Category Archives: Culture

Culture: Caliph Omar and the Christian Actor………

July 22, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Neck of the woods
The Director, Hatim Ali, insisted that the actor Thamer Ismael, who plays the role of Omar Ibn El-Khattab (the second Caliph of Islam) in the program is a ‘Sunni Muslim”. He said that after rumors spread that the star is a Christian, adding that he has no problem whether the star was Muslim or Christian, but…………..
On the other hand, some Egyptian ‘activist’ commented that it is okay for an actor to play the role of the Caliph Omar, provided that he will not again play roles that show him drinking or gambling or womanizing. Maybe she was doing it ‘tongue-in-cheek’, but I’m not sure……….
Important, weighty religious issues, no?

Cheers
mhg
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Arab Politics, Culture, Religion

Ramadan Kareem: Wars and Zalabia and PF Chang………..

July 21, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Neck of the woods
“Traditionally, Ramadan, which began Friday in most of the Arab world, is a time for introspection, for charity toward the poor, for an increased focus on religion. It is a time when Muslims strive to avoid not only drinking, smoking, eating and having sex during daylight hours, but also gossiping and swearing — and even fighting with one another. The holy month is a time for solemn reflection during the day, and festive meals with family and friends at night……. This is the second Ramadan to fall during the Arab Spring, and in Syria especially, violence showed no sign of taking the holy month off, as government forces clawed back ground from rebels in the capital, Damascus………… Roundups of dissidents continued in Bahrain. Even in Dubai, where relatively timid activists have asked for more rights to free speech, United Arab Emirates authorities have responded with the arrests of 14 people since Monday on murky charges of antigovernment activity. Ramadan begins on Saturday in Iran, Iraq and many Shiite Muslim areas, unlike Friday for much of the Sunni world………...”

Even within each country, Ramadan is often on different days, based on the advise of the clerics. Back home, my family starts on Saturday while some neighbors started on Friday. It is supposed to be based on sighting of the moon’s earliest waxing crescent, but nobody really sees the early crescent anymore. Times have changed since the days of the Prophet, since even the days of my own childhood (long after the days of the Prophet). Too much light in the cities and towns and villages, too much pollution, even weaker eyesight, make it nearly impossible to see the moon on the first lunar night. Maybe some rural Bedus deep in the Saudi desert can still see that crescent, but not the top clerics ensconced in their palaces in the cities.
Another issue is that it is not just a Shi’a-Sunni difference. Morocco is Sunni, yet its Ramadan starts Saturday, along with Iran and Iraq and the people of Bahrain. So do a few other countries.
A third observation is that the most delicious food, the most plenty, is consumed in Ramadan. Which is a lot of fun, but it might make it the least healthy month as well. Of course all this can be just sour grapes on my part since I am far away and don’t have access to the Mehalbiyya and Harees and Zalabia and Lqimat and Kunafa and Gabboot and ……… As a consolation, we shall break our fast at P.F. Chang tonight.

(FYI: Muslims and Arabs never stop their wars because of Ramadan. The Libyan and Syrian fighting continued and continue through Ramadan. The bloody Iran-Iraq war continued through eight Ramadans. Bureaucrats are even less helpful, more difficult in Ramadan. Despots are at least as despotic during Ramadan. Kelptocratic princes and dictators continue to rob their country and people during Ramadan, but they pray more for forgiveness).

In other words: the people get better during Ramadan, but the rulers remain as rotten and pray more to cover it up.

Cheers
mhg
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Algeria, Arab Politics, Culture, France

Arab ‘Literary’ Awards: Good Writer in April in Paris, Bad Writer in June……….

