Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You a Happy Birthday: Unexpected Encounters in the Changing Middle East

by Neil MacFarquhar

Since his boyhood in Qadhafi's Libya, Neil MacFarquhar has developed a counterintuitive sense that the Middle East, despite all the bloodshed in its recent history, is a place of warmth, humanity, and generous eccentricity.

In this book, he introduces a cross-section of unsung, dynamic men and women pioneering political and social change. There is the Kuwaiti sex therapist in a leather suit with matching red headscarf, and the Syrian engineer advocating a less political interpretation of the Koran. MacFarquhar interacts with Arabs and Iranians in their every day lives, removed from the violence we see constantly, yet wrestling with the region's future. These are people who realize their region is out of step with the world and are determined to do something about it -- on their own terms.

Genres: Middle East, Nonfiction, History, Memoir, Journalism, Travel, Politics

401 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2009

About the author

Neil MacFarquhar spend his childhood in Libya and for years worked as a Middle East correspondent. He is a journalist for the New York Times.

Reviews

[Daren · Rating 4 out of 5]

First off, this book isn't what I expected - based on the title. Based on the title, I expected it to be significantly lighter and more comical. I mean, who gets a birthday card from Hizbollah?

However, this book is in fact better than a bit of comedy fluff about the Middle East. It is a detailed, in depth look at the culture, the people and the religion of a huge array of countries - Libya, Egypt, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain & Morocco. It is also part biography - covering the authors years in Libya, and then comparisons with his return there as a journalist.

The author grew up in an American oil compound in Libya, and returned later to spend thirteen years as a foreign correspondent for the Associated Press and the New York Times. Thirteen years is a lot for a region as volatile as the Middle East, in countries where digging deep into stories, and poking around in politics and religion can be dangerous.

A cast of many characters in this book, no doubt protected by changed names, tell stories of their lives. This isn't a book that sets out to demonise, or even over analyse Islam, but that is an inevitable outcome when explaining the problems of the Middle East.

The chapters are arranged around themes, and the location and timeframe jump around to sit within the theme. This works well for staying on topic, but means the reader needs to pay attention so as not to miss a location change or a jump back or forwards in time.

There were some amusing parts - the ludicrous Qadhafi, and his bizarre rulings, the Hizbollah birthday card, and some other well crafted anecdotes, such as: (P85)
The difference between formal Arabic and the spoken variety is often compared to the vast difference between Shakespearean English and the various dialects now used in English speaking nations around the world. When I first arrived in Cairo in 1982, fresh from studying Arabic for a couple of years at Stanford and UC Berkeley, I stepped into a cab in the controlled bedlam outside the arrivals hall at Cairo International Airport and tried to use my formal Arabic to give the driver directions. "Ureedu an ath-habu ila al-funduki," I said. That was more of less the equivalent of grabbing a taxi at JFK and saying "Prithee good man, wouldst thou covey me to yonder hostelry." Naturally the cab driver turned around with a blank look on his face and said in Egyptian accent that I would later come to learn, "What are you speaking my brother?"

And P239:
... Even in a demonstration about reform the traditional pecking order held. First came the men, followed by a couple of hundred women, mostly invisible behind their black sacking. Behind them, a knot of Asian labours in bright yellow uniforms brought up the rear, collecting the empty water bottles and other trash dropped by the marchers. That scene captured the dilemma of the rich Gulf nations in a microcosm. The demonstrators were protecting unemployment, but not one would be willing to take the menial jobs filled by South Asians. Women were always stuck in limbo.

Unfortunately, these moments of light relief were too few and far between. I found this book pretty tough going, needing to pick it up for a chapter of two, then read something else for a while. It was heavy and in depth. The writing was accurate, and described the problems, the events, the people and the culture well, but it was very level writing. As another reviewer pointed out, it has no cadence, no ups and downs in pace. It needed to build to and outcome more to maintain interest.

So for me it was between three and four stars. Rounded up to four.

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. MacFarquhar writes a compelling narrative of the Middle East. He has criss-crossed it and brings us a multitude of stories from many different regions. There are a diversity of people encountered– from the ultra-religious to the secular – and a few who I would be rather reluctant to have in my living room. For the most part he lets them speak for themselves. This is not a diatribe against U.S. involvement in the Middle East or a polemic against the people who inhabit this troubled area.

Religion, however, is seen to permeate the lives of all. It casts a pall over all facets of life – the political, social and cultural. As some in the book allude to – religion envelopes all the minor details of life – clothing, food, hygiene – that the individual has a difficult time to escape its clutches to view the bigger picture. One’s time becomes suffocated debating minor religious details.

Saudi Arabia is the ultimate religious state which illustrates the other overriding issue in the Middle East – the subservient position of women. Although Mr. MacFarquhar speaks with several women, it is still the men who occupy positions of power. All clerical power is in the hands of men.

