Media Review Network – Page 1311 – Providing Context and Substance

Obama and the politics of race and religion in america

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By M. SHAHID ALAM

It is perhaps a bit late in the day, nearly two weeks after November 4, to be writing about Barack Obama’s electoral victory. This want of alacrity, however, is intentional.I thought it would be cruel to write any sooner, when whites and blacks alike were so effusively celebrating Obama’s victory. It would be unseemly to strike a discordant note when a clear majority of Americans was savoring this putative post-racial moment in their history.Did this victory signal a shift in America’s racial tectonic plates?

Little shop of horrors

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

By Mark Perry, Bitter Lemons, November 6, 2008

I once asked one of my Palestinian friends what he thought the United States should do to help the peoples of the Middle East. He was incredulous: “Haven’t you done enough?” In retrospect that pained reply seems the perfect answer to my presumption: I’m from America and I’m here to help.

Sadly, the self-congratulation attendant on Barack Obama’s election has seemingly revived this tradition of selfless altruism. As a former Clinton administration official told me several weeks ago: “We’re going back into the Middle East, but this time we’re going to get it right.” That it did not occur to this official that we aren’t exactly “out” of the Middle East is a testament to American optimism–and amnesia. “Really,” he added, “our capacity for doing good is limitless.”

The muslim judicial council mjc calls on president kgalema motlanthe

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

The Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) has described a courtesy call made to the Tuynhuis home of President Kgalema Motlanthe on Wednesday as very fruitful, characterised by “cordial but tough talks with hard questions asked” on key issues. Speaking to VOC on Thursday morning, MJC deputy president, Sheik Achmat Sedick, said that the meeting was a follow up on a letter of congratulation sent to Motlanthe upon his appointment as new president.

“This type of meeting is not unusual for the MJC. We have a legacy of meeting the reigning presidents since 1994. We did so with Nelson Mandela and with Thabo Mbeki. Yesterday’s courtesy meeting stems from when a letter of congratulation we set to the president on his election, followed by a dinner invitation upon the occasion of Eidul Fitr. He was unable to accept the invitation – which we have now reissued for Eidul Adha – but notified us that he would still like to meet with us which set up Wednesday’s meeting,” Sedick explained.

Mjc to meet motlanthe

by MRN
January 1, 2013July 25, 2013

Amid a stirring debate among SA Muslims about their role within a democracy and political engagement as the country approaches the 2009 national election, the office of the Presidency announced on that the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC)’s senior members are to pay a courtesy call on President Kgalema Motlanthe on at Tuynhuis. However, the delegation excludes MJC president, Maulana Igsaan Hendricks, who is presently in Yemen.