This Blog is intended for use by students in the Islamic Middle East course at Northfield Mount Hermon School and guest students and teachers from other participating schools.
Israeli P.M. Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas have held talks in Jerusalem aimed at moving the peace process forward.
Story from the BBC with links to historical benchmarks in the process and other resources (such as borders, the status of refugees, and water)
IME Course Study Guide for the Arab-Israeli conflict
Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda organization has witnessed a series of high profile dissents from the party line. One of the most prominent is Sayyid Imam al-Sharif, who goes by the nom de guerre of “Dr. Fadl.”
See: Britta Sandberg, “Turning Their Backs on Jihad,” Spiegel Online International, July 14, 2008
More on Al-Qaeda
IME course study guide on [...]
In the Sunday, August 24, 2008 issue of the New York Times Book Review Michael Goldfarb reviews a new book by Quil Lawrence on the Kurds: Invisible Nation: How the Kurds’ Quest for Statehood is Shaping Iraq and the Middle East (Walker and Company). The U.S. may become much less friendly to Iraq’s Kurds than [...]
Author Martin Amis reflects on the nature of international terrorism in a recent piece from the Wall Street Journal. Is al-Qaeda “the dark child of globalization…the mimic of modernity: devolved, decentralized, privatized, outsourced and networked,” or, is it really about religion after all, he asks? He also writes, “We can further expect international terrorism to [...]
BBC Middle East Country Profiles
Library of Congress Country Studies
U.S. State Department Country Pages
CIA World Factbook
Economist.com Country Briefings
Maps at About.com
Online Map Quiz at Rethinking Schools.org
Maps and map quizzes at Lizardpoint.com
Go to story, links, and map
IME course guide to the Arab-Israeli conflict
Iranian born Israeli peace activist Abie Nathan has died. Among other things, he founded the “pirate” radio station “Voice of Peace,” famous for its call-sign: “From somewhere in the Mediterranean, this is the Voice of Peace.”
More at BBC
Go to “History of the Middle East Database” and click on the first category at the top left of the page - “Origins of Key Geographical Terms” - to bring up links to a variety of common geographical terms pertaining to the Middle East.
Pankaj Mishra, in an Op-Ed piece in today’s New YorkTimes writes:
“Over the last two decades, most ordinary Kashmiri Muslims have wavered between active insurrection and sullen rage. They fear, justifiably or not, the possibility of Israeli-style settlements by Hindus; reports two months ago of a government move to grant 92 acres of Kashmiri land to [...]
BBC Middle East