David McRaney on the Stereotype Threat - Another Way in Which We Are Not So Smart

David McRaney's book You Are Not So Smart: Why You Have Too Many Friends on Facebook, Why Your Memory Is Mostly Fiction, and 46 Other Ways You’re Deluding Yourself presents phenomena which, in our modern view of the supremacy of reason and free will, should not impact humans' behavior. One is the stereotype threat (Chapter 42, pp. 232-3):

"Psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aronson conducted a study in 1995 where they had white and black Americans take the Graduate Record Examination. The GRE is a standardized test usd by many colleges to determine whether or not to accept graduate students. ... Steel and Aronson told half of their subjects they were testing for intelligence, which they hypothesized would add an extra level of stress the other half wouldn't feel. When they got back the results, the white students performed about the same whether or not they were told it was a test of how smart they were. The black students, though, primed by the strereotype threat, performed worse in the group who believed the test would reveal their true intelligence. According to Steel and Aronson, the social stigma of being an African-American messed with their minds. Attempting to fight the stereotype, they had unwelcome thoughts walking around and making noise in their brains while they solved word problems and figured fractions. The white students, free from those fears, had more mind space in which to work. This same sort of experiment has been repeated with gender, nationality, and all sorts of conditions. Psychologists call it the stereotype threat. When you fear you will confirm a negative stereotype, it can become a self-fulfilling prophecy not because the stereotype is true, but because you can't stop worrying that you could become an example proving it."

Play Dramatizes Israeli Soldiers' Testimonies of Atrocities of Occupation

"It's What We Do" attempts to bring reality of Israeli soldiers' testimonies to US audiences.
Josh Ruebner of US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation recommended this project. Please consider supporting it.

Check out promo 4 new play by @azizatwit on Israeli soldiers' testimony to @BtSIsrael on brutality to Palestinians https://t.co/y66hEFDMzf
— Josh Ruebner (@joshruebner) December 11, 2014

Pam Nice is involved in the project.

Review: The Lives of Man by Abdallah ibn Alawi Al-Haddad

A Muslim's Book Shelf reviewed The Lives of Man by Imam Abdallah Ibn Alawi Al-Haddad, translated by Mostafa al-Badawi. The new edition has ISBN 1887752145

I have not read the book.

Review: The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent by Piya Chatterjee and Sunain Maira (eds)

Bill V. Mullen reviewed The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent, edited by Piya Chatterjee and Sunain Maira, and published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2014.

[T]his is, far and away, the most affecting, comprehensive, and visionary collection of essays published to date on the politics of contemporary higher education. The book memorably sketches out what Raymond Williams called the “structure of feeling” in today’s university: the lived experience of ideological contestation, economic restructuring, professional vulnerability, political imagining, and political foreclosure. In this achievement, The Imperial University is sui generis: it should be bookmarked by historians of neoliberal higher education and used as a brick by those seeking to build an invigorated academic Left. ... read more ...

One of the essays in this volume is by Steven Salaita. Bill Mullen has written in defense of Steven Salaita.

Salaita firing shows where Zionism meets neoliberalism at US universities | Tithi Bhattacharya & Bill V. Mullen http://t.co/FXPttxtJ9j
— Electronic Intifada (@intifada) September 4, 2014

I have not read the book.

Film: Where Should the Birds Fly? by Fida Qishta -- Now Available

I had earlier promoted funding of this movie. It is now available by DVD and by streaming through Distrify. The film's website has a link to a guidebook.

Review: An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

Wrote a feminist novel! http://t.co/434qwffhFH
— Rabih Alameddine (@rabihalameddine) November 15, 2014

Julie Kearney wrote a review of An Unnecessary Woman by Rabih Alameddine

Rosecrans Baldwin also did a review for NPR.

Read our interview w/ @rabihalameddine, whose novel, An Unnecessary Woman, is on shortlist for the Nat. Book Award http://t.co/zc68JE16GO
— The AAWW (@aaww) November 14, 2014

I have not yet read the book.

Free (English) eBooks from Yatakhayyaloon - Arabic Language Science Fiction - Nov 15 & 16 Only

To get our free eBooks go to your local Amazon site and search for Yatakhayaloon. They are free all day 15th & 16th. @SindbadSciFi
— يتخيلون (@yatakhayaloon) November 15, 2014

Review: Aisha: The Wife, the Companion, the Scholar by Reşit Haylamaz

Amanda Quraishi reviewed Aisha: The Wife, the Companion, the Scholar by Reşit Haylamaz. It's not clear to me if the author wrote the book in English or Turkish, his native tongue, and then somebody translated it.

I have not read the book.

The publisher is Tughra Books.

Updated December 4, 2014:

@aymanfadel @resithaylamaz @tughrabooks @muslimahmerican Yes it is translated from Turkish, but most people say it is a good translation...
— Tughra Books (@tughrabooks) December 4, 2014

Review: "How Big is Allah?" by Emma Apple

Reem Faruqi reviewed Emma Apple's illustrated children's book "How Big is Allah?." I have not read the book.

