“I always have a narrative in my head because story helps in linking the movement for me,” says Helen Pickett, the guest artist starring at the University of South Carolina Dance Program’s latest dance festival. Her piece, entitled February 14, 2012, is a contemporary ballet set to parts of the score to the film Mishima, by Phillip Glass. read more »
February 21, 2012
Japanese author Yukio Mishima inspires dance
February 21, 2012
Saudi national faces prospect of execution for tweeting
“Insulting the Prophet [Mohammed] is considered blasphemous in Islam,” notes OnIslam.net, “which is a crime punishable by execution in Saudi Arabia.” Hamza Kashgari, a 23-year-old Saudi blogger, now faces the prospect of execution for tweeting this message on Islam’s Prophet Mohammed’s birthday: read more »
February 5, 2012
Muslim model agency launches in New York
A young Muslim fashion designer wearing hijab.
A couple of decades ago a model agency for aristocrats was launched in Great Britain. It didn’t last long, as I recall. The founder seemed to have overlooked the obvious fact that people hire models based on their looks, not whether they can trace their family tree to King Henry VIII. But it was a good gimmick, and it made the press. read more »
February 1, 2012
Neoconservatism, a nuclear Iran; some considerations
The only really positive thing about being associated with a despised philosophy is that gives one a certain freedom to think however one pleases. Having written for a number of allegedly neoconservative websites I might be viewed as part of this much maligned movement. read more »
January 28, 2012
Turkey launches hijab fash mag
Do you remember when one episode of the British comedy Absolutely Fabulous took Patsy and Edina to Morocco? For the two drunken, self-absorbed anti-heroes Morocco was all about smoking “Mary Jane” (to use a Sixties slang term) and buying “gorgeous thing.” read more »
January 21, 2012
Anonymous might get you thrown in jail
Has the internet protest movement Anonymous gone too far? Well, let’s put it this way: according to media reports, Anonymous’s new online campaign uses spamming. read more »
January 15, 2012
Austrian Mint to issue Gustav Klimt coins
Celebrating 150 years since his birth in 1862, the Austrian Mint will release a series of five gold coins depicting artist Gustav Klimt and some of his paintings. read more »
January 7, 2012
Two Tibetans self-immolate in protest against Chinese occupation
(Photo copyright FreeTibet.org.)
Free Tibet, the British-based Tibetan rights organization, has reported that two Tibetan nationals self immolated in Ngaba Town on January 6, 2012. An eye witness to one of the acts of self-immolation said that a layperson set him or herself on fire near Kirti Monastery in Ngaba Town at around 2:50pm (local time). read more »
January 6, 2012
Anti-Islam Metal band wins prestigious music award
Norwegian Black Metal band Taake has been nominated for the Spellemann Prize. The contemporary music prize has twenty categories, and Taake has been nominated for the Best Metal Album category for its 2011 album Noregs Vaapen (“Norway’s Weapons”). read more »
January 1, 2012
Egyptian blogger gets death threats for nude protest
Porn and religious fundamentalism just don’t mix. Or do they? Well, it appears so.
Take the case of Aliaa Magda al-Mahdy, 20. In protest against Egypt’s illiberalism and religious fundamentalism, in December, she and a male friend posted nude photos of themselves on their blogs. The Muslim-majority state exploded with shock, furor, debate, and assertions of medieval values. read more »
December 31, 2011
Post-9/11 and the problem of abstraction
Architect company MVRDV provoked shock and outrage in early december when its plan for the building of two skyscrapers in Seoul, South Korea, came to public attention.
The two buildings strongly resembled New York’s Twin Towers, destroyed by al-Qaeda terrorists on September 11, 2001 — a day that is burned into the national psyche of the USA, and the psyches of individuals all around the world. read more »
December 24, 2011
Punk’s not dead — in Islam.
The 80s British anarcho-punk band Conflict is hanging in there — like U2, the Rolling Stones, and all the other bands that they no doubt detest. So, as the decades old slogan says, “Punk’s [or 'Punx'] not dead.” read more »
December 21, 2011
People of Shambhala — religious minorities against Islamist violence
From People of Shambhala
People of Shambhala is a new website dedicated to raising awareness of the discrimination, oppression, and violence suffered on a daily basis by minority religions around the world today, especially under Islamic or Islamist regimes. read more »
December 14, 2011
Paul Weston: Britain now has a different kind of political party
Last month Britain’s Independent newspaper reported that the controversial English Defence League movement, which campaigns against radical Islam, had signed a “pact” with the relatively new British Freedom Party. The Independent’s headline suggested that, through the alliance, the EDL was preparing to “storm local elections.” read more »December 12, 2011
All-American Muslims call for support over boycott of TLC show
All-American Muslims, a TLC show, has created something of a firestorm of controversy. Those objecting to the show, which follows American Muslims in their daily lives, claim that it is propaganda, obscuring the supremacist nature of sharia. read more »
December 11, 2011
Qaradawi’s sharia “gradualism” is a threat to liberal democracy
During the Balkans war of the 1990s, Alija Izetbegović, then Bosnia’s President, was championed by the Western media. For Western reporters, educated in the humanities, Bosnian Muslims were Europe’s new Jews besieged by Serbian nationalists – Europe’s alleged new Nazis. read more »
December 10, 2011
Veena Malik’s explosive photo shoot
An unpublished second version of the Veena Malik FHM cover.
Model and actress Veena Malik caused outrage in Pakistan earlier this month after appearing naked (although with the body carefully positioned to preserve modesty) on the cover of FHM magazine. read more »
December 10, 2011
China’s brutality and Tibetans’ increasing despair
The monk in the grey sweater is Tamding Gyatso, charged with splittism. The monk next to him is also charged of splitting the nation, a crime that carries up to life imprisonment.
At least 12 Tibetan monks and nuns have set themselves of fire, in acts of self-immolation, this year, in protest against the increasing oppressiveness of the Chinese Government. However, the world has remained virtually silent on the issue. read more »
November 23, 2011
Muslim Brotherhood Under Attack by Anonymous Activists
The Muslim Brotherhood has received a video warning from the internet activist movement, “Anonymous.” In a video posted on YouTube by The AnonMessage, and titled “Operation Brotherhood Takedown,” a computer-generated voice says that “Anonymous has decided to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood.” It says that Anonymous “shall proceed to dismantle any form of its [the MB’s] organization from the internet. Nothing will stop us. We will show no mercy. Operation Brotherhood Takedown engaged.” read more »
November 17, 2011
Benetton advert angers Vatican
Italian fashion company Benetton has just launched its “UNHATE” advertising campaign. According to its website, its aim –besides selling Benetton sweatshirts and pants — is
noble: to contrast “the culture of hatred and promoting closeness between peoples, faiths, cultures, and the peaceful understanding of each other’s motivations.” Benneton has built a brand on knowing how to exploit advertising to shock their way into the consumer consciousness. Benneton’s clothing is actually very ordinary, very forgettable, so you can see why it needs the push. A dying AIDS victim was featured in one of Benetton’s advertisements for sweaters and pants, and another one showed a newborn baby, still covered in blood. 
read more »
