Arts and Culture

Don't Call me That!

Americans of Middle Eastern decent use humor to raise awareness about the harmful effects of prejudice. Watch:

Iranian couple cycles the world

by Jennifer Redfearn

New York, New York - Modern Iran shows a variety of perplexing faces to the world: hard-line President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, sophisticated academics, outspoken exiles.

One young Iranian couple, determined not to leave their country's public relations to others, is bicycling around the globe to spread a message of peace and environmental conservation.

Lesson for Iraq in the Asian Soccer Cup

by Caesar Chelala

NEW YORK, New York - Two very dissimilar events with contradictory results took place recently in Iraq, practically simultaneously: the withdrawal of five Sunni ministers from the so-called unity government of Nouri al-Maliki and the victory of the Iraqi national soccer team over Saudi Arabia for the Asian Soccer Cup. The first is indicative of the battle for power being waged among the factions present in that troubled country, while the second succeeded precisely because those factions were able to overcome th eir deep-seated differences and work towards a common goal. The politicians could learn a valuable lesson from the latter.

Cinema, Courtroom Reflect Wishes, Reality of Contemporary Turkey

In the recent film "Valley of the Wolves: Iraq," a Turkish James Bond figure makes much use of his license to kill, dispatching U.S. soldiers with ease and cool usually associated with 007's effortless slaughtering of gangs of KGB agents. Sinister Israelis are blasted as well, their trade being in the stealing of organs from Iraqi babies, provided to them by an obliging U.S. military when it is not too busy machine-gunning wedding parties. Grotesque as all this might seem, it has been the most popular Turkish movie in years, breaking all box office records within days of release.

By Jon Gorvett

Palestinian Hip-Hop Comes to DC

by Matt Horton

ARAB and African hip-hop artists converged Dec. 16 at Washington, DC's local progressive hot spot, Bus Boys and Poets, to raise funds for the forthcoming film "Slingshot Hip Hop: The Palestinian Lyrical Front," expected to debut at film festivals this year. Over a hundred people packed the restaurant's small performance space, and hundreds more were turned away.

Emceed by Noura Erekat, the show began with rapper-activist Iron Sheik, who warmed up the crowd. After watching a superb clip from "Slingshot Hip Hop," members of the audience started writing checks in order to help filmmaker Jackie Salloum complete and market the film.

Special guest Noose, an Arab-American artist from New Jersey who recently opened for Hip-Hop super group Bone-Thugs-in-Harmony, continued the positive performances with a beautiful spoken word piece, and MC Narcissist, an Iraqi-Canadian artist who is part of the Montreal based group Euphrates, brought fire down on the grateful crowd.

Respond to Racism and Death with Humanity and Life

When religious blasphemy and genocide denial converge, watch out: we're in for a rough ride. This may be the case in the controversy over the offensive Danish cartoons equating the Prophet Mohammad and Islam with terrorism.

One of the most unnecessary, unfortunate and dangerous aspects of this matter has been the slow introduction into the discussion of the issue of the Holocaust by various Arabs, Iranians and other Muslims, and the counter-accusations that this is simply a new form of rabid anti-Semitism.

by Rami G. Khoury

Why the outrage?

The Danish newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, wanted to stir up controversy with its recent publication of anti-Islamic cartoons. But the paper's editor did not take into consideration the fact that cartoons published in Denmark, a country which had no history of conflict with the umma, would be projected across the world by jet-setting clerics, interconnected media and the Internet.

by Michael Jansen