Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Sunday, July 18, 2010,
The latest Bollywood thriller Lamhaa (The Untold Story of Kashmir) has been banned in the Middle East raising concerns about free speech in the region. Here is a list of films banned in some Muslim countries over the last few years. Just like books, films are often banned in Muslim-majority countries, but you can get a bootlegged copy just about anywhere. I was in Morocco a few weeks ago and I could buy any film I wanted banned or not, already on DVD or still playing in U.S. theaters. Governm... 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 Monday, March 29, 2010,
The British are certainly more courageous to deal with Islam on TV more head on. Muslim Driving School is yet another creative series the BBC (BBC2) has aired recently to open up a rare window into the life of Muslim (Asian) women in the north of England. I really like the idea of using driving school as a way to talk about issues British audiences wouldn't want to learn about otherwise. It's a lighter approach to tackling some topical issues like arranged marriage, gender dynamics, a woman's... 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 Wednesday, March 17, 2010,
If you visited IslamOnline recently, you may have found dead links to many articles and fatwa answers. That's because hundreds of workers in the site's editorial office in Cairo have been staging walkouts and sit-ins accusing their managers in Qatar of plotting to replace them with a team of religious hardliners. The managers are allegedly unhappy about a recent trend at the site to run more articles and advice columns about social issues, art, and youth-related topics. IslamOnline has become... 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 Monday, January 25, 2010,
I've been listening for the last few months to an extremely interesting series on Islam from Wisconsin Public Radio in Madison. Inside Islam, a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin at Madison and WPR's program, Here on Earth: Radio Without Borders, has featured great guests rarely invited by traditional media, including secular and religious artists, novelists, scholars, comedians, bloggers, journalists, and activists. They have certainly set an excellent example for how the disc... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, January 18, 2010,
A young Muslim businessman in Orange County recently launched onelegacyradio, a 24-hour Muslim radio station in Irvine, Calif. I haven't listened to any of their programs yet, but judging from their schedule and program description online, the topics are quite engaging and very topical, including such issues as youth radicalization, drug use, and many other social problems. One of their live shows is called Objection, a daily talk show hosted by an activist and an attorney specializing in nat... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Friday, January 15, 2010,
It became ever clearer to me after our conference on Islam and the Media that journalists do not work hard to seek out alternative Muslim voices to counteract the extremism of radical Islam. Everywhere you look, the debate on Islam is acrimonious, unidimensional, and excessively security-based. Lots of Muslims have been hard at work creating new spaces for a different kind of debate that is constructive and less polarized. We had many of them here in Boulder during our conference and they cam... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, January 11, 2010,
Yesterday was the last day of our international conference on Islam and the Media organized by our Center for Media, Religion and Culture. Some amazing research is being done in many countries around the world about an interesting and vibrant Muslim media culture (broadcast, print, and digital) that is evolving with its new (mixed with old) production aesthetics, its own political economy, and certainly its own religious authority. We had stimulating discussions about these and many other to... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Monday, November 2, 2009,
As I said a few times on this blog, this question is very common now and even if it's a rhetorical one, it's quite useful to think with because it generates a healthy debate about the diversity of voices who speak on behalf of Islam. Link TV is continuing its series on Who Speaks for Islam with some interesting guests from actors, authors, tv producers, Hollywood screenwriters, comedians to pollsters. I also came across this passionate debate between Irshad Manji and Dalia Mogahed (from last ... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Thursday, October 29, 2009,
The Council on American-Islamic Relations issued yesterday an editorial entitled, "Islamophobia Machine Targets American Muslims," describing what it sees as the mainstreaming of anti-Muslim rhetoric in America. 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, 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 ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Thursday, February 26, 2009,
Senator John Kerry is holding hearings on "Engaging with Muslim Communities around the World" today at the Senate. I wholeheartedly support initiatives like these and I command the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee for taking such an important step. I hope, however, this initiative will be different from the ill-conceived public diplomacy of the Bush administration which produced media fiascos like Radio Sawa in the Arab world, Radio Farda in Iran, Hi Magazine in the Middle East, and th... Continue reading ...
Posted by Nabil Echchaibi on Thursday, January 22, 2009,
As one of the most prominent signs of Islam, the veil has been the subject of a heated debate both among Muslims and non-Muslims-some of it quite valuable and much of it just inflammatory and ignorant. But we rarely hear from the women who wear it themselves. Much has been said on their behalf about their religious conviction or their lack of voice. Some young Muslim male singers have dedicated songs to them. Yet, we don't know much about their experiences living with the veil, particularly i... Continue reading ...
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About Me
| Nabil Echchaibi |
| Boulder-Colorado |
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.
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