Recommendations

Between the Yurts and the OSCE.

BOOK
Author: Mihály Dobrovits

Details

Between the Yurts and the OSCE.
Islam and Nation Building in The Post-Soviet Sunni Majority Countries
(Jurták és az EBESZ között. Balassi Kiadó, 2015) in Hungarian

Quote from the study: „Someone who deals with the Islam’s presence in Russia, has to see the enormous country differently, then those whose researches concentrate itself on the function of the central, sovereign power in Moscow. In their historical ideas, which is supported by the picture that the Russian politics shows from itself for the outside, Russia is some kind of infinite, but monolith block, which is controlled and united by one central will. In the reality though, Russia has never been a monolith power. From the beginning of the country history, it has always been a mix of regions and nationalities, which have always possessed a kind of independent life – depending on the given areas and situations.” – Dobrovits surprises the enthusiastic of banalities with some one-of-a-kind pictures from the researched area. In this world of colours black-white (or we could say red and green) colours are definetly not rulers. Consequently for those who enjoy visualizing the culture war, the clash of civilizations, the conclusions of the author can be even disturbing. As a historian, he wants to know the object of the surrounding, not its intellectual nature.

Mission Al Jazeera

BOOK
Author: Josh Rushing

Details

The book titled Mission Al Jazeera was written by Josh Rushing, a former US. marine, who is currently a correspondent for Al Jazeera English.

KONYV_Josh_RushingAfter the US invaded Iraq, he was sent to a media center in Doha, Qatar, where he worked as a media officer. During his time in Qatar he worked with the correspondents of Al Jazeera, and learned about the culture and the political differences between the Arabic countries. He realised that the american citizens (and other people in world as well) misunderstood the situation in Iraq, due to the fact that they either had no or little knowledge about the Middle East and Iraq, or  they were listening to or reading reports of the war, that were objective, and didn’t show what kind of effect it had on the Iraqi people, or how they viewed a certain attack, because the US. soldiers were unwilling to cooperate with e.g.: the Al Jazeera correspondents. When he wanted to let other people know about this, he was silenced by the Pentagon, and eventually decided to leave the Marines, so that he could tell the truth about the situation in Iraq and that Al Jazeera isn’t just the mouthpiece of Al Qaeda and a terrorist station.

He shows the reader what really goes on at the offices of Al Jazeera,which is now trying to reach an international audience, by establishing Al Jazeera English in Washington.