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Muhammad's Sword - Pakistan - An Iranian Refugee

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) Uri Avnery argues , "True, Muhammad called for the use of the sword in his war against opposing tribes - Christian, Jewish and others - in Arabia, when he was building his state. But that was a political act, not a religious one; basically a fight for territory, not for the spreading of the faith... When the Catholics re-conquered Spain from the Muslims, they instituted a reign of religious terror. The Jews and the Muslims were presented with a cruel choice: to become Christians, to be massacred or to leave. Not for the first time in history, a religious robe is spread to cover the nakedness of economic interests; not for the first time, a robbers' expedition becomes a Crusade. Interview with Uri Avnery in Israel. >> Listen to the interview Interview with a representative from Pakistan Trade Union Campaign in Pakistan about the ban of the Sin

Lawrence Pintak - 'Don't Attack Iran'

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) Interview with Lawrence Pintak , author of Reflections in a Bloodshot Lens - America, Islam and the War of Ideas ( Pluto Books , January 2006). Journalist-scholar Lawrence Pintak, a former CBS News Middle East correspondent, argues that the Arab media revolution and the rise of 'patriot-journalists' in the US marginalized voices of moderation, distorting perceptions on both sides of the divide with potentially disastrous results. >> Listen From Don't Attack Iran , a joint public meeting of Action Iran and CASMII UK in London, University London Union, September 19, 2006. As the United Nations Humanitarian Coordinator for Iraq, Hans von Sponeck provoked anger in Washington and London by calling for an end to UN sanctions on Iraq, imposed for its 1990 invasion of Kuwait. He finally resigned from his position in protest against the continuati

Hisham Matar - Alan Woods

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) Featured in The Independent 's 'Critics Choice', 22 September 2006 Hisham Matar , a Libyan living in the UK, speaks about his experience as a writer and his first novel In the Country of Men (Viking, July 2006). "I would have liked to write a book that had nothing to do with politics," he says. "I think ultimately I am a sensualist and an aesthete. I'm not really interested in politics, but politics was part of the canvas. I had to say something about it, otherwise all the different forces that are shaping these characters would be abstract," said Matar. >> Listen here Interview with Alan Woods , a leading founder of the International Marxist Tendency and editor of In Defence of Marxism website. Alan will be speaking about the Middle East (from Israel-Palestine to Pakistan and Afghanistan). “The situation in the Mi

Yoel Cohen - 9/11 and 'the War on Terror'

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) Interview with Yoel Cohen , a British-born academic currently living in Jerusalem, where he is Senior Lecturer at the School of Communications, Netanya Academic College; and The Holon Academic Institute of Technology and at Holon Institute of Technology, Israel. He has written several books and articles concerning the news media and the Middle East, including The Whistleblower of Dimona: Israel, Vanunu and the Bomb (Holmes and Meier, 2003) and Nuclear Ambiguity (Sinclair Stevenson, 1992), Whistleblowers and the Bomb: Vanunu, Israel and Nuclear Secrecy (Pluto Books, new edition, 2005). >> Listen here 9/11 - 'The War on Terror'. We asked some people to comment on the following statement: “Capitalism and the ‘war on terror’ not only help to sustain one another but they have this in common: they worship success but are nourished by failure.” (David

September 11 and the Functions of the ‘War on Terror’

Nadim Mahjoub Monday, 11 September 2006 Note: Much of the information in this article, including research, citations, and source material is based on information found in  Endless War , by David Keen. "I shall give a propagandist reason for starting the war, no matter whether it is plausible or not. The victor will not be asked afterwards whether he told the truth or not. When starting and waging a war it is not right that matters, but victory."  Adolf Hitler, speech to Wehrmacht commanders-in-chief, 22 August 1939 It has been said that September 11 th  portends something new; that the terrorist attacks carried out on September 11, 2001 against the USA have changed the world. "It stands to reason that 19 men cannot change history. But they did." ( The Economist , 31 August 2006) The so-called ‘war on terror', a continuum of the 1980s Reagan's war, has been designed to end ‘terror'. To achieve this it will require years of ‘counter-terroris

PTUDC - Lebanon Conf. - September 11

Interview with a representative from Pakistan Trade Union Campaign in Pakistan about the ban of the Sindh Teachers' Union, the protests against the ban and the Musharef regime. Coverage of a Conference on Lebanon organised by The British Muslim Initiative (BMI) and the Lebanese Muslim League (LML), School of Oriental and African Studies, London. The confernce covers the humanitarian, environmental and health crisis and the Media and politics of the current situation in Lebanon. >> Terry Waite (former hostage in Lebanon) >> September 11 terrorist attacks, the "Hidden Functions of the 'War on Terror'".

