A while back, I decided to change up mosques for Friday prayer due to a lack of inspiration. Essentially, I’ve spent the past two years trying to find one that had something to offer but alas, it seems recycled material is what passes for a good khutba (sermon) these days. I even started a pet […]

On Ammon today, an interesting article featured a Yarmouk University professor who protested AIDS awareness posters posted by the Ministry of Health that asked “Have you practiced anal sex, oral sex or vaginal sex?”. I’ll let you do the reading but to sum it up, Dr. Azzam’s argument is that the posters promote promiscuity or, […]

It took me a while to figure out how to write this post. The campaign has been an interesting learning experience and even a glimpse in to a few truths I was glad to have restored. One absolute truth stands out: there is a population of this country, perhaps not enormous but definitely large enough, […]

It’s too bad this year it looks like it’s going to be a wet Christmas instead of a white one. But then again, it’s the Middle East. What did you expect? A miracle? Bah humbug. Consider it an opportunity to wear that red and green wool scarf your grandma knitted for you five Christmases ago […]

Jordanian boy Hazem Hawamdeh sits on a scale to show his weight at his home in Jerash December 3, 2008. Hawamdeh, an 11-year-old boy from the northern city of Jerash, could be the smallest boy in the world, weighing 5.6 kg (12 pounds) with a height of nearly 70 cm (28 inches) as his family […]

According to a recent poll conducted by WorldPublicOpinion.org, 41% of Jordanians believe that the US “opposes democracy in Muslim nations”, making it the highest of 21 nations polled. Moreover, 40% of Jordanians believe that the US does favor democracy in Muslim nations, as long as they are cooperative with the US. Only 6% believe that […]

I know this post might sound repetitive because a year ago a similar tragedy took place and a similar commentary on this blog unfolded. The point that I was trying to get across back then is the same point I’m trying to get across now: the fact that we, as a people, tend to place […]

On Monday, it was reported that a three year old in east Amman was kidnapped in the early morning with the kidnapper demanding 50,000JDs as a ransom. Ammon is reporting this as the first case of its kind in Jordanian history. Supposedly, the kidnapper had some sort of financial dispute with the grandfather in the […]

There’s an article today in the Jordan Times attempting to articulate the predicament many Jordanians have found themselves in this year: the rising price of Jordanian sheep. There has been a noticeable price difference between the local variety and the international variety coming mainly from Australia, and that difference is related the rising prices of […]

I.
AMMAN - The Criminal Court has sentenced a 21-year-old man to seven-and-a-half-years in prison for murdering his married sister in Jerash in January.
…After the family went to sleep, the defendant interrogated his sister and asked her about her whereabouts during the time she was gone from her husband’s house, but she refused to answer, according […]

Wael, who is, in my humble opinion, one of the most creative minds in Jordan today, created something I just found brilliant. If a picture can speak a thousand words, the following is an ethos. And I post it here because it begs to be seen over and over again.

via: sha3teely

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Today is Blog Action Day and the global conversation this year is about poverty, so I thought it would be relevant to discuss poverty in Jordan. There are naturally a million angles to tackle. We could talk about the UN Human Development report and Jordan’s relatively impressive rankings. We could talk about public policy and […]

And what a holiday it was…
The criminal prosecutor on Saturday charged a physically disabled man with the manslaughter of his niece…The victim received three bullet wounds to her head and chest on Friday, purportedly by the suspect who phoned the police and informed them that he killed his niece to cleanse his family’s honour, the […]

There is talk, once again, of an all-out smoking ban throughout the Kingdom’s public places. Rest assured smokers, i.e. the overwhelming majority of you, this is yet another policy that will never see the light of day. The Healthy Ministry is hoping places “voluntarily” remove smoking from their facilities, and if they don’t, which they […]

Qaradawi is sparking a bit of a controversy in the region with his views on Shiites, which are not new. In this of all things, there are two routes to consider. One can point out the differences between the sects in an attempt to find common ground and bring about unity (which I think rarely […]

Disclaimer: I want to emphasize that this post is an opinion and it is not one based on religious doctrine. It is based on political and social elements. I know it’s Ramadan, but I implore you to avoid quoting me the entire Quran just to prove a point or as a way of insisting that […]