Analyzing the Darfurian Conflict

Written by: Sobhan Rezaee

Abstract:
In the largest country of African continent, Sudan, a civil war was fired on February 2003. This article decides to analyze this conflict and study several aspects of it: Government role, Janjaweed, SLM/P, JEM, International and foreign positions and Peace Process. Our survey shows that there is no way for religious context to cause such a disaster, Janjaweed is not a unified and integrated group and include different parts. SLM/A that backed from Eritrea is the largest rebel Darfurian group, which composed of Zaghawa, Fur, Masaalit and some members of other tribes. Another important rebel Darfurian group is Justice and Equality Movement, which emerged in 2001 under the leadership of the former state minister, Dr. Khalil Ibrahim that it appears to have received support from Chad and at last International positions have an influential role in the Darfurian conflict.

Keywords: Sudan, Darfur, International Positions

Outline the Country Features:

Sudan, the largest country of the Africa, set at the north east of the continent. Its area cover 2,505,810 sq km that define geographical neighbors such as Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Libya, Uganda, Libya and Saudi Arabia. Additionally, the population of this country is about 39,379,358, which included 41.6% men and 56% women who have a median age at 18.7 year old. Meanwhile, the ethnic groups of it are constructed from 52% black, 39% Arab, 6% Beja, 2% foreigners and 1% other who believe to three kind of religions: 70% Sunni Muslim (in north), 5% Christian (mostly in south and Khartoum), and 25% indigenous beliefs. On the other hand, this country is one of the most fertile land of the Africa, where concludes natural resources such as petroleum, iron ore, copper, chromium ore, zinc, tungsten, mica, silver, gold, hydropower. In addition the Nile River and its tributaries are crossing the country and preparing fertile soil for the agriculture. (Fact Book, 15 November, 2007)

Contemporary History and Politics of Sudan:

Sudan, the land of the Nile, has aged for 9 million years. However the modern Sudanese history is full of social tensions, such as civil wars, insurgence, genocide, coups… In 1820, Sudan is conquered by Turkey and Egypt. About 60 years later, Sudanese rebellions stand against the Turks and Egyptian, but on the next year, Britain invaded to the Sudan (1882) and set its dominance on this African country… On January of 1956, Sudan received to the Independence state. After this date, independent Sudan has seen three civilian parliamentary regimes (1956-1958; 1965-69; 1986-89) and three military ones (1958-64; 1969-85; 1989-Present). Each civilian regime was preceded by a transitional period (1953-56; 1964-65; 1985-86) designed for dissolution of the previous regime and the setting up of the conditions for a new one, and during which, mostly fair, general elections were formally conducted. (Sidahmed, 2005, 29)
Omar Hassan 'Ahmed El Bashir in 1989 lead a coup, and embarked a government which still remained until now. In this nineteen years (1989-2008), Sudan has experienced many political and cultural events, such as empowering the Islamic fundamentalism, the approval of new constitution in Sudan (1998), dissolving the national assembly and declaring the state of emergency for Sudan (1999), starting the oil export to China, Canada, Sweden (1999), Hunger and famine in Sudan that affected 3 million people (March 2001), Nile river flood and destruction of the thousands homes of Sudanese people (August 2001), UN sanction on Sudan government to support peace process on internal conflicts (September 2001), New sanctions of USA after 9/11 (October 2001), More than 14,550 slaves are freed under the pressures from human rights groups (2001), ceasefire between government and SPLM (2002), Government attacks SPLA again (July 2002), insurgence of two Darfurian rebel groups, SLM/A and JEM (Feb, 2003)… (BBC Timeline of Sudan; Sidahmed, 2005, xi-xxvii)


Civil War in Darfur and its Aftermaths:

Darfur is the land of six million people, who believe to Islam (Sunni). However, they are classified in two groups. One of them is “black” African people that construct their life on primarily practice sedentary agriculture and the other is Arab people who live with herding animal. Also, there is no restricted line between these two life styles. (Straus, 2005, 126)

In the February 2003, two rebel movement stand from this area and begun a new bloody war. They are come from Darfurian blacks and call themselves as Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Also, during 2004, some other small groups are emerged such as National Movement for Reconstruction/Reform and Development (NMRD), Korbaj, Al-Shahamah, the Sudanese National Movement for the Eradication of Marginalisation, but the most influential groups have been SLA/M and JEM, yet.

In contrast, the Sudanese government use from a proxy strategy to confront them. So, with the help of the state, “Janjaweed” is structured from Arabian people of Darfur. They have wiped out entire villages, destroyed food and water supplies, and systematically murdered, tortured, and raped hundreds of thousands of Darfurians. (Save Darfure, Sept2007, 1-2)

After beginning the conflict, Janjaweed people use from governmental arms and supports to destroy the rebels. According to US officials, 574 villages had been destroyed and another 157 damaged since mid-2003. (Straus, 2005, 127) In all, about 2.3 million Darfurians have fled their homes and communities and now reside in a network of internally displaced persons (IDP) camps in Darfur, with over 200,000 more living in refugee camps in Chad. (Save Darfure, Sept2007, 2) Additionally, Estimates of the number of people killed increased progressively from 3000 in January 6 to 10,000 in April, 7 reaching 30,000 to 50,000 in July, 2004 (Depoortere, 2004, 1) and in May 2006, was estimated that 350,000 people were killed. (Johnston, 2007, 363)… In the following part, we want to focus on the origins, features and goals of every side of the conflict:

Involved Parts:

· Government Role:
After the Independence Date (1956), the governments of Sudanese land never receive to the Weberian concept of State. According to him, a legitimate government can confine the arm power in its hands (Weber, 1922/1980). But until now, Sudan has experienced three internal wars and several coups which happened in about half century. So, these indicated that diverse arm forces have lived in this country and there is no army preemption for Sudanese state. Therefore, the current government confirmed its week position and took a proxy strategy to use from the potential internal disputes of Darfur for controlling the rebels. So, the Janjaweed has been created.

· Janjaweed:

Janjaweed is an especial name, which belong to a combination of Arabian groups that are confronted by the governmental supports to the rebellion movements. Traditionally, this name has been used in the past to describe bandits who prey on rural populations through, among other things, the stealing of cattle and highway robbery. Some authors assumed that the word of “Janjaweed” means “a devil on the horse” (e.g., Straus, 2005, 126-127; Belloni, 2006, 328; Totten, 2005 Markusen, ,280)
But in Arabic context, it is synthesis of words (جانجويد), which stands for three parts: Jan (جن) that means man; Jav (جو), in the place of rapid horsemanship; Vid (ويد) which refer to the Javad (horse), and generally means "a horseman who rides his horse, rapidly. In addition, Janjaweed is not equal to the Darfurian Arabs, because many of them are against it and also, some blacks are proponents for the Janjaweed.
Before 2003, Janjaweed as an intermediary suppression force was used in 1980’s. In the middle of that decade, Sudanese government began to arm Arab militias in order to prevent African Darfurians from joining the Southern Sudanese rebellion groups against the government. However, in 1983, the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement/Army (SPLM/A) began its armed struggle against the government of Sudan. These kinds of conflict between the Darfurians and government were happening during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Therefore, this conflict background started the fire, before 2003. (Dagne, 2007, 9) The International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur characterized this movement in three origin: one of them are the militias, which are loosely related to the Government and have received weapons and other supplies from the State. These groups, which work based on their tribal management structure, fight for governmental and personal goals. Meanwhile, we can indicate some groups for this kind, such as Irayqat and Ouled Zed subclans of the Rizeigat, Mahariya and Beni Hussein tribes and Chadian kinsmen, especially those from the Ouled Rashid, Ouled Zed and Salamat tribes. (Vehnämäki, 2006, 65) on the other hand, another part of Janjaweed is included by militias that are organized in paramilitary structures such as “the Strike Force”, the Mujahedeen or the Fursan. These groups may be headed by regular army officers, while also controlled by senior tribal leaders. And third category of militia contained members of the Popular DefenseForce (PDF) and Border Intelligence, which have a legislative basis under Sudanese law for their missions. (Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur (ICI), 25 Jan 2005, 32-34) In Contrast, as 1980’s the goal tribes, which are confronted by Janjaweed were Fur, Massaliet, and Zagawa in Darfur area.

