clashed with the police. Since the match was at the military-owned Air Defense Forces Stadium, the Interior Ministry says the police were protecting public property.

For further reading, James M. Dorsey's The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer, the go-to site for the Ultras and their clashes, as usual provides a clear account, with necessary background, of what is known so far.

For other coverage, see Ahram Online accounts here and here, and Zeinobia's  blog offers both commentary and some photos and video.

Algerians, Other Arabs Celebrate World Cup Advance Across Europe

While Americans are enthusiastic about the fact that the USA team in the World Cup is advancing to the next stage, Algeria on the same day tied Russia to also advance, after a previous rout of South Korea 4-2, reportedly the first time an Arab team has scored four goals in a World Cup game. That was Algeria's first World Cup win since 1982, and the first by an Arab country in 16 years. See this article at the FIFA website.

The celebrations have not just been limited to Algeria; much of the Arab World has joined in. And the huge Algerian population in France have too, and have clashed with riot police in Paris and other French cities:

I'm Betting This Will Be Ignored: Salafi Says Not to Watch World Cup

 Egypt failed to qualify for the World Cup this year, but nevertheless I don't think this will fly: via Egypt Independent,  "Salafi leader Borhamy forbids Watching World Cup matches." 

Vice-Chief of the Salafi Dawa Yasser Borhamy has issued a religious edict, saying that Muslims are forbidden from watching football matches in the World Cup as it could be seen as admiring disbelievers.

In his edict posted on Ana Salafi, the official website of the Salafi Dawa, Borhamy said, “the World Cup matches distract Muslims from performing their [religious] duties. They include forbidden things that could break the fast in Ramadan as well as others forbidden in Islam like intolerance and wasting time. Football lovers like disbelievers of foreign teams’ players and others, which is rejected.”

Borhamy also called on football lovers to focus on their religion and stay away from such forbidden things.

This is the Deputy Chief of the Salafi Da‘wa Movement, the organization behind the Nour Party.

Headline of the Week? "Nude Wife of Saudi Football Coach Sparks Anger."

From Al-Arabiya: "Nude Wife of Saudi Football Coach Sparks Anger."

A grabber of a headline. Did a Saudi coach's wife attend the game stark naked instead of in full abaya? Well, no. The coach isn't himself Saudi, and the wife isn't always nude (I assume) and may not be coming to the KSA. Still, female nudity and Saudi Arabia being the matter and antimatter of the Middle East, an explosion was predictable.

Here's the story. The most prominent and popular Saudi football (soccer to us Yanks) club, Al-Hilal just hired Romanian Laurenţiu Reghecampf as its new coach. His contract is reportedly worth $2.5 million. But it has been learned that his wife (and reportedly his agent), Ana Maria (or Anamaria) Prodan, has a profile not typical of Saudi women. As Al-Arabiya puts it:

Prodan is reportedly the first female FIFA-licensed agent in Romania. A Las Vegas resident, she supplements her income through gambling and modeling. Her latter work includes a photo-shoot for Playboy.

Professional woman who gambles, models, and poses for Playboy? Pretty much a trifecta for the Hay'a, the Saudi Committee for the Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, also known as the Religious Police. There is no confirmation she is even planning to relocate, with her husband, to the Kingdom (she lives in Las Vegas, a place somewhat different from Riyadh), but that hasn't prevented an uproar that may jeopardize Reghecampf's brand-new contract. (The fact that many Saudis resent the replacement of the previous Arab coach is also a factor.)

Among other things, tattoos are taboo

As far as I can tell through extensive research (aka looking on Google), she has only appeared in the Romanian edition of Playboy, which I assume does not circulate widely outside Romania and maybe Moldova, and quite certainly is not readily available in Saudi Arabia. The PG-13 photo at right seems to be from this shoot, and the (concealed) nudity is compounded by another no-no to strict Muslims: tattoos.

Whatever the Saudis do, my image of sports agents is changed forever.

A Graphic Illustration of Why There is So Much Sexual Content on the Internet

February hasn't been a great blogging month. I lost a couple of days to a bug and much of the country was iced, snowed, or otherwise weathered out of the picture for a while. On the weekend I did a routine check of blog  traffic and found it was low on this site and others. I've talked about the situations in Egypt and Syria, a fair amount of cultural stuff, the Bouteflika-Mediene power struggle in Algeria, and other serious matter, though little has been exciting. Traffic on the blog has been a few hundred visits a day, the extremely low end of normal.

