abulyas
My blogs
| Gender | Male |
|---|---|
| Industry | Non-Profit |
| Occupation | Lawyer/Lecturer at Uni |
| Location | Damascus/Chicago, Syria/USA, United States |
| Links | Wishlist |
| Introduction | I'm a Syrian-American who is growing tired of this "looming" question of identity - especially the hyphenated type. I have recently come to realize that I'm above this issue (due to my humanity and not a claim to an intellectual sophistication). It is not a pressing need for me to reconcile my Islam, or being Arab, or coming from an important pillar of the "Axis of Evil" with my western values and being "American". I understand what it means to be either and am capable of adapting to the dictates of the current culture. I find these contextual demands superficial and secondary to the shared core values of the seemingly clashing identities. |
| Interests | Back-Packing, All sorts of Boxes, Classical Middle Eastern Music, Funky Signs, Cinema, Different Alleyways, Yoga, Soccer, Pingi Pongi |
| Favorite movies | Older Syrian Cinema is all pretty good, Iranian films in general as well, Contemporary Palestinian films, Anything by Elia Suleiman, Indy stuff |
| Favorite music | Ziad Rahbani, Marcel Khalife, Tom Waits, Anaïs Mitchell, Yann Tiersen, Charles Dudley Bayne III, Joulia Boutrous, Fairouz, Andrew Bird, Leonard Cohen, Césaria Évora, Coldplay, Naseer Shameh, Um Kalthoum, Abdul Hlim Hafiz, Muhamad Abdel Wahab, Wafeeq Habib, Ali Al-Deek, Classical Middle Eastern |
| Favorite books | Lots. |