Laila Lalami has a nice post about the opening of the Rif Cinematheque in Tangiers, which is perhaps Morocco’s first art house cinema. I visited the Rif while it was still being renovated last summer and spent time with the couple behind it, Moroccan photographer Yto Barrada and her American husband Sean Gullette (the main [...]

When you’ve developed something of an expertise on a topic, you become a hot commodity for people starting out their own research. A few friends of mine have lately gotten tired of being providers of (free) info, bibliographies and contacts for the latest newcomers and penned this funny standard template for freeloaders.
Dear Mr. X,
My name [...]

Update: Got it, thanks!
There’s an interesting-looking new article on “The Moderate New Muslim Brotherhood” at Foreign Affairs, but it’s subscribers-only. Can readers with access send me a copy?
The Muslim Brotherhood is the world’s oldest, largest, and most influential Islamist organization. It is also the most controversial, condemned by both conventional opinion in the West and [...]

Syria—well, Damascus—doesn’t feel like a place ready to come apart at the seams just yet. The mess of swish new cafes and expensive clothing stores, the shiny new cars and a general air of confidence belie the rumors of fraying domestic security and an unhappy economy. Maybe the feeling is deceptive. The flash is largely [...]

The great, independent Lebanese editorialist had died. Asa’ad AbuKhalil knew him well.

As some of you may remember, I mentioned last week that Israeli Apartheid Week was held in New York. As we’ve all seen from the reaction to former President Carter’s recent book, some people find the use of the word “apartheid” offensive, shocking, or far-fetched. Even within the Palestinian solidarity movement, there has been some [...]

For at least the last few years now, friends have been mentioning their suspicions that the popular US TV show “24″ has a right-wing agenda of some sort, or at the very least legitimizes torture by showing its hero constantly “having to” torture terrorists to save LA from a nucler bomb or some such threat. [...]

This is a strong message to Egypt’s bloggosphere.
In a first trial against a blogger, Kareem has been sentenced to four years in jail for insulting Islamic institutions and the President.
A very sad day for freedom of expression in Egypt.

I am catching a plane to Rome in about 20 minutes and have just discovered that Cairo airport finally has free wi-fi. Because of my travels I probably won’t be posting much until Tuesday. I did want to mention a debate I went to at AUC last night about the constitutional amendments and the Muslim [...]

The charts below from a Mother Jones study on the increase of terrorism since the invasion of Iraq.

The ‘crime’ of blogging in Egypt:
Egyptian authorities have made a mistake in prosecuting Soliman. It is Egypt that will be hurt if he is convicted and sent to prison. That’s why sincere friends of Egypt call on the government to drop the charges against him. It is the right thing to do, and it [...]

I don’t have a link for this (Update: Here is the story on the MB website), but thought it was worth posting — it’s telling of the anger at the regime for its support of Israel these days:
An Egyptian policeman has been referred to a military court because he refused to guard the Israeli embassy [...]

The Project on Defense Alternatives has a long list of links on Iran, from all sides of the debate and all of the issues that have been in the news lately — the nuclear program, intervention in Iraq, regional ambitions as well as the inner political debate in Iran and the US and an assessment [...]

Bakchich has an article explaining how the ministry of interior is rigging Morocco’s electoral map to favor rural areas, where the moderate Islamist PJD has made little inroads, to contain the success polls have been predicting since last year. In a sense, this is ethnic electioneering, with the mostly Berber / tribal countryside long loyal [...]

Should I be surprised that so many Israeli political figures seem to be criminals of one kind or another? I suppose not, the country has been at the center of many illicit trades for a while now (human trafficking, conflict diamonds, drugs, weapons), obviously with politicians/officials’ support. And in any case, politicians worldwide seem to [...]

Simon Tisdall offers a decent if run-of-the-mill analysis of Egypt’s backpedaling on reform. More interesting is the comment below his piece.

Abdel Monem Mahmoud, the webmaster of the Muslim Brotherhood’s English-language website, has a post on his English blog with a list of Ikhwan youth blogs.
Until not too long ago there were very few Islamist bloggers in Egypt; it seems this is changing fast.

Has been made in Algeria:
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Algeria has translated the Koran into the Berber language, Tamazight, for the first time, to promote Islam among a community that has long campaigned for more language and cultural rights, an official said on Monday.
Religious Affairs Ministry spokesman Abdellah Tamine said the ministry had funded the printing this [...]

Here’s an interesting newish political blog from Gaza: Tabula Gaza.

Abu Muqawama has a question about recent Israeli reports that Hizbullah has recovered its pre-war firepower:
doesn’t this report shoot holes in all those claims made by the IDF in the aftermath of the summer’s war about how this wasn’t a Hizbollah victory on account of all the damage Israel did to Hizbollah’s infrastructure? If Hizbollah [...]