Midnight weddings annoy many people, including husbands and drivers who have to ferry the women folk home, and the elderly who are unable to stay up late. In order to encourage people to hold weddings earlier in the day, members of the Women’s Cultural Forum have started a campaign entitled “Our Weddings Are for Our Happiness.”

Seriously though? Out of all the issues that Saudi women currently face, we find a campaign against … late night weddings? Strikes me as a bit insane.

What do you guys think?

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She has an interesting story to tell about the challenges she faces as a Christian Palestinian in a Jewish and Islamic World, in the Middle East and as an Arab living in Israel. What’s amazing about her is that she was elected not from a “quota” seat which is the only way Christians can ever be elected in the Arab World — including in Jordan where my cousin has held a seat in the Jordanian Senate, in a seat reserved for Christians — but rather as a candidate appealing to a broad constituency that include some Christian Arab Israelis, some more Muslim Arab Israelis and a a majority of Israeli Jews. She still won a seat and maybe she foretells the future of “Democratic” Israel.

Most Arabs cannot win in Israeli elections unless they run on Arab lists in Arab regions. Israeli Jews will not vote for them, reflecting Israel’s Jewish society which seeks to exclude Christian and Muslim citizens. But that’s no different than the traditions in the Arab World, Look at Iraq. If President Bush had an ounce of intelligence in his brain — he doesn’t, although he has become more compassionate towards the Palestine-Israel conflict, although it has taken 7 years — he would have recopgnized that you can’t bring Democracy to Iraq. Sunnis vote for Sunnis’ Shi’ites vote for Shi’ites. Assyrians vote for Assyrians. Turkomen vote for Turkomen. Kurds vote for Kurds and so on. It’s a fact of life in the Arab World too, and in Palestine, the cloests thing the Arabs have to a “Democracy” — it’s as much a Democracy as is Israel.

I hope you enjoy it. And if I can figure out how to place it on our MEY podcasts, I’ll try.

Also, I think that for Christian Arabs is that Jews often embrace them more than Muslims. As a Christian Arab comedian, for example, I am excluded from the Muslim Comedy circuit and from the activist comedy circuit, partly because of my “moderate” views which the other comedians either do not want to address (because it’s bad for their careers) or they disagree with. I understand that. But Christian Arabs are excluded from almost every aspect these days of the Muslim Arab society.

Secular Arabs are being eclipsed by the Islamic activists and today’s Muslim, who, it seems, focuses on him or herself rather than on the larger Arab Nation. Arab Nationalism has been replaced by Islamicism. Christian Arabs are marginalized, patronized and exploited mainly to score points against Israel.

And the mainstream American media, including even places like the so-called “progressive” Public Television also has pushed aside Arab Christians, and that is an amazing thing ocnsidering that American Christians essential are the descendents of Palestinian Christians. One day Arab Christians will eventually disappear. And that’s bad news for Christianity, the Arab World and especially for Israel.

Ray Hanania
(I also now write for The HuffingtonPost.com.)

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- Reality
- Best Political/News Series
- Public Service and Activism

The only one it did not win was “best editing,” which is hardly a loss!

This is a really big win for Hometown Baghdad. Congratulations!

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Bush administration announced in 2007, unprecedented weapons deals worth at least $20 billion to Saudi Arabia and five other oil-rich Persian Gulf states, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, The arms deals, which include the sales of a variety of sophisticated weaponry, would be the largest negotiated by this administration. Furthermore, the military assistance agreements would provide $30 billion in new U.S. aid to Israel and $13 billion to Egypt over 10 years.

To ensure that the weapons for Arab neighbours would not pose a threat to Israel or weaken Israel’s qualitative regional military advantage, the US predicted a balance of a 25 percent rise in US military and defence aid to Israel to assure Israel’s concerns. Package to preserve Israel’s military superiority, or “qualitative edge” over its Arab neighbours, shows that Washington will increase its aid to Israel. Furthermore, Israel keeps the advantage of US engaging in joint military exercises, weapon research and development programmes, and exchanges of military scientists and engineers with the United States.

What the Bush administration wants from their Arab allies, in exchange for these deals, is to form political front against the IRI, not military front against Israel–like the anti-Soviet strategy consensus during the Cold War among US allied Arab states and Israel. Although, such a front has a high price for Arab nations, does not seem to bother the IRI at all.

No wonder that IRI’s seniors are not let down with the US arms sales, they even pretend to be glad to have US weapons but without troops in the region. For them, any arm can be sooner or later pointed at “enemy of Islam”.

They expressed their satisfaction through their state media, “One must consider the sale of American weapons to the Arab countries as a good omen, a divine gift offered to the Muslim fundamentalists by their enemies”, wrote Mr. Shari’atmadari, a high-ranking intelligence officer appointed by the leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran as Chief Editor of the radical daily “Keyhan.”

The militarization of the Middle East is a “God-given” argument for the IRI to focus on a more aggressive search for technologically advanced weaponry beyond their traditional sources of China and Russia, and could further invigorate IRI’s aspirations of reaching a nuclear arsenal.

What concerns Israel, while several lawmakers close to the Israel lobby attempted to block the arms sales to Saudi Arabia, or at least condition it on a number of changes in Saudi policy, Israeli government signalled its approval.

Indeed, the forged new political front seems to be against no particular state in the region. Despite the tensions between the IRI and the Persian Gulf states, none of these US client states is to join eventual US military strikes against the IRI. The Council of Gulf Cooperation composed of Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are traditionally pro-US regimes, housing US military bases, linked to the largest US oil and financial houses and the biggest purchasers of military goods from the US military-industrial complex. However, they repeatedly called for the US to engage Iran diplomatically and not militarily or with economic sanctions.

The only beneficiaries of this militarization are both the corrupt Shiite Mullahs and Sunnite Sheiks, who find a pretext of “foreign enemy” to further curb their own people, and the US arms fabricators, close to Bush and Cheney, who will be pocketing colossal benefits at sale of weaponry to such states–the only state in the region which may use arms against other population is Israel.

The Bush administration has found a way to massively fill in both Israeli and Arab arsenals with destructive arms. It’s the same kind of logic as trying to put out a fire by pouring oil onto it. This provokes a new military race in a region which is already full of tension. The lucrative sales of the US military industry further weaken democratic movements, support military repressions, escalate arms races, exacerbate ongoing conflicts, be used to commit human rights abuses or support human rights abusers, and cause arms build-ups of the IRI.

IRI’s nuclear programmes and its support for terrorism provide the pretexts for the US to militarise the region. The 10-year business of weapons explains a pure lucrative goal rather than an immediate US aim of a new war in the region. The business can however be a demonstrative support for US Arab partners.

What concerns the previous rhetoric of democracy in the region, Bush administration has been considerably quiet for a long time about it, which used to be its miracle weapon against the malaise of an Islamic Arab world in which militant Islamism is fermenting. Now, delivery of weapons contradicts any “democracy” in the region.

Bush administration prefers to recognise that the term “democracy” is not an attractive word for the house of Saudi Wahhabi or the rich Sheiks of the Persian Gulf states. In this region, both allies and enemies of the US are doing nothing to promote democracy. The enemy of the US is the IRI, a brutal state which does not mind killing millions of people for its own survival. Among the Persian Gulf states, the biggest friend of the US is the house of Wahhabi, a corrupt house with notorious reputation. Sunnite Islamic extremism and terrorism simply cannot be explained or understood without looking at the history and influence of Wahhabi Islam in the region.

One question posed by peace loving people and by concerned citizens is, why now? Why is a lame duck President seeking to gain more militarization in the region?

One answer may be the fact that after having toppled the Taliban in Afghanistan and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, Bush administration is now trying to control the rest of “moderate” Islamic world in the region. Their militarization does not necessarily mean a threat of military strikes on the IRI. US hegemony in the region is only possible when Bush can maintain links with the “moderate” allies by keeping the status quo with the IRI. It is to keep the IRI in perpetual check. Therefore for the Bush administration, the deals have, beside lucrative reasons, several geopolitical consequences:

- It increases Israel’s security– since Israel is in peace with Egypt and not in conflict with Saudi Arabia and Persian Gulf countries, it is the biggest beneficial of the deals.

- It establishes long military race between oil Arab countries from one side and the IRI from the other side.

- It reinforces US hegemony by reducing the influence of the concurrent powers of China, Russia, and the EU in the region. In this perspective, Bush plans to coerce the “moderate” Arab countries to align themselves with the neo-conservative agenda of the present US hegemony.

Chinese influence in the Middle East has grown in the past decade. With the goal of securing oil and gas to fuel China’s economic growth, the Chinese government has actively cultivated its relations with the oil-rich Middle East, especially Iran and Saudi Arabia. China and Russia have also lucrative weapons deals with Saudi Arabia.

For Bush administration, these above points seem the main priorities. Therefore, its increasing military cooperation with a series of client countries in the region must guarantee both economic and geopolitical interests of the US and its regional base, Israel.

In fact, under the Bush administration, the Middle East is caught in a vicious cycle; it has become more insecure and explosive. While the region needs peace and democratisation, extremism, terrorism and political Islam, have their ground to emerge stronger than before.

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In many respects, the light of Israel has shined brightly for the world to behold. Due in large part to the boundless courage of her defenders, she came into being out of the ashes of the Holocaust, and in spite of a concerted and protracted effort to destroy her. She nurtured and sustained a vibrant democracy even in the face of persistent and existential threats to her security. She prospered economically using very few natural resources, save the natural resourcefulness of her citizenry. She successfully absorbed disproportionately high numbers of refugees with open and loving arms. She has pioneered untold advances in science and technology, while holding fast to a love of art and culture. In these, and many other ways, Israel’s accomplishments can be considered A Light Unto The Nations.

And yet, Israel’s history remains a mixed bag of good and bad, as is the case with almost all nations on earth. Each accomplishment is offset by a detriment of sorts. True, she has met the security challenges forcefully, but at the expense of occupying and subduing a neighboring population which feels hopeless and dispossessed. True, she has prospered economically, but at the expense of an increasingly wider gap between the haves and the have-nots. True, she maintains a vibrant democracy, but at the expense of a contentious vying for power between secular and religious Jews, and between the Jewish majority and the Arab minority within its borders.

At every turn, each success is countered by an equally significant threat, either from within, or from without. It is as if the path to Israel’s perfection is lined with a multitude of impediments, like a ship passing in the night through treacherous waters teeming with hidden mines and explosives. In this regard, Israel’s light does not always shine as a beacon of hope, but as the light of a lighthouse, point to unseen dangers, and lighting the way toward a safe passage.

The threats to Israel, as she turns 60, are the threats we all face in this increasingly globalized world: How do we usher in an age of peace in the face of ideological extremism which is hell bent on war? How do we defend our way of life, when extremist elements are aligning to take that life away? How do we empower the dispossessed with a Vision of Hope for the future, when that vision seems to be slipping away? How do we close the gap between the wealthy few, and the impoverished many? How do we prosper economically while protecting the health and sanctity of our environment? How do we defend ourselves militarily without dashing the hopes and aspirations of the innocent? How do we advance scientifically and technologically without losing sight of the values and emotions which make us human?

The answer to these and other questions rests in the promise that Israel offers as she forges ahead toward the next 60 years. And the answer she comes up with can shine a light for others to follow. And what would that answer look like? It’s not all that complicated: Israel will use her technology, her knowledge, her drive, and her inclination toward business, to partner with Arab entrepreneurs, to solicit Saudi investment, to hire and train Arab workers, to produce green technology products, to clean the earth, and to safeguard our place upon it. The answer is staring us in the face, if we care to look; Good- paying jobs, aimed at green technology products, with the ultimate goals of: revitalizing the stagnant economies of the Middle East, conditioning people for peace, neutralizing the effects of extremist ideology, protecting the environment, and giving the impoverished and the dispossessed a helping hand out of the clutches of extreme poverty and hopelessness. All this can be done, believe it or not, while enabling all concerned to turn a healthy profit.