June 23, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Neck of the woods
“A celebrated Algerian novelist was given a top French literary prize on Thursday in a ceremony that was marred by the withdrawal of its Arab sponsors. Boualem Sansal had been due to receive the Editions Gallimard Arabic Novel prize for his book “Rue Darwin” [Darwin Street] earlier in June. The 15,000 euro prize was to be given by the Paris-based Arab Ambassador’s Council, which founded the award in 2008. But between being nominated and being awarded his prize, Sansal attended the Jerusalem Writers Festival in May – as guest of honour. Militant Palestinian Islamist group Hamas called it, “an act of treason against the Palestinian people.” By the time the writer was due to receive his award, the Ambassadors Council had permanently withdrawn its support for the award………… Speaking on France Inter radio on Friday, Sansal said it was “completely unacceptable” that the ambassadors should interfere with their own jury’s decision ………..”

This is a strange case, not an easy one, involving politics and literary merit. If his book was good and deserved the prize in April, what has changed in the book to make it undeserving in June? Did he revise the book to make it less deserving during that period? Regardless of what you think of his visit to Jerusalem. Perceptions of the man’s work changed in some ways because of his visit, but the criteria for the award would be the same.
Now he won’t have the 15,000 euro to spend in Paris. That is a shame, a big fat dommage: I can think of no better place to spend 15,000 euro than Paris (the one in France not the one in Texas, assuming this guy is not into giving to charities).
All they did was to make his novel better known: I shall order a copy for my iPad or Kindle this afternoon.

Cheers
mhg
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Culture, Iran, Israel, Middle East Nuclear, WTF

Forget Iran: World’s New Real Nuclear Menace, a Willie Nelson Song…….

June 22, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Neck of the woods

“Broken her heart
And I know I done wrong
But I pray
That someday she’ll forgive me
And remember
When I’ve sang
My last hillbilly song………..” Willie (Hugh) Nelson

“For the first time since the end of the Cold War, the specter of nuclear armageddon looms over the world, as the Pentagon announced yesterday that a group of hillbillies in central Tennessee has constructed a fully operational 50-megaton nuclear device. With this potential for destruction in the hands of people who have throughout history acted out violently for no better reason than family tradition, scientists in Helsinki, Finland, have moved the doomsday clock back up to one minute before midnight. Pentagon officials were tipped off to the backwoods people’s potential to invoke mass destruction last week when an I.R.S. agent returned from the Smoky Mountains claiming that a group of hillbillies had threatened to “nuke him up real good.” The bomb’s existence and operational status were later confirmed by a team of scientists who, after finding the weapon in a hay thresher, were run out of hillbilly territory by a family armed with a shotgun and three dogs named “Duke.”……….”

Mr. Netanyahu was pissed. He said this is a phony report planted by anti-Semites in the IRS with the goal of distracting from the most serious nuclear threat the world has faced since Hiroshima and Nagasaki was barbecued for the sake of peace.
Cheers
mhg
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Culture, Middle East Women

Pictorial: MENA Dances, Middle East Kisses……….

May 14, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Neck of the woods

           SuperPowerMyAss                    Mother’s Day or Campaigning?

KissingAsses in Bahrain                                         Kissing in Kuwait

Prelude to a kiss: Blair & Qaddafi dancing           Its kosher: he’s anti-Zionist

Will u still love me after the fall? Close you eyes and I’ll kiss you, tomorrow I’ll miss you

Cheers
mhg

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Ali Khamenei, Culture, Iran

Cool Ahamadinejad: the Return to Alternative Rock, Iranian GOP……….

May 11, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Cooler than cool, hip

“Step up, step up, step up the sky is open-armed
When the light is mine, I felt gravity pull onto my eyes,
Holding my head straight (looking down)
This is the easiest task I’ve ever had to do
Reason had harnessed the tame
Holding the sky in their arms
Gravity pulls me down…….” R.E.M.

“Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told reporters Thursday he was kind of getting back into old R.E.M. again, rediscovering his once-great passion for the alternative rock group’s first six albums. Ahmadinejad, leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s conservative political coalition, confirmed that ever since R.E.M. broke up in September 2011, he had been revisiting the Athens, GA band’s catalog and was once again really digging its earlier stuff. “Listening to some of those early albums they did for [record label] I.R.S. has reminded me of how great R.E.M. really was,” said the 55-year-old former mayor of Tehran, who is known for his rigorous implementation of radical Islamist policies throughout Iran. “Stipe’s cryptic vocals combined with Buck’s bright, chiming guitar hooks, Mills’ melodic bass lines, and the driving beat of Bill Berry’s drums creates this ethereal sound that just completely kicks ass.” “They’re basically like the original alternative rock band,” the controversial world leader and Holocaust denier added. Ahmadinejad confirmed he first discovered R.E.M. in 1986 after stumbling across Fables Of The Reconstruction on vinyl at a record store in Tehran. At the time a civil engineering graduate student who helped crack down on dissident university professors and pupils, he said he was immediately infatuated with the band upon hearing the haunting guitar riff at the start of album opener “Feeling Gravitys Pull.”…………”

Apparently he has had some dispute on this REM issue with the clerics. Not only do the senior clerics disapprove, conservative members of parliament (the Iranian GOP) may again threaten to impeach him. If he ain’t careful the remaining year of his career may go up the proverbial creek. But then again, right now it’s better for Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to be true to himself: what has he got to lose? Just tell the mullahs to “take this job and shove it”.
Cheers
mhg

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Ali Khamenei, Culture, Iran

Ahamadinejad: the Return to Alternative Rock, Iranian GOP……….

May 11, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

Cooler than cool, hip

Culture, Religion, Salafi, Saudi Arabia, Sports, WTF

Saudis to Convert Fish and Scuba-Divers: Underwater Madrassas, Pigskin and Miswak, Freudian Towers………

May 10, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“Saudi Arabia has built the world’s first underwater mosque off a northwestern coast close to the Jordanian border, according to reports in an Arabic newspaper. The mosque was built by a group of private divers from Saudi Arabia, who used plastic pipes filled with sand under the sea off the coast in the north-western city of Tabuk, Almadina Arabic language daily reported. “One of our colleagues came up with this idea last summer and we decided to carry it out,” diver Hamadan bin Salim Al Masoudi told the Emirates 24/7 website. “We have just completed the construction of the mosque… when we put the final touches on it, it was time for afternoon prayers, so we performed group prayers in the first underwater mosque in history………………..”

My first inclination was that they wanted to convert Western scuba divers, before I remembered than non-Muslim scuba divers are frowned upon, especially inside a mosque. Yet, it would be interesting to see the King of Saudi Arabia and his princes diving toward the mosque on opening day. I bet they can sell tickets for that opening event and recoup the cost of the under-water mosque.

maybe it is built for all these madrassas of fish that the Red Sea is famous for. I am not sure how the Wahhabi Salafi zealots feel about all this. These guys are obsessed with wtf the very early Muslims did: they pretend they would do exactly as these ancient gentlemen did, some even famously rumored to eschew the modern toothpaste in favor of scented toothpicks (miswak). I’d love for them to give up other infidel things the ancients never cottoned up to: like Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube.
Speaking
of miswak: I half expect the Wahhabis in my hometown may pass a law banning toothpaste, making it as illegal as pigskin (talking four-legged swine here, exclusively four-legged). There is no doubt that the very early Muslims (Sahaba and the others) had no interest in either toothpaste or scuba-diving, not even to get to a mosque. They even had a famous Arab verse around that time about a fear of dissolving in the sea (as in man being made of mud which dissolves in water).
We can chalk this one under “culture” category, I think. Or maybe “religion”. Or both.
(I think I shall soon post something Freudian about this mad race to “erect” the world’s tallest tower in Mecca or was it Dubai or was it Abu Dhabi………..)
Cheers
mhg

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Culture, Religion, Tunisia

America and a Song of Persepolis: A New Tunisian Hypocrisy on Freedom………………..

