Author Archives: Arab America

LONDON, England – Hollywood star George Clooney’s wife, celebrity human rights lawyer Amal Clooney, 37, is a prodigiously busy lady. No sooner has the “breathtakingly beautiful and formidably successful”  lawyer accompanied her husband to the premiere of his latest movie than she is representing nine men from Northern Ireland who are seeking to take the UK to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

The Independent reports that the case revolves around allegations that the “hooded men” were held without trial and tortured, following the Conservative government’s decision to introduce internment to Northern Ireland in 1971. The group, backed by the Irish Government, claims that then Prime Minister Sir Edward Heath knowingly condoned the use of torture on detainees during this period. According to Jim McIlmurray, the historian co-ordinating the legal action, documents have been uncovered which show “torture was discussed at the highest level with the knowledge of Heath,” adding:

“Because of this documentation the case is very much black and white. The UK Government had lied about its knowledge and six months prior to internment had ordered a special unit to carry out torture.”

The Independent also reports that Mrs Clooney will be accompanied by her husband on the trip “to ensure the case gets maximum publicity,” although McIlmurray is concerned that this could “turn the case into a circus.” It is not known whether this will be included in the proposed holiday to Ireland which George Clooney spoke of to the Irish Independent earlier this year . Clooney told the paper:

“I’ve been talking about going there for years and Bono has been trying to get me to do a bike ride around Ireland with him. He probably won’t be up for that now, but I’m definitely going to make a visit happen this summer. Amal has been several times, so she can show me around.”

This is far from the only high profile case which which Mrs Clooney, number two in the 2015 100 Most Powerful Arab Women List , has been involved.

First coming to prominence in 2011 as part of Julian Assange’s team fighting his extradition to Sweden on sexual assault charges, in October last year Mrs Clooney visited Greece to advise the Greek government on how best to try to retrieve the Elgin Marbles from the British Museum. On that occasion she attended the New Acropolis Museum in Athens dressed by Chanel and Prada.

More recently Mrs Clooney joined the faculty of Columbia University as a visiting lecturer where she will lecture on human rights law and serve as a fellow with the law school’s Human Rights Institute. She chose an Oscar de la Renta suit for this occasion. Hello! Magazine reports “London-based Amal’s latest adventure couldn’t come at a better time. Her husband, George, 53, is currently based in New York, where he is filming his latest project, “Money Monster.”

There are signs that Mrs Clooney is beginning to fear the attention given to her clothing may detract from her serious role as a human rights advocate. She is now representing the state of Armenia in its European Court of Human Rights case relating to the Armenian Genocide. The case centres on the freedom to describe the genocide of 1915, in which up to 1.5 million Armenians were killed by Ottoman Turks, as an “international lie.” Mrs Clooney is arguing in support of Switzerland’s criminal sanctions relating to denial of the Armenian Genocide.

When asked what she would be wearing to court for the hearing she replied “I’m wearing Ede and Ravenscroft” – a reference to the English legal robe makers and tailors established in 1689.

Source: www.breitbart.com

The Beirut Port is thriving, the Port Authority’s director Hassan Kraytem, tells Executive from his panoramic office overlooking the shipyard. Its success — the port transferred nearly $55 million of its profits to the treasury in 2014 according to data from the Finance Ministry — is largely due to its growth into a transshipment hub and an increase in container traffic. But a plan to expand the port to increase this capacity has resulted in labor strikes and political controversy.

Whereas today the fourth basin can only handle ships carrying general cargo — commodities such as grain and flour, cars and other goods that are not easily containerized — the plan is to fill the basin and create a multipurpose terminal to handle both general cargo and containers. Filling the port’s fourth basin is the point of contention. Truck drivers shuttling goods from the port to destinations in Lebanon and beyond had called for work on the expansion project to stop, arguing that jobs would be lost, with Bkirki — the seat of the Maronite Catholic Patriarchate — and the Lebanese Forces, Kataeb, Free Patriotic Movement (FPM) and Marada Movement supporting their cause. It is yet unclear why the Church has gotten involved. Minister of Education Elias Bou Saab, a FPM party official, told The Daily Star in February that in the absence of a president the Church was the best representative of Christians. Local media reports suggested the Council of Ministers would meet in late April to debate the issue but as of yet no compromise has been reached. The Church did not respond to a request for comment.

The Port Authority, meanwhile, argues that the expansion is, in Kraytem’s words, “purely economical — a project that is in the interest of the port and of Lebanon as a whole.” Until the two sides sort out their differences, the expansion is on hold with ongoing discussions that could result in alterations to the original plan.

