New hope for Libyan democracy
With conditions in Libya remaining volatile and deposed leader Moammar Gadhafi still defiant, two Middle East experts turned to a welcome but slightly atypical source during a panel discussion about the crisis on Thursday. Before speaking during the “Assessing Libya” session sponsored by Harvard’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies, E. Roger Owen, the A.J. Meyer Professor of Middle Eastern History and director of the Contemporary Arab Studies Program, asked if any Libyans were among the people packed into the room. Amr Bennis, a Harvard sophomore, raised his hand, and Owens indicated he would very much like to hear from Bennis. Bennis did comment, but waited until he heard from Owen and from William Granara, Professor of the Practice of Arabic on the Gordon Gray Endowment, who looked at recent events though a literary telescope. “Libyan fiction does really connect with fiction in other parts of the Arab world,” said William Granara (left),...