Most Arab and Middle Eastern media may not be free, but that doesn't mean they're not extremely influential. Learn about the variety of media, culture and the arts, how those voices shape opinion and filter western messages on the Arab Street and beyond, and the roles censorship and state control play on controlling the message.
A profile of Profile of two-time Grammy Award Nominee Rahim AlHaj, oud performer, by Rick de Yampert
Quick gallery of the best, most notable or worst books on the Middle East in 2009.
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In 1950, Herge published "Tintin in the Land of Black Gold," a unique window into European popular perceptions of Arabs and oil at mid-century.
Dove's Eye View Author Leila Abu Saba died on
How Walter Cronkite in 1977 scooped Jimmy Carter and mediated Egyptian Israeli negotiations before the Camp David accords.
A definition of Knafeh or Kunafeh, the cheescake and Levant favorite.
When Michael Jackson, the King of Pop, re-dicovered Islam in Bahrain to escape the glare of child molestation publicity.
In Jenin, in the Palestinian Territories of the Occupied West Bank, a Palestinian youth string orchestra led by Wafa Younis and called Strings for Freedom is disbanded when Palestinian politicos object to a Holocaust concert the group participated in.
Amin Maalouf's "Origins" is a wonderful memoir and investigation of the author's family through a century of letters, poems and memories from the mountains of Lebanon to Havana, Cuba.
What is Arabica coffee? A brief lesson in the origins and history of one of the world's richest and most aromatic coffee beans.
Following the 2009 Gaza war, Qatar shut down its trade mission with Israel. In retaliation, Israel vowed to restrict al Jazeera , the Qatar-based satellite news channel, in Israel.
A Bibliography of th Works of Gibran Khalil Gibran, Lebanese American Author of "The Prophet."
A profile of Gibran Khalil Gibran (18883-1931), Lebanese-American author of "The Prophet" and other works.
Excerpts from the works of Lebanese poet Gibran Khalil Gibran, author of "The Prophet."
A brief story of Maya Angelou in Morocco, drinking tea and "cockroaches," in a wonderful encounter between kindness, stereotype and belated epiphanies.
A chart of Internet usage in the Middle East by country, including growth trends, 2000-2008.
On June 20, 2008, the Spertus Museum, Chicago's prominent Jewish institution, abruptly ended its "Imaginary Coordinates" exhibit under pressure from its donors. The exhibit had challenged conventions of geography, homelands and map-making. The Spertus Museum controversy would likely not have happened if a Jewish museum in israel had shown the same work.
Brigitte Gabriel is a Lebanese-born Christian who's marketing her experiences in war-torn Lebanon into fear-whipping Islamophobia in the United States.
The National is the latest of a half-dozen English-language newspapers and on-line publications to join the diverse media environment of the United Arab Emirates. But diversity doesn't necessarily mean press freedom.
From its launch in 1996 Al Jazeera has revolutionized the rules of Arab television news while challenging western dominance in setting the agenda of perceptions about the Middle East.
Could Oprahs 48 minutes a day on Arab TV, twice a day, be a more powerful and positive force of social subversion in the Middle East than George W. Bushs missionary armies could ever hope to be?
Afghanistan has been retreating back into chaos and repression in 2006 and 2007. The decision to delay the release of 'The Kite Runner" illustrates to what extent the country's situation has become precarious.
A review of "The Kite Runner," the novel by Afghan-American writer Khaled Hosseini about love and betrayal through Afghanistan's thirty-year war.
Orhan Pamuk, by far Turkey's most popular novelist, won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2006--and stirred a major controversy in his home country over his comments about the Turkish genocide of Armenians and Turkish killings of Kurds.
What's really on the Arab world's most-watched network?
Reporters Without Borders tracks free speech, censorship, journalists' working conditions, imprisonments and murders country by country.
APN, sponsored by the Paris-based World Association of Newspapers, supports the development of a strong, independent press in the Arab world. APN's site is a portal to the latest developments in the Arab newspaper industry.
Marc Lynch, author of a popular blog on the Middle East and a professor of political science at George Washington University, talks to Bradford Plumer about his book exploring Arab media, and in particular al-Jazeera and the Iraqi public. From Mother Jones.
