17th & 18th JAN- The New Muslim Summit in Dubai

A two-day conference- the First of its kind in the U.A.E. 

Featuring multiple languages, multiple themes and multiple delivery formats, new muslim summit is a landmark for Da’wah and Tarbiyah in the U.A.E., encouraging Muslims to “connect . engage . get inspired”.

www.newmuslimsummit.com

www.newmuslimsummit.com

American arrested for parody video in the UAE

MINNEAPOLIS — An American man who works in the United Arab Emirates has been held in a maximum-security prison for months after posting a parody video about youth culture in Dubai, a rights group and family attorney said Wednesday.
Shezanne Cassim, 29, of Woodbury, Minn., was arrested in April and charged with violating a 2012 cybercrimes law that boosts penalties for allegedly challenging authorities, attorney Susan Burns said. He was moved to a maximum security prison in Abu Dhabi in June.

 Source: http://www.politico.com/story/2013/11/shezanne-cassim-prison-united-arab-emirates-parody-video-100455.html

Video can be seen here:

Expat Woman's Festive Fare Fair

Here we go. A festive bump for a lonely looking blog...

The Festive Family thingy has been postponed to Jan 25th 'cos of rain forecast for Dubai tomorrow. So it'll just become a family thingy...

New Blog

After being away for five years, I've moved back to the UAE (in Abu Dhabi, this time) and started up a new blog. If anyone is interested: http://www.returntocamelland.com/

World of Jinn, Magic and Ruqya explained

In The Realm Of The Unseen

World of Jinn, Magic and Ruqya explained

 

Date: 29th & 30th March 2013

Time: 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM

Venue: Kalemah Islamic Center, Al Qusais, Dubai [click here for location map]

Registration Fee: FREE (Entry for 15 years old and above only)

 

Books And Writing At The Archive

It's a shame not to use the UAECB now it has been restored by the Gods at Google!

I just thought I'd post a heads up about a new series of workshops being organised by funky art/workspace The Archive and the Emirates Literary Group on the subject of writing and publishing. Next Wednesday is the first in a series of four workshops which will deal with how to write a book, how to write poetry (in fact, essential if you want to hone your writing anyway), how to find your route to market (either through an agent and publisher or through self publishing) and understanding sales, distribution and booksellers.

There's more detail if you're interested over on the Fake Plastic Blog.

Pip pip!

UAE Community blog is back

After the sudden Google outage, UAE Community blog is back.

We understand there were many other blogs affected, but the situation appears to be resolved now.

Wishing you all a very happy 2013, wherever you are.

Comments disabled

It makes me sad to announce this, but I am going to have to deactivate comments entirely on this blog. This means all previous comments are now unveiwable and no new comments are going to be accepted for the foreseeable future. I have disabled non-member comments. So all previous comments will now still be visible.

Even though the blog employs Google's CAPTCHA service I recieve on average 2-3 emails every day from crappy companies based in the UAE trying to cash in using SEO techniques and thereby reduce the quality of content already on this blog. This is on top of the dozens of CVs (thanks but I don't even have a job at the moment and I have no idea where people got the impression that I was employing?) and marketing/SEO offers that I receive too.

The number of legitimate comments is practically 0 and almost no posts/comments get made here anymore.

Again, I'm sorry for having to take this stance; but I don't want to watch what was a pretty successful blog get completely destroyed by greedy companies flooding the comment section with crap solely aimed at making a quick buck.

It wouldn't take much to get the blog active again, just a few legitimate posts a day from someone with a bit of passion. Unfortunately I am not based in the UAE anymore and I do not have the time to post anymore, I believe the majority of people that used to have some interest have all moved onto twitter/facebook.


If anyone is interesting in taking the reigns of this blog I am more than happy to pass it on. You can email me with a proposal to sam@samurai-sam.com

I am not interested in handing on the blog to someone with a commercial interest in it. This blog has been run ad-free for the past 7 years and despite the time needed to moderate the site (which numerous other people have also contributed to) its nice to see something in 2012 that runs without advertisements on every nook and cranny of the website.

