The a-Rab Second Issue is out!

I am very pleased to see that The a-Rab magazine is gradually growing and providing its readers with some invigorating arguments on concerns seem to be conventionally approached if not neglected.

As a reader, I wish them luck and further success.

You can see the mag online here, or you can download a PDF here.

Here are some of the articles I personally liked:

Yaman Salahi's article "Beyond Resistance":

"Pride is a response to shame. If the dominant order suggests shame for being Black, or Mexican, or Arab, or Native American, then we reject it by saying no, I’ll be proud…Nothing is permanent. The system that is does not need to be. Working within a system breathes life into it. Working outside of it breathes life into us…If we want leaders with power and position, we want pride. Then, we are not resisting, but reflecting…I want to destroy power. I am not looking for a messiah. I am looking for action because actors make power. Those who lead only do so because others believe they do--but we are all actors…So we return to the a-Rab. In the first issue we put an emphasis on the importance of narrative in formulating our selves, in controlling our identity, and controlling our place in society…But what is narrative? Is it the end or the means?"

And from our dear blogger Ibn Bint Jbeil's article "Steadfast":

"Today, as it was 4 years ago when I painted these four paintings, as it was a half a century ago when the world massacred each other and Palestine was usurped, as it was millennia ago when empires swept over the globe to enslave the minds of the masses in ignorance and war, today the common innocent people still stand STEADFAST, as the world rushes past them, screeching like a duststorm at the heels of a devastating horde. The air feels historic, but in a dreadful, brutal way. They stand in their spaces, attempting to withstand the gusts of power, violence and intimidation; they clutch at the memories of theirselves and their origins, protecting them from the tormenting currents that coil around them; each of them admonished, enduring the terror of the storm."

And from Nora Barrows-Friedman's article "The Ghosts of Fara'a":

"This wall was where children were forced into metal boxes and repeatedly tortured. 3-walled metal cabinets, about 2 feet by 2 feet and six feet tall, were lined up against this wall. children were put inside. they scratched their names into the plaster. they scratched their village or city names into the plaster. israelis would enforce sleep deprivation for these kids in the boxes, kicking in the door when the child tried to sleep. or throwing rocks on the top to startle a child. in the blistering heat and the chilly winter…How do people come back from this? what cellular transformation occurs that allow these former prisoners, these adults now walking around, living their lives as normally as possible in an audaciously abnormal situation, a life beseiged from day one under this occupation and ethnic cleansing project, memories crisp and clear like it was yesterday of being beaten and tortured and humiliated and broken?"

Spread the word!