Muslims Do Speak Out

I was listening to Swedish Radio’s weekly news podcast, “Good Morning World” when I heard a piece on “Arabs got talent” (http://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=438&artikel=6700503). It has 100 million viewers, a figure many programs can only dream of.

I thought it strange that I had never heard about it.  Searching the New York Times, I found a recent article that mentioned “Arabs Got Talent”, only because a network official involved in an anti-ISIS program is a “Talent” judge.

The NYT article mentions a series “Black Crows”, a dramatization of some of the atrocities committed by ISIS.  It will be broadcast during Ramadan.  Many families will spend more time watching TV than usual.   Ramadan (in the U.S.) begins begins the evening to 26 May and ends the evening of 24 June.  During this time Muslims fast during daylight hours.

See "Arab TV Dramatizes Life under Isis", Ben Hubbard, New York Times, 2017-05-16,

The only other reference in the New York Times to "Arabs Got Talent” was about an American, Jennifer Grout, who plays the oud (an Arab lute) and has learned many Arabic songs.  At the time she didn’t understand much Arabic, but according to https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/2016/09/195954/jennifer-grout-replies-criticize-moroccan-husband/ she now speaks fluent Arabic

A few other sources for Arabic news are

http://www.aljazeera.com/
www.dailystar.com.lb
https://www.moroccoworldnews.com/

Interestingly, from Morocco World News I found out about a women-led mosque in California.

Muslims do speak out; are you listening?

Quote of the day: divisive categorizations

"Dehumanisation is a choice. Calling a police officer a ‘pig' or reducing any population to a ‘threat' not only perpetuates stereotypes, it does nothing to temper discontent.”

-Morwari Zafar, Al Jazeera, 2016-07-14, http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2016/07/real-reason-nice-lorry-massacre-160717112202209.html

Are you an armchair activist?

I am not a big fan of demonstrations or petitions; they often seem to me to be more mob rule than serious deliberation.  For the 1,000 that show up for a demonstration, were there 10,000 that had a different opinion?  For the 100,000 who signed a petition, were there 1,000,000 who had a different opinion?  Just like all the no-shows on voting or the uncalled on polling, we can never be sure what the inactive think.

However, like letters to the editor, one should often raise one's voice to at least make an opinion known.

Reading today's Al Jazeera blog on Libya I saw that Avaaz has created a petition urging the UN Security Council to impose a no-fly zone in Libya.  Avaaz's campaign for sanctions two weeks ago with 450,000 emails stunned the Security Council office.

One must admit, such actions often do get attention.