With God’s help, Israel will continue to shine her light unto the nations. Every once in a while her light will shine with pride; the pride born of success. But more often than not, Israel will have no choice but to face the same challenges that all nations now face in this, the 21st century. And in that struggle, she will continue to shine her light, to point to the dangers which lie ahead, and to point to solutions which are effective, equitable, and just. In this manner, Israel will truly fulfill her destiny to shine as A Light Unto The Nations.

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As I identify very much with the way of thinking the story talks about, I asked the woman who posted it, if I could re-post it and share it with you… This is one of the things that keep me going, the knowledge and the hope that drop by drop, small efforts DO matter.

A Tiny Drop of Water
Author: Bob Perks

A tiny drop of water washed away the land and buildings fell, floating away with other people’s dreams.

Roadways planned and formed by huge machines and men who sweat and hammer the world into shape, were pushed away with little effort.

People ran and cars clogged highways in an effort to stay ahead of the possible destruction that tiny drop of water could cause.

“Wait!” you say. “It was much more than a tiny drop of water. The streams overflowed and the rivers broke through their banks causing a wall of water to destroy those things.”

Yes, but it was made up of tiny drops of water. Raindrops which together wore a path right through my yard with little effort. One drop, then two then thousands, millions and all together they changed the world, our world.

Can’t you see the significance in that?

I want to change the world. I am tired, worn out from weeping at the sight of still another death not just on the field of battle laid out by warriors, but in the streets of every city, in the fields of the impoverished, desolate reaches of the world. They are dying in my country and yours by bullet, by starvation, disease, arrogance, stupidity and pride.

A tiny drop of water gave me hope.

I am but one drop in the sea of humanity, but like the rain I can join together with others and wash away the hatred and pain I anguish over. One drop, then two, then thousands, millions and all together we can change the world. our world.

I want to change my life. I am tired of being in debt. I am worn out from trying to keep pace with the world. I have tried my very best to get ahead and find myself falling behind each step of the way.

A tiny drop of water gave me hope.

It fell upon the hillside just behind my house. One single drop of water joined with others forming a stream.

Like trying one more time. Like doing one more thing. Like pushing one more inch to reach the goal, the dream I long to touch and make reality. All my little efforts make big changes.

The little stream that ran down my driveway, never having been there before, began as one single drop, until one drop after another, trying again and again, washed the soil away and moved the tiny pebble and eventually the rock.

I cannot push away the fear nor change my life overnight, but if I dedicate myself to one single effort each and every day, I will see the power of changing little things to make a big difference.

A tiny drop of water gave me hope.

I am just one drop in the sea of humanity. But I have the power to change my life and the sacred obligation to move the world in the right direction.

How?

One drop, then two, then thousands, millions and all together we change the world, our world.

A tiny drop of water gave me hope.

___________________________________________

This is exactly my philosophy. What I am doing here, on other sites and in ‘real life’ activism, comes from a very deep conviction: Peace is possible and we can achieve it. - When? I don’t know. I am who I am - just another human being, just another person living in this region, torn by ages of war. I know that I am no politician nor anyone influential, and what I can do is just add another drop here and there. But I am convinced that each drop will achieve something, and I am fortunate to have seen that my little drops have already made a few people change their minds. I hope that these few people will contribute to change the minds of another few people.

I also think that many of us have just this philosophy: we do the best we can - knowing that together we can be strong and create a new reality. I’m just adding my drops to a whole and much bigger stream. Hopefully, this stream will grow and grow and wash away tanks and guns and bombs and walls…

A single drop, a single act can be much more powerful than one would think in the first place.

And: whatever happens, whatever we’ll achieve (or not) - we have done “the right thing” - we stood up and raised our voices, and thus we create a testimony that among all this violence, among all this madness there are human beings who try to achieve peace by peaceful means…

May our voices be heard, may our drops create a stream!

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So without further ado…

You can buy this shirt here.

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Police forces warned all of the café owners to stop serving Qalyan (or any other kind of smoke) or they would be prosecuted. Some café owners tried to resist, who were finally fined and their shops were closed.

Since Qalyan was the main source of income for such cafés (which used to serve tea, Qalyan and few traditional snacks and foods), most of them experienced a rapid decrease of revenues so that many of them decided to close the shops.

Few weeks later, President Ahmadinejad directly ordered Ministry of State (who is in charge of Police Forces) to abolish the crack down. Since then Qalyan is again available. Yeah, that day was “the re-birth of café owners of Iran” as the below poster states. This poster is available in many traditional cafés, expressing the very thanks of café owners to “beloved, popular president” of Iran. It reads: “thank you, thank you!”

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“I see that any job, whatever it may be, is an agreement between an employer and the employee. It is a matter of accepting and refusing. If there is a woman whose circumstances force her to work in a kitchen for a few hours and she accepts the payment, then I cannot come and say, ‘How could Saudi women take such jobs?’ Our mothers and grandmothers used to do such jobs. And they still do in the Bedouin culture,” he said.

“The ministry or any other concerned authority has no business if a woman is satisfied with her payment. And I have no right to say that a Saudi woman should not be dubbed a ‘housemaid’,” Al Gosaibi said. He

I am happy to see this position accepted by the Saudi Ministry of Labour. In fact this might help stop people from associating housemaid with “cheap” slaves and people might begin to respect and appreciate these positions. If you condemn this, then you would have to condemn the other housemaids from South Asia as well, namely Sri Lanka, which Saudi Arabia has more than 600,000 of.

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Sami, a Sudanese citizen, was captured in Pakistan on December 2001 while  travelling to Afghanistan. Although he held a legitimate work visa,  Pakistani authorities turned him over to the US forces, who transferred him to Guantanamo 6 months later, on charges of being an “enemy combatant”.

Sami, who was on hunger strike since January 2007, detailed several abuses perpetrated against him, including  sexual assault.

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A jury in Rock Island, Illinois said they were deadlocked on the Bush Administration’s prosecution of a former middle-level sub-contractor for Halliburton that the federal government has targeted for more than three years.

The jury was split evenly over charges that Jeff Mazon, a manager for Kellogg, Brown & Root, (KBR), a construction and engineering company that had received a contract from the U.S. Army Sustainment Command at the Rock Island Arsenal to provide services to troops in the Middle East, had accepted a bribe to increase the contract for a Kuwaiti contractors.