Hamas - Eyewitness Lebanese journalist

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) "The U.S. views Hamas as a terrorist organisation. Yet, to the great surprise of many, Hamas swept to victory in the 2006 Palestinian Authority elections. Hamas is now a democractically elected political party." Khaled Hroub is a Palestinian, born into a refugee camp in Bethlehem, and now part of the diaspora of educated intellectuals. Joins Middle East Panorama to give A Beginner's Guide to Hamas . Hroub is currently director of the Arab Media Project at Cambridge University, hosts a weekly book review programme for Al-Jazeera TV, and has written three previous books. The show was featured in the Independent newspaper (UK), 25 August 2006 ("Another of Nadim Mahjoub's takes on life in the Middle East. Here, he interviews Khaled Hrub about his new book, 'Hamas - A Beginner's Guide'.) >> Listen here Lebanon : Omar Na

Mai Ghoussoub - Bahrain - Writers on Tour

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) Mai Ghoussoub on "music as a healing element, as a universal language in time of war." Mai is from Freemuse - the World Forum on Music and Censorship . Mai is a Lebanese artist living in the UK and she is the founder of London's Alsaqi Books . >> Listen here Bahrain: This small island in the Persian Gulf in unknown to many people. Rauf, a Bahraini, from Bahrain Freedom Movement joins MIddle East Panorama to reveal a hidden side of the Kingdom. The officla spokesman for the National Committee for Martyrs and Victims of Torture and the General Secretary of the Movement of Liberties and Democracy in Bahrain join Middle East Panorama to reveal a hidden side Bahrain. >> Listen here From the heart of the Arab world four young writers on tour. Through performance-readings and live discussions, poets Joumana Haddad from Lebanon and Abed

Ishmahil Blagrove

" Whether the Western world wishes to acknowledge them or not, Hezbollah and Hamas are resistance movements, no different to that of the French resistance, " says Ishmahil Blagrove . While the American historian Howard Zinn argues that "Terrorism' is used the way 'communism' was used all through the Cold War," Ishmahil Blagrove argues that " The so-called 'Red Scare', or threat of Communism, has conveniently been replaced by the irrational fear of Islam. Muslims have now become enemy No.1." >> Listen

Roni Ben Efrat - Arthur Neslen

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) Interview with Zeina Abou Al-Hosn , a Lebanese living in London. Zeina works at a production company called Out There News and trying to make some radio/video stories from Lebanon and the area to make up for the lack of coverage in the news. Interview with Roni Ben Efrat from the Organisation for Democratic Action, Tel Aviv, Israel. Ben Efrat argues that "When Israel seeks to effect political changes, it relies on military might. The logic of force has always been the central factor in determining its policy." Ben Efrat speaks of two hidden strategic goals of two Israeli withdrawals: south Lebanon in May 2000 and Gaza in August 2005. >> Listen Sounds from the 22 July demo in London. Interview with two evacuees who arrived in the UK from Beirut, via Cyprus, on 20 July 2006. Middle East Panorama met them in a Lebanese restaurant in Lond

Starry Night - Yossi Schwartz - Eurabia

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) Starry Night by Mazen Kerbaj, a musican, a comic and blogger from Beirut. Israel-Gaza- Lebanon and beyond: The ReaL Aim . Interview with Yossi Schwartz from Haifa. Listen here Eurabian Nightmare by Matt Carr, journalist and author of the forthcoming Unknown Soldiers: How Terrorism Transformed the Modern World . Matt Carr is one of the first thinkers to explore and explode the myths underpinning the dangerous concept of Eurabia - being popularised by a range of authors including Melanie Phillips (in Britain) and Oriana Fallaci (in Italy). The speech derives from an article on Eurabia in the current issue of Race & Class (vol. 48, issue 1, July 2006). To order click here >> Listen to the speech

Endless War? Iraq Freedom Congress

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) "Endless War? Hidden Functions of the 'War on Terror'" (Pluto Books 2006) by David Keen. A Live interview. David Keen explores how winning war is rarely an end in itself; rather, war tends to be part of a wider political and economic game that is consistent with strengthening the enemy. Keen devises a radical framework for analysing an unending war project, where the "war on terror" is an extension of the Cold War. >> Listen “There is a different and progressive voice and a promising alternative to both the US occupation and political Islam in Iraq” says Samir Adil a co-founder and the president of The Iraq Freedom Congress - IFC. >> Listen Iraqi Tradional Music Revisited in a War Era .

Greg Palast

Middle East Panorama radio show on Resonance FM 104 or http://www.resonancefm.com/ Every Friday 14.00 - 15.00 London time (GMT) Interview with Greg Palast "He is the best journalist in North America", according to Hugo Chavez, the president of Venezuela. Invistigative reporter for the BBC, Media Channel advisor, journalist for the British newspaper the Observer. He went undercover for the British newspaper and worked his way inside the Prime Minister's inner circle and busted open Toni Blair's biggest scandal 'Lobbygate' . He is also known for his New York Times bestseller "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy" published in 2003. The book deals with corporate corruption, finance, globalization, political corruption, and the 'stolen' United States presidential election of 2000. His recent articles include: "Unreported: the Zarqawi Invitation", "The Assassniation of Hugo Chavez", "Was the Invasion of Iraq a Jewish Consp