December 2011
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gary's choices: Panetta on War With Iran →
garysick:
I recent months, we have had some strong views expressed, by people who have real knowledge of the situation, about the potential consequences of a military strike by Israel and/or the United States against Iran’s nuclear infrastructure. Former Mossad head Meir Dagan says it is “The stupidest…
I am a little late to this but a great posting by Gary Sick featuring Leon Panetta...
August 2011
1 post
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February 2011
2 posts
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“The spectre of Iran overhangs the Egyptian crisis, the Iran of Ayatollah...”
– Richard Bulliet published in the Guardian today.
January 2011
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Rashid Khalidi on the Holy Land Leaks
Rashid Khalidi, one of the globe’s leading scholars on the modern Middle East, and arguably among the most knowledgeable people in the world on the Israel\Palestine conflict spoke yesterday with Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! about the leaked PA documents that recently have come to light in the Guardian and Al-Jazeera. It is a short interview and certainly worth your time.
From his interview...
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Holy Land Leaks - Secret Docs of PA Revealed!
There goes the neighborhood.
The Guardian is reporting today that they have in their possession some 1600 internal PA documents, NOT FROM WIKI LEAKS, that reveal loads of not so nice things about the so called Israel-Palestine “peace process.”
The paper reports that the juicier documents discuss:
• How Israeli leaders privately asked for some Arab citizens to be transferred to a new...
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The Iranian "Daily Show"
Jon Stewart, aka the only newsman who matters on TV, has just interviewed the producers of the Persian language equivalent of the Daily Show, “Parazit.”
You can read a bit about them over on the outstanding website, Tehran Bureau.
Or you can just watch their interview right here on Qizilbash. The guys really are thrilled to be on Stewart’s show. I can’t blame them.
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Five Future Tunisias
Foreign Policy magazine has an interesting snapshot of an article looking at five Arab regimes that they feel may be destined for revolution.
Definitely worth a read for those of you who follow these things.
May 2010
2 posts
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Elvis Costello cancels Israel Concert
Rock legend and hipster icon, Elvis Costello has canceled his planned concert in Israel giving hope to the Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) movement within the pro-Palestinian camp in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
In a statement on his website, Costello wrote:
Sometimes a silence in music is better than adding to the static and so an end to it.
I cannot imagine receiving another...
Miss Michigan Crowned First Arab-American Miss USA... →
an African American president, an Arab-American Miss USA…these Tea Party guys must be having heart attacks left and right.
(hat tip to Omar for posting)
April 2010
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“We are not puppets. Jerusalem is ours.”
– Itamar Ben-Gvir, in response to American pressure to restart peace talks between Israel and Palestine. Mr. Ben-Gvir was described by the New York Times to be a member of a right-wing Israeli group that marched through Arab dominated occupied East Jerusalem today.
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Life Goes on in Tehran - User Generated Edition
The proprietor of the marvelous photolog Life Goes on in Tehran got an unofficial boot from Iran. Sad but undeterred he asked his readers to submit their own photos of Tehran\Iran. The results are nothing short of outstanding and worthy of your clicks and admiration!
(update April 25, 2010 - apparently Mr. Life Goes on in Tehran can still carry on in Tehran as he wishes for now. Qizilbash was the...
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Powerfully Lucid Short Fiction: Said... →
Apparently, Iranian-American Said Sayrafiezadeh is one of the most promising young fiction writers today. I can’t wait to read his memoir “when skateboards will be free” about growing up a socialist revolutionary in Pittsburgh. In the meantime, I hope you all take a moment to read his short story, “Appetite,” which was recently published in the New Yorker magazine....
February 2010
3 posts
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“Here is what this bomb, which does not yet exist, has managed to do: sparked...”
– Zvi Bar’el, writing in the Israel Newspaper, Ha’aretz.
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Orientalism for Orientalists - Sallah Shabati, the...
Good old Sallah Shabati, he’s Jewish, but his Arabness overwhelms him and hence denies him a chance at “modernity.” You will notice that the European Jews in this film clip wear suits and appear confused at Salah’s easterness.
hat tip (WIS LZ & the 1039)
How Islamic Inventors Changed the World- The... →
A nice little article that might help to shatter the notion of Europe as the sole land capable of reason, innovation, and creativity.
January 2010
4 posts
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"Forward Steps for a Backward People"
In the process of doing some research on some Iranian historical matters I came across the Google Books archive of the legendary and iconic piece of Americana, Life Magazine.
Naturally, I decided to do some searching around for Middle East related things and came across this gem of an antiquated (or as we would call it in 2010, racist) headline (pictured below) that would make Roger Sterling...
