The Guardian writes on the occasion of the London Palestine Film Festival:
Perhaps Palestinian cinema cannot help but be ironic, when the most widely known cinematic images of Palestine are those that close Otto Preminger’s 1960 film Exodus and Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List. In Exodus, youthful Israeli forces win a decisive battle against the old-world savagery [...]

The London Book Fair, which this year shines a spotlight on Arab literature, ends tomorrow. Here are selected links to related stories:
✯ PUBLISH AND BE DAMNED - On religion and censorship for Egypt’s independent publishing houses.
✯ Pigs raid Sharqawi’s publishing house; confiscate books خنازير الداخلية تداهم دار ملامح للنشر وتصادر كتب at 3arabawy - Hossam [...]

I recently watched the new short film by the Dutch right-wing MP Geert Wilders, Fitna. It’s not like I was expecting anything but racist drivel, but I was particularly underwhelmed by this effort, which essentially consists of quotes of the Quran super-imposed with pictures of veiled women “taking over our streets” and much complaining of [...]

Beyond the Veil:
When the French government invaded Algeria, in 1830, it started a vast campaign of military “pacification,” which was quickly followed by the imposition of French laws deemed necessary for the civilizing mission to succeed. Women were crucial to that enterprise. In articles, stories and novels of the day, Algerian women were universally depicted [...]

For a lazy Sunday:

Egypt’s Coptic Pope needs more time in hospital: church - Baba Shenouda continues to be seriously ill
The crescent and the cross - FT review destroys “Eurabia” books
What’s Behind the Reversal of Tunisia Hijab Ban? - A look at a recent court decision to reverse longstanding ban
When the bikini line turned to a [...]

The LAT has a great piece by Ashraf Khalil on Arab actors in Hollywood dealing with prejudice and typecasting — More work, one role for Arab actors:
“What kind of a name is that?” the voice coach asked at the end of the lesson. The name on the check he’d been handed by his student didn’t [...]

Boston Review - No Going Back:
The American occupation has been more disastrous than the Mongols’ sack of Baghdad in the 13th century. Iraq’s human capital has fled, its intellectuals and professionals, the educated, the moneyed classes, the political elite. They will not return. And the government is nonexistent at best. After finally succumbing to Iraqi [...]

Daniel Pipes’ fascist-style campaign against an Arabic-language school in Brooklyn and its principal is succeeding:
The Evening Bulletin - Stop The NYC Madrassa:
When Dhabah (”Debbie”) Almontaser resigned on Aug. 10 as principal of the Khalil Gibran International Academy, her action culminated a remarkable grass-roots campaign in which concerned citizens successfully criticized the New York City establishment. [...]

When I was in New York last year, I heard about a new middle school that was going to open in Brooklyn and offer classes in Arabic. The Khalil Gibran school was going to be the first American public school to have “Arabic language and culture” as part of its curriculum. I’m pretty sure a [...]

LEBANON: One in three Lebanese wants to leave:
BEIRUT, 10 June 2007 (IRIN) - Researchers warn that economic instability and persistent security threats are driving ever more young, educated Lebanese abroad, creating a brain drain that threatens the country’s economic and social future.
“We’re suffering a huge brain drain,” Kamal Hamdan, head of the Lebanese Centre of [...]

Ashraf Marwan, maybe the most colorful person of London’s Arab community, has died under unclear circumstances. Some believe him to be ‘The Source’ which tipped off Mossad prior to the 1973 war - others say he acted as a double agent misleading the Israelis.
From The Times:

Mr Marwan’s death will send shockwaves across the Middle East [...]

Completely ridiculous story — while Arab women fight to have such measures removed from their own legal system, a German judge refers to the Quran to justify domestic abuse:
German judge invokes Qur’an to deny abused wife a divorce
A German judge who refused a Moroccan woman a fast-track divorce on the grounds that domestic violence was [...]

I’m not trying to make fun of this — people can wear what they want — but why call it burqini? A burqa is a rather extreme form of fundamentalist gear that is not found in much of the Muslim world outside of Afghanistan and, to a much less degree, India and Pakistan. Is the [...]

The new head of the Institut du Monde Arabe in Paris, one of the finest cultural center dedicated to the Arab world in the world, is Dominique Baudis, a prominent figure of France’s pro-Israel movement. The IMA is financed mostly by France but also by several Gulf states — and I hope they act soon [...]

Utterly ridiculous: German authorities are trying to get courts to back them in preventing a baby being named “Jihad” — even though it is a completely common name in the Arab world. The most famous Arab columnist (for al-Hayat) is called Jihad al-Khazen. He is broadly speaking a secularist, albeit of the loyal to Saudi [...]

Ours, I tell you! Dirka dirka Muhammad Jihad! Muahahahahahahaha!!!!
Islam could soon be the dominant force in a Europe which, in the name of political correctness, has abdicated the battle for cultural and religious control, Prof. Bernard Lewis, the world-renowned Middle Eastern and Islamic scholar, said on Sunday.
The Muslims “seem to be about to take over [...]

Nothing makes me happier than this kind of news:
TACOMA, Washington: A couple in the U.S. state of Washington has been sentenced to home confinement for forcing their immigrant niece to work long hours in their home and at the family espresso stand, and they also must pay her US$65,000 (about €50,000) for her labor.
Abdenasser “Sammy” [...]

People in my Arabic class yesterday were talking about this New York Times story about an Arab-American army recruiter. A photo that ran with the story shows a T-shirt that reads “If you can read this” (in Arabic) and then below, “The National Guard needs you” (in English). But the grammar of the first line [...]