Bloggers from across the Middle East and North Africa are tipping their hats to Jordan's Queen Rania, and her visionary initiative on YouTube, after she was awarded YouTube's first-ever Visionary Award for launching an interactive online channel to combat stereotypes and misconceptions associated with Arabs and Muslims.
From Palestine, and in a post titled ‘Why I love Queen Rania?’, blogger Moey writes:
The King of Pop Michael Jackson has done it again and stories about his alleged conversion to Islam are keeping blogs in the Middle East abuzz with snark comments. Is Jackson's conversion a part of an American conspiracy “to destroy Islam from within,” is it a media stunt or has he finally found his true calling?
The Skeptic from Egypt remarks:
Heba, a blogger in Gaza, has decided to call it a day: “Since I do realize that writing about the situation is not actually contributing to changing any of it at the decision making level, I decided -in my blog second birthday- to end this beautiful fulfilling experience.”
Clueless came across Rim Banna's work recently and she was moved beyond the words on her blog:
I am glad that I got introduced to that great voice .. I am grateful to that friend who gave me the chance to listen to those great lyrics composed and arranged in so beautiful tunes.
Rim Banna; I only got to know about her weeks back when I knew about her performing for first time here in Cairo. I marked my calendar and wanted to make sure I reserve my seat there!
Source: Global Voices OnlineBookmark/Search this post with:
Palestinians made their own football history, being the only team - in the words of one blogger - with a stadium but no country.
Palestinian Haitham Sabbah is bubbling with excitement and pride as he types:
At last, Palestinians now have a new way to express their national pride - through soccer.
Delving into history, Sabbah explains:
It's been a year since the first Palestinian refugees were allowed to return to the Nahr al-Bared camp in Lebanon. Palestinian Haitham Sabbah has an update and videos in this post.
In Gaza, Sameh Habeeb talks to a young girl who witnessed her father and brothers being beaten by Israeli soldiers: “In all cultures the father of the family represents safety and security to the family. The Israeli soldiers routinely rob Palestinian fathers of their role.”
Under a post entitled Shame on Us, Palestinian Leila notes: “Until we cleanse these heinous sins, adhere and submit to what we know Islam to be, then we deserve to live in this shame and we deserve the scorn the world levies at us.”
Mickey Mouse must die, declared a Saudi cleric in a television interview. Or perhaps that is not exactly what he said. Regardless, the interview found its way to television screens and newspaper headlines around the world and bloggers are at loggerheads with the issue. Did the cleric literally mean that Mickey Mouse must die or was it just another ploy to sensationalise and poke fun of anything an Arab and a Muslim utters?
Here's the video:
From a veil which covers the face but allows women to show their two eyes, an Islamic scholar from Saudi Arabia is now calling for a veil which shows one eye only. Bloggers from the Arab world react.
Writing in Mideast Youth, Bahraini Esra'a notes:
In order to remedy his disturbing temptations, Saudi cleric Muhammad al-Habadan proposes a highly convenient solution for women: one-eyed veil.
She continues:
Great! I’ll start drilling a hole in my bed sheets right away.
Source: Global Voices OnlineBookmark/Search this post with:
Iman's Constant Cravings, from Palestine, asks: “If animals could speak.. I wonder what they'll have to say about the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.”
Palestine Free Voice reports about a tunnel collapse outside Rafah.
Vika, who lives in Jerusalem, lists the reasons why she is feeling despondent these days, including a recent realisation: “My mood hit rock bottom this month when I realised the reason for the loud and constant hammering and digging that has plagued us all summer…is the beginning of a wall that will encircle a Palestinian village and cut it off from Jersualem and from its neighbours.”
Palestinian blogger Haitham Sabbah shows his readers the words he frequently uses on his blog.
August 24 should have seen the start of classes for pupils in Gaza’s government schools, but instead it was the beginning of a week-long strike called by the Fatah-led teachers’ union protesting the interference of Hamas in education. In this post, one blogger, a school pupil himself, gives us his perspective on the political fight getting in the way of his education.
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