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“…And so the first question that the Levite asked was, ‘If I stop to...”
– Martin Luther King, from his “I’ve been to the Mountaintop Speech.” Delivered on April 3rd, 1968, the day before he was assassinated. For audio, refer to this link.
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The Brilliant and Extraordinary Abjeez of Iran!
Delivering a marvelous song for the people of Iran.
December 2009
7 posts
“This is the most vibrant and imaginative civil disobedience campaign in the...”
– Robin Wright, Middle East Analyst, in an op-ed published today, Is this Iran’s Berlin Wall moment? - Times Online
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“History to have meaning has to repeat itself twice.”
– Ervand Abrahamian, Iran Scholar, quoting Georg Hegel in light of Iran’s show trials and forced confessions of dissident actors and regime opponents this summer. In the 1980s, post-Revolutionary Iranian dissidents faced similar fates.
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Live @ Columbia Conference: Shahla Talebi on...
Speaking right now is Shahla Talebi on the role of women and mothers in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Talebi thinks that much of today’s violence in Iran against women, is a reaction against “strong men, who have strong mothers.” As Talbei stated, “the masculine might can never do without mothers.” Therefore, the need to crush women, who stand in the way of masculine...
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Live @ Columbia Conference: Asef Bayat on Freedom...
Asef Bayat is currently speaking and has made some very interesting points regarding generational shifts in the idea of what constitutes azadi, Persian for “Freedom.”
For the generation leading the protests of 1979 Bayat argues that azadi was more about liberation from Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, and therefore instituting political reforms that included voting rights among others.
...
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Live Blog: Hamid Dabashi on Iran and America
Hamid Dabashi just finished the opening remarks of the of the first panel at the Columbia conference on Iran.
He began with a jab at Columbia President Lee Bollinger who, according to Dabashi, was somewhat responsible for two of his graduate students packing up and fleeing Iran this past summer. As Dabashi noted, the Iranian tabloids had accused Columbia as being the American home of the...
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Live at Columbia: Iran after the Election
Good morning everyone. We are live blogging from the “Iran after the Election” conference at Columbia University that is happening all day today. Check out the schedule here. Hamid Dabashi is speaking right now on a panel with Ervand Abrahamian, Shahla Talebi, and Asef Bayat (one of our favorites here at QB).
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“Hate is a dangerous force, and it is an injurious force, because it injures the...”
– Martin Luther King, in an interview with Studs Terkel that was recently rebroadcast on Democracy Now. Terkel later went on to ask King about “the revolutionary aspects of love.”
November 2009
4 posts
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Columbia University Presents: "Iran after the...
New Yorkers, mark your calendars for December 5th.
In what looks to be the most important academic conference on the post-election affairs of Iran, Columbia University will host a who’s who of Iranian scholars, activists, and journalist for a conference entitled “Iran After the Election.”
Featured speakers will include: Asef Bayat, Hamid Dabashi, Gary Sick, Abdolkarim Soroush,...
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Obama are you with us?
On the one hand, it is often best if the United States, Russia, England, France, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Mongolians, and all other outside forces stay out of Iranian politics. I have maintained that fairly consistently over the years. But I started thinking about things today after watching this video:
Today in the streets of Tehran, on the anniversary of the taking of the American...
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October 2009
12 posts
Palestinian equal rights joins the progressive... →
Mondoweiss has got the inside word on what went down at the taping of the Daily Show last night. A worthwhile read.
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Jon Stewart, Mensch
It continues to amaze me that Jon Stewart, a comedian, has much more journalistic courage than just about ANYONE in broadcast media (save for Sister Amy Goodman)
Just last night, he hosted Dr. Mustafa Barghouti a member of the peaceful Palestinian opposition (and according to many, a non-corrupt leader) and Anna Baltzer a Jewish-American peace activist.
The Daily Show has posted an extended...
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صباح الخير سعید בוקר טוב עומר
In the old days of the show, Said and Omer could play together. But now, it seems the puppets have been divided like the countless Saids and Omers in real life.
There is much to say, but the video that came along with this article in the NYTimes has completely depressed me. I wish to avoid sounding like the late Michael Jackson, but the idea of these children living through an armed and unjust...
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“We had heard that revolutions eat their own children, but his seems to be a case...”
– Hamid Dabashi, discussing the case of the iconoclast Iranian cleric, Mehdi Karroubi in a very interesting article in The New York Times.
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Bystanders stand up for Muslim woman wearing Hijab...
