THE OTHER COLUMN: Confessions of a boor — Ejaz Haider

I am told that magical realism is a big thing nowadays, courtesy Latin America (primarily), a continent which produces rebels, juntas, anti-Americanism, civil wars, drug cartels and fantasists, not necessarily in the same order

Pure coincidence it is but shows how uneducated I am.

In Islamabad, on an impulse, I pick up a book by Italo Calvino called “Why Read the Classics?” even though this is not the stuff I read — at least not anymore. A compilation of 36 essays translated for the first time in English, I start reading randomly and come across the one on Jorge Luis Borges, the Latin American writer who is supposed to be the doyen of magical realists — including Marquez’ — but who I have never read.

I am told that not having read Borges only shows that I have not had the need to strike a good conversation for quite some time. I agree. By the way, not that I knew about Calvino, just in case, dear reader, you get the wrong idea.

I read Calvino on Borges and he talks about Borges’ familiarity with, among other classical texts, The Arabian Nights.

The scene changes.

I walk into office and Khaled Ahmed shows me a book he is reading. “The Arabian Nights and Orientalism” is a compilation of papers read at a 2002 conference on Arabian Nights in Osaka, Japan. Arabian Nights? Japan?

While it is for K to inform the readers on this matter, which he shall whenever he reviews the book for these pages, I have my own confessions to make. Apparently, the tales came to Japan in 1875, eight years after the Meiji Revolution. Never knew that. Also, UNESCO sponsored Arabian Nights year in 2004. Had no idea.

I definitely need to change present company; or at least move away from the din of politics. But this is not all.

Robert Irwin, the Middle East editor of Times Literary Supplement, in the preface to the book, refers to the chapter in his 1994 “The Arabian Nights: A Companion” and says he (Irwin) discussed therein “the influence of the Nights on European and American literature and suggested at the risk of hyperbole, that that influence was so all-pervasive that ‘it might have been an easier, shorter chapter if I had discussed those writers who were not influenced by the Nights’”. No kidding!

Irwin then goes on to say: “A discussion of the lack of influence on, say, William Blake, Evelyn Waugh and Vladimir Nabokov might have been just as rewarding.” Only, when Irwin went to St Petersburg in 2001 and went to the Nabokov family home which they had abandoned before fleeing to Germany, what does he find in the now-Nabokov Museum among the few volumes of the original family library: “...there in a glass case I spotted a copy of the fin de siècle translation by Mardus of the Nights.”

Surprising as this was for me, a few lines further down Irwin mentions the essay Borges wrote on the “Translators of the Thousand and One Nights” which reaffirms Calvino’s discussion in the essay of a Borges poem that refers to the Nights. So Borges knew about the Nights. And if I didn’t know until a few days ago that he did, that only shows, again, that I need a break from hackwork and must acquire some education.

In any case, I am told that magical realism is a big thing, courtesy Latin America (primarily), a continent which regularly produces rebels, juntas, anti-Americanism, civil wars, drug cartels and fantastic fantasists, not necessarily in the same order. It seems to me that most of these magical realists were and are familiar with the Nights, the ultimate narration and reading in fantasy, but one that may be described in terms of the Borgesian conception of the interactive dynamic between fantasy and reality, art and life.

But the worst confession on my part, one that certifies my philistinism, is that I have not read Nabokov’s Ada. Because if I had, I wouldn’t need Irwin’s preface to find out that Nabokov knew about the Nights. This is how Irwin describes it:

“The sight of the Nabokovs’ copy of Mardus’s version of the Nights made me think again. I returned to England and my library and found my copy of Ada (1969), which is Nabokov’s most luxuriant novel... Its eroticism and its fantasy parallel that of the Nights and the contribution of the Arab story collection to the manner in which Nabokov chose to relate his love story is perhaps covertly acknowledged in the novel when Ada goes questing in the family library for erotica and finds a copy of the Arabian Nights.”