Reaching capacity

A colorful mix of containers sit stacked on top of one another in Beirut port’s container terminal. Completed in 2000, operation of the terminal commenced only a few years later under subcontracted management by the Beirut Container Terminal Consortium (BCTC). The original capacity of the terminal allowed processing of up to the equivalent of 745,000 twenty foot containers (TEU) per year. Capacity quickly peaked according to statistics available on the BCTC website and by 2010 the terminal was bustling, handling nearly 1,000,000 TEU annually.

Source: www.executive-magazine.com

Meet the new Israeli government; same as the old government.  Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is still at the top. Yes, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, a notorious anti-Palestinian bigot, has opted out of the coalition, but the governing principles remain much the same as before vis-à-vis Palestinians.  The corrosive occupation remains and illegal settlements will surely be expanded.  The status quo remains dreadful for Palestinians and it is not good for Israelis either, though Netanyahu appears convinced he can manage the situation. Perhaps, but it’s a very dangerous game he is playing to think he can exercise control over millions of Palestinians indefinitely. 

Economic prospects for Palestinians in the West Bank remain severely constrained. The opportunities for our people are sharply limited by Israeli policies that limit our ability to use our own natural resources and develop industry and housing in the 60 percent of the West Bank designated as Area C by the antiquated Oslo Accords.  This agreement, signed over 20 years ago, today serves only to mock Palestinian freedom aspirations and concretize a status quo that prohibits Palestinian innovation and industry in most of the territory that international law and consensus generally recognize as Palestinian.

The division of the West Bank into Areas A, B, and C is chillingly reminiscent of the experience of black South Africans with the land grab carried out by white South Africans. Palestinians are prohibited from developing or building in Area C without Israeli approval, which is rarely given. The Palestinian Business Committee rejects this arbitrary division of land and calls on U.S. policymakers to support its proposals to develop Area C with projects that will contribute to increased employment and economic growth.
Our requests for Congressional understanding have largely been ignored to date.  Worse, this Congress is now legislating against the Palestinian nonviolent action of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) as a means to secure Palestinian freedom.  Do they really intend to send the message that both Palestinian violence and nonviolence are illegitimate?  Most astonishing of all, the Congressional legislation being considered attempts to erase any difference between Israel and occupied Palestinian territory by squeezing even those BDS campaigns focused solely on illegal settlements.  In other words, even though US policy has long regarded settlements as either illegal or illegitimate, Congress opposes European BDS efforts against these settlements. Europe can speak against the injustice accompanying Israeli theft of Palestinian land, but the Congress doesn’t want the Europeans to do anything practical to end the practice and impose costs for disregarding international law.

What did Palestinians do that they have so little support from Capitol Hill for their quest for dignity and freedom?  Congressional Democrats are also absent on the matter, despite recent Pew polling indicating that sympathy for Palestinians among liberal Democrats is stronger than for Israel.  That is extraordinary new information that figures to shape the Democratic party increasingly in the years to come.

For decades, until its demise in 1994, the apartheid South African regime sought to concentrate black residents in territorial enclaves known as Bantustans. The explicit goal was to remove residency, voting, and other citizen rights from black Africans.

Israel is recreating similar conditions in the West Bank while its defenders argue that those – such as President Jimmy Carter and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu – rightly expressing outrage over such Bantustan-like conditions are anti-Semitic.  Yet the facts are with Palestinians.  The West Bank is divided into three administrative zones.  While the Palestinian Authority has varying levels of control over Areas A and B, Area C is under full Israeli control. The implications of this arrangement for the private sector are that investment in, or development of, land categorized as Area C is impossible. Even development of Areas A and B can suffer restrictions and delays if and when projects are too close to or depend upon resources from Area C.  Human Rights Watch has written a report about Israel’s two-tier legal system in Area C, tellingly titled “Separate and Unequal.”

Concerns about Area C, economic development, and Palestinian rights will be raised Monday at an all-too-unusual Congressional briefing at 12 pm in B-338 Rayburn House Office Building. Our spirits are buoyed by growing support from liberal Democrats and from African Americans and Latinos who have fought their own battles for freedom and equality.  Liberal Jewish voices provided crucial support to those movements.  They are desperately needed again today.  The leadership of Jewish Voice for Peace in battling for our rights raises the question of why AIPAC is so steadfastly against advances in rights and freedom for Palestinians and why members of Congress give it such deference.  A different reality will be presented by my colleagues and me on Monday that members of Congress should heed as we continue our march to Palestinian freedom.

Source: thehill.com

Tariq Abu Khdeir, the 15-year-old Palestinian-American seen on video last summer being beaten brutally by three Israeli policemen, was received last month at the White House by U.S. National Security Council officials, ahead of an upcoming Abu Khdeir family visit to East Jerusalem.

CNN also reported on Monday that many Obama administration officials believe Israel takes a nonchalant attitude toward army killings and woundings of Palestinian-American minors, unless the incidents are captured on video.

