There has been a good load of interesting reads on toot lately, and I feel inclined to share those that I feel are “must-reads”:
360 East has a post on Dubai’s dark side, saying, “Dubai’s super capitalism and unbelievable growth has a human cost. It’s an underreported story.”
The Muscati’s discuss urban planning in Muscat, “I do however have something against an apartment building sticking out between two regular houses. I also have a problem with opening my window and having my view obstructed with a miniature building. Why does the Ministry of Housing allow this? If this is a neighborhood for villas, it should remain for villas.”
The Black Iris has a rant on apostacy in Islam, in light of the crisis of an Afghan man who converted to Christianity, “There is no law in the Quran which states apostates must be killed, and even the extremists do not derive their interpretations from the divine texts. In other words God never says in the Quran that apostates must be killed, instead He promotes freedom of religion, no compulsion in religion, and as for apostates, it cannot be more clear that their punishment is up to Him and will dealt out in the hereafter. Not by man.”
Prometheus, meanwhile, has a fantastic post about the same topic, “وفضلا عن أن القرآن واضح في انه لا إكراه في الدين، فإن ما وصلت إليه البشرية على مدى قرون طويلة من قوانين وحقوق تكفل للإنسان حرّيته في الدين والمعتقد، كل ذلك يبطل دعاوى هؤلاء الذين لا يوجد في قواميسهم وفي تفكيرهم سوى كلمات القتل وسفك الدماء وقطع الأيدي وقهر الإنسان والتنكيل به تحت غطاء الدفاع عن الدين والغيرة عليه.”
Rami’s Wall discusses stereotyping, “Take the ‘Arab culture’ of today as a subject of stereotypes, while some people in the world would go as far as thinking that Arabs are nomads, riding camels and living in tents. One joke I like to bring up whenever discussing stereotypes is the saying that Arabs drink oil and eat sand.”
The Damascene blog wonders about how successful the Arabicization of medicine in Syria was, “إن تجربة تعريب الطب في سوريا هي تجربة رائدة بلا شك، أو أنها بدأت كذلك على الأقل. وقد قطعت الجامعات السورية في ذلك شوطاً كبيراً ، وخرّجت الآلاف من الأطباء الذين أثبتوا نجاحهم داخل البلاد وخارجها. إلا أن هذه التجربة تواجه الآن تحدياً كبيراً يتهدد استمرارها، لا يمكن التغلب عليه إلا بإعادة تقييم التجربة ودراسة نقاط الضعف فيها.”
Moments in Words from Hadarmout is asking an age old question, what do women want? About the Hadramoutean women, he writes, “They value their burqas and take much pride in the burqas; it is their most important attire. It is unimaginable, that any of them can leave their homes without being covered from head to toe, leaving only the eyes uncovered; in black. Only in black.”
Over at Mind, Khalidah writes about dating in the Arab world, “As for me, I do not consider it wrong for two people to get to know each other before they start thinking of marriage; however; being in our society and culture, I cannot but wonder if this is even possible. I know for a fact that my parents will not be accepting for the whole idea.”
