e.liza.beth’s Comments (group member since Oct 16, 2013)

e.liza.beth’s comments from the Bridging Cultures Bookshelf: Muslim Journeys - Points of View (High Plains Library District) group.

"This account of the banality of the world’s once most-wanted man comes from the testimony of two former teen-age brides, who lived in the Abbottabad compound throughout the half-dozen years of bin Laden’s stay. One of them, Maryam, had married Ibrahim al-Saeed in 2001, when she was fourteen. The other, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, was also a teen-ager when she travelled from Yemen to Afghanistan to marry Osama bin Laden, in 2000."

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs...

From the MLA (Modern Language Association)site:
http://www.mla.org/ec_sessions_neh

"In a letter to the National Endowment for the Humanities, Senator Jeff Sessions (AL), the ranking minority member on the Senate Budget Committee, asked the NEH to justify grant funds it has awarded this year. He argues that the NEH is fostering public discussions about “indefinite” philosophical questions and “promoting” Islamic cultures at the expense of Christian and Jewish cultures. The first criticism was addressed in an article by Jonathan Marks. In response to the second criticism, the Modern Language Association, the world’s largest scholarly association, affirms its trust in the NEH’s rigorous peer-review process and in the agency’s creative promotion of cultural dialogue. Programs like “Bridging Cultures through Law,” hosted by the White House Office of Public Engagement, are designed, reviewed, and led by conscientious professionals to promote healthy debate, dialogue, and understanding. The NEH-funded program “Muslim Journeys Bookshelf” targeted by Senator Sessions shows precisely that Islam is not a “foreign” religion, somehow separate from Christianity, Judaism, and American history. Islam and Muslims have been a part of America’s fabric since the slave trade. Many of the books in “Muslim Journeys Bookshelf” feature American stories about and by former slaves who were Muslim. Another corner of the “Bookshelf” explores the deep interconnections of Islam and all the world’s histories and cultures. These programs promote not one culture or religion over others but, rather, the values of education in a democracy."

Letter sent by Sen. Sessions:
http://www.budget.senate.gov/republic...

Sen. Session facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/jeffsessions...

Commentary
Promoting Culture: Senator Jeff Sessions and the National Endowment for the Humanities
https://medium.com/i-m-h-o/926331aa2e3b

Discussed in the Chronicle for Higher Education (subscription required for full article):
http://chronicle.com/article/Senator-...

New Republic op-ed: http://www.newrepublic.com/article/11...

"Securitisation of Islam regards Islam as a monolithic ideology spreading from Europe all the way to Iraq and Afghanistan. According to this perception, Muslims are determined by history and fit a mold from which they cannot escape. They are defined by their so-called conformity to the past and their inability to address the current challenges of political development and liberal religious thinking.

This perception justifies the imaginary creation of an insurmountable boundary between modern and pre-modern times, between secularism and Islam, and therefore supports exceptional political measures to fight against supposedly anti-modern and anti-Western forces. It leaves very little space for Islam in liberal democracies and it fuels the extreme polarisation of Islam versus the West on which European and Muslim extremist groups thrive."

Jocelyn Cesari is the author of Why the West Fears Islam:An Exploration of Muslims in Liberal Democracies, Palgrave, 2013.

Full story: http://www.worldreview.info/content/e...

"She is American, speaks little Arabic, and has never been to Egypt. But Jennifer Grout, 23, has wowed Middle Eastern audiences by reaching the final of Arabs Got Talent – the spin-off of the British and US shows of similar names – with a near-perfect rendition of a song by Egypt's best-loved singer, Umm Kulthum."

"We have always been following and imitating the west," said Najma Karam, one of the show's judges. "This is the first time someone who's not related in any way to the Arab world – an American who doesn't speak the language – performs in Arabic."

Full story: http://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-rad...

Videos of Jennifer competing can be watched here: http://www.carbonated.tv/viral/jennif...

The Guardian has a great series of articles on How the World Sees America, and this one in particular caught my eye: How Afghans see America: the cowboy that divided the village
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisf...

"The stories that Afghans tell each other about America in this final year of the war reveal the US as bewildering and unfathomable. In the plot of current Afghan history, Uncle Sam variously turns up as the embodiment of evil and its polar opposite, a potential savior."

It's an interesting read, particularly since it highlights the ambivalance toward American (read: Western) culture, a recurring theme in our discussions.

In March of 2014, Tel Aviv University will be offering "The Emergence of the Modern Middle East" with Professor Asher Susser, PhD and Duygu Atlas, as a free online course via Coursera. If you are interested, you can get more information or enroll at: https://www.coursera.org/course/moder...

ABOUT THE COURSE
This course will discuss the emergence of the modern Middle East from the fall of the Ottoman Empire, at the end of the First World War to the present. It will discuss the Ottoman legacy in the region and the Western imperial impact on the creation of the Arab state system. The course will discuss the rise and retreat of Arab nationalism, the problems of internal cohesion of the Arab states, issues of religion and state, and the evolution of Islamist politics. It will also focus on the evolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict and its impact on the region and will conclude with an in depth analysis of the “Arab Spring” by placing these contemporary revolutionary events in their historical context.