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What's Really Wrong With The Middle East
"A passionate call for political and social change in Arab countries . . . and a stern critique of the status quo."Jeremy Bowen, BBC Middle East editor
The problems in the Middle East are always someone else’s fault.
While the West blames dictators and extremists, Arabs often blame centuries of foreign interference. For many, both in the East and West, the root problem is a lack of freedom.
Looking beyond the turmoil reported on our TV screens, Guardian journalist Brian Whitaker examines the "freedom deficit" that affects Arabs in their daily lives: their struggles against corruption, discrimination, and bureaucracy, and the stifling authoritarianism that pervades homes, schools, and mosques as well as presidential palaces.
Drawing on a wealth of new research and wide-ranging interviews, Whitaker analyzes the views of Arabs living in the region and argues that in order to achieve peace, prosperity, and full participation in today’s global economy, Arabs should embrace political and far-reaching social and cultural change.
Brian Whitaker was Middle East editor at the Guardian for seven years and is currently an editor for the newspaper’s Comment is Free website. He is the author of Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East (Saqi Books, 2006; also published in the United States by the University of California Press, 2006). His website, www.al-bab.com, is devoted to Arab culture and politics.
The problems in the Middle East are always someone else’s fault.
While the West blames dictators and extremists, Arabs often blame centuries of foreign interference. For many, both in the East and West, the root problem is a lack of freedom.
Looking beyond the turmoil reported on our TV screens, Guardian journalist Brian Whitaker examines the "freedom deficit" that affects Arabs in their daily lives: their struggles against corruption, discrimination, and bureaucracy, and the stifling authoritarianism that pervades homes, schools, and mosques as well as presidential palaces.
Drawing on a wealth of new research and wide-ranging interviews, Whitaker analyzes the views of Arabs living in the region and argues that in order to achieve peace, prosperity, and full participation in today’s global economy, Arabs should embrace political and far-reaching social and cultural change.
Brian Whitaker was Middle East editor at the Guardian for seven years and is currently an editor for the newspaper’s Comment is Free website. He is the author of Unspeakable Love: Gay and Lesbian Life in the Middle East (Saqi Books, 2006; also published in the United States by the University of California Press, 2006). His website, www.al-bab.com, is devoted to Arab culture and politics.
384 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2009
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682 people want to read
About the author
Brian Whitaker
13books21followersBrian Whitaker was a journalist for the The Guardian since 1987 and its Middle East editor from 2000-2007. He is currently an editor on the paper's "Comment is free". He also writes articles for Guardian Unlimited, the internet edition of the paper. He runs a personal, non-Guardian-related website, Al-Bab.com, about society and politics in the Arab world.
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
April 9, 2011
This is a great book. The author talks about the Middle East as an insider rather than a British journalist. He touched on subjects that are faced daily by Arabs who, by reading about them, would feel a bit surprised that they are keeping up with such subjects without giving them a second thought!
Recommended read ... honest and direct to the point.
Recommended read ... honest and direct to the point.
February 20, 2022
Prior to reading this book, I was quite ignorant about the Middle East. I didn’t even get the U.S.-filtered view as I don’t really follow the news. I recently met a new friend who is Middle Eastern. She is quite progressive and lives in a Western European country. She suggested this book and admitted that it would be quite uncommon for anyone from the Middle East to recommend this, let alone read it, as it’s very introspective and points out everything that is wrong with the Middle East, things that most Arabs would not willingly admit as faults.
While it’s obvious to any outsider what a significant role religion (Islam in particular) and politics play in Middle Eastern culture, this book helped detail the significance in a really meaningful way. Arab society is patriarchal to the extreme. The state provides for the people, like fathers to children, and they should be thankful and definitely should not question.
The parts I found most interesting and enlightening were about the use of wasta, or Vitamin W, a form of “It’s not what you know but who you know� in the extreme, and the sometimes hypocritical views of globalization.