Then we learned that Lebanese Olympic skier Jackie Chamoun had once taken her top off for a ski calendar photoshoot. Though the photos I posted here were in the Sports Illustrated  Swimsuit issue level of peek-a-boo suggestiveness at best, the whole Chamoun issue went viral due to a "making of" video which she says was not to be made public,  I had one critical comment on the post, criticizing me for "bashing" Ms. Chamoun while I thought I was defending her. That post went up late on the night of February 10. The next day I got 1,242 visits and 1,504 pageviews; the following day 942 visits and 1,093 pageviews. Not my all-time high or even close, but pretty impressive for February. I later had a follow-up post on the surge of support for her. (And Sports Minister Faisal Karami, who called for an investigation, is not in the newly-named Cabinet.)

The graph above is Google Analytics'  trace of the first two weeks of February's blog traffic, showing the Chamoun surge. [Update: off blog I've had comments about the shape of the graph. Take a cold shower and get a girlfriend.]

 Lebanese traffic also increased, Lebanon rising to number 7 in my source countries. It may have risen that high in the past, but not for quite a while. The English-speaking countries (US, UK, Canada and Australia: where are you, New Zealanders?) plus Egypt, Israel, the UAE, Germany, and lately Turkey (which used to block all Blogger sites) usually dominate, but this propelled Lebanon up the ranks.

In the top 10 Google search words included all of the following:

Jackie Chamoun (the number one search)
Jackie Chamoun topless
Jacky Chamoun
Jacky Chamoun topless
Jackie Chamoun nudity

Five in the top ten; three in the top four. Most do not appear to relate to her Olympic ski performance; she didn't actually ski till the weekend. None said "Jackie Chamoun Olympic ski results."

Now, don't read this as meaning that my readers are basically all lecherous males looking for not-very-revealing pictures; it's more a function of lecherous males looking for not-very-revealing pictures who never heard of this blog before finding it through Google.

On the other hand, among my highest-ranking posts for all time are those dealing with Aliaa Elmahdy, though again her actual nudity never appeared on the blog. So talking about nudity works.

We all know sex sells. Apparently naked, or topless, Arab women draw traffic. (Who'd have thunk it?) In my original post I said that the still pics were mild and only the video showed much, and commented:

I still think it's rather mild: there are a few shots, at some distance, where you seem to see her breasts fully, but unless you're really good at stop-motion screen shots, if this is the only way you can find nudity (with nipples: see above) on the Internet, you're doing it wrong. I find it innocent enough to post here.

I underestimated the lechery of the Internet: of course there are now tons of screencaps showing blurry shots of Ms. Chamoun's breasts. You won't find them here, as I'm respecting her Facebook request not to circulate them further, and if blurred distant toplessness is the best you can do you don't understand the Internet; but I fear she's paying the price of being photographed in revealing ways, even if not for publication. Once a photo or a video is on the Internet, it will never entirely disappear. I still don't think she did anything wrong: actresses in Arab films and music videos sometimes appear seemingly topless, though only their back is shown; I assume the cameramen and director saw more. (And a few have survived "sex tape" scandals, though without the career boost that seems to create in the West). Ms. Chamoun did not think the "making of" video would ever appear, and the calendar, if coy, was unrevealing. The biggest "boobs" in this story are her critics.

Despite the huge surge last week, I am not taking from it the lesson that this should be a sex blog, or start running a Page Three Girl if we had pages.The Middle East Institute tolerates my rather broad "social and cultural" mission definition, but I'm not going to push it. (There aren't enough topless Arab women anyway.) But if you wonder why there's so much sexual content on the Internet, I think the graph above is revealing. It draws traffic.

After Sports Minister's Remarks, Lebanese Social Media Spring to Defense of Jackie Chamoun

The age of social media makes it harder for government officials to escape ridicule when they act stupidly. I already noted a couple of days ago that the fuss over pictures of Lebanese Olympic skier Jackie Chamoun was being blown out of proportion in the Lebanese press; then Caretaker Youth and Sports Minister Faisal Karami chimed in, saying the photos would damage Lebanon's international image and saying he had telephoned the International Olympic Committee to ask for an investigation.