U.S. District Court Judge Joe B. McDade, who muzzled the trial by refusing to allow Mazon’s defense team to address the larger issues of the Iraq War and the widespread contract corruption involving politically connected Halliburton, the parent company of KBR, had no choice but to declare a mistrial.
But what are the real issues behind why the jurors could not convict Mazon, who the Bush Administration has targeted for more than three years in a politically-motivated campaign that cost taxpayers millions of dollars?

Clearly, for the public at least, Mazon was not viewed as the real problem when it comes to the ongoing abuse of war related contracts in Iraq and Kuwait.

Mazon was always small potatoes. The Bush Administration’s prosecutors always carefully focused their prosecutions against individuals, avoiding allowing the bigger issue of Halliburton’s inherent abuses, and the abuses of their politically connected sub-contractors, like KBR, to surface in the trial.

That’s the real reason why, in my opinion, Judge McDade ordered that the Mazon defense team not try to turn the trial into an indictment of the corrupt, scandal-plagued Iraq War where the history of contract abuses under Halliburton’s watch has been endless.

If these war contract abuse cases are really that important – and there are dozens that have been prosecuted over the past several years – why did the government put the case on trial in Rock Island, Illinois where the glare of the national media is so dim? Although the local news media is very competent, they do not cover the federal criminal issues related to the Iraq War and Halliburton as often as does the national media.

The Bush Administration’s PR machine has been repeating over and over again that they took the case to the obscure northern Illinois federal courtroom because that’s where the contract was originally issued.

Wow. If that logic were genuine, then the military would be prosecuting all of their criminal cases in regional courts rather than with their own specific laws and on their military bases.

But we know better.

For the Bush Administration, this is about politics, not corruption. It is about Bush being able to tell the public that he is doing something about the ongoing corruption that goes far beyond the weak evidence against Mazon, without having to raise suspicions that maybe the real problem isn’t one middle manager who oversaw one contract, but rather the culture of corruption that infested the entire Iraq War contract system controlled by Halliburton, which was run by Vice President Dick Cheney.

Cheney was the architect of the Iraq War. He had direct control over Halliburton. And before one year even passed when he stepped down from Halliburton as its CEO, he was already drafting plans to invade Iraq and make Halliburton the lead contractor in a scheme to topple Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship and replace it with his own.

The strategy to prosecute these cases outside of the national limelight would have worked, had the Bush Administration been able to hoodwink the public into believing that the prosecutions are on the up-and-up.

Very few newspapers even bothered to cover the trial in Rock Island. Even the Associated Press lifted reporting from the two local news organizations that did excellent reporting on the case, the Quad-City Times Newspaper and the Quad Cities Online and Argus Newspapers.

But now that the prosecution has stumbled, and half of the jury members have said the government’s case was inadequate, the media is all over the story. More than 300 newspapers have picked up on the news just in the first 10 hours since the jury came back and handed the federal prosecutors their shameful blow.

Now, to save face, and with the media focused on the case, the prosecuting team, led by a Washington D.C. based prosecutor – another anomaly considering the government insisted that the case need not be prosecuted in the nation’s capitol – has indicated they will seek to retry Mazon, who happens to be from the Southwest Suburbs of Chicago.

Why? The government spent three years building this case and apparently all the evidence they had was worthless. They have persecuted Mazon’s alleged conspirator, Ali Hijazi, a contractor in Kuwait who was also “indicted,” and they have slandered him by describing him as a “fugitive.”

Hijazi is a free man in Kuwait. And the government of Kuwait, which is a strong ally of the United States, has ruled that there is no evidence to prove any of the U.S. government’s claims against Hijazi. Yet the Feds, who have no authority to take Hijazi into custody, have refused to lift the indictment.

Now they want to save face and retry the case? Is it worth the millions of dollars that will be spent to re-prosecute? I don’t think so.

However, if the government wants to set the Mazon case aside and instead open a wider investigation into the contract abuses that all come back to Cheney’s company, Halliburton, I would say let’s do it!

That is where the real focus belongs and where the Bush administration just doesn’t want to go.

(Ray Hanania is an award winning columnist, author and radio talk show host based in Chicago. He can be reached at www.hanania.com. Distributed by the Arab American Writers Group, www.ArabWritersGroup.com.)

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Shaalan was first discovered in 1995 by Dr. Tarek Sharara. Without hesitation he hosted her live on an FM radio station program called “Play On.” Sharara interviewed her and presented some of her songs to the public.Since that moment “ I felt I should take a step forward to seek in this path of singing and composition,” Shaalan said.

Shaalan received the Jury Special Award in the fifth Annual International Song Festival held in Alexandria, in 2007. She also featured as guest singer with Grammy Award Winner Fathy Salama at the Cairo Opera House in 1997. Salama has since “pushed me to continue by offering me more chances to appear as a guest in his concerts, which ultimately lead to a point where, since 2003, I was able to hold performances on my own,” Shaalan said.

In 2003, Shaalan appeared in a television interview which focused on her biography and songs. The interview was also broadcasted on FM radio. Shaalan’s increasing popularity has lead to her songs playing on a daily show on “Nogoom FM,” hosted by Mohamed Salah and Rami Hohsen, since 2007. Moreover, Shaalan was hosted on “Good Morning Egypt” and OTV. In addition, she was interviewed live by Mohamed Ezz El Din for “Radio Horyatna,” an online radio station heard in many countries.

Shaalan also featured in two documentaries. One was broadcasted on Dubai’s “Al Aan” channel and the other was called “Hadeeth Al Madeena” by Mofeed Fawzy in 2007. She has also performed on ART and a number of occasions held by ART. Furthermore, she performed for “The Poor People’s Day” event organized by the UN and held in the Sawy Culture Wheel in 2007, and the “Orphan’s Day” event in 2008.

Shaalan’s first performance on stage was in the USA in 1984. This was in an international camp with 200 students from around the world. She then went on to perform in a number of competitions and events in Egypt.

The rapid success Shaalan is gaining and the support of her family, friends, Salama, and fans, motivated her to pursue singing as a career. “They gave me more confidence and faith that I have something to offer people through my music. This induced my desire to continue my path with more hope,” said Shaalan.