Quote: Chris Hedges on Friendship and Comradeship in "War is Force that Gives Us Meaning"

In War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning, Chris Hedges (Twitter) explains why the bonds among soldiers are likely comradeship, not friendship.

There are few individual relationships – the only possible way to form friendships – in war. There are not the demands on us that there are in friendships. Veterans try to regain such feelings, but they fall short. Gray wrote that the “essential difference between comradeship and friendship consists, it seems to me, in a heightened awareness of the self in friendship and in the suppression of self-awareness in comradeship.”

Comrades seek to lose their identities in the relationship. Friends do not. “On the contrary, “Gray wrote, “friends find themselves in each other and thereby gain greater self-knowledge and self-possession. They discover in their own breasts, as a consequence of their friendship, hitherto unknown potentialities for joy and understanding.”

The struggle to remain friends, the struggle to explore the often painful recess of two hearts, to reach the deepest parts of another’s being, to integrate our own emotions and desires with the needs of the friend, are challenged by the collective rush of war. There are fewer demands if we join the crowd and give our emotions over to the communal crusade.

The only solace comes from simple acts of kindness. They are the tiny, flickering candles in a cavern of darkness that sustain our common humanity.

Find the book in your local library.

Documentary Film "American Promise" Free Online Thru Nov 8, 2014

The United States Public Broadcasting Service's POV series is streaming American Promise online through November 8, 2014. A February 2014 interview with the film's producer and director, Michèle Stephenson (Twitter) updates the 2004 film. A companion book to the film is Promises Kept: Raising Black Boys to Succeed in School and in Life by Joe Brewster and Michèle Stephenson with Hilary Beard. The film has an official website.

I haven't yet watched the movie or read the book.

Quotes from Dune by Frank Herbert

United States National Public Radio's Science Friday Book Club in 2014 read Dune by Frank Herbert.

Readers were asked to record their favorite quotes and submit it to the show. The whole series is incredible. Here are a few quotes I recorded. You can listen to the ones NPR selected from all listeners.

The text is available on line at archive.org. But buy the book. Also, check out the Calvin and Mu'addib Tumblr.

Prescience

The prescience, he realized, was an illumination that incorporated the limits of what it revealed — at once a source of accuracy and meaningful error. A kind of Heisenberg indeterminacy intervened: the expenditure of energy that revealed what he saw, changed what he saw. And what he saw was a time nexus within this cave, a boiling of possibilities focused here, wherein the most minute action — the wink of an eye, a careless word, a misplaced grain of sand — moved a gigantic lever across the known universe. He saw violence with the outcome subject to so many variables that his slightest movement created vast shiftings in the pattern. The vision made him want to freeze into immobility, but this, too, was action with its consequences . The countless consequences — lines fanned out from this cave, and along most of these consequence-lines he saw his own dead body with blood flowing from a gaping knife wound.

 Kynes's Father on the Masses and the Leavings

"Arrakis is a one-crop planet," his father said. "One crop. It supports a ruling class that lives as ruling classes have lived in all times while, beneath them, a semihuman mass of semislaves exists on the leavings. It's the masses and the leavings that occupy our attention. These are far more valuable than has ever been suspected."

Keynes's Last Thought

Then, as his planet killed him, it occurred to Kynes that his father and all the other scientists were wrong, that the most persistent principles of the universe were accident and error . Even the hawks could appreciate these facts.

Interview with Kecia Ali on "The Lives of Muhammad"

Joseph Richard Preville and Julie Poucher Harbin produced an interview with Kecia Ali about her new book The Lives of Muhammad. It was published at IslamiCommentary.org on October 9, 2014.

I have reviewed Professor Kecia Ali's book Sexual Ethics and Islam. I have not read this book. I have linked to other interviews Professor Preville has done. United States National Public Radio has published a review.

Via @nprbooks: Many Views Of Muhammad, As A Man And As A Prophet http://t.co/5iDqOZocXP
— Joseph R. Preville (@JosephPreville) October 20, 2014

I have not read the book.

The Africans: A Triple Heritage by Ali A Mazrui

Professor Ali Al-Amin Mazrui died today.

Prof. Ali Mazrui has died http://t.co/zRzkwxcCN1 - a great scholar and wonderful human being. He will be missed!
— Sheila Musaji (@SheilaMusaji) October 13, 2014

Review: Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson

"Quando dou comida aos pobres chamam-me de santo. Quando pergunto por que eles são pobres chamam-me de comunista."

"When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist."

Dom Hélder Pessoa Câmara (1909 – 1999), Catholic Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Brazil, 1964 to 1985

Body and Soul: The Black Panther Party and the Fight Against Medical Discrimination by Alondra Nelson. 

University of Minnesota Press, 2011, 289 pp.

Professor Alondra Nelson (Twitter) has written a book which all activists should read. It focuses on the advocacy, activism and ideology of the Black Panther Party (BPP) in healthcare.

