As part of its series on youth and Islam in the Arab world - Generation Faithful , the New York Times yesterday published a story on how Jordanian university students are embracing conservative Islam and becoming politically active with the Islamic movement.
Taking the University of Jordan as a microcosm for the general political climax in the country (which I think it is), the article looks at students who become politically active with the Islamic movement on campus, and the most recent student council elections.
A Mexican friend of mine sent me a comment on the article asking “do you think it’s accurate?”
I studied at UJ for four and a half years, and I was involved in or close to student council elections in one way or another during that time. Yes, the Islamic movement on campus is very organized and knows how to recruit students. Yes, increasing numbers of students either become active with the movement or at least feel sympathetic and supportive towards it. It was more obvious in certain departments than others - and the engineering school was one of those places where you see the growth of the movement. You sense this solidarity and brotherhood between members. It was almost like fraternities and sororities. They put up fliers warning girls who are uncovered of their terrible destiny. They put up posters in support of Iraq and Palestine. They also set up websites that help students in different ways, they distributed past exam papers, lecture notes, and other forms of student services.
In terms of ideologies, I couldn’t disagree more with the Islamic movement, but it was hard not to respect their level of organization and commitment. And in terms of student politics, the alternative was definitely not pretty. Thanks to stifling of active politics on campus, and rules like appointing half the student council members (which was finally changed this year), tribalism grew stronger, and for years, students were (and still are) voting based on where the candidate was originally from and what their religion was (which mirrors the way it is in our country’s parliament, obviously). But it's not either/or. You have a large number of students who are somewhat secular and who dislike both trends, but instead of doing something about it they just stay away from politics and organized student activity all together. OR, they channel their energy and creativity into non-political activities like general community service, entrepreneurship, and things like skill-building extra-curricular courses; things they feel would look good on their resume and improve their career prospects.
I was a bit disappointed with the New York Times article though. As a reader, and someone who is now away from Jordan and missing out on my once-insider perspectives, the article left me with unanswered questions that I thought were important. We knew the Islamic candidate that the story focused on lost, but how did the Islamists do in general in the first elections since the law changed? How many seats in total did they win? How many candidates did they have?
The article said that even though all the council members are now elected as opposed to the university administration appointing half, there are still rules in place that would, again, make it nearly impossible for the Islamist bloc to have control. I’m very curious what those rules in question are. In some ways, the article had more general interpretations than specifics.
I’m probably repeating the same thoughts I wrote three years ago on this blog, so I might as well just leave you with those if you’re interested:
Tell me where you’re from, I’ll tell you who to vote for
Election-mania!
Reflections on University Protests
On a tangential note, I think the Times has been doing a very good job with the Generation Faithful series. I found their article from Abu Dhabi a few days ago about Arab women who move to the gulf and become air stewardesses particularly interesting.
Taking the University of Jordan as a microcosm for the general political climax in the country (which I think it is), the article looks at students who become politically active with the Islamic movement on campus, and the most recent student council elections.
A Mexican friend of mine sent me a comment on the article asking “do you think it’s accurate?”
I studied at UJ for four and a half years, and I was involved in or close to student council elections in one way or another during that time. Yes, the Islamic movement on campus is very organized and knows how to recruit students. Yes, increasing numbers of students either become active with the movement or at least feel sympathetic and supportive towards it. It was more obvious in certain departments than others - and the engineering school was one of those places where you see the growth of the movement. You sense this solidarity and brotherhood between members. It was almost like fraternities and sororities. They put up fliers warning girls who are uncovered of their terrible destiny. They put up posters in support of Iraq and Palestine. They also set up websites that help students in different ways, they distributed past exam papers, lecture notes, and other forms of student services.
In terms of ideologies, I couldn’t disagree more with the Islamic movement, but it was hard not to respect their level of organization and commitment. And in terms of student politics, the alternative was definitely not pretty. Thanks to stifling of active politics on campus, and rules like appointing half the student council members (which was finally changed this year), tribalism grew stronger, and for years, students were (and still are) voting based on where the candidate was originally from and what their religion was (which mirrors the way it is in our country’s parliament, obviously). But it's not either/or. You have a large number of students who are somewhat secular and who dislike both trends, but instead of doing something about it they just stay away from politics and organized student activity all together. OR, they channel their energy and creativity into non-political activities like general community service, entrepreneurship, and things like skill-building extra-curricular courses; things they feel would look good on their resume and improve their career prospects.
I was a bit disappointed with the New York Times article though. As a reader, and someone who is now away from Jordan and missing out on my once-insider perspectives, the article left me with unanswered questions that I thought were important. We knew the Islamic candidate that the story focused on lost, but how did the Islamists do in general in the first elections since the law changed? How many seats in total did they win? How many candidates did they have?
The article said that even though all the council members are now elected as opposed to the university administration appointing half, there are still rules in place that would, again, make it nearly impossible for the Islamist bloc to have control. I’m very curious what those rules in question are. In some ways, the article had more general interpretations than specifics.
I’m probably repeating the same thoughts I wrote three years ago on this blog, so I might as well just leave you with those if you’re interested:
Tell me where you’re from, I’ll tell you who to vote for
Election-mania!
Reflections on University Protests
On a tangential note, I think the Times has been doing a very good job with the Generation Faithful series. I found their article from Abu Dhabi a few days ago about Arab women who move to the gulf and become air stewardesses particularly interesting.
7 comments:
"they channel their energy and creativity into non-political activities like general community service, entrepreneurship, and things like skill-building extra-curricular courses; things they feel would look good on their resume and improve their career prospects."
Which basically falls under the "boys trying to meet girls" and vise versa category, I am sure that is the only energy source they will ever have. And until some political activity is going to grant them that, without all the other problems of course, they will continue to have no interest.
An interesting article and an equally interesting perpective to it. I am not familiar with Jordan except through the media.
Whether it be religious movement or political or social or economic, the bottomline should always be moderation and accommodation. Its absence is bound to trigger friction, animosity and rancour.
But the tragedy of this day is that a section humankind seem to revel in everything that was (or still is) shunned by a great majority. Like in math, if I may draw an analogy, when the minus value seems to be climbing over the plus value. Probably we will have to wait for this cycle to reverse.
In my first year at the U of Jordan in 1997, 71 out of 80 elected students to the council were from the Islamic movement. They were not elected because they're in the Islamic movement, they were elected because they were competent, organized, and because they cared about the students' needs. They sold used books and cheap pens and pencils which students very badly need. The opposing movement (Watan) which claimed to be more loyal to Jordan did nothing.
How depressing. Every time I think there might be some hope for Jordan, I am proven wrong.
Mohammed Raei man, in their excuse, not all people in jordan lived in the US for four years.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
I don't know exact numbers, but from what was reported: Islamists had the biggest share among groups, compared to National Democratic Front. No real representations of leftists as the NDF represents the conservatives. The elections didn't open room yet to group nominations which may give close representations of powers. Just like the Parliament.
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