Inspired by a loved one (you know who you are), I’ve decided to make myself what I’d like to call My Fairouz Greatest Hits. This ultimate collection of Fairouz music is composed of 30 tracks on two audio CD’s. Fairouz is a true legend. Her angelic voice has been expressing the Arab emotions since the sixties, and I cannot believe that a young boy like me still can enjoy her music. If you are a Fairouz fan, please write your favorites in the comments. I mean, those 30 songs are my very favorites, but maybe I’m missing something here.

Latifah al-Sha’alan, one of my favorite writers, thinks the side against women’s driving is smarter than the other side that supports women’s right to drive their own cars. Why? Because the first side managed to turn the argument over what’s supposed to be a basic right, into a branching argument where every side use financial, social, and psychological justifications to invalidate the other side’s point of view.

If you can read Arabic, don’t miss this comprehensive report from Al-Majalla on the Saudi internet forums. It is a good read to understand how Saudis use the internet, and what effects it had on their lives. (Due to a stupid design mistake, you will face some problems if you tried to browse the website with Firefox)

Mshari al-Thaidi: “Intellectuals such as Friedman help, whether purposefully or not, al Qaeda impose its own vision of Islamic life, making it difficult for moderate Muslims to break free from this negative portrayal.”

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Secularism, doesn’t mean crushing religion, it just means creating a neutral space in which arguments between religious and secular people are settled by evidence, not dogma.

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One human rights truth, universally acknowledged, is that oil is an obstacle to democracy in every developing society. When a government can get what it needs out of oil derricks and ceases to derive its revenue from taxes, it loses any incentive to respond to the people.

-Michael Ignatieff

I had the same problem that Dave Winer is talking about here. I had to re-install the operating system to get rid of the spyware, but my laptop was delivered with the OS pre-installed, and no CDs. Because I can’t afford to buy a copy of Windows, I had to borrow an illegal one from a friend, which does not make sense because I am also a legal licensee of the OS. Otherwise, my other choice would be throwing out the laptop!

Mohammed al-Humayyed thinks that our scholars have nothing to do with the negative side of their fatawa regarding honoring the national flag. I have to disagree with Mr. Al-Homayyed here. Everyone is responsible for what he says, whether it’s positive or negative. The ulema are very influential in this country, and I think it is a disaster if they were not willing to make themselves clear on such issues. The only exception in this case was Sheikh Abdul Mehsin al-Obeikan. The extremists have attacked him for taking this stance, but I admire him for what he did.