Suha Abu Khdeir, who accompanied her son to the West Wing meeting on April 15, said they had sought American assurances that Tariq would not be targeted by police during their visit to East Jerusalem’s Shoafat neighborhood, where many members of their extended family live.

“I’m hoping that they can do something to help us … [so] we don’t endure any difficulties on our travels when we get there,” said the mother. White House officials, she added, “didn’t guarantee anything.” The Abu Khdeirs live in Tampa, Florida.

Tariq Abu Khdeir was beaten and kicked senseless last July during one of the violent East Jerusalem demonstrations that followed the burning alive of his 16-year-old cousin, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, for which Israeli Jewish extremists have been arrested. One of the three policemen has been indicted for attacking the boy while he was helpless and “until [Abu Khdier] lost his senses,” according to the charge sheet. The boy was jailed for several days and charged with using a slingshot against police, an accusation he denies, but the charges against him were later dropped.

“The U.S. government has remained closely engaged with Tariq and his family since his return from Jerusalem,” a White House official said. “As part of the follow-up on pending issues related to his case, National Security Council staff met with the Abu Khdeirs recently.”

U.S. official: ‘We expect meaningful answer’

Also according to the CNN report, a senior administration official said that the U.S. is working with Israeli authorities and expects “to receive a meaningful answer” from an investigation into the death of an American citizen in the Palestinian town of Silwad in October. The official was referring to Orwa Hammad, 14, a Palestinian-American killed by the Israel Defense Forces on Oct. 24. The IDF said Hammad was preparing to throw a Molotov cocktail onto a road.

The senior administration official said the White House was “concerned also by the arrest and detention of several American citizen minors in recent months, including most recently Abdallah Abdo in Jerusalem who told us he had been severely beaten while in police custody, as was American citizen Tariq [Abu] Khdeir in July. Our consular team observed injuries on Mr. Abdo that appear consistent with his version of events. If accurate, we strongly condemn such excessive use of force.”

The official stressed that “whenever an American citizen is harmed, we expect full, transparent and credible investigations and – if necessary – accountability.”

Last August, after numerous members of the Abu Khdeir extended family had been arrested in East Jerusalem protests, State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said U.S. officials were “concerned about the fact that members of the [Abu] Khdeir family appeared to be singled out for arrest by the Israeli authorities.”

CNN’s Jake Tapper reported Monday that off-the record interviews with numerous administration officials indicate “a widespread belief within the Obama administration that the Israeli government does not take these incidents against American citizens with the seriousness U.S. officials believe they merit. Unless there is video evidence that excessive force was used, as in the case of Tariq [Abu] Khdeir, Israeli government officials inevitably conclude that the action taken was justified and in keeping with national security needs, officials say.”

Source: www.haaretz.com

In March, in the sunken well of a Rutgers lecture hall in Newark, the NYPD’s top counterterrorism official, John Miller, explained the new challenge posed by the Islamic State.

“These are people who are on Facebook, they’re on Instagram, they’re on Tumblr, they’re on Twitter, they’re living out loud,” Miller told an audience of about 100 law-enforcement types. “They’re posting where they’re going to lunch, they’re showing a picture of their plate, they’re saying ‘I’m on the way to the gym, this is me with my sister, here’s my vacation.’

“It’s not the secret place that al-Qaeda is,” said Miller, who as an ABC News reporter famously interviewed Osama Bin Laden from a mountaintop camp in Afghanistan in 1998. “ISIL is on Twitter. They’re on Tumblr. They’re on Facebook. They’re on social media. Their videos are on Youtube. They’re living out loud the same way the constituency they’re trying to attract is.”

The group’s online strategy has helped to swell its ranks with young recruits. An estimated 20,000 volunteers have joined the Islamic State from more than 90 different countries, with more than 4,000 of those coming from Western nations. Most recently, Islamic State claimed credit for a gunman’s attack on a Prophet Muhammad cartoon contest in Garland, Texas.

It has also prompted “lone wolf” attacks across the globe, including in New York City in October, when a Queens man attacked four NYPD officers with a machete.

Source: www.capitalnewyork.com

On its surface, the so-called “Research Triangle Region,” formed by North Carolina State University, Duke University, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, seems an unlikely place to find a minority community living in fear. But news of the February 10 shooting deaths of three young Arab-American Muslims moved like an electric current through North Carolina’s Muslim communities. It was a shock for Chapel Hill, a community best known for its university, basketball team, and progressive politics.

Mirroring what groups such as the Council on American-Islamic Relations believe are national trends, residents I spoke with said that even before the shooting, anti-Muslim sentiment had grown progressively noisier in the Triangle. This was particularly true after Muslims had been invited to host a weekly call to prayer at Duke’s chapel, which was opposed in January by popular Christian evangelist Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham. Then, on February 10, Deah Shaddy Barakat, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha, and Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha—Barakat and Yusor were married; Razan was Yusor’s sister—were shot, assassination-style, inside their apartment by a neighbor, Craig Hicks. Police said the shooting was the result of an “ongoing dispute over parking,” touching a raw nerve among Muslims across the United States.

