Nèdeem Elmahjoub's blog

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or Resonancefm.com (worldwide) Sounds from Agadir and Marrakech , Morocco. The recording was made between 19 and 24 December 2008. Listen to the show .

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or Resonancefm.com (worldwide) Pakistan may be the linchpin of the US's so-called war on terror, but it is also, as Tariq Ali notes, a wrecked country. Pakistan's neighbor Afghanistan is also devastated; the continuing war there makes meaningful recovery impossible. In a recent talk, Ali addressed key developments in Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Iraq , often dictated by US geopolitical interests. Tariq Ali's recent book is The Duel: Pakistan on the Flight Path of American Power (Scribner, 2008). The talk was given in Vancouver, on 10th November 2008. The talk was broadcast by Against the Grain show on KPFA Radio, Berkeley, US. Listen to the programme

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or Resonancefm.com (worldwide) A leading review of the Crusades on Amazon.com says the following: “The Christian invaders were regarded as infidels. The Arabs were scorned as lawless pagans. The Westerners saw their quest as literally a sanctified crusade, while the Muslims launched their own holy war, called a jihad, in retaliation. Sound familiar? It should, because although the events depicted in the History Channel's documentary "The Crusades - Crescent & The Cross" took place nearly a thousand years ago, they are but a distant mirror to what's going on in the Middle East right now.” The Crusades: Were they religious wars? Many Muslims believe that the Crusades continue today and see the "war on terror" as a "Crusade against Islam." We listen to views by Yunus Bakhsh, writer and union activist, John Heelan of the Street Evangelists Association, Tariq Ali, author of "The Blood of Saladin...

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or Resonancefm.com (worldwide) An interview with Joel Beinin , professor of Middle East history at Stanford University (USA) and a member of the editorial committee of Middle East Report online. Beinin has been Director of Middle East Studies and Professor of History at the American University in Cairo. He is author of "Workers on the Nile: Nationalism, Communism, Islam and the Egyptian Working Class, 1882-1954," a study that examines the role of trade unionism and the working class in the development of Egyptian nationalism during the first half of the 20th century, and "Workers and Peasants in the Modern Middle East". Listen to the programme

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or Resonancefm.com (worldwide) The Arab Communist Movement , featuring the views of Tareq Ismael , author of 5 books on the subject, and Hussam Al-Hamalawy , blogger, journalist and socialist activist from Egypt. Dissection of " The Unwinnable War in Afghanistan ."

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or Resonancefm.com (worldwide) Iran: 30 Years of an Unfinished Revolution . As a process the Iranian revolution started in early 1977 when civil rights groups and lawyers demanded more freedom. But the spark that ignited the big explosion took place on 8 September 1978 (Black Friday) when troops killed thousands of demonstrators in Tehran. In reply, the workers went on strike. What has been achieved after thirty years and where is Iran going? Asef Bayat, Director of the International Institute for the Study of Islam in the Modern World and Professor at Leiden University, the Netherlands, and author of Workers and Revolution in Iran, Work, Politics and Power, and Street Politics, in a talk entitled Iran - The Unfinished Revolution. The talk was organised by The Middle East Institute and School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University, 07 April 2008 Watch here

Iraq: Five Years On. (A repeat)

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or Resonancefm.com (worldwide) Obituary : Randa Chahal Sabbag, a film-maker. Interview with Jeff Halper (a repeat)

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or http://www.resonancefm.com/ (worldwide) “Iraq under occupation: Raed Jarrar decodes the misinformation" is a talk by an Iraqi architect, blogger, and activist resident in the United States. Raed Jarrar is currently the Iraq consultant for the American Friends Service Committee. Jarrar was born and raised in Baghdad, and is half Iraqi and half Palestinian. The talk was given on the 23rd of May of this year at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or http://www.resonancefm.com/ (worldwide) The French film-maker Jean-Luc Godard once replied, when asked why U.S. films are the most popular in the world, "Because Americans tell the best stories. They can invade a country and immediately construct a narrative justifying it." "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a People," is a documentary directed by Sut Jhally and released in conjunction with Jack Shaeen's book of the same title, takes up the issue of Arab representation in U.S. media. Also in the show: an analysis of one of the worst atrocities of the US-led occupation of Afghanistan, as many as 90 civilians were killed by an American air strike last week.

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or http://www.resonancefm.com/ (worldwide) Obituary : The legacy of Mahmoud Darwish, the poet and the activist. Israel : The resignation of Ehud Olmert. Pakistan : The resignation of Pervez Musharraf. Iran : Flogging of workers' rights activists.

