The Understanding Campaign

Making An Exercise Space for Muslim Women

admin — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 11:44:55 +0000

[WAMU, Jonna McKone] Hadil Alyamani, a Yemeni Muslim-American in her 20s, teaches Zumba a few nights a week at a Northern Virginia community, arts and fitness center called the Nur Center. The Latin-inspired dance class is all women, and draws a diverse crowd, including non-Muslims.

For many Muslim women who wear a hijab or scarf to cover their hair and neck, the privacy of an all-female setting in which to workout is important, given their standards for modesty.

http://wamu.org/programs/metro_connection/12/02/10/making_an_exercise_space_for_muslim_women

Obama proposes $800 million in aid for “Arab Spring”

admin — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 18:43:08 +0000

(Reuters) – The White House announced plans on Monday to help “Arab Spring” countries swept by revolutions with more than $800 million in economic aid, while maintaining U.S. military aid to Egypt.

In his annual budget message to Congress, President Barack Obama asked that military aid to Egypt be kept at the level of recent years — $1.3 billion — despite a crisis triggered by an Egyptian probe targeting American democracy activists.

The proposals are part of Obama’s budget request for fiscal year 2013, which begins October 1. His requests need the approval of Congress, where some lawmakers want to cut overseas spending to address U.S. budget shortfalls and are particularly angry at Egypt.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/02/13/us-usa-budget-foreign-idUSTRE81C1C920120213

Exclusive interview with artist Hani Alqam

admin — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 12:29:32 +0000

Hani Alqam was born in Amman Jordan in 1977. He received his Diploma in fine Arts from the Centre of Fine Arts Training in conjunction with the Ministry of Culture and has his first solo exhibition at the Zara Gallery in Amman Jordan in 2002. Alqam has been part of many international selected group exhibition projects in England, Holland, Ireland, New York to name a few. Alqam says that his favourite medium and the medium in which he can best express himself is oil, although his prints (cardboard etchings and Lino prints) are very popular among those who buy his work. His work is present in public collections at the National Art Gallery in his home town as well as in many private collections.

Toufic Beyhum: What did you have for breakfast this morning?

Hani Alqam: Turkish coffee with a cigarette on my balcony overlooking Amman.

TB: Where are you from & where do you live?

HA: I am from Jordan and I live in Amman.

TB: What gets you out of bed in the mornings?

HA: My studio which is the room right next to my bedroom. How convenient. I dont like to be far from my studio because there are times when I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea!

TB:Describe your style?
HA: You could say voyeurism, I love watching people from far, watching their behavior. I soak it all in and then put it into my art. I sit in local coffee shops (not Starbucks!) and my balcony watching the world go by, this is also my inspiration.

TB: What do you think of modern Middle Eastern art?

HA: For me it has become too abstract, there is no strong identity as Toufic correctly described it in his interview. I don’t think some of these artists have roots in the Middle East, they see it from a Western point of view, they dont seem to be amongst the people living the Middle Eastern life.

TB: What makes your art different from Wetsern art?

HA: My culture.

TB: What are you working on now?

HA: I am working on a photography project called Inside the brain. Watch this space.

TB: Whos your favourite Middle Eastern artists?

HA: Marwan Kassab Bachi, a Syrian artist who lives in Germany.

TB: Whats the future on Middle Eastern art?

HA: Our art is going to lose its identity and its up to us artists to find it again. If you are an artist in the Middle East all you need to do is look around you and not always look to the West for inspiration.

Arab Spring turns one year old

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:16:06 +0000

[Wired Danger Room] The revolt that started a year ago today in Egypt was spread by Twitter and YouTube, or so the popular conception goes. But a group of Navy-backed researchers has a more controversial thesis: Egyptians were infected by the idea of overthrowing their dictator.

And now, these researchers claim, they’re getting close to developing tools that can track the spread of infections like these.

With funding from the Office of Naval Research, a team at Aptima, Inc. is developing software that’d do more than just scan Twitter for trending topics. Instead, it’d mine the web, including news stories, social networks and blogs, to extract topics and phrases that are gaining traction online. Then, the software would keep tabs on how the conversations proliferate, both geographically and over time.

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/01/military-meme-tracker/

Bloomberg blasts use of movie during NYPD training

admin — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 13:57:16 +0000

[Associated Press] NEW YORK — Mayor Michael Bloomberg said Tuesday that New York police used “terrible judgment” in showing counterterrorism trainees a documentary-style film that says Muslim extremists are masquerading as moderates to destroy America from within.

Bloomberg said police have stopped showing officers “The Third Jihad,” a 72-minute movie that has been branded inflammatory by some Muslim organizations and was produced by a conservative group called the Clarion Fund.

“Somebody exercised some terrible judgment,” he said in Albany, the state capital. “As soon as they found out about it, they stopped it.”

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP3734e6c13f2a4b9b85ef5692766d9088.html

Arab American Museum explores effects of 9/11, hijab, other topics in podcast series on iTune

admin — Fri, 20 Jan 2012 12:33:14 +0000

[Dearborn Press] Why do some Muslim American women cover their heads, while others do not? In what ways did the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001 affect the Arab American community? How do groundbreaking research and plain old-fashioned legwork combine to create a major new exhibition focused on issues of democracy, defense, diplomacy and public service?

The answers to these and other intriguing questions can be heard on a series of eight free podcasts being released by the Arab American National Museum (AANM) via iTunes U every two weeks, beginning Tuesday.

http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2012/01/19/news/doc4f1890146787a581500156.txt

The Crescent Directive, Khurram Dara

admin — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 11:48:04 +0000

[Muslimah Media Watch] The Crescent Directive was, for me, a fun but perplexing read. The concept is simple and noble: it gives guidelines for American Muslims on how to lay a groundwork for action in our communities in order to improve our image in America.

Written by Khurram Dara, the book starts out with looking at how Islam and Muslims have evolved in American discourse since 9/11. He then explains the current situation of the American Muslim community and talks about why certain efforts at understanding have failed up to now or will fail long term. He proceeds to establish some base assumptions and outline a strategy for Muslim Americans to improve their image in a post- 9/11 world. Finally, he outlines a series of recommendations as part of a strategy American Muslims can use to raise our profile and humanize us in our daily lives, and discusses how these recommendations could work. He suggests building relationships with non-Muslims (we don’t?), taking part in secular holidays (more on that below), and denouncing our “common enemy,” terrorism.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/mmw/2012/01/book-review-the-crescent-directive/

Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès and the Khatt Foundation, Center for Arabic Typography

admin — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:12:39 +0000

Typographer, graphic designer, researcher, and writer Huda Smitshuijzen AbiFarès is the founder of the Khatt Foundation, Center for Arabic Typography, which is dedicated to advancing design research and typography in the Middle East, North Africa, and their diaspora. We met the Amsterdam-based expert for bilingual typographic research and design—whose project Typographic Matchmaking in the City is featured in Gestalten’s Arabesque 2: Graphic Design from the Arab World and Persia—to talk about the relationships between Arab and Latin typography, typography and architecture, as well as the visual musicality of calligraphy.

Video here

http://www.gestalten.com/motion/huda-smitshuijzen-abifar%C3%A8s

Oklahoma Sharia law ban ‘unconstitutional’, court rules

admin — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:45:27 +0000

[BBC] The US state of Oklahoma has been stopped from introducing a amendment to its constitution, stopping courts from considering Islamic law in judgements. A federal court of appeals upheld a district judge’s decision to block the implementation of the amendment. The ban on Islamic law was approved by 70% of voters in a referendum in 2010. But it was challenged by a Muslim community leader who said the amendment violated his constitutional right to freedom of religion.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16496002

Muslim Media Review by Ayman Hossam Fadel

admin — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 15:59:36 +0000

“The goals of the Muslim Media Review are to highlight the books, audio and video programs from which Muslims in North American can benefit and provide information on how people can acquire them.”

http://muslimmediareview.blogspot.com/