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?

Libya - how to tell hot news topics

I've been watching Al Jazeera's Libya Blog for several weeks, always hoping that the end of Gaddafi was close. Sometimes the news has been sparse; sometimes the news comes flooding in. Sometimes I have gotten immediate access to the blog; sometimes I have to wait and wait for any items to even show in the window.

Today, after the death of Muammar Gaddafi, is one of those latter times. The little circle is going around and around in the corner of Firefox' window and the lower corner has "connecting to aljazeera.com…" I wrote the first paragraph and part of this before the loading of the page was complete.

I assume that aljazeera.net is so popular around the world, that its servers must be overloaded.

Whatever, let's hope for a long life for a free Libya.

P.S. A few hours after I wrote the above, access to Al-Jazeera is quicker. It must be because it is past midnight in that part of the world.

A sneaky attempt to convert the U.S. to the metric system

I am watching Al-Jazeera live and just saw the North American web report.  Chicago was warming up with 3 degrees and Havana had a balmy 20 degrees?

Ah!  That is Celsius.

I wonder if Al-Jazeera gets on U.S. cable, if it will be a wedge to finally move the U.S to the measuring system used almost every where else in the world.

Will Iranians bring democracy to the Middle East?

Many Americans think of Al-Jazeera as an anti-American, anti-Israeli broadcaster. However, you might want to take a look at one Al-Jazeera story on the crisis in Iran, "Iran protesters defy rally ban", Aljazeera.net, 2009-06-15. It is a rather even-handed reporting of the events and the conflicts in Iran.

When people in the other countries see footage and stories like this, will they starting asking why they shouldn't be doing likewise?

And it could spread out even wider. China Daily reportage seems on the surface to be pro-government, but those who read between the lines might see more. See "Iran's supreme leader warns against provocative behavior", China Daily, 2006-09-15