Irwin caps the passage by saying: “So perhaps it is now time to reconsider the possible influence of the Arabian Nights on the poetry of William Blake and the fiction of Evelyn Waugh...”. Apparently, the influence is traceable to writers placed as far and wide in time and space as Dickens, Andre Brink and Mishima Yukio — of course, I haven’t read the last two.

(There is another great Islamic sage too who plagiarised from the Nights but that is for K to narrate!)

From these recent discoveries I have learnt two things: one, that I urgently need to get an education; two, that we may do well — and I speak here not of boors like myself but those who I have heard discuss literature rather passionately — to perhaps read Alif layla wa layla, apply our critical faculties to it and trace its influence, which now seems to me to be immense, on non-Arab literatures and, more specifically, on magical realism, the sexy in-thing.

And while these educated souls are at it, could someone pass me that glass of lassi, please.

Ejaz Haider is Consulting Editor of The Friday Times and Op-Ed Editor of Daily Times. He can be reached at sapper@dailytimes.com.pk
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2007%5C10%5C28%5Cstory_28-10-2007_pg3_6

Islamophobia and the Islamist Scarecrow

The wave of terror that was unleashed on the world in the past few decades is widely referred to as "Islamic terrorism" (or Islamist terrorism); the term is an apt description of the facts, and has a strong credibility among academicians, in the international media and with the ordinary citizen all over the world, with the exception of the Muslim countries.

In return, The Muslim world, and specifically the Muslims of the West, introduced defensive terms such as "Islamophobia", which has become the current favorite for dozens of Islamic organizations in the West. The term "phobia" denotes an unreasonable, perhaps imaginary fear, one that is a mental disorder. The new term "Islamolphobia" has served those organizations well in their fervent promotion of two false concepts:

• First, that the legitimate fear that Islam is being misused by Terrorists is in fact a prejudice against Islam itself and a kind of phobia; and

• Second, that Terrorists do not represent Islam.

If Terrorists do not indeed represent Islam, then why do religious authorities in Muslim countries refrain from voicing an absolute condemnation of the Terrorists, why aren't they called infidels and renegades, and why allow them to remain part of the Islamic Body?

After all, in Muslim countries, all sorts of things have become subject to religious edicts (fatwas), from the most trivial to the most bizarre: the camel's urine, the Prophet's urine, adult suckling, the ant's backside which may excite a person fasting in Ramadan, the ban on flowers in special occasions, and the significance of the fly which carries sickness in one wing and healing in the other!! Yet, virtually none of the Islamic scholars (sheikhs) were inclined to condemn Bin Laden, Al-Zarqawi, Al-Zawahiri, Mohammed Atta, and others who follow the same path. I have yet to find a single fatwa that renounces their actions, and plainly state that they are considered infidels and should not be counted as Muslims.

To the contrary, Sheikh Mohammed Al-Negeimy -- member of the Saudi Fiqh assembly -- has furiously denied that Mohammed Atta and his companions have been sent to Hell! Sheikh Youssef Al-Qaradawi, the most popular preacher in the Arab countries, has tackled an extremely wide range of subjects in his speeches, and in his Al-Jazeera TV program Al-sharia wal hayat. He had no problem devoting an entire episode of that program to discussing the intimate relationship between a man and his wife in a level of detail that is suitable for a porno movie and not a religious program; however, he didn't find it convenient to address the issue of Bin Laden, Al-Zarqawi, Al-Zawahiri, and others.

A considerable number of individuals and organizations endorse the concept of "Islamophobia", the most notable being Tariq Ramadan in Europe and the Islamic organization CAIR in the States, and none of those has ever explicitly rejected the Terrorists as infidels who have renounced Muslim faith. Instead, the statements issued by those individuals and organizations carry a vague and general condemnation of terrorism, while their actions serve to stir up Muslims' indignation. By persistently pushing the concept of Islamophobia, they are adding to the feelings of resentment and anger among the Muslim communities in the West and making it easier for terrorist organizations to recruit their members of those communities.

