Ghassan al-Imam seems to have some problems with Shiites. He thinks that Shiites deep down are Persian not Arabs. I’m sorry Mr. Al-Imam, but you are seeing the whole issue in the wrong way. In fact, people like you are making Shiites Arabs look toward Iran instead of their Arab neighbors. You are looking at them in suspicious and you don’t trust them, so don’t expect them to trust you.

The mommies are blogging, and Dave Winer asks “what about grandma?”

Another good column by Maurine Dowd on the disgusting behavior of the American interrogators in Guantanamo. “Who are these women? Who allows this to happen? Why don’t the officers who allow it get into trouble? Why do Rummy and Paul Wolfowitz still have their jobs?”

MBC, one of the leading TV networks in the Middle East, is to launch a fourth channel. The new channel will deliver Western entertainment, TV series and talk shows. Channel 2, which MBC launched about two years ago with a big success, will be for Western movies only. Dubai TV have launched another channel, One TV, which also specialize in Western entertainment in December 2004. Does it seem weird that the media war in the Arab World is over the Western entertainment?

Finally, another Arabic newspaper is paying attention to blogging. Today’s Asharq Al-Awsat published a short how to guide to start a blog with Blogger. I think this will encourage more people to start blogging, especially in Saudi Arabia, or at least I hope so. UPDATE: The link works now.

Battle of the Brands: Apple has toppled Google, and al-Jazeera in the top-five.

Gawker Media have added to new blogs to their network. Lifehacker: alternative software blog, and Gridskipper: alternative travel blog. Good stuff.