The Middle East is not a monolith, and the politics and culture vary widely from country to country, and even within the same country, so I don’t mean these things as blanket statements covering the entire region, but they were my main takeaways of Arab culture as a whole. Although this book is already dated, I think it does a good job of explaining the basics of Middle Eastern society. I certainly didn’t come here looking for everything negative about the Middle East, but the book does touch on the negative in order to explain why the way forward is slow going, especially for basic human rights.
While it’s obvious to any outsider what a significant role religion (Islam in particular) and politics play in Middle Eastern culture, this book helped detail the significance in a really meaningful way. Arab society is patriarchal to the extreme. The state provides for the people, like fathers to children, and they should be thankful and definitely should not question.
The parts I found most interesting and enlightening were about the use of wasta, or Vitamin W, a form of “It’s not what you know but who you know� in the extreme, and the sometimes hypocritical views of globalization.
The Middle East is not a monolith, and the politics and culture vary widely from country to country, and even within the same country, so I don’t mean these things as blanket statements covering the entire region, but they were my main takeaways of Arab culture as a whole. Although this book is already dated, I think it does a good job of explaining the basics of Middle Eastern society. I certainly didn’t come here looking for everything negative about the Middle East, but the book does touch on the negative in order to explain why the way forward is slow going, especially for basic human rights.
November 2, 2013
This book should be translated to Arabic
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November 12, 2024المعلم بريان
عايز حريه ماشي يا بيرو تمام
بس حريه من وجهه نظره
حقوق مثليين
حقوق مراه
حقوق عين شمس
وشغال سب وقذف في كل الدول العربيه
طيب ياسيدى قاعدين فيها ليها وشغالين في كل الدول العربيه ليه
انتم علي موعد مع احد الابواق الاعلاميه للافعي الرقطاء
بريطانيا
وحان الان بعد افول المملكه
نقدم شويه هرى عن الحريه والخراب والدمار
عايز حريه ماشي يا بيرو تمام
بس حريه من وجهه نظره
حقوق مثليين
حقوق مراه
حقوق عين شمس
وشغال سب وقذف في كل الدول العربيه
طيب ياسيدى قاعدين فيها ليها وشغالين في كل الدول العربيه ليه
انتم علي موعد مع احد الابواق الاعلاميه للافعي الرقطاء
بريطانيا
وحان الان بعد افول المملكه
نقدم شويه هرى عن الحريه والخراب والدمار
September 6, 2016
I CANNOT STRESS THE IMPORTANCE OF THIS BOOK! Whoever is interested in the Middle East, its complexities and muffled beauty should definitely read this book. Whitaker is a genius for assembling all the right information from all the right angles and bringing them forth in this book.
January 29, 2025
Clips
Fasl [“judgment”] was when the heads of tribes would sit together and decide on compensation. It became so bad that you knew exactly how much money you were going to pay if you [accidentally] killed someone.
First war in Islam is because Abu Bakr, successor of Md, says tribes must pay zakat. Even today, in Somalia for instance, tribes follow the state as long as it gives - it is a prize to be won, not an organizational system. Asabbiya - solidarity.
Tribal and spiritual legitimacy of rulers: Saudi royal family’s main claim is religious, guardian of Mecca and Medina. King of Jordan is guardian of al-Aqsa Jerusalem mosque, third holiest site. King of morocco is Amir al Mu-mimeen - prince of believers.
Sadat fought Nasserism, communism, socialism through pact with Islam - presented himself as the believing president (al-ra’is al-mu’min).
Saudi Directorate of Ifta� (Preaching and Guidance) whoever believes there is a guidance more perfect than that of the Prophet, or that someone else’s rule is better than his � is a kafir (unbeliever)
Article 1: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state with Islam as its religion; God’s Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet (God’s prayers and peace be upon him) are its constitution
Dealing with witches is one of the responsibilities of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the religious police). In 2007 the commission arrested twenty-five people suspected of witchcraft (twenty-four of whom were described as non-Saudis).
