Arabs

Oh Almighty God! Oh merciful God! Who’s that god you extend your hands to Sheikh Buddha? Can he hear you? Does he see? … God forgive! Oh Great God of the celestial throne, where are you now??
I looked up into the extensive sky were the Sheikh was extending his hands, but I saw nothing, nothing [...]

This is Damascus… If you want to play punk, you need to really want to. The hand of politics is everywhere. Both US foreign policy and domestic law can make or break your band: trade embargoes determine whether or not you can get equipment and censors make it difficult to speak about any real issues. While the suffocating restrictions and obstacles are annoying, the fact that the punks exist is a testament to their perseverance.

All Mustafa an Egyptian American Muslim widower ever wanted to do was live the “American Dream.”
And, maybe pay off some family debts, turn his small New Jersey falafel shop into a fancy restaurant, raise his two motherless children as good Muslims and Americans, insure his sister married in [...]

Arab American voters face the same challenges they always face in elections: candidates who climb all over themselves to show how pro-Israel they are. There’s nothing wrong with being pro-Israel, but oftentimes the candidates embrace the most extremist views supporting Israel that reject principle and fairness needed to resolve the Middle East conflict peacefully.
It comes [...]

The Carnegie Foundation is offering a grant through the International Center for Journalists to explore religion in the Islamic World. They always grab me by promoting it as an exploration of issues in “the Arab World” and then drill down to the Islamic World, like Arabs are an extinct breed or something. I really hate [...]