The news, understandably, hit particularly hard in Chapel Hill, Durham, and Raleigh, where members of the Muslim community, which includes Arab-Americans, Asian-Americans, and African-Americans, traded text messages in the aftermath of the shootings. At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where Barakat was a second-year graduate student, the news was met with horror. At nearby Duke University, where Muslim students and staff had recently been the target of threats, following January’s call to prayer incident, the university’s imam, Adeel Zeb, said security was immediately increased.

Since the shootings, Muslims have looked for ways to honor the legacies of the three young people. Art projects, outreach, and a continuation of the charitable work that Barakat and the Abu-Salha sisters were known to take part in have all been started, including a “Feed Their Legacy” food drive that collected more than 170,000 cans of food and raised more than $20,000.

Beyond tributes, however, lies a new fear for personal safety. Some young men posted on Facebook about the need to keep guns in their homes for personal protection. Other residents told me they have changed their personal routines, such as no longer going out alone after dark. The day after the shootings, some Muslim parents kept their children home from school.

“If I hear somebody behind me, I’ll turn around and see who it is,” said Zeb. He said that, after the shootings, additional campus security was requested for students heading to and leaving from Muslim group events.

Taiyyiba Qutaib, a Triangle-area civil-rights lawyer, said talk about acquiring guns for personal protection is a “natural reaction” to the shootings. “That’s normal that people would want to defend themselves,” Qutaib said. “I’m a little more cautious when I’m getting out of my car, walking to my front steps.”

Dr. Salahuddin Muhammad, an associate imam at As Salaam Islamic Center, a predominantly African-American mosque in Raleigh, said that their members have become more security conscious. He added, however, that his community has been dealing with bigotry for generations. “Muslim brothers and sisters across the country are getting to feel what we’ve been dealing with for a long time,” Muhammad said. African-American Muslims find themselves doubly targeted. Shamira Lukomwa, president of the U.N.C. Muslim Student Association and a Ugandan-American, said she had already been reflecting on bigotry before the shootings, because of racially charged battles over “Silent Sam,” a statue of a Confederate soldier on the U.N.C. campus; the renaming of Saunders Hall, an on-campus building named after a U.N.C. trustee who many historians believe, in the 19th century, was a founding member of the Ku Klux Klan; and “other campus responses to the murders of Mike Brown and Eric Garner.”

Lukomwa said that, initially, there was wide outrage at the shootings throughout the U.N.C community and a lot of support for the Barakat and Abu-Salha families. But since then, Lukomwa said people have retreated to their previous positions and grown even more hardened in their ideas. “The [U.N.C.] campus is very divided,” she said.

One of the biggest points of division stems from “how to classify the murders,” Lukomwa said, “as a hate crime or an altercation over a parking dispute.” The Muslim community responded to the shootings with anti-Islamophobia events, but these were largely attended by Muslims. Meanwhile, campus Republicans, together with Christians United for Israel and the Young America’s Foundation, invited David Horowitz to speak at U.N.C. in April. Horowitz, Lukomwa said, “further alienate[d] Muslim students.”

“How many people I pass on the street are thinking this?” Lukomwa asked, referring to the anti-Muslim sentiments she reads in online comments. “It makes me very paranoid. How many people, if given a chance, would harm me?”

“You’re almost paralyzed,” said Egyptian-American Nashua Oraby, a graduate of U.N.C. and now the mother of four. For her, the biggest shock was that the shootings happened in Deah and Yusor’s home. “Every time that someone knocks on the door, I flinch just a little.”

Oraby said that she wished her Durham neighbors had contacted her after the shootings. “There was such a silence around me,” she said. “Nobody said anything. In that silence, I felt like nobody cares.”

Oraby, like many, was particularly distressed that the shootings haven’t been labeled a hate crime. “Parking dispute” became a widespread meme, a code phrase for crime potentially motivated by anti-Muslim bigotry.

Qutaib, the civil-rights lawyer, couldn’t say whether the shootings qualify as a hate crime. But the way in which the local police department immediately declared it a parking dispute, taking the confessed murderer’s words at face value, was “not just unprofessional,” she said. “Now you’ve tainted the jury pool.” Yusor and Razan Abu-Salha’s father also stated publicly that his daughters felt uncomfortable around and hated by Hicks. (In an April hearing, a judge ruled that Hicks is eligible for the death penalty. The F.B.I. is also conducting a preliminary investigation into the case.)

Many stressed the need to do more outreach, to combat the growing atmosphere of anti-Muslim bigotry. Members of the Triangle’s different Muslim communities described a surge in small bigotries in the last few months. One resident said a friend was called a “terrorist” at the Crabtree Value Mart, another was told to “go back to where [she] came from,” and still another said she was given dirty looks.