Shaalan blends Eastern fusion, blues, Jazz, and slow rock in Arabic music. Her lyrics address peace, love, and non-violence. She also writes about friendship and romance. Her lyrics are influenced by everything that touches her heart and stimulates her imagination. “Nature and passionate experiences have great influence on me,” she noted.

The goal Shaalan seeks to reach through her music is to “convey messages to people of different cultures, touch their emotions, and make even a slight change in their lives,” she said.

Shaalan will also be performing in a concert in July as part of an Anti-Smoking Campaign held by WHO, World Health Organization. The concert will be held in an open air private club. Shaalan is also planning for more future concerts and touring Europe for some solo concerts. Dates have yet to be decided.

Currently, Shaalan is preparing a few songs to perform in future competitions “hoping that winning will give me a better chance to find producers to help finance an album,” she said.

Besides singing, Shaalan is also a sculptoress. She has participated in international and local art exhibitions with her statues. Her bronze piece will be displayed as part of the Egyptian Museum for Modern Arts collection this year.

More on Shaalan and her music can be found on Facebook. Or on the following links:

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Dear Friends and Family,

Hometown Baghdad was recently nominated for four Webby Awards! The Webby Awards are the highest honors of the internet; past recipients to accept awards include Al Gore, Prince, Beastie Boys, founders of You Tube, MySpace, etc.

While the official awards are chosen by the likes of David Bowie and various industry leaders, a People’s Voice Award is given out in each category and anyone can vote! We need just a minute of your time– Please vote now!

- Go to http://pv.webbyawards.com
- Register (only takes a few seconds)
- Check your email for confirmation
- Click on the “online film and video” section
- Vote for us in each of the following categories:

News and Politics Series

Public Service and Activism (they are in the lead for this one; make sure you vote for them here first)

Reality

Editing

If we win, it would be an incredible honor for everyone involved with Hometown Baghdad and would lead to great opportunities for us all. We are up against some strong competition including Discovery, National Geographic, and the NY Times. So we need your help. Please pass this along to your network of friends!
Thank you for your votes and continued support of our work.

All the Best,

The Chat the Planet Team

Like I said, they are in the lead for this category:

Let’s make sure they win.

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“Palestinian judges ordered the execution of a man for collaborating with Israel in Hebron on Monday.”

Well, we’re (illegally) killing each other in this country every day. We’re in a war. We all oppose this sort of killing.

This man is accused for “collaborating” with “the ennemy” - treason, if you want. A Palestinian judge in Hebron decided that it is “legal” to kill this man. At the same time, fathers and brothers who kill their wifes or sisters for reasons of “honor” go free. Am I wrong? Are there any other death sentences pronounced in Palestinian courts?

What about “legal killing” and death sentence at all?

I’ve always opposed death sentences, anywhere. I cannot make an exception in this case. Making an exception is using double standards… Most of us, I guess, are opposed to death sentences in the US, and as far as I know all (or, if not, most) European countries have abolished it, Amnesty is fighting it. Can we stay silent in this case?

I think we cannot. I cannot make an “exception” to something I consider as an universal principle.

So: what are we going to do about this??

Waiting for your thoughts…
__________________________________________________
“The death penalty violates the right to life. It is the ultimate cruel, inhuman and degrading punishment. It has no place in a modern criminal justice system.” - Amnesty International

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And now (drumroll please)…The New York Times has stepped in to set the record straight. In the front page lead article in print and for a two-page spread in the News section, reporter Andrea Elliot lets the story that we heard at MASKED reach every doorstep and kitchen table and computer screen where the newspaper is read. Debbie and her supporters, notably Alan Levine (her lawyer) and members of Communities in Support of KGIA are remarkable educators, activists and proponents of the ideals that this country supposedly stands on. I very much hope that this new wave of attention will turn into the desired, simple result: that Debbie can return to guide the school she worked so hard to make happen.

Oh yes–and we officially scooped The New York Times

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In 1983, ABC produced a short documentary highlighting the perils facing Baha’is in Iran. That was a dark era in the history of Iran, marked with an oppressive crackdown on Baha’is and other religious minorities. Sadly, the repression continues to this day.

We at the Muslim Network for Baha’i Rights (MNBR) have translated the video to Arabic, in an effort to raise awareness about the peaceful nature of the Baha’i faith, the abuse innocent Baha’is face, and promote dialogue.

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But one of the limitations of mey’s podcasting feature was that submissions were restricted to authors registered with us. Not anymore, with the introduction of MEYcast - Mideast Youth’s own podcasting service.

MEYcast will serve as a central site for our podcasts, and will allow users from across the globe to use our platform to feature their podcasts. Naturally, submissions will be restricted to those relating to the Middle East, or touching upon subjects Mideast Youth tackles, such as human rights abuses, interfaith endeavours and so on.

Below is a short demonstration of MEYcast and its features by Esra’a. We look forward to receiving your submissions!

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Previous posts about Fouad by authors of MEY, actively condemning his imprisonment:

However, Kareem Amer is STILL IN PRISON. It has been a year and 6 months now! His case is one of the most serious when it comes to the regional blogosphere and it bothers me that voices for his rights have been distant as of late.

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I don’t know much about the artist, and the only thing I know about the song is that I think it’s called “Wedding”? Not even sure. Found this randomly from one of my Saudi classmates and thought I’d pass it along here for the rap-lovers who are curious as to what Saudi rap might sound like.

Note the beginning is not rap. The background music though is all using Arabic instruments and typical national-style music. So, it’s a very localized rap tune.

[Download]

PS. We have some other Arabic rap music on our radio player. Check out the Iraqi ones, they are pretty great.

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The Iranian government accused them of selling arms to Kurdish guerrilla fighters connected to P.K.K, which all of the Kurdish political parties strongly repudiate. On October 22, 2007,the Iranian Supreme Court upheld the sentence to death of Mr. Hasanpoor issued on July 9, 2007 by the Revolutionary Tribunal in Marivan, for, inter alia, “diffusion of separatist propaganda”, “treason” and “collaboration with Kurdish political opposition parties”.

