In my Migration & Refugees in International Relations class, we discuss citizenship, in-groups, and out-groups a lot in the context of migration. For yesterday's class we read a chapter from political theorist Bonnie Honig's book Democracy and the Foreigner. The chapter dealt with the love-hate relationship Americans have with immigrants. On the one hand, we have the myth of an America founded on the sheer grit and virtue of immigrants and on the other, we have the view of an "invasion" of "illegals" who steal jobs, form isolated enclaves where "un-American" ideals are fostered, and generally ruin the country for the native-born. Immigrants are seen as both integral to the greatness of America and as a possible force for its undoing. When this tension between xenophilia and xenophobia tilts in the latter direction, as happens during times of economic hardships and war, the "natives" of a country come more rigidly to draw the line between "us" and "them" even when "they" are native-born or have been in the country for years. In circling the wagons, people draw dangerously on insufficient or flawed understandings of that "other" that fuel hatred.
Place into this context the massacre at Fort Hood yesterday by Virginia native, Nidal Malik Hasan. The news is still fresh, and the facts are unclear, but there is much speculation about Hasan's religion. This is certainly the case in the comments on an AP article published in the online edition of my local newspaper, the Peoria Journal Star. As a student of migration and refugees whose living in the Middle East, I am inevitably drawn to what the PJStar's comment sections following articles about Islam or Arabs reveal about my fellow Peorians' attitudes toward the kinds of people that not only live here, but who are also part of the patchwork of the American citizenry. So how does Islamophobia play in Peoria? I realize that those who choose to comment on articles don't necessarily proportionally represent the populace, but they provide interesting insight nonetheless.
The first comment to introduce the idea of foreignness read,

This exemplifies why American troops should be natural born citizens. Allowing other nationalities to enlist in the United States military is detrimental to the safety and integrity of America.

"Common Tater"'s first mistake was that he conflated nationality with being born in a given country. Millions of American nationals were born outside of the US and, in many situations (take the Turks in Germany, for example), people who were born in a country and lived there their entire lives may not be nationals. In Honig's book, she mentions the myriad of ethnic group contingents that fought in the American Civil War displaying a patriotism just as zealous as those "natural-born citizens" they fought alongside. But, perhaps more importantly, what Common Tater failed to appreciate was that Hasan is a natural-born citizen.

"slick06" is less polished in his or her arguments:

He was a Muslim that's why this happened!!! The Muslims are waging a hold war on us at we let them into the armed forces????

Even if Hasan's break-down and subsequent act of violence was related to his religious beliefs, it is a question of religious extremism, not something unique to or inherent in Islam. In that case, it would be appropriate to say "he was a violent religious extremist, that's why this happened". Just as the supposedly-Christian abortion clinic-bombers don't represent all of us, neither do suicide bombers or rampaging gunmen represent all Muslims. "The Muslims" slick06 refers to are a diverse people socioeconomically, linguistically, ethnically, politically, ideologically, and so forth. If they were all united in waging a war on us by now, I'm sure I'd have been felled by my landlord, a taxi driver, a waiter at one of the restaurants I frequent, a policeman, the woman that begs for food down my street, one of my professors, the Rotarians who hosted me last year, or any other of the tens of millions of Muslims in this country. Furthermore, there are thousands of Muslims in our armed forces and there have been for years. Muslim Americans fight alongside other Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan and there were Muslims in the Allied Forces in World War II. Islam does not detract from a person's service in the military of a non-Muslim country, it is rather a question of ideology and extremism.
Thankfully, I'm not the only Peorian who thinks this way. Says "nothingshocking":

common tater-i didn't read anywhere in the article that the gunman was not a natural born citizen. since when does one have to be a foreigner in order to convert to islam? timothy mcveigh was a natural born citizen and was capable of blowing up a building filled with his fellow americans. crazy is crazy-regardless of creed, religion, or race.