Comments on social media were quick to note that there have been a number of deadly car bombings lately in Lebanon as well as a couple of recent wife murders that went unpunished, and that maybe some cheesecake pictures of an attractive athlete weren't really the biggest threat to the country's reputation. And that "Caretaker" in Karami's title stems from the fact that Lebanon has gone without a government for ten months now; but then, as Qifa Nabki noted recently, it's also been the case for two and a half out of the last four years.
As for Chamoun herself, she apologized on her Facebook page, noting that the photos were old, that the actual calendar photos were not that revealing, and that the video of the "making of" the calendar was not supposed to be made public.  She said:

 I just want to make it clear to everyone who commented, shared the photos that appeared on the net in Lebanon yesterday. Yes I did photos for an Austrian ski calendar with other professional athletes 3 years ago. The photos of the photoshoot are not like the actual images that are now circulating on the net. The video and photos that you are now seeing are part of the making off, the preparation, it wasn’t supposed to go public. Anyways, I want to apologize to all of you, I know that Lebanon is a conservative country and this is not the image that reflects our culture. I fully understand if you want to criticise this.

Now that I’m at the Olympic Games, these photos that I never saw before are being shared. It is sad. All I can ask to each of you who saw this, is to stop spreading it, it will really help me focusing on what is really important now: my trainings and race.

In fact, not only did the comments on her post appear to be mostly favorable,  but Lebanese took to social media with a #StripforJackie campaign, posting pictures of themselves discreetly covered by strategically placed protest signs; bloggers also sprang to her defense, and Lebanon Now editorialized with these words and photo, in an editorial entitled "Boobs over Bullets; Gold over Graft":

Jackie Chamoun, one of two alpine skiers representing Lebanon at the Sochi Olympics, has come under fire for exposing herself (or part of herself) in a photo shoot a few years ago. In turn, her critics have come under fire for targeting “boobs instead of bombs.” Meanwhile, the Lebanese Minister of Youth and Sports has called upon Lebanese Olympic officials to investigate matters to uphold Lebanon’s reputation. (Incidentally, as many others have pointed out, that reputation would be a lot nicer without the cartels, bombings, killings, kidnappings, gun running, drug smuggling, corruption, poor roads, lack of power, inconsistent water supply, and declining quality of hummus.)

Lebanon Now Website

Furthermore, some Lebanese commercial products also joined in the #StripforJackie protest on their websites and social media pages, including Almaza beer, posing without its label:

Roughly, "don't take my clothes off."

The whole "scandal" isn't a scandal and henceforth I think we should respect Ms. Chamoun's request and let her concentrate on the ski slopes. And I hope all the humor has put Mr. Karami's indignation in proper perspective.

Lebanon Sent Two Athletes to Sochi and There's Already a "Scandal" About One of Them

If you've been watching the Olympics in Sochi (and it's pretty hard to avoid), you already know that this is not the Middle East's thing, exactly. Despite the famous Jamaican bobsled team, the Saudis don't do the luge, skiing is scarce in Libya. and nobody including me has a clue about curling. Of the 88 countries participating at Sochi, only two are Arab: Lebanon and Morocco. Israel. Iran, and Turkey are there, as are Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia. who are all in the neighborhood. Some Central Asian countries are there too.

By an odd coincidence last week my staff was poking around in the Middle East Institute's attic and found a 1946 book in Arabic on "Winter Sports in Lebanon," and this post relates to the Lebanese Olympic team.

Jackie with skies and not much else

Lebanon sent two athletes to compete at Sochi: skiers Alexandre Mohat and Jackie Chamoun, Another skier who is in the Olympic delegation from Lebanon, Chirine Njeim, and who competed in Vancouver in 2010 but isn't skiing this year, and Chamoun, are the center of the controversy. Apparently last year they posed for a calendar in Switzerland for photographer/Olympic skier Hubertus von Hohenlohe, a German prince who is representing Mexico in Sochi (I'm not making this up), and in the stills from the shoot, Chamoun appears topless. I say "appears" because, in most of the stills at least, her hands,arms, or ski are strategically placed. We aren't in Playboy territory here but in Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue world, with hands, hair, etc. keeping things, in US movie-rating terms, PG-13 rather than R.

A Lebanese media site, Al-Jadid Sport reported today what was already apparently old news: that Chamoun and Njeim had  posed for the calendar, calling it a scandal, and so on. Bloggers aren't as sure, and part of the issue is what "topless" means, since Western models at least often pose showing parts but not all of their "top" and aren't  considered to have done nudity. (In the US at least the distinction seems to be, frankly, whether you can see nipples. If not, it's seemingly OK for broadcast TV.) (Of course it makes no sense, but don't complain to me.)

How scandalous exactly is this "side-boob" shot?

