Shaul Magid, "Pariah or Charmed Hero: America's Obsession with Jews and Israel," ReligionDispatches (Oct. 21, 2008)
A thought-provoking piece on the deeper (and darker) meaning of America's unwavering support for Israel.
more fromwww.religiondispatches.org
Heavy Metal Islam, a new book by Mark LeVine
A collection of profiles of Middle Eastern musicians -- metal, punk, reggae and hip-hop. Looks to be worth checking out.
more fromheavymetalislam.net
Anna Blackshaw, "My Enemy, My Brother (interview with David Gorssman on the conflict betwen Israel and Palestine)," The Sun Magazine (October 2008)
This is only an excerpt from the full interview. Even the excerpt is worth a read though. Grossman is an Israeli writer who manages to combine a powerful and ongoing activism for peace and justice for Palestinians, a strong and unapologetic sense of Israel's Jewish, Zionist, and historical distrinctiveness, and a genuinely poetic sensibility. His son Uri, a tank commander, was killed in the summer-before-last's fighting in Lebanon. Themes of the interview overlap strikingly with Appleby's work, I think.
more fromwww.thesunmagazine.org
Surveying the Arab World for Ramadan's Best and Worst
A Dubai marketing firm has surveyed Muslim attitudes and practices regarding Ramadan, with some interesting results -- though I'm skeptical about some of the numbers.
more frommiddleeast.about.com
THE JERUSALEM DECLARATION ON CHRISTIAN ZIONISM
The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem along with other local Christian leaders expresses its opposition to the mostly-American phenomenon of Christian Zionism.
more fromwww.hcef.org
Apocalyptic prophesies and the war in South Ossetia: Glenn Beck interviews Joel Rosenberg
Transcript of a recent interview between conservative talk-show host Glenn Beck and "The Last Jihad" author Joel Rosenberg about the current Russian-Georgian conflict and the prophecies of Ezekiel 38 and 39.
more fromflashtrafficblog.wordpress.com
'The girl screamed. I don't remember anything else': Samir Qantar's account of Nahariya (The Guardian)
more fromwww.guardian.co.uk
No WMD in Iran? Really?
The Wisconsin Project on Nuclear Arms Control is not so sure about the comforting news in the National Intelligence Estimate on Iran. They see considerable evidence that Iran's bomb-development capacities are strong and growing.
more fromwww.iranwatch.org
Annalee Newitz, "Anti-authoritarian Cities" (AlterNet, 9/5/2007)
Reflections on the significance of new discoveries about the development of the ancient Syrian town Brak, which appears to have grown together out of various disparate groups rather than emerging from a hierarchical foundation.
more fromwww.alternet.org
Ten minutes with the Christians United for Israel
Max Blumenthal's highly unauthorized ten-minute video piece on what John Hagee's influential organization, the Christians United for Israel, actually preaches: mass conversion of Jews, Muslims as Satanists, a Middle East peace treaty as the work of Antich
more fromwww.youtube.com
Cartoon: varieties of hijab on the Syrian street
A cartoonist calling herself "Puppeteer" drew this amusing catalogue of the varieties of hijab she encounters walking to work each day in Damascus.
more fromwww.inblogs.net
New Palestinian PM warns religious militants
Key quote: "Salam Fayyad has said he won't tolerate calls for violence delivered from mosque pulpits and plans to collect militants' weapons." I wonder whether he actually has enough control over the situation to back this up.
more fromwww.ndtv.com
Palestinian blogger: Hamas & Fatah, go to hell!
The title says it all. He, too, sees Western support of Fatah as a treacherous and cynical way of prolonging intra-Palestinian conflict and sacrificing Palestinian lives. Palestinians, he says, want the PA and Fatah -- both corrupt -- and Hamas -- equally
more fromsabbah.biz
A Palestinian blogger's disgust at factional fighting
A Palestinian student blogger observes that the factional violence in the Palestinian territory is all the more absurd because the PA itself has zero power. Not surprisingly, she blames Israel and the U.S. for building up Fatah's military power and thus f
more fromalfalasteenyia.blogspot.com
In Iran, "life is insecure"
An Iranian blogger's remarks on the "insecurity" bred by the vagueness of Iranian law. For example, freedom of speech is guaranteed, but insults to Islam -- which can be defined however the authorities like -- are criminal acts. As a result, anyone can be
more fromwww.mideastyouth.com
Amr Diab - Nour al Ain
Egyptian pop.
more from81.196.50.124
Egypt arrests 2 Muslim Brotherhood MPs, 10 others, in ongoing crackdown
The Mubarak government's crackdown on the banned Muslim Brotherhood continues in an apparent effort to prevent the organization from fielding candidates for parliamentary elections. Wouldn't want to bring TOO much democracy to the Middle East, now.
more fromwww.iht.com
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