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Last Updated: May 13, 2013 URL: http://guides.library.duke.edu/mideast Print Guide RSS UpdatesShareThis

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New & Noteworthy

Orhan Pamuk, Secularism, and Blasphemy: The Politics of the Turkish Novel.

Erdağ Göknar
Check Availability at Duke: E-book
Hardcopy

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Noteworthy Site

Explore the lives of men and women in the Muslim world – from the sixteenth century to now – through their autobiographical writings. Writings are by Muslims and non-Muslims living in various social, cultural and political contexts. The authors range from scholars, saints and socio-religious reformers to princes, bureaucrats, nationalists, educators, writers and actors. Browse by category, region, time or name.

 

Open Acces Resources

AMIR

is a blog which gathers and distributes information on materials relating to the Middle East housed in open access repositories (OAR) around the world.

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Noteworthy: Arab Spring

Ever since a man in Tunisia burned himself to death in December 2010 in protest at his treatment by police, pro-democracy rebellions have erupted across the Middle East. This timeline tracks the events up to early July, 2011.

 

New Report

Freedom House

Freedom on the Net 2012


Press Freedom in 2011: Breakthroughs and Pushback in the Middle East
(released April 2012)

The Middle East and North Africa saw dramatic if precarious gains in press freedom in 2011, and for the first time in eight years, global media freedom did not experience an overall decline, according to a Freedom House report released today. However, due to downgrades in some previously free countries, the percentage of the world’s population living in societies with a fully free press has fallen to its lowest level in over a decade.

Geographical differences in living standards are a pressing concern for policymakers in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Economies of agglomeration mean that production is most efficient when concentrated in leading areas. So how can the region reduce spatial disparities in well-being without compromising growth? The solution to spatial disparities lies in matching the policy package to a lagging area’s specific characteristics. Key questions include: is the lagging area problem really as serious as one thinks; is it a problem of low economic opportunity or of poor human development; are lagging area populations close enough to agglomerations to benefit from spillovers; and is there manifest private investor interest?

A decade following September 11, 2001, Muslim Americans still face some public distrust and are more skeptical of law enforcement than are other U.S. faith communities. Despite these challenges, American followers of Islam are optimistic about their future, and they embrace their country's civic institutions and religious pluralism.

Muslim and Western publics continue to see relations between them as generally bad, with both sides holding negative stereotypes of the other. Many in the West see Muslims as fanatical and violent, while few say Muslims are tolerant or respectful of women. Meanwhile, Muslims in the Middle East and Asia generally see Westerners as selfish, immoral and greedy – as well as violent and fanatical.

 

New: ONI Report

New Report:
Pro-Government Hackers


OpenNet Initiative (ONI)
Middle East & North Africa

OpenNet Initiative’s mission is to identify and document Internet filtering and surveillance, and to promote and inform wider public dialogs about such practices.Their latest report examines these practices in Middle Eastern and North African contexts. Click on the link below to see the report.

 

The OpenNet Initiative (ONI) is a collaborative partnership of four leading academic institutions: the Citizen Lab at the Munk Centre for International Studies, University of Toronto; Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University; the Advanced Network Research Group at the Cambridge Security Programme, University of Cambridge; and the Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University.

 

Noteworthy Sites

Arab Knowledge Report 2011

Digital Islam

Reserch on Middle East, Islam and digital media.

Euro-Islam.info

Euro-Islam.info is an active network of researchers and scholars who conduct comparative research on Islam and Muslims in the West and disseminate key information to politicians, media, and the public. Sponsored by GSRL Paris/CNRS France and Harvard University, the Euro-Islam research network consists of over forty researchers and hosts over 50,000 unique visitors each month. The site is recognized in political and media circles as the most reliable online reference for Islam in Europe.

EURISLAM: a bibliographical database on Islam in Europe

EURISLAM is an open access database available to all but designed especially for academics, public organisations and officials. It indexes publications concerning two major aspects of Islam in geographical Europe: the current state of Muslim populations in European societies (minority groups, immigration issues, leadership, institutions, public policies, trends, etc.) and Islam as religion (beliefs, practices, values, movements and schools of thought, etc.). The database contains reviews of press articles, books, contributions to collective publications, studies and reports, theses and grey literature. Currently, more than 4,300 references are consultable free of charge in French or English

 

New & Noteworthy

book cover "The Long Diversion"

The Long Divergence: How Islamic Law Held Back the Middle East

Timur Kuran
Check Availability at Duke: Hardcopy
E-book

Table of Contents
Excerpt from Chapter 1

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New Report

U.S.-Muslim Engagement Project in affiliation with the Search for Common Ground (SFCG) organization released a report entitled: "Changing Course: A New Direction for U.S. Relations with the Muslim World."

The report "represents the consensus of an exceptionally diverse, senior, bipartisan and inter-faith group of 34 American leaders who have worked together over the last 18 months. Their work was supported by Search for Common Ground and CBI, two organizations that specialize in building consensus on controversial public issues."

 

Conference

Watch Videos of the Presentations


Click on image for conference info.

 

Key Online Databases

Streaming Films
AsiaPacific Films
This database contains films from Bangladesh, India, Iran, Iraq, and Lebanon as well as several Central Asian countries. Films are readily available online for Duke-affiliated patrons.
For more streaming film resources, see here.

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Note: For help with off-Campus access to databases, please see here.

Subject Librarian

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Christof Galli
Contact Info
Email christof.galli@duke.edu
227 Bostock Library

Phone: (919) 660-5850
Fax: (919) 668-3134
Subjects:
Middle East, Islamic Studies, International Documents, IGO, NGO
 

League of Arab States

League of Arab States logo

League of  Arab States
جامعة الدول العربية

The Arab League or League of the Arab States is a regional intergovernmental organization of Arab States in the Middle East and North Africa formed in Cairo on March 22, 1945. Seven states formed the League, defining its main goals as to: "draw closer the relations between member States and co-ordinate collaboration between them, to safeguard their independence and sovereignty, and to consider in a general way the affairs and interests of the Arab countries."

To find materials in Duke's Libraries about the Arab League, click here.

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