Jackie is clearly enough topless in this picture but not frontally so: is that as objectionable? Oh, EEK! She's topless! Yes, but showing only what the American tabloids call "sideboob," a useful if inelegant term. It's unclear as to why Americans seem to be OK with seeing almost all the breast except for the nipple before they complain "she's naked" (over here, "pastie" means something quite different than it does in Cornwall: a small application pasted over the nipple), but that's how it is. Europeans don't seem to obsess as much on the nipple, but Americans do. Chamoun is within the acceptable range in the still photos..

Hizbullah (less tolerant than even puritanical Americans) is not going to like it back home, but her name indicates she's Christian, and Lebanon has a tradition of sexual edginess.

In fact, she has already discussed the photo shoot with NBC, which handles the official US Olympic coverage:

Hubertus mentioned that you posed for his Ski Instructors calendar. What was that like and did you get the chance to talk with him at all about his Olympic experiences?

Hubertus is a good friend of mine. He came to Lebanon for international competitions and I also saw him at the World Championships in Val d’Isere in 2009 and the Olympics in 2010. We stayed in contact and he was in Serbia when I was there racing. He is a really good friend and he is very passionate about what he does, whether it is sport or the Olympics or photography. It is nice to see people who are older and still want more and don’t want to stop because they love the sport so much.

So, Hubertus came to Lebanon because he did a video show about Beirut and he also did this calendar. Chirine and I were in the calendar. We met him on the slopes. Of course it was a strange feeling to be on the slopes of Lebanon and produce this calendar, but it was great to be with Hubertus and his crew. It was a great experience and a lot of fun.

When you say it was weird, what do you mean?

First because it was… I did photos before for a Lebanese magazine and advertisements but not these kind of photos. The other weird thing was that I knew everybody at the ski resort. I knew all the skiers who were passing. I could see other skiers. I could see the parents of other skiers. I could see my coaches, everyone. When you get there, you are like, ‘No, what am I doing? Maybe I shouldn’t do this.’ But then you go with it and have fun.

Was it a positive experience?

Uhh, yes.

Why the hesitation?

(laughs) It was positive for me. I don’t regret it at all. When I started my job, for example, people when they search for me on the web sometimes they can see these pictures directly so you think maybe it’s not the best thing, not the best image you can give someone of you. But, I don’t really care, though. I really enjoyed it and I don’t regret it. I like these photos. I have no problem with it.

Was it difficult to do in a country like Lebanon which is more conservative than a lot of other counties in the world?

Yes. If we were somewhere else in Lebanon, in a public place, maybe they would have shooted us. But we were on the slope in Faraya and it is an open space. The people who go there are people from Beirut who are open-minded, more international in their thinking, and also the jet-set of Lebanon so it wasn’t a problem there. It’s really open there, like in Europe. In other places we could have been in really big trouble.

What did your parents say?

My dad wasn’t happy with it at all (laughs). He didn’t want me to do it, but my mom was okay with it.

Fair enough, I'd say. Here, for the record, is her fellow Lebanese Olympian Cherine Njeim, also under-dressed for the weather:

Also, I feel, in the PG-13 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue range of objectionableness. 

To be fair to the critics, there is a "making of" video out there on YouTube which does appear to show more of Jackie than the stills do. I still think it's rather mild: there are a few shots, at some distance, where you seem to see her breasts fully, but unless you're really good at stop-motion screen shots, if this is the only way you can find nudity (with nipples: see above) on the Internet, you're doing it wrong. I find it innocent enough to post here.


I find this a teapot tempest. Like many attractive athletes before and since, Jackie and Cherine are teasing their fans. Hardly a "scandal."

Middle East Circassians and the Sochi Olympics

This article, by a member of Jordan's Circassian community, discusses the international Circassian diaspora's attitude toward the Winter Olympics in Sochi, once the heart of the Adyghe or Circassian people's homeland.

Between 1860 and 1864, at the end of the Russian conquest of Circassia, there occurred one of the first great ethnic cleansings of the 19th century, one now largely forgotten except by the descendants of the victims. Hundreds of thousands died, and more were deported by Tsarist Russia to the Ottoman Empire, where they formed, and still form, distinct ethnic communities. Turkey, Syria, Lebanon,Jordan, Israel, Iraq and Egypt all have Circassian populations, perhaps most visible in Jordan where the overall population is small and they are a sizable minority. (Some of the "Circassian" communities of the Middle East include other peoples expelled from the Caucasus (particularly Chechens), but I'm speaking here of true Circassians, the Adyghe people.