While Europeans associate secularism with freedom, Muslims associate it with foreign dominance. Almaniyya, secularism, not just separation of state and religion but hostility towards religion. Laicisation (liberating society from shackles of Church) today gives laikiyya in Maghreb, an insult, someone trying to suppress political aspirations of muslim communities.
Originl idea of Jizya was that non-muslims did not serve in the military but enjoyed military protection.
Similar to nepotism, at least in its effects on employment, is the phenomenon of wasta which roughly translates as connections, clout, influence or favouritism. Often jokingly referred to by Arabs as Vitamin W, Wasta comes from an Arabic root (w-s-T) conveying the idea of “middle�, and a wasta is someone who acts as a go-between - like in a blood feud.
Internet Services Unit at Riyadh, most sophisticated internet censoring in the middle east - uses story of Yusuf (Joseph) in Quran, who resists sexual advances of wife of al-Aziz (Potifar). She threatens him with jail. O my Lord! Prison is more dear than that unto which they urge me, and if Thou fend not off their wiles from me I shall incline unto them and become of the foolish. So his Lord heard his prayer and fended off their wiles from him. Lo! He is Hearer, Knower.
If you go to the Roumieh prison in Lebanon, the largest prison, you’ll have Sri Lankan or south Asian prisoners acting as cleaners for Lebanese prisoners.
“Shatir bi Shtartu� � which basically means: “If you know how to get around the system, good for you. We’re not going to criticise it.�
open debate about communal relations is still mostly taboo. One reason is the cultural abhorrence of fitna � a term with religious connotations meaning “discord� or “civil strife�. The official picture is of a cohesive, harmonious and united society, and any disruption of that must be the work of a handful of misguided troublemakers.
Aleppo’s residents first refused to consume tomatoes, let alone cultivate them, because their red colour contradicted the idea that they are vegetables (“greens� in Arabic). Thus, they called them “Satan’s backside� and banned them. The ban did not last long, however, and soon the best-quality tomatoes in Aleppo were known as baladiyya (“local� or “domestic�), though a reminder of their foreign origin survived in the Syrian word for “tomatoes�: banadura � a corruption of the Italian name, pomodoro.
Sweden also figures in the “nice and harmless� category. Indeed, it was singled out in a video message from Bin Laden as one of the countries that al-Qa‘ida had chosen not to attack, which is fortunate for the Swedish company Ikea, whose self-assembly furniture is very popular in Saudi Arabia.
Fasl [“judgment”] was when the heads of tribes would sit together and decide on compensation. It became so bad that you knew exactly how much money you were going to pay if you [accidentally] killed someone.
First war in Islam is because Abu Bakr, successor of Md, says tribes must pay zakat. Even today, in Somalia for instance, tribes follow the state as long as it gives - it is a prize to be won, not an organizational system. Asabbiya - solidarity.
Tribal and spiritual legitimacy of rulers: Saudi royal family’s main claim is religious, guardian of Mecca and Medina. King of Jordan is guardian of al-Aqsa Jerusalem mosque, third holiest site. King of morocco is Amir al Mu-mimeen - prince of believers.
Sadat fought Nasserism, communism, socialism through pact with Islam - presented himself as the believing president (al-ra’is al-mu’min).
Saudi Directorate of Ifta� (Preaching and Guidance) whoever believes there is a guidance more perfect than that of the Prophet, or that someone else’s rule is better than his � is a kafir (unbeliever)
Article 1: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state with Islam as its religion; God’s Book and the Sunnah of His Prophet (God’s prayers and peace be upon him) are its constitution
Dealing with witches is one of the responsibilities of the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice (the religious police). In 2007 the commission arrested twenty-five people suspected of witchcraft (twenty-four of whom were described as non-Saudis).