Crowdfunding for "Sexual Assault in the Muslim Community, " a Documentary by Nadya Ali

Here's the link to the Kickstarter project.

Enemy of the Reich: The Noor Inayat Khan Story - Storified on Twitter

Film: Fruitvale Station

Fruitvale Station is an important dramatic reenactment of the last day of Oscar Grant's life. Ryan Coogler was the director, and Forest Whitaker was the producer.

Review: Observing the Observer: The State of Islamic Studies in American Universities by Mumtaz Ahmad, Zahid Bukhari & Sulayman Nyang (Eds)

Faiza Rahman wrote a review of Observing the Observer: The State of Islamic Studies in American Universities by Mumtaz Ahmad, Zahid Bukhari & Sulayman Nyang (Eds). It was published in The Express Tribune Sunday Magazine, August 31, 2014.

Entry in Worldcat.org

I have not read the book.

"I don't want a lot of gab from a bunkshooter in my religion" by Carl Sandburg

I don’t want a lot of gab from a bunkshooter in my religion.

I won’t take my religion from any man who never works except with his mouth and never cherishes any memory except the face of the woman on the American silver dollar.

This is an excerpt from Carl Sandburg's poem To a Contemporary Bunkshooter. It was first published in collection entitled Chicago Poems in 1916. I first heard it on an audio cassette book. Here is a performance I found on YouTube.

Watch "An American Mosque" Online By July 28

I had plugged the 27 minute documentary film "An American Mosque," but somehow I missed it on both Georgia & South Carolina public TV stations. You can watch it online for free through July 28. It really is well done. Here is the film's website.


AN AMERICAN MOSQUE - WATCH BY JULY 28 from David Washburn on Vimeo.

Review: Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You the Right to Tell Other People What to Do by Robert Boston

I am a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. Robert Boston (Twitter) is the latter organization's Director of Communications, and he is the author of numerous books. His latest is Taking Liberties: Why Religious Freedom Doesn't Give You the Right to Tell Other People What to Do. I was fortunate enough to be able to attend a talk he gave in Augusta, GA, and I enjoyed his company at lunch before the talk.

Support Steven Salaita, Academic, Activist and Target of Zionists

On Corey Robin's blog, I learned that the University of Illinois Chancellor has rescinded an offer of employment to Professor Steven Salaita.

In the meantime, do something for Steven Salaita. Write a note to University of Illinois Chancellor Phyllis Wise (best to email her at both chancellor@illinois.edu and pmischo@illinois.edu), urging her to rescind her rescission. ... read more ...

Professor Salaita has a website (not working when I wrote this), a Twitter account and a Goodreads author page.

Another way of supporting Professor Salaita is to read and promote his books. I own The Uncultured Wars: Arabs, Muslims and the Poverty of Liberal Thought. Consider buying or sending other books for me to review or submitting a review yourself.

The most recent publication I found was an essay entitled "Normatizing State Power: Uncritical Ethical Praxis and Zionism" in The Imperial University: Academic Repression and Scholarly Dissent, edited by Piya Chatterjee and Sunaina Maira.

Updated 2014-08-06: Mohammad Fadel of the University of Toronto published the letter he sent. There is a change.org petition for people to sign.

Updated 2014-08-07. Electronic Intifada reports that Professor Salaita was "fired," not that his job offer was revoked. US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation has issued an action alert with suggested measures you can take. Illinois AAUP Committee. A Statement on Steven Salaita and UIUC.

Updated 2014-08-09. Rather than update with each important article, I'm simply going to give you the link to all Corey Robin's posts tagged Steven Salaita and Electronic Intifada posts tagged Steven Salaita.

Download for Free: The Case for Sanctions Against Israel, edited by Audrea Lim

Leading international voices argue for boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel.
In July 2011, Israel passed legislation outlawing the public support of boycott activities against the state, corporations, and settlements, adding a crackdown on free speech to its continuing blockade of Gaza and the expansion of illegal settlements. Nonetheless, the campaign for boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) continues to grow in strength within Israel and Palestine, as well as in Europe and the US. ---- read more & download eBook or buy paperback

I don't have a Kindle and I'm not sure how to use an .epub file, so I used http://www.zamzar.com/ to convert the .epub file to a PDF.

Verso Books is an excellent publisher!

Documentary: The Newburgh Sting

HBO premiered the documentary "The Newburgh Sting" on July 21, 2014.

The film has a Twitter account.

Heaven's Bankers: Inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance by Harris Irfan

Ziauddin Sardar, editor at The Critical Muslim, wrote a review of Heaven's Bankers: Inside the Hidden World of Islamic Finance by Harris Irfan. The Independent (UK) published it on July 17, 2014. The book has a companion website.

