Libya's ongoing crisis

Security issues have become truly alarming in a so-called united Libya, says a columnist in today's roundup of Arabic-language opinion. Other topics: Balfour's legacy and a tasteless movie score in Egypt.

Amid chaos and state inefficiency, security issues escalate to an alarming level in Libya

Recent reports from Libya don't bode well, said the London-based newspaper Al Quds Al Arabi in its editorial on Monday.

Following the Bani Walid massacre and four-week siege last month, attention is now focused on the bloody altercations in the heart of Tripoli that have left five people injured and the intelligence headquarters in flames.

Witness accounts of the incidents were conflicting. There are those who insist that the clashes erupted between the inhabitants and an armed militia whose members were selling alcohol and narcotics. Other reports say the fighting lasted all night between a militia that the ministry of interior had recently outlawed and another permitted militia.

For more than 10 days, the residents of Tripoli have been living without water and they have had to make do without most vital services. Mounting piles of rubbish litter the streets as the security breakdown and the inter-militia face-offs have become the biggest source of concern.

Other accounts mention that, amid the security chaos, civilian residents have resorted to using weapons for self-defence.

The city of Benghazi in the eastern part of Libya isn't doing any better. Thousands of pro-federation protesters took to the streets recently calling for the reactivation of the 1951 federal constitution. Fearing an escalation of the situation, the British government decided to move its consulate from the city to the embassy building in Tripoli as a preventive measure to protect its diplomatic staff.

"Libya exports 1.5 million barrels of high-quality oil every day, which amounts to $60 billion (Dh220 billion) that goes annually into its budget. Such income is sufficient to ensure the seven million people of Libya have a good and prosperous lifestyle that could compete with the comfortable lifestyle in Gulf countries. But what they lack is good governance," said the paper.

For many, the transparent parliamentary elections earlier this year, which led to a 200-member national conference that, in turn, elected a new government, augured well. But mounting conflicts within and outside of the parliament impeded the democratic process. The sight of armed protesters breaking into parliament has become routine.

"Libya's issues are as many as they are complex. As of yet, no solutions can be seen on the horizon as long as militias continue to control neighbourhoods in large cities and as long as the alarming levels of corruption aren't abated," added the paper.

This doesn't suggest that the country was any better off under the dictatorship.

However, the powers that followed the ousted regime - promising security and anti-corruption policies - were expected to perform better and to respond more adequately to the population's basic requirements, concluded Al Quds Al Arabi.

Balfour pledge still hurts 95 years on

Marking the 95th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, which promised the Jewish diaspora a home state in Palestine, columnists in the UAE newspaper Al Khaleej agreed that the cause of all those Palestinians who were oppressed, killed or made homeless in the process is being trivialised.

In 1917, British foreign secretary, Arthur Balfour, made a written pledge to the leader of the Jewish community in Britain, promising him and his people a "national home".

The Palestinians would later pay the price for that "criminal" pact, which helped formally establish the state of Israel in 1948, wrote Amjad Arar yesterday.

Adding insult to injury, the Arab elites today are casually letting down the Palestinian cause, however dear a pursuit it still is for the Arab masses, he noted.

"There are the marginalised millions whose voice is not heard … while the elites who get to talk do not represent them, either in terms of numbers or frame of mind."

For his part, columnist Mohammed Obeid argued that the US support for Israel equals, if not surpasses, the "devastating" effects of the Balfour Declaration.

Washington is further entrenching Israeli hegemony in the region with its unconditional military and diplomatic support.

"Right now in Washington, two parties are competing, each trying to show off that they are more committed to supporting Israel," he said.

Movie song angers Shiites in Egypt

The Egyptian movie Abdo Mouta has caused a stir among Egypt's Shiites who have called for it to be banned because it features belly dancer Dina raving to a song praising Fatima, the daughter of Prophet Mohammed, reported film critic Tarek El Shenawi in the London-based paper Al Sharq Al Awsat.

Although artistically a bad movie, Abdu Mouta has fared exceptionally well at the box office, with revenues exceeding those earned by films with A-list actors.

Some patrons have been seen carrying knives and throwing stones at cinemas after tickets were sold out and doors closed.

Some Shiites have filed a lawsuit against the movie, demanding that the censorship board place a ban on it for being obscene and disrespectful to the Prophet's daughter.

"Combining religious recitations with dancing is not new to Egypt's popular culture," the writer commented. "In fact, the lyrics to a number of sentimental songs are altered to become Madih songs [praising the prophet] during the celebrations of the Prophet's birthday."

Abu Mouta is a very bad movie with the main box-office draws - dance, violence, sex and swearing - but like dozens of other films, "we pan it artistically but we don't confiscate it religiously", the writer said.

* Digest compiled by The Translation Desk