dissidents
Dissident Watch: Mithal al-Alusi
May 30, 2009
Spring 2009
Amid growing conservatism and ethnic and sectarian populism in Iraq, parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, a Sunni Arab, has become the country’s chief advocate for liberal values including a free market, free press, religious...
Interview With C. Holland Taylor, Co-founder of LibForAll Foundation, an NGO That Argues for Rejecting Extremists’ Definition of Islam
May 29, 2009
It has been less than five years since the founding of the LibforAll Foundation, a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization dedicated to supporting moderate Muslims and promoting a nonviolent, pluralistic interpretation of Islam....
Champion of Jewish-Muslim Relations Beaten by Thugs in Bangladesh
February 22, 2009
Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a Bangladeshi journalist who has labored to build bridges between Israel and his country, was beaten this morning in the Dhaka offices of his newspaper, The Weekly Blitz, by thugs he believes to be members of the...
Iraqi Parliamentarian Acquitted for “Crime” of Visiting Israel
November 24, 2008
Hopeful news out of Iraq this morning as an Iraqi court has voted to acquit Mithal al-Alusi, a great Iraqi champion of human rights, of prosecution for visiting Israel.
Alusi is a member of the Iraqi Parliament and founder of the Democratic...
An Iraqi Hero
September 16, 2008
In today’s American Spectator online, I have a piece about the Iraqi Parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi, whose sons were murdered in February 2005 following his visit to Israel to attend a counterterrorism conference there. Over the...
Iraq’s Maverick
September 16, 2008
Last month, Iraqi parliamentarian Mithal al-Alusi contacted me by phone from Baghdad with an urgent warning that Iran could be a lot closer to attaining nuclear weapons than most analysts believe.
“Do they have an atom bomb? Not...
Muslim Freedom Fighter Arrested
March 20, 2008
On Tuesday, members of Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion, a paramilitary wing of the government, stormed the offices of Bangladeshi journalist Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, arrested and interrogated him. In 2003, Mr. Choudhury, editor of the...
The Virtue in Islam Today
March 11, 2008
Tonight I was proud of New York University, my grad school alma mater. Irshad Manji, the gutsy and eloquent author of “The Trouble With Islam Today,” is getting behind something new – The Moral Courage Project at NYU’s...
Muslim Freedom Fighter
November 21, 2007
In late October, I had the privilege of spending the day with Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury, a courageous Bangladeshi journalist. In 2003, the Bangladeshi government arrested Mr. Choudhury. He was beaten, tortured, starved, and deprived of...
City Lawyers Set To Rally for Their Pakistani Counterparts
November 14, 2007
November 13, 2007
Lawyers from firms across the city will stop billing clients for half an hour today to rally in support of the lawyers and judges of Pakistan.
The rally, planned for 1 p.m. in front of the New York County Courthouse at 60 Centre...