Things changed when the "rocket scientists of Deutsche Bank", Goldman Sachs, HSBC and other big boys arrived on the scene. They saw Islamic finance as an opportunity for quick profit. Muftis and Mullahs were hired at footballers' salaries to make some of their product "Sharia compliant", and bankers such as Irfan to sell them to an unsuspected Muslim public. Soon we had products such as sukuk (the equivalent of interest on bonds), hilah contracts (which substituted bank charges for interest) and Islamic finance became embroiled in hedge funds, derivatives and other dubious instruments justified in the name of Islam. read more ...

Updated August 7, 2014:

The Islamic finance industry is at risk of diluting its principles as it nears $2trn writes @harris_irfan in new book http://t.co/pQEzu88jKI

— Gregor Stuart Hunter (@gregorhunter) August 7, 2014

The Perils of American Muslim Politics

Abdullah Al-Arian and Hafsah Kanjwal wrote The Perils of American Muslim Politics, which Jadaliyya published on July 10, 2014.

These broader shifts across the United States political establishment showcase an increasing tendency within American Muslim activism—particularly since 9/11—to reorient its engagement with policy-making circles (including government, think tanks, private institutions, and media) in a way that risks becoming reappropriated and rearticulated for a new political reality. Read more ...

"Worldly ambition inhibits true learning." - Andrew Bacevich, "Washington Rules"

Worldly ambition inhibits true learning. Ask me. I know. A young man in a hurry is nearly uneducable: He knows what he wants and where he's headed; when it comes to looking back or entertaining heretical thoughts, he has neither the time nor the inclination. All that counts is that he is going somewhere. Only as ambition wanes does education become a possibility.

Broadcast of "An American Mosque" on USA Public TV

Update 2014-Aug-16: This film is available to watch free online through July 28.

Tune in at 10:30pm to PBS NYC, premier of #AnAmericanMosque, inspiring film on a Muslim community’s reaction to... http://t.co/PJCUcLEYqw
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) June 25, 2014

Review: Afghanistan and the Artificial US War on Terror by Anand Gopal

Afghanistan and the Artificial US War on Terror (Anand Gopal's New Book) - http://t.co/g6Xxdvf6zD pic.twitter.com/qyeu0gqjHj
— Juan Cole (@jricole) June 23, 2014

Entry on IndieBound.org

Central Park 5 Available Online for Limited Time

I can think of no crime that the "Law and Order" reactionaries in the United States exploited more than the 1989 attack on a white female jogger in Central Park in New York, for which five black and Hispanic youth were convicted based on circumstantial evidence and coerced confessions. Later evidence emerged which exonerated them and revealed the identity of the assailant. Recently, New York City settled with the five men. The Ken Burns PBS Documentary Central Park Five has been made available to U.S. internet users to mark this milestone in the case.

Free eBooks Available from Getty Museum of Art

250 titles backlisted from the Getty Museum of Art in Los Angeles, California are now available for download for free. h/t

Photo: Download over 250 art books for free here... http://t.co/qTzt1F2sfQ
— G. D. Falksen (@gdfalksen) April 3, 2014

Review: Domestic Violence in the Islamic Tradition by Ayesha Chaudhry

MMW's @krista_riley reviews "Domestic Violence in the Islamic Tradition" http://t.co/23EIKh9271
— Muslimah Media Watch (@MMWtweets) June 10, 2014

Entry at Worldcat.org.

COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil DeGrasse Tyson

I've watched the first 7 episodes of COSMOS: A Spacetime Odyssey with Neil DeGrasse Tyson. I hope you are watching the series as well. Episode 7, The Clean Room, tells the story of Clair Patterson's studies measuring lead to determine the rate of decay of radioactive elements and thus the age of our planet. Along the way, he realized that lead pollution was increasing human exposure to lead, and he advocated for its regulation. Unsurprisingly, the petroleum and chemical industries resisted regulation and supported scientists who argued against Patterson's claims. This reminded me of Merchants of Doubt, a book I reviewed.

Full episodes are still available online.

Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection by Nahyan Fancy

Science and Religion in Mamluk Egypt: Ibn Al-Nafis, Pulmonary Transit and Bodily Resurrection by Nahyan Fancy.

"This book should be read by any historian of pre-modern science and medicine, not only by Islamicists," writes Leigh Chipman ... read more

Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State by Shira Robinson

Rod Such reviewed Citizen Strangers: Palestinians and the Birth of Israel’s Liberal Settler State by Shira Robinson on May 7, 2014 in the Electronic Intifada.  Stanford University Press is the publisher.

Review: A Rebel and Her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan by Rakshanda Jalil

Namita Bhandare reviewed A Rebel and Her Cause: The Life and Work of Rashid Jahan by Rakshanda Jalil. The complete text of the review is available online. The publisher is Women Unlimited.

Book review: ‘The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas’ by Anand Giridharadas

Michael E. Young of The Dallas Morning News reviewed The True American: Murder and Mercy in Texas by Anand Giridharadas. The entire review is currently online.

Law & Order: SVU S14E04 - The Writers Get it Wrong

Michael Muhammad Knight critiqued "Acceptable Loss," an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit from 2012.