I would also like to take this chance to thank the numerous people who dedicated their time to this blog over the past 7 years--the people who posted, the people who commented and the people who sent death threats.
Thank you for being a part of the 4000+ posts, the 28000+ comments and the 1,700,000 visitors.
Also, thank you to secretdubai for starting this blog, and thank you to the many members/contributors. The UAE Community Blog held an important place on the internet in the UAE for at least some freedom of expression and had a profound impact on at least a few contentious issues.

Beirut - An Explosive Thriller

You're more than welcome to come along. Bring a friend. It should be fun.

Survey for Teachers in UAE

Salaams,
Sorry, it wasn't working at first, but I've fixed it:

I don't know how many African Americans I have that read this blog but anyway, I thought that I'd put this survey just in case. Here it is. Thanks

Survey

Stories of Faith and Beyond the Book- Talk by Abdul Hasib

www.kalemah.org

Presents

Stories of Faith: Reflections from the lives of the best worshippers in understanding the value of worship in Islam
Date: Tonight, 28th August, 2012
Time: After Salat-ul Maghrib, 7:15 PM (Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes, including Q&A)
Venue: Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department, Al Mamzar

Beyond the Book: Practical Steps to Harvesting the Fruits of the Qur'an
Date: Tomorrow, 29th August, 2012
Time: After Salat-ul Maghrib, 7:15 PM (Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes, including Q&A)
Venue: Kalemah Islamic Center

About the Speaker: Ustad AbdulHasib Noor

Brother Hasib is an American with Afghan origin. He is a student at the Islamic University of Madinah studying in the Faculty of Islamic Law (Shariah). Further, he has previously held positions as a Khatib  and Da'wah Officer in various organizations and masajid in the U.S.

Directions (Islamic Affairs Dept): Take the Shaikh Zayed Road to Sharjah and stay on your right. At al Mullah Plaza signal, take a left towards Hamriya. Then take  a right at the signal before Century Mall and keep going straight (till the end of the road), till you see  a  big building on your right – which says Islamic Affairs and Charitable Activities Department.  The talk will take place at the hall on the second floor in sha'Alla.

Directions (Kalemah): Located near the Baghdad St. & Beirut St. Interchange in Muhaisanah 3 next to Qusais 2 minutes from the Qusais Police Station. Directions from Emirates Road: Sharjah - Dubai direction; take Exit 61 (Mamzar, Qusais) onto Baghdad St. At the 1st traffic signal, turn right onto Beirut St. Take the 1st right after the bus stop into 9A St. KALEMAH is the 4th villa on your right.

This event is organized by Kalemah, under the guidance and support of the Islamic Affairs & Charitable Activities Department

Britain: Muslim Polygamists to Get More Welfare Benefits

Britain: Muslim Polygamists to Get More Welfare Benefits

i think i should emigrate to uk...

The First Annual Pre-Ramadan Retreat in Dubai

13th July, 2012

Al Boom Tourist Village

More details here

Residency Visa Fiasco

The latest residency visa fiasco reminds me of past and other ongoing attempts to regularise the system of managing and monitoring just who is in the country and where they come from. Getting this right seems important given the increasing concerns about events elsewhere in the region and a possible outbreak of hostilities affecting a large eastern neighbour. Anyone like to comment on what is happening with the different rules between and within emirates on how you renew your igama?

Gulf News removes gulf bits from Guardian on the Arab World

Links to the Guardian reporter's tweets about how the article was edited:

Jane Kinninmont ‏ @janekinninmont

Here's my original articlehttp://m.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/09/syria-electoral-charade-more-unrest?cat=commentisfree&type=article and here's the Gulf News version that deleted all mention of GCC stateshttp://gulfnews.com/opinions/columnists/syria-s-poll-farce-could-lead-to-more-unrest-1.1021621

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3hJane Kinninmont ‏ @janekinninmont

Gulf News also deleted a line noting that in Arab world only Saudi Arabia, UAE & Qatar lack any kind of parliaments. #censorship

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3hJane Kinninmont ‏ @janekinninmont

My article talked about cosmetic reforms in Syria, Mubarak-era Egypt and Bahrain. Gulf News has reprinted it without the para on Bahrain!

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3hJane Kinninmont ‏ @janekinninmont

Today's Gulf News has reprinted a piece that I wrote forhttp://Guardian.com last week - but has deleted all the bits about the Gulf!