This is an excellent “on the ground” book. All the people the author interviews live in the Middle East. There are various dissidents ranging from the right (religious) to the left. The word “dissident” is deliberate; it would not be proper to describe them as “opposition” as that would imply an organized party or group. Such groups are not permitted in the Middle East. This brings us to another aspect of life well presented in this book – the police state and repressive jails. One can be arrested by the police on any pretext and incarcerated for an undefined amount of time under appalling conditions.

As Mr. MacFarquhar points out these are the human rights violations that Western countries should be concerned with. Setting up quasi-elections will not necessarily lead to ameliorating human rights.

Perhaps the author could have been more forthcoming of the constant criticism of all Middle East countries to the Israeli treatment of Palestinians. While the issue is indeed valid, this criticism seems a smokescreen camouflaging the problems, well illustrated by Mr. MacFarquhar, within their own countries.

[Doreen Petersen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I gave this book 2 stars not because of the material covered but because of the way the author presented it. Maybe others will feel differently but I did not.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

In Praise of the Village Explainer, with Neil MacF. as an example

Gertrude Stein once famously characterized Ezra Pound as “the Village Explainer -- excellent if you were a village; if not, not.” This remark has generally been take to mean that Stein thought Pound a pompous bore who was over-eager to display his knowledge. Today, the put-down is sometimes used by the over-educated to mock other over-educateds who they (the first group of over-eds) are not interested in. This is sort of a grad-student equivalent of the reviews some high school students put on Goodreads: “They made me read this for school.... boooorrrrriiinnngggg!”

This book is Neil MacF.'s entry into the Village Explainer sweepstakes for the Middle East. (Other examples in this genre are Thomas Friedman's From Beirut to Jerusalem and the works of Bernard Lewis.) I come to praise these men in general and Neil MacF. in particular. If you are a non-expert but feel that it's your responsibility as a citizen to try to understand the Great Issues of the Day, then the Village Explainer is a good guy to know.

A good Village Explainer reanimates problems we've grown accustomed to ignoring, or, as the original Village Explainer might say, he makes it new. For example, your average well-meaning reader, safely lodged in a liberal democracy, can't do much for the unfortunates whose lives are made a living hell by the secret police of some benighted kingdom, but the Village Explainer makes sure that you don't forget them so easy, or lull yourself into the fantasy that they somehow deserved it or that it's all for the best. The Village Explainer knows something and is passionate about it, reminding us that indifference is not the only way. The Village Explainer talks to people who know more than he does, and tries to make sense of what they told him. A good Village Explainer concludes with a clearly-written list of problems and solutions. If you immediately feel that you can easily point out problems or short-comings in his conclusions, that's probably because he's taken great pains to express himself simply and plainly.

I urge you to fight the tide of Know-nothing-ism and willful ignorance abroad in the world today by reading a book by a Village Explainer today. Any topic will do. If being a village is what it takes, go ahead and be one.

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was super fun and very interesting. It is full of human interest stories across the middle east which are very telling about what is happening there and the kinds of change some of the population would like to see. MacFaquhar went over his various travels in the region during his time as a news corespondent covering stories in the region and then transitions to specific countries and where they stand and where they would like to be. At least in his opinion and that of the people he interviewed. He also did a very good job at not just criticizing US policy in the region, but identified ways that it could be better and explaining why it wasn't currently very effective. It was also definitely one of the easier reads regarding this topic, which was a bonus.

And, yes, he really did get happy birthday emails from Hizbollah... at least until 2006.

[Elevate Difference · Rating 5 out of 5]

The brash leather-clad sex columnist who hosts her own television show, The Biography of Love, is:

a) a Parisian whose show airs in France
b) an American whose show airs in the U.S.
c) a Kuwaiti whose show is broadcast throughout the Middle East

The surprising answer is C. But sex educator Fawzia Dorai is only one of the unexpected and colorful agents of Middle Eastern change profiled in The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You A Happy Birthday. A Middle East correspondent for the New York Times, MacFarquhar grew up in Libya, the son of an American oil company employee. With both an insider’s and an outsider’s perspective, MacFarquehar has crafted a rare work. Traveling from Iran to Morocco and points in between, he interviews activists, celebrities, renegades and politicians about the region’s potential for change. The answers are as astonishing as finding the words “Hizbollah” and “Happy Birthday” in the same sentence.

Westerners tend to view the Middle East monolithically, as a vast expanse of violence and extremism. But, as MacFarquhar illustrates, the region consists of competing philosophies and contradictions. For every cleric who believes that politics should serve Islam, there is another who would twist Islam to serve politics. For every activist who would cement society into strict adherence to Islamic law, there is another who believes that Islamic ideals of justice and dignity are more consistent with an open society. The United States’ missteps, MacFarquhar believes, result from failing to recognize the nuanced difference between Western-style democracy and the ways in which Islam’s humanistic values could be used to advance tolerance and pluralism.

