Forthcoming

April 30 podcast "The First Muslim": author Lesley Hazelton talks about this important new biography of Prophet Muhammad.

April 23 podcast Adameer Office for Palestinian Prisoners (from our archive). The gorilla in the room: humorist Amer Zahr's "lousy weekend"; with open phones.

April 16 podcast. Fawzia Afzal Khan on parallel Muslim agendas in America-- diverging or supporting? BN Aziz reads from The First Muslim, by Lesley Hazelton.

April 9 podcast. Poetry Month selections; The Campaign to Free Lynne Stewart

April 2 podcast Poet Samuel Hazo, on his novel The Time Remaining set in Washington and Palestine. And jazz by trumpeter Ibrahim Maalouf.

March 26 podcast. Celebrating women on Youm el-Oum, Arab Mother's Day--Baghdad resident Souad AlRadi (from our 2003 archive), and poems by Lamees AlAthari

March 19, podcast Authors Willow Wilson, part 2 (see March 12), and Hanan Al-Shaykh (2009 archive); poet Gaith Adhami (2010 archive)

March 12 podcast Author of Alif The Unseen, Willow Wilson (part 1); campaign for imprisoned civil rights attorney Lynne Stewart

March 8, podcast Women's Day special: poet and author Mohja Kahf on western representations of the Muslim woman (a 2000 archive production).  

 Jan 29 podcast Tahrir continues our Jan 22nd with Haddad on the new generation of Muslim Americans. Also, books for young readers

Jan 22 podcast Professor and author Yvonne Haddad: the strategy of 'exceptionalism' for Muslim Americans. Tahrir archive interview with writer/novelist Ahdaf Soueif   

 Jan 15 podcast Hassen Abdellah and BNimri Aziz review advances and setbacks in our communities. Marking his 85th birthday, we look at the work of civil rights attorney Ramsey Clark. (see our Jan 26 blog)

 

Jan 8 podcast ALGERIA: Ammar Kessab comments on Algerian government control of ‘culture’; Simone Fattal examines the role of democracy philosopher deTocqueville in Algeria; nuclear scientist Al-Aboudi details France’s nuclear tests in Algeria & longterm affects

 

Jan 1 podcast New Year special with Sarah Malaika

 

Dec  25 podcast. Year end broadcast hosted by BN Aziz, with listener calls 

 

Dec 18 podcast. Tahrir revisits Algeria's Rai music tradition in a 1997 archival production by Anissa Bouziane, then an update with Arab music aficiando Dawn Elder. B N Aziz reviews the work of Arab filmmakers Yasmina Adi and Ruba Nadda.

 

Dec 4 podcast SF activist Alice Nashashibi (archive); “Existence is Resistance" NYC HipHop Festival supporting Gaza. Algeria: Pt 1:Ammar Kessab on the Algerian government's hegemony on cultural (civic) expression.

 

Nov 27  podcast Before the the UN vote on Palestine, an early commentary by Fouad Moughrabi on land seizures; also scholar Walid Khalidi on Jerusalem history. Book review: "The Time Remaining" by Samuel Hazo. Poems: Suheir Hammad and Lisa Majaj.

 

Nov 20 podcast  from Tahrir's 2005 archive: Salma K Jayyusi on modern Arabic literature; also the NY Arab Comedy Festival.

 

Sept 25 podcast  'The stupid film' everyone is mad about: Wayne State U Middle East specialist Abdullah Al-Arian offers strategies for American Muslims. Ramallah-based Palestinian artist Taiseer Barakat (Tahrir archive)

 

Sept 18  podcast American Muslims: advances and setbacks, with author Stephan Salisbury, attorney Fahd Ahmed, DRUM-NY and Adem Caroll of ICNA. From 1991 Tahrir archive, Sayyid M. Sayeed discusses Islamophobia 13 years ago.

 

Sept 11 Ethiopia's Muslim history, past and  present with Nejib Muhammad US Islamic  Community of Ethiopians. 

 

Aug 21 podcast "From Cordoba to Baghdad", Arab Music with virtuoso, Simon Shaheen.  From our Tahrir archive.

