As'ad AbuKhalil

As'ad AbuKhalil
As'ad AbuKhalil
Born	As'ad AbuKhalil (1960-03-16) March 16, 1960 Tyre, Lebanon
Nationality	Lebanese-American
Other names	"Angry Arab"
Occupation	professor of political science
Employer	California State University, Stanislaus
Website	http://angryarab.blogspot.com/

As'ad AbuKhalil Arabic: أسعد أبو خليل (born March 16, 1960) is a Lebanese-American professor of political science at California State University, Stanislaus and visiting professor at University of California, Berkeley.

AbuKhalil is the author of Historical Dictionary of Lebanon (1998), Bin Laden, Islam & America's New "War on Terrorism" (2002), and The Battle for Saudi Arabia (2004). He maintains a blog, The Angry Arab News Service.

Biography

AbuKhalil was born in Tyre, Lebanon, and grew up in Beirut. He received his B.A. and M.A. in political science from the American University of Beirut, and a Ph.D. in comparative government from Georgetown University. He has been married and divorced twice, both times to American citizens.

AbuKhalil is a professor at Cal State Stanislaus and a visiting professor at UC Berkeley. In addition, he has taught at Tufts University, Georgetown University, George Washington University, Colorado College, California State University Stanislaus, and Randolph-Macon Woman's College.

Political views

AbuKhalil describes himself as "a former Marxist-Leninist, now an anarchist", a feminist, and an "atheist secularist".

AbuKhalil is vocally pro-Palestinian, describes himself as an anti-Zionist, and supports one secular state in historical Palestine. He is an opponent of the Iraq War. He is critical of Israeli government, of United States foreign policy, of Saudi Arabia, of both Fatah and Hamas, and of all rival factions in Lebanon.

In an interview on New TV on January 13, 2010, AbuKhalil stated that "Lebanese nationalism – just like Zionism – was founded on racism and contempt for others – whether for Lebanese of other sects or for other Arabs...The Lebanese people, with all its sects, has never proven that it wants, or is capable of, true coexistence. Coexistence in Lebanon is coexistence in blood, conflict, and civil strife."

The Angry Arab News Service

AbuKhalil's blog, the Angry Arab News Service, was launched in September 2003, and as of June 2005 received between 30,000 and 35,000 hits per month. The name of the blog is taken from a phrase used by a TV producer to describe AbuKhalil's perspective.

According to the Los Angeles Times, the blog is "known for its sarcastic but knowledgeable commentary", and "stands out for its sense of humor in the dour left-wing landscape." Ken Silverstein writes that the blog often becomes "a furious stream of consciousness that lacks paragraph breaks or other typographic niceties" (though AbuKhalil is nevertheless "a terrific writer and an insightful political analyst").

Most of the blog items are sent to AbuKhalil by his readers/fans, who quotes them and thanks the source with a footnote after the paragraph.[1]

AbuKhalil often refers to the starch-filled vegetable the potato in his online political writings as a substitute for profanity.

Books

As'ad AbuKhalil addressing students in the University of Manchester handling an occupation seeking demands from the university after Gaza War 2009

• Historical Dictionary of Lebanon (1998), ISBN 978-0-8108-3395-1
• Bin Laden, Islam & America's New "War on Terrorism" (2002), ISBN 978-1-58322-492-2
• The Battle For Saudi Arabia: Royalty, Fundamentalism, and Global Power (2004), ISBN 978-1-58322-610

External links

• The Angry Arab News Service
• Profile in the Los Angeles Times
• Profile in Harper's by Ken Silverstein
• Debate with Irshad Manji, Muslim feminist/reformist/Zionist, on the Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoon controversy
• Interview on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman on the July 2006 Israeli invasion of Lebanon - 26:30 into the broadcast
• Interview on Electronic Intifada
• Slideshow on Flickr