The U.S. Department of State's report on the global patterns of terrorism for the year 2006 deduced as much:

"The radicalization of immigrant populations, youth and alienated minorities in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa continued. It became increasingly clear, however, that such radicalization does not occur by accident, or because such populations are innately prone to extremism. Rather, there was increasing evidence of terrorists and extremists manipulating the grievances of alienated youth or immigrant populations and then cynically exploiting those grievances to subvert legitimate authority, create unrest and convert them to extremist viewpoints."

The report called this devious machination "the terrorist conveyor belt."

Despite the fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, and that there are millions of open-minded, peace-loving Muslim individuals, the truth is that most contemporary terrorists happen to be Muslims, and the majority of terrorist operations are carried out by Muslims -- a fact that is acknowledged by Muslim intellectuals such as Abdel Rahman Al Rashed. Furthermore, all Muslim terrorists draw on religious scriptures to justify their actions, recruit new cells and motivate Muslims to provide funds for terrorist organizations. Keeping in mind that the majority of terrorists are Muslims, and that all of them use the religious scriptures as a sound basis for their actions and to receive supporting funds from Muslim countries, then how can anyone have the gall to interpret acknowledging this situation as Islamophobia?

According to the "Global Patterns of Terrorism" report, the incidents of terrorism in 2006 highlight the extremely serious nature of the current situation. As most of these incidents have been carried out by extremist Islamist factions and Muslim terrorists, we can clearly deduce that the deliberate promotion of the concept of "Islamophobia" was a supporting factor in stirring up the feelings of resentment and anger against the West, thus adding more fuel to the fire of terrorism. The term itself can also be perceived as some form of blackmail that has had an intimidating effect on Western societies, with the intent of dissuading those societies from hunting Muslim extremists and terrorists, and putting them in a situation where they are required to coddle the Islamic organizations instead of subjecting most of those to lawful trials.

According to the report, 14,352 terrorist operations took place across the world in 2006, and as a result 74545 military persons and 20,570 civilians were killed; 1800 children were wounded and killed, 430 students, 215 teachers and 129 reporters lost their lives; 8,200 policemen were wounded and killed, in addition to 1300 public leaders and guards. The number of individuals abducted during 2006 is estimated to be around 15,855; and the number of buildings, schools and governmental institutions targeted amounted to 19,500; 300 terrorist groups took responsibility for these operations, in addition to the individual incidents of terrorism.

The report indicates that at least 50% of those operations targeted Muslims and were carried out by Muslims as well, and during that same period, 350 mosques were subject to terrorist attacks. When so much death and destruction takes place during a single year, and given that 90% of that horror was unleashed by Muslim terrorists, it is highly absurd to talk about Islamophobia in relation to the current state of affairs. Fear and misgivings are completely warranted in this situation. People are entitled to react in fear when they face a lethal situation, otherwise they would be lacking sensibility and good judgement.

The term "Islamophobia" is a tool of deception that serves to mislead the world, blackmail the West, terrorize whoever dares to criticize Islam, fuel the anger of Muslim youth, and minimize the danger of Islamic terrorism, in addition to being a threat to the freedoms of thought, creativity and criticism in the West, ultimately the term can serve the interests of the terrorists.

While Tariq Ramadan holds the first place among the promoters of the concept of "Islamophobia", Saad Eddin Ibrahim takes the lead in using the term "Islamist scarecrow". The term is meant for the ears of the West as well, and suggests that the autocratic governments play on the fear of the West that an Islamist rule will be the alternative if those regimes fall, so that by waving this "scarecrow" around, and alluding to the ominous repercussions of reform for Western interests, for non-Muslim minorities, and the Middle East as a whole, they have managed to scare off the West and stall the reform project. Though I agree with my dear friend Prof. Ibrahim that the autocratic regimes in the Middle East have skillfully used this scare tactic to alarm not only the West, but also the non-Muslim minorities in the East, the liberals and women, nonetheless the term itself is inappropriate if not misleading, and plays right into the hands of Islamists and their plans to establish a religious state.

