Author Archives: Arab America

More than a quarter of Americans and nearly half of senior Protestant pastors say the Islamic State terrorist group offers a true representation of Islamic society, according to a pair of new surveys by LifeWay Research.

The findings that indicate many Americans have a dim outlook on Islam come as President Obama sent a formal request to Congress on Wednesday to authorize the use of military force to combat the Islamic State. Meanwhile, police in North Carolina tried to determine whether the shooting deaths of three Muslim students were hate-motivated.

Forty-five percent of 1,000 senior Protestant pastors surveyed say the Islamic State, also known as ISIL or ISIS, “gives a true indication of what an Islamic society looks like.” Forty-seven percent disagreed with the statement, according to LifeWay, a Nashville-based, non-profit Christian research group. LifeWay surveyed only clergy who identified themselves as the top pastoral officials in their organizations.

The pastors had a much darker view of Islam than Americans at large. In contrast, in the second survey, 27% of Americans say the Islamic State reflects the true nature of Islamic society.

The findings of LifeWay’s twin surveys were shared with USA TODAY before their scheduled publication Thursday.

“People are increasingly antagonistic, and religious leaders are particularly antagonistic towards Islam, and perhaps what people are seeing nightly on TV news is driving this,” said Ed Stetzer, executive director of LifeWay Research. “They think about it and say, ‘I see this every night. I don’t want this here.’ “

Stetzer said LifeWay decided to probe Americans’ and pastors’ attitudes after Obama declared in September, “ISIL is not Islamic,” part of an effort to undercut the idea that the group represents the religion.

This isn’t the first study to suggest growing distrust among Americans about Islam since the rise of the Islamic State, whose militants have abducted aid workers and journalists, carried out beheadings of hostages and taken control of swaths of Syria and Iraq. Last month, a poll published by the Brookings Institution in Washington found that 14% of Americans say the terror group has the support of a majority of Muslims around the world.

What might be most notable about the LifeWay surveys is the strikingly harder views on Islam among clergy compared with Americans at large.

Sixty-one percent of senior pastors disagree and 30% agree with the statement “True Islam creates a peaceful society.” Fifty percent of African-American pastors say Islam can create a peaceful society, while only 30% of white pastors agree with that statement. By contrast, 43% of the laypeople surveyed agree with the statement, and 40% disagree.

Other findings:

37% of Americans say they worry about sharia law, the Islamic legal and religious code, being applied in the USA. Older Americans, those over 45, are more likely to hold that concern than adults 18 to 44. Women (42%) are more likely to worry about sharia law than men are (33%).
76% of pastors say airstrikes against the Islamic State are needed to protect Christians in Iraq and Syria, while 13% disagree.
LifeWay polled 1,000 Americans and 1,000 senior Protestant pastors throughout the country as part of the surveys. Of the pastors surveyed, 724 identified themselves as evangelical, 474 consider themselves mainline. Pastors were permitted to consider themselves under both labels.

The survey of Americans has a margin of error of +/-3.5%, while the pastors’ survey has a +/-3.1% margin of error.

Source: www.usatoday.com

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi signed a preliminary agreement to jointly build Egypt’s first nuclear power plant, after the two leaders met in Cairo on February 9-10.

This announcement comes after multiple reports last November about Russia’s state nuclear power company Rosatom’s agreement to help Iran build several nuclear reactors, including reactors at Iran’s Russian-built Bushehr nuclear power plant.

Putin had travelled to Cairo this week upon Sisi’s invitation. Russian-Egyptian relations began improving after the July 2013 military ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi, when U.S.-Egyptian relations began to decline.  Cairo grew increasingly concerned with what it perceived to be U.S. engagement with the Muslim Brotherhood, and felt abandoned in its fight against terrorists, particularly in the restless Sinai—a hotbed of radicalism and instability going back to President Hosni Mubarak’s time. Washington also delayed weapons deliveries to Egypt, withheld military aid, and later halted the nascent bilateral strategic dialogue. The decline of U.S.-Egyptian relations created an opportunity for Putin to step in and assert his national interests in Egypt.