Don’t just take MacFarquhar’s word for it. The people he profiles make these points in their own riveting ways. Fawzia Dorai cites ancient Islamic texts on sexuality in support of her frank talks to the public. A Lebanese television chef rockets to stardom by blending American and Middle Eastern cuisine. A Bahraini journalist refuses to bow to censors who hate her bold calls for reform. The book is full of such innovators, stunning in their courage: poets, professors, singers, farmers.

The odds are daunting, as a discussion of fatwas makes clear. Fatwas are clerical rulings and range from pronouncements about jihad (clerics disagree whether the concept condones violence) to decisions banning dogs (which prompt black market dog sales). The clergy is as diverse as the population it serves. Some are fundamentalist, others more liberal. Some are better trained. Some have political agendas.

To add to the complexity, fatwas are not always binding. A layman who doesn’t like a fatwa can look for one that’s more favorable. Sometimes this is a good thing. One woman’s imam ruled that she could unveil at work, but only if she suckled her male colleague, making him her surrogate child. (The ensuing outrage resulted in the fatwa’s reversal.) The proliferation of competing decrees hampers reform by preventing clear definitions of what an Islamic society should look like.

Women activists figure prominently. To MacFarquhar, their status is not simply about gender politics, but about how it reflects on society as a whole. A government using religion as an instrument of oppression affects women in kind. A more pluralistic regime, such as Lebanon’s, offers all citizens more freedom. Bahrain, a mixed bag of tolerance and fundamentalism, allows women to drive, but only if fully veiled. As long as tools of change such as freedom of speech and assembly are discouraged, egalitarianism remains elusive.

MacFarquhar seamlessly blends his knowledge of Middle Eastern history, religion, politics, and culture in The Media Relations Department of Hizbollah Wishes You A Happy Birthday. The experience feels like spending time with a very smart and connected buddy who has pulled you aside to share secrets, insights and anecdotes that you won’t hear anywhere else.

Review by T. Tamara Weinstein

[Catherine]

I havent read this yet, but the author was on NPR and gave one of the most intriguing interviews and now I'm dying to read it....

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's difficult reading a book written in 2009 about a part of the world that is always in transition. But it is important to try to understand the challenges the Arab world faces and how our foreign policy has so consistently failed to address them. For the most part, the book was very readable and interesting with lively stories. It was startling coming across Kashoggi's name, for example, knowing that not too long in the future he would be hacked to pieces by a stooge employed by MBS. There were a few disconnects like that, especially in the chapters on Saudia Arabia. Everything changes so quickly.

I loved the poem the Media Relations Department of Hizbollah would send MacFarquar annually on his birthday:

Dear Neil
On your birth day
I wish all the Joy your heart can hold
All the smiles a day can bring
All the blessings life unfold
May you have God's best in every thing
Happy birth day
Haidar Dikmak
Media Relations

You could see how he could love these people so completely and that love underpins everything. he doesn't necessarily agree with them, but he sympathizes with their suffering and has practical solutions that the United States government should employ to help. Of course, our leaders are more interested in pursuing policy with their leaders and not the people themselves. The rise of MBS has proven that.

It was also interesting to read about, for example, the Alawaites who showed up in a news story about Syria I was reading and, as my husband pointed out, were also along with the Kurds in A Strangeness in my Mind, a novel about Turkey. You think of a people as being in one place, but there they range over several countries. McFarquar makes the point that before all the barriers you could drive through some of these areas from country to country in a day. It was good to get a look at the various religions and ethnicities. There is a tremendous amount of information here.

[Jessica Jin · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is something about the author's writing style that makes this book incredibly laborious to read. The tone is detached, which made it very hard for me to feel invested in the stories, and some of the sentence structure choices are super frustrating and often require me to go back to reread a few times to absorb an idea in order to not get lost in the author's train of thought. Example passage from a section after he talks about conflicting religious opinions on dog ownership, where a cop tried to take away someone's licensed pet dog:
"One bystander suddenly turned to me and said quietly, "There are no laws in the way they take away dogs, just like people."
Not all fatwa fights provided such a vivid illustration of the way a country actually works. Sometimes fatwas came across as so strikingly obvious that I wanted to explore what was the point exactly, to understand why these abbreviated pronouncements were so cherished."
The bystander quote doesn't even make sense in the context of the story he told beforehand, the "not all fatwa fights" sentence doesn't actually add any real analysis of WHAT the preceding story says about the country, and he doesn't say anything about which fatwas are "strikingly obvious" to him before moving on with his writing. The whole thing feels scattered, half baked, like listening to your uncle drone on incoherently about his adventures as a youth, and I believe it would've benefited from a more heavy handed editor. I'm really struggling to finish this book because it's such a slog. The author's experiences are cool, but having to wrangle with his style of communicating his stories makes me feel like a cow slowly and endlessly chewing on a wad of tough cud.

[Neil Pierson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great title, huh?

Neil MacFarquhar was an oil brat who spent much of his childhood in the Middle East. Later, he became a Middle East correspondent for the New York Times and the Associated Press. He reported on wars, violence, and bloodshed.

