Word: ibn
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...tolerated to varying degrees over the years, the state having found a way to keep its members in check through a system of arbitrary arrests and detentions that rights groups say are illegal under international law. "It's a repeated situation," says Taha Ali, a political analyst at the Ibn Khaldun Center for Development Studies, a Cairo NGO. "But this time, we're going to see the parliamentary election in the upcoming period, so it's a historical moment for the regime and the Brotherhood...
Millions of Saudis, of course, still adhere to the strict religious and social conservatism that dates to the 18th century pact made between Mohammed ibn Abd al-Wahhab, a puritanical preacher, and the founder of the Saud dynasty Mohammed ibn Saud. And many conservatives resent the social changes the King is pushing. "Those around King Abdullah use his peaceful positions to impose secular values," says conservative cleric Mohsen al-Awajy. "But Saudi society is a special, tribal society, and neither King Abdullah or anyone else can impose his own interpretation of Islam. They can do nothing without Islam. There...
...Maldives, tourists sigh about the luxury resorts and sun-dappled beaches to which they are bound. From above, the country's coral-fringed lagoons in the Indian Ocean look computer-generated: arrayed in turquoise pods, they stretch over an azure expanse that would span from Rome to Budapest. Ibn Battuta, the 14th century Arab explorer, hailed the archipelago as "one of the wonders of the world." Ever since, the Maldives has enchanted shipwrecked sailors, Hollywood celebrities and Russian oligarchs fortunate enough to wash up by its shores. Yet beneath this outsiders' vision of paradise lurks a more troubled reality...
...producers do not give us an ordinary documentary. The film is presented as though the pilgrimage is undertaken by a famous traveler of the 14th century. Hence, the sub-title of the movie, “In the footsteps of Ibn Battuta?...
...Ibn Batuta was certainly a most amazing person. The full account of his travels across an immense geography from Tangier to the Crimea, from Byzantium to Delhi and Calicut and the Maldives, perhaps to China, but also to East and West Africa, fill many engrossing volumes. He has provided an account of peoples and societies with the eye of a learned and interested observer at a moment in history that would be the envy of any travel writer to-day. If the film does nothing but intrigue the viewers to become more acquainted with this astonishing story, it will have...