Still, "Pancho" brings us this lovely reminder that ignorance is rampant:

slick06 nailed it, and yeah, part of this IS Obamas fault. His way of thinking assists people like this to prosper in OUR country. OUR country is full is trash that want to bring us down. What a shame it has come to this.

Whatever you think of the president, Pancho's comment has little to do with politics, but rather those fundamental questions of "us" and "them". Who is the "us" to whom the country belongs in Pancho's statement? And who, in fact, is the trash? Many of us in Central Illinois have German and Irish roots. These ethnic groups, now an indistinguishable part of "White America", were vilified and demonized just as much as Muslim Americans are now. German-Americans were associated with Nazis, the Irish were considered job-stealing scum, etc. etc. I would put to Pancho that this "us" is comprised of the descendants of the "trash" of past generations.
The rest of the comments were divided between reasoned expressions of concern over the stress of war, impending deployment and multiple tours of duty and more ignorant comments about Muslims and Islam. While I understand the fears associated with the unfamiliar, I really hope that those in my hometown who struggle with how to fit those who are different from themselves (especially Muslims) into their idea of America will think deeply and rationally about it.

News & Issues

• A third of Egyptian children malnourished according to Middle East Online
• 17 arrested for possession of explosives, alleged plans to attack targets in Cairo
• Muslim Brotherhood: Beyoncé a threat to peace and social stability
• Egypt calls for UN resolution if Israel rejects settlement freeze
• Students arrested for grafittiing anti-Mubarak Jr slogans in central Cairo

Read more at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/11/05/fort-hood-shootings-7-dea_n_347366.html&cp

I've been spending more time in the CMRS office lately. In addition to the congenial atmosphere, the downtown department digs have professors of whom I can ask questions while I'm working on my thesis or work for their classes and faster internet. But also, it's a great forum for some really interesting discussions.
The class I raved about, Migration and Refugees in International Relations, used to meet on the main downtown campus in a room with awful fluorescent lighting and even worse acoustics. We ended up migrating to the library at the CMRS office one week when that classroom was unavailable for a make-up class and have met there ever since. The readings are the sort that you'd want to undertake even if they weren't assigned for a course. They've certainly stretched my understandings and assumptions about concepts like the nation-state, ethnicity, and culture. as well as about international relations both theoretically and practically. The professor's lectures, which are incorporated into rich discussion of the topics, are the kind that illuminate the readings, rather than summarize.
Yesterday, for instance, we talked about in-groups and out-groups and the idea of a culture as fixed. We interrogated the justness of assimilation and assumptions about the fixity and monolithism of culture. We briefly also considered the idea of dying for one's country, asking ourselves whether we had that kind of commitment to an idea of Canada or the US or Uganda or Egypt or Norway (our countries of citizenship). Instead of sharing my answer, I encourage you to really think about it, about what connects you to the nation and also about your connections and obligations to people outside of the boundaries of whatever country you live in.
Even outside of classtime, the CMRS library is fertile ground for dialog and the tweaking of ideas. Before class, Annie and I had an interesting discussion about sexuality and gender norms in Uganda with our Ugandan classmate after I explained to her my thesis topic. And, while I'd like to think I'm open-minded, I'll admit I have a certain amount of prejudice in terms of my assumptions about the rigidity of post-colonial African societies' ideas about sexuality. (Especially given the story about recently-proposed Ugandan legislation I linked to in the new & issues section before.) And yet, Amoding spoke frankly about the Western gender binaries and how they just didn't fit in Ugandan society. It was these expectations about masculinity and femininity and their relation to sexuality that she found too rigid. The conversation would continue and broaden over Yemeni food after class. (Which in turn was followed by a visit to a party shop selling Halloween costumes, a hysterical place to visit in Egypt.)
Annie and I also got to chat with our professor about class discussion, expectations, and academia. We talked to her about graduate school and writing theses and dissertation and the anxiety over providing an original contribution. There were so many good chats yesterday! It makes me rather keen on the idea of getting another degree sometime in the future. I love the stretching and growing that I've experience both as a result of living in Egypt and attending grad school.

News & Issues

Egypt

• NPR reports on succession speculation and the current crackdown on opposition
• Muslim Brotherhood's direction depends on outcome of leadership struggle
• Defense lawyers in Hezbollah spy trial quit, alleging court not impartial

Middle East meets Midwest

• Peoria's "terrorist" sentenced to eight years

• Speaking earlier of sacrificing for one's country and including a category about the intersections between the Middle East and the Midwest, it's only fitting to inform you that Peoria's Lebanese American community is hosting its annual Itoo supper at the Itoo Hall on 1 November from 11 AM to 7 PM. They're offering 300 free meals to vets and reduced prices for active military personnel.

Carnivore and Caterpillar

I had the pleasure last night of visiting "Africa's greatest dining experience"...on a riverboat in Giza. Carnivore is a theme restaurant whose theme, as you might imagine, is meat. The interior of the restaurant is meant to recall the original location in Nairobi, Kenya. Though Egypt's English-language restaurant review site, Yallabina, assures you that you can ingest "every type of meat imaginable", pork products are glaringly absent. Furthermore, you can't get zebra or crocodile like you can in Nairobi; about the only thing beyond the usual lamb and beef that you'll find is ostrich. But why am I complaining? I am a vegetarian (or rather a pescetarian who eats the occasional entrecôte or steak tartare when my convictions about the social and environmental impacts of meat fail me once every year or two). On that level, I wasn't bothered by the "Masai swords" and skewers full of animal flesh in various forms, it was rather the bizarre spectacle of pseudo-African culture that didn't sit well with me. Living in this land of re-created "Pharaonic" villages and ancient Egypt-inspired kitsch, I understand the idea of trying to get the bang for one's buck by caricaturing one's storied heritage. And yet, I could only cringe watching a bunch of Egyptians sing a song whose most prominent lyrics were "happy bersday" and "hakuna matata" (apparently Carnivore is the birthday destination: they sang to nearly every table in the joint at one point or another). Watching one set of former British colonial subjects dress up as another to perform for upper class Egyptians and Western expats and tourists made me feel like I should've been wearing a pith helmet and a monocle, smoking a pipe, and making derisive observations about "the natives".

In an entirely unrelated vein, I followed a link a CMRS colleague of mine posted to a site purporting to reveal connections that various multinational corporations have to Israel's occupation of Palestine. Remembering that I'd heard Caterpillar had been in the wrong for their dealings in the Middle East, I typed the company's name into the search box and found this. Seeing the name of my hometown on the sidebar of such a webpage was disheartening. Like many Peorians, I have many friends and relatives that work for Cat. As a Bradley alum I realize the direct and positive impact Cat has both on Bradley and the rest of the community and I really want to believe Cat is an upstanding corporate citizen. According to an old Salon.com article, when confronted with the realities of what its earth-moving and demolition equipment was being used for, Caterpillar responded essentially with a "guns don't kill people, people kill people" argument. You can find both sides of the debate over a shareholder proposal in 2005 to reassess Cat's dealings with Israel on their website (pages 28-29). I can understand that policing the sales of equipment can be difficult, but clearly given the effectiveness of divestment campaigns in South Africa it's not impossible. And furthermore, when I read that D-9s and D-10s are "specially modified", I'd like to know by whom. If it's by Caterpillar, then that's active participation in the goals of the Israeli occupation.
With all of the groups calling for a boycott of Cat, it's funny that countries like Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia, to name a few, continue to import and use Caterpillar equipment. According to the Wall Street Journal, even Iran is happy to import Caterpillar equipment via a European subsidiary.
It's a complex situation and I'm conflicted about it, but I think that at the very least, Caterpillar should look more seriously into the matter in a public and transparent way.