The Islamists should not be compared to a scary looking but harmless scarecrow; they are by no means an empty threat, but rather a genuine menace that alarms the advocates of civil society, who realize that if Political Islam gets its chance to take control of the Middle East, the region will plunge into total darkness. The Islamists would not let go of their detrimental vision of a religious state, and there are two recent cases that support this view: the way Hamas renounced the terms of democracy and went back on its agreement, shattering the Palestinian experience; and the way the Muslim Brotherhood have affected life in Egypt, even though they have no part in the government. Considering that the Muslim Brotherhood's proposed reform project is for a religious state that is governed by scholars concerned with camel urine, where the law submits to shari'a and science to superstition, where national belonging is discarded in favor of religious belonging, and political posts turn into religious assignments, where political power bows down to religious power, and to the instatement of welayat al-faqih (guardianship of the Islamic jurists) that mirrors Iran -- considering that this is only a proposal, one has to wonder how much worse reality will be if they gain the power to implement their vision?

The Islamists are certainly no scarecrows; basically, they are a major obstruction standing in the way of real democracy, citizenship and civil state. They do not endorse the supremacy of the law and a civil constitution that separates state and religion. They do not sanction laws that protect and expand freedoms. They reject genuine equality between Muslims and non-Muslims, and they are engrossed with religious interpretations to the point of complete obsession. Hence, it is reasonable to say that any attempts to defend or bolster their image can only lead to the obliteration of whatever little is left of the civil state to the advantage of an extremely dark religious state.

Yes, the Middle East regimes are autocratic, corrupt and do use the Islamists' card in a dangerous game inside and outside their countries. Nevertheless, to stand by the Islamists is a reckless and extremely risky gamble, and much like "Samson choice", the whole region may not survive its outcome.

Magdi Khalil is a Middle East Freedom Forum Director.
http://www.americanthinker.com/2007/10/islamophobia_and_the_islamist.html

CAIR Attack On Dr. Daniel Pipes Ludicrous, Given Its Own Refusal To Condemn Hamas

October 27, 2007 - San Francisco, CA - PipeLineNews.org - In a major public relation's move, part of its campaign of slander, branding critics of radical Islam as "Islamophobes," and designed to provide counterpoint to Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, a weeklong national college movement to crystallize opinion on Islamic terrorism, the faux civil rights, Hamas mouthpiece CAIR, mounted an attack on Middle East Forum Director, Dr. Daniel Pipes, an advisor to the Rudy Giuliani presidential campaign.

The move came in the form of a press release in which CAIR alleges that Pipes supports the Iranian dissident group, MEK, the Mujahedeen E-Khalq.

In order to substantiate such a charge, CAIR deceptively paraphrases content from a Pipes' op-ed which was published by the New York Post op-ed on May 20, 2003, and entitled "Mujahedeen-e Khalq: A Terrorist U.S. Ally?"

CAIR claims:

"A prominent national Islamic civil rights and advocacy group today called on Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani to drop a campaign advisor who offers rhetorical support to a group designated as "terrorist" by the U.S. government. The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) said Daniel Pipes, who recently signed on to Giuliani's campaign as a foreign policy advisor, is a vocal supporter of the terror group Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK)"

What Pipes actually said, in context however is far from a blanket endorsement of the group. His piece takes the form of an intellectual discussion probing the group's nature and possible use as a lever against the Iranian mullocracy. The article also casts the U.S. Department of State in a less-than-appealing light, demonstrating its continuing obtuseness in dealing with the Middle East.

What Dr. Pipes actually said is:

The MEK is not your typical anti-Western group, but an organization with a strong political presence in Western capitals and over 3,000 soldiers stationed in Iraq, singularly dedicated to one goal: overthrowing its "archenemy," the Islamic Republic of Iran. Is the MEK a terrorist group?

No. It used terrorism decades ago, when its members attacked Americans. For the last 15 years, however, the MEK has been organized as an army, and its only violent actions have been directed against the Iranian regime. Unlike Hezbollah (which targets Jewish community centers and shoots rockets into civilian areas), the MEK attacks specific regime targets. Unlike the PLO (whose leaders were terrorists more recently and arguably still are), the MEK really has foresworn this barbaric tactic.

