Category Archives: Blogs
MyJihad: A campaign for perspective
By Laith Saud
Professor Amitai Etzioni of The George Washington University recently published an op-ed piece questioning the veracity of the MyJihad Campaign. By now, many are familiar with this groundbreaking campaign, but for those who are not, MyJihad is a public awareness effort designed to educate people – non-Muslim and Muslim alike – on the nuances of the term ‘jihad’ and its largely spiritual character. The necessity of such a campaign is clear; the term ‘jihad’ has been the centerpiece of an anti-Muslim, pro-war discourse. Over the last twelve years, wherever public discussion on ‘jihad’ or ‘jihad and Islam’ has taken place, much of it has been hawkish – leading the public to ascend to disastrous conclusions, like in 2003, when 70% of the American public thought Iraq had something to do with 9 -11. Those who supported the MyJihad campaign argue that it is a healthy contribution to the public discourse, broadening our perspective on Islam and arming the public against over-zealous hawks that still use Islam as an excuse to go to war.
Piers Morgan fails to challenge Ed Koch’s bigotry
By Scott C. Alexander
On the night of Friday, February 1st, 2013—while watching CNN—I witnessed two men of some prominence disgrace themselves on national television, and the worst part about the whole affair was that neither of them appeared to realize what he was doing.
America’s only football factory, Palestine’s only keffiyeh factory
By Sami Kishawi (courtesy of Sixteen Minutes to Palestine)
Wilson, the official football-maker for the NFL, secured a spot during this year’s Super Bowl to run a rather moving commercial taking viewers inside the only dedicated football factory in the United States where footballs are laced by hand and prepped for play in the championship game.
‘The arrogance of power’
By Sami Kishawi (courtesy of Sixteen Minutes to Palestine)
In the video above, a Bahraini police officer reportedly known as Ali Aaref slaps a man carrying his child twice without provocation. The young boy, wrapped in his father’s arm, begins to cry.
Summary of new UN investigation of latest Israeli assault on Gaza
By Sami Kishawi (courtesy of Sixteen Minutes to Palestine)
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (UN OCHA oPt) just published a 35-page initial rapid assessment of Israel’s latest invasion of Gaza which officially spanned eight days starting on November 14, 2012. The investigation more formally known as the Multi-Agency Initial Rapid Assessment of Gaza was conducted just days after a ceasefire brought relative calm to the territory.
“The Guardian Five”: Surprising coverage of Israel’s assault on Gaza
By Sami Kishawi (courtesy of Sixteen Minutes to Palestine)
The Guardian published five articles in the last few days that humanize Gazans in a way I hadn’t expected to see from a premier and globally-recognized news agency.
‘How to tell your friends from the Japs’ in TIME, 1941 vs. ‘Turban Primer’ in RedEye, 2012
By Sami Kishawi (courtesy of Sixteen Minutes to Palestine)
Two weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941, TIME Magazine ran an article titled “How to tell your friends from the Japs”, an arbitrary and insensitive guide on how to differentiate the Japanese from the Chinese. Today, just over a day after the shooting in Milwaukee that left six dead in a Sikh house of worship, Chicago’s RedEye printed a “Turban Primer”, a similarly insensitive guide on arbitrary religio-cultural distinctions between, essentially, Brown people from South East Asia and the Middle East.