In the summer of 2007, outbreaks of violence between some of the Arab tribes (for land and facilities) that worked together as part of the Janjaweed began to occur more frequently. This latest mutation is indicative of the ever-changing dynamic of this crisis. The United Nations recently reported that tribal and factional fighting is now killing more people than the clashes between the government or government-backed militias and rebel forces. (Save Darfure, Sept2007, 2)

· Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A):

SLM/A that backed from Eritrea is the largest rebel Darfurian group, which composed of Zaghawa, Fur, Masaalit and some members of other tribes. The goals of this group are developing a democratic Sudan and promoting distinctions between religion and state. The SLM/A claims that all post-independence Governments of the Sudan have pursued policies of marginalization, racial discrimination, exclusion, exploitation and divisiveness, which in Darfur have disrupted the peaceful coexistence between the region’s African and Arab communities. (Ibid, 38; SLM/A and JEM, Global Security.org) In March 13, 2003, Minni Arkou Minnawi the secretary general of SLM/A released a policy declaration and defined their own way: “Darfur had been an independent state from the sixteenth century to the second decade of the twentieth…If Sudan is seen as the microcosm of Africa, Darfur is the microcosm of Sudan…. However, successive post-independence regimes in Khartoum, both civilian and military, have introduced and systematically adhered to the policies of marginalization, racial discrimination, exclusion, exploitation and divisiveness… The present Khartoum junta has even created a Bantustan-type department of tribal affairs whose mission is to oversee the implementation of Khartoum’s divide and rule schemes and channel government assistance to its local allies. These policies have resulted in massive human rights violations amounting to ethnic cleansing and genocide in certain areas of all the three states of Darfur… The brutal oppression, ethnic cleansing and genocide sponsored by the Khartoum Government left the people of Darfur with no other option but to resort to popular political and military resistance for purposes of survival. This popular resistance has now coalesced into a political movement known as the Sudan Liberation Movement and its military wing, the Sudan Liberation Army.” (SLM/A, March 2003) On the following part of this declaration, Minnawi indicate to the importance of Sudanese unity, but conditioned it on “justice and equality for all the Sudanese peoples…and on full acknowledgement of Sudan’s ethnic, cultural, social and political diversity.”

Additionally, four years later, at 3 January 2007 Abdelwahid al-Nur, the leader of the rebel Sudan Liberation Movement, explained that a secular state is the only way to realize unity and equality in Sudan. According to him, “Sudan is composed of people of various religious, racial, cultural ethnic and geographical backgrounds…. To obtain equal citizenship rights to all our citizens, we strive to provide a flexible democratic structure whereby all Sudanese people can be equally included and actively represented. We consider that the state should take a secular approach, neither supporting nor denying any race, culture or religion. It is up to the citizens to follow whatever faith and values they choose and practice what rituals they please.” (SLM/A, Jan 2007)
The group has since split between Mr Minnawi, a Zagawa former English teacher, who controls the largest number of fighters on the ground and those loyal to Abdelwahid Muhamed El Nur, an ethnic Fur. (Martin Plaut, 5 May 2006)

· Justice and Equality Movement (JEM)

Another important rebel Darfurian group is Justice and Equality Movement, which emerged in 2001 under the leadership of the former state minister, Dr. Khalil Ibrahim that it appears to have received support from Chad. The most members of this group come from Zaghawa and pay attention on political activity and have a limited military. Additionally, its members wear yellow turbans that differenced them from other rebels. On 23 May 2004, this movement divided in two parts: JEM, which has managed by Dr. Ibrahim and NMRD that led by Colonel Gibril. On the Other hand, this movement is supported by an Islamic fundamentalist leader who was the former speaker of Sudanese parliament and the chairman of National Congress Party (NCS) and National Islamic Front (NIF) and Arab Popular and Islamic Conference Dr.Hassan Al-Turabi. (ICI, Jan 2005,39; SLM/A and JEM, Global Security.org)

Turabi is a great power who backed all the government in these three decades. Although presidents such as Numiry and al-Bashir want to control his dominance, he can continue his way, beyond them. After the Coup of General Omar Bashir in 1989, Turabi converted to the main ideologue of the state… In this way, he can gain the speaker position of the Sudanese parliament and increase his power. On the other hand, during this time, Turabi attracted Bin Laden to the Sudan and gave him and Al-Qaeda suitable facilities. (Taylor, Elbushra, 2006, 451-2) As the chairman of Arab Popular and Islamic Conference, he went out of his way to offer African Muslims from peripheral regions of Sudan, like Darfur, a means of obtaining a share of power. In 1999, when he want to pass a bill into the national assembly reducing the powers of the presidency, Mr Bashir reacted by dissolving the assembly and declaring a state of emergency and purged Turabi's supporters from the machinery of government. (Martin Plaut, 5 May 2006) Therefore, Dr. Khalil Ibralim, who sided with Turabi in Popular National Congress structured JEM and realease its ideological book in the name of Black Book. Still, the relation between JEM and Turabi has remained, which is why it is accused by the government of being involved in an alleged coup plot in Khartoum, which it accuses Mr. al-Turabi of masterminding. (Martin Plaut, 5 May 2006) We will regard Turabi’s activities and thoughts on the next part of the paper.


· Other Rebel Groups:
Beyond these two large groups, there are some rebel movements in Darfur. As we pointed above, National Movement for Reconstruction/Reform and Development (NMRD) is splinter group from JEM, which has lead by Colonel Gibril. The majority of its members are come from Kobera and Wagi subs-tribe of Zaghawa that are prominent in SLM/A. This Group is active around the Cahdian border town of Tine and in the Jabel Moun area in West Darfur state. Additionally, In Darfur area, a new group that called “Korbaj” (Whip), which composed from Arabic tribes was emerged. (ICI, 25 Jan 2005, 40) Another rebel group has the title of Al-Shahamah (Bravery) for its name. It was constructed at the September of 2004 and located in Western Kordofan state, which borders Darfur in the East. The group seeks fair development opportunities for the region. The leader of the group is one of the former alliances of Hassan Turabi, Musi Ali Hamdin. (Sudan Country Report, 2005, 130-131) The fourth group that is a branch of SLM/A has called “Sudanese National Movement for the Eradication of Marginalisation”, which formed in December of 2004. The first attack of this movement happened in December 2004 against the Sharif oil pumping station, killing 15. (Steve Gordon, 2004)

The Positions of Other Country and International Organizations:

· United States
Eleven Months after beginning the Darfur war, in January of 2004, American Senator Brownback of Kansas and Congressman Frank Wolf of Virginia went to the Darfur. They reported, “There are reports that more than 30,000 have died since war broke out in February 2003. The crisis also has created nearly 1 million refugees, many of whom have fled over the border to Chad” and called it “systematic destruction of a people or race.” (Brownback, Wolf, Jan 2004) Then, US Congress passed a resolution and declared that “crisis in Darfur to be genocide, based on the five criteria for genocide enumerated in Article 2 of the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. (US House Congressional Resolution 467, September 7, 2004) On September 9, 2004, Secretary of State Colin Powell, in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, declared the atrocities in Darfur genocide: “a consistent and widespread pattern of atrocities: Killings, rapes, burning of villages committed by Janjaweed and government forces against non-Arab villagers; three-fourths of those interviewed reported that the Sudanese military forces were involved in the attacks; third, villagers often experienced multiple attacks over a prolonged period before they were destroyed by burning, shelling or bombing, making it impossible for the villagers to return to their villages. This was a coordinated effort, not just random violence… I concluded, that genocide has been committed in Darfur and that the Government of Sudan and the Janjaweed bear responsibility -- and that genocide may still be occurring.” (Powell, September 9, 2004)
On the other hand, there were some independent Americans that pursue the Darfurian problems. A lot of newspapers such as New York Times, Philadelphia Inquirer and Boston Globe beside some influential players such as Jewish Americans, African American, liberal, and religious conservative constituencies and also Holocaust Museum in Washington insist on salvation the Sudanese conflict.

· European Union
The European Parliament has not involved very much in Darfurian crisis. Therefore, Christian W.D. Bock and Leland R. Miller in their article in the Washington Post newspaper, ironically say that, “On that day the European Parliament declared that the actions of the Sudanese government in Darfur were "tantamount to genocide," and E.U. ministers threatened sanctions "if no tangible progress is achieved" in meeting U.N. demands to halt the killings. Yet nearly three months later, two things remain clear: First, Khartoum has done nothing constructive to end the slaughter and, second, neither has the European Union!” (Bock, Miller, 9 December 2004) However, European Union in May 2006 passed a resolution by a vote of 566 to 6 with 16 abstentions did urge Sudanese authorities to “end impunity and bring to justice the planners and perpetrators of crimes against humanity, war crimes and human rights” which can be “construed as tantamount to genocide.”…


· China
Although the US sanctions and the pressures of human rights organizations cause to withdrawn most of Western oil companies from Sudan, Chinese companies have accepted this risky way. Many western media claim that the oil Sudanese revenues were spent in buying Janjaweed arms, so the Chinese choice is a kind of bloody cooperation in Sudanese genocide. (Cohen, 29 Feb 2008; China & Darfur, Herald Tribune, 4 Aug 2006; Leonard Downie, 14 Dec 2006) However, Since 1999 China has invested at least $15 billion in Sudan. And nowadays eight percent of China's oil now comes from southern Sudan. In 2006, this country was China's fourth-largest foreign oil source. On the other hand, China takes 65-80% of Sudan's 500,000 barrels/day production. (Engdahl, 25may 2007)