Putin and Sisi see eye to eye on a number of issues. Putin would certainly prefer to see a secular government in Egypt. Unlike President Obama, Putin enthusiastically endorsed Sisi’s bid for Egyptian presidency. Russia’s Supreme Court has designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organization in February 2003. Russia continues to battle an increasingly-radicalized insurgency in the Caucasus and the Kremlin has long believed the Brotherhood helped arm radical Islamists in Russia. Putin certainly won’t criticize Sisi on his democratic backslide.

Source: www.forbes.com

Naseer Aruri, a leading human rights activist, author and professor who fought tirelessly for Palestinian rights, has died at the age of 81. He was suffering from Parkinson’s disease.

His death on February 10 was received with sadness across the Middle East and much of the rest of the world, with tributes paid to a charismatic, distinguished and devoted champion of the cause of his homeland.

“Naseer was a man of great integrity. He was a mentor not only to his students but to all who knew him. He led by example, not through preaching,” said Lamis Andoni, the editor-in-chief of al-Araby al-Jadeed.

“He was committed to justice in Palestine and to justice and human rights as fundamental principles driving his life and work. His wisdom, compassion and towering presence will be sorely missed.”

Aruri had for decades used his status as a top activist, author and academic in the US to expose the injustices against the Palestinian people, and to fight for a better future.

He had continued to write into his later years, with his last book, Bitter Legacy: The United States in the Middle East, published last year. Dishonest Broker: The US role in Israel and Palestine, published in 2003, was lauded as a superb analysis of how the US relationship with Israel had marginalised the Palestinian right to statehood.
     His wisdom, compassion and towering presence will be sorely missed.
– Lamis Andoni, al-Araby editor-in-chief

Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, on January 7, 1934, his family split their time between the city and Burham, in what is now the occupied West Bank, where the family home still stands.

His father was a headteacher at a Jerusalem school.

Aruri moved to the US aged 20, gaining a BA in history at the American International College in Springfield, Massachusetts, before completing a PhD in political science at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

Scholar and advocate

While a student at AIC, he was adopted by the sizeable local Lebanese community and married Joyce Thomas, a Lebanese-American, to whom he was married for 54 years.

He became a leading advocate in the US for the Palestinian people, becoming a member of the Palestinian National Council, the parliament-in-exile of the Palestinian people. He also served the Arab Organisation for Human Rights, the Independent Palestinian Commission for the Protection of Citizens’ Rights in Ramallah and was a member of the advisory board of directors of the International Institute for Criminal Investigations in The Hague.   

He testified as an expert witness in US and Canadian courts on cases of political asylum and deportation.

His activism was recognised when he was admitted to the boards of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International, serving Amnesty between 1984 and 1990, and HRW from 1990 to 1992.

Professor Aruri lectured at hundreds of universities, wrote for magazines, newspapers and journals and was a regular commentator on ABC, PBS, CNN, Al-Jazeera, NPR, and the BBC.

Aruri was chancellor professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth,  serving the faculty from 1965 to 1998, and chaired the political science department for eight of those years.

Charisma and respect

His compassion and charm were recognised in the citiation for a research award from U-MAS in 1993, which stated that he had demonstrated himself to be “charismatic and extraordinarily accessible”.

“You have communicated to your students, along with a wealth of information and unique insights, a respect for them as valuable human beings and genuine interest in their personal and academic evolution,” it read.

In his own words, Aruri spoke of the resilience of the Palestinian people.

In an interview with the Institute for Middle East Understanding in 2006, he said: “A whole population are imprisoned in the West Bank and Gaza, the institutions are demolished, their history is taken away, their records are destroyed, the Apartheid Wall is being built. Despite all that, I am impressed that people keep going.”

Aruri is survived by his wife and four children – Faris, Karen Leila, Jamal and Jay – as well as 13 grandchildren, two sisters, a brother, a niece and nephew.

