Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Thursday, May 26, 2011,
It was extremely painful to listen to Netanyahu's speech to Congress on Tuesday and see how U.S. representatives and senators eagerly cheered the Israeli prime minister's defiance and political arrogance. His categorical refusal to deal with the Palestinians now that Fatah and Hamas have united is reckless at best. Yes, Hamas is a radical organization that uses violence to achieve its ends, but it does play a critical role in Palestinian society, at times providing better social and economic ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Sunday, March 13, 2011,
Al Jazeera organized an interesting forum yesterday on the historic transitions in Arab countries. Here is the video of Turkey's foreign minister where he speaks about the necessity of change in the region. Some important quotes from his speech: "There should be regional ownership. No foreign intervention. This is our region." "No leader should think that they will be there forever, we must trust our nations."
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, March 9, 2011,
The New York Times had a very informative article on Peter King's long sympathy and alleged collaboration with the Irish terrorist group IRA. The point here is not to waste time comparing whether the IRA and Al Qaeda are equally morally reprehensible (to me they both are), but that King, who apparently struggled with ancestral ties to a foreign land, believes he's well positioned to lead these hearings. The IRA, he says, never targeted Americans. True, but what Mr. King is implying is that te... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, February 14, 2011,
The New York Times had a fascinating article and an interactive timeline tracing the roots of the peaceful revolution in Tunisia and Egypt. The transnational dimension of these uprisings is just incredible as activists and protesters exchange idea, tactics and read up on resistance literature and activist initiatives in the history of the United States and more recently in Serbia. What's also fascinating is how the Web and social media have become mobilizing tools to brand these revolutionary... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Sunday, January 30, 2011,
According to AFP, opposition leaders in Algeria have called for massive demonstrations there on February 12 with "the intention to change the regime." Many Arab countries are following the events in Egypt through Aljazeera and regimes there are bracing for a new era of domestic politics. It's not premature to say that Arab leaders have heard the message loud and clear (even if Mubarak refuses to step down) that ruling with an iron fist can no longer be tolerated. Governance is not an absolut... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Saturday, January 29, 2011,
The famous Egyptian teleIslamist Amr Khaled just appeared on CNN (almost crying) and announced that 50,000 members of his LifeMakers Association will go out tomorrow to fight against the looting of public and private property. The situation is dangerously precarious. It's clear the regime is on its way out and it will be a messy situation for sure. Mubarak appointed his intelligence chief as vice-president. Clearly this is a leader who doesn't make sense anymore and lives in his own world. He... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, January 24, 2011,
Last night, Aljazeera released documents revealing important secrets about the Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations. While I believe this unprecedented revelation (more in terms of its details but not so much the substance of its accusations) to be quite useful, I think its timing was poorly planned. It is painful to see how low Fatah has stooped conceding too much to an Israeli side that is clearly not interested in making peace and only concerned about acquiring more land. Saeb Erakat, th... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, January 21, 2011,
An interesting episode of Al-Jazeera English' Riz Khan show on the role of social media in the Tunisian uprising. Sami Ben Gharbia, the co-founder of the Tunisian website Nawaat.org which has been critical these last few weeks to provide news about the events leading to the collapse of the president and his government, appears on the show along with famous Egyptian blogger Wael Abbas.