· African Union
After the experience of the genocide of Rwanda in Africa continent, the Sudanese conflict was seen with more worry. Additionally, the consideration of United Nation and the bad reports of Sudanese situation cause to forming “The African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), which seek to the peace process for Darfurian civil war. Until now, AMIS has 6171 soldiers and 1586 unarmed civil polices in Sudan. (Chin & Morgenstein, Nov 2005, 7-8) Beside, African union have organized six peace course of Sudan, which are included sixth Round of the Inter-Sudanese Peace Talks on the Darfur organized under the auspices of the African Union (AU) formally opened, today, Thursday 15 September 2005, in Abuja, Nigeria, The Fifth Round… on 12th June 2005, in a plenary under the chairmanship of Dr Salim Ahmed Salim, Special Envoy of the AU, The Fourth Round … between the Government of Sudan (GOS), the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) and the Sudan Liberation Movement/Army (SLM/A), organized under the auspices of the African Union (AU) on 11 December 2004… (AU, 2005, Report of the Situation in the Darfur Region of Sudan)

· United Nations and Security Council

UN Security Council is one of the main international actors for the peace process of Sudanese civil war. Until now, it has passed 22 resolution, which are concerned Darfur problem: Resolution 1784 (2007) of 31 October 2007; Resolution 1779 (2007) of 28 September 2007; Resolution 1769 (2007) of 31 July 2007; Resolution 1714 (2006) of 6 October 2006; Resolution 1713 (2006) of 29 September 2006; Resolution 1709 (2006) of 22 September 2006; 1701 (2006) of 31 August 2006 1679 (2006) of 16 May 2006; 1665 (2006) of 29 March 2006; 1663 (2006) of 24 March 2006; 1593 (2005) of 31 March 2005; 1591 (2005) of 29 March 2005; 1590 (2005) of 24 March 2005; 1574 (2004) of 19 November 2004; 1564 (2004) of 18 September 2004 and 1556 (2004) of 30 July 2004…

These resolutions have paid their attention on issues such as consideration the Government of Sudan as a threat to international peace and security, mandate of UNMIS (United Nations Mission in Sudan) and their troops and facilities, peace support operations, human rights monitoring, mandate of the Panel of Experts…

Sudanese Peace Process

Until now, five peace courses have held for Sudanese civil war, since 2003: In April 2004, Representatives of the rebel groups and the government sign a ceasefire and protocol on the establishment of humanitarian assistance in N’djamena. In August 2004, AU sponsored peace talks begin in Abuja, Nigeria, between the government of Sudan and the rebel movements, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). In November 2004, the parties at the Abuja talks agree on two new protocols: the Improvement of the Security Situation in Darfur and the Improvement of the Humanitarian Situation in Darfur. In 9 January 2005, The Comprehensive Peace Agreement between the government of Sudan and the Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Army (SPLA) is signed to end the North-South conflict which had plagued Sudan since its independence. 5 May 2006, the government of Sudan and one faction of the Sudan Liberation Army, lead by Minni Minawi, sign the Darfur Peace Agreement (DPA) in Abuja, Nigeria. However, Darfur area has tortured from bloody interactions, yet. (Darfur Consortium, 2003- 2007)

Conclusions:

All the people of Darfur are Muslims. So, there is no way for religious context to cause such a disaster. The rebel movement, Liberation Army/Movement (SLA/M) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), come from Darfurian blacks. In contrast, the Sudanese government use from a proxy strategy to confront them. So, with the help of the state, “Janjaweed” is structured from Arabian people of Darfur.


Janjaweed is an especial name, which belong to a combination of Arabian groups that are confronted by the governmental supports to the Darfurian rebellion movements. Janjaweed is not a unified and integrated group and include different parts. Even, in the summer of 2007, outbreaks of violence between some of the Arab tribes (for land and facilities) that worked together as part of the Janjaweed began to occur more frequently.


SLM/A that backed from Eritrea is the largest rebel Darfurian group, which composed of Zaghawa, Fur, Masaalit and some members of other tribes. The goals of this group are developing a democratic Sudan and promoting distinctions between religion and state.


Another important rebel Darfurian group is Justice and Equality Movement, which emerged in 2001 under the leadership of the former state minister, Dr. Khalil Ibrahim that it appears to have received support from Chad. The most members of this group come from Zaghawa and pay attention on political activity and have a limited military. Additionally, its members wear yellow turbans that differenced them from other rebels.


US and UE are against the Sudanese state and under the pressure of Congressmen, senators, NGOs and Media, have tried to solve the Darfurian problem.


Although the US sanctions and the pressures of human rights organizations cause to withdrawn most of Western oil companies from Sudan, Chinese companies have accepted this risky way. Many western media claim that the oil Sudanese revenues were spent in buying Janjaweed arms, so the Chinese choice is a kind of bloody cooperation in Sudanese genocide.



After the experience of the genocide of Rwanda in Africa continent, the Sudanese conflict was seen with more worry. Additionally, the consideration of United Nation and the bad reports of Sudanese situation cause to forming “The African Union Mission in Sudan (AMIS), which seek to the peace process for Darfurian civil war. Until now, AMIS has 6171 soldiers and 1586 unarmed civil polices in Sudan.


UN Security Council is one of the main international actors for the peace process of Sudanese civil war. Until now, it has passed 22 resolution, which are concerned issues such as consideration the Government of Sudan as a threat to international peace and security, mandate of UNMIS (United Nations Mission in Sudan) and their troops and facilities, peace support operations, human rights monitoring, mandate of the Panel of Experts…

References:


African Union (AU), 2005, Report of the Situation in the Darfur Region of Sudan, in Address of http://www.africa-union.org/DARFUR/homedar.htm

Bock, Christian W.D, Leland R. Miller, 7 December 2004, Darfur: Where Is Europe? http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A49825-2004Dec8.html

Breidlid, Anders, Education in the Sudan: the privileging of an Islamic discourse, Journal of Comparative Education, Vol. 35, No. 3, September 2005, pp. 247–263

Cobham, Alex, 2005, Causes of Conflict in Sudan: Testing The Black Book, The European Journal of Development Research, 17:3, 462 – 480

Cohen, 29 Feb 2008, Calling on China: The China-Darfur Connection, Brooking in the address of http://www.brookings.edu/opinions/2004/0805africa_cohen.aspx

Crisis Group, 26 November 2007, Darfur’s New Security Reality, International Crisis Group, http://www.crisisgroup.org/home/index.cfm?id=5180

Dagne, Ted, 2007, Sudan: The Crisis in Darfur and Status of the North-South Peace Agreement, CRS Report

Darfur Consortium, 2003- 2007, timeline of the Darfur crisis and the response of the international community,http://www.darfurconsortium.org/darfur_crisis/ timeline.html

Depoortere, Evelyn, October 1, 2004, Violence and mortality in West Darfur, Sudan epimemiological evidence from four surveys, Médecins Sans Frontières, http://www.msf.fr/

Downie, Leonard, 14 Dec 2006, China and Darfur, Washington post newspaper, in address of http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/13/%20AR2006121302008.html

Engdahl, 25 May 2007, William, Darfur: Forget genocide, there's oil, Asia Times, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IE25Cb04.html

Engdahl, F William, 25 May 2007, “Darfur: Forget genocide, there's oil”, Asia Times, http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IE25Cb04.html

Fact Book, 15 November, 2007, https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/su.html

Gordon, Steve, 2004, Continuing Crisis In the Sudan, Political Affairs Site in this Address: http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/494/1/57

Herald Tribune, 4 August 2006, http://www.iht.com/articles/2006/08/04/opinion/%20eddarfur.php

Report of the International Commission of Inquiry on Darfur, 25 Jan 2005, United Nation, http://www.un.org/news/dh/sudan/cominqdarfur.pdf

Save Darfure, September 2007, The Genocide in Darfur – Briefing Paper, “Save Darfur Coalition”, http://www.savedarfur.org/page/community/post/mars/BGJ

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, September 9, 2004, The Crisis in Darfur, http://www.state.gov/secretary/former/powell/remarks/36042.htm

Senator Sam Brownback and Congressman Frank Wolf, June 27–29, 2004, Trip Report Darfur, Western Sudan, http://www.house.gov/wolf/images/frontimages/ fullsize/SudanTrip/Reportt.pdf

SLM/A and JEM, Global Security, http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/%20para/darfur.htm

SLM/A, 14 March 2003, Policy Statement, Formal Site in the address of http://www.slma.tk/

SLM/A, 4 Jan 2007, SLM statement on the secular state, Suddan on line site in the address of http://www.sudaneseonline.com/en/article_2595.shtml

Straus, Scott, 2005, Darfur and the Genocide Debate, foreign affairs, Volume 84: 1, 123-133

Vehnämäki, Mika, 2006, Darfur Scorched: looming genocide in Western Sudan, Journal of Genocide Research, 8:1, 51 – 82

Young, John, March 2005, Sudan: a flawed peace process leading to a flawed peace, Review of African Political Economy, 32:103, 99 - 113

"We as Islamic Clergies, What We Can do Against AIDS"

"We as Islamic Clergies, What We Can do Against AIDS" is the name of a new book which written by Hesamoddin Ashna and published in Iran. This Book responses to the question of How Islamic clergies can struggle with AIDS". After publishing it, Christian Salars Folkman, the agent of UNICEF said: "This Book is a sample for scientific research about AIDS which include scientific references and religious knowledge and is prepared for Iranian Youngs." He believed that "the combination of Modern Science and Religious Knowledge is a powerful tool for struggle against AIDS." It is seem that the book will be translated, and published in other country.