...Policy toward the MEK has long been quietly but intensely and bitterly debated in Washington. To curry favor with Iranian "moderates," the State Department in 1997 designated the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Although 150 members of Congress publicly opposed this designation, a U.S. court of appeals recently upheld it.

This stark difference of views helps explain Washington's erratic policies of late. On April 15, the U.S. Army signed a cease-fire permitting the MEK to keep its weapons and use them against Iranian regime infiltrators into Iraq. This deal infuriated the State Department, which then convinced the president to undo it, leading to the strange sight of U.S. troops surrounding MEK camps on May 9, disarming its fighters and taking up positions to protect them.

That's a bad idea. Coalition forces are urgently needed to restore order elsewhere in Iraq. And State is dreaming if it thinks the sight of U.S. troops guarding the MEK will mollify Iran's mullahs" [source, http://www.danielpipes.org/article/1100.

In mounting an attack against Pipes, CAIR has three main goals:

1. Since he is such an effective communicator regarding the civilizational threat represented by radical Islam, they seek to demean him and limit his influence via a constant stream of lies, which then are picked up and reverberate within the Islamist/lefty blogosphere. Additionally, since Giuliani has long been keenly aware of the radical Muslim threat, having rejected Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin-Talal's blood money attempted donation to New York post 9/11, the effort to damage Pipes was probably also intended to tar New York's former Mayor with the same brush.

2. CAIR is desperate in seeking to deflect the intense bad publicity that has come from it having been named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the ongoing Holy Land Foundation Hamas terror prosecution and having the founder of its Texas chapter, Ghassan Elashi, already found guilty in the related Infocom terror case.

3. CAIR is trying to create a facade, that it stands against Islamic terror, when its entire history, including its relationship with the American Hamas PR organization, the Islamic Association for Palestine as well as its irrefutable ties to the Holy Land Foundation - having accepted a $5,000 donation from it in 1994 as seed money to found its DC office [see photocopy of wire transfer, image below] - suggests otherwise.

Given the group's attempt to link Pipes with support of the MEK [something which clearly is not indicated by his public statements which simply set forth how the MEK might be employed, specifically as intelligence assets, feet on the ground as to better understand what is going on in Iran, about which Pipes observes, "Western spy agencies are short on "human intelligence" - meaning spies on the ground in Iran...MEK can also supply key information on developments in Iran - where, despite a tendency toward exaggeration, it has had some major scoops. Its information in mid-2002 about Iran's nuclear program, for example, was better than what the International Atomic Energy Agency knew?"] we wondered if this somehow signaled an historic change of mind, a rejection of CAIR's previous policy of refusing to condemn Hamas, specifically and by name as a terrorist organization.

Towards that end on Thursday, October 25, 2007, we attempted to contact several CAIR offices by telephone.

We were unsuccessful in directly reaching any of CAIR's DC office spokespeople, including Ibrahim Hooper and Amina Rubin, and did not leave a message, since numerous previous messages have never been returned. When contacted, the Sacramento, California CAIR office suggested that we call the Sunnyvale/Santa Clara branch, which we did.

When that office's spokesman was placed on the line, we asked him if CAIR was now willing to "condemn Hamas, specifically and by name as a terrorist organization" he repeatedly refused, though we gave him numerous opportunities to answer in the affirmative. All that he would say is that CAIR condemns "all terrorism," a familiar and specious ploy, since the group has traditionally alleged that Israel's campaign to suppress the Intifada, is terrorism:

"Israel is killing civilians and inflicting massive humanitarian suffering on both the Palestinian and Lebanese populations in order to achieve a political goal, which clearly fits the definition of state terrorism," said CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad.

