Select Articles by Nathan Field

Salafi Satellite TV in Egypt

2010-03-15T02:13:00.000-07:00

Spring 2009
Arab Media and Society

According to conventional wisdom in Western media, an ultra-conservative form of Islam is gaining traction in Egypt, pushing aside other moderate interpretations and threatening the country’s cosmopolitan nature.[1] Often cited as evidence of this trend are popular “Salafi” satellite television stations, which since 2006 have been licensed to operate inside the country.

The End of Political Islam?

2010-03-15T02:11:00.000-07:00

15 July 2009
World Politics Review

Is the long-predicted decline of Political Islam about to occur? Several French scholars, such as Gilles Keppel and Olivier Roy, have been making this argument since the early 1990s. The only trouble was a subsequent string of Islamist electoral victories that seemed to undermine their thesis. ...

The Re-education of Radical Islam

2010-03-15T02:08:00.000-07:00

16 March 2009
World Politics Review

Many of America's actions in its post-9/11 campaign against al-Qaida have served to increase Muslim and Arab radicalism, rather than to dampen it as intended. The invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq, the detainment of captured terrorists at Gitmo and subsequent revelations regarding the use of water boarding and other torture techniques all served to amplify negative perceptions of the United States in the Islamic world and facilitate the radicalization of potential recruits for the terrorists' cause.

But two recent developments have led many Americans to believe that al-Qaida and the threat it posed might be on the verge of self-inflicted implosion, a victim of its own extremism. ...

Salafism Making Inroads in Egypt

2010-03-15T02:05:00.002-07:00

9 March 2009
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace

Be careful what you wish for. Since the 2005 parliamentary elections, the Egyptian government, with support from its allies in the West, has treated the Muslim Brotherhood with unremitting hostility. While this might bring short-term gains, driving the Brotherhood’s moderate Islamist vision underground is opening the door for more conservative and potentially violent strands to take its place. In recent decades, but especially during the last five years, a new wave of politically oriented Salafism, more dogmatic than other Islamist factions in Egypt, is gaining ground in Egyptian society and causing concern among secularists and Islamists alike...

Bombs Away

2010-03-15T01:57:00.000-07:00

The National (UAE)
10 April 2009

Across the Arab and Muslim world, jihadists are beginning to renounce violence as a means to change their societies – and not just because they lost, writes Nathan Field.

The need for revival has been a central theme in recent Arab history: for more than a thousand years, Arab countries dominated (or at least saw themselves as dominating) their western rivals. But in the last two centuries, colonialism and globalisation made it painfully clear to Arab thinkers that their countries had fallen behind politically, economically and technologically. The region’s intellectuals have therefore long been preoccupied with devising ways to revive Arab society from its slumbers – and to return it to its previous glory...

The Political Impact of Israel's Gaza Operation

2010-03-15T01:53:00.001-07:00

World Politics Review
12 January 2009

Israel's attack on Hamas continued through the weekend, despite Egyptian and French efforts to broker a ceasefire. With Israeli ground forces now poised on the outskirts of Gaza City, and with an expansion of the operation into the urban battlefields that represent Hamas' greatest tactical opportunity for exacting losses on the IDF still a possibility, it is difficult to speak decisively about the military outcome of the ongoing fighting. But according to several American experts on Arab politics, while Israel might very well succeed -- at least temporarily -- in depleting Hamas' military wing, so long as Hamas is still in a position to reassert its control over Gaza following the operation the conflict is likely to have the opposite impact politically. ...

Revising Jihad

2010-03-15T01:42:00.000-07:00

The National (UAE)
28 November 2008

When the former jihadist Sayyid Imam published his attack on al Qa’eda in 2007, many saw it as a pivotal document. But Imam’s sequel, published in Egypt this week, is just sound and fury, writes Nathan Field.

Al Qa’eda doesn’t enjoy the best press in the Arab world, but the savage attack against the organisation that filled an Egyptian newspaper for two weeks in late 2007 was still remarkable. Every aspect of its operations was subjected to withering criticism, and its leaders, Osama bin Laden and Ayman al Zawahiri, were assailed with a barrage of insults.

The critic in question, Sayyid Imam, was no ordinary writer: he was a man with impeccable jihadist credentials, writing from the Egyptian jail where he is serving a life sentence. Active in militant circles since his student days at Cairo University, Imam, also known as Dr Fadl, was a long-time associate of Zawahiri who participated in the Afghan jihad against the Soviets and then served as the Emir of the Egyptian terror group al Jihad from 1987 until 1993, having moved with bin Laden and Zawahiri to Sudan to continue the work of jihad. Most importantly, Imam had written two theoretical books that embraced an ultra-literal interpretation of the Quran, which Jihadists, including bin Laden and Zawahiri had been using to justify their violence....

Team of Rivals

2010-03-14T23:36:00.000-07:00

The National (UAE)
October 10, 2008

Are al-Qaeda's leaders, fueled by resentment of Hizbollah's appeal – moving to rebrand themselves a “resistance” group? Nathan Field reports.

Nothing must aggravate al Qa’eda more than Hizbollah’s enduring popularity in the Arab world. The leaders of al Qa’eda are forced to hide in the mountains along the Afghan-Pakistan border, watching virtually every Arabic television station call them “terrorists” – while commentators compete to sing the praises of the “resistance” led by Hizbollah.No political group has more respect on the streets of predominantly Sunni countries like Egypt than Hizbollah. In a 2008 Zogby Arab Public Opinion poll, 27 per cent of Arabs chose Hassan Nasrallah as their ideal leader – putting him in first place. The Egyptian Sunni religious scholar Dr Abla Khadawy expressed the sentiments of millions of Arabs when she told the Egyptian paper al Masri al Youm in June that Nasrallah was the “hope of the Umma” and praised Hizbollah for returning “some of our lost dignity”.

Contrary to prevailing perceptions in the West, the Arabic media draws a sharp distinction between “resistance” and “terrorism”, with marked impact on the reputations of Hizbollah and al Qa’eda. The “resistance” – which also includes groups like Hamas and insurgents fighting the US in Iraq – is celebrated for its defence of Arab interests. On pan-Arab satellite networks, it is not uncommon for guests and commentators to proudly pay tribute to the Muqawama....