Posts under ‘Middle East’

This past year the Middle East was defined by the Arab uprisings that began in Tunisia and spread to Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and Syria. Tunisians were the first to successfully remove their leader, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, in January.  While the successful removal of Ben Ali was a sign of hope and change, Tunisia is undergoing a [...]

On Friday, October 7th, three women were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize: Tawakul Karman from Yemen and Ellen Johnson Surleaf and Leymah Gbowee from Liberia. Tawakul Karman is a Yemeni journalist and activist. Karman, 32, mother of 3, and the first Arab woman to win the prize, has been a central figure in Yemen’s revolution [...]

Many people associate Islam with Saudi Arabia, assuming that what happens in the Saudi Kingdom reflects the law and spirit of Islam. While it is true that the Arabian Peninsula is the birthplace of Islam, the Saudi Kingdom and its specific interpretation of Islam does not represent the faith more broadly.

The western media seems to have a field day with reports of Muslim peoples’ and Islam’s “repression” of women. It’s often overstated or even completely fabricated, but some of Saudi Arabia’s cultural practices and laws are clear examples of plain and simple repression of women. Although nowhere in the Qur’an does it speak of women’s [...]

2006 Pulitzer Prize winner Robin Givhan recently wrote an article highlighting the personal and professional journeys of two top international models: Hind Sahli from Morocco and Hanaa Ben Abdesslem from Tunisia. The title of her piece: The New Faces of Islam. Right from the outset, I was worried about the direction of the article. Are [...]

Various iconic photos of the 20th and 21st century have sparked inspiration, reflection, and at times, even outrage; the Afghan girl in National Geographic, the crying Vietnamese children, and the vulture staring at a starving child in Sudan. A number of images have received a great deal of attention during the Arab Spring, but one [...]

I briefly visited the Gulf during a recent stopover from Chicago to Delhi. I raced out of the Abu Dhabi airport as I only had a few hours to experience the city before catching my connecting flight. My transportation to the city’s noteworthy sights was provided by Nabeel, a hip-hop loving cabbie from Lahore, Pakistan. [...]

As we near the 10th anniversary of September 11th, many are reflecting on that painful morning and recalling where they were and what they felt when they heard the news. For many, that was the first time they ever heard  about Muslims or Islam. For me, the only other time before 2001 that the word [...]

In the last few months, the Middle East has undergone tremendous change with revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt leading to the resignation of Presidents Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and Hosni Mubarak. During these revolutions that inspired others across the region in Yemen, Bahrain, Libya, and Syria, different segments of society united with the goal [...]

With Mubarak gone, Ahmed Abu Haiba no longer has to worry about the infamous SSIS (Egypt’s Secret Police), but his 2-year-old Islamic music channel’s future is anything but certain. Haiba’s Cairo-based 4Shbab TV aims to instill Islamic values in Arab Muslim youth around the world, but some conservative Muslims think that its programming is polluting [...]