Jul 23rd, 2010 at 12:00PM:
One of the best things about life as an expat in Turkey is easy access to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with many previously far-flung destinations only a few hours' flight away. I might not plan a week-long vacation in, say, Kosovo, but if I can be there for Friday happy hour and home Monday morning, why not? My main criteria for choosing weekend trips are easy access, no advance visa ...Click on a label to read posts from that part of the world.
muslim posts
Weekending: Beirut
Jul 23rd, 2010 at 12:00PM:
One of the best things about life as an expat in Turkey is easy access to Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, with many previously far-flung destinations only a few hours' flight away. I might not plan a week-long vacation in, say, Kosovo, but if I can be there for Friday happy hour and home Monday morning, why not? My main criteria for choosing weekend trips are easy access, no advance visa ...Illinois hotel backs out of hosting Muslim group conference
Jul 12th, 2010 at 11:00AM: A Muslim group canceled its annual U.S. conference after the Marriott hotel in Oak Brook, a suburb of Chicago, backed out of hosting the event.
American members of Hizb ut-Tahrir planned to hold their annual conference on Sunday, but according to the Chicago Tribune, the hotel sent a cancellation notice and refund to the group organizers about two weeks ago. The one-day event has drawn ...Finding the expat community and what travelers can learn from them
Jul 6th, 2010 at 1:30PM: No matter how well-traveled you are, moving to a foreign country and living as an expat is a whole new ballgame. Your priorities and standards change, and hours that you may have spent as a traveler in a museum or wandering a beach are now spent in as an expat search of an alarm clock or trying to distinguish between eight types of yogurt. You become like a child again: unable to speak in complete ...Exploring Harar, a medieval city in Ethiopia
Apr 28th, 2010 at 1:00PM: In my last post I wrote about how Harar is an alluring walled city that made me throw away my travel plans and stay for three weeks. A serene atmosphere and an ever-widening circle of knowledgeable, hospitable acquaintances were what kept me there, but what is there to actually see?
Plenty.
The main attraction, of course, is the city itself, with its crowded markets, quiet back alleys, and ...Use an "I can't eat this" card - Dining out tip
Feb 19th, 2010 at 8:27AM: Before you go out of the country, make a few wallet-sized cards that list what you can and can't eat in the native language(s) of the country you're visiting.
I like to list what I'm able to eat on one side of the card... and list the foods I can't have on the other. This makes it so the server and kitchen can't easily mix them up.
This is especially helpful for vegetarian and vegans, people ...Photo of the Day (12/23/09)
Dec 23rd, 2009 at 6:30PM:
When I saw this photo last week while looking for Santas from around the world, I knew I'd found today's Photo of the Day. Although this fellow appears among the other Santas, here he is again-- center stage.
The cultural mix of this Santa shot is superb. Taken by Carpetblogger in Azerbaijan, this is an excellent look at how elements of culture travel. As Carpetblogger explains, although the ...Bowermasters Adventures -- Becoming a French state
Jun 15th, 2009 at 10:00AM: Dozens of small tri-colored French flags hang from the awning of the bar 5/5 on Mamoudzou's seafront. A Malagasy polka/country/blues/rock band plays to a mixed crowd of blacks and whites. Two weeks ago a historic vote turned the street out front into a riot of celebration when 95.5 percent of voters on this tiny island of 186,000 people voted to officially become French citizens. Though Mayotte ...Israel, Mecca ... no difference to British BMI
May 3rd, 2009 at 9:00AM: Passengers headed to Israel on a British BMI flight were alarmed to find their destination was Mecca, according to the in-flight map. The airline, it seems, isn't terribly aware that the Middle East is know for a tiny amount of tension that's lasted for decades (the most recent iteration, at least).
Pick your joke about "wiping Israel off the map" – the Sydney Morning Herald did.
BMI, of ...Tunisian pilot who prayed while crash landing a plane gets 10 years in jail
Mar 25th, 2009 at 5:30PM: If I were a pilot landing a plane after the engines had conked out on me, I might pray. That doesn't mean I'd take my hands off the controls and stop doing my part to aim for a safe landing, but perhaps there would be words beseeching a power bigger than myself for a dose of divine intervention. It couldn't hurt. Right?
For the Tunisian pilot I read about in the guardian.co.uk, uttering a prayer ...The Secret of Grain: An initmate look at Tunisian immigrants in France.
Mar 7th, 2009 at 1:30PM: Here's a heads up on a movie that one might easily miss. It most probably didn't show up at a theater near you, unless you happen to live in a cosmopolitan city with an art house movie theater.