News:

• BBC News examines Egypt's ongoing niqab row. A veild employee in one of Talat Harb's ubiquitous clothing stores is quoted as saying "The Sheikh won't affect my decision to wear it. I feel more relaxed in this. Men aren't looking at me. I feel closer to God." Many women beg to differ, some even suggesting that veiling has fueled an increase in harassment.
• CNN offers the Egyptian response to Obama's Nobel Peace Prize award.
• A 23-year-old woman from Giza became the third H1N1 fatality in Egypt this week.
• The Louvre has given in to Zahi Hawass's demands that allegedly stolen artifacts be returned to Egypt where, if they're exposed to the kinds of conditions that exist the Egyptian Museum, they'll be degraded worn down by the hands of curious foreign and Egyptian visitors.

  Happy May Day, everyone.  Though growing up in Peoria, I knew the 1st of May as a more benign, rather unimportant having something to do with leaving flowers on peoples' porches, it is an important day to celebrate labor and protest for improved working conditions around the world.  Protests are especially vigorous this year given the economic crisis.  Moving beyond labor issues, many in the States are calling for progress on immigrants' rights.

  Meanwhile, in Egypt, the president reminded his constituents that striking is illegal and that doing so would only serve to hurt the economy.  While he was busy doing that, I was, with the assistance of my saintly Egyptian friend Marise and her helpful brother and her godsend of a mother, negotiating the renewal of my lease.  After ten months of getting ripped off, I finally have more or less a fair price.  It's a relief, but I'm holding my breath until I get the physical contract itself in front of me and signed by both parties.

  I got up early for the occasion and cleaned and am rather tuckered out.  Last night, we played Risk until the wee hours of the morning after some tasty and inexpensive Lebanese food in Mohandaseen.

  I've been making headway on my thesis proposal, but a group project for my methods class will have to take precedence today when Cynthia and I go to interview Nigerian migrants about their experiences in Cairo.

  I'm not longer dying from a migraine, but it last through yesterday.  At least I don't have swine flu, I guess, which is, says the WHO, henceforth to be referred to by its scientific name H1N1 Influenza A specifically because of Egypt's spirited but "misguided effort" to prevent the spread of the virus.  The Egyptian government now is claiming the measure was not swine flu-related, but rather a "general health measure".  Either way, Egypts' hogs have been sent to slaughter and Brigitte Bardot isn't very happy about it.  

  Meanwhile, back across the world in Peoria, Ali al-Marri pleads guilty to charges of aiding terrorists.  While it's more than a little unsettling to see Islamic fundamentalism hit so close to home, I sincerely hope that the events surrounding his trial don't fuel more of the ignorance and Islamophobia that are inevitably reflected in the comments on PJStar stories about al-Marri.

