Dalel B. Khalil is a Syrian-American who just published FROM VEILS TO THONGS An Arab Chick’s Survival Guide to Balancing One’s Ethnic Identity in America.  This hilarious, first-of-its kind book explains how to retain one’s sanity in the battle of the ultimate culture clash and offers hilarious explanations as to why we still have arranged marriages in this day and age! 

Most recently, Dalel spent 3 months in Syria where she traveled all over the country as well as to Lebanon, Jordan and Dubai.  While in Damascus, she volunteered with Iraqi refugees and did public relations work with the Middle East Council of Churches—meeting directly with NGO’s  and UN officials to see how Syria was dealing with the Iraqi refugee crisis.  She engaged in many cross-cultural forums and multi-faith discussions to promote dialogue between the East and the West. She also got yelled at by rude taxi drivers who begged her to speak English because they didn’t quite understand her “ghetto-fabulous” Syrian accent. (Yill an…!)

Prior to that, Dalel has worked as a reporter, anchor, talk show host and morning show co-host for three of Pittsburgh's top radio stations. 

Registered Readers may write articles  - one per week

Rev.  Patrick Dobson Reports

Mohammad Umar Baba is a Kashmir-based Journalist and blogger and was born in Srinagar in 1982. He has been covering conflict, politics, and human rights in the region for the past several years and can be reached at umar9944@gmail.com

Christina Zola from the Arab American Institute Reports.

Ali Younes is an award winning journalist and writer. He is a member of the Arab American Writers Group and an award winning journalist and media strategist.

Asli Bali is a lawyer in private practice in New York and a graduate student at Princeton University. 

She currently holds the Irving S. Ribicoff Fellowship at the Yale Law School.  Ms. Bali is the president of the New York Chapter of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) and a member of the national board of ADC. 

She also serves on the editorial board of the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP).

Courtney C. Radsch is a scholar and freelance journalist who focuses on the Arab media and politics.

She is a Ph.D. candidate at the School of International Service at American University in Washington, D.C. Ms. Radsch is writing her dissertation on the Arab media's influence on foreign policy and has done fieldwork in Egypt, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Her research has also looked at the ideology and politics behind Islamist extremism.

Ms. Radsch is an internationally published journalist and previously worked at the New York Times and the Daily Star in Beirut, Lebanon.

She holds an M.S. in International Relations from Georgetown University's School of Foreign Service and a B.A. in Mass Communications from the University of California, Berkeley. 

Leaving her hometown of Columbus, Ohio behind, Maria Shehata quickly earned herself a place at the table at some of the best comedy clubs in New York City.

 
Between appearing in Comedy Central's Friday Night with Greg Giraldo and The Watch List, and performing in venues such as NY's Arab-American Comedy Festival and the New York Underground Comedy Festival, Maria still finds time to be hard at work creating a comedy act that is sharp and original. 

Maria always pleases audiences with a conversational delivery on a variety of topics, including her favorite, herself.

Hayan Charara is the author of two books of poems, The Alchemist's  Diary (01) and The Sadness of Others (06).

His poetry has appeared in numerous publications, among them Chelsea, Cream City Review, Hayden's Ferry Review, and the anthology American Poetry: The Next Generation.

Born in Detroit, he lived for many years in New York City before moving to Texas.

Ramzi Zakharia is a Palestinian-American blogger who was born in Beirut and is now based in New York City. He works in the media and advertising sector and has strong insights into both Arab and US media outlets. 

Ramzi is also very involved in the Arab-American Community and is one of the founders of the Gay and Lesbian Arab Society (GLAS).

In addition to politics, his passions include media, new technologies, and the arts.  Ramzi lives with his partner and dog in suburban New Jersey.

Nadia  was born in New York City but spent her formative years in Cairo, Egypt.

She completed two years at the American University in Cairo before transferring to Florida Southern College, where she obtained a bachelors degree in print and broadcast journalism.

She has a masters degree in strategic communication from New Jersey-based Seton Hall University.

She is married and lives in central Florida.

Ather Zia previously worked with the BBC as a producer and later served as an editor of a literary journal. 

As a columnist with first-hand experience in the region, she examines the Kashmir conflict from a historical, political and socio-economic perspective. She also had the opportunity to serve as a civil servant in the Kashmir government and has three publications to her credit.

She is currently pursuing her graduate studies in journalism in addition to teaching and writing.

Christine (Amina) Benlafquih is a freelance writer whose work includes articles, opinion pieces, personal essays and occasional fiction and poetry. A former publications and public relations director, she earned a B.A. in Journalism from Duquesne University in 1987.