May 9, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

“Burn this city to the ground
Take a torch and spread the fire”

Persepolis / Now a pile of dust

A blackened carcass / A land of ash

Persepolis / You lost your crown

Persepolis / Burned to the ground

Consumed by hate / Ablaze by pride

Persepolis / Naked as the sand……..” Persepolis (Septic Flesh)

“Tunisia on Tuesday denounced “American interference” in judicial affairs after the U.S. ambassador criticized a ruling that fined a television station boss for showing a film that depicted God. The U.S. ambassador in Tunis, Gordon Gray, last Thursday expressed “serious concerns” after a court fined the Nessma station’s chief executive Nabil Karoui for broadcasting the Franco-Iranian film “Persepolis”. “The declarations of the American ambassador to Tunisia constitute interference in Tunisian justice,” the foreign ministry announced in a statement reported by the official TAP news agency. “The Tunisian government declares itself to be deeply astonished” by these statements. The film, which looks at the Iranian revolution through the eyes of a little girl, features a controversial scene showing a depiction of God. Muslims consider portrayals of Allah to be blasphemous. Karoui was fined on May 3, 2,400 dinars (, $1,700) in a high-profile trial on conviction of “broadcasting a film that disturbs public order and threatens proper morals.” Gray then issued a statement saying that the verdict “raises serious concerns about tolerance and freedom of expression in the new Tunisia.”……..”

When the politicians currently ruling Tunisia were in opposition and in exile, they railed against the United States and the West for not opposing (and for supporting) the dictatorship of Zine el Abidine Ben Ali. They also complained about repression and not allowing the freedom of expression under the old dictator. Now that they are in power, they have made a 180 degree turnaround about the freedom of expression: now they rail against the United States for asking them to allow freedom of expression.
When out of power, they wanted world powers to seek more freedom of expression in Tunisia; now that they are in power, they want world powers to stay out and not push for freedom of expression. That is ‘somewhat’ hypocritical. Somewhat.
Cheers
mhg

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Arab League, Bahrain, Culture, GCC, Iraq, Saudi Arabia

Gulf Hypocrisy: on the Arab Identity of Iraq and the GCC……………

March 28, 2012 Mohammed Haider Ghuloum

On the eve of the Baghdad Arab summit, much of Gulf media have taken to questioning the identity of the new Iraq. Actually that is something they have been doing since 2006. They talk of Iraq being under a dual occupation (meaning American and Iranian). They talk of such an Iranian influence that the Arab identity of Iraq is in question. Even the lousy Salafists have joined this chorus. So, I sat and went over some statistics, not all 100% accurate but at least reasonable “ballpark” figures. Just to see in what country is the “Arab” identity threatened:

In Iraq, almost 100% of the population speak Arabic as a first (or strong fluent second) language. That includes Arabs, Kurds, Turkmen, Assyrians, and others.
In Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, at least one third of the population does not speak Arabic (these are imported laborers and housemaids imported from South and Southeast Asia and Africa).
In Bahrain, more than 40% of the population does not speak Arabic (these include laborers, housemaids and security mercenaries imported by the regime).
In Qatar, something like 80% are foreigners, mostly non-Arabs. That means that more than a majority of the population does not speak Arabic. In London, a Qatari academic has taken to writing articles lamenting the loss of the Arab identity of Iraq.
In the United Arab Emirates, something like 80% (probably more) of the population are imported foreign laborers and housemaids. These people speak no Arabic. About two weeks ago one UAE academic wrote in al-Quds al-Arabi about the “occupation” of Iraq by Americans and Iranians. Has he looked at his own country? The UAE has American, British, French and until recently Canadian military bases. Hell, they’d offer bases to Monaco and Bruni if these principalities would only accept.
Oman may have the least population ‘imbalance’, but I am not sure of the figure, yet. (This is a quickie posting)
End of the story, for now.
Cheers
mhg

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Arabia Deserta: MENA Focus