Who Speaks for Islam? (originally aired April 29 ’08)

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Nearly 7 years after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington DC, and the subsequent US war in Afghanistan, and more than 5 years after the Iraq war, Western perceptions of Muslims and Islam is more distorted than ever. Radio shock jocks routinely spout anti-Muslim hate speech, newspaper Op-eds promote propaganda, and hate crimes continue. But how do American perceptions of Islam and Muslims square with the realities of diverse Muslim communities on the other side of the globe? The answers are revealed in a multi-year research study conducted by Gallup world poll and presented in a new book co-authored by John Esposito and Dalia Mogahed. Gallup conducted tens of thousands of interviews with residents from more than 35 predominantly Muslim countries. The questions probed issues of terrorism, anti-Americanism, women’s rights and more. The answers were revealing, and often, surprising.

GUEST: Dalia Mogahed, Senior Analyst and Executive Director of the Gallup Center for Muslim Studies, coauthor of the book Who Speaks for Islam?: What a Billion Muslims Really Think, member of Women in International Security, serves on the leadership group of the Project on U.S. Engagement with the Global Muslim Community, and is a member of the Crisis in the Middle East Task Force of the Brookings Institution.

“The Dancer and the Thief” by Antonio Skarmeta (originally aired Mar 5th ’08)

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Chile’s sprawling metropolis capital of Santiago is the scene of acclaimed novelist Antonio Skarmeta’s latest book, “The Dancer and the Thief.” Set in the wake of Pinochet’s dictatorship, the book’s protagonists struggle to make peace with their lives in a city trapped in past and present injustices. Antonio Skarmeta fled Chile following Pinochet’s dictatorial ouster of the democratically elected government of Salvador Allende in 1973. Skarmeta became exiled in West-Berlin, Germany when nostalgia for his homeland led him to write the internationally acclaimed novel, “The Postman.” The novel was later adapted to the big screen as “Il Postino,” and won the Oscar for Best Foreign Film. Skarmeta returned to Chile in 1989, and became the ambassador to Germany from 2000-2003. Newly translated into English, Skarmeta’s latest book, “The Dancer and the Thief,” like “Il Postino,” is being made into a movie starring Diego Luna.

In the novel, Angel Santiago is a young man released from prison by an amnesty granted by the civilian president for stealing a wealthy landowner’s horse. With no institutional help to transition into everyday life, and facing a neo-liberal economy rife with unemployment, Santiago seeks out the help of an infamous bank robber Nicolas Vergara Grey who has also been granted amnesty. The young man wants to persuade the legendary thief to pull one last heist against a former Pinochet goon. All the while Santiago falls in love with Victoria Ponce, a teenage dancer, whose depression stems from the murder of her father by the dictatorship. Together the three make their way in a transitory society that has failed to absolve the injustices of the past which only enables new injustices to continue in the present.

GUEST: Antonio Skarmeta, author of the award winning novel, The Postman, and his latest, “The Dancer and the Thief”

Goodnight Bush (originally aired May 28 ’08)

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As President Bush’s 8 year tenure finally draws to a close, a number of creative products have popped up in the retail market to bid him goodbye. Items like the George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown Handbook, the 2008 George W. Bush Out of Office Countdown Calendar, the official Bush countdown clock, and the Bush countdown clock keychain. One of the most creative new products is a children’s book by Erich Origen and Gan Golan, based on the ubiquitous children’s book, Goodnight Moon. The original book, Goodnight Moon, written more than 60 years ago, has helped countless parents ease their children to bed and is basically a short poem of goodnight wishes from a young rabbit preparing for–or attempting to postpone–his own slumber. Goodnight Bush, according to its authors, lets us “bid sweet dreams to Bush and his White House playmates and hope they sleep for a very long time.”

GUEST: Gan Golan, co-author of “Goodnight Bush,” an unauthorized parody of the children’s book, Goodnight Moon

For more information and to purchase the book, visit www.goodnightbush.com.