Radio Tahrir - Voices of the Arab/Muslim Community Here and Abroad

Mazen Al-Najjar, Palestinian intellectual deported in 2002

arunvalleyFebruary 10, 2015 0 Comments

Mazen Al-Najjar was the first of many Palestinians unjustly subject to the illegal use of secret evidence by the US government. He was essentially harassed for his advancement of research and dialogue on Islam and his Palestinian identity. Al-Najjar was released after 3 1/2 years in prison without charge, then re-imprisoned after Sept. 11, 2001, and deported a year later. RadioTahrir interviewed Al-Najjar from prison in the Bradenton, Florida Detention Center in September 2000. This is an excerpt from his talk with producer B. Nimri Aziz.

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Farid Esack offers his perspective on the Qur’an

arunvalleyFebruary 3, 2015 0 Comments

Can the Qur’an be a guide for Muslims and non-Muslims in the modern world? Professor of Islamic Studies at University of Johannesburg and author of “The Qur’an: A User’s Guide”, “The Qur’an: A Short Introduction”, and “The Qur’an: Liberation and Pluralism”, Farid Esack, sometimes described as a Muslim liberation theologian, offers an unconventional perspective. (also listen to our January 26, 2015 post)

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Poet Samuel Hazo, part 2 of our 2014 interview

arunvalleyJanuary 27, 2015 0 Comments

In a wide-ranging interview Samuel Hazo speaks about his work at Duquesne University, about “Arab-American” as a literary identity, about his novel The Time Remaining (2013), about good and bad poetry, and he reads poems from his book The Song of the Horse. This is the final part of his interview with BN Aziz. For earlier talks, see our March 26, 2014 and April 2, 2013 podcasts.

Commentary on contemporary Islam, by Farid Esack

arunvalleyJanuary 26, 2015 0 Comments

Professor of Islamic Studies at University of Johannesburg, South Africa, and author of many books on Muslim issues, Farid Esack addresses a number of issues. In this segment of our wide-ranging interview, he speaks about what labels of ‘progressive’ and ‘moderate’ can or cannot mean for Muslims. Produced by Barbara Nimri Aziz, New York. (See our Feb. 3, 2015 post)

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Iraqi journalist Nermin Al-Mufti

arunvalleyJanuary 24, 2015 0 Comments

Iraqi journalist Nermin Al-Mufti introduces us to the history of Kirkuk, a Turkmen majority city in North Iraq. Interviewed by BN Aziz in 2008 in Iraq. For an update on Kirkuk in 2014, see

http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/04/who-what-and-where-are-iraqs-turkmen/

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Author reading from “Swimming UpThe Tigris”

Radio TahrirNovember 28, 2014 0 Comments

“Just a simple day in the countryside… We were three Arab women on an uncommon sanctions busting outing. Determined to forget the war and the embargo for a day in a dusty city we departed for the flat, open countryside of Iraq beyond Baghdad.”

An excerpt from Swimming Up the Tigris: Real Life Encounters with Iraq, 2007, University Press of Florida), read by BN Aziz, the author.

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Yusri Nasrallah, Egyptian filmmaker

BN AzizApril 8, 2014

Egyptian filmmaker Yusri Nasrallah interviewed by BN Aziz on the New York release of his film “Mercedes”. (From our 1996 RadioTahrir archive, originally broadcast over WBAI, 99.5 fm, NY)

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Poet and author Samuel Hazo, on ‘identity in writing’

BN AzizMarch 26, 2014

Samuel Hazo is author of 30 books of poetry, essays and novels, formerly Distinguished Professor of English Literature at Duquesne University, Pennsylvania. An American of Arab heritage, in this segment Hazo speaks with BN Aziz on the issue of “ethnic identity” in writing.

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Etel Adnan: poet, playwright and artist

BN AzizFebruary 10, 2014

Poet Etel Adnan has been named France’s 2004 Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres. This s a segment from her 2007 interview with BN Aziz in San Francisco.