A puzzling issue for those of us who study the modern Middle East is the slow—and in some instances nonexistent—progress toward more open and inclusive political systems. Why does authoritarianism persist in the Middle East? Why have regimes in many parts of the world, from East Europe to Latin America and elsewhere, made successful transitions from authoritarianism while the Middle East has lagged behind? Is the Middle Eastern exceptionalism likely to endure?

What makes these questions more paradoxical is the presence of a number of democrats and reformers in the Middle East, as well as human rights organizations and civic groups, that attempt to provide a check on abuses of power and try to promote political reform. Moreover, there are regimes such as Israel and Turkey where democratic political systems, with limitations, exist and function reasonably successfully. Although in a few other polities (Lebanon, Iran, Egypt, Kuwait, and so on) semi-regular competitive elections for high offices are held, exclusionary tactics are used routinely to keep some individuals and groups from becoming active players in the political arena.

The computer has gone through several metamorphoses since all of us began to make room for it on our desktops more than a decade ago. First it was a nimble and versatile typewriter, then a hefty number cruncher, and now it is becoming the ultimate communications device, connected by modem and telephone lines to an amorphous global network called the Internet. I eagerly invested in one of the earliest personal computers, a quaint little machine that I now realize was the research equivalent of training wheels. I also bought a modem when such devices were little more than clumsy novelties and dutifully plugged into a telephone jack, only to discover there was nothing of any significance on the other end of the line.

The internet has been a continually changing forum for communicating that has been taken up by diaspora communities to maintain connections with their countrymates all over the world. In that capacity, the technology has been an easy and innovative avenue for cultural expression. Iranians, for instance, have established on-line magazines, newsgroups, media and business directories, human rights organizations, student groups, academic organizations and book publishers for a transnational community. Who goes to these sites and why?

A well-known journalist in Cairo, Rajā’ al-Naqqāsh, wrote that, as a child, he thought “listening to Umm Kulthūm” meant “listening to singing.” When the adults around him listened to singing, they listened to Umm Kulthūm, thus “singing,” in his youthful experience, equated to “Umm Kulthūm.” While this attitude would be rare in Egypt now as listeners have moved other music into the domains of their daily life, Umm Kulthūm remains a formidable presence as she has been for nearly a century.