Originally from Rochester, NY, she has also lived in Pittsburgh, PA, the Washington, DC area, and now resides in Casablanca, Morocco. Her experiences as an American convert to Islam, both in the United States and in Morocco, serve as inspiration to much of her work. She is particularly concerned about the biased portrayal of Arabs and Muslims in the media, and about the division and labeling that occurs among Muslims themselves.

 
Christine is a member of the Islamic Writers Alliance (IWA) and the Muslim American Journalists Association (MAJA). She is married and the mother of six children.

Josephine Zohny was born to an Italian-American mother and an Egyptian-born father in Pittsburgh, PA. She grew up in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and moved to New York City shortly before the September 11th attacks to attend college.

She received a B.A. in Music Business, Writing (Creative Non-fiction) and Race and Ethnic Studies from NYU in 2005. She is currently the Director of Entertainment Publicity for WeRoqq Publicity and Promotion, primarily representing hip-hop and r&b artists.

Her writings on music, pop culture and critical race theory have appeared on PopMatters.com, EURWeb and in Colorlines and Z!nk, among other outlets and publications.

She is intensely interested in the issues of ethnic identity as it pertains to Arabs, both in the Middle East and North Africa, as well as in the diaspora.

Her personal blog can be found at www.jzohny.com.

Mr. Barry Lando is a Canadian native living in Paris, France. 

Lando spent 25 years an an award-winning investigative producer with 60 minutes and directed a documentary two years ago called, “The Trial of Saddam Hussein We’ll Never See.”

It dealt with the hypocrisy of putting Saddam Hussein on trial without also dealing with the complicity of world leaders and businessmen in his crimes during his time in office in Iraq.

Prior to that he was a correspondent for Time-Life in South America.  He has also freelanced articles over the years for a large range of North American and European publications.

He received a B.A. magna in history at Harvard University and an M.A. in political science from Columbia University.

His new book is titled “Web of Deceit: The History of Foreign Complicity in Iraq from Churchill to Kennedy to George W. Bush.”

Web of Deceit draws on a wide range of journalism and scholarship to present a complete picture of what really happened in Iraq under Saddam, detailing – for the first time – the complicity of the West in its full and alarming extent.

It is being published by Other Press in the U.S. and Doubleday in Canada.

He maintains his own blog at http://www.barrylando.com.

Ahmed Shihab-Eldin grew up in California, Kuwait, Egypt and Austria. He has most recently worked as a news producer for The New York Times and as a web producer for the PBS international documentary series, Wide Angle. His work has been featured in Frontline/World online, TimeOut, Washington Week and other blogs.

He graduated from Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism, where he know teaches a new media skills class.

In 2008 Ahmed won a Webby award for a multimedia project called Defining Middle Ground: The Next Generation of Muslim New Yorkers. It can be seen here: www.definingmiddleground.com

His portfolio website can be seen at: www.ahmedeldin.com

His family is originally from Palestine

Ramzi Khoury is an opinion columnist and satirist who publishes a weekly page, Piece of Mind, at the Saudi Gazette and elsewhere every Wednesday, Ramzi E. Khoury started his career in Granada Television in the 80s working on documentaries and since then has worked in the print, television and radio media all over the world.

In addition to reporting with international news agencies he held several posts in the media including Chief Sub Editor/Political Editor of the Jordan Times, Editor in Chief of the Arab Daily newspaper and Secretary General of the Arab Media Organization. He continues to be adviser to several newspapers, television and radio stations as well as online media.

He has worked with numerous satellite channels on television programs, documentaries and news and is often invited to offer his political analysis on television and radio stations from all over the world especially on Mideast and related issues.

Currently based in Malaysia with extensive travel in the Middle East and Europe Khoury advices governments and private sector organizations on Perception Management with focus on issues related to politics and religion including the divide between the Muslim World and the West and is active with several non-government organizations.

Before Malaysia he was based in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Palestine, Jordan, USA and the UK in order.

Dr. Terri Ginsberg received her doctorate in Cinema Studies from New York University. She taught most recently at North Carolina State University. 

 Dr. Ginsberg taught previously in the Jewish Studies Program at Dartmouth College and the Cinema Studies Program at Rutgers University.  She has published numerous scholarly texts, including the volume Perspectives on German Cinema (with Kirsten Moana Thompson).

 Dr. Ginsberg is a member of The International Jewish Solidarity Network, a growing international network of Jews whose Jewish identities are not based on nationalism but on a plurality of histories and experiences. IJSN is committed to the struggle against the colonization of Palestine and the building of a Zionist Jewish state that began in 1948.

Dr. Ginsberg is also the author of a recent monograph entitled Holocaust Film: The Political Aesthetics of Ideology (Cambridge Scholars Publishing).

Kamin Mohammadi is an Iranian writer, journalist, broadcaster and commentator who lives in London where she moved after leaving Iran as a child. She specialises in writing about Iran, particularly modern society.

