Spartan (David Mamet, 2004) was quite near the beginning of the artistic sequence that Mamet scholars would eventually call his "early crypto-fascist period"—certainly a good dozen years before his bizarre, Kaufmanesque wrestling matches with Tariq Ramadan, complete with veiled ringside girls, on Al-Jazeera. About the film itself, critics were brutal. One of them called it "unimaginably crude – the Pickup on South Street (1) of the so-called War on Terror." Another said, "watching this film makes me want to commit innocent but suspicious acts deserving of a good waterboarding in Guantanamo." Despite the down-beat & cryptic patriotism of the film, it was not a success. Warner Brothers, sifting through the testing data, eventually fingered its too mild anti-Arabian racism. Mamet was forced to move the idea to television where he re-conceived the material for the series The Unit, primarily, the cynics said, as a way to get singing gigs for his wife, Scottish folkstress Rebecca Pidgeon.
- 9/13/2011
- MUBI
Al Jazeera English may be coming to American television screens. The Qatar-based network is currently in talks with cable giants Comcast and Time Warner, creating a groundswell of enthusiasm among American news junkies and a collective groan from right-leaning conservative activists. At the moment, Al Jazeera English is only available on a handful of local cable outlets in Washington, D.C., Burlington, Vt., and a few other locales.
Executives from Al Jazeera were caught by the Philadelphia press visiting Comcast's headquarters in the northeastern city. To be fair, Al Jazeera has been diligent in letting journalists know that it was lobbying for a Comcast slot. The network sent out a press release announcing that they handed over a massive pile of 13,000 letters from Americans who wanted to watch Al Jazeera English to Comcast executives:
[Al Jazeera English] arrived at Comcast's HQ in Philadelphia with boxes of emails garnered from their online campaign to gain national carriage.
Executives from Al Jazeera were caught by the Philadelphia press visiting Comcast's headquarters in the northeastern city. To be fair, Al Jazeera has been diligent in letting journalists know that it was lobbying for a Comcast slot. The network sent out a press release announcing that they handed over a massive pile of 13,000 letters from Americans who wanted to watch Al Jazeera English to Comcast executives:
[Al Jazeera English] arrived at Comcast's HQ in Philadelphia with boxes of emails garnered from their online campaign to gain national carriage.
- 3/2/2011
- by Neal Ungerleider
- Fast Company
On the day a Federal District Court judge told the would-be Times Square bomber that she hoped he would spend his life sentence thinking about whether “the Koran wants you to kill lots of people,” Christopher Hitchens and Tariq Ramadan took the stage at the 92nd Street Y to debate the question, “Is Islam a religion of peace?” Neither man liked the question.
- 10/7/2010
- Vanity Fair
Just a heads-up to all literature fans in the area that the fall edition of this year's Writers Festival is being held from October 20-26, in various locations around the city. The full schedule can be found at the Festival website, here. Just a few of the many highlights include: novelists Michael Cunningham (October 20) and Sandra Birdsell (October 24); sociopolitical commentators Tariq Ramadan and Ezra Levant (October 23); historian Charlotte Gray (October 24 and 25), and a closing session...
- 9/27/2010
- by Brendan Blom
- CultureMagazine.ca
Just a heads-up to all literature fans in the area that the fall edition of this year's Writers Festival is being held from October 20-26, in various locations around the city. The full schedule can be found at the Festival website, here. Just a few of the many highlights include: novelists Michael Cunningham (October 20) and Sandra Birdsell (October 24); sociopolitical commentators Tariq Ramadan and Ezra Levant (October 23); historian Charlotte Gray (October 24 and 25), and a closing session...
- 9/27/2010
- by Brendan Blom
- CultureMagazine.ca
When Karen Armstrong, an author and former Catholic nun, won the 2008 Ted Prize, she made a Ted wish worthy of Mother Theresa: that a Charter of Compassion be drawn up with help from leading thinkers in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. A year and a half after Armstrong made her wish, the charter is a reality.
Armstrong's charter was written with input from thousands of people in more than 100 countries. In February, the Council of Conscience (a group including Tariq Ramadan, Rabbi David Saperstein, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Sheikh Ali Gomaa) put all the ideas together into a cohesive charter.
The text of Armstrong's document is available at the Charter for Compassion website, but promotion for the charter doesn't stop there. Yves Behar and his team at fuseproject designed more than 60 Charter for Compassion plaques to be placed at significant religious and secular locations around the world, and nearly 200 special religious...
Armstrong's charter was written with input from thousands of people in more than 100 countries. In February, the Council of Conscience (a group including Tariq Ramadan, Rabbi David Saperstein, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Sheikh Ali Gomaa) put all the ideas together into a cohesive charter.
The text of Armstrong's document is available at the Charter for Compassion website, but promotion for the charter doesn't stop there. Yves Behar and his team at fuseproject designed more than 60 Charter for Compassion plaques to be placed at significant religious and secular locations around the world, and nearly 200 special religious...
- 11/13/2009
- by Ariel Schwartz
- Fast Company
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