VVolumeolume 9 - NumberNumber 4 JJuneune – JulyJuly 22013013 ££44 | €€55 | UUS$6.5S$6.5 TTHISHIS ISSUEISSUE: RRELIGIOUSELIGIOUS MINORITIESMINORITIES ● WWhoho iiss HHussain?ussain? ● MMinoritiesinorities inin NorthNorth AfricaAfrica ● CConstitutionalonstitutional reformreform inin EgyptEgypt andand TurkeyTurkey ● TThehe AAssyrianssyrian ddiasporaiaspora iinn LondonLondon ● AArmeniansrmenians andand thethe artsarts ● ZZoroastriansoroastrians iinn LondonLondon ● TThehe BBahá’íahá’í ccommunityommunity inin thethe UUKK ● MMiddleiddle EasternEastern JewsJews inin LondonLondon ● PPLUSLUS RReviewseviews andand eventsevents inin LondonLondon VVolumeolume 9 - NumberNumber 4 JJuneune – JJulyuly 22013013 ££44 | €€55 | UUS$6.5S$6.5 Zoroastrian Naoroji Rustom Manek Sett in the dress of honour presented to him by the Court of Directors in About the London Middle East Institute (LMEI) England © Sanjeev Prabhu Volume 9 - Number 4 Th e London Middle East Institute (LMEI) draws upon the resources of London and SOAS to provide June – July 2013 teaching, training, research, publication, consultancy, outreach and other services related to the Middle East. It serves as a neutral forum for Middle East studies broadly defi ned and helps to create links between Editorial Board individuals and institutions with academic, commercial, diplomatic, media or other specialisations. With its own professional staff of Middle East experts, the LMEI is further strengthened by its academic Professor Nadje Al-Ali SOAS membership – the largest concentration of Middle East expertise in any institution in Europe. Th e LMEI also Ms Narguess Farzad has access to the SOAS Library, which houses over 150,000 volumes dealing with all aspects of the Middle SOAS East. LMEI’s Advisory Council is the driving force behind the Institute’s fundraising programme, for which Mr Roger Hardy it takes primary responsibility. It seeks support for the LMEI generally and for specifi c components of its King's College, London programme of activities. Mrs Nevsal Hughes Association of European Journalists Mr Najm Jarrah Dr George Joff é Mission Statement: Cambridge University Mr Max Scott Th e aim of the LMEI, through education and research, is to promote knowledge of all aspects of the Middle Gilgamesh Publishing East including its complexities, problems, achievements and assets, both among the general public and with Ms Sarah Searight British Foundation for the Study those who have a special interest in the region. In this task it builds on two essential assets. First, it is based in of Arabia London, a city which has unrivalled contemporary and historical connections and communications with the Dr Kathryn Spellman Poots AKU and LMEI Middle East including political, social, cultural, commercial and educational aspects. Secondly, the LMEI is at SOAS, the only tertiary educational institution in the world whose explicit purpose is to provide education Dr Sarah Stewart SOAS and scholarship on the whole Middle East from prehistory until today. Mrs Ionis Th ompson Saudi-British Society and BFSA Dr Shelagh Weir SOAS LMEI Staff: Professor Sami Zubaida Birkbeck College Director Dr Hassan Hakimian Co-ordinating Editor Executive Offi cer Louise Hosking Sarah Johnson Events and Magazine Coordinator Vincenzo Paci-Delton Administrative Assistant Valentina Zanardi Listings Vincenzo Paci-Delton Designer Disclaimer: Letters to the Editor: Shahla Geramipour Th e Middle East in London is published Opinions and views expressed in the Middle East Please send your letters to the editor at fi ve times a year by the London Middle East Institute at SOAS in London are, unless otherwise stated, personal the LMEI address provided (see left panel) views of authors and do not refl ect the views of their or email [email protected] Publisher and organisations nor those of the LMEI or the Editorial Editorial Offi ce Board. Although all advertising in the magazine is Th e London Middle East Institute carefully vetted prior to publication, the LMEI does SOAS University of London not accept responsibility for the accuracy of claims Th ornaugh Street, Russell Square made by advertisers. London WC1H 0XG United Kingdom T: +44 (0)20 7898 4490 SSubscriptions:ubscriptions: F: +44 (0)20 7898 4329 E: [email protected] www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/ To subscribe to Th e Middle East in London, please visit: www.soas.ac.uk/lmei/affi liation/ ISSN 1743-7598 Contents 4 19 EDITORIAL Middle Eastern Jews in London LMEI Board of Trustees Sami Zubaida Professor Paul Webley (Chair) 5 Director, SOAS Dr John Curtis INSIGHT 21 British Museum Religious minorities in the Th e Bahá’í community in H E Sir Vincent Fean KCVO Consul General to Jerusalem Middle East the UK Professor Ben Fortna, SOAS Sami Zubaida Dan Wheatley Professor Graham Furniss, SOAS Mr Alan Jenkins 7 23 Dr Karima Laachir, SOAS RELIGIOUS MINORITIES PROFILE Professor Annabelle Sreberny, SOAS Who is Hussain? Ruba Salih, SOAS Dr Barbara Zollner Birkbeck College Kathryn Spellman-Poots 24 LMEI Advisory Council 8 REVIEWS Lady Barbara Judge (Chair) Professor