She is passionate about bringing out the human elements of the stories we see, or more often don’t see, in the news. To this end she has published major pieces on the after effects of the Iran-Iraq war, drug addiction and AIDS in Iran, the innocent civilian victims of chemical bombardments, sexual politics and even the Iranian penchant for both devotion to religion and partying.

She is currently writing a family memoir about Iran, to be published in 2009 by Bloomsbury and working on a cross-media project to commemorate the Iran-Iraq war. In the past she has written guide books and edited glossy magazines.

Her archive can be viewed on her website www.kamin.co.uk.

Dr. Ghassan Michel Rubeiz is a Lebanese-American Middle East analyst with special interest in political sociology, social justice and democracy. He is a former professor of social work and psychology.

He was Secretary of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches for the Middle East during the eighties and early nineties. He also served Eastern Europe for six years from the Geneva office of Christian Children’s Fund. Between 2000 and 2005, he was the Washington Liaison Director of CCF. He is now focused on public speaking and writing on the Middle East.

Over the last five years, he has contributed a series of articles to the Christian Science Monitor online edition, the Lebanese Daily Star and the Arab American News.

Currently, Rubeiz is writing regularly from his home office in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida. His special interest is in politics and religion and in promotion of Arab American understanding.

His maintains his personal blog at www.aldikkani.blogspot.com.

A. Scheherezada Jerome is an Anglo-Ottoman Instructor of Islamic Studies at York College of Pennsylvania. She graduated from Dickinson College in 2003 with a self-developed major in Middle Eastern Studies and Spanish.

In 2004, she graduated from the School of Oriental and African Studies with an M.A. in Islamic Societies and Cultures. Finally, in 2005 she finished her second M.A. in Gender and Identity in the Middle East (Summa Cum Laude) at the University of Exeter.  After finishing the first stages of her postgraduate work, she was an intern in Women’s Affairs at the Embassy of Afghanistan.

In addition to her academic work, she manages her non-profits, The Shaherazade Project and Women Against Crimes of Honor. She’s also the coordinator for postgraduate students in the Association for Middle East Women’s Studies.

Currently, in addition to her teaching duties she is the editor of Kohl an anthology of Muslim-American women’s writing to be published in 2007 and is working on research for her second novel, Hürrem Sultan.

I have appeared on various national and international televisions shows, including CNN's "American Morning" and "Wolf Blitzer's Reports," Comedy Central's "Tough Crowd," NY1, PBS' "Newshour with Jim Lehrer," ABC's "20/20," CNBC's "The Big Idea with Donnie Deutsch," Japan's NHK, CNN International's "Inside the Middle East" and "Your World Today," as well as in numerous sketches on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" and "Late Night with Conan O'Brien."

I can also be seen in the DVD bonus material for Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 911" in the section entitled, "Arab-American comedians." I have also been featured in numerous newspapers and publications including The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Vanity Fair (Italy edition), Associated Press, AFP, The UK's Guardian, NY Daily News, The NJ Star Ledger and numerous college publications.

Please visit my Video and Audio Clips Page to check out clips from my TV and radio appearances or visit my In The News Page to read newspaper articles in which I have been featured.

My new one man show entitled, "I Come in Peace," which is a comedic and truthful look at my life as an Arab-American in the post 9/11 world, recently had a successful run in the 2006 NY Fringe Festival and Off-Broadway. The show will be touring in the near future. For more details about my show, please click HERE.

I am co-producing a new show for Comedy Central's Internet channel entitled "The Watch List" with Emmy award winning writer Max Brooks. This is the first show ever produced by a major entertainment company which will feature all Middle-Eastern American performers. It will be released on January 15, 2007. For more info, please click HERE.

I have written jokes which have been featured on Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update and CBS Late, Late Show. My jokes have also been quoted in numerous publications including The New York Times, NY Daily News, and the UK's The Guardian. I have also appeared on various radio shows including Air America, NPR, BBC, and Democracy Now with Amy Goodman.

I co-hosted a monthly radio program on WBAI radio in New York City with my good friend and fellow comic Maysoon Zayid which featured Arab-American artists. Our guests included Emmy Award winning actor and star of "Monk," Tony Shalhoub, Kathy Najimy, Jamie Farr and Tony award winning poet Suheir Hammad.

I am proud to be the co-founder of the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival which is an annual five night comedy Festival in New York City which showcases comedic theater, stand up comedy and film.

I have appeared at colleges and comedy clubs across the United States. I have also performed comedy in the Middle East in Ramallah, Haifa, Dubai and Beirut. When I'm not traveling, I perform regularly in the top comedy clubs in New York City, including The Comedy Cellar, Gotham Comedy Club, Stand Up New York and The New York Comedy Club.

Arash Kamangir is an Iranian graduate student. He relocated to Canada in September 2005.