In this book, he turns away from those headline-grabbing stories to show us how regular people live in the region. From the surrealism of Muammar Qadhafi's Libya to the repression of Saudi Arabia, he provides a number of insights into a system of thought much different than ours.

About halfway through the book, he turns to the question of whether and how change (governmental, religious, societal, economic) may come to the region, noting that when Westerners talk about "change" in the Middle East, they really mean "progress."

This part of the book becomes repetitive and leaves one in despair. It seems that most Middle East Muslims blame the U.S. for anything bad in their lives (yes, including the weather); they believe the West is constantly trying to destroy Islam; and it is their religious duty to convert the rest of the world to Islam and to (at least) avoid contact with infidels. It left me believing that short of a complete re-interpretation of the Muslim faith, the Middle East will continue to stumble from one state of misery to another.

My advice is to read this book until your interest wanes, then skip to the Epilogue.

[Helen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I **really** wanted to like this book. Who wouldn't have their curiosity piqued by a book whose title derives from the western-reporter-author actually GETTING yearly birthday greetings from Hezbollah (hizbollah@hizbollah.org)?

I thought it would be along the same lines as Gregory Levey's "Shut Up, I'm Talking: And Other Diplomacy Lessons I Learned in the Israeli Government" - a searingly funny, deadly serious, thought-provoking read.

Or I hoped it would be along the lines of "McMafia" - a factual, detailed and can't-put-it-down analysis of where religion, politics and business all mingle and how it falls out depending on geography. With a little Middle Eastern "Year in Provence" vein of idiosyncratic characters and funny vignettes.

But this isn't really a close second to any of those books, because there is just no OOMPH to his writing. No cadence, no highs, no lows. Just Ben Stein in Ferris Bueller ... "anyone? anyone?" Even his press meetings with Qaddafi were boring.

Reading it is the equivalent of staring at a flat-lined EKG: Clearly there are some important facts being displayed, but it's so freaking boring who the hell cares?

What a disappointment.

[Lillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

I stumbled across an article in the NYT about a disappearing road in Siberia "Missing a road in Russia? that was short but so full of personality I was compelled to find out more about the author. Turns out he's a well-respected journalist currently writing for the Times in Moscow who has written two books, this being the second. Neil MacFarquhar grew up in Libya and spent the majority of his adult life in the Middle East as a foreign correspondent. He wrote this memoir/prediction of the region's ability to change before the "Arab Spring" -- the book came out in 2009 -- so I found myself constantly wondering what he thinks about these places now (Morocco, Libya, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Kuwait, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Saudi Arabia) and about the people he developed relationships with, especially those in Syria. Will look for his first book, The Sand Cafe a novel about foreign correspondents stuck in a Saudi hotel awaiting the start of the Gulf war.

[Annie Rosenthal · Rating 4 out of 5]

A little out of date since it was written before the "Arab Spring." However, still a really interesting look at Arab culture and politics by a man who has reported there for years.

[Meg - A Bookish Affair · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

[Aija Avota · Rating 5 out of 5]

A book I want to go around recommending people to read. A nonsensational way to write about the Middle East. A great mix of story telling, analysis, people, culture, politics, religion.

[Amy W. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly, 4.5 stars, but I have been rounding up 3.5 stars to 4, so to be fair, this became a 5 star. That out of the way:

One thing I kept dwelling on while reading this book was the bravery of so many people in it. The author, other journalists, activists, ordinary citizens. I can't for a second imagine having such courage myself.

To state the obvious, the Middle East is a complicated and dynamic region of the globe. Life is long, and there are a lot of books to read. When picking up a non-fiction book about a complicated topic that I have no hope of becoming an expert at, I attempt to where the author is coming from and whether that perspective is worth giving one of the limited slots I have for books on the topic. So Neil MacFarquhar lived in Libya as a child, studied and speaks Arabic, covered the region for the New York Times for years. So his perspective is not that of a native or a resident, but that of a Westerner with knowledge and insight. And I have a soft spot for books by reporters. So I dove in.

The book can be divided into two parts; a tour of the region focusing on mainly on culture and religion, and an analysis of the challenges facing the region, seen through the lens of six countries, one challenge each. Both parts illuminate differences between countries, and within countries (the contrast in Saudi Arabian cities from the debauched coast to the hyper-fundamentalist capital was new territory for me). Woven throughout are observations of U.S. diplomacy and the ham-handedness thereof. (I have rarely read accounts of U.S. diplomacy in non-Western regions without cringing.) And then the epilogue. I was powering through trying to finish the book late one evening, and came to the epilogue, which was more thought-provoking and challenging than I had expected an epilogue to be, about what the U.S.'s objectives and tactics in the region should be. I will have to read this again.

The book was written years before the Arab Spring and the rise of ISIS. I wouldn't say it anticipated those events, but it is not contradicted by them. It does not feel outdated, though it is sad to read things like "Syria was the first country where I took friends who wanted to visit the Arab world. Each time I abandoned my reporting and went wandering with them, I habitually found delightful relics of past civilizations that I had never seen before. I knew the ruins were all left by outsiders who tarried briefly in the larger scheme of things." I'll let that stand as my final thoughts on the book, which I recommend.

