Muslims as Model Minority?

Racism Review has an excellent post up right now about the western worldview presented in the recent Gallup press book, Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think (by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed, who must be Gallup’s token Muslim). The book is interesting, as it, at first glance, seems to be an [...]

A democracy is only as righteous as its citizens

Today, many people are outraged at the Swiss people’s decision to ban minarets from their skylines, a decision made by referendum.

From the outset, let me say that I am wholly opposed to this decision, just as I am opposed to the burqa ban in France, Egypt’s ban on building churches, several Muslim countries’ bans on conversion, and Saudi Arabia’s banning of female hair. I fundamentally believe in the right of anyone to practice their religion, anywhere (though I certainly prefer they keep it to themselves). I should also say that two wrongs don’t make a right: I’ve heard plenty of statements along the lines of “good for the Swiss, they’re standing up to Islam” from people who, were the tables turned, would call inequality if a majority-Muslim nation does the same thing.

Shepard Smith: “Maj. Hasan’s Name Says it All, Senator”

FOX News anchor Shepard Smith is sometimes seen as a dim beacon of light in an otherwise black hole of a television channel, a voice of reason amongst the reasonless, if you will.  And yet, yesterday, following the Fort Hood shootings, an appearance by Texan senator Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) seemed to change all that, [...]

He was just dyeing to be a zebra!

As we’ve read from Hanitizer’s many posts from Gaza, Gazans are famously innovative at getting things done, and making ends meet with what little makes it through the tunnels. One Gaza City zoo, unable to afford the high price of zebra smuggling, has come up with its own animal…

Religion is Personal (Or Eating in Public During Ramadan)

n a post I wrote recently for Global Voices, I covered the efforts of the e Mouvement Alternatif pour les Libertés Individuelles, a new Moroccan activist group that recently made headlines for eating in public during Ramadan. In effect, they broke the law; Article 222 of the Moroccan Penal Code stipulates that a Muslim who openly breaks the fast in public during Ramadan can be punished by one to six months’ imprisonment and a fine. This is not the first time someone has been arrested – in past years, non-fasters have been arrested and made scapegoats by local police – but it is certainly the first time in recent history that a group has set out to protest the law.

How to Write About Muslims

(This was originally posted over at my own blog – you can read the comments – negative and positive – there) Last week, I read Judy Bacharach’s “Twice Branded – Western Women in Muslim Lands” (bint battuta already dug into it here). You may also want to take a gander at the growing catfight between [...]

Oh Noes, Mo VI has the flu!

Editor Ali Anouzla and journalist Bochra Daou of the Moroccan independent daily Al-Jarida al-Oula were detained on Tuesday and held for two days on charges that they had published false news about the King’s health. So what did they say, exactly?

Fair and Balanced

As if Fox News didn’t distort the truth enough, now they’ve annexed Iraq too! If they had labeled Egypt, I wonder what they might have called it…Morocco? Seriously though, why is Fox making its own maps anyway? Don’t they have people for that? People who are not conservative idiots with no knowledge of the Middle [...]

Un-Sanctioning Syria

A notable news item this morning is that of the United States’ lifting two bits of its sanctions on Syria, one of which happens to be its ban on the import/export of IT, including hardware and software (the other is on the exportation of goods to the Syrian aviation industry). Syrian envoy to the U.S. Imad Moustapha (a blogger in his own right) announced the news yesterday, stating that more sanctions will be lifted soon.

Poor Alternatives

Anne Applebaum, liberal-ish Washington Post and Slate correspondent, former-USSR expert, and wife of the Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs, recently published the most ridiculous op-ed of all time, entitled “Morocco, an Alternative to Iran.”  On Slate, it was published as “Morocco Makes Peace With Its Past” (perhaps even more proposterous), and I perhaps wouldn’t have [...]