1) Palmyra’s Ancient Treasures At High Risk: Now that the extremist group ISIS has taken over Palmyra, Syria, the world is reacting in horror to the humanity implications as well as culturally, for the city is the site of historically significant ancient ruins — notably the Temple of Ba’al, an ancient theater, and a famous 2,000-year-old colonnade.
2) Is Detroit Answer to Syrian Refugee Problem? In this New York Times op-ed, scholar David Laitin and former president of New York City Housing Development Marc Jahr discuss a revolutionary answer to the Syrian refugee problem (by many accounts, now reaching well over 2 million people), move them to Detroit.
3) A Look At Why The Rohingyas Are Fleeing: Escaping “open air prisons,” tens of thousands of Rohingya Muslims have recently attempted to flee Myanmar (Burma), paying traffickers to take them by sea to Thailand and Malaysia.
4) Muslim Community, Three Months After Chapel Hill: Three months after the Chapel Hill murders, Vanity Fair does a “temperature read” on the local Muslim community, finding many are concerned over personal safety and upset that the shootings have yet to be ruled as a hate crime.
5) Muslim Women Hip-Hop Collective Has Much To Say: The Hijabi Chronicles is a collective of female hip-hop and spoken word artists of the Muslim faith who are challenging and taking down stereotypes in the Bay Area.
6) And lastly, Gaza Gets a Film Festival: The red carpet was rolled out for a vital new film festival last week – no, not Cannes but The Karama Gaza Film Festival. Despite the devastations of last summer’s war, the power of film is bringing the community together and showing the world that Gazans have a powerful will.