[Lou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Just outstanding! Neil MacFarquhar tells a wonderful story of the real middle east. It's a place of people looking for the same thing Americans are looking for - freedom, a stable job to support a family, and a better life for their children.

Control over the destiny of most middle easterners, however, has been ceded to the mullahs and the religious fanatics. Religious rule + family dictatorial dynasties has led to a stagnating control over the population. This limits opportunity for education, entrepreneurship, and employment. Into this cauldron of inactivity, the mullahs stir a generous helping of anti-western propaganda, fueling terrorism and keeping strong control over the daily lives of the faithful. The intent of the mullahs is to force 2017 back into 1450.

It is a shame. I have friends from Iraq - they are wonderful, funny guys. I am sorry that their world is not what it could be.

[herm · Rating 3 out of 5]

a gripping read. macfarquhar is a great storyteller, but not as good of a policy analyst. by the end of the book, i tired of the endless platitudes about political islam and the ways in which the united states must intervene in the region. the middle east is a region that is already in danger of oversimplification, and i felt macfarquhar's political remarks contradicted his main point of the realities of life in varying arab nations. nonetheless, i enjoyed the book a lot--it shows significant age in having been written before the arab spring, but is a good overview nonetheless.

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Memoir/political analysis/reportage from the former Cairo and UN bureau chief of NYT (now bureau chief of Russia). Dryly funny, trenchant and relevant discussion of the mideast people and their reactions to their (moslty) reactionary governments and their relation to the good ole U.S. of A. MacFarquhar grew up in Libya (on an oil base) and is the kind of reporter who talks to ordinary, average folk to get their perspective which he contrasts with the government line. Good stuff.

[Alani Selland · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tough read to get through, but still applicable today.

[Traci · Rating 4 out of 5]

The biggest problem with English-language books about the Middle East is that too many focus on whether or not Islam is evil, or, in this book's case, the history of Middle Eastern politics. Don't get me wrong, I do understand the need for well-written and insightful books about the last century of Middle Eastern history,and most Americans could probably stand to learn a little more about the region, but when can we finally move past these two options? I'm sick of hearing about jihad, jihad, jihad and the Muslim Brotherhood. Even the author complains about Americans' hyper-intensive focus on violence in the Middle East in lieu of any stories that portray the region through humanizing anecdotes. As the author progresses, however, he himself delves even further into politics and governance in the Middle East. I didn't pick up this book looking for yet another description of Hassan al-Banna and Sayyid Qutb's Milestones.

Now that I've gotten that out of the way, I'll say that this book is a gem. I originally picked it up because of the quirkiness of the title. The anecdote in chapter 3 about Hizbollah birthday emails was lough-out-loud funny, as were the author's descriptions of Qaddhafi's absurdities. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in the Middle East purely for these stories.

The two other highlights of this book were the author's suggestions for how the US could improve its perception in the ME, and the author's predictions about a possible revolution in the ME (the book was published in 2009.)

The author's suggestions appear in every chapter throughout the book. One suggestion centered around the American PR disaster that was "al-Hurra," the American answer to al-Jazeera's critical coverage of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. MacFarquhar's advice ranges from suggesting that instead of competing with al-Jazeera by creating a channel no Middle-Easterner was interested in watching, the US could have joined in on the debate by using al-Jazeera as its platform. He also suggests interacting with Middle Eastern society through American programs already popular in the Middle East, such as in chapter 4 when he writes, "I suspect that if Oprah had done a program focused on all the economic and social problems caused by the Saudi ban on women driving, or the very visible role of some Muslim-American women in the public life in the United States, it would have reached a far larger audience and had far greater impact than anything official Washington tried to promote.” His suggestions are a breath of fresh air and stand in stark contract to assertions from prominent writers such as Thomas Friedman who, for example, wrote in From Beirut to Jerusalem that the Middle East plays by “Hama Rules” and its inhabitants only understand the brute force of authoritarian leadership (I wish I had the book handy so I could quote it directly!)

I also recommend this book because it was published in 2009 and therefore contains predictions about what a political revolution in certain ME countries would look like in the off-chance that change was coming anytime in the near future. As we all know, the “Arab Spring” began in January 2011. It’s interesting to read what the experts predicted just a few years before it happened and how their theories differed from reality. In chapter 12, MacFarquhar writes, “Eventually when the people are convinced, cracks will appear in the regime itself, reflecting popular discontent and then the whole edifice will crash. That wit, in a nutshell, is why political analysts across the region believe that if a reform movement ever coalesces, the Muslim Brothers won’t march at the forefront of it in any country despite their widespread role at the moment as the primary opposition faction.” It’s interesting to be so far in the future from when this sentence was written, and to have knowledge of Morsi and the Muslim Brother’s recent rise and fall in Egypt. In 2009 the biggest topics of the day were the war in Iraq and the political/economic growth of Turkey and Egypt. Oh, how everything can change in an instant.

