Word: arabism
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...cultural supremacy at its foundations, Harvard is limiting the value of studying the cultures of the Middle East. When people believe that all cultures in a certain geographic area are similar, the actual diversity of the region blurs together. I am not surprised when many people think Iranians are Arab: Iran is in the Middle East, after all. How can someone truly explore a culture in an unbiased way with this mode of thinking? With the College’s curricular review underway, University Hall should take a close look at the logic of organizing NELC this...
...professors and lecturers should also be hired to fill the gaps that currently exist. Major weaknesses plague the modern Middle Eastern programs. Currently, there are no permanent professors who teach modern Israeli history, modern Arab culture, modern Middle Eastern politics or modern Middle Eastern economics—with the possible exception of E. Roger Owen, the Meyer professor of Middle East history, who is a member of the history department. Understanding the modern Middle East is essential to understanding many of the most important conflicts in the world today. That Harvard is not taking this aspect of the Middle East...
...sign of democracy's failure to take root in the Arab world is the way authoritarian regimes muzzle the local media. So when the al-Jazeera satellite channel began its broadcasts in 1996 from the Persian Gulf state of Qatar, more than a digital revolution was born. For the first time, Arabs were able to watch news programs and talk shows in their own language and assembled by independent journalists rather than by government propagandists...
Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, 53, the Emir of Qatar, has shouldered the political burden and financial cost of sponsoring al-Jazeera. With an estimated 35 million viewers, the network is being imitated across the region. Al-Jazeera has angered Arab governments by giving airtime to rebel movements and freedom advocates and tackling taboo topics like polygamy and apostasy. And Arab opinion has been immeasurably influenced by al-Jazeera's coverage of the Palestinian intifadeh and the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But nothing has made al-Jazeera so famous as the journalistic hospitality it has extended...
Skeptics sneer that the Emir has used al-Jazeera to put his tiny country on the map. He insists that the channel reflects a wind of change blowing through the Middle East. Arab regimes are certainly feeling more than a breeze. --By Scott MacLeod