· November, 2008

Stories about Western Europe from November, 2008

The Balkans: Tragic Legacy

Cafe Turco writes on the inaccuracies in Resolution 819 film and posts a translation of Hasan Nuhanović's article that challenges “the veracity of some scenes.” Srebrenica Genocide Blog writes on...

29 November 2008

Egypt: Locking Al Azhar students in the dark ages!

Al Azhar English Training Center is funded through a partnership agreement between Al Azhar University, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Global Opportunities Fund and the British Council. The Center was supposed to provide English Language courses in its first semester to 125 students from various disciplines until Ali Laban, a Muslim Brotherhood deputy, decided otherwise. One enraged instructor speaks up on Facebook.

28 November 2008

Is Secularism the answer to Egypt's Sectarianism?

Egypt has always been known as an Islamic country where Muslims, Christians, and Jews peacefully co-existed. Today this is no longer the case. Is secularism the solution? Following is an outline of the discussion taking place on Egyptian blogs today.

27 November 2008

Watch ‘Best of the Blogs’ Awards LIVE

The winners of this year's Best of the Blogs awards (The BoBs) will be announced in Berlin tomorrow, November 27, 2008 (8pm CET). The event is open to the public. If you're not in Berlin, you can watch the whole thing online via this post. Global Voices website, Rising Voices has been nominated in the Best Blog category.

26 November 2008

Denmark: “Deep Linking” Under Fire by Newspaper Publishers

Blogging journalists in Denmark are up in arms over a renewed effort by Danish newspaper publishers to stop websites like Google News from linking to individual articles rather than a newspaper's homepage. They call this “deep linking”, and it is precisely what bloggers usually do. Regardless of what is considered normal practice around the world, the Danish Association of Newspaper Publishers insist they only want homepage links.

22 November 2008

Religious unity: The Charter for Compassion

As children we may all have heard the Golden Rule expressed in many different ways, but the basic idea is: Treat others as you would like to be treated. This is Karen Armstrong's TED wish, to create The Charter for Compassion, a platform in which the different Abrahamic faiths could focus on what was common to all, the moral backbone of all their faiths towards a greater unity and better communication among people of different faiths.

21 November 2008

Egypt: Sawiris Takes on Switzerland

Cairo's Scene & Heard celebrated entrepreneur and hotelier Sameh Sawiris's new project in Switzerland saying: “Now that we're branching out into Europe…do you think we stand a chance next to...

20 November 2008

Egypt Ranks High in Corruption

Egypt ranks 115 in Transparency International's Corruption Perception Index, which tracks 180 countries by their perceived levels of corruption, as determined by expert assessments and opinion surveys. The rankings are in ascending order, with the more corrupt countries scoring higher ranks.

18 November 2008

Syria: Love is in Stuttgart

Forget politics, Obama or the economic crisis. The new buzz in the Syrian blogosphere is about love. Mariyah, a Syrian blogger from Damascus, has been playing with the hearts of...

15 November 2008

Japan: Street View and the Burakumin

The Internet, many would argue, has created the possibility for anyone to express their opinions freely. Recently, however, some have worried about an increase in the number of racist and denigrative comments against minorities spreading across the web. In Japan, the advent of Google's new Street View service has led some bloggers to discuss the relationship between areas photographed and discriminated communities.

14 November 2008

Jerusalem: Unholy Behavior

Yerevan Journal says that despite reported momentum in the peace process to resolve the Nagorno Karabakh conflict, the number one talking point on the streets of the Armenian capital is...

12 November 2008

Jerusalem: Armenian, Greek Monks Brawl

Friction between various religious denominations is not new, but an incident that occurred between Armenian and Greek monks at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem has drawn the attention of many bloggers to such rivalry.

10 November 2008

Morocco: French Weekly Banned

A Moro in America reports that L'Express International, a popular French weekly magazine, has been banned in Morocco following alleged “blasphemy against Islam's prophet.”

3 November 2008