by Michael Schmidt - International Secretary, ZACF (South Africa) Thu Mar 27, 2008 05:12 ZACF, Postnet Suite #47, Private Bag X1, Fordsburg, South Africa, 2033

I was in Jordan in 2006 and had no idea that an anarchist current was developing, though I met with our comrades in Lebanon during the summer war. I include here some writings on anarchism in the Middle East:

Lebanon:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=3651&search_text=In%20the%20LAnd%20of%20the%20Blind

Iraq:
http://www.zabalaza.net/zab_paper/zab06.htm#iraq

Iran:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=129&search_text=Iranian%20Revolution

http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?story_id=584&search_text=Iranian%20Revolution

Mashriq / Arabia / Iran:
http://www.anarkismo.net/newswire.php?topic=®ion=mashriqarabiairaq&type=&language=&media_type=

We are aware of the difficulties inherent in organising in the Middle East, so please tell us of any assistance we can give you.

by ronan - wsm Thu Mar 27, 2008 07:05

hope that these are of some use:

http://wsm.ie/news_viewer/1499

http://wsm.ie/news_viewer/1497

solidarity from Ireland!

by m(A)tt - nefac/sds/iww Thu Mar 27, 2008 10:52 circleamatt at gmail dot com http://thewarstopshere.wordpress.com

I'd be really interested to know more about sufism and particularly sufi-anarchism. I'm only vaguely familiar with sufism, though I couldn't tell you much of anything about how it relates to politics or philosophy.

by Dan Clore - The Soylent Green Party Thu Mar 27, 2008 11:47 clore at columbia-center dot org

You might find the following of interest:

The Iraq Freedom Congress (http://tinyurl.com/26yzpd )
is a libertarian, secularist, non-violent, democratic, and
progressive group that opposes Ba'athism, Islamism, and
nationalism—as well as the US invasion/occupation.

The Iraq Freedom Congress has organized a self-defense
Safety Force that patrols neighborhoods in Iraq (population:
5,000) and has reduced sectarian violence there to zero.
However, far from supporting this effort, US forces have
assassinated the head of these Safety Forces
(http://tinyurl.com/25yknr ).

*****

News & Views for Anarchists & Activists:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smygo/

by mitch - WSA, Corresponding Secty Thu Mar 27, 2008 12:26 wsany at hotmail dot com

Greetings comrades from the Workers Solidarity Alliance (WSA)!

by Nestor McNab - FdCA Thu Mar 27, 2008 15:28

Greetings to the Jordanian anarchists from the Federation of Anarchist Communists in Italy!

In solidarity,
nestor

by Dimitri (OAE-Greece) - Anarkismo Thu Mar 27, 2008 18:28 ngnm55 at gmail dot com

Dear comrades from Jordan welcome to the anarchist movement.

We are going to translate your announcement into Greek as well.

There is already a short announcement in Greek in the Athens Indymedia today not from us but from someone else.

In solidarity

OAE-Greece

International Relations

by nestor - Anarkismo Thu Mar 27, 2008 19:42

This article in Spanish, contributed by alasbarricadas.org:

by mazen kamalmaz Sat Mar 29, 2008 05:23 mazen2190 at maktoob dot com syria 00966563365841

In fact the advance of anarchist ideas in the east is a sign of the strong desire for freedom and the decancy of fundamentalism and stalinism..as a Syrian anarchist i solute the Jordanian comrades , calling for open an free exchange of ideas and support among us...I had called before to establish a grass root movement of our region masses in order to combat relogious and national division and even sectarian wrs and to stop imperialist expolitation and build a new middle east from down , from below , according to the principles of freedom , justice..I think also we ve to promote collective ideas and progressive ideas in the face of brutal and repressive religious fundamentalism , and to create the arab battloin of the anti-globalisation movement...hope to hear from you as soon as possible

by hamza - yassar ejtema'e Sat Mar 29, 2008 19:30 hamza_hhh at hotmail dot com

thanks allot comrades...
as i said before we r now members of a movement called the social left which includes people from all the broad left spectrum ...we became more than 1500 in two months and we expect to grow more because all leftists r leaving their parties and joining us..
anarchists r very active among the social left we have a 1 comrade at least in every committee...
and we insisted in past meetings of having decentralized anarchist order inside the group...and despite the fact that most others believe in the Leninist 's centralized "democracy" we were able to impose our view on order and hierarchy inside the group.

about Sufism and anarchism...this is something i wrote...i hope it will make things more clear:

The link between the LEFT and Sufism is not new…After the 1970s Sufism has become the official religion of the Arab-Persian- Kurdish- Pakistani-Indonesian LEFT…
If u asked any of the so called leftist-Sufis about their religion they would answer:
“Sufi…something beyond religion …just sufi…I am also agnostic”!!! such answer is a typical Sufi answer that would be also the answer of a Sufi who lived in the middle ages…many Sufis in the 10th century refused going to HAJJ “and circle around a stone” and refused praying and talked about a more spiritual relation with god and less superstitious. of course the only traditional form of worship that they approved was “Fasting” as part of their struggle for the hungry and the poor…
so… we do reject organized religion. actually, one of the classical ideas of Sufism is rejecting traditional forms of worship and giving the choice for every individual to find his own way of connecting to god…like whirling dervishes or singing and the most important form is WONDERING…
Muslim Sufi schools and methods that were founded in Indonesia and southeast Asia in general also benefited from Buddhism and Hinduism so it is not strange to find quotes from the book of TAO in Islamic Sufi books.
Sufsim also believes that everyone is connected to the sky(god, wisdom) not only profits…and rebels against the idea that prophet Mohammad was the last prophet…their understanding of equality in front of god(god and man r equal) and equality between all humans in terms of connecting with god is also used to understand social justice and freedoms. Also adopting modest ways of living is used to understand our relationship with consumerism… the most important Sufi ever “al Hallaj” was a political activist and was crucified mostly because of politics not his blasphemous ideas as one might think…there is also “abu Thar” who was sent to exile because he believed that the “ZAKAT” or Islamic contributions which was 2.5% only on the rich should be high enough to cover the poor(Muslims and non muslims) and to free all slaves!
There is also the Qarmatian movement which we need to study more about…actually Syrians study about it at school as the first socialist Islamic group which consists of rebellious slaves and “batini shia” that was active from 880 - 1100 their beliefs were between Islam and Mandaism and gnosticism…but in Jordan we study a very different story –for political reasons- …I mean the way we study about them only mentions their attack on Mecca and stealing the holy stone!!!
We can find also women who were involved in Sufism and surprisingly some of them r very important figures in Sufism like “Rab'a al adawiyah” who was a poet..and that implies gender equality
It is interesting, There is a gay group in Lebanon called “helem” and they also used sufi texts to justify homosexuality!
This is one of the websites that has anti-authoritarian understanding of Sufi Islam…
http://www.bayyinat.org.uk/radical.htm

Egyptian anarchists posts great articles about anarchism and other topics on this website.. they r all members of the anti-globalization movement in Egypt(unfortunately it is all in Arabic)

http://kefaya.org/Arabic_znet.htm

This one in English… maybe it is a Lebanese website – I am not sure:
http://www.geocities.com/aggoa2000/index13.html

There r also a large number of Egyptian leftist bloggers and Egyptian leftist groups(-I bog for socialism- bloggers) (Arabic)
http://www.tymat.org/?q=node/740

this is part of an aticale that talks about left in pakistan:

“Who or what forces are protecting this re-invention of the Left?

Somehow the Left is at a simmer. It cannot be named for fear of instant reprisal, yet it rises slowly but surely from the ashes of popular culture. Some say Sufi, some say democracy, some say balance but all are seeking the Light Side. In an Islamic society, the Sufis quite clearly were Leftist elements whereas the Wahabis are the extreme Right. Pakistan at creation had a Left, injured, excavated as it were from the Muslims of undivided India. However, the Rightists gained power rapidly in the ensuing decades, pushing the Left to the periphery initially, then out to exile or Jail. This pattern is an old one in the history of Islam.” This is the origninal article http://www.chowk.com/articles/10132

thank u all comrades for ur help and support...

salam

by Paddy Rua - WSM Mon Mar 31, 2008 19:01

Just to say it is great news that there's a libertarian left starting to give its first steps in the Middle East. Here's a blog of a Lebanese libertarian that has some good analysis of the Lebanese-Israeli conflict of 2006. Unfortunately since then it has not been updated...

by gyhelle Tue Apr 01, 2008 19:02

French translation by Borogove, on l'endehors : http://endehors.org/news/un-apercu-sur-l-anarchisme-en-jordanie-aujourd-hui

by mazen kamalmaz Sun Apr 06, 2008 02:40 mazen2190 at matoob dot com

There is a lot of anarchist writings translated to arabic on this site
www.ahewar.org/m.asp?i=1385

by webel Sat May 10, 2008 19:36 ahmed.refaat1 at gmail dot com

Show me some links please!