Change is (up) in the air

Strangely, since I've gotten back it's hit me that Egypt, of all places, and AUC and my group of friends have come to represent stability. Over the last seven years, I haven't spent more than a couple of years in one place and each of the past three academic years has been on a different continent. Making new friends, starting new academic programs, and adapting and re-adapting to cultures is invigorating, but also exhausting. Taking this into account and understanding the value of having a Master's degree as competition increases with the decrease in job availability, remaining in Egypt for another semester (ideally) or two (if necessary) seems the most prudent course of action academically and professionally at this point.
Last night my thoughts were racing as I prepared mentally to go to the new campus to argue to be able to change classes (it may technically beyond the add deadline, though not the drop). I got up early and headed to the Greek Campus just to see one more time if Eman might be able to help me. Lo and behold, she called up the associate registrar who said that there was no problem and that I could bring in the appropriate forms next week. Now, if there's one thing I've learned attending AUC it's not to get my hopes up. As it stands, though, I am positioned to be able to switch into a much more pertinent class and into the Master's program early next week.
I won't know until next month whether or not I've been accepted to the language program for the summer in Cairo, so when exactly I'll do my thesis is still up in the air. At any rate, I will be in America at some point during the summer to give speeches to Rotary clubs in central Illinois. I'll admit that the idea of doing so originally terrified me, but the desire to share the richness of my experience here and the things I've learned far trumps my fear of public speaking and I am more than ready and very excited.
Law class yesterday was pretty interesting, at least for me. We sat outside (whoever is responsible for unlocking classrooms must've taken the day off) in the courtyard in the late afternoon sun, birds chirping, learning about consular protection. A bit dry for some, but because of my interest in the State Department, I was all ears.
Immediately after our course, a sizeable number of us went directly to the CMRS Seminar which, last night, consisted of Philip Rizk showing his film, This Palestinian Life, and answering questions. The film was fantastic. It showed a part of Palestine-rural areas of Gaza and the West Bank-whose inhabitants rarely get to be heard. The people interviewed range from the poetic to the candid to the humorous, but all are extraordinarily resilient in the face of manmade tragedy. There was no anti-Israeli vitriole and no call for violence. Hopefully the film will be made available on YouTube so that I can share it on the blog sometime soon. Philip himself was well-spoken, radiating an aura of calm, and about ten feet tall. Out of respect for that fact that he wants emphasis not to be placed on his detention, but on the ongoing hardships of the Palestinian people, only an occasional indirect mention was made about his ordeal by questioners. Needing to speak to Ray, who was moderating, about my course switch, and then to leave with a group headed for the Greek Club, I didn't get a chance to ask more about Diaa Gad afterward, but have since sent Philip a note to see what he has to say.
One of the questioners, a rather effervescent native of Southern California who had lived in Gaza for sometime, went on a mini-tirade against Evangelical Christians and their categorical support for Israel. Derisive, smug laughter at various comments bubbled of from the crowd of students, expats, academics, and NGO workers. Many of them, I'd guess, would like to paint themselves as more worldly or more righteous, but I think they're missing a far more complex reality and writing Evangelicals off too quickly. Needless to say, I wasn't as amused as much of the crowd. Philip himself went to Wheaton College and, though I am not sure about the details of his faith and religious beliefs, I suspect he knows the situation is more nuanced than Christians simply being irrational fundamentalists. For me, my Christianity is what drives me to be so deeply aggrieved by the gross mistreatment of the Palestinian people not only by Israel, but by the rest of Arab world and the international community as a whole. Though I consider myself simply Christian, my immediate family has for over ten years attended Northwoods Community Church in Peoria, a part of the Fellowship of Evangelical Churches. I don't recall ever hearing a message there offering an explicit position on Israel or Palestine, but I've heard quite a few about loving one's neighbors and one's enemies. Given conversations I've had at home and comments like these replying to an opinion published in the Peoria Journal Star, I know there are a great many in the States that are misinformed or underinformed about the conflict. And, I'll admit that many in the Christian community have found spurious Biblical claims to back up their blind support of Israel action, whatever it may be, but by and large, I think that many Christians are open-minded and desire to understand what's really going on. They suffer from the same lack of good information that most other Americans do. So, khelas (enough!) with the overgeneralizing of American Christians and, at the same time, enough with the ignorance of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Links on Palestine:
Economist article on American-Israeli relations vis-à-vis Palestine
B'Tselem, The Israeli Information Center for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories
United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA)

News:
Nour, former candidate for Egyptian presidency, unexpectedly released from prison yesterday
US Senator Kerry visits Gaza, American school destroyed by Israeli offensive
Egypt not keen on having Shalit release linked to truce between Israelis and Hamas

