hullaballo in the comics pages

If you're not already sick of reading about the cartoons controversy (I'm catching up on the news) then I recommend these posts by Moorishgirl, Abu Aardvark, and Sepoy (now with new original chapatilicious artwork) and these op-ed pieces by Juan Cole and Tariq Ramadan. Incidentally, the latter is now a visiting fellow at St. Antony's--wish he'd come while I was still there, as he's supposed to be an eloquent and interesting public speaker (and according to my friend F. he is, as they say, teh hott.)

Also, here's an eyewitness account of the torching of the embassies in Damascus. I remember wandering all through the embassy district one afternoon (I was trying to get permission to go to Quneitra in the Golan Heights, which required registration and special stamps in my passport from some difficult-to-locate government office in the area) and noticing the contrast between the US embassy--a fortress, with twenty feet of wall and barbed wire--and its European counterparts, so much more approachable and relaxed-looking. Sad to think that will probably change, now.

Something I read mentioned that apparently Amr Khaled (the young, popular Egyptian televangelist/talk show host--sort of an Islamic cross between Oprah and Billy Graham) is going to announce a "plan" to resolve the matter. If you're curious about Amr Khaled, check out this article by Lindsay Wise (another Antonian) in the Transnational Broadcasting Studies journal. TBS is consistently a fantastic source for coverage & analysis of satellite TV (and sometimes other media) in the Middle East/Islamic world.