Since October 2004 Arash, has maintained his blog "Kamangir" which talks about Iran, Islam, the Islamic Republic of Iran and their interdependence as well as their differences.

His work can be summarized as trying to show the diversity in Iran, through translating posts from Persian blogs.

Aly Mohamed is an Egyptian American student and a budding journalist at Oregon State University.  He recently earned an Honors Bachelors of Science in Bioresource Research with a concentration in Biotechnology, and a minor in Chemistry. He served as the president of the OSU Muslim Student Association for the 2005-2006 academic year.

Mohamed began his fourth year of research in the field of DNA mismatch repair at the start of 2007. He is currently pursuing a Masters degree in Genetics and applying for enrollment in medical school. His interest in DNA repair and the study of medicine are part and parcel to his interest in studying and eventually contributing to the field of oncology.

Ms. Alhusseini joined the Arab American Family Support Center as Executive Director in April 06 after a number of years at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), where she served as international outreach project manager on issues of child protection, abduction and child trafficking.

Prior to joining NCMEC, Alhusseini worked for the Gateway Battered Women’s Shelter in Denver, Colorado where she developed the Shelter’s children’s program and worked with immigrant populations including Arab-American women and children.

Before coming to the U.S., Alhusseini served with a number of international organizations around the world on issues pertaining to child protection and human trafficking, including USAID and UNICEF.

Most notably, she established the Jordan River Foundation’s child protection unit under the direction of HM Queen Rania Al Abdullah. That organization was the first in Jordan to address the issue of child abuse.

Born in Jerusalem and raised in Saudi Arabia and the UK, Alhusseini is of Palestinian origin.

Muhammad Ali Hasan is a political commentator/writer, filmmaker, and activist.

Hasan is the Co-Founder of Muslims For America, a think-tank  organization that specializes in policy proposals that address  solutions towards building peace between America and the Muslim  World, with the help of a nationwide membership that welcomes Muslims  and Non-Muslims. Muslims For America evolved from Muslims For Bush,  an organization that Hasan co-founded in 2004.

Hasan currently serves as a guest political commentator for Fox News,  MSNBC, GEO-TV, and BBC Radio of England, in addition to being a  former regular guest on CNBC’s The Dennis Miller Show and Politically  Incorrect with Bill Maher.

Hasan’s political writings have been published in BeliefNet and the  Washington Review of Middle Eastern Affairs, in addition to writing  regularly for Naseeb.com and MuslimWakeup.com.

As a filmmaker, Hasan was recognized as an Emerging Filmmaker of 2007  by Panavision for his directing work on short film, Rabia. Hasan was  also named a Coca Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Finalist of 2006, part of  Coca Cola’s nationwide filmmaking competition. In 2006, Hasan opened  his short film production company, Rabia LLC, boasting sponsorships  from Eastman-Kodak, Color By Deluxe, and Panavision.

Hasan is proud of his work as a political activist, especially in  building bridges between American Muslims and the Republican Party.  Through filmmaking and writing, Hasan hopes to create greater peace  between all, as the War On Terror continues.

Past activities for Hasan also include serving as a tyro teacher  public school teacher in Los Angeles, where he was a candidate for a  Masters in Teaching. Hasan worked extensively as an environmental  scientist, in college, under the direction of Dr Jim Sadd, where the  group used Geographic Information Systems analysis to study social  justice issues within environmental science.

Hasan will soon be basing himself in Colorado, where he has opened  Sangre De Cristo Capital LLC, a land development company. Hasan is  looking to get more involved, politically, from his base in Colorado  as he continues his efforts in political commentating and filmmaking.

Naeem Randhawa is a filmmaker, travel writer, and IT project manager, living in Dallas with his wife and baby boy. He has been writing about travel for over 12 years, and made his film directorial debut last year, with a film about fasting called “American Ramadan.”

Having traveled almost every state in the US, Canada, as well as international destinations, his travel writings cover everything from adventure trails across White Sands in New Mexico, exclusive resorts in Quebec, Baja trekking in Mexico, to the many travel destinations in the US. He is currently developing a diversity based travel show, to premiere later this year.

A self-starter, he taught himself filmmaking, to add a voice in countering the current media bias and void of Muslim representation in mainstream media. Last year, the film was picked up and broadcast by Link TV, Geo TV, Bridges TV, as well as international networks. This year the documentary will air across 50 PBS stations this year, and reach over 70 million TV US homes.

He has also shot, and produced over 70 field television reports for a national satellite network, reporting on the Muslim community locally in Dallas, and at large. Highlights include coverage of on-the-ground reporting from New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, and many others.

He is currently working on research for his next documentary projects, about Hajj, Muslims in the US Army, Faith conversion stories, and a PSA for a national organization. His media website can be viewed here at JustSayGoFILMS.com.

