Mahmoud Rumman

900153496
Andrew Hammond -- Pop Culture Arab World Reading Response
Chapter 1. Overview: The Arab World Today
1. The author writes that:
Virtually all of the accouterments of modern life have come in a
short span of time. Print and visual media developed within
decades of each other in the Arab world, as opposed to
developing through centuries in Western Europe.
Why do you think this is significant?
This is significant because it indicate the immense changes that
happened during the past decades in the Arab countries. The
author in latter points states that the popular culture had done
what fifty years of politics could not do. Popular culture in short
period of time gathered the Arab around a single culture and
media features. The quote also indicates that modernization in
Europe was a passive process that came as a result of steady
steps towards civilization, while in the Arab world we are trying
to imitate or follow the steps of another civilization and that may
cause troubles in the process of modernization of the Arab world.
2. What aspects of the regions history made it difficult for the
development of a shared identity?
The Islam spread throughout the Arab countries through the
invasion of the Islamic army, Al-Futuhat. Therefore, the region
had different cultures and civilizations before the emergence of
the Arabian Islamic state. So, after the dissociation of the
Ottoman Empire, these different races were not obliged to abide
by the traditions of the Islamic tradition presented by the
Ottoman traditions.
Moreover, the term Arab refers to the Bedouin tribes in the
Arabian Peninsula, while Egyptians were Copts, Iraqis were
Mesopotamians and Babylonians, and Moroccos population was
named as Berber or Amazigh. So, the Term Arab was not welldefining the variety of origins of Islamic citizens, such as Kurds
and Turks.
3. What is the significance of the use of the term al-aalam al-arabi,
a translation of the phrase the Arab world, as opposed to the

term the Arab nation (al-watan al-arabi or al-umma alarabiyya)?

Arabs refers to their geographic boundaries as the Al-Mashriq
(East) and Al-Maghrib (West). Likewise, they consider their selves
the chosen for carrying the message of Allah and having the
revelation ordering them to conduct justice upon nations. So,
they considered their invasion campaign as enlightenment for
conquered nations. Therefore, identifying their region by the
term world goes with their perception of their actions, while the
word nation indicates the existence of other nation that must
be put into consideration.
4. According to the author, in what ways has a revolution in Arabiclanguage television has helped bring the region closer together?
The Arabic-language television was a means of displaying the
features of the Arab Popular Culture that was emerging the Early
2000s. The whole Arabian world were watching the popular hits
and programs that gathered the attention of different dialects in
the Arabian region. Also, the rise of the news channels, for
instance Al-Jazeera, was a taboo that included talks about human
rights and airing the events that happened in Gaza and occupied
Jerusalem, and thus, uniting the Arabian region upon one
purpose and case, which is the Palestinian case and the Iraqi
invasion when it happened.
5. The author talks of a fear of globalization. Re-read that section
and consider to what extent this has / hasnt changed.
The Arabian Royalty feared of the impact of globalization on their
political systems. Also, globalization was feared of giving
advantage to developed countries, leaving the developing
countries to suffer from the drawbacks. But, the Royalty thought
of globalization as a mean to improve their economies, so they
changed the state of fear of globalization to a state of trying to
use it in a controlled way to benefit from the ideologys without
getting caught in the currents.
6. What is the significance of the distinction between low and high
culture in the context of the Arab World?
The Arab World was divided into regions of civilization (Al-Hadar)
and regions of Bedouins. The Islamic identity raised from the
conquest that went out from hinterlands to create a monotheist
region ruling from cities, like Baghdad and Damascus. So, people
tends to extend their roots to the Arabian families or tribes that
contributed in the spread of the Islamic region or ruled great
Islamic cities in their golden age, like Andalusia. Moreover,
families who can trace their roots to the Islamic prophet (PBUH)

enjoy social prestige in different regions in the Islamic countries,

and they try to abide by traditions that identify and indicate their
relation to what was perceived once the elite of the Islamic
world. Hence, when the culture of belly dancers and Shaabi
emerged, it was referred to as low cultures as it opposes the
virtues of carried by people who abided by the conventions of
their ancestors and the new culture was deemed low.
7. In what ways does the state and do intellectuals try to control
culture in the region? And are these attempts successful?
The state tried to control the culture by censorship of freeing
literature and arts, and by appealing to terms that indicate
democracy, like Jomhoureya, the Arabic word for republic. They
also tend to control the politics by forming parties that control
the political life and have names that goes with the stream to
appeal to the people, like the National Democratic Party. These
attempts were successful to great extent to control the culture,
unless some political figures, like Dr. Saadaldin Ibrahim, start to
intellectually oppose these control mechanisms and how
politicians face the people with fake personalities and benefit
from their positions. However, these opposing voices were dealt
with by defaming and censorship.
8. The author quotes Hassanein Heikal in the last paragraph on the
demoralizing discourse of Arab failure currently fashionable in
the West. What is this an example of? (think about the concept
presentations). Do you agree that this discourse exists? Do you
think it has an impact on your views of yourself and your culture?
This is an example of the failure of the Arab countries to retrieve
their lost lands after the defeat of 1967, and how they are
separated and forgetting their whole Arabian case and their
strategic enemy Israel and its backing power America. I think
that this discourse changed a bit after the revolution of 25th of
January; different countries changed their vision of the Arab
world after seeing the Arabians ask for their liberty from
oppression by ruling class.
9. The author states that:
Today, over five decades later, pop culture has finally
succeeded in bringing the peoples of the region together, where
fifty years of politics failed.
What does the author mean by this and why is it significant?

The author means that despite Nasser recognized the

unpracticality of unifying the Arab countries under one state, and
the division that happened between different Arabian states, like
Sudan and Yemen, the popular culture tends to gather the
attention of a great sector of the Arab world in a short period of
time and about less significant concepts, like Arab Idols and Star
maker and other TV shows. However, this was significant
because it indicates that the media had influenced the Arab
world more effectively than the rulers and politicians, who tried
to call for unifying the Arab World against the colonialism.