Source: www.alaraby.co.uk

Palestine and the Arab world lost an eminent academic scholar, an internationally recognized and highly respected intellectual, a committed and unwavering Palestinian patriot and a progressive Arab nationalist. Dr. Naseer Aruri passed away on February 10th, 2015. Dr. Aruri was a leading voice in the field of human rights and an authoritative reference on US foreign policy in the Middle East, particularly towards the Palestine/Israel conflict. Born in 1934 in Jerusalem, Palestine, Dr. Aruri held a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, and was a prolific writer and lecturer who appeared often in the media throughout the past half century.

Dr. Aruri served on the faculty of the University of Massachusetts – Dartmouth from 1965 to 1998 and, at the time of his retirement, was Chancellor Professor of Political Science at that university. This life of academic excellence was matched by a prolific activist career dedicated to the service of Palestinian and Arab causes. As a member of the Palestinian National Council, the Palestinian’s Parliament in exile, and the Central Council of the PLO, he was widely known and admired by Palestinians everywhere for his vast knowledge, complete dedication, and unmatched honesty. He was keen on building and strengthening Palestinian, Arab and Arab-American institutions. Dr. Aruri was a founder and two times President of the Association of Arab-American University Graduates, which was the first Pan-Arab organization in North America when it was established in 1968 and had the largest membership of Arab academics outside the Arab World.  In 1998, he co-founded Trans-Arab Research Institute (Boston), and served as Chair of its Board of Directors until 2006. Dr. Aruri dedicated himself to the support of human rights. He was a member of the Independent Palestinian Commission for the Protection of Citizens Rights (Ramallah) since its inception in January l994; a founding member of the Arab Organization for Human Rights in 1982, and a key participant in the drafting of the Arab Covenant of Human Rights in December 1986. He was also a member of the Board of Directors of Human Rights Watch/Middle East, 1990-1992, and a three-term member of the Board of Directors of Amnesty International, USA (1984-1990). Dr. Aruri served on the boards of Third World Quarterly (London), the Jerusalem Fund – Palestine Center (Washington, D.C.), and the International Institute for Criminal Investigations (The Hague). In his struggle on behalf of Palestine and the Palestinians, the lifetime aim of Dr. Aruri was to promote a solution to the Palestine/ Israel conflict based on the establishment of one democratic state in historic Palestine in which all its citizenry, regardless of their ethnicity or faith, are free and equal.

Dr. Aruri’s many publications include The Palestinian Resistance to Israeli Occupation (1970), Enemy of the Sun: Poems of Palestinian Resistance, with Edmund Ghareeb (1970), Occupation: Israel Over Palestine (1983), The Obstruction of Peace: The U.S., Israel and the Palestinians (1995), Palestinian Refugees: The Right of Return (2001), Dishonest Broker: The U.S. Role in Israel and Palestine (2003), co-author with Samih Farsoun of Palestine and the Palestinians: A Social and Political History (2006) and Bitter Legacy: The United States in the Middle East (2014). The private library and papers of Naseer Aruri have been preserved and are on display at the Claire T. Carney Library Archives and Special Collections at UMASS-Dartmouth.

Dr. Aruri is survived by his wife Joyce and four children; Faris, Karen Leila, Jamal and Jay Hatem and their spouses and 13 grandchildren. 

Source: imeu.org

The Prince of Wales joins in with a traditional Sword dance in the old town of Al Ula The Prince of Wales often wears a sword for ceremonial occasions – but rarely has the opportunity to dance with one.Surrounded by Arab tribesmen, Prince Charles held his scimitar in the air and swayed from side to … Continued

The Israeli Supreme Court has rejected an appeal by the family of Rachel Corrie, an American protester crushed by an Israeli army bulldozer more than a decade ago. Corrie, 23, was killed in 2003 while trying to block the bulldozer from razing Palestinian homes. Her death has been ruled an accident. Her parents filed suit … Continued

A terrible crime has happened in North Carolina – three young Muslim university students were shot dead ‘execution-style’ in their Chapel Hill apartment on Tuesday.