“I hope it’s not the start of something,” Qutaib said. “I know no other place where I would be happy.”

Source: www.vanityfair.com

Muslims from across Michigan are expected to gather at the state Capitol to interact with lawmakers and other leaders and build trust and understanding with political leaders and the broader public.

The annual Michigan Muslim Capitol Day, set for Tuesday, is organized by the Michigan Muslim Community Council, which is working with the National Network for Arab American Communities. Representatives of the Dearborn-based network will discuss Take on Hate — a campaign to challenge discrimination against U.S. Arabs and Muslims.

Keynote guests include former Democratic state Rep. Rashida Tlaib, campaign manager for Take on Hate, and Michigan Supreme Court Judge Stephen Markman.

The invocation in the state House is scheduled to be delivered by Zaynab Salman, a high school teacher and community activist.

Source: www.freep.com

Her accent doesn’t shy away from it. In fact, you can hear the strong sense of pride in it and it’s admirable.

“I let the Brooklyn out of me,” Sarsour laughingly admitted when she met with her supporters outside after her participation in BAM’s Islamophobia forum.

The Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM), a multi-arts center standing for nearly 150 years, has invited six panelists last Thursday to dive into a discussion on the issue surrounding Islamophobia.

Anti-Islam Campaign Galvanizes US Muslims

Media Misconceptions Haunt US Muslims

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Joined by Al Jazeera’s the Stream host, Wajahat Ali, and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart correspondent Bassem Youssef, Sarsour more than held her own against panelists with the opposing viewpoint–Iraqi filmmaker Faisal Saeed al-Mutar, author Asra Nomani, and British journalist Douglas Murray–when they co-opted the discussion into condemning Islam, identifying it with the acts of a few extremists.

Sarsour, a social justice activist and media commentator, has been intrinsically involved in the Muslim community both as a director of social service agency Arab American Association of New York and as the Advocacy and Civic Engagement Coordinator for the National Network for Arab American Communities.

Her work transcends boundaries and her persona shatters stereotypes of Muslim women. OnIslam was honored to be able to engage in an exclusive interview with Linda Sarsour.

 

OnIslam: You just finished your discussion, or debate, on Islamophobia. Any remarks or comments on how that went about?
 

Linda Sarsour: I think it’s a debate that doesn’t happen often. I welcome it. I wish that they would have more true New Yorkers in places like Brooklyn. They had to bring a guy from London (Douglas Murray) to tell me what it’s like being an American-Muslim, I do find that a bit disingenuous, but I welcome the entire debate that had happen.

 

OI: We heard Asra talk a bit about free speech, but we’ve seen it become a recurrence when anti-Muslim polemics pain themselves as free speech martyrs when in actuality, they are advocating on trampling the free speech rights of Muslims as in the case of Pamela Geller, Geert Wilders and the Garland shooting. What do you come about this sort of hypocrisy?

 

LS: They are definitely not free speech advocates. They are anti-Muslim activists. That’s what they do for a living. For Asra to point out that she’s a feminist, to make the assumption that I am not a feminist or make the assumption that a Muslim woman cannot be a feminist. I’m a feminist and I also exercise my free speech. So, she has to acknowledge my story as I acknowledge her story. What do they do? They try to discredit the majority of Muslims in the world and say that we are irrelevant, and the next breath, they would say “where are all the moderates Muslims in this conversation? I think they are a bit disingenuous and try to paint their experiences as the experiences of all Muslims— which is not true.

 

OI: Contrary to 2000, when George W. Bush was trying to court the Arab-American vote by speaking against racial profiling and policing the world, we’ve seen a turn in the Republican Party. Many 2016 presidential election candidates are engaging in Muslim-bashing to garner support from neo-conservatives and those in the far-right alike. How do Muslim-Americans see this as election season begins ramping up?

I am who I am and I want to be acknowledged for who I am as a mother, as a daughter, as an activist, as a non-profit leader, and as a Muslim leader.
 

LS: We are already seeing it way before the 2016 elections with people like Bobby Jindal and many others who are trying to buy their way into becoming the next President of the United States. If we’re monitoring it a little bit more closely, I think our community is used to it now and are addressing it in a more proactive and also reactive way, because we have to push back on it, but it’s going to happen. It’s going to be ugly, because people in this country have set up a precedent of where you will win elections or you will fundraise on the backs of vilifying Muslims. We’re saying enough is enough, but I think we’ll be more prepared to see that in the 2016 elections.

 

OI: How are Muslims viewing the situation in Baltimore? From an outsider perspective, we’re seeing some within the Muslim community taking part in the #BlackLivesMatter movement and in Baltimore, but it seems as if Muslim organizations have kept their distance. What do you have to say about that and what can people within the Muslim community do to engage with black communities?

