From the Welfare State to the Caliphate
“We are Mujahideen Fi Ash Sham, and we bear witness to the obligatory nature of jihad for all who believe in Allah, the Prophet, and the Doomsday.” Thus were the words of several self-proclaimed jihadis in a video that appeared on the internet in 2012. The twist: those words were in Swedish, and the speakers hailed from the suburb of Angered, outside Sweden’s Gothenburg. Find out why a sleepy Swedish suburb is becoming a recruitment center for young jihadi hopefuls trying to make their way to the battlefield in Syria.
Source: Foreign Policy Middle East Channel
Islam Kamal: Filmmaker from Alexandria
An up-and-coming filmmaker from Alexandria, Islam Kamal shares the concepts behind his films, especially the idea of building personal relationships with the locations he chooses to shoot. He discusses ways in which small art house films could reach a larger audience in Egypt, through organizing screenings at cafes and community organizations.
Source: Jadaliyya
Small linguistic triumph demonstrates Lebanese determination to succeed
In 1990, former Lebanese prime Minister Rafik Hariri decided to invest in Lebanon’s potential human capital by establishing the Hariri Foundation for Sustainable Human Development, a scholarship program for gifted Lebanese students. In the aftermath of Lebanon’s bloody fifteen-year civil war, the scholarships promised a brighter future than handouts of “AK-47s, cartons of cigarettes and US$400 a month to serve in a militia.” A former English teacher remembers the success of one shy Hariri scholar.
Source: Michael Karam for the National