 

Aug 14  podcast Naif Al-Mutawa creator of “The 99”and CEO of  Teshkeel Media speaks about his challenges, his vision, his plans for this international superhero young people's project. From our 1994 Tahrir archive, an excerpt from The City of Cairo with Kadry Al-Arabi, and some Ramadan poetry.

 

Aug 7 podcast Mustafa Davis California-based filmmaker & photographer producer of “Deentight” an award winning film talks about hip hop artists and Islam. And productions by this summer’s Tahrir interns-- Weaam Wali and Omar Ammar.

 

July 31  podcast Ramadan from the streets of New Jersey with Tamara Issak.  "The 99",  preview for Aug 14. Comment by MT Mehdi (1997 Tahrir archive).

 

July 3 see podcast. Attorney Omar Mohammedi  assesses Congressman King's hearings and Islamophobia;   interview with London based S. Asia fusion vocalist 'Najma' ('94), and Farid Esack ('97 Tahrir archive)  

 

June 26 see podcast MT Medhi on airport profiling in 1997 (WBAI news archive); Three Veils director Rolla Selbak, and  review of gay/lesbian activists ('97 Tahrir archive) with host Dave Hall.

 

June 19,  see podcast. A review of Arab theater and "Food and Fadwa", by Reem Nasr; Ginan Rauf comments on two Egypt-focused films-- Goodbye Mubarak and Tahrir: LIberation Square.  

 

June 12, podcast. Ilyasa Shabazz, author of "Growing Up X", and daughter of Malcolm Al-Hajj Shabazz.

 

June 5 podcast,  Muslim students talk about their experience after revelations of infiltration by US intellegence agencies  of their student assemblies. Also, a  Tahrir archive  profile: the early 20th C. Egyptian feminist Doria Shafiq

 

May 14  2 hour special: The 'Nakba', 64th anniversary of the expulsions from Palestine in 1948.  

 

May 1 podcast Tribute to Brother Ghazi Khankan 1934-2012. 

 

April 24 podcast Actor/film-director Newark-born Usman Sharif  talks about his career, his productions in progress and the politics of making films. 

 

April 10 podcast Iraq--an economic model? From our archive on pre-1990 Iraq--economist Rashid Yakob. Also: Tuareg of the Sahel and crises in Saharan areas of Niger, Mali, Algeria, Libya-- a commentary by BNAziz.

 

April 3 podcast Managing multi-identities: Arab Americans’  interface with whiteness, with artistic director Jamil Khoury of Silk Road Rising Theater Chicago.

   

March 27 podcast "Water in the Middle East"-a radio documentary from our archive, with updates.  

 

Mar 13 podcast Muslim Responses to Unlawful Surveillance: Sharifah Salaam, NJ & Imam Ramadan, NY

  

"Men have singled out women of outstanding merit and put them on a pedestal to avoid recognizing the capabilities of all women" — Huda Shaarawi (1879-1947), Egyptian political activist and  feminist

 

March 8 podcast Women's Day Special from Tahrir's 1990 archive- women leaders: Huda Shaarawi and author Nadia Hijab

Jan 31 podcast Turkish TV dramas in the Arab World: with Aydin Baltaci and BN Aziz. An excerpt from RNasr's interview with journalist/author Ashraf Khalil-- Liberation Square. (full interview podcast Feb 11)

 

Jan 10 podcast. Sex education for Muslim youth--Mohamad Ahmad and Amir Mertaban, hosts of Irvine CA’s online radio’s "Boiling Point" debate the issue.   

 

Jan 3, 2012 podcast “Warrantless Profiling and Surveillance”: guest attorneys Omar Mohammedi and Faiza Patel.Listener calls. 

 

Dec 20, 2011 podcast Educating our children in Islamic values: private school principal Amanny Khattab of Noble Academy, NJ public school teacher Suada Charaf. and home-school.advocate Nabila Hanson.

 

Nov 29, 2011 podcast, Fencing champion Ibtihaj Muhammad; and medical specialists discuss treatment of NJ Arabs with disabilities.

