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Joseph Massad

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Review of 'Desiring Arabs' by Joseph Massad. Desiring Arabs by Joseph Massad University of Chicago Press, 2007 Reviewed by Brian Whitaker Joseph Massad, associate professor of modern Arab politics at Columbia University, is a controversial figure.

Review of 'Desiring Arabs' by Joseph Massad

As a protégé of the late Edward Said who is also of Palestinian-Christian descent, his views on Zionism have made him a target of the Israel lobby, while others have defended him in the name of academic freedom. In 2002 he plunged into a different controversy with a paper entitled “Re-Orienting Desire: The Gay International and the Arab World” which sought to marshal a case against gay rights from a nationalist and secular standpoint - one that was not based explicitly on a moral judgment of homosexuality itself. The Persistence of the Palestinian Question: Essays on Zionism and the Palestinians. On Massad: The Failure of the Anti-Imperialist Intellectuals.

I just read Massad's new post, "Imperialism, despotism, and democracy in Syria and my initial reaction is that it is out of touch with what is happening in the country.

On Massad: The Failure of the Anti-Imperialist Intellectuals

There are good ways to overthrow a dictator and there are bad ways, he seems to say. The bad way is to ask for the West for help, the good way is, well, unclear. Massad tells us that a good anti-imperialist would oppose the dictator AND the West, which is pretty straightforward, but he doesn't tell us how that is going to help the people of Syria, or how he proposes that they get rid of Assad.