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Thursday, January 20, 2011,
You may have heard that Republican congressman Peter King of New York, who chairs the Homeland Security Committee, will hold hearings in February about the radicalization of Muslims in America. King tells Muslims not to worry because he will not invite Islamophobes like Pamela Geller or Bruce Spencer, but he will appear on the debut episode of Brigitte Gabriel's weekly television show on American Life Network and Family Life. Gabriel, who is notorious for her anti-Muslim screeds, has elected ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, November 3, 2010,
Twenty-nine-year-old German filmmaker Burhan Qurbani recently released his first feature film, Shahada on the difficulties of being Muslim in Germany. Amid the celebration of his first film and screenings in prestigious international film festivals, Qurbani, who was born and grew up in Germany of Afghan origins, has bitterly realized that his audience still thinks of him as a foreigner in Germany who has made a film about Islam, and not a talented film director who is making a strong statemen... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, October 13, 2010,
Pamela
Geller is at it again. Of course, she's still reveling in her triumph
over the framing of the Park51 debate as "Monster Groundzero Mosque"
and in her undeserved climb to prominence with last week's New York
Times' unduly long profile. Just look at how she rejoices
in this attention by 'the paper of record'. Her new 'cheval de
bataille' as of late in her blogging war against the Islamization of
America is the release of Muslim halal Campbell Soup in Canada (actually the halal soup was u... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, August 24, 2010,
One thing that has become clear since the tragic events of 9/11 and is particularly
evident today in the discussion around the building of the Islamic cultural
center in New York is the lingering confusion over what constitutes a
"modera... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, July 26, 2010,
The University of Malaya in Kuala Lumpur is organizing an international conference (Nov. 29-30, 2010) on the very important topic of Islamic marketing and branding. As the conference description says, Muslims' purchasing power is growing rapidly and there is more demand for all kinds of halal products and services. This obviously raises the need to formalize the marketing sector of this industry estimated at $700b in 2009. The conference calls for papers in interesting areas like advertising,... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, July 19, 2010,
The Egyptian teleIslamist Amr Khaled has paved the way for charismatic and image-savvy imams to prosper on television. Now Malaysian television has turned imamhood into a popular talent tv show. Imam Muda (Young Imam) features 10 aspiring imams (clerics) who compete in a typical reality tv fashion to become Malaysia's imam with the strongest youth appeal. Contestants are tested on their knowledge of Islamic jurisprudence and asked for fresh ideas to revert the social and cultural "decadence" ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, April 20, 2010,
Riz Khan at Al-Jazeera English has recently done a show on the challenges of portraying Islam by Muslims in big film projects. Khan spoke to Raja Sharif from Alnoor Holdings,
which is producing a $150 million film (by Hollywood) on the Prophet Muhammad, Kamran Pasha, the
author of Mother of the Believers about the life of Aisha, the prophet's wife, and Alt-Muslim's Editor-in-Chief, Shahed Amanullah. At the heart of this discussion was an interesting point about how Islam was revealed as art, ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, March 31, 2010,
Amr Khaled, the Arab world's most successful teleda'ia (televangelist is a loose translation) is at it again with a new racy show somewhat inspired by Donald Trump's The Apprentice. Mujaddidun (The Reformers) takes reality television away from mindless entertainment and into a new realm of charitable and voluntary work. For 3 months, 16 young (20-30 years old) contestants from 9 Arab countries compete for the brightest and most practical innovative ideas in charitable projects ranging from he... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, March 26, 2010,
If you read about the niqab-clad poet
from Saudi Arabia and her anti-extremist verse, you might be wondering
why people are rejoicing over a woman who is allowed to speak only
behind a thick black cloak covering her from head to toe in a
television show where women and men are seated in separate sections.