 

Oct 4, 2011 podcast Afghan-Americans in a NY performance; Khalil Meek of Muslim Legal Fund.

 

 

Sept 27 podcast. Mohammed Ghani Hikmat ,Iraqi sculptor (1929-2011); and BN Aziz' report on her 1993 visit to Gaza at the time of the Oslo Accord (archive)

  

Sept 6, podcast  Our civil rights and entrapment of Muslims by US security agencies. Attorneys Asaad Siddiqi and Lamis Deek.

 Aug 23, 2011 podcast Tahrir archive special Ramadan children's stories, poems and people: AbdHayyMoore, Ibr.Gonzalez, Sapphire Ahmed, Somayieh Uddin, Dasham Brookins, Sharam Shiva & more.

 

Aug 16, no podcast available. What is halal; how halal is your Ramadan iftar? "My Halal Kitchen", and spiritual melodies of our Syrian group "Noor".   

 

August 9, see podcast What Ramadan means to me.

  

Aug 30, see podcast Prophet Mohammad: a third in our series on "the prophets", with Muhammad Jaaber. 

 

Select Books

Jihad for Love

Parvez Sharma

Reviewed by

If any single story could cover the range of human feeling about homosexuality, it is surely the film “Jihad for Love”.

Love for mother, ambiguities about heterosexual marriage, coming out, or not coming out, seeking and finding emotional support, delight in the feminine, solidarity, fear, determination, defiance, risk, learning about one’s true self, divine love, arguments with orthodoxy. We witness all this and more following the lives of some 12 men and women in “Jihad for Love”. We also learn about love within Islam from Muslims themselves.

Few subjects elicit such emotions and reactions as single-sex love. Director Parvez Sharma seems to have found and shared them all in the exploration of Muslims’ homosexual relations in his remarkable film. Same sex love among Muslims is not a new subject; there have been books and reports before. But most have focused on the ill treatment of gays and lesbians in the Arab world. Jihad for Love includes some of the barriers people encounter. Yet it goes far beyond that.

This beautifully woven portrayal of young Muslims by director Sharma is a story of two kinds of love. Yes, sometimes a Muslim (like any other homosexual) must live in secret and flee their society. Sometimes they live in danger and anxiety. But the main message of “Jihad for Love’ lies elsewhere. 

What almost all the subjects of Sharma’s film share besides love for one of the same sex is their love of God-- Allah. All are Muslims who seek to affirm their social identity within the context of Islam, without  banishment and without themselves abandoning their faith. This is clearly Sharma’s main message of the film, a message one hopes audiences will remember-- remember above the dangers and difficulties. Because Sharma’s message explores Islam with new eyes.

As Sharma himself believes, Islam and Allah are great enough—they embody a capacity—to accept their children who are lesbian and gay. Almost all the women and men he interviews are believing Muslims, and each seeks the acceptance of God’s love as much as they seek social acceptance. Perhaps they seek the love of Allah more.

To me this is the most inspiring and valuable aspect of the film-- a portrayal of individual men and women whose love in a worldly partner cannot be disassociated from their love of God. Through their portrayals, we are reminded of the sufi interpretations of the Qur’an and teachings of Prophet Muhammed.

As Parvez Sharma explains, this is a story of “people of faith who are taking back Islam”. He and many of the people he portrays believe they have a right to be Muslims, like others”. The struggle for this right is itself a ‘jihad’. “We are taking back the word ‘jihad’, a word associated by others with holy war. We are taking the concept of the greater jihad as the ‘inner struggle”.

In this argument, Sharma and his film represent a major step in the struggle of a people to overcome both inner and outer injustice. Speaking for oneself is a major argument in this director’s work. Too often, he argues, others are in control of who we are. “We cannot allow our lives to be mediated anymore; we have to pick up the cameras and we have to tell our own stories. We are presenting the voices of Islam, without being mediated by the West.”

In this Sharma is a real leader and a fine example of what can be achieved. He has chosen a vulnerable subject to make this point, but perhaps this forcefully illustrates the great courage involved. He therefore represents a major success and a worthy beacon for other Muslims.