While Europeans associate secularism with freedom, Muslims associate it with foreign dominance. Almaniyya, secularism, not just separation of state and religion but hostility towards religion. Laicisation (liberating society from shackles of Church) today gives laikiyya in Maghreb, an insult, someone trying to suppress political aspirations of muslim communities.
Originl idea of Jizya was that non-muslims did not serve in the military but enjoyed military protection.
Similar to nepotism, at least in its effects on employment, is the phenomenon of wasta which roughly translates as connections, clout, influence or favouritism. Often jokingly referred to by Arabs as Vitamin W, Wasta comes from an Arabic root (w-s-T) conveying the idea of “middle�, and a wasta is someone who acts as a go-between - like in a blood feud.
Internet Services Unit at Riyadh, most sophisticated internet censoring in the middle east - uses story of Yusuf (Joseph) in Quran, who resists sexual advances of wife of al-Aziz (Potifar). She threatens him with jail. O my Lord! Prison is more dear than that unto which they urge me, and if Thou fend not off their wiles from me I shall incline unto them and become of the foolish. So his Lord heard his prayer and fended off their wiles from him. Lo! He is Hearer, Knower.
If you go to the Roumieh prison in Lebanon, the largest prison, you’ll have Sri Lankan or south Asian prisoners acting as cleaners for Lebanese prisoners.
“Shatir bi Shtartu� � which basically means: “If you know how to get around the system, good for you. We’re not going to criticise it.�
open debate about communal relations is still mostly taboo. One reason is the cultural abhorrence of fitna � a term with religious connotations meaning “discord� or “civil strife�. The official picture is of a cohesive, harmonious and united society, and any disruption of that must be the work of a handful of misguided troublemakers.
Aleppo’s residents first refused to consume tomatoes, let alone cultivate them, because their red colour contradicted the idea that they are vegetables (“greens� in Arabic). Thus, they called them “Satan’s backside� and banned them. The ban did not last long, however, and soon the best-quality tomatoes in Aleppo were known as baladiyya (“local� or “domestic�), though a reminder of their foreign origin survived in the Syrian word for “tomatoes�: banadura � a corruption of the Italian name, pomodoro.
Sweden also figures in the “nice and harmless� category. Indeed, it was singled out in a video message from Bin Laden as one of the countries that al-Qa‘ida had chosen not to attack, which is fortunate for the Swedish company Ikea, whose self-assembly furniture is very popular in Saudi Arabia.
November 28, 2023
I always looked at Middle Eastern cultures with great respect and reverence, and I don't think this will ever change for me, but I do have to say that this book forced me to question some of my perceptions and impressions quite deeply. It opened my eyes to the level of naivety that I had about the socio-cultural situation within these countries.
For example, a quote from the book:
"Arabs, with good reason, have come to regard themselves as prisoners of history. (...) they have grown accustomed to the role of victim, at times almost to the point of relishing it. It has become a commonplace to blame foreign meddling for the region’s ills, either to the exclusion of other factors or as an excuse to delay confronting the many internal problems. This tendency to blame others, justified as it may be in many cases, has now become a problem in itself, allowing Arabs to absolve themselves from responsibility."
Being familiar with the unfavourable historical conditions that built this region, I couldn't help falling into the same trap of absolving them of their responsibilities. But now I am realizing that this is not the right approach to address the serious issues being faced. Issues such as inequality, patriarchy in family and state affairs, fundamentalism, authoritarianism, wasta, self-victimhood, various levels of discrimination - these all are much more prevalent than I initially thought.
However, It would be unfair to end my review there. I have to make it clear that there is a perfect logical and historical reasoning behind things being the way they are, things that are also addressed by this book.
If anything, it only increased my level of sympathy for an average Middle Eastern individual who is born into this state as a result of their familial, tribal, secular and/or religious leadership. Something that they are unlikely to address due to the nature of their patriarchal relationship (you don't talk back to the elder).
