followArchives for the ‘Islam’ tag
March 16th, 2010 Posted by Liriel
James Glassman on Winning the War of Ideas
James K. Glassman, undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy under President George W. Bush, has an Op-Ed in the Financial Times where he expresses concerns about the future of public diplomacy. He admits that President Obama has had some success improving America’s image in the world but warns against confusing public relations for diplomacy:
The future of public diplomacy, in my view, is in doubt. It is not currently being taken seriously by policymakers as a tool of national security. Furthermore, when officials do focus on strategic communication, they often turn to American brand-burnishing, which ignores the unresolved question of whether a better-liked America can more easily achieve its national security goals. . . .
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November 8th, 2009 Posted by Noessa
Learning About Islam Through Virtual Worlds
An earlier post about Studio Wikitecture discussed how non-architects could help design virtual buildings – like a health clinic in Nepal – in Second Life. But in addition to dispensing with geographical obstacles, the virtual world can also help overcome cultural and religious barriers.
Rita J. King and Joshua S. Fouts, both senior fellows at the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs, spent a year studying what people – represented by their avatars – were already doing to learn about Islam in Second Life. (In addition to their virtual world explorations they also traveled in the real world to four continents.) King and Fouts are also CEO and creative director as well as chief global strategist of Dancing Ink Productions, “a full-service creative company that develops business strategy, policy, immersive narrative and mixed-media, mixed-reality content including games, conferences and cultural intelligence for a new global culture and economy in the Imagination Age.”
October 13th, 2009 Posted by Liriel
THE 99: Islamic Superheroes for Everyone
Batman and Superman are going to be getting some international pals, according to the creator of the first Islam-inspired comic superheroes.
THE 99, for those who aren’t up on the latest in fictional superheroes, is a wildly popular comic in the Arab world conceived of by Dr. Naif al-Mutawa, who spent a decade as a clinical psychologist treating victims of war before founding the Kuwait-based Teshkeel Media Group.
Mutawa grew up in Kuwait but attended college in the United States. He conceived of the comic, which publishes THE 99, after he decided to “to take back Islam from its hostage takers.”