Born and raised in New York, Eman Ahmed is an Egyptian-American attorney specializing in employment discrimination. She received her B.A. from St. John’s University, Suma Cum Laude, and her J.D. from New York Law School where she also served as an editor at the New York University Law Review.

Eman is an active member of the Network of Arab-American Professionals and is a member of the NYSBA Committee on Women in the Law. She appeared in the 2003 edition of Who’s Who Among American Law Students and currently appears in the Madison Who’s Who.

I haven't an ounce of Arab blood within me -- but I have been to Israel/Palestine five times since June 2005 and have been reporting on the Christian Exodus from the Holy Land on http://www.wearewideawake.org and as a correspondent for http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org and http://www.opednews.com. 

 
My first book, is an historical fiction based on the memoirs of Dr. Khaled Diab, a '48 refugee from the Galilee, Keep Hope Alive who made his way to America and into a lucrative career in the defense industry with Top Secret Clearance during the Cold War.

The events of September 11, 2001 led to his founding the 501 3-c Olive Trees Foundation for Peace/OTFFP, which is dedicated to raising awareness and funds to replace the over one million trees The Wall has destroyed.

One-hundred percent of the proceeds for Keep Hope Alive are being donated to the non profit OTFFP until Dr. Diab's vision of one million trees of peace blanketing the Holy Land. 

My second book, Memoirs of a Nice Irish American Girl's' Life in Occupied Territory, was released in February and I am now writing my third book --  So This is 53 -- which includes my experiences living in occupied Palestinian territory from July 14 through July 28, 2007.
 

Eileen is also a volunteer with Palestinian Children's Welfare Fund, dedicated to helping the craftspeople of Palestine and caring for the impoverished children by importing and selling goods made in the West Bank.

She is dedicated to a nonviolent end to the occupation of Palestine.

Nadia is a Palestinian-American writer based in Detroit. She recently received a Bachelors of Fine Arts from Wayne State University and plans to pursue graduate studies in Visual Culture/Criticism. She is an artist, writer, media maker and activist.

Currently Nadia is working with the Allied Media Conference, TheCulturalConnect, and writing for Detroit's Metro Times.  She has written and contributed to numerous different zines and independent publications, and blogs at NoSnowHere.com.

Her interests include printmaking, fiber arts, Palestinian liberation, women of color feminism and art theory.

Kamal Nawash began life as a Palestinian refugee. One of six children born in Bethlehem , Kamal was nine years old when his family arrived in New Orleans in 1979.

 
Upon completing his education in 1997, he became the Legal Director of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), Today Kamal is an attorney with degrees in business and law and international legal studies. An active member in his community, as well as in his voting district, Kamal ran as a Republican candidate for Virginia State Senate in 2003.

 
After 9-11 Kamal was dismayed to see the nearly mute reaction of American Muslims to the tragedy waged by Islamic extremists.  Kamal saw the need for Muslims to speak out against terror and he founded the Free Muslims Coalition.

Kamal is committed to fighting terrorism because it threatens the United States and the rest of the world, including the Muslim and Arab world. Kamal has studied the causes of terrorism for a decade. He is the author of several articles on Islamic terrorism, political Islam, the Arab/Israeli conflict, the spread of Muslim extremism, terrorist financing, and on the economic implications of globalization for the Middle East and North Africa . With the Coalition he wants to expose and root out terrorism at every level, from the sympathizers, to the financial supporters of terrorism, to imams and community leaders preaching a message of hate, to Islamic terrorists themselves.

 
The Coalition promotes a modern secular interpretation of Islam which is peace-loving, and compatible with other faiths and beliefs.  Kamal encourages other Muslims to be proud of their faith and at the same time critical.

Jillian York is a freelance writer who focuses on the MENA region, with an emphasis on Morocco.

After graduating with a BA in Sociology from Binghamton University, Jillian volunteered with AmeriCorps before moving to Morocco to teach English for two years.

Since 2005, Jillian has maintained The Morocco Report, a blog about Moroccan politics and culture, and currently covers Moroccan and Palestinian blogs for Global Voices Online. 

She is also the author of a Culture Smart! Morocco, a guide to Moroccan customs and writes for INTHEFRAY Magazine. Jillian is particularly interested in the effort to promote citizen media from countries which are given a negative focus in the Western media.

Deborah Ann Dilley is actively trying to reinvent the term “renaissance man” to fit her lifestyle. A student, scholar, teacher, reader, writer, blogger, linguist and archaeologist -- Deborah is active is a wide variety of activities.

She graduated in 2004 with bachelors in Turkish Language and Ancient Middle East History from the University of Utah, and currently is finishing her masters in Applied Linguistics. Working as the Outreach Assistant at the University of Utah’s Middle East Center, Deborah spends her time teaching the community and educators about the Middle East, its culture, history, and politics.