Yes, it is rather strange to see the male host of the show and the
other male contestants avoid eye contact with the female poet whose
eyes you can't really see, but cultural progress in tha... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, February 16, 2010,
I've devoted this blog to revealing new and for the most part promising trends in Muslim media in the hope of challenging the reductionist views some in the West hold of the contemporary Muslim world. I know that for some people these voices don't matter much in the face of a violent extremism that shows no regard for human life and respect for dialogue. But this attitude is precisely what keeps these progressive voices from making a bigger difference in their communities because we think of ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, February 12, 2010,
Here is a story we seldom heard anywhere. After a talk I gave this past Saturday in Carbondale, Colorado about who speaks for Islam, I was approached by a fascinating photographer, Norman Gershman, whose work has been featured in the United Nations and well-known museums around the world. His latest exhibit and book are about Muslim Albanians and Kosovars who provided shelter to Jewish families at grave peril to themselves during WWII. I've been reading the book, Besa: Muslims who Saved Jews ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Sunday, January 24, 2010,
For almost six years the Swiss intellectual, Tariq Ramadan, had been barred from entering the United States, but no more. Thanks to a direct order from President Obama and Secretary Clinton, Ramadan will no longer be denied an entry visa. This is a major victory for critical debate. I'm sure requests to speak at conferences are already pouring in. I saw Ramadan speak at the last American Academy of Religion conference in Montreal and you can disagree with his ideas, but he's a great, construc... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, January 19, 2010,
As I watch the devastating pictures of Haiti and read about the horrifying stories of people left to scramble for food, shelter and dignity, I can't help but think of the ritzy extravagance of Dubai and its recent rejoicing over the world's tallest skyscraper which cost more than $1.5 billion (that's the happy story. The sad story is that more than 1,000 workers died while building it). I can't resist asking the obvious question: how much of this money could have been used to help the poor ar... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, December 2, 2009,
I mentioned Christopher Caldwell's book, Reflections on the Revolution in Europe, in a recent post. Here is a very good review by Laila Lalami in The Nation.
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, September 14, 2009,
A Malaysian manufacturingcompany recently created the first automatic Wudu machine for Muslims to perform their ablution (washing) ritual before praying. You might be asking yourself: seriously, is this the most urgent thing Muslims need these days? But the company is clearly interested in tapping into an extremely lucrative halal market that is making large inroads among Muslim consumers around the world. The global halal market today is worth more than $640 billion and growing at a rate of... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, August 31, 2009,
A British media production company has recently launched an online comedy series called, Living with the Infidels.This is how the producers describe it: "The series centres around a bumbling,
Bradford-based terror cell. Initially set on a path to martyrdom, Yorkshire's jihadi warriors discover the West isn't as
bad as it seems. Tempted by the likes of Man U, cable TV and ample Abi
upstairs, what's a man to do? Will they find Paradise
in the arms of seventy-two virgins, or is Shangri-La [utop... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, August 26, 2009,
So many are urging the
so-called liberal media to pay attention to the Ohio Muslim teenager who fled
to Florida for fear her Pakistani-born parents might harm her for converting to
Christianity. Yes, cover it, but be fair in your loud outbursts for equitable
cove...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, August 19, 2009,
An impressive industry seems to have formed around the topic of Islam in the West. Write any incendiary propaganda and you're almost guaranteed publication. Christopher Caldwell in his recent book Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam, and the West (positively reviewed here in The New York times By Fouad Ajami and critiqued here by Eboo Patel), is hell-bent on the idea that Islam has always been and will always be the archenemy of Europe, and by extension the West. Brush... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Saturday, August 8, 2009,
A few weeks ago, the Ministry of Culture in Egypt awarded the state's highest prize in the social sciences to Sayed al-Qimni, a controversial historian and sociologist who has received death threats for what many believe is heresy in his writing and for strong denunciation of what he calls the intellectual bankruptcy of Islamic extremists. That decision has opened wide gates of fire as some Egyptians and other Arab Muslims on satellite television scurried for places to call for the withdrawal... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Thursday, August 6, 2009,