As long as writers treat religious identity as the sole factor that determines every Muslim’s motivations or behavior, or imagine Islam as a source of universal norms, their Muslim characters will never be fully human. Read more ...

Law & Order: SVU - S15E17 - More Anti-Muslim Tropes & Support of Police Misconduct

Most people will remember Law & Order: Special Victims Unit S15E17 Criminal Stories because Alec Baldwin is the guest star. As always in the Law & Order franchise, there is a gruesome crime which forms the background for the episode. In this case, an Indian Muslima named Heba is raped by her brother's corporate bigwig boss and colleague in his office after a charity dinner in which she volunteered. She lies and claims that men shouting anti-Muslim slurs raped her in Central Park. Because of Heba's lies, the case against the perpetrators weakens. Alec Baldwin's character is a reporter, and he publishes a story about the bigwig's father's influence in publicizing Heba's initial lies to the police. Some of the jurors read this story, and the judge declares a mistrial.

Umberto Eco: Heresy and Ur-Fascism

My local book club read Umberto Eco's In the Name of the Rose. While the book itself is a mixed bag through which I struggled (which is not an indictment of the novel, since I struggled through Moby Dick as well), there's a remarkable chapter about the origin of heresy. If you don't want to read the novel, it's worth borrowing it off the library or bookstore shelf and turning to Second Day, Chapter Nones (p. 196). Here are some highlights of the dialogue between William of Baskerville and his novice Adso of Melk.

The Trials of Muhammad Ali - Free Streaming Online Until May 4

"I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was." Watch @MuhammadAliDoc online through May 4th: http://t.co/GTyXrYfboo #TrialsofAli
— Independent Lens|PBS (@IndependentLens) April 15, 2014

The Trials of Muhammad Ali

Börgen Episode 23 "The Right Shade of Brown" and the Issue of "Integration"

Adam Price surrounded by the cast of his political drama Borgen

I watch Börgen on Link TV. In season 3, the series's protagonist Birgitte Nyborg decides to leave her party, The Moderates, because it agreed to support a law which would allow the government to deport immigrants for minor offenses. In episode 23, "The Right Shade of Brown," the founders of her new party, The New Democrats, are discussing who should represent The New Democrats in a TV forum on immigration. They decide they want an actual immigrant to represent them. The first condition they place is that the immigrant must be a Muslim, not an Inuit from Greenland, since Muslims are the problem in immigration/integration. Then they decide it can't be an Indonesian or an Ugandan, because they don't look "Muslim."

Interview with Composer and Pianist Malek Jandali

I purchased the album "Emassa (Homs) by Malek Jandali, and I came across an interview he gave to the Chapel Hill, North Carolina public radio station. He's also on Twitter!

@NPR interview @DukeU @Ibishblog clarifying how Assad dictatorship is connected to corrupted NGOs in our U.S. Capital http://t.co/C6CALQndQB
— Malek Jandali ♫ ☮ ♥ (@MalekJandali) March 31, 2014

Interview with Maud S. Mandel, author of "Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict"

Joseph Richard Preville conducted an interview with Professor Maud S Mandel on her book Muslims and Jews in France: History of a Conflict, and it was published in IslamiCommentary.org on March 31, 2014. You can also listen to an interview from March 21, 2014 from a Memphis, Tennessee radio station. I have not read the book.

Interview with Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, author of "A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations"

Joseph Richard Preville conducted an interview with Professor Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (Twitter) on his book A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and Them Beyond Orientalism, and it was published in IslamiCommentary.org on January 20, 2014. I have not read the book. H/t

Arshin Adib-Moghaddam on his book "A Metahistory of the Clash of Civilisations: Us and Them Beyond Orientalism" http://t.co/RUXh7B28hX
— bint battuta (@bintbattuta) March 25, 2014

Minority Report Law? Cheney’s 1% Preemptive Doctrine of Prosecution and the Case of Ziyad Yaghi

Satyagraha911.org conducted an interview about the case of Ziyad Yaghi, a Muslim US citizen victim of the "War on Terror." The interview covers Ziyad's background, trial and imprisonment. Laila Yaghi, Ziyad's mother, Dr. Mel Underbakke of the National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms and journalist Siraj Davis participate in the interview.

Minority Report Law? Cheney’s 1% Preemptive Doctrine of Prosecution and the Case of Ziyad Yaghi... http://t.co/pbhprQigQt
— siraj davis (@sirajdavis) March 23, 2014

Review: The Battle for Justice in Palestine by Ali Abunimah

Ben White reviewed The Battle for Justice in Palestine by Ali Abunimah for Middle East Monitor on March 19, 2014. You can buy it at the publisher's website.

my review of @AliAbunimah's new book -- The Battle for Justice in Palestine http://t.co/kL4xv1CJ5Q via @middleeastmnt
— Ben White (@benabyad) March 20, 2014

I have not read the book.

