Significance of new species of Cryptorhynchia (Brachiopoda) from the Middle Jurassic of Kutch,India

Cryptorhynchia is a brachiopod genus, until recently known only from the late Bathonian. Two new species C. karuna and C. jhooraensis are here described from the middle Bathonian at Kutch, western India and record the earliest known occurrences of the genus. They constitute ancestor-descendant lineages with the two existing younger species C. pulcherrima and C. rugosa respectively. Evolution in both cases shows ‘parallel’ trends and the descendants are scaled-down versions of their respective progenitors. Statistical analyses reveal that this evolutionary miniaturization involves allometry-induced heterochrony, especially progenesis, and is marked by a rapid speciation event compatible with the punctuational model. Evolution appears to be anagenetic and may be attributed to the unstable nature of environment where onshore innovation produced smaller descendants that adopted r-strategy. Facies distribution and functional morphology suggest that species of Cryptorhynchia were well adapted to shallow, unstable carbonate shelf. However, they disappeared suddenly at the Bathonian - Callovian boundary which was marked by a global transgression. The possible causal factors of their extinction may be the consequent changes in bathymetry and substrate condition.     

Egypt,Islamists, and the Internet: The Case of the Muslim Brotherhood and Its Rhetoric of Dialectics in Ikhwanweb

This essay offers an ideological analysis of the rhetoric of the Islamist Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) in its official English‐language Web site, Ikhwanweb, between 2005 and 2010 — years preceding the Egyptian uprising of January 2011. The purpose was to examine the ideology manifest in the rhetoric and uncover the instrumental function the rhetoric served. Analysis brought forth a post‐Islamist ideology manifest through a rhetoric of dialectics. The instrumental function of the Egyptian MB's rhetoric in Ikhwanweb was to alter Western societies' monolithic understanding of Islamism — radical, undemocratic, inflexible. The cyber‐rhetoric was also used as a means to disapprove certain Western agents' support for authoritarian regimes. During Mubarak's rule, Ikhwanweb was used as a communicative medium to demonstrate to the West the Egyptian MB's need to be valued — respected regardless of ideological differences, understood rather than essentialized, stereotyped, and prejudged, and supported as a pragmatic, political entity within Egypt.     

The Role of Culture and Technology in Civil Society Promotion in the Middle East: A Case Study Approach

For over a decade, the U.S. administration has been sponsoring capacity‐building efforts focusing on technology to support democracy activists in Middle Eastern societies; such efforts have often fallen short in their effectiveness. In this article, using a case study approach, we argue that capacity‐building efforts must be approached in a culture‐specific manner. It is imperative to begin exploring the specific nature of civil society in different Middle Eastern societies and translate the Western concept of “civil society” into terms appropriate to Middle Eastern contexts. Based on a culture‐specific understanding, programs involving technology to promote democratic institutions in Middle Eastern societies can be designed.