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Dr. Zogby
During the past week Congresswoman Michele Bachmann was sternly rebuked by Senator John McCain and other GOP leaders for her attack against State Department official, Huma Abedin, and her call to investigate and root out other "Muslim extremists" who may hold sensitive posts in the U.S. government. But before we assume that the story is over, it is important to recall that this "bait and smear" campaign directed against Muslims and Arabs didn't start with the letters written and co-signed by Bachmann and her four colleagues. Read More »
A few weeks back, the sensation-seeking Representative Michele Bachmann did her best imitation of the late Senator Joseph McCarthy. She and four of her Congressional colleagues released letters they had collectively sent to the Inspectors General of the Departments of State, Justice, Defense, and Homeland Security, and the Office of the Directorate of National Intelligence calling on them to investigate whether "influence operations conducted by individuals and organizations associated with the Muslim Brotherhood" have "had an impact on the federal government's national security policies.” Read More »
With neighboring Syria imploding, tensions with Iran mounting, and Israel ever threatening, Lebanon appears to be on the brink of conflict. But then that has been the story of Lebanon for decades now. This remarkably beautiful country filled with extraordinary people has long been a victim of its history, its own leaders and the machinations of outsiders. This may be Lebanon's past and present, but if we listen to the Lebanese people, it need not be the country's future. Read More »
Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) Chair Farouk Sultan's nearly interminable announcement of the outcome of Egypt's presidential election tested his nation's patience. Twitter commentary on his speech's almost mind-numbing detail, while hilarious, masked an underlying nervousness that this was but an effort to wear everyone down preparing the ground for the announcement that the winner was, in fact, General Ahmed Shafik. Read More »
Ralph Nader is without a doubt one of the truly transformational figures in contemporary American history. We drink cleaner water, breathe purer air, drive safer cars, and are better protected at work and at play, because of the movement he led. Read More »
A few weeks ago a Palestinian-American woman, Sandra Tamari, traveling to the West Bank to visit her family was stopped by Israeli airport officials and ordered to log on to her email account and provide her password so that the Israelis could read her private communications. They insisted this be done before they would allow her to enter the country. From reports we are receiving, this practice has become routine. Read More »
For Arab Americans, the big election news of the past week didn't come out of just Wisconsin or Egypt. As important as these contests was Congressman Bill Pascrell's stunning victory over Congressman Steve Rothman in northern New Jersey's 9th District. Read More »
One year ago, on the second anniversary of President Obama's historic Cairo University address to the Muslim World, we released the results of our 2011 Arab World polling . The findings were devastating, though not wholly unexpected. What we found was that America's overall favorable ratings across the Arab World were lower in 2011 than they had been in the last year of the Bush Administration. Read More »
Air Date: 5/31/2012
Fellows from Syracuse University’s “Leaders for Democracy Fellowship Program (LDF); Bill Press, Host of the “Bill Press Show” and author of the new book, The Obama Hate Machine: The Lies, Distortions, and Personal Attacks on the President---and Who Is Behind Them. Read More »
Republican presidential challenger, Mitt Romney was given credit last week for refusing to endorse a proposed ad campaign that sought to link President Barack Obama with the controversial sermons delivered by his former pastor Jeremiah Wright. In doing so, Romney appeared to be demonstrating the same streak of decency that wouldn't allow him to join in with the silly "birther" cabal, or the "Islamophobic" hysteria when these tendencies were all in vogue. Read More »
Air Date: 5/23/2012
Matt Duss, Policy Analyst and Director of Middle East Progress at the Center for American Progress (CAP) and co-author of Fear Inc., a report on the industry of Islamophobia; Sarah Posner, author of God’s Profits: Faith, Fraud, and the Republican Crusade for Values Voters and senior editor at Religion Dispatches; Mike German, Senior Policy Counsel for National Security at the ACLU Washington Legislative Office. Read More »
Never before have we seen such a competitive contest in Egypt or, for that matter, in any Arab country. And never before have we had a presidential contest, anywhere in the world that I can recall, where we have no idea what the winner will actually win when the election is over. Read More »
Benjamin Netanyahu, ever the master maneuverer, has done it again. Just moments before the Israeli Parliament was to ratify the call for new elections, the Kadima Party announced that it had completed negotiations with the Prime Minister and would join the government producing Israel's largest governing coalition in history (including 94 of 120 Members of the Knesset). The announcement sent shockwaves throughout the region and here in the US. Speculation was rife about what this sudden move might mean. Read More »
When a senior White House national security official traveled to New York City recently to praise that city's police department, he stoked the embers of a controversy between the Administration and the Arab American and American Muslim communities. The official's words, quoted by the Associated Press (AP), "I have full confidence that the New York Police Department is doing things consistent with the law" and his terming the department's work a "success" were especially troubling... Read More »
It was rough going, but Mitt Romney, having run the gamut of the U.S. presidential primary process, has survived. He can now be considered the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. From the beginning, Romney had distinct advantages over his opponents. He had run before—and had, in fact, not stopped running since losing to John McCain in 2008. Read More »
With all of the dramatic and sometimes discouraging developments currently taking place across the Arab World, the challenges faced by the small but vibrant Arab American community are often given short shrift. This week we took time to acknowledge the threats to the community's security and well-being and the efforts being made to address these challenges. Read More »
For the past three decades, democracy promotion has been a staple, though oftentimes understated arm, of overall US foreign policy. President Jimmy Carter advocated this agenda. Ronald Reagan advanced it as a weapon in the Cold War. And Presidents since then have embraced democracy promotion initiatives, though none with the ideological fervor of George W. Bush. Read More »
It may still be possible to imagine a just political resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But, in the real world, politics is not the work of our imagination. Rather it is about power, those who have it and how they use it. Politics, at the end of the day, is not about what we hope for or what we believe is just. Instead, politics is about what we can get with the power we have and are willing and able to use. Read More »
There are times when I see a really hideous looking building and I think "that monstrosity didn't just happen. Someone designed it. Someone approved it. It went before a board that signed off on funding it. And a construction company was then hired to build it.” In other words, many people, not just one architect, are to blame. Read More »
Air Date: 3/29/2012
Kathy Kiely, managing editor for the Sunlight Foundation; Rob Malley, Program Director, Middle East and North Africa at the International Crisis Group (ICC); Rick Nelson, former Navy Pilot and Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies Read More »
Looking at Iran by James Zogby
Kahlil Gibran Awards Gala - April 16, 2013