 

LS: I want to clarify that a lot of those in the Muslim communities are actually a part of the #BlackLivesMatter movement, because they are black and Muslim. So that community hasn’t really been talked about. And there are some other Muslim advocates that are taking part. When I went to Ferguson, there were many Muslim advocates and there are many of them here in New York City for the police reform movement who work really close with the black communities. Can the Muslim do more to help black communities? Mostly the immigrant communities? Absolutely. I think they’re able to build coalitions. And it’s taking a few of us to do it to show the benefits of it and to show how important it is for us to have justice for other communities just as much as we need justice in our community. I’ll be in Baltimore again working at a justice concert and a townhall meeting supporting the people of Baltimore–which includes many Muslims like the Nation of Islam and many of those on the ground. I think we are seeing a lot more progress in our community and a lot more intersectional ties happening. I think there needs to be more of a priority in us doing it.

 

OI: For a while, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has been a center-stage issue for the Muslim community. What do Muslims think about the recent developments and is this still a top priority for the community?

 

LS: I think peace in the Middle East, specifically Palestine-Israel, impacts the entire world and it’s a very important issue to Muslims. Many of them see the kind of holy land, Dome of Rock, Masjid al-Aqsa as very symbolic for Islam. It’s a very important issue for me as a Palestinian–as someone who is an Arab-American. But I’m also seeing Muslims care about healthcare, education, law enforcement accountability, and national security issues. We’ve been painted as a one issue community and we’re not. We care about Pakistan also and we care about what’s happening in other Muslim countries like in Syria, for example. Palestine-Israel is an important issue, but it’s not the only issue. And I’m not sure if the priority for all Muslim communities, but definitely for Palestinian-Muslim communities.

 

OI: I have to ask you one more question–a bit personal. A lot of people know you for your phenomenal work as a social justice activist, a crusader against racial injustice, and a media commentator. Not many people know that you’re a mother of three. Some people are at amazed at how you’re able to do all of that? What keeps you going and how do you do it?

 

LS: I am who I am and I want to be acknowledged for who I am as a mother, as a daughter, as an activist, as a non-profit leader, and as a Muslim leader, and as someone who is proud to be Muslim and that Islam has given me the opportunities that I have now. I have never been shunned from any part of the Muslim community and I have been to some of the most conservative mosques in America and have been respected. Are there issues with individuals in the Muslim community? Absolutely. The problem is not with the faith of Islam, but those who follow Islam. So, I’m very proud of my children. I’m living by example. If I want my children to be productive members of society and to be active Muslims, I need to be that and that’s what I’m being right now.

Source: www.onislam.net

BOSTON — Bassem Youssef, the man dubbed the “Jon Stewart of Egypt,” is eyeing new projects after teaching students at Harvard University’s prestigious Kennedy School of Government how satire can disrupt the social and political order.
It’s a topic the 41-year-old heart surgeon-turned-satirist knows well. Youssef rocketed to fame after the 2011 Arab Spring revolution as host of a wildly popular Egyptian political satire show.
“El Bernameg” — Arabic for “The Program” — was cancelled in June 2014 amid mounting pressure by the military-led government to crack down on dissenting voices. Youssef and his family, concerned for their safety, left the country months later.
At a recent appearance at a downtown Boston law firm, Youssef said he hasn’t ruled out an eventual return to television. He’s had plenty of offers, he says, but none caught his interest.
“The offers would be like, ‘Forget politics. Why don’t you do a game show?”‘ Youssef says. “That we couldn’t do. We can’t risk sacrificing the brand.”
He admits to holding out some hope for a U.S. gig.
“Maybe I’ll stay in the States. Maybe I’ll have an offer,” Youssef says. “But I don’t know what the American public would feel about an Arab with thick accent talking about American politics.”
While his tone was mostly casual and breezy, he firmly pushed back when an audience member suggested he had given up on his country.
“It’s very easy to say I’m quitting, but if you put yourself in my shoes, I would like to see how you react,” Youssef said. “Every time I would speak in public, they would arrest someone at home. Continuing to speak was being selfish.”
During his show’s three-year run, Youssef was frequently at odds with authorities. Following the 2011 revolution, he was briefly arrested after being accused of insulting then-President Mohammed Morsi.
After a military regime ousted Morsi, Youssef says, he was even accused of being recruited to spy for foreign powers. As the pressure mounted, his show was suspended and then cancelled.
For now, Youssef says, he is focused on giving young Arab talents the same shot he had at stardom.
His latest venture is “Tube Star Network,” a Dubai-based project that helps aspiring Arab talents develop their own Internet programs. Hopefully, he says, some will make the same leap to broadcast television as he did.
“There’s a huge vacuum in the Middle East for original content,” Youssef said. “This vacuum, right now, is being filled with extremists, with military propaganda, or filled with apathy.”
Youssef, who is also encouraging donations toward an independent documentary about his show, is a prime example of what timing and the right message can do.
As he told the Boston audience, he was well on his way toward his lifelong dream to be a heart surgeon in America when a wave of revolutions toppled authoritarian regimes across the Arab World in 2011.
Dissatisfied by mainstream news coverage at the time, Youssef and his team started uploading short videos skewering Egyptian media, politics and culture in the vein of “The Daily Show.”
The YouTube clips developed a following and eventually were picked up by an Egyptian television network, where it became one of the nation’s most popular shows ever.
Youssef also gained international fame, being named one of Time Magazine’s 100 most influential people in 2013 and developing a kinship with the real Jon Stewart.
“The Daily Show” host appeared on Youssef’s show and Youssef, in turn, has done guest spots as a “senior Middle East correspondent” for the Comedy Central show, from which Stewart is stepping down in August.
Reflecting on the Arab Spring, Youssef believes the uprisings set in motion developments that will eventually bring lasting change to the region.
“If it’s defeated, I don’t think I will be defeated for very long,” Youssef told the Boston audience. “It was stupid for us to think we’d have a revolution in 18 days. It will take time. Revolution isn’t an event. It’s a process.”
Then, as now, he believes young people, who comprise significant majorities in many Arab countries, hold the key.
“They are asking questions that were not asked before. They are challenging religious authorities, political authorities and military authorities,” Youssef says. “It has started. The ways that the establishment used to keep those young people down for many decades are not working anymore.”

