Day at the beach
JPS JQ CM

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Hummus: the white persons new mayonnaise.

Hummus: the white persons new mayonnaise. This was just one of many truths uncovered on Saturday evening at “Arabs Gone Wild,” a comedy event held at George Washington University’s Lisner Auditorium billed as: “not just a stand up show, it's a party.” A celebration it was, indeed...

Performers included the co-founders of the Annual Arab American Comedy Festival, Dean Obeidallah and Maysoon Zayid, who produce content that acts as a hybrid of comedy and culture, meeting at an intersection that raises issues surrounding Arab stereotypes and values. They re-brand the image of the Arab-American as an appealing product through the accessible distribution of thoughts and shared ideas available through active audience participation and media networking.

Although not all of Dean’s, or the four other young performers, material centers on Arabic culture or Islam, they use universal content—extending beyond hummus—to appeal to a broader audience at home and abroad through comedy. Exposure to Arabic culture is critical to explore the nuance within the overarching mistrust of Arab-Americans today, as Dean states: “9/11 changed everything, and just when many Arab-Americans were being vilified by society, it was entertainers who stood up to the mic.”

Through support of the Arab-American and international communities, Arabs Gone Wild uses stand up comedy as a technique to advertise the individual, and collective, status of an Arab, prompting the twofold marketing strategy that comedy and politics support: a renewal of the image of the Arab through a valuable marketing technique. This style of success gives all of us reason to celebrate.

The Communications and Media Commission (CMC) of Iraq

The Communications and Media Commission (CMC) of Iraq was meant to serve as an independent regulatory commission for media and media related activities. Parliamentary inefficiency and executive interference, however, has meant that the Prime Minister's Office has maintained unusually close control over the CMC.

Check out this recent Reuters article.

I'm sure we will talk about this later, but media incitement is an issue worth taking seriously. A cursory glance at Rwanda, the Balkans, and Nigeria will turn up some interesting (and frightening) instances of media-facilitated violence. That being said, this issue is easily hijacked by powerful politicians and regulators for electoral purposes.

Speaking of McDonald's...

Ali Abunimah helped bring to light the discrimination of a McDonald's in Israel that canned an employee for speaking Arabic on the job. McDonald's-Israel is backing away from that policy while the HQ in the US stands in support. The visionary Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's, would have a heart attack from the lack of company unity (as well as too many French fries) if he were not dead already. He is turning over a patty in his grave.

McDonald's is still struggling at the soul over the existential question of all fast food chains: how far to go on this new healthy image kick thing. Inside sources (not the Hamburglar) tell me that Ronald McDonald was in such anguish, he periodically drowns his sorrows in Double Whoppers from Burger King.

I thought McDonald's was going out of its way in years past to appear as multicultural as possible. It even sells the McFalafel in the Arab world and Dearborn, Michigan. McDonald's multiculturalism exists only in the world of urban marketing.

When Zionists Attack

Hizbollah strikes Israeli bulldozer in Lebanon, killing one IDF soldier. Israeli fighter jets attack Hezbollah...no word on casualties.

Frankly, Israel's hypocrisy is rank. If Lebanese or Syrian army bulldozers were moving ten miles with Israel's border, Israel would attack and destroy it as well. Israel must comply with its own standards.

Guardian Council Bends

Iran's ruling Conservatives in the Guardian Council revoked its ban on nearly 200 reform party parliamentary candidates. Thankfully, still more candidates, publications, etc. suffer stifling condemnation. Iran has been in the process of reforming for the past few years. Though western pressure is a factor, the more indigenous the movement towards developing its own brand of democracy, the better.

Iran's revolution was a backlash against external interventionism. The more secure the revolution's accomplishments and the more confident it gets as a polity, the better suited it will be towards negotiating its political future. Even the United States did not become an ostensible democracy for more than 120 years after it was founded: when women, minorities, and those without land could actually vote. And this only came after the near-extermination of a people. We still need to get rid of the electoral college, the two-party-system, and the primaries to move towards better democracy. Iranian society has changed by legions since its foundation. I bet Afghanistan would have done the same eventually. I am not sure about Iraq however. They, and we in States, have a long way to go.

Christmas Carols of Hate

Jewish activists critical of Israel get some pretty vile hate e-mail. Deborah Fink helped organize an alternative, politicized Christmas carol concert in Trafalgar square, London and received an angry backlash. Ms Ragen, a freelance journalist wrote in response: "I suppose it's fitting that self-hating Jews will be singing anti-Israel Christmas songs to curry favour with oh-so-genteel British anti-Semites." Other messages were so vitriolic, I fear to repeat them here. Wow.

Abu Khalil Keeps It Real

The Angry Arab News Service - Justifiably angry. Professor Abu Khalil is amazing. I met him at a symposium at G-town in 2000. He ripped on the Gulf countries as their ambassadors in the crowd squirmed in discomfort. Afterwards, I witnessed a Saudi official beg him to visit Saudi Arabia for a mind-changing trip. Without missing a beat, Abu Khalil responded that he knows about their tools of persuasion and wouldn't be making the trip anytime soon.

A Conspiracy of Hypocrites

Daniel Pipes brings it all together: UFO-watchers join blacks, Palestinians, Europeans and the left as the new anti-Semites. Pipes has written derisively about various conspiracy theories while building his own career on alarmism about the Islamist thirst for world domination and the rising tide of new anti-Semitism.