Category: Islamic Fundamentalists

Abdelwahab Meddeb: The Malady of Islam (1)

The Malady of Islam by Abdelwahab Meddeb translated from the French by Pierre Joris and Charlotte Mandell (French edition published by Editions Seuil in 2002 English edition [o.p.] published by Basic Books in 2003) Table of Contents I.    Islam, Inconsolable in its Destitution II.   The Genealogy of Fundamentalism III.  Fundamentalism against the West IV.  The Western Exclusion of Islam PART ONE Islam: Inconsolable in its Destitution 1. The … Read more Abdelwahab Meddeb: The Malady of Islam (1)

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The Malady of Islam

Two days ago, this Romanian review (extract below) of my & Charlotte Mandell (under the name Ann Reid)’s 2003 translation of Abdelwahab Meddeb’s The Malady of Islam, published on 2/10/15, came to my attention. Yesterday I had news from the American publisher of the book — which has been out of print for some years now — that they are not interested in bringing out a paperback edition. This book & its author — … Read more The Malady of Islam

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Uri Avnery: Waving in the first Row

January 17, 2015 THE THREE Islamic terrorists could have been very proud of themselves, if they had lived to see it. By committing two attacks (quite ordinary ones by Israeli standards) they spread panic throughout France, brought millions of people onto the streets, gathered more than 40 heads of states in Paris. They changed the landscape of the French capital and other French cities by mobilizing thousands of soldiers … Read more Uri Avnery: Waving in the first Row

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Gaza writers receive death threats from IS

This article via Al Monitor: THE PULSE OF THE MIDDLE EAST by Hana Salah Posted December 5, 2014 Translator(s)Pascale el Khoury GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — Mystery still surrounds the presence of the Islamic State (IS) in Gaza. Statements in the name of the radical group threatening or claiming responsibility for previous bombings in Gaza are not enough to prove the existence of active members in the besieged Gaza Strip, though IS’ … Read more Gaza writers receive death threats from IS

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Syrian Intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh Speaks Out

The Boston Review has just published a major interview with activist & intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh by Danny Postel and Nader Hashemi, co-editors of The Syria Dilemma. Yassin al-Haj Saleh is often called the conscience of the Syrian revolution. Born in Raqqa in 1961, he was arrested in 1980, while a medical student in Aleppo, and imprisoned for his membership in a left-wing organization. He remained a political prisoner until 1996, spending the last of … Read more Syrian Intellectual Yassin al-Haj Saleh Speaks Out

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Meddeb’s Islam & the Challenge of Civilization

If yesterday I posted Hind Meddeb’s letter from Tunis — an urgent cry for human rights &, I think, an accurate evaluation of the situation in Tunisia post-Arab Spring — I want to point today to her father, Abdelwahab Meddeb’s, latest book in English translation, out earlier this year from Fordham University press & translated (excellently so) by Jane Kuntz,  Islam and the Challenge of Civilization. This book, for … Read more Meddeb’s Islam & the Challenge of Civilization

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Tunisia, Elections, & Women’s Rights

Today Tunisians vote to elect an assembly charged with drafting a new constitution that may help bring the hopes of the Jasmine Revolution of last February to fruition by creating the basis for a truly democratic state.  The fear is, of course, that the better organized & financed religious groupings — locals such as Rachid al-Ghannouchi & his “Renaissance Party” & their supposedly “lite” version of Islam, or the foreign-financed Salafis, … Read more Tunisia, Elections, & Women’s Rights

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Sakineh Ashtian’s Attorney Interviewed in Oslo

The Huffington Post publishes an interview by Bernard Henri Lévy with Mohamad Mostafei, the lawyer of Sakineh Ashtian, the Iranian woman condemned to death by stoning by the Iranian clergy. Mostafei has been forced to give up the case and leave the country to save his own life and that of his family. Below, the opening paras of the interview; you can read the full thing here. Interesting too … Read more Sakineh Ashtian’s Attorney Interviewed in Oslo

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Alternate News re Israeli Acts of Piracy in International Water

The New York Times (the rag they call the “paper of record”) after 48 hours of holding its journalistic guns has come out blazing away… at the people attacked by Israeli commandos on the high seas in a blatant act of piracy, because, the NYT has “discovered” that the Turkish militants involved with the Free Gaza movement are supposedly not only horrible radical Islamic “fundamentalists” (as is of course … Read more Alternate News re Israeli Acts of Piracy in International Water

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Tahar Djaout — 14 years already

Fourteen years ago already! It was on 26 May 1993 that the Algerian poet & novelist Tahar Djaout was gunned down as he left his house in the morning to go to his job at the University (he would remain in a coma until his death on 2 June). The Islamic fundamentalists had started the previous year on their all out crusade to gain power in Algeria, and core … Read more Tahar Djaout — 14 years already

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