Source: www.ctvnews.ca

In Saturday night’s skit, the venerable comedy show skewers Islamic extremists, Islamophobes, and 1990s game shows.
Saturday Night Live has really crossed the line this time! On Saturday night this venerable comedy institution did something it had never tried before in its 40 years on the air: a comedy sketch about drawing the Prophet Muhammad.

Well they didn’t actually draw the prophet, and therein lies the comedy. In a very smart and very funny sketch, SNL gave us a parody of the game show Win, Lose or Draw. As a refresher, in this game show contestants are assigned a movie, person, etc., to draw in hopes that their fellow contestant can guess it correctly and win a prize.

The SNL sketch begins with the contestant being assigned the movie Gone Girl. That is solved pretty quickly, with one contestant drawing a girl running away.

The next contestant, played by SNL’s Bobby Moynihan, jumped up excitedly, ready to draw. He’s handed the card with his assigned picture from the host. Moynihan looks at the card and his face quickly goes from all smiles to sheer horror. The audience then sees what Moynihan has to draw: “The Prophet Muhammad.”  

Source: www.thedailybeast.com

The only fully professional Palestinian theater company within present-day Israel is under threat of closure because of a campaign by a right-wing politician. 

Haifa’s al-Midan Theatre has been given a short-term reprieve after the local municipality froze its core funding. An initial city move to place a lien on its bank account, which had made it impossible to pay staff, has apparently been rescinded, according to a spokesperson from the theater.

However, the municipality’s freeze on further funding means that the theater cannot pay suppliers and planned activities will quickly come under threat.

The withdrawal of funding is said to have come after a local council member, Shai Blumenthal of  the right-wing Zionist party Habayit Hayehudi (Jewish Home) claimed that a play staged at al-Midan was based on a story written by a militant imprisoned for killing an Israeli soldier in 1984.

Blumenthal’s version of events has been reported in the Israeli press under headlines such as “Haifa rethinks funding for Arab theater glorifying terrorist.”

Theater manager Adnan Tarabshe, however, has pointed out that the play in question — A Parallel Time by Bashar Murkus, a 22-year-old graduate of Haifa University’s theater department — was first staged at al-Midan in early 2014 and has been performed 26 times since then.

Tarabshe was quoted in Al-Monitor as saying that: “The play is a far cry from the clichés about acts of heroism, or lack thereof, by security prisoners in Israeli prisons. We didn’t even go into those things. We only explored the question of how people go about their daily life in prison. We’ve already been asked to stage the play in France and England.”

Tarabshe also pointed out that Shai Blumenthal admitted to Israeli newspaper Haaretz that he has never actually having seen the play which, according to Al-Monitor, revolves “around the life of six prisoners and a jailer in an Israeli prison.”

“One of the inmates, a musician, is granted permission by the authorities to marry. At that point, the musician prisoner’s cellmates secretly plan a wedding party for him. They even plan to build an instrument, an oud, as a gift. For the most part, the play deals with building the oud, the problems that ensue and the maneuvering required to smuggle the strings and other raw materials into the prison.”

Rubber stamp exercise?