"Gaza Writes Back" & Iran "Manufactured Crisis" Tours, USA, Mar-Apr 2014

Gaza writers & G. Porter tour US-wide soon! M. Peled in S. Africa. Other authors speaking... - http://t.co/CG0aZeUJM1
— Just World Books (@Justworldbooks) March 15, 2014

In a previous blog entry, I referred to peace activist David Swanson's review of the book. I'd also encouraged people to support Gareth Porter's book Manufactured Crisis.

Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an

In the Winter 2013 issue of Islamic Sciences was a "Project Brief" advertising the Integrated Encyclopedia of the Qur'an. Volume 1 is available, and Volume 2 should become available in March 2014. Seven volumes are planned.

I have not examined it.

"A World Not Ours" by Mahdi Fleifel to Air on PBS's POV on August 18, 2014

August 18 - "A World Not Ours" by Mahdi Fleifel

A World Not Ours is a passionate, bittersweet account of one family's multi-generational experience living as permanent refugees. Now a Danish resident, director Mahdi Fleifel grew up in the Ain el-Helweh refugee camp in southern Lebanon, established in 1948 as a temporary refuge for exiled Palestinians. Today, the camp houses 70,000 people and is the hometown of generations of Palestinians. The filmmaker's childhood memories are surprisingly warm and humorous, a testament to the resilience of the community. Yet his yearly visits reveal the increasing desperation of family and friends who remain trapped in psychological as well as political limbo.

PBS Doc Series 'POV' Announces a 2014 Lineup That Kicks Off With 'When I Walk' | Indiewire http://t.co/syMahGvmQe @povdocs
— PBS (@PBS) March 13, 2014

You can also read (in Arabic) a review by Mahmuud Umar in Al-Mudun dated February 25, 2014.

محمود عمر في #المدن عن الوثائقي الفلسطيني #عالم_ليس_لنا http://www.almodon.com/culture/3e899c70-ebba-4f58-9f65-bb286fa18648 #سينما #فلسطين #مهدي_فليفل #اوسكار pic.twitter.com/e28eQDCDtd
— Al Modon (@AlmodonNp) February 25, 2014

Sometimes a PBS station chooses not to air a nationally syndicated episode, so make sure you look for this and ask your station to air it if it is not on its schedule.

Al-Maghrib Institute Needs to Distance Itself From This Misogynist

Over 7000 shares of my piece on @Niamatullah @almaghrib people are paying attention,do the right thing. http://t.co/A11QtzfNwB #FireAbuEesa
— rabia chaudry (@rabiasquared) March 11, 2014

This is Al-Maghrib Institute's website.

Hind Makki also wrote a piece on Muslim male allies. Sana Saeed wrote a piece about Muslims who criticize feminism.

Update 2014-Mar-15: Damsels in distress, the chivalrous caliph, and the misogynistic scholar: a modern fairy tale

To-Read: Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity by Shabana Mir

Updated August 4, 2014: 52-minute interview with author

Check out my new subliminal BUYMYBOOK twitter home page.
— Shabana Mir (@ShabanaMir1) March 7, 2014

Muslim American Women on Campus: Undergraduate Social Life and Identity by Shabana Mir

Does sublimal Twitter marketing work? Maybe :-) You can also read a review at The Washington Post of March 7, 2014 and altmuslimah.com of March 12, 2014.

Here's the book's page at the publisher's website. Professor Shabana blogs and tweets. I have not read the book.

Update March 13, 2014.

My book "Muslim American Women on Campus" was voted recipient of the National Association of Ethnic Studies Outstanding Book Award 2014!
— Shabana Mir (@ShabanaMir1) March 13, 2014

Review of my book 'Muslim American Women on Campus" in Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs http://t.co/ENrygas84e +

— Shabana Mir (@ShabanaMir1) April 5, 2015

To-Read: Shattered Hopes: Obama's Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace by Josh Ruebner

Josh Ruebner is on a book tour promoting Shattered Hopes: Obama’s Failure to Broker Israeli-Palestinian Peace. If you are near any of the stops, attend. If there's no stop near you, organize one! Here are some video recordings of Mr. Ruebner.

On May 23, 2014, an Augusta, GA peace group helped arrange for Josh Ruebner to speak, and here is a recording.

"... a fundamental principle of their work: the presumption of guilt."

One of my favorite novels from college was Darkness at Noon by Arthur Koestler. I'm currently listening to Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (Twitter) (Facebook). The following quotes reminded me of the War on Terror materials I've been reading & watching and reviewing on this blog.

Review: Barzan

The documentary film Barzan's website has the trailer and links to interviews with its creators. I watched it in light of my national security and immigrant rights concerns. I was fortunate enough to have Alex Stonehill (Director/Cinematographer), Bradley Hutchinson (Director/Editor) and Sarah Stuteville (Writer/Reporter) in the room for a Q&A after the screening.