IMHRO understands from sources inside Kurdistan that Hiwa Butimar has been in solitary confinement for more than a year and has undergone torture.

Hiwa Butimar’s brother, Hadi Butimar told IMHRO that his appeal against the sentence was referred to the same judge in Mariwan city, who confirmed it for a second time.

This is totally unacceptable, and shows clearly the summary and arbitrary nature of executions in Iran. How can an appeal case be referred to the same judge?

Reza Washahi, campaigner for minorities’ rights, told IMHRO: “How can the Iranian court accept the confession of a person who was under torture for more than a year? Why does the Iranian government not allow UN special representatives to visits prisons in Iran, especially Kurdish prisons? Why is Amnesty International not allowed to have an office in Iran or to have been allowed to visit Iran during the last 30 years?”

IMHRO strongly supports the abolition of the death penalty in Iran and calls on the Iranian government to stop the death sentence passed on Hiwa Butimar and Adnan Hasanpoor and to release these Kurdish journalists.
Hiwa Butimar won a Freedom of the Press reward in Italy in November of 2000.

Background
The Kurdish minority in Iran which numbers up to 6 million people live in the west midland, north-west and north-east areas of Iran. Iranian Kurdish people are denied social and political rights. Various human rights organisations report that hundreds of Kurds are in prison, some of them there for a very long time.

Recently reports indicate that there is huge arsenic pollution in the city of Ghorweh as a result of gold mining by Chinese companies in Sargonay mine in south-east Kurdistan.

Action
Write a letter to one of the following and express your concern about the two Kurdish journalists, Hiwa Butimar and adnan Hasanpoor. Call on the Iranian government to stop their execution and to release them immediately.

Template Letter:

Your Excellency,

I am writing you to express my deepest concern regarding the confirmation of the death sentences of Mr. Adnan Hasanpoor and Mr. Abdel Wahid (Hiwa) Butimar.

I urge you to commute Mr. Hasanpoor and Mr. Butimar’s death sentences immediately and to guarantee in all circumstances the physical and psychological integrity of Mr. Hasanpoor and Mr. Butimar.

I call on you to release them immediately and unconditionally since their detention is arbitrary, as it only seems to sanction their human rights activities. I also urge you to ensure that they have access to adequate medical treatment and put an end to all acts of harassment against all Iranian human rights defenders.

Furthermore I urge you to conform with the provisions of the UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders, adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on December 9, 1998, especially its Article 1, which states that “everyone has the right, individually and in association with others, to promote and to strive for the protection and realization of human rights and fundamental freedoms at the national and international levels”, Article 6 (b) which stipulates that “everyone has the right […] freely to publish, impart or disseminate to others views, information and knowledge on all human rights and fundamental freedoms”, as well as Article 12(2), which provides that “the State shall take all necessary measures to ensure the protection by the competent authorities of everyone, individually and in association with others, against any violence, threats, retaliation, de facto or de jure adverse discrimination, pressure or any other arbitrary action as a consequence of his or her legitimate exercise of the rights referred to in the present Declaration”.

Finally I urge you to ensure in all circumstances the respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms in accordance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and with international and regional human rights instruments ratified by the Islamic Republic of Iran.

I hope for your urgent attention to this matter.

Yours respectfully,

Please send your appeal to:

Secretary-General United Nations
Hon. Ban Ki-moon
United Nations Headquarters
First Avenue at 46th Street
New York, NY 10017
Supreme leader of Iran
Sayyed Ali Khamenei
E-mail via web site
http://www.leader.ir/

Iranian president
Mahmud Ahmadinejad
E-mail via web site
http://www.president.ir/en/

Head of the Judiciary
Ayatollah Mahmud Hashemi Shahroudi
Howzeh Riyasat-e Qoveh Qazaiyeh / Office of the Head of the Judiciary
Pasteur St., Vali Asr Ave., south of Serah-e Jomhouri, Tehran 1316814737, Islamic Republic of Iran

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Ms Louise Arbour
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights Palais des Nations CH-1211 Geneva 10, Switzerland

Chairwoman of European parliament Human Rights committee
Ms Hélène FLAUTRE
Bureau d’Hélène Flautre au Parlement européen8G130, rue WierzB-1049, Bruxelles, Belgique

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If you look closely you will find women in hospitals and shops but they are hidden. Walking shadows is all you could see. They blame how women cover up from head to toe on religion but it is not so. Religion suggested that women be modest in the way they dress. The explanation may look simple in that being man has power and woman has none, so woman is being controlled and brain washed by the superior man. But it is actually more complex in reality.

Man in a society such as that in Saudi Arabia perceives woman as a sex object and a baby making machine, she is not looked upon as an equal or a human being that has the same rights as he has. He sees her as someone who is weak, a secondary citizen and one who is incapable of making any decisions regarding herself or anyone else for that matter, and that is why he feels he has the right over her, him thinking he knows better! And actually believing so!

Man feels he owns and possesses woman, may it be his daughter, wife, sister or even mother. And because he only sees an object of pleasure in a woman he believes every other man sees the same so that is why he tries to cover her up from head to toe.

So man believes he has a right over her life, choices she makes, if she could get an education or not, if she could work or not, who to marry, how many children to have, how to educate them, not only that but man gives permission to a woman to have a medical procedure done or not, and his presence is needed upon her discharge from a hospital! I believe this is too harsh.. I don’t think a minor should be treated the way women are in such a country.
It is interesting to note that women have half the amount of compensation that a man has, for instance if a woman had a medico legal problem such as removing the wrong kidney! She would be compensated half of what the man is given! Is my kidney less valuable than a man’s I wonder? Is my life not worth living free? Is this how we are perceived? Half a man’s worth? I guess we are not so far off from the old days when they used to bury girls alive before Islam.

This society doesn’t comprehend that this woman is an equal to man with a mind to think, make decisions for her and others; she is not less of a human or a partner in life, she has proven when given the chance of being more superior to man in the work field. But she is always confined by man and that is why her progress is slow and self esteem low. She is not given full authority in a position; rather a man has to be the one making the decisions. Some women are highly qualified but report to a junior just because he was born a man.

