Recalling the Caliphate was published in English towards the end of 2014. A few months before its publication, a caliphate had been proclaimed in the borderlands of what had been two Baathist states for almost forty years. At the time of writing, the territory of this self-styled caliphate has shrunk, its leadership has relocated, the rule of the Baathist-takfiri warlords seems to be receding in Iraq and Syria.
DetailsIn 1868, a Prussian writer named Hermann Goedsche (pen name: Sir John Retcliffe) wrote a novel entitled Biarritz. This second-rate espionage story overflowing with cheap pornography and violence would have sunken into oblivion if it was not for one scene. That scene describes a meeting between the representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel in the Jewish Cemetery of Prague.
DetailsAs the Curator of Education and Public Programming at the Arab American National Museum in Michigan, I am tasked with finding ways to intellectually engage visitors with our exhibits in an effort to dispel stereotypes and misconceptions, and to tell our story.
DetailsLet us hope that the USA never has need of refuge on someone else’s soil. The irony of President Trump’s order against refugees and those from the specified Muslim majority nations is not lost on many.
DetailsWhy are people so obsessed with the way women dress? It’s a subject that fills glossy magazine pages and pops up in newspaper articles. When a woman is raped commentators remark that she shouldn’t have worn a skirt that short, when a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf has bags of flour thrown at her on the high street, it is her fault for provoking people. After all, with all these terror attacks, how dare you identify as Muslim. I mean she could be hiding anything under that scarf.
DetailsThe Water Diviner is a sentimental film about war, loss, family and country. It addresses Australia’s elevation of military loss at the Battle of Gallipoli in 1915 (known as Çanakkale Savaşı in Turkey) into a ‘sacred’ national myth about sacrifice and heroism.
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