RamadanMassacre

An enlightening and informed – thus rare – Facebook conversation on the events in Syria.

Reducing Chances of Being Sexually Harassed in an Arab country

The following list is by no means a guaranteed obliteration of all unwanted verbal or physical advances.

Aladdin Comes to Orange County

Tea Party Youth LA hit the streets of Downtown Fullerton to battle a the re-release of that damned 1992 Disney propaganda film Aladdin.

Women’s Voices from the Muslim World Short Film Festival

For folks who live in Los Angeles, a brand new film festival will be inaugurated today. Women’s Voices Now presents Women’s Voices from the Muslim World Short Film Festival taking place this Thursday through Saturday (March 17th-19th) at the Los Angeles Film School in Hollywood. Films will be screened about the social, political and economic issues being faced by women in countries from Afghanistan to Iran to Egypt. Admission is free! For more information please go to www.womensvoicesnow.org.

MLK Jr & the Montgomery Bus Boycott: “The Montgomery Story”

a 50 year-old (released in 1958) throwback gets an arabee makeover (by way of the American Islamic Congress):

Gaddafi: A Mixture of Mubarak and Saddam (Guest Post)

Originally published for Deaf Walls by Yousef K.B.
(click on the link for access to the hyperlinks in the original post):

When former Tunisian President Zine al-Abidine Ben-Ali left Tunisia after he lost control of the state following massive protests that gripped his country in January, Arab leaders were silent, each looking on with shock at the prospects of people overcoming their fear and toppling a vicious security state much like theirs. The only voice that spoke up was Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi, the president of Libya, known for his off-the-cuff remarks. He told the Tunisian public: “I am very pained by what is happening in Tunisia. Tunisia now lives in fear … Families could be raided and slaughtered in their bedrooms and the citizens in the street killed as if it was the Bolshevik or the American Revolution. … What is this for? To change Zine al-Abidine? Hasn’t he told you he would step down after three years? Be patient for three years and your son stays alive.” Seeped in hubris, Gaddafi could not imagine that he was in line to be toppled by his own people.

“Standing in Solidarity”

In record time, filmmaker, social activist, journalist, all-around-badass Hena Ashraf produces a video exhibiting the scores of cross-cultural support by New Yorkers for the Egyptian people’s pro-democracy protests. #nycsolidarity #jan25

“Hooverian Nights” Part I

American Orientalism and presidential mockery at its finest. I was kinda feeling bad for Herbert Hoover’s Secretary of Interior and Treasury until realized that they got to be “sheiks” and “memlooks”

Excerpt from an article by Wallace Irwin (June 20, 1931) for The Saturday Evening Post. enjoy (I personally re-typed it from an original source):

“Herbi Hooveh was a Kalif
From the State where Kalifs grow—
Kalif-ornia I refer to.
Doubt this point, if you prefer to,
Yest I’ll stick to what I know.
Herbi Hooveh’s Kalifate
Covered many a savage state
From Alaska’s frozen spots
To Miami’s vacant lots.

Tunisia and American social media

Almost a year ago, I started a post about revolutionary regime change in the Arab world writing, “The domino effect starts with the largest and one of the most politically corrupt nations in this culturally geographically designated (Arab) “world.” Prescient? Only if I wasn’t talking about Egypt. Tunisian unrest over unemployment, economic disparity and autocratic corruption (is there any other kind?) was far from my mind, and many others unfamiliar with the former French colony’s struggles with 23 year-ruling president Ben Ali. But yesterday, Tunisia and the people of Tunisia appeared to be on the minds and status updates of many who also commemorated the day’s historic popular uprising by switching their profile picture to the flag of Tunisia. Below are some that appeared on my newsfeed. I start out with my favorite of the round-up:

“Can someone please do that again, except in Egypt?”
-Haroon Moghul

You Know You Live In An Arab Household…

When this is a staple on your dinner table next to the salt and pepper shaker: