Author Archives: Arab America

  Third Annual Poetry Festival Saturday, May 9, 2015 Poetry Foundation 61 w. Supertor St. Chicago, IL Peace Peace I In these troubled times,we will ever achieve peace for ourselves, our families,our community, our world? Come hear Iraqi and other Middle Eastern poets describe what peace means to themin their own language. The Iraqi Mutual … Continued

Let’s face it when most of us think of the Middle East we think of conflict, violence and extremism, rather than a vibrant and artistic culture. But “The Art of the Middle East” works to dispel these stereotypes. It is a tribute to close to almost 300 avant-guard artists who have sacrificed — sometimes through persecution and exile — to keep artistic culture alive over the past hundred years or so. Collectively, these individuals connect East and West, encourage understanding and bring to the world some of the most eloquent, politically fierce, passionate and spiritually edifying art.

Early on in the book we see the importance of the recorded word as art. Saeb Eigner gives us a brief history lesson as the Arabic language evolves into a written script. When the revelation of Islam to the prophet Mohammed in the early seventeenth century brought about the need to copy the holy text of the Qur’an, the goal of scribes became to make the writing be as beautiful as possible.

Source: www.edgeboston.com

Mona Ataya is proving to be one of the UAE’s most prominent of women entrepreneurs. The co-founder of Bayt.com, arguably the most successful online search engine for jobs in the Middle East, is now working to disrupt the well-ingrained retail space in the UAE with the goal of assisting mothers with their maternity, infant and childcare product needs. Ataya’s latest venture is Mumzworld, a rapidly growing e-commerce website through which customers now have access to a comprehensive catalog of thousands of childcare and maternity-related items from hundreds of world-class brands, ranging from the likes of Baby Einstein to Fisher Price.

After becoming a mother herself, Ataya quickly realized there was no one-stop shop in the UAE where mothers could quickly and conveniently compare and purchase products for their children. “As a mother, I did not feel empowered with choice about making the right decisions for my children. I had endless questions about what to buy, where to buy, how much to pay and who could help me,” she said.

Source: www.wamda.com

Despite the rapid growth of universities in the Arab world, the social sciences are only offered by 55 percent of them, a new report has found.

“This is might be due to the fact that most existing universities in the region are relatively young,” said Mohammed Bamyeh, a sociology professor at the University of Pittsburgh in the United States and the author of the new report, Forms of Presence of the Social Science in the Arab Region. “After all, 97 percent of Arab universities—491 out of 508—were created after 1950,” said Bamyeh. He added that as many as 70 percent didn’t exist before 1991.

According to Bamyeh’s report, any growth in the social sciences has been at longstanding universities in Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Tunisia and more recently in the oil-rich countries, such as Bahrain, the United Arab Emirates, Oman and Qatar, that have young academic institutions.

The report, which was released as a draft last week during the Arab Council for the Social Sciences‘ second conference in Beirut, aims to analyze the presence of the social sciences in various scientific and public arenas in the region, including universities, research centers, the civil society and media.

Source: www.al-fanarmedia.org

Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Israel hosted “New Spring – New Hope,” program held in conjunction with the Peres Center for Peace.

Source: www.jpost.com

Almost seven months after the cease-fire that ended a devastating war in the Gaza Strip between Israel and the militant group Hamas, the fighting’s ruinous effects are visible everywhere in this ragged coastal enclave.

Reconstruction efforts have barely gotten off the rubble-strewn ground. Electricity flickers feebly through just six to eight hours each day. The economy, never robust, is in tatters. Government salaries mainly go unpaid. The infighting between Hamas, still the dominant power in Gaza, and the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority has grown even more bitter after a stillborn unity accord.

Source: www.latimes.com

The Israel Defense Forces is taking a series of measures to prevent an escalation of violence in the West Bank, including holding large-scale surprise drills and easing entry restrictions on Palestinians, as some officials warn the dead-end in peace talks could lead to new fighting.

Source: www.timesofisrael.com

While Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dealt a grievous blow to a negotiated peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinians, for baldly political reasons, the idea of two states living side by side in that region remains the best alternative to violent confrontation and should not be allowed to die.

It is hard to tell where Mr. Netanyahu actually stands on statehood. First, he renounced it in a last-ditch bid for re-election votes that was accompanied by a chilling appeal to his base to counter Israeli Arab votes on Election Day. Then he tried to walk back his statements, at least on the surface, telling MSNBC: “I want a sustainable, peaceful two-state solution, but, for that, circumstances have to change.” On Monday, he apologized, more or less, for the remark about Arab voters.

Source: www.nytimes.com

March 25 (KUNA) — The first Arab photography exhibition has been launched, on the occasion of celebrating the Arab League 70th anniversary.
The inaugural ceremony of the exhibition, held at Mexico City’s famous Chapultepec Park, was attended by the local mayor, Miguel Angel Mancera, officials and the Dean of the Arab and Islamic Diplomatic Corps and the Kuwaiti Ambassador to Mexico, Samih Johar Hayat, in addition to Arab diplomats.
Mr. Eduardo Vazquez, the minister of culture in Mexico City, said in a statement during the ceremony that the Arab heritage and culture have affected the Mexican culture. “This great heritage which we have embraced from the Arab world is manifested in our daily life, in many words of Arab origin.” Mexico has received since 100 years ago waves of Arab immigrants “who have deeply affected our cultural life,” minister Vasquez said, expressing gratitude to the Arab diplomats who helped in organizing the month-long exhibition, “which will undoubtedly make us closer to the Arab world.” Moreover, the event is an opportunity to cement ties and cooperation in various spheres with the Arabs, he added.
The event features photos depicting cultural heritage and accomplishments in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Egypt, Iraq, the UAE, Qatar and Jordan.
On Tuesday, Mexican Foreign Minister Jose Antonio Meade opened the Arab Cultural Week in Mexico. The inaugural ceremony, attended by the Kuwaiti ambassador, also coincided with the Arab League anniversary.

Source: www.kuna.net.kw

Becoming Steve Jobs, the new biography of Steve Jobs by Brent Schlender and Rick Tetzeli, will be officially released tomorrow by Crown Business/Penguin Random House, and is currently available as a pre-order from Amazon ($12+) and Apple’s iBookstore ($13). Here are just some of the interesting revelations found inside, including some details regarding Jobs’ evolving attitude towards the media.

Jobs’ return to Apple was almost certainly not a strategic takeover. Despite speculation that Steve Jobs may have strategically orchestrated a takeover of Apple during his sale of NeXT — a view shared by Bill Gates and former Apple CEO Gil Amelio — the book suggests that Jobs was truly uncertain about his continued involvement with the company. Avie Tevanian and Jon Rubinstein, “the two men whom Steve trusted the most at Apple… agree that Steve did not intend to become Apple’s CEO,” and that they didn’t think they were going to be working for him there. Despite Jobs’ love for Apple, the company was in a precarious financial situation, and he had competing demands for his time.

Source: 9to5mac.com

Kenneth M. Pollack testified this afternoon before the Senate Armed Services Committee on U.S. policy in the Middle East. In his prepared remarks, Pollack explains that although the United States is not entirely to blame for the current dismal state of affairs in the region, the fact is that over the past 30-40 years, successive U.S. administrations have favored short-term solutions to crises in the region over long-term strategic planning; the result is that numerous opportunities to help move the region in a better direction have been squandered. 

Pollack argues that the current turmoil in the Middle East is the product of two concurrent forces: the breakdown of the internal order established after World War II and the withdrawal of the Middle East’s “traditional great power hegemon”—that is, the United States.  Washington disengaged from the region at the same time that the dysfunctional dictatorships that had come to power in the post-WWII era collapsed, creating a power and security vacuum into which the forces of extremism and chaos eagerly stepped.

Source: www.brookings.edu

I thought I had seen every imaginable way to stoke the flames of anti-Muslim bigotry in America. There have been countless people on Fox News, certain Republican elected officials, the professional bigots, and even some right-wing “Christian” leaders serving up hate in various ways.

But these people all pale in comparison to Michael Sibley. You see, Sibley wasn’t content to just giving us the same old right-wing crap like Muslims wants to impose Islamic law so say goodbye to bacon cheeseburgers and whiskey and say hello to lamb kebobs and strong coffee served in small cups.

Nope, this self-described “patriot” planted a bomb at a national park in Georgia in the hopes that the public would think a Muslim did it. And yes, I know most haven’t heard about this incident. There’s not even a need to mention how different the media coverage would be have been if the bomber had actually been Muslim. I already detailed that scenario earlier this week in my article about a non-Muslim man that attacked federal officers at a U.S. airport with poison spray and a machete while carrying six homemade bombs in a duffel bag.
Sibley, who is 67 years old and lives in Roswell, Georgia, told FBI officers that he planted this bomb because in his view, “no one was paying attention to what was going on the world.” Apparently as a “patriot” he was going to maim or even kill his fellow Americans to wake them up to the threat facing America.

And what is this “threat” Sibley speaks of? Well, it’s pretty clear he’s talking Muslims. You see, according to the federal complaint, Sibley put some Muslim memorabilia in the backpack along with two “improvised explosive devices” (IEDs) he crafted.

Source: www.thedailybeast.com