Dr. Hesamoddin Ashna (My Professor) and the author of the book said that, "This book is based on a communicational approach to the Health. The Health Communications use group communication very much, in addition, this book prepared by the model of Health beliefs to influence on audience understanding and hold him/her in taking HIV.” He added, "Including the Health Communication with religious Communication indicated that changing the Behaviors need to change in Value System.

This book are formed in 6 chapters: (1) What we should know about HIV?, (2) Why the Clergies and Religious Institutions, (3) What we should do to prevention the Spread of AIDS in Society?" (4) Marriage and Family (5) What We should do in interaction with dangerous groups?" (6) What we should do in interaction with HIV Patients?"

Dr. Hesamoddin Ashna (1343) is one of the Faculties of the School of Culture and Communication of Imam Sadiq University. He has done many research and published several books (Such as “Culture and Violence” and “From Politics to Culture”) and Articles in English and Persian. You can connect to him by his blog:

http://ashna1343.persianblog.ir/

Dissecting the G. Lukács Mind: From Literature to Mass Media Commodification

Written by: Sobhan Rezaee

Abstract:
Georg Lukács is one of the most important thinkers of twenty century. He wrote in many fields, but in this essay, we want to receive an analyzing for mass media commodification, by his ideas. In his important work, “The Soul and the Forms”, an idea was proposed which define the relation of context (Form) and content. He believes that the Forms exist as priori factors and they are static and eternal. In other hand, the contents are created by the time circumstances. Therefore, with this intellectual preference, we began our work with reviewing Lukács himself-context, their related works, his dividing and defining literary books, as the most contiguous Form to our area: Mass media; and his ideas about commodification process. Then we use Lukács’s opinions to analyze the mass media commodification. In this way, we indicate to “Magnolia”, a 1999 drama film which written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It is an extraordinary commercial product, which confess, and explain the commodificational role of mass media.


Keywords: Georg Lukács, Literature, Commodification, Mass Media


Biography:
Georg Lukács was born in Budapest on 13 April 1885 as the second son of Josef Lukàcs, a wealthy Jewish banker. His mother, whose maiden name was Wertheimer, was brought up in Vienna and learned Hungarian after her marriage. Therefore, the family language is German and most of Lukács books were originally written in German. The Hungary in which Lukács grew up was still part of the dual monarchy of Austria and Hungary, with a king who resided in Vienna and a Parliament suited in Budapest. He Studied Jurisprudence at the University of Budapest between 1902 and 1906. (Parkinson, 1977: 1-3) He got his PHD on Philosophy at the same University but continued his education at Berlin university under the influence of Georg Simmel (1911) and then with the guidance of Max Weber in the University of Heidelberg. (Edwards, 1972) His First book is “A History of the Development of Modern Drama” which published in Hungarian language at 1911. However, at the same time, Lukács was affected by neo-Kantian school, which can be traced in his primary works such as “The Soul and the Forms” and “The Theory of the Novel”. (Parkinson, 1977: 3-4)

In 1918, Lukács joined the Hungarian Communist Party. Moreover, in the Communist Government Kun Béla, he accepted the position of commissar for culture and education, but after the overthrow of it in 1919, he moved to Vienna, where he remained for 10 years. He edited the review Kommunismus and was a member of the Hungarian underground movement. During this period, he wrote History and Class Consciousness (1923), in which he developed a unique Marxist philosophy of history and laid the basis for his critical literary tenets by linking the development of form in art with the history of the class struggle. (Britannica, 2006) but this book cause to dismissal him from membership of Communist Party and editorial of Kommunismus.

After empowering Hitler, he migrate to the Russia and begin his work at Marx-Engels Institute (1930- 1931) and then in the Institute of Philosophy (1933-1944).
After the World War 2, he returned to Hungary, became one of the members of his country parliament, and appointed as the professor of Aesthetics in university. In the Government of Imer Nagy, he was the minister of Culture, but after the defeat of revolution of Hungary, he was arrested and deported to Romania. (Edwards, 1972) In 1957, he was allowed to return to Budapest. Then he continued his Aesthetic works until his dead in Budapest at 4 June 1971.

Lukács’s Works in Literature:
Lukács wrote in all of his life courses, pre-Marxist thinking, Communist Leadership and De-Stalinization. Therefore, he publish more than 30 books and hundreds of essays. However, in this issue, we want to concentrate on Aesthetic and literary works of him, and review his theories and scales for studying the works.


The Soul and the Forms:
This book consists of ten essays, which published before. Most of them are literary criticism for the works of writers such as Theodore Storm, Stefan George and Lawrence Sterne. In this work, Lukács define the essay by these words: “A struggle for truth, for embodiment of life, which someone as read out of a man, an age, a form; but it depends entirely on the intensity of the work and of the vision, whether we derive from what is written a suggestion of this life.” (Lukács, 1974: 16-17)

Therefore, he treats the essay as a life experience, which used for embodiment of living. In this book, he believes that the Forms exist as priori and do not create after presence of the artistic works. The Form is static and eternal. So what is changed is the time circumstances which cause to changing the contents of artistic works. However, this work is belong to the pre-Marxist course of his thought and published three years before the beginning of the World War I include a pessimistic approach to modernity that continued to his later book, “The Theory of the Novel”. He defines the Modernity as the lack of any "existent and constitutive meaning" and therefore concludes that no artist can discover utopian structures of perfectly meaningful community within the modern life described by novels. (Lukács, 1971: 142-143) So, he assumes the Modernity as a suitable context for the birth of the Tragedy.


The Theory of the Novel:
As said above, Lukács in his previous work was affecting by neo-Kantian thoughts, but in this book, he take a transition to Hegel. It represents the abandonment of the idea of timeless forms and a move towards what Lukács called ‘a historicizing of aesthetic categories.’ (Lukács, 1971: 15) In this work, Lukács regards the novel as a form of what he calls ‘the great epic’; it is, as he puts it, one objectification of the great epic. (Parkinson, 1977: 24-25)
This book consists two parts. The first, which includes of five essays, studying the novel from several aspects: (I) integrated western civilization that arguing the western culture and civilization from its Greek initial point to the modern age. In other hand, his accent in reviewing the history is completely philosophical. Furthermore, he use a very difficult and compressed text to proposes a deterministic approach to social phenomena: “For man does not stand alone, as the sole bearer of substantiality, in the midst of reflexive forms: his relations to others and the structures which arise therefrom are as full of substance as he is himself, indeed they are more truly filled with substance because they are general, more ‘philosophic’, closer and more akin to archetypal home: love, the family, the state.” (Lukács, 1971: 33)
In other four chapters of first part, he pays attention to Tragedy, Epic forms, Means of expression, Totality, Objective structures, Types of hero, inner aspects of novel and historical and philosophical conditioning of the novel. But at the second part, he attempts to form a typology for novels by reviewing several works of Writers such as Balzac, Jacobsen, Novalis, Goethe, Tolstoy…
However, when Georg Lukacs returned to this work in his old age, criticize this book and wrote, it "founded on a highly naive and totally unfounded utopianism," a "romantic anti-capitalism" on which we "have every right to smile." (Lukács 1971, 12, 19-20) “Suffice it to point out that novelist such as Defoe, Fielding and Stendhal found no place in this schematic pattern, that the arbitrary ‘synthetic’ method of the author of “The Theory of the Novel” leads him to a completely upside-down view of Balzac and Flaubert or of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky etc., etc.” (Lukács 1971, 14)


Studies in European Realism
This book consists of nine articles, which were written in the period of 1938-1939, but it published in 1948. These issues studying writers such as Balzac (Chapter 1 & 2 & 3: “The Peasants” and “Lost Illusions”), Stendhal (Chapter3), Gorky (Chapter 7), Zola (Chapter 4), Tolstoy (Chapter 6 & 8).
The work belongs to the Marxist period of Lukács and obviously based on Marxist ideas. For example, he said, “The Marxist philosophy of history, analyzes the human as a whole and treat the history of his evolution as a whole, too. (Lukács, 1972: 6) “Marxism is an index for history which shows the arrow of moving the history. The Confidence that is offered by this guidance is the evolution of the human will not and cannot arrive to absurdity.” (Lukács. 1972: 5)

The main question of this book refers to the importance of litterateurs: “Balzac or Flaubert, which are the greatest and typical novelist of 19 century? The responding of it is not the problem of tastes and preferences, but it contains all the aesthetic issues of the novel. It is coming from the question that do the greatness and the importance of a novel relate to the unification of inside and outside worlds or relate to the separating them.” Do the peaks of the modern novel is Gide, Proust or Joyce or it was received by Balzac and Tolstoy, before?” (Lukács. 1972: 3)

Lukács answers the question with these words: “The real heritors of excellent French novel of 19 century is not Flaubert or Zola, but they include Russian and Scandinavian authors of second half of this century. Therefore, this book is my studying about French and Russian Realist authors… (Lukács. 1972: 7)


The Literature:
The Importance of Lukács main question on “Studies in European Realism” is designing a distinction between two paradoxical philosophies for history. He identifies the novel as the dominant form of modern culture of bourgeoisie. (Lukács. 1972: 3) So recognizing the correct form from these aesthetic understandings causes to comprehension of the orientation of whole of the literature and may be the Culture.
Lukács in his book, “The Meaning of Contemporary Realism” (1963), divides the modern literature in three areas: (1) Avant-garde (2) Socialist Realism (3) Critical Realism.
According to Lukács, the Avant-garde approach to literature is based on idealism and in front of human situations is static. In other hand, Socialist Realism is dogmatic and its view about the paradoxes of social life is very naïve.
However, critical realism is on the peak of Lukács thought. Because, social changing and evolution are reflected on the works of its members, such as Thomas Mann and Bernard Shaw which are the real heritors of the great realist of 19 century, he mean Balzac, Stendhal and Tolstoy.