The Arab/Saudi man wants to erase woman’s existence out side his own confinement not only by hiding her behind black sheets but her name is considered a taboo as well. Boys are ashamed when their friends in school know their mother’s name. A female’s name shouldn’t be mentioned among the male.
A couple having a new born boy would be called (abo/om folan) meaning the mother/father of the boy’s name but if the child was a girl they wouldn’t want to be associated with her name.

Isn’t it wonderful to be a man in Saudi Arabia? the sky is your limits but for a woman, your home is your limits!

Some western cultures perceive women as the Saudi man does. You will see the same is being done but in a different way. The female is being brain washed by man and society without her even realizing that she is also being perceived as a sex object.
Some cultures exploit women instead of covering them up from head to toe in the name of equality and freedom of the softer sex.
Permit me to just touch on the matter of porn industry and how it is blooming in many countries. It is interesting how it is looked at as an art to exploit women in such a manner.
Man benefits in both cases but society is unstable in both scenarios as well.

The Saudi social structure, it being a tribal society makes it even more rigid and almost impossible for man and woman to reform. They feel obligated to move within the confinement of the tribe and society’s framework because of fear of being rejected. You loose so much when you are rejected from society, you may loose your life in some cases if you were a woman. If you try to break loose, you become alienated from the culture and society you were brought up in. It is not an easy step to make; there is no turning back once you’ve made that step especially if you were a woman. Men have a leeway somehow, society is always forgiving when it comes to man but for women, they would rather stone her than embrace her in many cases!

Segregation creates a large gap between man and woman in this society, neither have a full understanding of the other nor do they know what to expect from one another and that gives birth to a mystification around the sexes. These two gender groups will not find a common ground unless the wall between them is shattered. This society is crippled; it is limping on one leg while the other atrophies from lack of use. It will fall one day if we do not strengthen the other leg and put it in good use for the society to stand with both feet on the ground.

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Take China, for example. I don’t doubt that the leaders there would like nothing more than to crack a few more heads in Tibet. They are tempted to use fear to quell the dissention there. Why, because they rule over a huge number of people, situated in a varied array of political, religious, economic, and social subgroups. If Tibetan dissention were allowed to bear fruit; what other repercussions would be likely to ensue? And for the Chinese leadership, the loss of order would pose an existential threat.

And yet, with all the incentive to use the Machiavellian notion for fear, China realizes that there is a limit to what she can do in this regard, given the context of the new economic and diplomatic realities she finds herself in. The Olympics are coming up, and too many cracked heads would not be exactly in keeping with the Olympic spirit of international friendship and fair play. And there are also all those trading partners to think of. A massive crack down would not bode well for good business relations.

The conundrum in which China finds herself is indicative of a new organizing principle at the heart of international affairs—and that is the principle of maximizing profits. Of course, the inclination to maximize profits has always been around, but in a globalized economy, in which market share and profitability are everything, profit is becoming an ideological imperative.

Now some of you may think that the quest for profits is perhaps a shallow endeavor, not worthy of much consideration, and not indicative of the more noble aspects of the human condition. But I, for one, think that the hunger for profits could be used to energize a rational approach to solving some of our most intractable problems and existential threats we face.

Ask yourself this: What are the most serious problems we face? I would point to three in particular: Ideological Extremism, the threat to the Environment, and widespread Poverty. Could the need to maximize profits in a global economy help to bring solutions to these global problems? I think it’s possible that the answer is, yes.

In a global economy, the major players are in constant search of new markets for their goods and services, and for a ready supply of natural resources, like oil. Look at China trying to open up new markets wherever she can. Is it possible that the competitive nature of a global economy may be conducive to healing some of the world’s ills?

Let’s say for example that you want to tackle the problem of ideological extremism. Well, you could conclude that creating good paying jobs in third world countries will help to neutralize extremism. Good paying jobs will not necessarily sway the extremists themselves, but they will make it more difficult for the extremists to sell their ideological wares. The vast majority of people will be less susceptible to extremist ideology once they are able to hold on to good paying jobs and provide for the families. So in this example, the search for profits becomes a search for new markets, which in turn means the creation of good paying jobs. The need to protect profits coincides with the need to quell extremism, which widespread employment will help to do.

Let’s say that you want to protect the environment. So ask yourself this: How can we make environmental protection profitable? Well, a barrel of oil is now selling close to $120. The profit margin there may now be great enough to allow green technology to compete profitably. So, as part of the ubiquitous search for profits, you create jobs, which produce green technology products, which help to clean the earth up, and quite possibly reverse the course of Global Warming. You see, it’s not that we want to be good by cleaning up the earth. God forbid. It’s more that we clean up the earth because we can turn a profit. But if the earth ends up cleaner, then who cares what the motivations were?

Let’s say that you want to eliminate extreme poverty; along with the hunger, disease, and homelessness that necessarily come with it. You could ask for charitable donations, but don’t hold your breath. History shows that people are not as charitable as they ought to be. So ask yourself this: How do we make it profitable to end poverty? Once again, look to the profit motive of wealthy nations and corporations, and play to their ambitions.

For example, in a global economy it is important to keep the wheels of economic activity turning. Poverty is an obstacle to profits because poor people, with nothing to lose, can easily succumb to extremist thinking. Therefore, in our never ending search for profits, we will need to open up new markets for our goods and services, and we will need access to natural resources. And we can’t let poor people get in the way. Therefore, in order to create new markets, we will create new jobs, for people to be able to buy our goods, and at the same time, with their stomachs full, they will be less susceptible to extremist thinking, so as to allow the profits to keep rolling in.

The idea here is not all that complicated. If it is indeed true that the new organizing principle of the global economy is profitability, then it makes sense to put all this ambition to good use. It may well be possible to structure the global economy in such a way, that the need to improve the bottom line will coincide with the need to solve some of the big global problems which lie at our doorstep. As such, we will become good not due to our innate sense of goodness, but because being good will be our ticket to being profitable.

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However, Al Menbar bloc, not content that the penalty of fines, imprisonment or deportation acts as a sufficient deterrent, called on tougher measures to “stamp out homosexuality”.

