A muted response in the blogosphere persuaded me to write about Israeli interior minister Eli Yishai’s now not-so-recent remark, which I’ve come to think of as ‘the “white man” comment’. If you missed it, in June 2012 Yishai, responding to criticism of Israel’s treatment of African migrants, claimed that: “Muslims that arrive here do not […]
By now you’ve probably watched the (British) Channel 4 TV documentary film about Nigeria’s millionaire preachers–the fake healings, buckets full of money, police escorts, mall openings and the flash, amidst grinding poverty. I watched it last night. Nigerian blogs, not surprisingly, have focused on theological debates thrown up by the documentary. (One of the preachers, […]
Though it remains to be seen what political, economic and social changes will happen (if any) in the “New Egypt,” its first Ramadan after Mubarak’s downfall will undoubtably be memorable. Iftar in Tahrir will be magnificent, I have no doubt. But it might also be a tense affair for all involved, considering how vocal conservative […]
Brett Davidson Regional lobby group, the AIDS and Rights Alliance for Southern Africa (ARASA), has drafted an equal rights manifesto in conversation with civil society, cultural and religious leaders from around the continent. It presents the arguments for why equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people are a crucial element of African […]
Jacob Collins, writing in The New Left Review, summarizes Regis Debray’s critique of ‘Human Rights’:
A former graduate student of mine, Will, runs an irreverent blog KABOBFEST on matters pertaining to the Middle East and the Arab Diaspora. Earlier this week, Will gave his take on the case of the Sudanese media worker, Lubna Ahmed al-Hussein, arrested and tried for wearing trousers:
