To kick off this week, Ghalia welcomes the holy month of Ramadan in her special way, with another beautiful shot of her camera…

“Ramadan is the (month) in which was sent down the Qur-an, as a guide to mankind, also Clear (Signs) for guidance and judgment (between right and wrong)…” The Quran [2 : 185]

It's Ramadan, but it seems that no blogger has lost the appetite for politics, a very touching post from Fares with very rare pictures of Kamal Labwani behind bars, Kamal Labwani is one of the many political prisoners still held in Syrian jails…

I received these very touching photos featuring Kamal Labwani, 2 of them are of him in Jail behind bars and illustrate Humiliation and being stripped of Human Dignity being a political prisoner for an oppressive Syrian regime.

Ammar Abdulhamid is angry about the aggressive messages, and war cries coming out of the Hezbolla-Syria-Iran camp…

Cool heads do not seem destined to prevail in the region these days. They are too few to begin with. In fact, I can only count one: Fouad Seniora. The hot heads, on the other hands, are too numerous to list in toto, but they surely include: Mahmoud Amhadinejad, Hassan Nasrallah and Bashar al-Assad. The first has just wasted his fifteen minutes in the UN by failing to offer anything of substance to advance his country’s cause. Grandstanding may get you a few laughs, but not understanding or support.

Rime Allaf, has an intersting critical post about Oriana Fallaci, and about the new storm around the Pope's speech, the Pope being fallaci's “Favorite Pope”…

I’ve been reading a variety of tributes and general articles on the subject of Oriana Fallaci’s death and I can’t help but feel some regret, despite the rabid racism she seemed to develop at a rather late age, a racism mostly limited to Islamophobia and Arabophobia – something which did wonders for the sale of her books after September 11. I had admired Fallaci since I was a teenager, as she seemed to embody all the fantastic traits of the journalist and writer I wanted to become, living a life of danger and adventure, meeting the main characters in world politics and daring to debate them, rather than simply interviewing them.

Sara, again, reiterate her message, that Islam does not justify Violence, as a response to the Pope's latest controversy…

Terrorism has no religion. I just saw that statement on an Islamic TV channel as I type this post. Unfortunately the west don't see this… I believe there should be amazing Islamic channels in English showing the true faith of Islam just like any other cable TV channel… Maybe people in the west get to see it without too much work to search for it.

George Ajjan, takes us a bit far off, to Dakkar, Senegal. To tell some stories about how sengalese see “toubab” and “nar”…

Most of these Arabs came to Senegal beginning in the 1930s, between the 2 World Wars when Greater Syria, as well as West Africa, were under French control. But even today, they are seen differently in the eyes of indigenous Africans, and not considered toubab (roughly translated: whitey).

And like always, Abu Fares with another journey of his, this time to “Paradise, As Far As The Eye can See”…

I kid you not. The title above is the name of a restaurant, 35 km northeast of Tartous. If you think that the owner is out of his mind, think twice. First, you’d better take a look at the imbedded video. I think you will agree that the name is very appropriate.