A fair share of the Arab airwaves today are dominated by quacks and pseudo-scientists selling their bogus theories on a whole host of things. Here is a good example from a television program talking about the importance of Mecca. When I first saw this, I did not know whether to laugh or cry. I just [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Arab World’
Broadcasting ignorance!
Posted in Journalism, tagged Arab World, Islam on February 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Gaddafi’s a good laugh!
Posted in Politics, tagged Arab World on February 3, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A few years ago Gaddafi “turned his back” on the Arabs when they refused to heed his advice on something or other. Now, he is doing the same to Africa, apparently, and has hinted at closer ties with Europe and, yes, the Arab world if they do not follow his whim. What’s next? In a [...]
Akhir kalima!
Posted in Society, tagged Arab World on December 4, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
A few years ago the UNDP’s Arab Human Development Report declared that not enough books were being translated into Arabic. And so our good friends in the Gulf decided to throw money at the “problem” and now we have Kalima! This project aims to translate many works in various foreign tongues into Arabic for the [...]
Clueless Osama
Posted in Foreign Affairs, tagged Arab World, Middle East, Terrorism, United States on September 9, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
So, we are supposed to now believe that OBL has shaved his beard and looks younger. Oh well, if you say so. Sure, the explanation sounds plausible enough.
Meanwhile, according to the title of a Reuters article, the Arab world is worried about another OBL inspired attack. Curiously the article does not follow up on [...]
Corruption is our making
Posted in Society, tagged Arab World, Corruption, Lebanon, Middle East on June 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
We all complain about corruption in Lebanon and that it is the number one problem in the country, even the source of all our troubles; in fact, it is; but its our complaining about it that makes no sense.
The fact is, corruption lives in every part of our public life and it governs everything thanks [...]
Dogma in public life
Posted in Society, tagged Arab World, Cartoons, Islam on June 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
In the Middle East we define our public (and private) lives by dogmas in which we purport to believe strongly. They can either be religious or non-religious secular dogma. In most Gulf countries, for example, there is a strong dominance of Islamic dogma which appears to define everything, from the way people eat to how [...]
A just settlement
Posted in Foreign Affairs, tagged Arab World, Israel, Jewish-Arab Relations, Middle East, Palestine, Peace, Refugees on April 2, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
It is with great hope that we receive the recent gesture by Arab states to renew their peace offer to Israel during the recent summit in Riyad and Ehud Olmert’s subsequent invitation to Arab leaders to a peace conference in which all parties can state their vision for peace. I think these gestures represent many [...]
The origin of the Palestine-Israel conflict
Posted in Foreign Affairs, tagged Arab World, Israel, Jewish-Arab Relations, Middle East, Palestine, Refugees, Zionism on March 23, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
“The Palestinians have a real grievance: their homeland for over a thousand years was taken, without their consent and mostly by force, during the creation of the state of Israel. And all subsequent crimes—on both sides—inevitably follow from this original injustice.”
This is how the paper The Origins of the Palestine-Israel Conflict published by Jews For [...]
Divided we stand
Posted in Politics, tagged Arab World, Constitution, Lebanon, Middle East, Reform on November 11, 2006 | Leave a Comment »
We hear a lot about plans to divide and federalize and cantonize, from Lebanon to Iraq to Palestine. The mere mention of such topics can often turn a calm and reasonable person into a raging bull. But are such suggestions really as bad as they are made out to be?
While there are often valid fears [...]
Open to compromise
Posted in Foreign Affairs, tagged Arab World, Israel, Lebanon, Middle East, Opinion on October 10, 2006 | Leave a Comment »
In a recent CNN poll 62% of those polled felt that Israel’s attack of Lebanon was justified. While this appears to most of us a reflection of the clear bias in the US and western Europe in favor of Israel, I would suggest that it could have been worse. Consider that in a recent poll [...]