 Police have arrested and charged 46-year-old Craig Stephen Hicks with the brutal murders, a man known for posting anti-religion comments online and whose Facebook page is riddled with pictures of and quotes from his ‘New Atheist’ heroes Richard Dawkins and Bill Maher.

 The cops are conveniently saying that the Muslim students were not targeted because of their faith, but rather a “parking dispute.”

 How bizarre.

 “It was execution style, a bullet in every head,” the father of the two deceased girls told the media, insisting that “this was not a dispute over a parking space, this was a hate crime.”

 The suspected killer was an avowed ‘anti-theist’ who admired Richard Dawkins, the famed British atheist author and poster boy of the ‘New Atheist’ movement. But police are reticent to link the suspected shooter’s anti-religious attitudes to the odious events in Chapel Hill.

 Muslims cannot be portrayed as victims of a vicious hate crime ­­– that would fall too far outside the boundaries of the neocon-influenced popular discourse which always presents Muslims as violent, irrational aggressors. Muslims as victims of a lethal hate crime is not politically palatable at the present time when America and its subservient lackeys are executing a war of attrition against the Islamic world, which explains why the cops are avoiding that angle at all costs.

 This tragic shooting brings the ‘New Atheist’ movement into focus. Other prominent ‘New Atheists’ include the aforementioned Bill Maher, Sam Harris and the deceased Christopher Hitchens. What all of these characters have in common is an unreserved and unabashed disdain for Islam in particular. Critics have noted that a very large portion of New Atheists’ criticisms of religion is aimed squarely at Islam, leading some to believe that they are political propagandists rather than true free thinkers.

Source: www.intifada-palestine.com

Former U.S. Secretary of Transportation (and forever Peorian) Ray LaHood made the kicker of David Letterman’s monologue last night – watch from 4:07 onward:

Source: blogs.pjstar.com

A History of the Arab Peoples covers not only political history, but also culture, society, economy and thought, in a work of profound and lasting importance. A distillation of the late Albert Hourani’s lifetime of scholarship, it was a best-…

Source: freedigitaldownloads.org

It turns out, rather surprisingly, that only recently have Arab residents of Jerusalem and other local Arabic speakers been able to enjoy movies with Arabic subtitles at the city’s Cinematheque. This is thanks to American Jewish film director and producer Steven Spielberg and the foundation he established with the profits from “Schindler’s List,” and subsequently his other Oscar-winning films including “Munich” and “Lincoln.”

One of the main goals of the Righteous Persons Foundation, established in 1994, is to promote contact and understanding between Jews and non-Jews, mostly through the use of media, in order to humanize the “other.”

The RPF recently donated $50,000 to the Jerusalem Cinematheque as part of a new project called “Cinema for Everyone,” whose aim is, according to the foundation’s website, “to subtitle films in Arabic as a way to ensure that Israeli Arabs have access to cinema, and to bring Jews and Arabs together around film” at the veteran institution.

The Cinematheque is using the funding to screen four or five films a month – both Israeli- and foreign-made – to which Arabic subtitles have been added. The Cinematheque hired an advertising and public relations firm in East Jerusalem to publicize the new project in that predominantly Arab part of the city.

To that end, signs were put up in November and December in East Jerusalem, posters were plastered on buses, a special Facebook page was set up, and ads appeared in media where the Arab-speaking community would see them to inform residents of the screenings of the Arabic-subtitled films.

The response, however, was not great. A series of shootings and hit-and-run terror attacks during those months changed the atmosphere in the city, and tensions between Arabs and Jews rose to especially high levels.

“Culture and economics usually succeed in building bridges between the western and eastern sides of the city, and between the country in general and East Jerusalem,” said Hatem Hawis of the Al-Arabiya advertising agency in East Jerusalem, which managed the ad campaign for “Cinema for Everyone.”

“We knew in advance the response would be low, but we still set our goal to provide the residents of East Jerusalem with the possibility of having a choice,” says Haneen Mgadlh, East Jerusalem project coordinator of the Jerusalem Foundation, which also participates in this effort. To convince people from the eastern part of the city to come to the western part for cultural purposes is a real challenge, she added.

