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The following information is obviously not meant to be inclusive, nor is it meant to provide all points of view on Middle East history. Since the U.S. media provides an overwhelming Western slant to any information concerning the history of this region, our intention is to balance their bias by providing information from other sources.
Posted on December 11, 2001
Understanding
Our Culture: A Question of Identity (Sadek
Jawad Sulaiman)
“Two major features define our culture: Uruba (Arabism)
and Islam. It is important that we clearly identify and understand
these twin constituents of our background, for unfortunately, many of
us have misconceptions about them. And unless we rectify the misconceptions
about ourselves that we entertain from within, it would be disingenuous
to blame others for misreading us from without. . . . The Quran
and our rich Arabic literature demonstrate vividly how intimately
our spiritual and literary traditions intertwine in our Arab/Islamic
heritage. The closer we look the more we discern how intricately Uruba
and Islam interweave. We find it difficult to define the one without
considering the other. We find it hard to separate the two, historically,
culturally, or intellectually. We realize how each, indeed, would be incomplete
without the other; viewed separately, how each loses some integral part
of itself. Outside its repository of Arabic culture, Islam
is left with little form or substance. Emptied of its Islamic content,
Uruba is reduced to a culture devoid of intellectual and moral
moorings. . . . These ideas and ideals are of universal relevance. They
commit us, first and foremost, to the integrity and well-being of these
great United States, which is our home; they commit us as Arab
Americans to the integrity and welfare of the Arab homeland, which
was our home; and they commit us at the level of human fellowship
to the integrity and welfare of all humankind. Here, as citizens of these
United States, in all these fields of endeavor lies our opportunity and
challenge to excel and serve. And here, in the final analysis, it will
be the true merit of what we represent, individually and collectively,
in thought and action, in character and commitment, that will shape our
real image with the others. And an image thus shaped will not fail to
impress and endear.
Mr. Sulaiman is a former Ambassador of Oman to the United States. He currently resides in the Washington, D.C. area. He delivered a speech about the subject in this article at a general meeting of the Baltimore Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee on January 24, 1997.”
Posted before December 11, 2001
Averroës — The Great Muslim Philosopher Who Planted The Seeds of the European Renaissance
Zionism And Its Impact (Report by the State Of Palestine, Palestine Liberation Organization, Ministry Of -Foreign Affairs , 30 Oct. 2001)
“The Thousand Year War” by Richard J. Maybury [review to be posted soon]
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