One evening last fall I joined a small crowd in a dusty room off busy Qasr-Al-Nil
street in Cairo, facing a banner that read, “Welcome to the Cultural Salon
of Dr. Alaa Al Aswany.” Many of those seated around me seemed to be simple
celebrity spotters, there to see in the flesh the biggest-selling novelist
in Arabic, Al Aswany, who is also an increasingly bold critic of President
Hosni Mubarak’s regime,
More =========================================================================================
Iran has the right to exist
as long as it doesn't attack Israel...
In response to a question on what she would do if the Islamic
republic were to attack US ally Israel, Clinton told ABC News:
"I want the Iranians to know that if I'm the president, we will
attack Iran. "In the next 10 years, during which they might
foolishly consider launching an attack on Israel, we would be
able to totally obliterate them."
British minister says
Clinton's 'obliterate' Iran tone imprudent
by Staff Writers London (AFP) April 23, 2008 A British foreign minister said
Wednesday that US Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary
Clinton's threat to "totally obliterate" Iran if it attacked
Israel with nuclear weapons was imprudent.
More
Top 10 things you should know about John McCain (but
probably don't):
!0.
McCain has sought closer ties to the extreme religious
right in recent years. The pastor McCain calls his
"spiritual guide," Rod Parsley, believes America's
founding mission is to destroy Islam, which he calls a
"false religion." .More
The 2008 Republican race has left a
bitter legacy of sloganeering against Muslims.
It may well haunt the party this November.
By Juan Cole
Feb. 1, 2008 | For much of January, one might
have thought that the Republican candidates for
president were already competing against a
single opponent. Not one called Hillary or
Barack, but with a moniker even more chilling in
the eyes of hard-line Republicans: Islamic
fascism.
More
The Race Card
Does
George Bush Care About Black People?
Posted Wednesday, Jan.
23, 2008, at 7:18 AM ET
More
From Hitler to Pinochet and beyond, history
shows there are certain steps that any would-be dictator must take
to destroy constitutional freedoms. And, argues Naomi Wolf, George
Bush and his administration seem to be taking them all.
More
Once, not
long ago, a small Egyptian Police band arrived in Israel.
They came to play at an initiation
ceremony but, due to bureaucracy, bad luck, or for whatever reason,
they were left stranded at the airport. They tried to manage on
their own, only to find themselves in a desolate, almost forgotten,
small Israeli town, somewhere in the heart of the desert. A
lost band in a lost town. Not many people remember this. It
wasn’t that important.
More
According to the article:
The
FBI sifted through customer
data collected by San
Francisco-area grocery
stores in 2005 and 2006,
hoping that sales records of
Middle Eastern food would
lead to Iranian terrorists.
The idea was that a spike
in, say, falafel sales,
combined with other data,
would lead to Iranian secret
agents in the south San
Francisco-San Jose area. The
brainchild of top FBI
counterterrorism officials
Phil Mudd and Willie T.
Hulon, according to
well-informed sources, the
project didn’t last long. It
was torpedoed by the head of
the FBI’s criminal
investigations division,
Michael A. Mason, who argued
that putting somebody on a
terrorist list for what they
ate was ridiculous — and
possibly illegal.
More
Her
hijab (head scarf) is firmly in place, her slender frame
encased in an ankle length skirt and a full-sleeved top. One is
tempted to cast this mother of four as a "typical" Muslim woman. But
listening to her, or viewing her films makes one realize that she is
all about breaking stereotypes.
This 34-year-old filmmaker and journalist who describes herself as a
Canadian Muslim has acquired a cult status with her films, which
examine and demolish stereotypes associated with Muslims as
terrorists, wife abusers and religious extremists. And that too with
loads of wit. The name of her production company "FUNdamentalist
Films" reflects her satirical bent of mind, and this streak is
evident in her film trilogy - 'BBQ Muslims', 'Death Threat' and her
first feature 'Real Terrorists Don't Belly Dance'
Mpls. restaurant owner to build housing
development
A
favorite Minneapolis neighborhood restaurant
wants to use its popularity to make life in the
area a little better. Owner of the Holy Land
wants to improve the area and in November of
this year, hopes to break ground on a
multi-million dollar development...
Full Article
Tinariwen's
Beginnings: Tinariwen is a group
made up of Tuareg people. When the
country
Mali
was formed in the 1960s, the Tuaregs
were repressed. Eventually,
Muammar
al-Qadaffi
recruited large groups of young Tuaregs
to fight in Libya's army. Tinariwen met
and formed in Qadaffi's rebel camps.
More
Egypt's
democrats feeling betrayed
By Liz Sly
Tribune foreign correspondent
Published March 28, 2007
CAIRO -- In the heady aftermath of
the Iraq invasion, President Bush outlined a bold and ambitious U.S.
strategy to democratize the Arab world in which Egypt was expected
to play a leading role.
More.
=============================================================================================
The Israeli Lobby
John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt
For the past several decades, and especially since the Six-Day War in
1967, the centrepiece of US Middle Eastern policy has been its
relationship with Israel. The combination of unwavering support for
Israel and the related effort to spread ‘democracy’ throughout the
region has inflamed Arab and Islamic opinion
More
The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) explores the Middle East through the region's
media. MEMRI bridges the language gap which exists between the West
and the Middle East, providing timely translations of Arabic and
Farsi media, as well as original analysis of political, ideological,
intellectual, social, cultural, and religious trends in the Middle
East.
Under the glistening dome of a mosque
on Long Island, hundreds of men sat cross-legged on the floor. Many
were doctors and engineers born in Pakistan and India. Dressed in
khakis, polo shirts and the odd silk tunic, they fidgeted and
whispered.
More
Where
Alaa Al Aswany Is Writing From
==============================================================================================
Top 10 things you should know about John McCain (but
probably don't): 
Does
George Bush Care About Black People?
A new movie
Her
hijab (head scarf) is firmly in place, her slender frame
encased in an ankle length skirt and a full-sleeved top. One is
tempted to cast this mother of four as a "typical" Muslim woman. But
listening to her, or viewing her films makes one realize that she is
all about breaking stereotypes. 
A
favorite Minneapolis neighborhood restaurant
wants to use its popularity to make life in the
area a little better. Owner of the Holy Land
wants to improve the area and in November of
this year, hopes to break ground on a
multi-million dollar development...
Listen
to Ahmed's letters
How
Americans are becoming avers to reason?