Bizarrely, Blumenthal is also the councillor who has been appointed to head the committee investigating al-Midan for its alleged support for a convicted prisoner. Eppie Bat-Ilan, an Israeli arts writer and supporter of the theater, told The Electronic Intifada that members of the theater fear the committee — which is scheduled to meet tomorrow and is expected to reach a decision by the end of the month — is a rubber-stamp exercise and that the decision has already been taken to withdraw municipality funds.

They are also worried that reputable arts professionals from within Haifa will not accept invitations to stand on the committee in case they are made complicit with the closure of al-Midan.

Adnan Tarabshe, meanwhile, insists that Walid Daka, the figure on whom Shai Blumenthal’s allegations rest, was just one of a number of prisoners interviewed for the play about their life in Israeli jail and represented in the final version.

Playwright Bashar Murkus suggested to Al-Monitor that Haifa municipality’s fear of the play stemmed from how ”Daka, despite his actions, is an interesting person. The very fact that he is a writer that did very well in prison and is thinking of the future frightens those who don’t want to hear about it.”

Tarabshe has raised the possibility that the effort to damage al-Midan has deeper roots than this single play.

He told Al-Monitor that he suspects that the “anti-democratic atmosphere in Israel in which we’re living” is to blame. 

Al-Midan has been attacked by conservative voices within Israel before, when it staged the British play My Name is Rachel Corrie, based on the diaries of the slain US peace activist. And in 2009 the organizers of a commemoration of George Habash, the late leader of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, were forced to cancel their event at al-Midan.

And, although the municipality funding is essential to the theater’s future, its financial situation has always been precarious, with director Adnan Tarabshe often having to work unpaid.

Alarmed by success?

But Eppie Bat-Ilan has suggested to The Electronic Intifada that yet another motive might be in play.

Shai Blumenthal, she points out, has tried to close down Al-Midan before. In February, he objected to a Palestinian film festival hosted by the theater. When that didn’t garner enough publicity, Bat-Ilan suggests, he went for a more emotive target.

But why? According to Bat-Ilan, she and others close to the theater, including the well-known Palestinian actress Salwa Nakkara, who is also al-Midan’s artistic director, suspect a reaction by Israeli racists alarmed at al-Midan’s success.

Famous actors such as Saleh Bakri and Clara Khoury, who have become international names, spent their early careers acting at Al-Midan. And as well as being an arts venue, al-Midan has been an important resource for the Palestinian community of the Galilee region.

In addition, al-Midan produced its first play in Hebrew in September 2014. “Our voice won’t be heard without Hebrew,” Salwa Nakkara said at the time. “Much to our chagrin, Israel today has yet to realize the importance of understanding the Arabic language.”

Both Al-Midan and Jerusalem’s el-Hakawati theater have been attacked at the moment they started staging plays in Hebrew, thus offering the wider Israeli public the opportunity to hear Palestinian voices and narratives. 

The real reason for the campaign against the theatre, according to Bat-Ilan, might be “the fear that Arabs will be portrayed as human beings.”

Source: electronicintifada.net

Ten Egyptian shorts will be screened at the Shorts Corner, a meeting place for the filmmakers at the 68th Cannes International Film Festival, which is scheduled to take place between 13 and 24 May.

This year, dozens of countries have submitted their shorts and 2,394 will be screened across at the several locations that make up Shorts Corner.

Egypt is represented by ten entries, mostly drama or documentaries. The selection includes also one animated movie (Tarot), part of the 48hrs Project and one world premiere (El-Kalema El-Akhera)

The Egyptian entries to Shorts Corner are:

– Closed Doors by Amr Fouad, 13 mins (February 2015)
– Al-Awda by Nevine Shalaby 11 mins (June 2014)
– Pyramids Hostel by Thierry Lledo, 19 mins (Egypt, France, April 2015)
– Tarot by Ahmed Roshdy, 7 mins (June 2014)
– El-Kalema El-Akhera by Waleed Al-Arrab, 15 mins (October 2014)
– El-Darwish by Khaled Mansour, 15 mins (March 2015)
– El-Fatenah by Maggie Anwer, 15 mins (February 2015)
– Helwan…I by Mohamed Adel El-Safty, 15 mins (Egypt, France, March 2014)
– Tahra’s Life by Moahand Diab, 9 mins (January 2015)
– Sukkar Abyad by Ahmed Khaled, 13 mins (November 2014)

All shorts from Egypt will be screened outside the competition.

The 2015 Short Films Competition comprises nine films (seven works of fiction and two animations), mainly from Europe and the Middle East. From the Arab world, Basil Khalil’s Ave Maria (Palestine, France, Germany) and Ely Dagher’s Waves ’98 will compete for the Palm d”Or for Shorts.

The Shorts’ jury — headed by Abderrahmane Sissako from Mauritania — includes international filmmakers Joana Hadjithomas (Lebanon), director Rebecca Zlotowski (France), actress Cécile de France (Belgium) and actor Daniel Olbrychski (Poland).

Source: www.albawaba.com