In summary, I wanted this book to be about the author’s “unexpected encounters in the changing Middle East” and my wish was fulfilled during the first few chapters. The last half, however, was all of the usual expected hum-drum about Middle Eastern history and politics.

[Holly Morrow]

Neil MacFarquhar was a New York Times bureau chief in the Middle East from 2001-2005, and this book contains everything he wanted to write about the region when his editors only wanted violence and terrorism – so its stories about a runaway-hit Lebanese cooking show (“Chef Ramzi”), the occasional hilarity of dial-a-fatwa services where sheikhs offer their services to people who call in asking for advice on all aspects of Islamic practice, and all the regular people in the Middle East who aren’t blowing anything up and are just trying to live normal lives. MacFarquhar spent his childhood in Libya (his father – to whom the book is dedicated - was an Esso engineer) and its clear that he loves the region from a personal, warm place. And yet, despite being explicitly a book NOT about the grim headlines one usually sees about the Middle East, its still pretty depressing. First, its such a sad portrait of the state of many of these countries – from the lives of quiet desperation endured by Saudi women, to the humiliation and frustration of Egyptians living in a great nation that has stagnated under a leader who is less than they deserve. It was written in 2009, so pre-Arab Spring, but its clear there was an over-abundance of tinder -- hopelessness, mass unemployment among young men, anger about official corruption, a sense of being trapped in a system that you know isn’t working for you and is in fact rigged against you. Its eye-opening to read for someone who works on Asia, which is a region with plenty of problems with governance, but still predominantly a place where forward movement, opportunity, and a belief that your children’s lives will be better than your own are very much the norm. He teases out the differences between countries in a way that is great for the Middle East novice – he loves Syria and describes its lively, sophisticated society, great cuisine, and history-drenched landscape in a way that made me want to go there badly (alas…), whereas Saudi Arabia comes across as almost a dead society – a place that focuses all its attention on stifling basic human nature, and has become distorted by a combination of huge oil wealth and an education system that teaches Islam and not much else (he reports going to a protest march about unemployment, where the Saudi marchers are followed by a contingent of South Asians picking up their trash – menial labor that the Saudi protesters would never deign to take). The book is also profoundly depressing about all the many ways the US gets it wrong in the Middle East. MacFarquhar’s purpose isn’t polemical, but he details the widespread loathing of the US, and how totally discredited we are. Its almost hard to wrap your mind around what a huge cockup the Iraq war was for what we wanted to achieve in the region, and painful to read about local reformers who decide that maybe their stunted, repressive political systems aren’t so bad if the alternative is chaos and sectarian slaughter. Even people who should be inclined to be pro-American hold enormous cynicism about the US because of the gap between our words and deeds – talking about democracy while supporting dictators, most notably – and the fact that the secular West doesn’t understand how to approach societies where religion is woven through culture and life in a way that is just very different from our reality. Though he offers some constructive suggestions about how the US can do better, I finished the book feeling pessimistic - particularly as he writes (with amazing prescience it seems) that for the US, things will likely have to get worse before they get better - that greater openness and political freedom in the region would (now: will) bring Islamist groups to the forefront in a way that (at least he feels) is not ultimately harmful to US interests but which the US will find discomfiting and therefore try to resist, reinforcing negative popular sentiment about our intentions and principles in the Arab world.

[Sonya · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well written book that showcases the changing middle east via personal stories as a journalist.

[Linda · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this during the turmoil in the Mideast. It's been on my list to read for some time. The author is a highly respected journalist for The New York Times with extensive experience in the Mideast. The writing is crisp, very straightforward with a wry sense of humor as well as utter seriousness. This is a very well-written, extremely enlightening book, especially for those who do not have the time or patience to read the heavily political, dogmatic books about the Mideast. MacFarquhar spent considerable amounts of time with regular people - a street vendor for example, or a student, a journalist, a lawyer trying to represent those cruelly jailed for merely expressing their personal opinions of the regime...all just regular people. He truly respects these people, many of them were his friends and he empathizes with the daily struggles of their lives under very oppressive regimes. MacFarquhar also interviews Bashar Assad, the current ruler of Syria, and King Abdullah II of Jordan and is able to convey their twisted, unjustifiable rationale for the brutal powers of their secret police forces and oppressive rule. I feel the recent overthrow of Mubarak in Egypt and the uprisings underway in other countries in the region will have long-lasting economic and political ramifications for those of us in the Western world. Whether or not truly just, humane, democratic governments eventually fall into place remains to be seen. It is also even more sickening to learn how deeply intertwined our foreign policy has become with extremely oppressive, inhumane and immoral regimes in these countries. Our foreign policy has been, in the past, dictated by what is expedient and will serve to appease, however temporarily, the brutal tyrants we have dealt with (Mubarak and Gadaffi for example). This policy serves to keep oil prices low. We until now have been allowed to maintain bases in countries such as Bahrain, where the Shiite majority has been oppressed for years by a Sunni royal family. These bases are the launching pad for military flights to Afghanistan and until recently Iraq.

