Campus News

Scholars discuss Middle East crisis, U.S. foreign policy

A panel of scholars was greeted with a full house Friday afternoon in the M.D. Anderson Memorial Library to discuss the crisis in the Middle East and the situation with human rights there.

Hosted by the Honors College Phronesis Program, the event featured visiting scholar from the Hague Mient Jan Faber, visiting post-doctoral scholar in political philosophy Johanna Luttrell, UH’s Assistant Director of the Center of International and Comparative Studies Cyrus Contractor and Director of the UH Arab Studies Program Emran El-Badawi.

In opening statements, Faber talked about his experience in Iraq and his views on the United States policy towards the terrorist group ISIS.

“It (the U.S. bombing campaign) might actually help ISIS,” Faber.

El-Badawi addressed the role of the media in the conflict, saying reporters were sensationalizing the crisis. He also agreed with Faber in that the U.S. bombing campaign against ISIS is foolish.

“The U.S. is empowering ISIS,” El-Badawi said, referring to his view that the terrorists are being emboldened in their self-perception that they are crusaders fighting a great evil.

Luttrell agreed with Faber and El-Badawi, saying that in order to achieve lasting peace, the military may not be the best option.

“How does violence promote peace?” Luttrell asked. “Soldiers are not trained to promote peace.”

Contractor agreed with the former three, and went on to emphasize his view that the current crisis with ISIS must be ultimately resolved through Iraqi efforts.

“The bombing is not helping,” Contractor said. “It is an Iraqi issue, not an American issue.”

Sahar Tavakoli Sadoughi, the chief architect of the panel discussion and chief fellow of the Phronesis Program, expressed her gratitude that the event was received well.

“The participation, the panelists and the questions were phenomenal,” Sadoughi said. “I could not have asked for more in an event.”

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2 Comments

  • I was at at the panel discussion and there was more talk about “boots on the ground” than this article suggests. Faber was clearly in favor taking military action to ISIS. Yes, he did admit military action would embolden the terrorists, but only in the short term. He was clear, that complete (as much as possible) eradication of ISIS was the only viable option. And he was deeply offended when other panel members suggested that we (the West) should actually negotiate with this particular savage terrorist group.

    Their argument was that back room and secret negotiations worked with the IRA in Northern Ireland. In defense of the other panelists (not that they need it), they were not supportive of ISIS in any way. Their negotiation comments seemed to come from the idea that ISIS fanaticism would only increase with more western military action … based on the ISIS belief it is their duty to fight the West and keep them out of the Middle East.

    I thoroughly enjoyed the discussion. The student questions were well thought out and beautifully articulated. The panel answered questions candidly and no one seemed over the top with fringe ideologies.

    I was especially thankful to hear their uniform condemnation of the young people all over the world making their way to Turkey and “across the ferry” into Syria to fight in this Jihad.

    I was disappointed no one brought up the headlines from last week that ISIS and al Qaeda have joined forces in Syria. I’ll take the blame there as I could have easily raised my and and asked the question. However, it seems to be a moot point (for now), according to Director of National Intelligence James Clapper who gave on interview on the 14th to Bob Schieffer of “Face the Nation” on CBS. In the interview he said their had been some battlefield cooperation, but nothing that proves any sort of lasting partnership. Apparently we’ll get to hear more about it this Sunday’s (16th) airing of the show.

    On another topic, Professor Contractor at one point mentioned how surprised he was that no one brought up oil. With oil dropping to sub-$80 a barrel we are likely to experience some sort of military escalation for whatever reason they can come up with to counter falling oil prices. The world seems to become a bit more unstable when oil becomes too cheap. But hey, that’s just the conspiracy theorist in me. 🙂

    Bottom line: If you missed this panel discussion you missed a good one.

  • I’ve got a novel idea. Let’s do nothing. Let the Muslims deal with their own
    problems for a change. Let’s let countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait
    with their endless ocean of money and Western-bought armaments figure it out
    instead. Surely they – being practitioners of the religion of compassion and
    peace – will step right up to the plate in our stead.

    OK, you caught me there. You knew I was kidding! You knew what I know which
    is that there is no answer to these Islamic cesspools. Whatever we do will be
    discredited and if we do nothing then Syria will become just another country in
    the endless line of Hell on Earth Islamic countries.

    We cannot save Muslims from themselves. It is like trying to save an
    alcoholic. Until they are ready to abandon their religion – a religion that
    emphasizes aggression and violence and sadism – anything we do will simply be a
    band-aid on a gaping wound.

    Let them go through their DTs on their own. Only then will they be ready for
    our friendship and help, and only then will we find a way forward together as
    friends.

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