'Wake up sleepers, priase Allah': the mesaharati remains part of Ramadan tradition
Wake-up sleepers, praise Allah, calls the mesaharati as he strolls through the streets before dawn, banging his drums to wake people up for their sohour meal during Ramadan. The neighborhood…
Egypt and Jordan urge Palestinians to settle differences; Israeli strikes kill 11 in Gaza
CAIRO: Egypt and Jordan issued a joint statement from Amman urging Palestinian factions to put aside their differences to achieve peace and statehood.After a closed door meeting, President Hosni Mubarak…
Silent Burmese Days
PRAGUE: In the coming days - perhaps even hours - the destiny of Burma (also known as Myanmar), and the fates of over fifty million Burmese, will be decided. Today's…
Cycling and Cancer
The cyclist Lance Armstrong recently celebrated an anniversary. It has been ten years since he was diagnosed with metastatic testicular cancer, which his doctors believed would kill him. Based on…
Addressing Palestinian political rights is only common sense
The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is in essence political. It started as a result of where Israel was established and how Palestinians were consequently forced from their homeland in 1948. The conflict…
Yes to Israel-Syria talks, but talk "Lebanon" first
For many Lebanese, Syrian involvement in regional peace negotiations is only desirable if its practical outcome is increased respect for Lebanese sovereignty and independence.However, the Lebanese are not that optimistic.…
Message from the Prophet is clear: coexist
WASHINGTON, DC: As the world watches the terrible eruption of violence between Sunnis and Shia in Iraq and is subjected to sporadic communiqués by vigilantes calling for violence against their…
The importance of meeting face-to-face
In 2004 I went to Qom, Iran to participate in a conference called Revelation and Authority , a dialogue between North American Christian Mennonite scholars and local Muslim Shiite scholars.…
An Opium Alternative for Afghanistan
Afghanistan's president Hamid Karzai recently came out swinging at the West again, this time on the topic of opium eradication. Responding to the latest UN report showing an opium production…
Fasting or feasting during Ramadan?
Having lived in Egypt for a few months now, nothing about Ramadan seems particularly surprising. Not the lamps, not the iftar tables set up along every street, and certainly not…