Source: www.haaretz.com

Youthful characters mingle with starker images of violence in the comics that line the walls along the second floor of the Watson Institute for International Studies. Colorful images of Mickey Mouse adorned in lavish Arabic garments and headdresses  create an aura that is distinctly familiar yet rich with Arabic culture.

The “Arab Comics: 90 Years of Popular Visual Culture” exhibition is on display Feb. 1 to March 15. The curation features Arabic comics crafted as early as the 1950s and as recently 2012.

Sarah Tobin, associate director of Middle East studies, said she hopes the exhibition will give spectators the opportunity to complicate the image of the Middle East that is typically conjured. Replacing many stereotypes of the region, the cartoons bring to life “some amazing images from the 20th century” in an accessible and familiar way, she added.

BRITTANY COMUNALE / HERALD
The Arab comic exhibition features familiar characters from Western culture, such as Mickey Mouse, Superman and Tintin, as well as images that people in the United States may not recognize. Organizers of the exhibition hope the images will help paint a more complex picture of Middle Eastern culture than the stereotypes prevalent in the United States.
“Comics are perceived as a Western medium” but characters like Mickey Mouse, Tintin and Superman have in fact been present in the Middle East since the 1920s, said Nadim Damluji, who co-curated the exhibition with his sister, Mona Damluji.

Nadim Damluji said he first became interested in Arab comics after coming across a comic magazine at a book market in Cairo many years ago, adding that his interest has since developed into a passion. He is now a comic book scholar and critic, conducting extensive and in-depth research on the history of comics in Arab countries from the twentieth century to today.

He  said his favorite comic in the exhibition, entitled “Mîkî” by an unidentified artist in 1964, features 14 images of Mickey Mouse framed by traditional Arabic architecture, each with a different skin tone. The piece overturns the monochromatic Mickey that graces most American televisions.

“They are taking something that’s so American and making it Arab,” Nadim Damluji said.

Damluji said he hopes the exhibit will disrupt the misconception that comics are strictly a Western product, not only through the children’s comics it features but also through the more contemporary works, which use comics as a medium to express the “tense things in the Middle East that are going on all the time.”

Comics allow artists to “tell personal stories about complicated situations,” he added.

The Arab comics provide an unconventional platform for audiences to learn about politics and current events, Tobin said, adding that comics can sometimes represent a satirical way to express opinions and subvert political norms.

More contemporary pieces from the Beirut-based comics collective Samandal include a black-and-white work that contrasts with the vibrancy across the hall. The piece entitled “Yogurt and Jam or How My Mother Became Lebanese” by Lena Merhej comprises nine panels that contradict its playful title. Tanks, gunfire and explosions, spread over nine years of violence, set a somber tone. 

“Within the Arab world, there have been many cases of comics and illustration used in resisting oppression,” said Fouad Mezher, whose artwork is featured in the exhibit.

“The exhibit presents images that most people have never seen from the Middle East,” wrote Mona Damluji, co-curator of the exhibit, in an email to The Herald, adding that the organizers hoped to “pose new questions about the relationship between visual culture, Islam and the Arab world.”

Mona Damluji approached the Middle East studies program with the idea for the exhibit and symposium last semester. She wrote that when she approached Beshara Doumani, professor of modern Middle East history and director of Middle East studies, about the idea, he was “immediately enthusiastic as he agreed that very little has been written or shown in the U.S. to better understand this popular medium.”

The Middle East studies department will also host a symposium Feb. 26, which will showcase the comics while featuring artists and scholars from the United States and Lebanon.

Nadim Damluji said the symposium will add another dimension to the exhibition, which he hopes will act as a “conversation starter” to promote interest and to familiarize more people with the concept of Arab comics.

The exhibition also provides a unique opportunity to “highlight some important activists and artists who might struggle to have their work and contributions recognized so easily,” Tobin said.

Source: www.browndailyherald.com