Film: Outlawed in Pakistan by Habiba Nosheen and Hilke Schellmann

This film aired as an episode in PBS's Frontline program on May 28, 2013. Visit its website for the entire film and features. Azra at Muslima Media Watch wrote an excellent review on September 10, 2013. Obviously, the film makes obvious the wretched state of police, criminal justice and judicial proceedings in Pakistan. People who claim to be working to reform their governments should prioritize professionalization of the police to better investigate rape.

Another important lesson for Muslims in the United States is the value of public television and radio, despite the limitations (and here) of PBS and NPR.

Filmaker Habiba Nosheen has a website, and she is on Twitter. The second filmmaker, Hilke Schellmann, is also on Twitter.

P.S. In 2008 on this blog I reviewed the film Shame by Mohammed Ali Naqvi about the rape of Mukhtar Mai.

Review: "Fire in the Unnameable Country" by Ghalib Islam

Fire in the Unnameable Country by Ghalib Islam

There are two reviews out for this book. One is by Alex Good in The Toronto Star of March 11, 2014. The other is by Emily Keeler in the March 2014 edition of The Walrus.

Here's Penguin's page on the book. Ghalib lives in Canada. I have not read the book.

Dead Man Tell No Tales: Susan Zalkind's Story on Ibragim Todashev

Check out @ThisAmerLife episode 519: 'Dead Men Tell No Tales.' http://t.co/IyJkGD89pk
— CAIR National (@CAIRNational) March 10, 2014

This American Life is one of my favorite National Public Radio programs. This episode focuses in another of the glorious episodes in the United States's War on Terror, about which this blog has a series of entries.
Updated March 24, 2013.

BREAKING: FTF has obtained a leaked copy of the FBI's Todashev report. http://t.co/dUSz4Uyh9b

— Fire Tom Friedman (@firetomfriedman) March 24, 2014

Review: "The French Intifada: The Long War Between France and Its Arabs" by Andrew Hussey

Princeton University Professor David Avrom Bell (Twitter) reviewed The French Intifada: The Long War Between France and Its Arabs by Andrew Hussey in The Guardian.

My take on Andrew Hussey's "The French Intifada" http://t.co/KKTGJYUGPM
— David A. Bell (@DavidAvromBell) March 1, 2014

I have not read the book.

Updated: Interview with the author published June 27, 2014.

Interview with Marjan Kamali, author of "Together Tea"

h/t Jennifer Zobair

Thrilled to have an interview with Marjan Kamali, author of the gorgeous debut novel TOGETHER TEA, on @storyandchai! http://t.co/8QFBxzbSWQ
— Jennifer Zobair (@jazobair) February 27, 2014

Together Tea by Marjan Kamali (Twitter). I have not read the book.

Review: “Painted Hands” by Jennifer Zobair

wood turtle (Twitter) reviewed Painted Hands: A Novel by Jennifer Zobair (Twitter) for Muslimah Media Watch. You can purchase direct. I have not read the book.

Review: Political Islam in the Age of Democratization by Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai

New review: Political Islam in the Age of Democratization by Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai @palmacpolitics http://t.co/faRZULkFWG
— LSE Review of Books (@LSEReviewBooks) February 26, 2014

Amani El Sehrawey reviewed Political Islam in the Age of Democratization by Kamran Bokhari and Farid Senzai on behalf of the London School of Economics and Political Science Review of Books. I have not read the book.

Review: The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism by Trevor Aaronson

Trevor Aaronson's The Terror Factory: Inside the FBI's Manufactured War on Terrorism gathers disparate news stories into one narrative: the frequency of "terrorism" convictions in the United States in the years following 2001 is neither a measure of the threat terrorism poses to public safety nor of the effectiveness of the federal government in protecting United States residents.

Review: Do Muslim Women Need Saving? by Lila Abu-Lughod

Subashini Navaratnam reviewed Lila Abu-Lughod's book Do Muslim Women Need Saving? at popmatters.com. I have not read the book.

Updated February 23, 2014: Naaz Rashid's review dated today is on The London School of Economics and Political Science website.

Review: Burqas, Baseball and Apple Pie by Ranya Tabari Idliby

After listening to an interview with Ranya Tabari Idliby, author of Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie: Being Muslim in America, I published a response/rant the guilt from which compelled me to buy and read the book.

My response to the interview reflects my views, but the book impacted me more deeply and, upon reflection, helped me appreciate Ustaza Ranya's positions. I present some criticism unique to the book and a few observations, and I end with a strong promotion of the book and Professor Ranya.

Interview with Mark Cohen, Contributor to A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations

Joseph Richard Preville conducted an interview with Professor Mark R. Cohen, and it was published in IslamiCommentary.org on January 28, 2014.

Jews and Muslims have been intertwined for fourteen centuries. Their long relationship is the subject of A History of Jewish-Muslim Relations: From the Origins to the Present Day (Princeton University Press, 2013). read more

Professor Cohen is one of the contributors to the book. I have not read the book.