Last night I saw the 2007 film The Secret of Grain at a kick off reception for the Cleveland International Film Festival, and was transported to the immigrant community of Tunisians living in ...Arabic T-Shirt incident comes to a close with a $240,000 check
Jan 6th, 2009 at 12:30PM: It has been 3 years since we reported about Raed Jarrar. This US citizen passed through security at JFK in 2006, got a secondary security search, and was then apprehended at the gate by an airport cop and a JetBlue employee. See, Raed committed the "horrible" crime of wearing a T-Shirt with some Arabic words. The words on his shirt did not translate to "terrorist," nor did they warn people that he ...More on Muslim family kicked off of AirTran flight for questioning
Jan 3rd, 2009 at 10:30AM: Yesterday, not long after Scott posted about the American family who are Muslim were removed from an AirTran flight at the Ronald Reagan International Airport in Washington D.C., I heard an interview on NPR with Atif Irfan, one of the family members.
Irfan explained in more detail what happened to create the misunderstanding. Because there were nine of them, the family had booked the last rows ...Paranoia strikes again - Muslim family kicked off their Airtran flight
Jan 2nd, 2009 at 1:00PM: Here we go again. Another family traveling for the holidays has been kicked off their flight after a fellow passenger observed them mentioning the word "safety". That's right, not "bomb", "terrorist" or "hijack". Just your average family of 9 trying to figure out where they wanted to seat. Someone on board managed to get the attention of 2 federal air marshals, who then contacted their superiors ...Indonesia facing alcohol shortage
Dec 16th, 2008 at 2:30PM: Indonesia is not the first place that comes to mind when one thinks of drinking culture. Considering the country is the world's most populous Muslim nation, a religion well-known for its temperance, visitors coming to Indonesia are probably not looking to get wasted as their first order of business. But considering the increasingly modern fabric of this southeast Asian nation, it's probably not ...Photojournalist Offers Glimpses into the Muslim World
Oct 20th, 2008 at 3:00PM: Veteran photojournalist Alexandra Avakian has spent much of her twenty-plus year career working for prestigious magazines like Time and National Geographic and newspapers like The NY Times. Much of her work has been focused on the Middle East, Eastern Europe and Northern Africa. Stints in Iran, Somalia, Gaza and amongst American Muslims has given her ample opportunity to photograph the adherents ...Throwing babies off tall buildings "for good health"
May 2nd, 2008 at 9:30AM: When I watched this video, I honestly didn't think they were actually going to throw the baby off the building! They did. Granted, it was a soft landing, but still. Muslims in western India have been observing a bizarre ritual - they've been throwing their young children off a tall building to improve their health, writes Reuters.The faithful have been observing the ritual at a shrine in Solapur, ...Halal Inn -- Britain's first Islamic pub. Huh?
Apr 16th, 2008 at 8:20AM: Britain's first Islamic pub "Halal Inn" recently opened its doors in Oldham. It's being marketed as a "pub" that offers everything any pub would, except alcohol. So...urrr...it's a cafe, no? A cafe where you can play pool, listen to Islamic music, eat Asian food. So it's a cafe targeted to the Muslim population in Oldham. Fine. It's great to have hangouts that adhere to certain cultural/religious ...Halal Tourism in the Middle East?
Nov 13th, 2007 at 9:00PM: An international report from the World Travel Market that opened this week in London has coined the term "Halal Tourism" as something that the Middle East needs to begin exploiting, especially with the increase of inter-regional tourists. A halal airline, halal restaurants...ummm...but wait a minute -- in my knowledge, Muslim countries are "halal", i.e. the entire Middle East is halal -- so, I ...Graft Busting Ruining the Party in Bangladesh
Oct 16th, 2007 at 11:17PM: In Bangladesh, the lower classes rely on the wealthy Muslims to provide them with gifts of cash and clothes during Ramadan. But this year, anti-corruption agencies are vetoing public displays of wealth, which includes giving out generous gifts. So far, 170 members of the upper crust have actually been detained for being to giving. And the new restrictions are sure putting a damper on the ...Worldwide Eid-Al-Fitr Celebrations
Oct 15th, 2007 at 12:00PM: I'd say, the Eid-Al-Fitr at the end of Ramadan is equivalent on scale to Christmas and the Hindu celebration of Diwali. Ramadan is all about charity, sharing, reaching out to the less fortunate and thanking God for what you have. Eid-Al-Fitr marks the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan and is mainly a family celebration. This particular Eid sees the largest migration as 1.2 billion Muslims ...
