Mohammad of Vancouver responds to Obama’s Nowruz greetings to the Iranian people and leaders, on the occasion of the Zoroastrian new year: Obama is setting himself up for a difficult task, and his new year message is not going to…
Anees writes from Jerusalem: The compliant Palestinian Authority readily accepted Israel’s suppression of yesterday’s celebrations. They had known at least a week before that Israel won’t allow the main celebration to be here in Jerusalem, and the invites they sent…
A day after The Times underplayed Obama’s video outreach to the Iranians, the newspaper of record gets the significance of his Nowruz (Zoroastrian new year) statement. Huge. Death knell to the neocons. Obama concluded the statement, “Thank you, and Eid-eh…
The Times Book Review ran a negative review yesterday of Rashid Khalidi’s new book “Sowing Crisis,” that offers the traditional diagnosis of Arab problems and human-rights issues, and urges Obama not to listen to the scholar: Why has the Arab…
Just saw “Slumdog Millionaire.” Loved it. Very Dickensian. One comment: It interests me that the movie’s hero, Jamal Malik, is a Muslim. And so the world and the Motion Picture academy are celebrating a Muslim Oliver Twist. That’s helpful. And…
Fresh on the heels of the Gaza visits by Congressmen John Kerry, Brian Baird, and Keith Ellison, another sign that President Obama is telling officials to change our policy visavis Israel/Palestine. Obama plans to name an Arabist, Chas Freeman, former…
My sage friend of Canadian-Indian-Muslim background, who made observations earlier today about the Taliban’s progress in Pakistan, writes: Regarding the comment: “Wow! Now that I think of it…there is NOT one continent that hasn’t been touched by jihad. It’s everywhere….
An Asian-American friend (a Muslim Canadian-U.S. academic born in India) wrote to me in alarm recently, and we had a dialogue: Pakistan is really scaring the hell out of me. Swat has been overrun by the Pak Taliban (the region…
Writes Hassan Al-Husseini: Two interesting articles. In the first by Reuters, the world is giving Saudi Arabia an ultimatum to clean up our human rights–end floggings, amputations. In the second, “Revive the Saudi Peace Plan,” in Newsweek, we are giving…