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Behind France's burka ban
In a free society, men and women should be able to do, say, write, depict or wear what they like, so long as it does no significant harm to others.
Those who support a burka ban, like the one that goes into effect in France on Monday, must therefore show us the harm that comes from women being in public with their faces covered. So far, the supporters of a ban have advanced three main arguments.
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Islam and/in the West
The revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt provide examples of largely peaceful transitions of power after decades of unflinching authoritarian rule.
Yet change in these and other Arab countries caught the world by surprise.
Talk of an “Arab Spring” has dominated Western media and political debate for months now. Many Muslims living in the West are also watching events in the region closely, hoping that their co-religionists will soon enjoy greater rights, freedoms and protection under the rule of law, much as they have for many decades.
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Missing Muslims in the movies
West is West, the sequel to the phenomenally successful film East is East is in the cinemas. Fans have had to wait a long time for this moment. The first film blew us away. It defied cultural precepts, evaded "ethnic" borders, made us laugh and cry, even changed lives.
Munir Khan, an 18-year-old Muslim, wrote to me just after East is East won the Bafta Alexander Korda Award for the best British film in 2000. The young man was so, so excited. At last, he wrote, people could see a popular movie about Muslim life. It had inspired him to go to drama school.
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Turkish drama wins loyal Arab fans
What am I doing watching this fatuous TV soap series? I ask myself the question even as I rush home to turn to MBC 4the Arab drama channel at 8 every evening. The Turkish drama Il-Ahshouq Al-Mamnouh – Forbidden Love – has gripped me. The series runs most nights, dubbed into Arabic and broadcast across the Arab-speaking world. I am frankly embarrassed at my attachment to the characters and the story.
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My trip to the Egyptian revolution
“I have come to terms with the fact that I will not see democracy in Egypt in my lifetime,” told me Egyptian publisher Hisham Kassem at the end of an interview for PBS’ World Focus in 2008.
I remembered those words as I heartily celebrated the fall of the regime in Tahrir Square on February 11th and I smiled to myself. I had come all the way from New York to be a part of the revolution, not expecting that the stubborn Egyptian President would step down while I was there.
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Istanbul: culture club
'Culture' is a flexible conception, but if one interprets it to mean the whole range of human experience and achievement, then nowhere is better qualified to be the Cultural Capital of Europe than Istanbul, née Constantinople.
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