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Levantine Review

  • Islam and the Media
    Clothing Optional at Conference on Islam & the Media?
    Where was the media coverage?
    Clothing and modesty were points of contention at the Islam and the Media conference at the University of Colorado-Boulder during the first week of 2010. Specifically, from day one, the question of whether a modern Muslim woman should or should not wear a head scarf framed the event.

This Month

  • "Dark Odyssey" starred Alex Karras
    A Tribute to Dancer-Choreographer Athan Karras (1927 - 2010)
    Athan Karras, iconic Greek dancer of the silver screen almost single-handedly responsible for bringing Greek folk dance to the American public, has passed on. We remember his warm, benevolent nature as much as his accomplishments in Greek and other ethnic dance and music.
  • Maria Gueriera's Lamb Stew
    Recipe for An Impromptu Levantine Feast
    Mama Maria's Lamb Stew
    One holiday, would you believe it? I had no planned menu and found myself expecting nine guests. I had just three hours to come up with a small feast. This is what became the main course. I know—it looks like a tajine in the photo, but no, this is my own Levantine receipe.
  • The Hebrew Republic
    Avishai Argues Israel Should Become a Real Democracy
    "The Hebrew Republic: How Secular Democracy and Global Enterprise Will Bring Israel Peace at Last"
    For Bernard Avishai, like most Israelis, the Arab-Israeli conflict, that is, the matzav, is never far from his lips. A consulting editor for the Harvard Business Review and former professor of business and public policy, Avishai maintains an established background in both politics and economics. Here he both defends and attacks Zionism using tools from both disciplines.
  • Whitewashed: America's Invisible Middle Eastern Minority
    Race Matters: Are Middle Easterners Really White?
    "Whitewashed: America's Invisible Middle Eastern Minority" by John Tehranian
    A law professor examines America's framing of race and exactly how Arabs, Iranians and other immigrants from the Middle East are categorized, represented or excluded. The truth isn't pretty.
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Film

  • Tahar Rahim and Nils Arestrup as the protégé and the godfather
    "A Prophet": Birth of A Franco-Arab Gangster
    French crime drama features North African actors, competes for Oscar
    What if Tony Montana had never left the detention camp at the beginning of Scarface, but instead had risen to power while doing six years or so behind bars? That's not quite the premise of Jacques Audiard's latest film "A Prophet" (Un Prophète), but it gives you an idea of the ambitious scope of its story.
  • A scene from "Ajami"
    Israel's Multicultural "Ajami" Contends for Best Foreign Film Oscar—in Arabic
    Competing with "A Prophet" and "White Ribbon," "Ajami" is the underdog
    Lost in all the international debate on the Israeli-Palestinian question is the fact that Israel has become a complex multicultural society. No film makes that more evident than Ajami—Israel's strong entry into this season's Oscar race.
  • "The Hurt Locker" on DVD
    "Haji Hunting" in Iraq with "The Hurt Locker"
    Why Are We There?
    Awards season is in full swing, and the most lauded film of 2009 appears to be Kathryn Bigelow's actioner The Hurt Locker. It has appeared on almost everyone's best-of-the-year list, and even made it on some best-of-the-decades.
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Music & Dance

  • "Dark Odyssey" starred Alex Karras
    A Tribute to Dancer-Choreographer Athan Karras (1927 - 2010)
    Athan Karras, iconic Greek dancer of the silver screen almost single-handedly responsible for bringing Greek folk dance to the American public, has passed on. We remember his warm, benevolent nature as much as his accomplishments in Greek and other ethnic dance and music.
  • Shooting in Cairo
    Filmmakers Race Against Clock to Document Vanishing Cairo Tradition
    Muezzin Voices of the Adhan, Islamic Call to Prayer, Soon to be Silenced
    A documentary film and audio archive project, Voices and Faces of the Adhan: Cairo aims to tell the story of the adhan, or the Islamic call to prayer, as it has been recited in Cairo for 1400 years.
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Op-Ed & Satire

  • Howard Zinn, historian and activist
    Remembering Howard Zinn, Historian, Playwright, Peace Activist
    For decades, from the 1960s forward, the writings and speeches of historian Howard Zinn inspired generations of Americans to rethink U.S. foreign policy, to question our received ideas about history, and to challenge the national war economy with an ethos of peace.
  • Two state solution symphony cartoon by Paresh
    The Perpetual Process for Impossible Peace
    when will the people lead the leaders to a peace agreement?
    Arafat has been dead for five years, the oval office has seen four new presidents, the Israelis had seven new prime ministers, Yugoslavia disintegrated into six republics, Pluto is no longer a planet and yet, according to the Obama administration's Special Envoy George Mitchell, we are still but two years away from a Palestinian state.
  • Uri Avnery
    "The Quiet American" or The Disaster of Our Foreign Policy
    Israel's eminence grise has a clear vision of the way forward
    Thanks to the Americans, al-Qaeda has become a prestige brand in the guerrilla market, much like McDonald's and Armani in the world of fast food and fashion. Every militant Islamist organization can appropriate the name for itself, even without a franchise from Bin-Laden.
  • Hand of Fatima, anti-evil eye amulet
    Happy New Year—Insha'Allah!
    Musings on the Evil Eye
    January 2010 - a new year and a new decade. Reason enough to give pause for reflection on the havoc-wreaking, life-altering events of these last ten years.
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Literature

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