There is a certain awakening needed in the Middle Eastern world and I sincerely hope for these people's sakes that it comes sooner rather than later.
Insightful and thought-provoking! Well deserved 5 stars.
For example, a quote from the book:
"Arabs, with good reason, have come to regard themselves as prisoners of history. (...) they have grown accustomed to the role of victim, at times almost to the point of relishing it. It has become a commonplace to blame foreign meddling for the region’s ills, either to the exclusion of other factors or as an excuse to delay confronting the many internal problems. This tendency to blame others, justified as it may be in many cases, has now become a problem in itself, allowing Arabs to absolve themselves from responsibility."
Being familiar with the unfavourable historical conditions that built this region, I couldn't help falling into the same trap of absolving them of their responsibilities. But now I am realizing that this is not the right approach to address the serious issues being faced. Issues such as inequality, patriarchy in family and state affairs, fundamentalism, authoritarianism, wasta, self-victimhood, various levels of discrimination - these all are much more prevalent than I initially thought.
However, It would be unfair to end my review there. I have to make it clear that there is a perfect logical and historical reasoning behind things being the way they are, things that are also addressed by this book.
If anything, it only increased my level of sympathy for an average Middle Eastern individual who is born into this state as a result of their familial, tribal, secular and/or religious leadership. Something that they are unlikely to address due to the nature of their patriarchal relationship (you don't talk back to the elder).
There is a certain awakening needed in the Middle Eastern world and I sincerely hope for these people's sakes that it comes sooner rather than later.
Insightful and thought-provoking! Well deserved 5 stars.
November 13, 2024
"What's Really Wrong With the Middle East" by Brian Whitaker offers a thought-provoking examination of complex geopolitical issues, inviting readers to consider the region's deep-rooted struggles. Unlike typical non-fiction, this book demands careful contemplation as it tackles sensitive and multifaceted subjects, from historical conflicts to modern-day tensions. Each point is carefully crafted, encouraging readers to pause and reflect on the broader implications, expanding their worldview. The intricate nature of the content requires time and attention, making it a slower read. However, the payoff is immense, as it strengthens understanding of a foreign theme often misunderstood or oversimplified in mainstream discussions.
I highly recommend this book to those seeking answers to the Middle East in a broad sense with an Anglo-American frame of reference and to all enjoyers of geopolitical non-fiction. I would not read the book again, but I might have to remind myself why the pitfalls of Orientalism lay where they do and what the cultural divide I experience in Europe and Turkey around Islam and Arabs when dealing with inhabitants in both places is rooted in.
I highly recommend this book to those seeking answers to the Middle East in a broad sense with an Anglo-American frame of reference and to all enjoyers of geopolitical non-fiction. I would not read the book again, but I might have to remind myself why the pitfalls of Orientalism lay where they do and what the cultural divide I experience in Europe and Turkey around Islam and Arabs when dealing with inhabitants in both places is rooted in.
August 12, 2017
That's an easy 5 starts, great book.
November 19, 2020
buenas putadas
December 31, 2021
a very good and detailed analysis with bunch of examples. I’d love to read an updated version especially about the arab spring complexity and its effects on the arab world
November 24, 2022
4.5 Stars.
In this book a British journalist describes what he believes are the main problems with Arab societies. Although the title says "Middle East" the author merely focuses on Arab countries. It's a bit biased in some parts but still interesting to understand a foreigner's point of view.
In this book a British journalist describes what he believes are the main problems with Arab societies. Although the title says "Middle East" the author merely focuses on Arab countries. It's a bit biased in some parts but still interesting to understand a foreigner's point of view.
April 19, 2011
recommended read
Want to read
September 23, 2013because im from arab i really want to read this book
July 27, 2013
What i want to say " you have to read it ".
Read
February 20, 2017Very good read on what was really wrong with the Arab world before the Arab Spring. Very detailed accounts on problems like nepotism and corruption.
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