Hampshire College Divests or Do They?

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Ethics, Israel, Palestine

Divestment is a two-edged sword. Earlier this week a number of pro-Palestinian sites were ethused with the apparent decision of Hampshire College to divest its financial portfolio from investments in companies involved in the occupation of Palestine. I provide one such report below, followed by a clarification from Hampshire College that the decision was purely on financial grounds and not political.

Hampshire College becomes first college in U.S. to divest from Israeli Occupation!
Global BDS Movement, 2/12/2009

[press kit attached below] – Hampshire College in Amherst, MA, has become the first of any college or university in the U.S. to divest from companies on the grounds of their involvement in the Israeli occupation of Palestine.

This landmark move is a direct result of a two-year intensive campaign by the campus group, Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). The group pressured Hampshire College’s Board of Trustees to divest from six specific companies due to human rights concerns in occupied Palestine. Over 800 students, professors, and alumni have signed SJP’s “institutional statement” calling for the divestment. Continue reading Hampshire College Divests or Do They? →

Lithographica Arabica 5: Rev. Wood’s Bible Animals, 2

Animals, Bible and Holy Land, Egypt, Lithographs, Orientalism, Palestine

The illustrations provided in the books of Rev. John G. Wood are interesting not only for what they portray, but how they are described. Here is Wood’s folksy spin on three major fishes of Egypt and Palestine:

In order that the reader may see examples of the typical Fish which are to be found in Egypt and Palestine, I have added three more species, which are represented in the following illustration.

Continue reading Lithographica Arabica 5: Rev. Wood’s Bible Animals, 2 →

Darwin at 200

Islamic Sciences, Teaching Resources

Today is a momentous day, especially if we turn back the clocks 200 years exactly. On February 12, 1809 two freedom fighters were born at opposing ends of the Atlantic: Lincoln and Darwin. Abraham Lincoln freed America from the intolerable idea of human slavery; Charles Darwin freed the human mind from the dogmatic shackles that viewed scientific inquiry as heresy. I have been preparing a paper on Darwin’s reception by Muslims for an upcoming conference at Hofstra University on “Darwin’s Reach” March 12-14. As you might suspect, the initial reaction was not very positive. Of course information about Darwin’s new theory of natural selection did not come through any scientific venues but through the negative filter of Protestant missionaries. Branded a materialist and atheist, there was little enthusiasm in the late 19th century for a challenge to the traditional view of Adam and Eve. Continue reading Darwin at 200 →

Memoirs Recount Limitations Of Life In Modern Iran

Books You Should Read, Gender and Sexuality, Iran, Shi'a


Azadeh Moaveni, left; Azar Nafisi, right

Memoirs Recount Limitations Of Life In Modern Iran

NPR, Morning Edition, February 10, 2009
Two new memoirs chronicle life in pre- and post-revolution Iran and offer a glimpse of a people struggling to find pockets of freedom within a repressive regime.

Azadeh Moaveni, a California-born journalist who lived in Iran from 1999 until 2002 and again from 2005 until 2007, is the author of Honeymoon in Tehran, in which she recounts the complexities of moving in with her boyfriend and becoming pregnant — before getting married — in a restrictive Islamic regime.

Moaveni describes modern Iran as an “as if” society, where young Iranians avoid the rules by acting as if they don’t exist and where what people do in private tends to be very different from the way they are forced to behave in public.

“For example, you have a middle class of young people who has premarital sex, drinks alcohol — behaves as young people around the world, and this is something the regime can’t do anything about because, for the most part, it all takes place behind closed doors,” Moaveni tells Morning Edition’s Rene Montaigne. Continue reading Memoirs Recount Limitations Of Life In Modern Iran →

Why the Muslim World Can’t Hear Obama

Arab-Israeli Conflict, Egypt, Election 2008


Art by Olaf Hajek for The New York Times

Why the Muslim World Can’t Hear Obama
By ALAA AL ASWANY, The New York Times, February 7, 2009

PRESIDENT OBAMA is clearly trying to reach out to the Muslim world. I watched his Inaugural Address on television, and was most struck by the line: “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus, and nonbelievers.” He gave his first televised interview from the White House to Al Arabiya, an Arabic-language television channel.

But have these efforts reached the streets of Cairo?

One would have expected them to. Mr. Obama had substantial support among Egyptians — more than any other American presidential candidate that I can remember. I traveled to America several days before the election. The Egyptians I met in the United States told me — without exception — that they backed Mr. Obama. Many Egyptians I know went to his Web site and signed up as campaign supporters. Continue reading Why the Muslim World Can’t Hear Obama →

Lithographica Arabica 4: Rev. Wood’s Bible Animals, 1

Animals, Bible and Holy Land, Lithographs, Orientalism, Palestine


Rev. John George Wood, author of Story of the Bible Animals

Fascination with Bible Lands was so keen in the 19th century that illustrated volumes of scenes and objects were always in high demand. One of the treasures, in a figurative sense, of this age is the work of Rev. John George Wood (1827-1899), an English cleric and writer of popular books on natural history. One of the books passed on to me several years ago is Wood’s Story of the Bible Animals (Charles Foster Publishing Company, 1886), one of several editions of this popular work. The illustrations in my copy are not of the highest quality, but they can still mesmerize across their faded and fraying pages. Continue reading Lithographica Arabica 4: Rev. Wood’s Bible Animals, 1 →

Security authorities launch massive sweep for al-Qaeda

Osama Bin Laden, Terrorism Issue, Yemen


Yemeni security forces have apprehended thirty terrorist suspects over the course of ten days as part of a massive security sweep.

Security authorities launch massive sweep for al-Qaeda

Abdul-Aziz Oudah, Yemen Observer, Feb 3, 2009

The Ministry of Interior has announced a comprehensive campaign against all suspected al-Qaeda hideouts, following last week’s declaration of the appointment of Nasser al-Wahishi, who has been wanted by Yemeni security since 2006, as the new Amir for Arabia. His compatriots include the former Saudi Guantanamo detainees, Saeed al-Shihri and Mohammed al-Aofi, who escaped Saudi Arabia several months ago.

The manager of the security section at the Ministry of Interior, General Mohammed al-Qosi, said security authorities are observing sites where the organization is likely to be hiding, indicating that public cooperation has been helpful in locating these hideouts. Al-Qosi added that the al-Qaeda threat is not something new in Yemen, but rather has been present for many years. Continue reading Security authorities launch massive sweep for al-Qaeda →

These Sons of Adam

Animals, Books You Should Read, Humor and Satire, Lithographs, Palestine, Travel


Arnaut Blowing Smoke at His Dog by Jean-Léon Gérôme, 1882.

In two previous posts, The Immovable East and An Unbelievable White Man, I published excerpts from the first-person narrative by Philip J. Baldensperger, published in 1913 about experiences in Palestine during the last half of the 19th century. His sense of humor was acute. Here are the words he imagined that a dog would bark out about life as a canine in an Arab village.

“The sons of Adam disdain dogs, but in many places they raise us up and utilise us. Thus, in the camp where I lived, there were shepherd dogs, with thick fur, and watch dogs, with a smooth coat all over, and the tall, thin greyhounds which are raised for hunting the gazelles on the broad plains of Philistia, near my first home.

I was born in camp, south of Beersheba, and belonged to a family of Azazmeh Arabs. On account of my jet black fur the called me Lail – Night… Continue reading These Sons of Adam →