She writes for Global Voices Online as their columnist covering the Turkish and Kurdish blogospheres.

When she is not busy with one thing or another she chronicles her life at her blog, Turkish Delight.

Beatrice Vanni is an independent consultant and professional editor and writer who specializes in project development to help public and private sector businesses and consultants attract more clients. She combines her editing, writing and program development expertise to help lead companies to long-term goal achievement by originating plans for enterprise initiatives and its timely implementation. She also works on grant development for companies who are interested in Corporate Social Responsibility.

For the past fifteen years, Bea has worked in both industry and education as a project developer and manager, and in the law enforcement and corrections profession during the previous 20 years. Bea’s responsibilities spanned a broad variety of project development with writing and editing management.

In the recent past, Bea has edited books on business, health and leadership, developed grant projects for Mediation Services and Turkish Pharmaceutical Standards, and created an interview package for a biography. She has also edited many academic research papers and articles for publication and designed materials for companies looking to expand their name in the business community.

Since 1982, Bea Vanni has shared her experience with others via public speaking in both business and humanities areas. While her focus is publishing for business purposes, her off-the-beaten-track life gave her the gift of reinventing herself for success. She speaks on leadership; mid-career moves for solo professionals; how to publish without a publisher, and selling your ideas to others. She also speaks on family violence and related topics.

Most recently, she's presented seminars on business blogging and writing CVs for new university graduates and mid-career professionals. She has shared her first career expertise in training local Turkish police and prosecutors about “Influencing the Outcome of Confrontations” and “Family Violence, First Response and the Role of Police and Prosecutor”. Additionally, she originated a training course on “Administrative Excellence for Staff Development”; presented a Leadership Development Certificate Course for 600 students with 3 academics, and presented a paper on Pilot Project Proposals at an international conference in Istanbul. She'll present at a Global Poverty conference in October 2007.

Prior to working independently, Beatrice Vanni enjoyed a 20-year Law Enforcement and Security career beginning in Sacramento, California, and culminating as an Air Force military officer. One of her most noted accomplishments was as a Systems Security Requirements Officer on the Consolidated Space Operations Center (CSOC) in Colorado Springs, Colorado, which encompassed full integration of all types of security from ground up. Later on, she assumed primary responsibility for all security activities on the CSOC Program. Since that time, she has worked many years with industry and universities as a project developer and manager.

Bea received her M.A. in Business Management from National University in Los Angeles; a Post-Graduate Certificate in Police Administration, Eastern Kentucky University; a B.A. in Corrections from California State University, Sacramento, and a Certificate in Teaching English as a Foreign Language (TEFL).

Since 1998, Bea has resided in Istanbul, Turkey, where she loves Turkish life, the people and the culture.

You may contact Bea at bvanni@remarkablesolutions.com or visit her blog, Turkey & My Foreign Perspectives at www.remarkablesolutionsblog.com.

Mr. Fahad Nazer is a fellow at the Institute for Gulf Affairs in Washington, DC. A native of Saudi Arabia, he has worked as a political analyst at the Department of Political Affairs and as a media analyst at the Information Office of the Saudi Embassy in Washington, DC.

He is also a PhD candidate in political science at the Catholic University of America, where his tentative dissertation will examine the impact of the non-Islamist reform movement on the political culture of Saudi Arabia. His research interests include political development and reforms, democratization and civil society in the Middle East. He also has an interest in international relations theory and US foreign policy.

His writing has appeared in The International Herald Tribune, Yaleglobal Online, The Straits Times, Outlook India, The Asia Times and Saudidebate.com, among others. In addition, Mr. Nazer is coauthor of a monograph on Saudi Arabia entitled "Inside the Kingdom" that will be published by the American Enterprise Institute in late 2007.
 

I was born and raised in El Bireh in Palestine. I received her BA in English Literature from Birzeit University and a PhD in English and American literature from Boston University. I taught at An Najah National University in Nablus before returning to the US to teach postcolonial literature, cultural studies, and women's studies at George Mason University. I am the author of The Factory Girl and the Seamstress: Imagining Gender and Class in Nineteenth-Century American Fiction and co-editor of Going Global: The Transnational Reception of Third World Women Writers and Etel Adnan: Critical Essays on the Arab-American Writer and Artist. My esasy "Between Complicity and Subversion: Body Politics in the Palestinian National Narrative" won the 2004 Florence Howe Award (given for best article from a feminist perspective). My essays and reviews have appeared in several publications and some have been translated into Arabic and Hebrew.

I am also the author of  “Improvisations: Arab Woman Progressive Voice,” a blog about Arab women, Palestine, and cultural politics. 

Yasmina Hatem was born in Beirut, Lebanon where she spent most of her life.