Racist Cabbies & Peoria Pals

Today was another beautiful day in Cairo (from a meteorological point of view, anyway). I did more laundry, ate more koshary, and end up going to CityStars, the obscenely large mall in the suburbs of Cairo with my friends Erin and Brandy. Because I am a responsible adult, I bought a sensible black shirt at H&M that was on sale and then a host of cleaning supplies and kitchenware at Spinney's. No more college-esque bachelor pad living for me; I own a colander now, and sponges! Anyway, on the way to said mall, our trio encountered a taxi-driver who explicitly told us that America was only good for money--I presume he meant making it. We assured him that with this financial crisis the only redeeming quality he found in our homeland might not even hold. He went on to share his incredibly racist views with us at which point I politely reminded him that our new president had African roots. This of course threw him off. Egyptians don't feel much camaraderie with the rest of their continental brethren, so he recovered quickly and came back with some ignorant retort. Ma3lesh, we said as many polite but firm things as could be said and then went on our way. The cabdriver on the way back drove like a maniac, scaring the girls. I was more miffed about the price he charged us. In the end, though, I was glad to have this mini-reunion/consumerist adventure with two of my favorite people in Cairo.
Back at my apartment, I chatted with my flatmate and made dinner and in the process received a call from an undergraduate from my alma mater, Bradley University. We'd planned to get koshary earlier, but his class ran later than I'd expected so I invited him to come up and hang out, which he did. It was fun having someone else who knew Peoria and Bradley and many of my friends and acquaintances.
Tomorrow, insha'allah, shall be a day of cleaning and unpacking and maybe a bit of reading for my classes that start next week.
Oh! And my honeymoon with a mosquito-free apartment ended abruptly this evening when some stealthy little bugger got me right between the eyebrows, on the forehead, and on my cheekbone. Thanks, mosquitokind, for reminding me about our bitter feud. I'll have you in the end.

News:
Middle East hopeful about Obama
Darfur activists arrested in Cairo
Egypt hosting Gaza reconstruction forum

An Introduction

Welcome! My name is Carl and I created this blog in order to share my upcoming experiences as a Rotary International ambassadorial scholar in Cairo, Egypt during the 2008-2009 academic year. Please explore the links at right to learn more about Rotary International, my sponsor club and district, my host district, and the American University in Cairo, where I will be pursuing a graduate diploma in forced migration and refugee studies. You'll also find links to sites pertaining to Egypt and the greater Middle East, central Illinois, refugees, other bloggers (other Rotary scholars and friends), and up-to-date Rotary International news.

So who am I? A recent graduate of Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois, I earned my BA in international studies and French. Over the course of studying for this degree I spent my first two years and my final year in Peoria, while for the third, I was a student at the Université de Haute-Bretagne, Rennes 2 in Rennes, France. My coursework has focused on international relations theory and practice, challenges faced by the developing world, globalization, nationalism, decolonization and the post-colonial era in Africa and the Middle East, Muslim-Christian relations, human rights, and the European Union. Following my school year in Rennes, I interned with the US State Department at the American embassy in Paris for the summer.

Prior to attending Bradley, I graduated from Shattuck-St. Mary's School in Faribault, Minnesota. While I was born and graduated from high school "up north," I attended Peoria and Dunlap schools in from kindergarten until the middle of high school. My parents are both from the area: my mom, originally from Henry, grew up in Morton and attended Academy of Our Lady/Spalding Institute in Peoria. She has a BA from Illinois State University in Normal and an MA from Bradley. A teacher at Von Steuben Middle School, she lives in Peoria. My dad, also a Bradley grad, was reared in Lacon, Illinois. He currently lives in New York City and works for Permasteelisa North America Corp. I also have a little brother, aged 10, who attends Wilder-Waite Grade School in the Dunlap school district.

I'd like to wrap up this entry by thanking corporately all of the individual Rotarians who, through their contributions to the Rotary Foundation, have helped make my upcoming experience possible. I would also like specifically to thank the members of the Rotary Club of Peoria and District 6460 for selecting me to represent them and Rotary in Egypt.

Please return often to check for updates! I touch down in Cairo the 21st of August and expect the entries to be a lot more interesting then.