Awad said that more Americans are realizing that Israel is a strategic liability, not an asset to the United States, as outlined in a recent Harvard University report." [source, http://www.cairchicago.org/actionalerts.php?file=aa_israeli_attacks07132006]

It seems clear that CAIR's game plan vis-a-vis its groundless attack on Dr. Pipes is cut from the same cloth as is its attack on Robert Spencer, a noted authority on radical Islam and a key speaker during Islamo Fascism Awareness Week.

CAIR's vicious campaign of character assassination against Pipes, alleging he supports terror, inelegantly attempting to link him to the MEK while the organization itself repeatedly and steadfastly refuses to condemn Hamas, is just another demonstration of the danger the group poses via its bully-boy policy of intimidation. Rather than serving - as CAIR's leaders mistakenly believe - to blunt the increasing criticism the group is receiving, such Gestapo-like tactics abundantly demonstrate the group's Islamo Fascistic agenda, even to the degree of employing Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels' technique of the "big-lie."

The group's MO in this and related matters is morally reprehensible and has no place in reasonable public debate...but since when has CAIR been interested in anything aside from being in the vanguard of radical Islam's stealth jihad in America?

©1999-2007 PipeLineNews.org LLC, all rights reserved.

http://www.pipelinenews.org/index.cfm?page=cairpipes10.26.07.htm

Belly dancing for elderly residents

Publisher: Pam Caulfield
Published: 23/10/2007 - 10:13:48 AM

Edenbridge residents were treated to some belly dancing

A group of older Edenbridge residents experienced some middle eastern delights recently when an expert belly dancer visited them to give them a demonstration of the ancient dance.

The belly dancing session led by experienced belly dancer Lea Smith, took place on Wednesday 3 October at the Edenbridge Centre, and the group enjoyed it so much that they booked a further six sessions in 2008!

Belly dancing is a Middle-Eastern form of dance which can have many benefits such as easing back aches and building self-confidence.

Cllr Felicity Broomby, Sevenoaks District Council Cabinet Member with responsibility for community development, said: "I know the Older Lifestyles Group thoroughly enjoyed this, as it is not everyday you get the chance to take part in something as exciting and different as a belly dancing workshop!

"The group has benefitted from all kinds of activities in the past, such as yoga, drumming and regular exercise classes, but I think this must have been just about the most unusual of the lot, and it goes to prove it is never to late to learn something new!"

The Edenbridge Older Lifestyles Group aims to provide healthy lifestyle information, activities and advice for anyone living in the Edenbridge area over the age of 65.

Due to the success of the group, they have set up their own management committee and have recently gained much needed funds from West Kent Extra and Comic Relief enabling them to continue to enjoy and benefit from sessions such as dancing, craft and the occasional day trip.

The group is totally free and meets every Wednesday at 11.30am in the Edenbridge Centre, Four Elms Road, there is no need to book, you can just turn up on the day.

The group, which has approximately 36 regular members, was set up by Sevenoaks District Council and West Kent Primary Care Trust in partnership with Age Concern in March 2005 following recommendations from the Edenbridge Health Needs Assessment.

Don\'t miss the 24dash.com audio bulletins for the latest news and information - http://www.24dash.com/podcasts

Diallo teaches belly dancing

By JANICE AUSTIN
For The Salinas Californian

Belly dance has been a form of expression for Mariama Diallo for the past 17 years. She loves the way the dance form communicates a woman's life.

"When a woman belly dances, she's expressing her life story through the movement," Diallo said. "I've never met a woman who isn't a beautiful belly dancer."

She teaches belly dance at Gold's Gym on Constitution Boulevard on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings. The Saturday morning class is open to community residents whether they have a gym membership or not.

A student of West African drum and dance, Diallo was given her performance name, Mariama, by drummers she worked with during a drum and dance workshop in Senegal. She has formed a dance troupe, Amies Dorée, with her students.

An adventure-seeker, Diallo was a rock climber when she took her first belly dance class.

"I was looking for a dance form that would increase my balance," she said. "A friend told me that in belly dance you dance barefoot and are always relying on the edges of your feet. I stopped climbing and kept dancing."