She started writing for a French weekly newspaper for teenagers when she was 15 years old and has been active in journalism ever since.

She attended Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism and obtained her Masters of Science in May 2007. She currently lives in New York City and works for Al Arabiya News Channel at the United Nations.

Philip Rizk is an Egyptian-German who lived in Gaza from August 2005 through August 2007.

He currently lives in Cairo and runs the blog www.tabulagaza.com.

Dr. James J. Zogby is founder and president of the Arab American Institute (AAI), a Washington, D.C.-based organization which serves as the political and policy research arm of the Arab American community. Since 1985, Dr. Zogby and AAI have led Arab American efforts to secure political empowerment in the U.S. Through voter registration, education and mobilization, AAI has moved Arab Americans into the political mainstream.

Shady N. Janzeir freelances for a Saudi car magazine while he openly sneers irreverence at a steady 9-to-5 gig with a global corporation. He gets to thrash cars paid for with other people’s money around corners with no embankments, he tries to outrun cops who spot him laying tire marks at traffic lights (and succeeds often enough to keep the arrangement with the mag).

Having owned and driven so many cars in his life, he’s a cynic: no car is too good, nothing is perfect, and the hell with what marketing types say. If it sucks, it sucks, so suck it up.

Although he’s not doing an actual newspaper at this time, Janzeir is a newsroom monkey. A story junkie. Put him on any desk, staring into any computer, with any task, and it will get done. He’ll interview, write, edit, translate, lay out and even proofread. If this makes newspaper production seem too easy, it shouldn’t. It’s hectic, relentless, and most of the time downright crazy. A newsroom isn’t a newsroom without cross-room yelling, the crackling of dismissed proofs, the blue mist of cigarette smoke, and the occasional stack of papers flung into the air with anger and frustration. And that’s where the fun is.

Shady is that kind of rogue: he pokes the managing editor in the eye, he gives the chief editor the finger, and gets out of his reporter’s way. All in a day’s work sticking it to "The Man."

Sabria Jawhar is a Saudi columnist and reporter for the Jeddah-based English-language daily newspaper Saudi Gazette. She currently lives in Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom, where she is a PhD student at the University of Newcastle.

She is considered one of the leading female journalists in Saudi Arabia, where she covered breaking news events at a time when such news coverage was open only to men. Her news beats included the ministries of Foreign Affairs and Interior.

In the summer of 2005, she earned a Fellowship at the prestigious Korean Press Foundation and Yonsei Communication Research Institute in Seoul, South Korea. In 2007 she was a panelist in the United Nations 15th International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East in Tokyo, Japan.

She earned her bachelor’s of arts degree in English language and literature at the King Abdul Aziz University and a master’s degree in applied linguistics at Umm Al-Qura University in Makkah.

Her column archives can be found at her website http://www.saudiwriter.blogspot.com/

Ray Hanania is an award winning Palestinian journalist, columnist, author and standup comedian. Nominated for a Pulitzer Prize by the Chicago Sun-Times for his groundbreaking series on the Palestinian Intifada in 1990, he has won three Society of Professional Journalism Lisagor Awards and was named Best Ethnic American Columnist by the New America Media in November 2006.

Hanania’s journalism and communications career is extensive. He is the publisher of the National Arab American Times Newspaper, pens "Ray Hanania's World" comic strip which satirizes World and Middle East political events and issues, and is the political columnist for the Southwest News-Herald Newspaper in Chicago. In Broadcast media, Hanania hosts the live radio talk show "Mornings with Ray Hanania" on WJJG 1530 AM Radio, Monday through Friday in Chicago from 8 until 9:30 am.  He also is the host of TV Chicagoland, which is broadcast on Comcast Cable TV Channel 19 every Friday night in 145 Chicagoland suburbs.

Hanania has authored eight books including the humor book "I'm Glad I look Like a Terrorist: Growing up Arab in America" (1996), and he is the contributor in seven books including “Foods of Chicago: A Delicious History” which features his Palestinian food recipes as well as experiences growing up Arab in America.

In addition to journalism, Hanania is also the Palestinian performer in two standup comedy troupes, the internationally acclaimed Israeli-Palestinian Comedy Tour, which uses humor to help bridge the gap between Arabs and Israelis, and the Infidels of Comedy, an all Christian Arab comedy troupe.

He can be reached at www.TheMediaOasis.com and by email at rayhanania@comcast.net.

Saffiya Shillo is a long time community activist serving on the boards of several agencies focused on bringing social awareness and advocacy to the Arab community in Chicago and nationally. 

She is immediate past-president of Arab American Family Services, a social service agency serving the Chicago area's American Arab and Muslim community. 

She has served as president of the Palestinian American Congress in Chicago and executive board member of the Palestinian American Women's Society of Chicago and American Task for on Palestine. 