I still think ABC would be doing the country a better service if it simply were to do more reporting on the Middle East in a commercial free news hour everyday (I can only dream on). But I do have to compliment them on this interesting social experiment that they filmed.
In the exercise, they hired two actors, one male playing a shop owner, and one female playing the hejabi in distress. The actor...
FRONTLINE: Tehran Bureau: Brew haha: Israeli... →
Israel’s “Freedom Fries” moment. Great reporting by friends over at Tehran Bureau a must read for Iran\Middle East\Muzzy news.
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“Behind this scene are the American and British intelligence apparatus, and there...”
– Mohammad Ali Jafari, Commander-in-Chief of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, in a statement about yesterday’s suicide attack. Last year Seymour Hersh uncovered that the Bush Administration had begun funding clandestine activities in Iran aimed at undermining the ruling regime.
It is yet to be...
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Senior Iranian Revolutionary Guards Killed in...
While some quarters of the Americans foreign policy apparatchik (and a sizable number of Iranian-Americans) will send out three cheers for the big news of the day, that is, the killing of several senior Iranian Revolutionary Guard commanders (read about it here and here) the news should be the cause of great concern for other Iran observers.
The bombing, which killed a deputy commander of the...
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“Israel’s only real crime is that it does not have an automatic majority in...”
– Binyamin Netanyahu, Prime Minister of Israel, Speaking at the United Nations yesterday in protest of the UNHRC’s endorsement of the Goldstone Report.
Netanyahu made these comments despite the long historical tradition of the United States vetoing any resolutions that are deemed unfavorable to...
“It is likely that Iran, Syria and their Islamist allies Hezbollah in Lebanon and...”
– In Egypt and Saudi Arabia, succession looms — latimes.com
another interesting piece from the LA Times which has been doing some rather interesting reporting from the Middle East.
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Obama, Mr. Nobel →
Qizilbash friend, the Long Gone Daddy, has just written an interesting piece commenting on Obama’s recent Nobel Prize win. Although we here at the Global Headquarters of Qizilbash (The Bash to those who are in the know) are still a bit skeptical about the prize, but we have to agree that Obama should use the momentum of the prize to actually foment the change that America and the world...
Report - Global Muslim Population Hits 1.57... →
My favorite line in this Associated Press report is the following:
“Indonesia, which has a tradition of a more tolerant Islam, has the world’s largest Muslim population (203 million, or 13 percent of the world’s total)…”
As opposed to, I can only suppose, the other billion or so adherents of the faith, who surely must be (at least according to the Associated Press)...
September 2009
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British Lawyers Seek Arrest of Ehud Barack on War...
The Guardian is reporting today that 16 British lawyers have filed to obtain an international arrest warrant for Ehud Barak, accusing him of committing war crimes in Gaza.
Fat chance. If recent history is any indicator then it would appear that these laws only apply to people of color in former Soviet or American puppet states as well as a couple of people in the Balkans.
Nonetheless, the...
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Fresh Protest Video from Tehran University
The New York Times’ lede blog has just posted fresh footage of protests from Tehran University. The struggle continues for the Green Wave both at home and abroad.
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Alternative Views: Love the Iranian Bomb!
Ohio State Poltical Scientist and national security-type guy, John Mueller, has just given an interview to the Atlantic Monthly where he insists that the world is worrying just a bit too much about Iran and the nuclear bomb.
Although, I don’t agree with him entirely, I do agree that even if Iran were to get the bomb it would never use it as a first strike weapon.
Although there are all...
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Gary Sick weighs in on the discovery of New... →
Dr. Sick’s words speak for themselves. This is re-blogged from his must read blog Gary’s Choices (link below)
garysick:
[Originally posted on The Daily Beast at the above link]
The discovery and announcement of a second Iranian uranium enrichment facility – apparently on a Revolutionary Guards base near the holy city of Qom – has changed everybody’s calculations.
For the Obama...
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Great Reporting on Ramadan in Zanzibar
Qizilbash friend and reporter, Eamon Kircher-Allen, has been doing some fantastic writing out of east Africa. He most recently has written a great piece on the end of Ramadan in Zanzibar for Global Post.
You can read his report here and be sure to check out his great blog, The Long Gone Daddy.
Image taken from Global Post where original caption reads:
A girl smiles while playing a game with...
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A Belated Eid Mubarack - 30 days 30 Mosques
A much belated Eid-mubarak to our readers throughout the blogosphere.
Although this post comes very late, you would be well served to check out a fascinating website by two NYC Muzz Hipsters called 30mosques.
On the website, our two protagonists visit thirty different New York City mosques during the month of Ramadan to break their fasts. IN the process they chronicle the vast diversity of...