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or http://www.resonancefm.com/ (worldwide) A repeat: Lina Khatib to speak about Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World . Today the world's media have a pressing need to understand and interpret the modern Middle East. In her book (released by I B Tauris on 27 September 2006) Khatib examines how contemporary American cinema and the cinemas of the Arab world contribute to this global preoccupation in their representations of Middle Eastern politics. The writer, a lecturer in world cinema, also uncovers the challenges presented by Arab cinemas to Hollywood's ways of representing Middle East politics. A repeat: Obituary : More celebrated abroad than in his own country, Yousssef Chahine tried every film genre, from historical epic to musical comedy. The Egyptian director, who died last Sunday, 27 July in Cairo, received the lifetime achievement award on the fiftieth anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival in 1997. ...

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or http://www.resonancefm.com/ (worldwide) This week show is an adaptation from Voices of the Middle East and North Africa, a programme on KPFA radio, featuring a conversation with Sohrab Behdad , co-author of " Class and Labor in Iran : Did the Revolution Matter? " and the Iraqi poet and novelist Sinan Antoon reading from his recently published book of poems, "Baghdad Blues".

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or http://www.resonancefm.com/ (worldwide) Obituary : More celebrated abroad than in his own country, Yousssef Chahine tried every film genre, from historical epic to musical comedy. The Egyptian director, who died last Sunday, 27 July in Cairo, received the lifetime achievement award on the fiftieth anniversary of the Cannes Film Festival in 1997. Jean Renoir once remarked that in the work of his Egyptian fellow film director Youssef Chahine, "reality is always enchanting." The recent bombing that rocketed Turkey is only another symptom of a wider crisis in the country's socio-political secene of the last 4 decades. Cihan Tugal is a Turkish analyst who teaches sociology at the University of California, Berkeley. According to Tugal, the AKP is more a market fundamentalist party than an Islamic fundamentalist one. In this interview he draws a distinction between the Kemalists and the conservatives and provides the backgr...

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or http://www.resonancefm.com/ (worldwide) Walid Siti's exhibition : Land on Fire . Walid Sitti is an Iraqi-Kurdish painter and printmaker based in Britain. Sitti's subjects are his experiences of war, exile, pain and loss. Conversation with the artist and the curator Rose Issa at Leighton House Museum. Hadani Ditmars reading from her book Dancing in the No-fly Zone: A Woman's Journey Through Iraq . Ditmars' book (chosen by the Toronto Globe and Mail as one of 100 best and most influential books of 2005) recounts her time in Iraq from 1997 until the autumn of 2003. Music by David Ferrard. Iranian court upholds death sentence against teacher trade unionist .

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or www.resonancefm.com (worldwide) Mitra Tabrizian . This is that Place : The first major UK exhibition (at Tate Britain) of work by Mitra Tabrizian, an Iranian-British photographer and film-maker. The artist talks to MEP about her work. Hala Mohammad, Monzer Masri, Rasha Omran and Lukman Derky visit the UK for events at the Ledbury Poetry Festival and at the London Review Bookshop. Little is known in the UK of literary life in Syria, but there’s an extraordinarily vibrant cultural and literary scene. Interviews and more. A coup plot in Turkey?

Sunday between noon and 1pm on 104.4 FM (London) Or www.resonancefm.com (worldwide) Houssam Hamalawy on Egypt. Based in Cairo, blogger, activist and journalist Houssam dissects the workers' strikes and and forms of protests that have swept Egypt since year 2000. Photographer and activist Farah Kobaissy documents the role played by women in the movement. More signs of Israeli-US preparations for attacking Iran. In Mashhad, second largest city in Iran, over 8000 people protested last month against inflation and the government. Listen to the programme

Sunday between noon and 1pm (GMT) 104.4 FM (London) or http://www.resonancefm.com/ worldwide Islam and Islamic Civilisation: An overview by Talat Ahmed. Report: Iraq social and refugee crisis is worsening. Listen to the programme

Sunday between noon and 1pm (GMT) 104.4 FM (London) or http://www.resonancefm.com/ worldwide The revolt of the mining area of Gafsa, Tunisia . Morocco : The town of Sidi Ifni is under siege. Britain : Brown assures Bush more troops for Afghanistan and no Iraq withdrawal. The Paris and Turin book fairs and Israel's participation : To boycott or not to boycoytt - culture and politics. Listen to the programme

Sunday between noon and 1pm (GMT) 104.4 FM (London) or http://www.resonancefm.com/ worldwide AN ISRAELI IN PALESTINE - Resisting Dispossession, Redeeming Israel is a book by Jeff Halper and a publication of Pluto Press, 2008. "An Israeli in Palestine records Halper's journey 'beyond the membrane' that shields his people from the harsh realities of Palestinian life to his 'discovery' that he was actually living in another country: Palestine. " Jeff Halper, an Israeli Professor of Anthropology, has been a leading figure within the Israeli peace movement for over thirty years, and the head of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD). An interview. Professor Norman Finkelstein, an American Jewish scholar known for his trenchant criticism of Israeli policy, was detained and interrogated by Israel’s security forces, Shin Bet, for 24 hours at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport on May 23, denied entry into Israel and deported back to Amsterdam where he...