wazira_sharira

http://sacredadornment.tumblr.com/

Anyone who likes Islamic art (or hasn't seen any but would like to) should check this tumblr out.

Amazing article on video game (and a little bit on movie) depictions of Muslims and Arabs. By someone who has a fantasy novel coming out soon, too. So now I'll have to 1. pick that up when it's out 2. go back to the Saladin campaign of Age of Empires and kick ass in it, since I failed badly at Civ 4 and can't play Assassin's Creed because my console is too old.

Sadly still follows the "Don't read the comments" rule, since the comments are a bunch of Clueless White Kids telling the author to get over it.

Found this on Cake Wrecks as a non-Wreck and I was like "OMG Islamic architecture cakes exist!"

This reminds me most of Turkish styles of architecture; it could be Timurid or Ottoman. It's definitely Generic Islamic Architecture, but most of the characteristics of generic Islamic architecture, like the bizarrely anachronistic buildings in Aladdin* come from Timurid Persian buildings.

Actually, I thought it was more Timurid at first glance, but now it looks more Ottoman. Could be the Hagia Sophia (which, okay, the Turks only threw minarets on) or the Suleymaniye.

*If you actually know anything about Islamic architecture, Agrabah is an implausible mess. There is no building on earth that has both Timurid onion domes and muqarnas. And even if there was, it wouldn't have existed in the Arabian golden age that Aladdin seems to take place in...

Today in Why Middle Eastern Studies Majors Are Head-Desking, comes this little gem of a story from New York that, surprisingly, is not about THE GROUND ZERO MOSQUE!!!!!1!!*

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/08/31/2010-08-31_alum_to_cut_college_out_of_will_over_arab_tome.html

Basically, alum is like "OMG you had a required reading text by an Arab? No more moneys for you!"

I have read the book in question. It's...not exactly radical. And most of it is based on interviews with real people who suffered some form of discrimination for being Arab. Even the criticism the alum gave that's not quite about how ~radical~ he is accuses Bayoumi of making unwarranted comparisons to anti-Black racism, when I don't remember the book trying to enter the Oppression Olympics very much if at all. Saying a group of people is dealing with racism is not the same as saying they are dealing with the same racism as, or worse racism than, another group of people. I generally remember seeing "last acceptable prejudice" rhetoric because I don't like it very much, and I don't remember it in this book. (I also can't remember much radicalism, but I forgot the "Oh No, An Arab Is Standing Up For Himself, He's a Radical" definition so yeah.)

I recognize that the alum has the right to do this; after all, it's his money, whether the grounds for revoking it suck or not. But they do suck, and when a school loses an important source of income, it's almost always the students that suffer. Causing them to lose out on something else because you don't like them reading a book is dickish. And you know what? I think I'd say the same thing about a huge liberal who pulled his grant because students had to read an overly conservative book. This particular case saddens me because of the rather obvious ethnic/possibly religious prejudice involved, but also because it's a dick move in general to think that a school is only worth donating to if it supports your thinking. A school that DOESN'T confront you with ideas you don't agree with is a piss-poor school, and an alumnus should recognize that. (note: the headline says "cuts out of will" but the article quotes him as saying he doesn't want to send the school any "more" money, so he probably was already a donor; they're losing actual as well as potential money.)

*Anyone who can't guess what my feelings on this clusterfuck are haven't been paying attention. It's not a mosque, it's not at Ground Zero, most of the protesters don't even live in New York, many people who do live in New York don't actually care that it's being built, and letting the city go on with its life, including its diverse religious life, is the best way to heal and to stand up to terrorism and extremism.

The entire cast of Prince of Persia, with people that are actually fucking Persian.

For "why", read the second half of that sentence.

Oh and no, I don't care that it's "just" a bad video game movie. They could still have gotten Persian people talented enough and willing to be in it. I wanted to go around to wherever the posters were, cut out Jake Gyllenhaal's face and tape in someone else.

Someone who was actually fucking Persian.

Proofreading carefully to make sure you didn't accidentally any words out.

I don't normally post writing here, since I have a dA account and an FFN account, but I just found this and was asked to post it here.

Two years ago, I took a class called Fantasy in World Literature. One of the earliest assignments in the class was to write a short (5 page) fantasy story to see if we understood techniques of writing fantasy literature. I wrote, because it's what I already worked in, a fairy tale parody.

( How to Become an Evil Vizier Without Meaning To )

Taken from vampirenaomi.

Pick 20 movies/anime/video games/literary works and put their summaries from better than it sounds and WITHOUT CHEATING have your friends guess.

( Meme this way )

I collect dragons. My first one was a tiny plastic one that I bought at Toys-R-Us with my allowance, and I decided I wanted more dragons. People started giving me dragons, too. I have everything from dragon stuffed animals to dragon music boxes. Currently my smallest dragon is a pewter hatchling that isn't much wider than my thumb, and my biggest is a music box with a dragon and wizard and a rotating wheel of Tarot cards.

Most are just generic dragons, although I do have some fictional-character dragons. I have a Mushu, a Norbert, and a Maleficent dragon. I'm looking for a Toothless right now. (If you haven't seen it, Toothless is the main dragon character of How To Train Your Dragon.)

Sadly, my mom is moving, so I just had to pack up all the dragons, but probably when I go to the new house and unpack them I'll also take pictures of them.