"Who speaks for Islam?" has become the ultimate question to ask in the post 9/11 world. Some ask it without really looking for fresh critical voices or invite them but give them 3 or 4 minutes in between commercial breaks to explain the crisis of religious authority in Islam. Others, like here on Link TV, genuinely seek to understand how that authority is legitimated today in the Muslim world. Ray Suarez, one of the smartest journalists in this country, invited a number of people you don't al... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, July 31, 2009,
Now there is a comic book with heroes like Sami-The Listener from the Sudan, Jabbar-The Powerful from Saudi Arabia, Musawwira-The Organizer from South Africa, Widad-The Loving from the Philippines, and Hadya-The Guide from the UK. These are the superheroes of the first comic strip based on Islamic archetypes, The-99, created by Naif Al-Mutawa, a clinical psychologist from Kuwait and CEO of Teshkeel Media Group, a Middle East based company its Website describes as "focused on
creating, re-engi... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Thursday, July 9, 2009,
Masaryk University's Journal of Law and Technology has just published a special issue on religion and technology edited by Vit Sislerand Robert Geraci. Here is the table of content:
-Robert M. Geraci: Technology and Religion
– An Introduction to the Special Issue -John G. Whitesides: Religion, Genetics, and the Evolving American Experiment with Bioethics (7-32) -Jens Kutscher: The Politics of Virtual Fatwa Counseling in the 21st Century (33-50) -Vit Sisler: European Courts’ Authority Contes... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, July 7, 2009,
Al-Jazeera English has recently been picked up by a major cable company in the Washington D.C. area after a long battle with U.S. cable operators across the country and fierce anti-Al-Jazeera campaigns led by various groups. They're apparently working on more agreements with other cable companies across the US, and soon millions of Americans will be able to see for themselves if Al-Jazeera is the dangerous channel many in the West have warned us against. There is no perfect news channel, but ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, June 8, 2009,
I've been following news of a Muslim college by the Zaytuna Institute in the Bay area for some time now, but I thought it was going to be years before it started. Apparently, enough funds have been raised and the first Muslim college in the US will open as soon as the Fall of 2010. It will first use rented buildings at Berkeley before it reaches its goal of raising an endowment of $30 million and another $20 million to purchase properties. This is important in two major ways: this is part of ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, June 3, 2009,
Al-Azhar University was founded in 988.
The long-established authority of Al-Azhar University has recently come under heavy attack by Islamic radicals and secularists alike. Some strange fatwas by professors there in the past couple of years have been publicly ridiculed, and radicals have long denounced its tamed theology under heavy state control. There are signs the one-thousand-year-old religious institution might be striking back. It was announced today that Al-Azhar is preparing to launch... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, May 27, 2009,
A couple of years ago, JWT, the world's leading ad company came out with a report indicating that the purchase power of American Muslims was $170 billion. It was believed that many companies would scurry to court this important segment of the population, but only few brands have tapped into this market fearing backlash over what still appears to be an extremely sensitive issue. Remember Rachel Ray's Dunkin Donuts' commercial which was quickly removed after some conservatives complained the s... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, May 5, 2009,
Just a quick note to let you know about the debut of Patheos.com, an extremely interactive site with impressive religious content. Think of it as somewhere between beliefnet and Religion Dispatches. Both the religious paths and the public square are much needed features to better focus the very disjointed discussion on religion Online. All the contents in their library are peer-reviewed. You can watch their overview video at the bottom of their main page. If you were curious about what a reli... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Tuesday, April 28, 2009,
The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristoff wrote last week about a Quran conference he attended at the University of Notre Dame. I don't usually agree with what Kristoff writes about, but this time much like him, I find it deplorable that conferences like this one (The Quran in Historical Contexts held last week) never take place in a Muslim country. What's even more lamentable was that Arab/Muslim media never bothered to cover such an important event. Not even a marginal mention at the b... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Wednesday, March 4, 2009,
One of the pitfalls for any ethnic group or religion to be constantly in the news- mostly in a negative light- is that most of their members’ valuable energy is consumed trying to defend or react to newspaper headlines. Muslims often find themselves in private conversations or on TV shows easily unnerved by what they see as consistent vilification of their faith. The truth is we Muslims have been mostly reactive and our defensiveness has deprived us of a vital quality: constructive self-cri... Continue reading ...
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
I was born and raised in Morocco. My research focuses on the intersections between Islam, Arab popular culture and the media. I'm currently an assistant professor in the School of Journalism at the University of Colorado-Boulder.