Literature Forms:
As we said above, Georg Lukács believes that the Forms exist forever and the contents are changed by time circumstances. He defines the Forms as the static constituent and the content as the dynamic component of the literature. In this part of issue, we want to pay attention to different forms by Lukács opinion:

The Epic:
Lukács similar to Hegel defines the epic with Homer’s Works: The Iliad and the Odyssey. And understand them by Greek World which prepare a suitable context for the birth of the epic: “The Age of the epic is typified by the fact that it does not yet have any conception of an inner world, or any conception of the soul’s search for itself. It is also an age in which the divinity is just as familiar and close to man and Just as incomprehensible, as a father is to small child. Modern life, at the same time as it has immensely enlarged its world, has also established a gulf between the self and the world, which did not exist in the era of the epic. We have destroyed the meaning of Greek life, which was totality: a totality, which was all-inclusive, there being nothing which pointed to a higher reality out side it. (Lukács. 1971: 30) In other hand, “the modern man, unlike the man of Homer’s epoch, is not at home in the universe; and the literary form which expresses this ‘transcendental homelessness’ is the novel. (Lukács. 1971: 36- 41)


The Tragedy:
In Lukács’s thought system, Tragedy is begun with Greek civilization and continues to the modern world. This form of literature is very interesting. The author creates a hero, describe him/her, empower him and then kill him/her. So, in this process, the distinction is killing. I mean the sudden elimination of hero in this special narrative cause to form the Tragedy. When Achilles is killed at the end of the Iliad, the Homer’s epic convert to the Tragedy. Lukács said: “Tragedy places its heroes on the stage as living human beings in the midst of a mass of only apparently living beings. So that a clear destiny may gradually emerge incandescent from the condition of the dramatic action, heavy with the weight of life – so that its fire may reduce to ashes everything that is merely human, so that the inexistent life of mere human beings may disintegrate into nothingness and the affective emotions of the heroic figures may flare up into a blaze of tragic passion that will anneal them into heroes free of human dross. In this way the condition of the hero has become polemical and problematic; to be a hero is no longer the natural form of existence in the sphere of essence, but the act of raising oneself above that which is merely human, whether in the surrounding mass or in the hero’s own instincts.” (Lukács. 1971: 43- 44)


The Novel:
According to Lukács, Novel is the most important literary Form of the modern world. The Novel, Lukács says, is the epic of an age in which the extensive totality of life has ceased to be sensuously given, but which still has a ‘disposition towards totality’. (Lukács. 1971: 56) The basic intention of the novel is given objective form in the psychology of its heroes, who are seekers. Lukács similar to Hegel says that the hero of the epic is the community. Now, the community is an organic totality, whereas the hero of the novel is an individual, and arises out of modern man’s estrangement from the external world. (Parkinson, 1977: 26)
Lukács in his genealogy of novel relate it to a special phenomenon: Mass Experiment of History. He thinks that the age of enlightenment, conquering of Napoleon in Europe, modern wars that need to satisfied the mass society… caused to construct a form of literature which used by the mass and report the social changing. (Lukács, 1973: 134, 139, 140) He describes the novelist as the historian of the bourgeoisie society. (Lukács, 1973: 134)

The Commodification:
In the first step, the commodity is an interpersonal relationship, which is formed between people, but in the next stage, the commodity reproduces itself in social communications and constructs the commodification. Commodification is a kind of commercial modification that discovered by Marx, for the first time.
Lukács in some of his important works such as “History and Class Consciousness” and “Studies in European Realism” discusses this process and develops the Marx’s concept. According to Lukács, social relationships, activities and human worth are increasingly defined in terms of an alienating and objectifying monetary value- a process known as commodification. (Smith, 2001: 38; cited from Lukács, 1971 B: 92) However, as Habermas said in his book, “The Theory of Communicative Action”, Lukács based his argument on a part of “the Capital”:


A Commodity is therefore a mysterious thing simply because in it the social character of men’s labor appears to them as an objective character of the products of that labor, as social natural properties of these things; because the relation of the producers to the sum total of their labor appears to them as a social relation among objects, a relation existing outside of them. Through this quid pro quo, the products of labor become commodities – things which are at the same time perceptible and imperceptible to the senses, social things… It is only a definite social relation among men that assumes, in their eyes, the fantastic form of a relation among things. (Habermas, 1984, Vol 1: 357; cited from Capital: 83)

Lukács in explanation his theory, defines the current science as a component of the society of bourgeoisie and relates it to the paradigm of producing the commodities. (Lukács: 1971 B: 136-137) In other hand, when he reviews the “Lost Illusions” which written by Honoré de Balzac, the famous French novelist of 19 century, pay attention to it as a mean for describing the process of commodification in the Literature. He believes that “Lost Illusions” is a Comic-Tragic Epic, which its centre is the conversion of literature to a kind of commodity. All things are purchasable: articles, poems, novels, Theaters, cyclic publishing… Lukács points to a key sentence that was said by “Venon” in the novel: “Are you believe to your writings?” Then continues: “but we are the merchants of the words… those articles which are read nowadays, will be forgotten, tomorrow. However, we give our royalties and there are no means, else.” (Lukács, 1972: 60- 61)



Mass Media Commodification:
Every normal trade takes worthy Commodities and sell them to get some profits. However, in the world of media, we have no worthy naive commodity which can indicated them as ordinary purchasable things. Therefore, Media use from a special process to convert non-purchasable things to purchasable and also profitable things: The Commodification
It has a central role in media developing. Advertising, Celebrating, Humiliating, Making Superstars … are part of this process. Media need some special factors to made people for give money to them. They use mass broadcasting to Celebrating or Humiliating a subject, give good or bad worth to them and at last, sell them to their audiences. Hereto, media create salable things, which can bring money for their inventors. Films, News, Face-to-Face Discussing, and Games… are expensive ways and commodities, which are formed in this area.
However, some media products such as “Magnolia” confess media roles of commodification. We want to continue our essay in analyzing this artistic exception and dissecting the Mass Media Commodification.
Magnolia is a 1999 drama film which written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It includes several-separated story, which are linked together with an invisible line of destiny. It has many aspects, but we want to focus on the commodification.

A Scene from "Magnilia" where Stanley was protesting to the commodification of a TV show

The central point of the film is a Television Show that contains a game in the name of “What do Kids Know?” It is a very famous program, which attract many audiences. It is constructing between three adults and three teenagers. One of the teens is a Quiz Kid (Stanley) who is won at seven courses and if he can be success at eighth game, break the record and achieve the final victory. Nevertheless, this last cycle confront with a basic problem: The Media Hero need to go to the bathroom.
This is very interesting, which shows the media compression that cannot suffer any abnormality. This tension cause to change Stanley’s mind and disturbing a 30 years old TV Show. In other hand, the camera focuses on a previous hero of “What do Kids Know”: Dannie Smith who won the play at 1968, but nowadays he is a bankrupt that other people never accept him. However, he want to take a beauty surgery on his teeth.
But at the current game, when Stanley made to piss in his trousers and experienced some humility, every thing is changed. Then Stanley passes the buck and ignores to continue the game. He asks from famous showman of the game, Jimmy Gator: “What is funny? What is Interesting? Do you see, what are your ideas about us? Am I a toy for you? I am not a doll. To you, we are some pretty tiny teens. Why? Because I am converted to an odd being? Because I answer to the questions? because I am clever. Or because I want to go to the bathroom? What is the answer, Jimmy? What is the answer? Now, I ask you?” Then Jimmy says: “I don’t know.” Stanley continues his speech: “I am not a pretty and stupid doll. I am genius, not a funny man whom is seen by the people and my intellect would be their hobby. I know. I know very much. I know. I know. For example, I know that I should go to bathroom, but you don’t allow me.”
After this extraordinary speech, the program producer made to finish the show…then Stanley escapes from the Studio.
Yes, as Stanley find out, mass media convert their subjects to toys and dolls, which can purchasable. In that example, Stanley converted to a toy that entertains people in an entertainment media. With Lukács opinions, we can say, in modern world, all things melted to commodity, to be controlled, purchased and to be come to nothing… If any one want to break the cycle, must escape from their studio…

Conclusions:
1. “The Soul and the Forms” consists of ten essays, which published before. Most of them are literary criticism for the works of writers such as Theodore Storm, Stefan George and Lawrence Sterne. In this work, Lukács define the essay by these words: “A struggle for truth, for embodiment of life, which someone as read out of a man, an age, a form; but it depends entirely on the intensity of the work and of the vision, whether we derive from what is written a suggestion of this life.” (Lukács, 1974: 16-17) In this work, he believes that the Forms exist as priori and do not create after presence of the artistic works. The Form is static and eternal. So what is changed is the time circumstances which cause to changing the contents of artistic works.