The proposal - which has been ratified by parliament called on

1. The Interior Ministry to stop granting residence permits to foreign homosexuals
2. The Education Ministry to monitor students, and punishing those who veered towards homosexuality
3. The Industry and Commerce Ministry to monitor massage and hair salons to ensure that they have no closed rooms and that violators be prosecuted

In short, the MPs are calling for the creation of an Orwellian society.

Of course, many questions would have to be resolved before such rules can be implemented. What constitutes “homosexual behaviour” - watching Teletubbies and drinking soy milk? Who will be in charge of monitoring students? What punishment would befall those veering towards homosexuality - would there be camps to pump them with hormones as a cure? And what about computers?

To complement the utter homophobia, an Al Menbar MP sprinkled his statement with xenophobia

Those people are either from the Philippines or Thailand and they come for these two jobs, which they use as a curtain for their homosexual behaviour and immorality.

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Now, many of them, Syrian and Palestinian, are going to pay.

The story starts with Antoine “Tony” Rezko, a once very respectable building rehabber and small fast food franchiser who back in the early 1990s, helped people in the Arab community get a voice in local government by raising money and supporting their community efforts. But sometime in the mid-1990s, Rezko, according to federal indictments and the ongoing corruption trial, decided to line his own pockets with millions, and then using his quick rise in Illinois politics to position himself to make even more money in exchange for helping Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to raise funds. Rezko allegedly got people to donate money, and give him money, too, allegedly, in exchange for helping them get jobs in the government where they didn’t have to do any work.

One of the people he helped was Ali Ata, a former president of the Chicago Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee. Ali is a decent person. I actually know all of the main characters being a Chicago based Arab American activist going back to the 1970s when I left the Military service during the Vietnam War to try to help my community empower itself.

Ata pleaded guilty this week to charges he gave Gov. Blagojevich money at a meeting with Rezko in exchange to get a job in state government that paid him a salary of $127,000 a year. A job he was not qualified to hold, as executive director of the Illinois Finance Authority. But the IFA had great influence and helped Ata and other investors with land deals where they made millions of dollars, using their state jobs and clout with the governor and friendship with Rezko (according to the plea agreement) to get state buildings and then have the state lease the buildings — so they could then sell the buildings at huge profits. Ata even tried to use the clout he and Rezko created to reach out to the administration of President George W. Bush to get him to reassign the U.S. Attorney here Patrick Fitzgerald to prevent him from prosecuting Rezko. These are the same guys who raised money for Bush and both Republicans and Democrats. It didn’t matter which party or issues. It was all about greed.

What is most depressing about this story and why it is of interest to Arabs throughout is that this is the kind of corruption that we see all the time. People who claim to be “leaders” who use their influence and power and clout and friendship with government officials to help themselves, rather than help the community.

Arab Americans have been in Chicago for more than 120 years. Many came just before the 1893 World Columbian Exposition (a history I detailed in my book “Arabs of Chicagoland” 2005, Arcadia Publishing). Yet, we, as a community, do not have one major street, one building, one major program that acknowledges the many contributions of the hard working Arab Americans (there are 250,000 living in the Chicago area, about 60 percent Palestinian from Ramallah and Beitunia). Nothing. We have a “holiday” in which November is designated “Arab American Heritage Month” by the City of Chicago and the state of Illinois but all we have there is an invitation only food buffet celebration with Mayor Daley in which he gets up with all of the so-called “leaders” in our community (including Ata, Rezko and a dozen more tied to this scandal whose names have been published and have yet to be published — about 24 that I have been able to count) where the mayor praises them (and gives them jobs, clout and his blessings) and yet the community gets nothing.

Chicago should have a museum for Arab Americans. We should have a street named for the many Palestinians who worked all their lives for this city and region and got nothing. No recognition — and never asked for recognition.

One of the things Ata did was to organize fundraisers, using ADC and other organizations — where the politicians where celebrated, praised and showcased. The people who bought the tickets figured hey, this is a great way to get the governors (three are involved) and the mayor to acknowledge us and help us. Instead, Ata took the money from the dinners, and then wrote a check that he handed to Gov. Blagojevich at a meeting with Rezko (who got huge contracts and concessions from Chicago and Illinois) and then got a promise of a high paying do-nothing job.

Meanwhile, the rest of us Arabs living in Chicago are harassed, fired from jobs, discriminated against and Chicago ADC has done absolutely nothing to protect us or defend us … That’s not to say they are like the National ADC which does a great job … but the point is they used our leadership organizations and our power to help themselves. No one has helped our community.

Worse, when you questioned these same leaders and tried to make them accountable — asking what have they done, or expressed any criticism whatsoever, they and the community responded with anger defending them. Chicago’s Arab American community has been one of the worst organized in the country. It’s unlike any other. The Palestinian community is divided into four groups: Fatah, Jabha sha’abiyya, Hamas and independents. They don’t work together. And even the Muslims and the Christians don’t work together — although the “leaders” who do absolutely nothing, will insist they do a lot.

The Rezko and Ata scandals are the tip of the iceberg of indictments and charges and are evidence that the people entrusted to fight to empower our community have done nothing but support themselves, their families, their friends, their businesses and their associates. I don’t thinK Rezko is as guilty as he is being made out to be. I think he was used by some people in the community and as a political pawn int he political battle to unseat Blagojevich and damage Barack Obama.

It’s a sad day for Chicago’s Arab American community and will set us back decades.

Ray Hanania
You can reads my column on the topic at www.ArabWritersGroup.com … and get more info on the Chicago Arab American community from my Arab History pages at www.hanania.com.

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For a while I really regretted posting it since people often use our articles against us, claiming that we are animals, sex-crazed hypocrites, et al, when really it is just critical social commentary. Are we not allowed to criticize our own societies without having a bunch of morons repeatedly claim that they morally superior, using our criticism as an example of our “backwardness”? The racism that resulted due to that post was endless.

Anyways, recently I found a good example of my post via a video featuring Zeid Hamdan, who apparently is a member of a Lebanese indie band.

So, now you all know it has to do with repressed societies - not Islam, and not us being “naturally animals.” It is common sense to realize that when a society is sheltered, and where sex/relationships are generally taboo, people are going to resort to porn to feed their curiosity and/or sexual frustrations.

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