She also devotes much of her time to working with her own community and the Jewish American community towards ending the Palestinian/Israeli conflict. 

She previously worked as Director of Ethnic Affairs for the State of Illinois' Office of Lieutenant Governor and prior to that was Director of the Arab American Institute's Chicago office.

She is a featured writer for the Arab American View Newspaper in Chicago and is very involved in Chicago's Arab community.

She currently works as a domestic violence/sexual assault advocate and crisis counselor in the Chicago area for a mainstream social service agency. In addition to advocacy, she also does outreach to local government and social service providers that work with the Arab American community.

Fadi Zanayed is a practicing attorney in the Chicago area since 1985. A graduate from Loyola University with a B.S. in Managerial Accounting and a minor in Political Science in 1983, he received his law degree from Loyola School of Law in 1985. A Palestinian American whose family originates from Ramallah, Palestine, Fadi Zanayed is an active and proud member of the Arab American community with a long history of community leadership and service. They include: Founding Member of Arab-American Bar Association of Illinois, Inc.; Former Regional Director & Past President, Chicago Chapter of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee; Past President of the Chicago Chapter of the Palestinian American Congress; Past National Secretary of the Palestinian American Congress; Past President of the Chicago Club of Ramallah, Palestine; Past Member of the Board of the American Federation of Ramallah, Palestine; Past President of the American Youth Federation of Ramallah, Palestine. His web site is www.ChicagoArabLawyer.com.

Articles from our readers.  To submit send your article to media@arabisto.com

Gaza City, Gaza Strip, Palestine

I am Sameh A. Habeeb. I'm a Palestinian born and raised in Gaza. I'm 23
years old. I have a bachelor degree in English Language and Literature. I have worked in several different fields’ pre and post of my university studies
for almost 5 years. I have worked as volunteer in civil societies where I
practiced tasks to help people and educate children. I worked as News Producer and a Journalist at the Ramattan News Agency which is Regional Media facility based in Gaza and the Middle East.

After a year, I started to work in the relief sector with the International
British NGO in my home country. I still work till now where I supervise around 350 orphans. I report their news, needs and life progress for them. In
addition, I write features and photo stories about their life. In addition I
contribute to implementation of projects and supervision.

In December 2007, I started a brand-new stage of my life linked to peace
activities, activism, tolerance and solidarity. I began to work as a peace
activist with some Israeli friends to bring peace in the Middle East. This added much to my array of skills and furthered my leadership potential. I was even named as the "Barack Obama" of Palestine while I was speaking in a conference in Italy. I believe I have the quality’s associated with public speaking, research, photography and journalism to make positive changes and contributions in my career field.

I am currently working as an Editor for _www.freegaza.ps/English_
(http://www.freegaza.ps/English) . I have launched many Facebook groups and other sites and organizations about peace, solidarity and outcome evaluations. I have conducted many dialogues and conferences in many countries such as Italy, Spain, Greece, UK and so forth.

As a Photojournalist and writer I have my own blog:
_www.gazatoday.blogspot.com_ (http://www.gazatoday.blogspot.com) . I go on site to locations as a journalist, visit families, take photos, write about the social issue or event and then publish them. I do that for free and I my work is published worldwide.

I visited the European Union and was invited for a speaking session. I was
invited to speak about Gaza for France, Spain, Luxembourg, Greece, Ireland and UK. I was invited to Canada last August after I was selected to participate in Quebec 400 Anniversary to speak about my experience as a journalist.

Sameh A. Habeeb
Photojournalist & Peace Activist
Gaza Strip, Palestine
Mob: 00972599306096
Tel: 0097282802825
E-mail: Sam_hab@hotmail.com
Sameh.habeeb@gmail.com
Skype: Gazatoday, Facebook Sameh A. habeeb
Web: www.gazatoday.blogspot.com
Daily Photos:http://picasaweb.google.com/sameh.habeeb  

EXPRESS YOURSELF!

Poet's View is a new section at Arabisto, highliting creative writing.   Will print all poetry, lyric, verse, and short fiction in this section.   We invite you to submit your work with byline or anon.  

To submit, simply send your work to media@arabisto.com with the topic : Submission and watch your creative reach out to the world.

THE PRNEWS blog is open to any Arabisto Blogger to submit a press releases or news announcement as they are released to the public. What we hope to do is separate PR News Releases from blogging. The best scenario is to take a PR News Release and post it here. However, we encourage you to also write about the topics addressed in the press releases on your blog, adding depth and offering compelling insight for readers to understand why the event or issue touted in the PR News Release is important. You can submit press releases directly to me at rayhanania@comcast.net. (Arabisto.com reserves the right to accept or reject any press release for any reason.)

-- Ray Hanania
Arabisto Editor