2. In “The Theory of the Novel”, Lukács regards the novel as a form of what he calls ‘the great epic’; it is, as he puts it, one objectification of the great epic. This book consists from two parts. The first, which includes of five essays, studying the novel from several aspects: (I) integrated western civilization that arguing the western culture and civilization from its Greek initial point to the modern age. In other four chapters of first part, he pay attention to Tragedy, Epic forms, Means of expression, Totality, Objective structures, Types of hero, inner aspects of novel and historical and philosophical conditioning of the novel. But at the second part, he attempt to form a typology for novels by reviewing several works of Writers such as Balzac, Jacobsen, Novalis, Goethe, Tolstoy…

3. “Studies in European Realism” consists of nine articles, which were written in the period of 1938-1939, but it published at 1948. These issues studying writers such as Balzac (Chapter 1 & 2 & 3: “The Peasants” and “Lost Illusions”), Stendhal (Chapter3), Gorky (Chapter 7), Zola (Chapter 4), Tolstoy (Chapter 6 & 8). The work belongs to the Marxist period of Lukács and obviously based on Marxist ideas.

4. The Age of the epic is typified by the fact that it does not yet have any conception of an inner world, or any conception of the soul’s search for itself. It is also an age in which the divinity is just as familiar and close to man and Just as incomprehensible, as a father is to small child. Modern life, at the same time as it has immensely enlarged its world, has also established a gulf between the self and the world, which did not exist in the era of the epic. We have destroyed the meaning of Greek life, which was totality: a totality, which was all-inclusive, there being nothing which pointed to a higher reality out side it.

5. In Lukács’s thought system, Tragedy is begun with Greek civilization and continues to the modern world. This form of literature is very interesting. The author creates a hero, describe him/her, empower him and then kill him/her. Therefore, in this process, the distinction is killing. Lukács said: “Tragedy places its heroes on the stage as living human beings in the midst of a mass of only apparently living beings.” However, the sudden elimination of hero in this special narrative causes to form the Tragedy. When Achilles is killed at the end of the Iliad, the Homer’s epic convert to the Tragedy.

6. According to Lukács, Novel is the most important literary Form of the modern world. Lukács similar to Hegel says that the hero of the epic is the community. Now, the community is an organic totality, whereas the hero of the novel is an individual, and arises out of modern man’s estrangement from the external world. (Parkinson, 1977: 26) Lukács in his genealogy of novel relate it to a special phenomenon: Mass Experiment of History. He describes the novelist as the historian of the bourgeoisie society.

7. In the first step, the commodity is an interpersonal relationship, which is formed between people, but in the next stage, the commodity reproduces itself in social communications and constructs the commodification. According to Lukács, social relationships, activities and human worth are increasingly defined in terms of an alienating and objectifying monetary value- a process known as commodification. When Lukács reviews the “Lost Illusions” which written by Honoré de Balzac, the famous French novelist of 19 century, pay attention to it as a mean for describing the process of commodification in the Literature. He believes that “Lost Illusions” is a Comic-Tragic Epic and its centre is the conversion of literature to a kind of commodity.

8. Every normal trade takes worthy Commodities and sell them to get some profits. However, in the world of media, we have no worthy naive commodity which can indicated them as ordinary purchasable things. Therefore, Media use from a special process to convert non-purchasable things to purchasable and also profitable things: The Commodification. They use from mass broadcasting to Celebrating or Humiliating a subject, give good or bad worth to them and at last, sell them to their audiences. Hereto, media create salable things, which can bring money for their inventors. Films, News, Face-to-Face Discussing, and Games… are expensive ways and commodities, which are formed in this area.

9. However, some media products such as “Magnolia” confess media roles of commodification. Magnolia is a 1999 drama film which written and directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. It includes several-separated story, which are linked together with an invisible line of destiny. The central point of the film is a Television Show in the name of “What do Kids Know?” It is a very famous program, which attract many audiences. It is constructing between three adults and three teenagers. One of the teens is a Genius Kid (Stanley) who is won at seven courses and if he can be success at eighth game, break the record and achieve the final victory. Nevertheless, this last cycle confront with a basic problem: The Media Hero need to go to the bathroom.

10. But at the current game, when Stanley made to piss in his trousers and experience some humility, every thing is changed. Then Stanley pass the buck and ignore to continue the game. He asks from famous showman of the game, Jimmy Gator: What is Interesting? Do you see, what are your ideas about us? Am I a toy for you? I am not a doll. To you, we are some pretty tiny teens. Why? Because I am converted to an odd being? Because I answer to the questions? because I am clever. Or because I want to go to the bathroom? I am genius, not a funny man whom is seen by the people and my intellect would be their hobby. I know. I know very much. I know. I know. For example, I know that I should go to bathroom, but you don’t allow me.”

11. As Stanley find out, mass media convert their subjects to toys and dolls, which can purchasable. In that example, Stanley converted to a toy that entertains people in an entertainment media. With Lukács opinions, we can say, in modern world, all things melted to commodity, to be controlled, purchased and to be come to nothing… If any one want to break the cycle, must escape from their studio…


References:

1. Habermas, Jurgen, 1984, The Theory of Communicative Action, Vol 1, Translated to English Thomas McCarthy, Beacon Press, Boston

2. Lukács, Georg, 1971 B, History and Class Consciousness, Translated to English by Rodney Livingstone, Merlin Press, London

3. Lukács, Georg, 1971, The Theory of the Novel, Translated to English by Anna Bostock, MIT Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts

4. Lukács, Georg, 1972, Studies in European Realism, Translated to Farsi by Akbar Afsari, Scientific and Cultural Publisher, Tehran

5. Lukács, Georg, 1973, Marxism and Human Liberation, Delta Book, New York

6. Lukács, Georg, 1974, “The Soul and the Forms”, Translation to English Anna Bostock, Merlin Press, London.

7. Parkinson, G.H.R, 1977, Georg Lukács, Routledge and Kegan Paul, London

8. Smith, Philip, 2001, Cultural Theory, Blackwell Publishers

Toward a Communicative Interpretation for Sexual Verses of the Quran

“A Short Thinking”

Written By: Sobhan Rezaee

Abstract:
In this short issue, we pay attention to four religious sexual areas and exploit some related verses from Quran: The Birth of the Sexuality (Taha: 116-117; Araf: 12-25), Husband (Al-Nisa: 34), Wife (Rum: 21) and Sexual Relation (Baghare: 223). Then we use the Communicational Model of “Meaning source” (Mohsenian Rad’s Model) to analyze and interpretation these verses. My conclusions shows that (1) the verses of the Suras of Taha and Araf indicated that after forbidden fruit was eaten by Adam and Eve, their virginity converted to sexual desires. So their position and environment should be changed. However in this evolution, the sender is God or the Satan (based on the kind of interpretation), the receivers are Adam and Eve and the message is the Sexualization. I think this is the most influential communicational process which Human kind has experienced. (2) If we assume the family as a communicational System, then we confront the verses such as Al-Nisa-34 which define its parties with different statues. According to the Verse, the Quran take a priority to the men. And there is a necessity for receiver (women) to accept the sender’s message (husbands’ message), which aren’t concerned to the main meaning of wives’ mind. (3) The Islamic treatment of Wife is very similar to Catholic understanding. (4) The Islamic Sexuality is structured with different dimensions: Biological, Cultural, Economic, and Politic which reproduce its society in all of these roots. (5) Sexual Relations have two stages: Biologic and Communicational. The majority of Communicational Mechanisms is Non-Verbal form, which use from the Touch as the main Canal for sending the messages. I mean that the Kissing, the Caressing, the Smiling, the embracing, the Wooing, the Penetration… are Communicational methods which send emotions as messages from men to women, or inverse.

