Shifting Sands

Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa

The Middle East and North Africa are experiencing the most fundamental transition in their post-colonial history. It is a transition that is changing the borders of nation states as well as their political and social structures. Conflicting visions of what those structures should look like have ensured that transition will take years, and these deep-seated differences have ensured that the transition process is volatile, brutal and bloody. The balance of power shifts like quicksand.

Shifting Sands: Essays on Sports and Politics in the Middle East and North Africa is a compilation of essays that constitute a first stab at exploring the importance of sports in general and soccer in particular in the political, social and cultural development of the Middle East and North Africa since the beginning of the 20th century. In doing so, the book provides a new, fresh and unique perspective that contributes to understanding the turbulence sweeping the region that is fundamentally changing its geopolitics and political and social structures.

Contents:

• Soccer: A Key Player in Regional Development:

  • Soccer: Moulding the Middle East and North Africa
  • Constructing National Identity: The Muscular Jew vs. the Palestinian Underdog
  • The New Turk
  • Soccer Threads Itself through Algerian History

• Soccer Pitches: A Middle Eastern and North African Battleground:

  • A Decade of Defiance and Dissent: A Wake-up Call for Sports
  • Militant Soccer Fans: Egypt's Hans Brink Plugs the Dam Against Radicalisation
  • Convergence and Divergence: Turkish and Egyptian Fans Fight Political Battles
  • Media Target Soccer Fans, a Bulwark of Anti-autocratic Resistance
  • Unusual Suspects: Sport in the Gulf as an Arena of Protest and Change
  • Soccer and Autocracy: Who do National Football Teams Represent?
  • Violence and Racism on the Pitch: A Reflection of Failed Government Policies
  • Soccer Pitches: An Emerging Jihadist Battleground

• The Battle for Women's Rights:

  • How Saudi Arabia Gets Away with Discriminating Women in Olympic Sports
  • To Watch or Not to Watch? The Battle for Middle Eastern Women's Sporting Rights

• The Qatar World Cup: What Legacy?:

  • Qatar's World Cup Sparks Battle for Legal, Social and Political Reform
  • The 2022 World Cup: A Potential Monkey Wrench for Change
  • How Qatar is its Own Worst Enemy

• Power, Corruption and Greed:

  • Asian Football: A Cesspool of Government Interference, Struggles for Power, Corruption and Greed
  • Gulf Autocrats and Sports Corruption: A Marriage Made in Heaven

Readership: Scholars as well as related media covering the regions of Middle East and North Africa, social movement, sports, and political and religiously motivated violence.