dang, sometimes you just have to get away with the girls.

Dang, I keep thinking she’s gonna say “Ram Ram Ramallah.”

I am clearly fucked up about the world.

I hate this.

Just some more offensive nonsense from the Birthright Israel folks.

H/t to Meena for sharing.

Dang, Maeby Fünke I always knew you were half-Iraqi.

Ok, so this film might be employing some hokey “look, they’re just like you and me” bullshit and I knew we weren’t getting through this trailer without seeing some fucking calligraphy, but this appears to be pretty adorable. And unfortunatley, there’s the simple pleasure of seeing Arab (and probs Iranian and South Asian) actors getting some goddamn work.

Oh and Alia Showkat (Maeby Fünke) of Arrested Development fame should be pretty awesome to watch.

From Itineraries in Conflict by Rebecca L. Stein.

I’m not familiar with Intifada Arabic and I ask for clarification.
One answers willingly, in a dispassionate Hebrew: “You know, things like: ‘Shut off you car’ or ‘Open your trunk.’”
Others from the group collaborate in the telling: “And words like ‘curfew’ or phrases like ‘Get out of the car.’”
Their list builds slowly at first, like the recitation of phrases once committed to memory in a foreign-language class and now rather awkward on their tongue. Abu Ra’id interrupts, to remind them of expressions they’ve forgotten: “There’s also ‘Open the door.’”
Building on his suggestion, they begin to pick up speed, adding to the compedium: “And ‘Give me your I.D.’”
“Or ‘Hands above your head.’”
Over coffee and kanafe in Abu Ghosh’s late afternoon sun, Jewish customers and Palestinian host rehearse these national lessons together.

Not without my Jake Gyllenhaal

Dear Jake Gyllenhaal,

I think you are so handsome. It makes me want to be a different man. Namely one who doesn’t care about the representations of Muslims in the media.

Regretfully,

Me

Hats off to Muslim Reverie. Totally fucking shocked they pulled Alfred Molina into this aswell.

Dang, Iran.

So, I’ve been thinking a lot of Iran the past couple days. And clearly, I feel somewhat slackjawed about what to say here and now. I guess I could talk about everyone saying something something about Twitter and the revolution… or something about tweeting from behind the chador… or bizarre jabs at middle class Tehrani youth culture… or the total discomfort of Andrew Sullivan posting Rumi poems in solidarity with the Iranian people… but I’m not sure where to begin so for the moment. I’ll just leave it with this:

“I am not Iran’s Michelle Obama. I am Zahra, the follower of Fatimah Zahra.  I respect all women who are active.” – Zahra Rahnavard

Rahnavard’s shout out to Bebe Fatimah is pretty fucking badass.

Dang, we’re not afraid of Muslims. We want to fuck them while they are performing their religious duties without much concern for the fact that this is offensive and may also qualify as rape.”

I am thinking it might be necessary to change the name of my blog to: Offensive stuff that happens in Israel.  (I also feel like i spend too much time talking about my blog identity crisis every time I write something.)

Anyways, this is the cover of TimeOut Tel Aviv’s Pride issue.  And I am coming to believe that Israelis are pretty awkward at executing anything Pride related without doing something totally racist and bonkers. So the copy in Hebrew here reads, “you see a threat, we see an opportunity.”

I”m sure who ever conceived of this project was certainly interested on some level in play and satire.  However, I guess the bad news for me is that I’m of the liberal-set that doesn’t think anything is funny.

There seems to some attempt at producing some queer-liberal narrative of the relationship between Palestinians and Israelis. Which basically amounts to:  “Der, we’re not afraid of Muslims. We want to fuck them while they are performing their religious duties without much concern for the fact that this is totally offensive and may also qualify as rape.”  This whole image and the concept the editors seem to lock in on is that queer sex somehow always equals something radical. Robert Reid-Pharr wrote quite excellently about this as it relates to American racial politics. Which, quite obviously, isn’t totally analogous to the the Israel/Palestine question, but seems pretty relevant nonetheless.  He writes, “We do not escape race and racism when we fuck. On the contrary, the fantasy of escape is precisely that which marks the sexual act as deeply implicated in the ideological processes by which difference in constructed and maintained.”

Below is a pretty tight letter from a bunch of folks in Israel and Palestine who think this is bonkers and racist.  Thanks to Yas for sending this my way.

Dang, I’m going to hell.

1. I have problems for image searching the Ayatollah Khomeini
2. I swear it’s for an art project
3. He’s kind of crazy hot

Muslims of Metropolis Review

As mentioned here earlier,  I wrote this review of Muslims of Metropolis, you can now read it here: http://www.samarmagazine.org/archive/article.php?id=289

Also, yesterday, I got awesome e-mail from my dad, which is a follow-up to some conversation we had on Mother’s Day about the Koh-i-Noor diamond.  Which somehow spiraled into some discussion about nationalism, wherein my mother basically called my father (all Pakistanis) weak for allowing themselves to be colonized by the British.  Totes awk !!

please read the history of its origin in hindustan present india,its forceful garbing by nadir shah the invading king of pershia now iran.pakistan afghanistan were under the persian empire called khurasan province.after the assasination of king nadir shah of persia,his deputy ahmad shah abdali founded the durrani clan and controlled and founded afghanistan.he founded the boundry from amu river in the north of afghanistan to attak river.the name and creation of afghanistan is earlier than pakistan but still a recent creation.
when the sikh nation lead by ranjeet singh their spiritual leader gurunanek invaded afghanistan the afghans lost the territory from khyberpass all the way to attak river present day nwfp/peshawar to the sicks.they remained the rulers of punjab and the north west frontier province.ranjeet singh obtained by force?purchased the cursed diamond from ahmad shah abdali and kept it in their possession.
when the british invaded that area ranjeet singh was defeated then his deputy dilip singh handed it to the queen.
please read the story of the curse too.
love dad