Thursday, January 31, 2013

Chanting in Jordan

"A follower of the blog that lives in Jordan. I decided to send you this because you frequently show your love with arab hatafat on your blog. This was a leftist rally in Jordan a few days ago in solidarity with George. At the 21 minute mark theres some chants you should find amusing dedicated to your favorite khaleeji royal family. Also at the 18 minute 20 second mark I thought what happened was very revealing. Before the Syrian uprising, across the region especially in Egypt/Jordan at palestinian solidarity demonstrations the chant "ya Arab Allah Allah" would be completed by "at3lamoo min Hezb***** ." (learn from ***). In this case, the person leading the chant replaces the second part of the slogan with "wmnheye Georg Abd*ullah" (and salutations to George) which causes the laughter of his friends who know how closely associated the chant is with the original version. In the repeat of the chant the friends of the protest leader reverse the words back and say its original version. I just found it funny that clearly there were deliberations amongst these guys (one of whom who I know personally) in advance of the protest, about if its appropriate to praise the Lebanese group in front of a crowd of Palestinian leftists. Before, despite the saudi media campaign against the group which had little effect ouside the khaleej, people across the region would say the chant readily and the group enjoyed real sha3biya especially in Jordan/Egypt. It just exposed to me the extent of their screw up in sticking with Bashar for so long (notwithstanding the large debt they perceived they owe him). In Jordan alot of the arab nationalist/ leftist circles (who mostly adopt a Haytham Manna style solution to the Syrian conflict) just assumed that since he publicly praised all 5 previous uprisings he couldn't take such a hypocritical one sided position at the start of the uprising (when it was still overwhelmingly peaceful and non-sectarian). He postion badly tarnished his image. The clip just made me realize that if uttering the groups name has become controversial even amongst its supporters, it speaks alot to their popularity in the region now. In Egypt, too, I noticed during the protests for Gaza 2 months back the specific chants that would invoke the groups name have been altered (feel free to confirm that with your comrade Hossam). The relationship of the group with whatever emerges in post Assad Syria will probobly play a big role in determining the Arab masses attitude toward them in the future

Just start watching at the 18 minute mark.. hope you enjoy


If you decide to post, cite as reader from Jordan"