Keywords: Sexuality, Sexual Relations, Quran, Wife, Husband


The Story of the Birth of the Sexuality:

The Maximum Influence of a Message

“When We told the angels to prostrate before Adam they all obeyed except Iblis (Satan) who refused.” (Taha, 116)

When the God order to angels to prostrate before human, he want to force them to form a special communicational process in front of His new Creature. In this way, the angels should send their spiritual respect as a message to the human and confirm his priority. But the Satan wasn’t a suitable sender which can sent such a message for the new creature, because he has a specific Meaning in definition the priority. I mean he thought that the reason of priority is the “Material of the Creation”. So he said: “I am better than Adam, for You have created me out of fire and Adam out of clay.” (Araf: 12) But this argument caused to recognize the Satan as the Enemy of Human by God and so he warned to His new Creature: “We said," Adam, this (Satan) is your enemy and the enemy of your spouse. Let him not expel you and your spouse from Paradise lest you plunge into misery.” (Taha, 117)

Then God expel the Satan from his Heaven, but give His previous dignified slave a new important role: “The Lord ordered Satan to get out (of Paradise) saying," This is no place for you to be proud. Get out of this place, for you are worthless"(13) Satan asked the Lord to give him respite (keep him alive) until the Day of Resurrection. (14)
The Lord told him," We will grant you this respite."(15) Then Satan said," Because you have made me go astray, I shall certainly try to seduce people into straying from the right path. (16) I shall attack them from all directions and You will not find many of them giving You thanks". (Araf: 13-17)

So Satan reformed himself as the Adam’s enemy. But for this new meaning and intention, he look up a way for awake a very special phenomenon: The Sexuality: “Satan tempted them to reveal that which was kept private from them (Sexual Organs) and said," Your Lord has not prohibited you to eat the fruits of this tree unless you want to be angels or immortal."(Araf, 20)

In this way, If the Islamic story of creation is adapted with the basical model of the communication, I mean the sender, the receiver and the message, then its sender is the Satan or God (based on the kind of interpretation); the receiver is the Adam and Eve; and the message is Sexualization which had been covered under the forbidden fruit: “When they had tasted (fruits) from the tree, their private parts (The Sexual Organ) became revealed to them. (Araf, 22)

Some Quran Interpreters Such as Fazl ebne Tabarsy believed that, before this evolution, the sexual organs of the humans are hidden and the Satan knew “Every one who is revealed his/her sexual organ can’t stay on the Heaven. But the only way for revelation the sexuality was eating from the fruit of the forbidden tree.” (Majmaol Bayan, V 9, P 69) But some mystical interpreter such as Ebne Arabi said that, “It doesn’t relate to revelation the sexual organs, but the Satan want to aware humans’ desire to materialism and its joys and bring out them form celibacy and immaterialism.” (Ebne Arabi, Vol 1: 230)
After melting the virgin primitive Humans to Sexual Beings, A specific emotion is formed: Sexual Shame: “they began to cover their private parts with leaves from the garden.” (Araf, 22) And the Conclusion of this process is exiting from the Heaven of Virgins and Enter to the World of the Sexuality: “The Lord told them to leave the garden as each other's enemies and go to earth to dwell and benefit from the means therein for an appointed time. (24) He told them that, on earth, they would live, die, and be resurrected. (Araf: 24-25)


So, indeed this is a real Communicational Process, because ‘the Sender’ could change completely the meaning of ‘his receivers’ about themselves by his message. And transit them to a new position which is needed a new and different environment. I mean the God or Satan (based on interpretation way) as the sender with some specific meanings which included his intentions send the Sexualization as a message to his audiences, Adam and Eve. Then they are changed completely, because after eating the forbidden fruit, their virginity converted to sexual desires. So their position and environment should be changed: They descent to the Ground of the Sexuality: The Earth.

The Wife:
In the Sura of Al-Rum, Allah after explanation the creation of Human with the clay: “Among His signs is [the fact] that he has created you from clay; then you were propagated as human beings. (Rum, 20)” and before treatment the differentiation of Languages and Colors of Humans as a Special privilege: “Among His signs are the creation of Heaven and Earth, as well as the diversity in your tongues and colors.” (Rum, 22) He said that: “Among His signs is [the fact] that He has created spouses for you from among yourselves so that you may console yourselves with them. He has planted affection and mercy between you; in that are signs for people who think things over.” (Rum, 21)

Fazl ebne Tabarsy in interpretation of the verse and explanation the kind of creation spouse said that: this verse means “Eve was created by one of the Adam’s ribs or the Feminine was created from the sperm of Masculine.” (Majmaol Bayan, V 8, P 470)
In other hand, Mohammad Moghnyye in his interpretation, Al- Kashef, said: “Certainly, the Quran define the goal of the marriage as the mean for form affection and mercy between the family members.” (Moghnyye, Vol 6: 136) In other hand, According to the text of sura of Rum (21), we can say: “God has created spouse for Man from himself so that he may console himself with her.”

This understanding is touching to the Christian belief: “The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Gen, 2: 18) But for Adam no suitable helper was found. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep; and while he was sleeping, he took one of the man's ribs and closed up the place with flesh. 22 Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called 'woman, for she was taken out of man. (Gen, 2: 20-23)”

The Husband:
Men are in charge of women, since God has given some persons advantages over others, and because they should spend their wealth [on them]. Honorable women are steadfast, guarding the Unseen just as God has it guarded. Admonish those women whose surliness you fear, and leave them alone in their beds, and [even] beat them. If they obey you, do not seek any way [to proceed] against them. God is Sublime, Great. (Al- Nisa: 34)

If we assume the family as a communicational System, then we confront such verses which define its parties with different statues. According to this Verse (Al-Nisa, 34), the Quran take a priority to the men “since God has given some persons advantages over others, and because they should spend their wealth (on the Women.)” So in this religious context, we have an institutionalized priority in family Communication: the advantages and wealth of the men take him a higher position in the process. I mean, the man is the main Sender, who sends the main message, because they are in charge of women.

In other hand, God define the Honorability for the Women: “Honorable women are steadfast, guarding the Unseen (Husband’s Rights & Properties) just as God has it guarded.” Mr. Tabatabaee in interpretation of this sentence said: “It refers to the guardianship of husbands in relation with wives. So the wives should obey from her husbands.” (Almizan, Vol 4: 343) So, the wife as the main receiver in family should obey from her husband’s messages and intentions, to be an Honorable woman.

At the End, God prescribe to men a Kind of Communicational collection in front of ill-behaved women which include one verbal solution (Advice) and two non verbal ways (Abandonment their Sexual Relationship & Corporal Punishment), But this Prescribes are reliable until they accept the obedience: “If they obey you, do not seek any way [to proceed] against them. God is Sublime, Great. (Al-Nisa: 34)
So in Islamic model of family communication, we have some specific positions which are related to Sender and Receiver. And there is a necessity for receiver (women) to accept the sender’s message (husbands’ message), which aren’t concerned to the main meaning of wives’ mind. And if they don’t accept the messages, the verbal and non-verbal ways are used to convince them.

Sexual Relations:
Your wives are as fields for you. You may enter your fields from any place you want. Reserve something good for your souls (for the life hereafter). Have fear of God and know that you are going to meet Him. (Muhammad) give the glad news to the believers. (Baghare: 223)

This verse similize the women to fields and the men to farmers, and so take an advice to the men (or men & women): “Reserve something good for your soul.” According to Almizan interpretation, it refers to Human reproduction. (Almizan, Vol 2: 214) In other hand, I think it means that the sexuality is a system of Humans’ Society Reproduction, which is structured with different dimensions: Biological, Cultural, Economic, Politic and reproduce society in all of these roots. I mean the Bio-Sexuality reproduces the bodies of people and extend them with their children. In other hand, Cultural-Sexuality with its process of socialization regenerate the stereotypic Sex-roles and define the Good and the Bad in Sexual Intercourse, Gendered Relations and its sexual preferences. Also Economic-Sexuality expands economic patterns with the help of sexual collection such as family, kinship system and others. But the relation of Policy and Sexuality is more complicated and has a lot of results. The Policy for reproduction its dominance, manage the sexuality system and make some convincements in Sexual and Family Planning. (Rezaee, 2007 A: 10)

In a religious society, all of these dimensions of Reproduction are religious. So God’s Advice leads us to an Islamic Bio-Sexuality which reproduces the Muslims, An Islamic Cultural-Sexuality that use from socialization process to reproduce the Islamic common senses, traditions, and sex roles, An Islamic Economic-Sexuality that regenerate Islamic economic network, systems and regulations. And The Islamic Policy reproduces itself with Islamic goals. This is the real meaning of God’s device: “Reserve something good for your souls (for the life hereafter). Have fear of God and know that you are going to meet Him.”

In other hand, This Verse has an important role in the sayings of sacred leaders of Shiah. For example, Abdullah ebne Yaghfour asked about the legitimacy of Anal Sex in Shiite thinking, Imam Sadegh responded him: “Your wives are as fields for you. You may enter your fields from any place you want. (Baghare, 223)” And he underline on ‘from any place you want.’ (Vasayelo Shiah, Vol 20: 148) Mr.Tabatabaee in interpretation of this verse, said that “the purpose of this part of the verse is enrich and development the freedom of marriage and sexual relations in the fields of (Sexual) place and time (Except in the Catamenia time).” (Almizan, Vol l: 226)

The Expansion of religious limitations of sexual behaviors, cause to the development of the touching area in sexual communication. Indeed Sexual Relations have two stages. One of them is Biologic which its goal is gratification of sexual organs and gets the biologic orgasm. But the other is Communicational Stage. In this dimension, we have several complicated communicational processes which are included the Verbal and Non-Verbal kinds, but the majority of Mechanisms is Non-Verbal form, which use from the Touch as the main Canal for sending the messages. The Kissing, the Caressing, the Smiling, the embracing, the Wooing, the Penetration… are Communicational methods which send emotions as messages from men to women, or inverse. In these Communicational mechanisms, the positions of sender and receiver are changed, frequently. Also, the collection of meanings of man and woman about him/her self, their sexual partner, their situation… are changed, frequently… In other hand the messages of this special communications may be senses and emotions such as Security, Love, Self Confidence, Priority, and Humility…
This Analyze of Sexual Relations is only a beginning point. I want to continue it in my future book, Sexuality and Religion, which I am writing it, nowadays.