The article linked to above (despite sometimes spelling Caucasus as "Caucuses," presumably due to a spell-checker) notes how the choice of Sochi for the Olympics has awakened a national solidarity among the Circassian diaspora, one not seen before.

Iran, Still Celebrating Rouhani, Makes it to the World Cup, Too

Iran, where many are still celebrating the election of Hassan Rouhani, beat South Korea 1-0 today to secure itself a place at the 2014 World Cup, adding a football celebration to the political one. (South Korea also qualified.)

UPDATE: Reports crowds are chanting, "Rouhani, Moussavi, we're going to World Cup." 

About Those Awful Russian Photographers ... and Golf on the Pyramids

Just last month we were all linking to wonderful photos taken by Russian photographers who had climbed to the top of the pyramids, which is illegal despite people having been doing it for oh, 4,500 years (give or take a few); the government screamed, the photographers apologized, and everyone loved the photos.  It's been said that in colonizing the Spanish went where they could find gold, the French and Russians where they could find furs, and the British . . . well, this photo suggests that they went where they could find the ultimate golf tee:

Now, I'm no golfer, though I hope he's using a driver if he hopes to hit the Chephren pyramid. My parents made me take golf lessons as a kid and, like most forced lessons, it soured me on the game forever. But, I wonder if this isn't a picture golfers shouldn't venerate right up there with, of course, the ultimate golfer's dream, hitting a golf ball on the moon: Astronaut Alan Shepard hit two on February 6, 1971:

A Couple of Crucial Days Ahead in Egypt?

Tomorrow is January 25, the second anniversary of trhe Egyptian Revolution, the beginning of the 18 days of demonstrations that brought down Husni Mubarak. That could create tension, but a more dangerous scenario is building for Saturday,the date set for the trial in the deaths of soccer rioters in Port Said nearly a year ago. Egypt's Ultras, the hardcore soccer support groups who have become a wild card in street demonstrations, are incensed by rumors that the case will be postponed; the Ultras Ahlawy, supporters of the Ahly team, have already been demonstrating, at the stock exchange, blocking Metro stations, etc,, and are threatening something more on Saturday.

While the Ultras are hard to categorize ideologically,except perhaps anarchist-style rebels against all authority, they are  certainly a destabilizing factor and one that is a wild card of sorts in the current constellation of forces. The anniversary tomorrow combined with the Ahlawy Ultras' threats for Saturday could lead to a new outburst of violence over the next couple of days. I hope I'm wrong.

While Everyone Was Watching the Nuclear Program, Iran Was Apparently Getting in Shape

Iran has so far (as of just now) won eight medals, four of them gold, in the London Olympics. That exceeds their previous national best of seven medals clear back in 1952 in Helsinki, and puts them well ahead of anyone else in the Middle East, unless you count Kazakhstan with 7 as the Middle East. As of right now (though rankings change constantly), Iran's ranked number 11 in medals worldwide.

Maybe Natanz is an Olympic training center and the whole nuclear thing was a diversion?

Obligatory Olympics Arabic Note: Marhaba bikum fi London, Sort of

It's the opening day of the London Olympics, and while I plan to avoid any Mitt Romney-esque gaffes, I should note that one of the blunders reported so far has an Arabic aspect: the official shopping center (no, really) of the Olympic Games, the Westfield Center, put up banners in Arabic script welcoming people to London, and quickly took them down again. I say "in Arabic script" because no one could recognize it as the Arabic language. If you read Arabic, look closely at the above.

It takes a while. First, read it from left to right, not right to left. Then, of course, the letters are not connected to each other. But other than that, it reads "Marhaba bikum fi London," welcome to London.  .sdrawkcab tsuj s'tI (It's just backwards.)

It doesn't rise to the level of showing the South Korean flag while introducing North Korean athletes, which miffed the North Koreans (who tend to be very miffable) no end. But it does raise the question, doesn't anybody proofread this stuff before it goes up? It's not as if there are no Arabic speakers in London. And somebody bothered to get the phrase translated (correctly) but didn't know Arabic goes from right to left?

On that note, let the games begin. And let us all ponder this question: in Ancient Greece, did the Olympic Games have an official shopping center?

Formula Wrong: Is Bahrain's F1 Grand Prix Race Backfiring?