She trained in Oregon. While living in Switzerland, Diallo taught belly dance.

"In the region I was living, there wasn't another dance teacher," she said. "I started to teach because I needed to dance and I needed to dance with other women. I enjoy the interaction with other women. Belly dance is healthy and empowering for women."

Diallo, 44, shares her home with her husband - an African drummer - mother and cat. She has lived in Salinas for 10 years. She also teaches a muscle-toning class and a spinning class at Gold's Gym.

from
http://thecalifornian.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071024/LIFESTYLE07/710240316/1031

Egypt to host 11th Pan-Arab Games in November

CAIRO, Oct. 25 (Xinhua) -- Egypt is busy preparing for the 11th Pan-Arab Games slated for Nov. 11 to 25, an official of the organizing committee said Thursday.

The venues of the Pan-Arab Games will be in eight governorates in Egypt, namely Cairo, Giza, Port Said, Ismailia, Alexandria, Assiut, Aswan and North Sinai, said the official on condition of anonymity.

According to earlier reports by local media, it's estimated that some 7,000 athletes and officials from 22 Arab countries and regions will participate in the upcoming Games, but the exact number of athletes and the agenda have not been fixed.

The Egyptian State Information Service will establish a media center during the event, the official MENA news agency reported.

The Pan-Arab Games are one of the most important regional multi-sport event held in the Arab world, with the first Games being held in 1953 in Alexandria, Egypt.

Due to political turmoil and instability in the region, the Games have failed to be held every four years as originally planned since 1965.

from

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-10/26/content_6949155.htm

Showcomedy The Destination For The Worlds Funniest Comedians And Hit Series

Dubai, UAE - October 28, 2007: SHOWCOMEDY just got a whole lot funnier with a line up of stand up comedians and much more that will have you in hysterics throughout November.

Axis of Evil a trio of Middle Eastern comics made up of Ahmed Ahmed, Aron Kader and Maz Jobrani specialise in telling it as it is from an Arab-American perspective. They kick off the comedy slot on Friday, November 2nd at 22:30KSA with a one off special of their hilarious original comedy tour that has become one of the hottest tickets by blasting stereotypes with outrageous humor.

Comedy fans can tune into Premium Blend from Saturday, November 3rd. The show is a breeding ground for up-and-coming stars. Every Friday and Saturday at 22:30 KSA rising comics take the stage for five minutes each to prove how funny they are. Following on at 23:00 KSA with the laughter is Comedy Central Presents. The show provides every comedy fan's fantasy - a half hour alone with the best stand-ups on the scene. Featuring performances from comics like Patton Oswalt, Brian Posehn, Mike Birbiglia, Lewis Black, Dane Cook and Wanda Sykes, Comedy Central Presents provides season after season of mind-blowing specials that you'll be quoting for years.

Hit show Weeds is back with a potent concoction of comedy and drama returning for its third season as events in the affluent suburb of Agrestic take a turn to the dark side. Funnier, darker and more daring, the acclaimed series reaches a higher ground. Golden Globe winner Mary-Louise Parker stars as Nancy Botwin, the soccer mum who had to learn how to deal with life after the death of her husband. Now, her business is a hit. But keeping up with the neighbours in this suburban utopia isn't easy. She's joined up with a few of her closest friends, and together they're facing life's highs and lows - because even in paradise, nobody's perfect. So gear up for more mind-expanding edgy humour as Weeds rolls back onto our screens from 18th November every Sunday and Monday at 23:00 KSA.

Plus the 16th series of Simpsons, the longest-running comedy series in television history is back on our screens every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 23:00 KSA from the 21st November. Over the years we have come to learn life is never simple when Homer Simpson is involved. 400 episodes in and he's still getting the family into all kinds of scrapes. And we love him for it! Get yourself some doughnuts and settle down to enjoy more great comedy from SHOWCOMEDY exclusively on the SHOWTIME network.

from
http://www.middleeastevents.com/site/pres_dtls.asp?pid=2193