Conclusions:

1. If the Islamic story of creation is adapted with the conventional model of the communication, I mean the sender, the receiver and the message, then its sender is the tree (the Satan or the God); the receiver is the Adam and Eve; and the message is Sexualization: “When they had tasted (fruits) from the tree, their private parts (The Sexual Organ) became revealed to them. (Araf, 22) Then they are changed completely, because after eating the forbidden fruit, their virginity converted to sexual desires. So their position and environment should be changed. Then they descent to the Ground of the Sexuality: The Earth.

2. If we assume the family as a communicational System, then we confront the Quran verses such as Al-Nisa-34 which define its parties with different statues. According to the Verse, the Quran take a priority to the men “since God has given some persons advantages over others, and because they should spend their wealth (on the Women.)”. So in Islamic model of family communication, we have some specific positions which are related to Sender and Receiver. And there is a necessity for receiver (women) to accept the sender’s message (husbands’ message), which aren’t concerned to the main meaning of wives’ mind. And if they don’t accept the messages, the verbal and non-verbal ways are used to convince them.

3. According to the text of Sura of Rum (21), we can say: “God has created spouse for Man from himself so that he may console himself with her.” This understanding is touching to the Christian belief: “The LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” (Gen, 2: 18)… Then the LORD God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man. 23 The man said, "This is now bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh (Gen, 2: 22-23)

4. The Sexuality is structured with different dimensions: Biological, Cultural, Economic, Politic and reproduce society in all of these roots. When we assume a religious society, all of these dimensions of Reproduction the sexuality are religious. So God’s Advice leads us to an Islamic Bio- Sexuality which reproduces the Muslims, An Islamic Cultural-Sexuality which use from socialization process to reproduce the Islamic common senses, traditions, and sex roles, An Islamic Economic-Sexuality that regenerate Islamic economic network, systems and regulations. And The Islamic Policy reproduces itself with Islamic goals.

5. Sexual Relations have two stages: Biologic and Communicational. In Communicational Stage, we have several complicated communicational processes which are included the Verbal and Non-Verbal kinds, but the majority of Mechanisms is Non-Verbal form, which use from the Touch as the main Canal for sending the messages. The Kissing, the Caressing, the Smiling, the embracing, the Wooing, the Penetration… are Communicational methods which send emotions as messages from men to women, or inverse. In these Communicational mechanisms, the positions of sender and receiver are changed, frequently. Also, the collection of meanings of man and woman about him/her self, their sexual partner, their situation… are changed, frequently…

References:

1. Amely, Horr, 1409 LY, [1], Vasayelo shiah (Arabic Version), Vol 20, The institution of Alol Bayt, The Jame Al-Ahadith
2. Ebne Arabi, 1422 LY, The Interpretation of Ebne Arabi (Arabic Version), Dar Ahya Al-Torath Arabi,The Jame Tafasir Noor, CD-Rom
3. Moghnyye, Mohammad, 1424 LY, Al- Kashef (Arabic Version), Vol 6, Darol Kotobe Islamic, The Jame Tafasir Noor, CD-Rom
4. Mohsenian Rad, M, 1999, Communicology: An Innovative Definition and Model for Communication Process, Soroush Press, Tehran
5. Rezaee, Sobhan, 2007 A, Talcott Parsons & Understanding “the Sexuality” As a Social System, http://Sobhanrezaee.blogspot.com
6. Rezaee, Sobhan, 2007 B, Dissection of Shiite and Catholic Bodies on the Sexuality (Farsi Edition), Imam Sadegh University
7. Tabarsy, Fazl ebne, 1372 (SY [2]), Majmaol Bayan (Arabic Version), Vol 8, Naser Khosro Publisher, The Jame Tafasir Noor, CD-Rom
8. Tabarsy, Fazl ebne, 1372 (SY), Majmaol Bayan (Arabic Version), Vol 9, Naser Khosro Publisher, The Jame Tafasir Noor, CD-Rom
9. Tabatabaee, 1417 LY, Mohammad Hossein, Almizan (Arabic Version), Vol 1, The Bureau of Islamic Publisher of Hazawh Elmyye of Quom, The Jame Tafasir Noor, CD-Rom
10. Tabatabaee, 1417 LY, Mohammad Hossein, Almizan (Arabic Version), Vol 2, The Bureau of Islamic Publisher of Hazawh Elmyye of Quom, The Jame Tafasir Noor, CD-Rom
11. Tabatabaee, 1417 (LY), Mohammad Hossein, Almizan (Arabic Version), Vol 4, The Bureau of Islamic Publisher of Hazawh Elmyye of Quom, The Jame Tafasir Noor, CD-Rom
12. The Bible, 1984, New International Version, International Bible Society, http://www.biblegateway.com/
13. The Quran, 1981, translated to English by Mohammad Sarwar, Elmhurst, The Jame Tafasir Noor, CD-Rom
14. The Quran, translated to English by T.B. Irving, The Jame Tafasir Noor,CD-Rom


[1] Arabic Lunar Year
[2] Iranian Solar Year

Global Fashion and Local Policy Making in Iran:

Are the Iranian Localization Policies Can Prevent the Popularity of Western Fashions in Iran?

(Photographer: Javad Moghimi (Fars News Agancy), 17 July 2006, "The Festival of The Women of My Land" , Iran, Tehran)

Nowadays, the global fashion is a kind of screen which are using very much. This Communicational process is based on the power of global media which can promote Fashion models towards a worldwide network. The function of this phenomenon, is sharing a special model of clothing, body decorations or any other forms of decorations between the categorized people around the world, such as Young people, Teenagers, Kids… So the Most of teenagers in Europe, America, Middle East, Africa and Asia use same fashion and share him/her self definitions. Indeed, it is making a range of similar shapes for fashioned Sender which sends a range of similar messages to receivers.

As I said above, these common surfaces usually come with supportive flows in media. I mean Cinema, TV, Music and other creators of cultural stereotypes prepare the contents of fashioned messages and strengthen this process with their attractive items. In this way, global superstars who have had the best presences on global media (Such as Cinema Actors, Sportsmen, Singers…) use the fashion preferences and then become special interfaces in front of senses of watchers the media. Also the roles of superstars are very influential which they will be to a sacred position that cause to valued their fashioned tools and decorations which may be sold to millions dollars, after or before their death.

But when these cultural waves come to a certain region, confront local orders and traditions. So, the reacts are very different. In the countries like Iran, the formal reacts against the fashion is varied. Sometimes, easily they are accepted, especially for men clothing. And sometimes conflict with them in chief for women clothing. But when they antagonize with the fashion, their intentions are disaccording with strip clothing (you should intend the cultural standards for clothing and decoration) or against with the western culture. Indeed they see the West as an origin of immorality and injustice who want to extend their models and evil forms.

In many times, they localize the fashioned models and recover them in contrast the developing the western surfaces. For example the dresses is longed, widen, or the same clothing is altered which haven’t any strip parts. But they forgot that covering the strip parts or localization of global fashion can be popular them in a larger sphere and strengthen the fashion process. Indeed they only clear their traditional considering about nudity. But this reformed fashion can improve with suitable constituents and promoted itself in a larger area. So a safe cultural entrance is formed. And the regional people, not only the westernized populations, but the most of them can be set as potential targets of fashion process. Because the Iranian government can reform the fashioned surfaces and localize it with religious and politic constituents, but these reformed fashion send the same messages which global media not IRIB loaded them and strengthen this process with their productions.Then, the western hegemony can get a more powerful position about these regions and with using these stages, construct localized cultural Serotypes which have linked to western messages, too. So the supportive process of media and their superstars can made more influences in the countries such as Iran.

Talcott Parsons & Understanding “the Sexuality” As a Social System

Written by: Sobhan Rezaee

Abstract:
In this Article, I want to study the Sexuality as a “Discourse System” with Parsonsian thought. So, at the first part of this issue, we focus on Parsons Theories and its growth root. Then we take his system analyzes and apply some reforms. In this way, we determine the four main parts of Sexuality System as Adaptation, Goal Attainment, Integration and Latency. And exert them in examining the Sexuality System. So in conclusion, “the Latency” is defined with its centre, Family; “the Adaptation” is realized with Socialization and Sex-roles; “the Integration” is understood with Laws and Common Senses; and at last “the Goal Attainment” is seen with “the Reproduction the Society.”

Keywords: “Talcott Parsons”, “Sexuality”, “System”