Muhammad A. S. Abdel Haleem Religious minorities in BOOKS Near and Middle East Department, SOAS North Africa Sherbet and Spice Mr Stephen Ball KPMG George Joff é Nevsal Hughes H E Khalid Al-Duwaisan GVCO Ambassador, Embassy of the State of Kuwait 25 Mrs Haifa Al Kaylani 10 Arab International Women’s Forum Constitutional reform and the Th e Muslim Brotherhood Dr Khalid Bin Mohammed Al Khalifa President, University College of Bahrain rights of religious minorities Mohammad Nafi ssi Professor Tony Allan Hadi Enayat King’s College and SOAS Dr Alanoud Alsharekh 26 Senior Fellow for Regional Politics, IISS 12 Unfree in Palestine Mr Farad Azima Iran Heritage Foundation Uniting people through faith Lauren Banko Dr Noel Brehony Alyn Hine MENAS Associates Ltd. 27 Mr Charles L. O. Buderi Curtis, Mallet-Prevost, Colt & Mosle LLP 14 Books in brief Ms Zeynep Dereli APCO Worldwide Th e makings of a diaspora Mr Shafi k Gabr Fadi Dawood 29 ARTOC Group for Investment and Development EVENTS IN LONDON Professor Magdy Ishak Hanna 16 British Egyptian Society HE Mr Mazen Kemal Homoud Bringing the old into the new: Ambassador, Embassy of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Armenians and the arts Mr Zaki Nusseibeh of identity Founding Patron and Susan Pattie Member of the Advisory Council 18 Sheikh Mohamed bin Issa al Jaber MBI Al Jaber Foundation Zoroastrians in London and the making of an exhibition Sarah Stewart June-July 2013 The Middle East in London 3 EEDITORIALDITORIAL © Gertjan Vlieghe © Gertjan DDearear RReadereader Performer at Salon Mashup which was organised by the Armenian Institute and involved some forty artists and performers Kathryn Spellman-Poots, Sami Zubaida, MEL Editorial Board onsidering the deadly sectarian of religion in the new constitutions in and dance, and their continued renewal in violence in the Middle East, the region. Hadi Enayat’s article, focusing relation to Armenian identity discourses in Cincluding the attack on the main on Egypt and Turkey, engages with a the diaspora. Sarah Stewart writes on the cathedral in Cairo and the refugee crisis number of thorny issues in recognising Zoroastrian community in London and in Syria, a special issue on Middle Eastern communal rights of religious minorities in the making of an exhibition due to open religious minorities could not be timelier. constitutional reform. in the Brunei Gallery later this year, Th e London is home to a wide range of Middle Turning to London, Alyn Hine highlights Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History Eastern religious minority communities, the development of the Arabic-speaking and Imagination. Sami Zubaida provides including Zoroastrians, Jews, Christians Orthodox Christian community who left a historical and contemporary account of (Coptic, Armenians, Orthodox, Assyrians (and continue to fl ee) the Levant due to Middle Eastern Jews, and their inroads and Evangelical), Bahá’ís, and Shi’as ongoing economic and political tensions. to London life. Kathryn Spellman-Poots, (Twelvers, Ismailis, and Alevis). Th is issue His visit to St. George’s Cathedral near focusing on a campaign spearheaded by looks at the historical and contemporary Regent’s Park shows how the Orthodox a group of young British Shi'as, takes a conditions of some of these groupings, and community, despite internal national generational look at ways Shi'as are trying to explores how their institutions and cultural and linguistic divides, strives to maintain build a public profi le in the UK and beyond. practices continue to be shaped by social a communal identity in this country. Th e short article on the Who is Hussain? and political dynamics in the region. Dan Wheately’s piece on London’s Bahá’í campaign, spearheaded by a group of young Sami Zubaida’s Insight piece presents the community traces the history of Bahá’ís in British Shi’as, takes a generational look complex and varied history of confessional the UK and introduces a few of its charitable at ways Shi'as are trying to build a public identifi cations and solidarities in relation activities in London. Fadi Dawood recounts profi le in the UK and beyond. to wider political processes across the Assyrian-British relations that date back to And fi nally, among book reviews and the region. George Joff é, concentrating on the 1837 and the political violence in Iraq that listings of Middle East events in London, history of Ibadi communities of Algeria, led to the Assyrian diaspora in the UK. is the Profi le piece on Dr. Ruba Saleh. Tunisia and Libya and North Africa’s Jewish Middle East religious minorities have Ruba provides a moving account of her communities, delivers a rich account of found diverse and creative ways to remain life in the Palestinian Diaspora and how these largely unknown, and for North connected to their histories and homelands she ‘developed an academic passion for the African Jews, virtually extinct communities. while establishing a strong communal study of “diff erence” and a commitment His reference to the draft ing of the fi rst and public presence in the UK.