Chapter 4, "Satellite TV", describes the depressing state of women who are "marooned at home", hoping to have a few moments of inspiration watching Oprah on an illegal satellite hook-up. There is the call-in advice program from Kuwait called "The Biography of Love", with a female presenter dressed in provocative red leather but of course wearing her head scarf. Chapter 6, "Fatwa!" was also astounding.
One can apparently go "shopping" for a fatwa. A fatwa is not necessarily a death threat. A fatwa can relate to any trivial decision in daily life, such as whether a Muslim woman could ride a bicycle, or whether an unmarried man and woman, who work together, can share a taxi. You can go shopping, to get the approval from whatever religious sheik gives you the answer you desire. But then there is the ever present secret police (mukhabarat). An cartoonist who had in the past been summoned for an interview with the mukhabarat after he depicted them in a cartoon is quoted: "We can barely bring ourselves to express our opinions to our wives in our bedrooms..." (page 195). The book was published in 2009 and does not therefore refer to Obama's speech in Cairo. The book is certainly well worth reading for any of us following what is happening in the Mideast at this very moment and wondering how it will impact our own lives going forward.

[Gregory · Rating 5 out of 5]

First and foremost I want a ‘terrorist’ organization to wish me happy birthday every year. If nothing else, because it would be the most unique greeting I would receive on the day and would really up the levels to which others would have to strive. How they could presumably top that I don’t know, but I like to think that it may involve riding a polar bear.

For such a light hearted title and one that leaves anyone who passes the book by wondering what it’s about, it covers some quite serious material. Not in the dry, academic manner of a PhD thesis but in the informed, insightful manner of a person who has spent decades on the ground among the locals. Macfarquhar was the foreign correspondent for AP and then the New York Times in the Middle East and Northern Africa, and in his time there he has been to just about everywhere – and it shows.

For one, Macfarquhar is cognizant and explains the reasons behind what would become the Arab Spring. He doesn’t predict it out right, but says that the discontent, the need for work and the hypocritical policies of the Middle East regimes were leading to something. He comes about this not just by interviewing government officials but by taking the time to befriend local journalists and intellectuals as well as to talk to people on the street.

When he does speak to all of these people he imparts to them a humanity that few do. He also never undermines their opinions, as varied as they are, by stating how wrong that person is. Instead, he works to show how history and life in that particular place could lead one to hold such feelings – whether it be the need for an Islamic state, a regime change or even the need to talk about sex.

Throughout each chapter, and the book itself, Macfarquhar mixes in history, cultural elements and voices from across the region to provide a diverse yet disciplined view of the state of affairs in the Middle East. If anything, it makes me want to actually travel the region and spend a good amount of time there to meet the people and get my own feeling for the region rather than relying on media (which of course this is). All of those aspects make this book an ideal read before moving to or traveling through the region, to gain an overview of the situation, people and history which have so defined it for decades.

If anything, a follow up would be fantastic now that the Arab Spring has occurred, to see what those same people think of their situation now. To see how they feel things need to change or develop. To see if anything is actually different. But at the same time there’s a bit of satisfaction having read this book which could be classed as both current affairs but also history, having seen what’s happened, only to watch without Macfarquhar explaining further what’s happening now - it’s bittersweet but in its way it shows that someone like Macfarquhar isn’t needed to be there to document these changes, it’s something the locals will do.

*Note: Review copied from my blog at: http://worldwritsmall.wordpress.com

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a pretty good, interesting exploration of the author's years in the Middle East. MacFarquhar writes for the NY Times, of course, and some of his writing is predictable in that way (Bush bad, American foreign policy bad . . . ) but he still has a lot of real value to say. He grew up in Libya, actually, albeit in a foreign workers' compound with little contact with real Libyans, and this gives an interesting spin to his work in the Middle East. He has had a real knack for finding the truly interesting, dissident types and befriending them, and they've rewarded him with insight into the perennially complicated politics of the region. Many of the stories he has to tell were funny and heartwarming, and I'm glad he chose to tell those. One of his points is that we, as Westerners, tend to get so focused on all the violence of the area, bad as it is, that we miss everything else going on.
He ended the book with three policy prescriptives he wishes the US would take notice of, and they seem quite worth thinking about. The first is that he wishes the US would address the real concerns of the people of the Middle East, spending less time worrying about Saudi textbooks and more time focusing on real issues of education, employment, and basic human needs in the area. He wishes, for example, that we'd lead into a dialogue of why there are few Arab pioneering scientists, and find ways to offer help in addressing this, instead of worrying about religious content in textbooks. Good idea---weakness being, of course, that we in the US don't exactly have the whole education thing figured out here. :-) Second was that he wishes the US would be more vocal in supporting positive change, positive dissidence, positive political activism. Not propping up the dictators, but letting them know that we know who the people are in their countries who are agitating for basic human rights, and we are watching. (Weakness being, of course, that there are some dictators who really don't CARE if we are watching, and are perfectly happy suppressing and even killing their opponents right under our noses--ask the Iraqi Kurds how helpful our words and wishes are as opposed to our actions.)
He also wishes we'd focus more on building positive political and civil society in the area--more time on building human rights, educational, political institutions, and less focus on American-style elections. This is a good point, and one worth some serious consideration. The major weakness, again, being the many people around the region who admitted to MacFarquhar that any hint of American support of an idea is the kiss of death, no matter the independent merits.
Still, a fascinating book, thoughtful analysis, definitely worth the time to read.