The decision to go ahead with Bahrain's Formula 1 Grand Prix race this weekend may have seemed like a good idea at one time: try to show that the country is back to normal after last year's disturbances; give Bahrain some positive PR instead of the negative ones engendered by clashes with the opposition, and so on. It isn't quite working out that way. Major protests have erupted demanding cancellation of the race, and of course the media eye is focused on Bahrain precisely because of the race, so the protests are getting coverage. Jane Kinninmont at Foreign Policy recently went into some detail about the complexities of the situation (it's not just a government vs. opposition thing as some in the opposition supported the race), but whatever happens in the race itself, today's demonstrations have made sure that the world is reminded of the situation in Bahrain.

The Crown Prince says the race will go on, but now the race itself has become a lightning rod, and the PR strategy may have backfired.

UAE-Iran Tensions Still Rising Over Ahmadinejad Visit; Ambassador Recalled, Soccer Game Canceled

Mahmoud Ahmidinejad's provocative recent visit to the disputed but Iranian-occupied island of Abu Musa infuriated the UAE (which claims Abu Musa and the Tunb islands, occupied by Iran), has led to heightened tensions across the Gulf just as there was a glimmer of hope for a breakthrough on the issue of Iran's nuclear program. The UAE recalled its Ambassador to Tehran, and has been calling for an international resolution of the longstanding dispute. Lest you doubt the seriousness of the tension, the UAE has now canceled a "friendly" soccer match scheduled with Iran.

The timing of Ahmadinejad's visit, seemingly counter to the general thrust of Iran's more conciliatory recent tone, is still a mystery.

Kuwait Plays Borat Theme Instead of Kazakh Anthem

Oops. At a shooting competition in Kuwait, a Kazakh athlete won the gold medal, and as she prepared to receive it, the band struck up a fake anthem from the movie Borat, which made fun of Kazakhs and is banned in that country.

This must have been awkward. The BBC report says they also got the Serbian national anthem wrong. I'm reminded of a story of a US political convention some decades back. When each state delegation rises to speak, the orchestra plays a song associated with that state (California Here I Come, Sidewalks of New York, Missouri Waltz, etc.) When the state of Georgia's turn came, they played Marching through Georgia. It's about Georgia all right: but it's about General Sherman's March to the Sea during the US Civil War. It's about burning Georgia.

I never actually saw Borat, but this does sound undiplomatic.

The Sinister Soccer Plot Against Syria

 Syrian television is not noted for its satirical wit, so one possible explanation of this story is ruled out. It is definitely not from The Onion. This leads to the possibility that Syria's official media is descending into some sort of tinfoil-hat paranoid lunacy that defies parody. (More so than usual, I mean.)

Syrian state-run al-Dunya television has charged that in a recent soccer match between Barcelona and Real Madrid, Barcelona — well, let James Dorsey's The Turbulent World of Middle East Soccer blog tell it: 

Al Dunya charged that Barcelona’s tactical formations represented a map of routes from Lebanon to Syria used to smuggle weapons to the Syrian rebels. It said projecting the map on a Barcelona Copa del Rey quarter final match against Real Madrid that players in the club’s formation on the soccer pitch were the equivalent of smugglers while the ball represented weapons as they were moved along the smuggling route.

Al Dunya asserted that midfielder Andres Iniesta operated at the beginning of a smuggling route while a late game pass by player of the year Lionel Messi constituted the successful handover of an arms shipment in Deir al-Zor at the end of the route. In Al Dunya’s apparently doctored version of the match a mysterious, unidentified player appears as Messi passes the ball. The shadowy player somehow ends up in the Real Madrid goal. Midfielder Sergio Busquets Burgos was also part of Barcelona’s international intrigue, Al Dunya said. ...

Al Dunya charged that the Qatar-owned Al Jazeera television network was repeatedly broadcasting clips from the Barcelona match in a bid to weaken the Assad regime.

Lest you think Dorsey is making this up, here's an Al-Arabiya report on it. And one from Yahoo sports. nd the broadcast itself has been posted by someone to YouTube and as of last night had been viewed by 663,000 people. I suppose the video could be a clever hoax, but no one seems to have denied that Al-Dunya broadcast this. In the video you'll see that they prove (?) the plot by projecting a map of Syria (in Arabic) over the football maneuver. Yes, as shown the action moves from Lebanon to Homs to Deir al-Zor, two cities where the rebels have been heavily engaged, but the map seems to move with the players, so, call me a skeptic, I don't actually buy the plot. And it's not like the map is high enough scale to actually convey routes.