Review: Sophia by Shafinaaz Hassim

Fatima Bheekoo-Shah reviewed Sophia: a novel by Shafinaaz Hassim (Twitter) in OnIslam.net, February 16, 2014. I have not read the book.

A Kindle version is available for USA readers.

Review: The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror by Arun Kundnani

The Muslims Are Coming!: Islamophobia, Extremism, and the Domestic War on Terror by Arun Kundnani

Arun Kundnani (Twitter) has written a thorough critique of the Age of Obama War on Terror. And you are right, Obama supporters, that your Nobel Peace Prize-receiving hero does not call it a War on Terror like that once-reviled but now surprisingly familiar cousin George W Bush did. Obama and his people are fighting extremism. Isn't that a good thing?

Film "David" Examines Boundaries of Interfairth/Interethnic Relations in Brooklyn

Thanks to Augusta, Georgia's Morris Museum of Art (Twitter) (Facebook) and the Southern Circuit 2013-2014 Tour of Independent Filmmakers, I was able to watch David (Twitter) (Facebook) and meet its director and producer Joel Fendelman. It premiered in 2010 at the Brooklyn Film Festival, and you can read the synopsis there.

David (2011) - Trailer from Joel Fendelman on Vimeo.

Review: Black Liberation and Palestine Solidarity by Lenni Brenner and Matthew Quest

Black Liberation and Palestine Solidarity by Lenni Brenner and Matthew Quest

Authors Lenni Brenner and Matthew Quest collected in this volume some of the essays they published between 1993 and 2013 analyzing the positions of prominent figures in the movement for black liberation towards Zionism and Palestinian resistance to Zionism. These positions were reflections of their owners' evolving understandings of the liberation struggles in the United States.

Review: Ms. Marvel #1 - KAMALA KAHN IS A MARVELOUS NEW HERO

.@IGN Review: Ms. Marvel #1 by @GWillowWilson & @adrianalphona from @Marvel "Kamala Kahn is a marvelous new hero." http://t.co/vrA3ajjviq
— Joshua Yehl (@JoshuaYehl) February 5, 2014

I have not read this issue. G Willow Wilson has other appearances on this blog.

Added February 15, 2014: Another positive review from Billy Donnelly at The Wesleyan Argus, February 13, 2014.

Review: Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy

Salaam, Love: American Muslim Men on Love, Sex, and Intimacy by Ayesha Mattu (Twitter) and Nura Maznavi.

Rasha Madkour of the Associated Press reviewed the book. I have not read it.

I suspect the link will go dead at some point. If it does, please add a comment so I can update the entry.

New Site for Arabic E-Books

H/t to M Lynx Qualey

Detained Journalists, Launch of http://t.co/r1Ze8omfy7, and Other Scenes from the Cairo International Book Fair http://t.co/pN68tUYKdD
— M. Lynx Qualey (@arablit) February 5, 2014

I had suggested to some elderly relatives who complained that changes in their eyesight made it difficult to read normal print size books to try e-books. The devices which allow the user to read these e-books have font size adjustment. One relative mentioned that he wanted to read Arabic books, and I did not know a good source of Arabic e-books. Hopefully Kotobi.com will solve that problem. I "purchased" 20 or so free books off the site. The prices are in Egyptian pounds for the books. There is a Facebook page and a Twitter account. The application is available in Google Play for Android and the Apple Store. There still is not a lot of content, especially in science.

Review: The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Walker

James Langton reviewed The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Walker (Twitter) in The National (United Arab Emirates).  I have not read the book.

NCIS, another USA national security propaganda show?

My long awaited critique of @NCIS_CBS episode #KillChain here: http://t.co/zasOSssyPq #pakistan #drones #CBS #NCIS #yemen #navy #usa
— Irfan Rydhan (@IrfanRydhan) January 31, 2014

I'm proud that I decided to drop watching USA Network's Covert Affairs. I usually, once I start watching a show, continue to watch it. The worst example of this was that I actually watched all episodes on DVD of Highlander: The Raven, including the special feature where the production team explained how they managed to produce the worst TV show ever.

For this reason, I've never watched NCIS. If I started, I'm worried that I'd be devoting 2 hours a day watching all the episodes I missed.

So I thank Irfan Rydhan for writing a review of a recent episode. I've written other blog posts about TV episodes featuring Muslim characters.

Ranya Tabari Idliby Interview on C-SPAN2 BookTV

Daisy Khan interviewed author Ranya Tabari Idliby on C-SPAN2's BookTV December 4, 2013. Ranya is the author of Burqas, Baseball, and Apple Pie: Being Muslim in America and The Faith Club: A Muslim, A Christian, A Jew--Three Women Search for Understanding.

Review: Thomas Jefferson’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders by Denise Spellberg

Thomas Jefferson's Qur'an: Islam and the Founders by Denise Spellberg

Orme Wilson, director and immediate past president of The Filson Historical Society, reviewed this book for The Courier-Journal, a Louisville, Kentucky newspaper.

I have not read the book.