[Laura Gurrin · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent book about the Middle East, written by a NYT reporter who has covered and lived in the region for much of his life. It's roughly divided in half, with the first few chapters touching on various issues in the region (the influence of satellite tv and the media; the idea of the fatwa and the decentralization of religion; the power of demagoguery), and the second half using specific countries as settings to discuss some of the issues the author sees as critical. This allows the author to cover a staggering group of topics and perspectives, none too deeply, but all circling around his common themes: the broad desire of people in the region for change, the general shortsightedness of American policy in this arena, and the array of barriers to change which exist across the region. MacFarquhar handles all this with a balanced hand, representing the voices of old and young, religious and secular, male and female, with equal respect if not equal support. Clearly, he loves the Middle East and is optimistic, if cautiously so, that change is possible, even if it appears nearly impossible in some countries,

It's particularly interesting to read this book in light of the various Arab uprisings of 2011, where some of the very issues he discusses have come to international prominence. An angry population has had enough, but with no leadership due to long-term repression of civil society, how will change become permanent? How will democracy be established when political parties have been banned for years, and as a result a truly dynamic civil conversation does not exist? What will prevent fallen repressors from being replaced by elected versions who have no intention of relinquishing power? This book provides a good backdrop for the changes currently sweeping the region, and MacFarquhar's love and repect for the region, coupled with his deft storytelling and sense of humor, make this a great read.

[Sophia · Rating 3 out of 5]

The seemingly whimsical title refers to actual emails that author Neil MacFarquhar received as a result of registering as a journalist with Hizbollah. Raised in an oil company town in Libya, MacFarquhar returned to the region first as a report for the Associated Press, then as New York Times Cairo bureau chief from 2001 through 2005. Also an Arabic speaker, he holds a unique vantage point on the Middle East.

The author's goal is to lift the veil of violence--of which much of his own reporting comprises--which opacifies the view that most Westerners have of the region. The book is oddly organized: a jumble of personal memoir, travelogue and reflection in the beginning chapters; middle chapters devoted to specific pan-region topics such as fatwas, satellite television, the meaning of jihad, and the role of intelligence services; and a final block regarding the obstacles to civil society in several countries. In the last section he gives voice to political dissidents. What I learned from his often repetitive writing is that the region is basically ruled by inefficiently-run police states, in which religious extremism is often the only permitted avenue for organizations to grasp political power. With that framework in hand, one can better analyze American policy in the region.

In summary: a valuable book for its perspective, but hard to read through.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Where to begin? Of course, the book is well-written, but more than that, it is written from the point of view of someone who genuinely appreciates the culture and history of the region (especially Syria). The author goes well beyond a surface look at the variety of cultures and governance to highlight the ways US policy has actually served to further entrench the many and various despots of the region. The US is not viewed by residents as a champion of the little guy, but as totally self-interested, with priorities that shift with the renewal of oil contracts. The author not only makes insightful observations based on his own experiences and on his interviews with academics, waiters, cabbies, lawyers, and members of governments---he goes beyond this to make realistic suggestions for western powers in their dealings with countries in the Middle East, e.g., use language that echoes, or at least relates to, the region's dominant culture. the word "democracy" seems (to some) too western, but an appeal to Koranic values like "justice" have a greater resonance.
This book is very much worth reading.

[Zachary · Rating 4 out of 5]

one of the clearest books about middle eastern culture. Very readable.

Good quotes:
"Evan in a demonstration about reform, the traditional pecking order held. First came the men, followed by a couple hundred women, mostly invisible beneath their black sacking. Behind them, a knot of Asian laborers in bright-yellow uniforms brought up the rear, collecting the empty water bottles and other trash dropped by the marchers. That scene captured the dilemma of the rich Gulf nations in a microcosm. The demonstrators were protesting unemployment, but not one would be willing to take the menial jobs filled by South Asians."

"Democracy can be reviled as a Western notion that has no heritage in the Islamic world, because it elevates man's laws over those of God. The quest for justice cannot be so easily dismissed; the Koran endorses the concept. So stressing human rights and civil society as an argument for spreading justice is one that echoes Islamic teachings. The United States could do better at listening to other cultures for signals on how to interact with them."