In Portugal’s Rural North, Communities Are Resisting Lithium Mining
NEW LINES MAGAZINE (24/4/2024) Under the banner of a “green transition,” the EU is rushing to revive mining to secure critical raw materials. Plans to build large, open-pit mines in northeastern Portugal have been met with strong opposition from local communities, who are contesting the state’s authority to grant mining licenses without their consent. As […]
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Dinosaur Prints In Jordan Highlight A Largely Unexplored Region
DISCOVER MAGAZINE (2/11/2022) About 100 millions years ago, dinosaurs roamed through the coast of the ancient Tethys ocean that covered most of the modern Middle East. Recently, dozens of their footprints have been found on the arid mountain of Safaha, southwest of the city of Shobak, in the south of Jordan. In 2019, two Polish […]
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The woman preserving the handwoven history of the Levant
DEUTSCHE WELLE (1/6/2022) Women in the Levant have long used needlework to depict the region’s history, its landscapes, customs and traditions. Intricately embroidered panels, varying in style, colour and pattern reflect the different cultural, religious and family affiliations. One woman, Widad Kawar, has made it her quest to ensure this heritage is not forgotten Read […]
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تعرف على المدينة العربية التي تجسد معاني التسامح والكرم
ب ب س عربي https://www.bbc.com/arabic/vert-cul-59797455
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As-Salt: Where Tolerance and Generosity are World Heritage
BBC (22/12/2021) The dawn call to prayer echoed through a still sleepy valley before the first rays of sun started illuminating golden limestone houses clustered on the slopes of three mountains. “Allahu Akbar” (“God is great”), the voice of the muezzin rose up above the domes of the city. “Hayya ‘ala-s-salah” (“Hurry to the prayer”), called loudspeakers […]
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Arabic inscription on Coimbra Cathedral “Greatness will stay”
DEUTSCHE WELLE / QANTARA (18/8/2021) The stones of Coimbra’s twelfth-century cathedral glow in the last rays of sunlight on a warm summer evening. Swallows swirl around the austere building as tourists line up to visit the Romanesque monument in Portugal‘s third largest city. The cathedral’s elaborate three-storey portal in the northern façade attracts many visitors. But […]
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How the world’s oldest masks tell a story of Palestinian dispossession
MIDDLE EAST EYE (18.5.2021) When a British missionary rode through al-Ram in 1881 asking for antiquities, residents of the Palestinian village tried to stop him from taking the local treasures. Armed with guns, a group of men confronted him and refused to let him take the village’s ancient stone mask. At least, this is how […]
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The Portuguese rediscovering their country’s Muslim past
AL JAZEERA (10/6/2020) When 33-year-old Mustafa Abdulsattar arrived in the Portuguese capital, Lisbon, four years ago, something struck him as familiar: many Portuguese words sounded like Arabic. After fleeing war in his native Iraq, Abdulsattar had risked his life on a perilous boat trip from Turkey to Greece. Once in Greece, he was offered resettlement in […]
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‘Muslims were not foreigners’: Why don’t Portugal’s restitution laws include everyone?
THE NATIONAL (31/3/2020) Mouraria, a trendy neighbourhood in Lisbon’s city centre, still bears the name of its former inhabitants, the Moors – Muslims who lived in the Iberian Peninsula in modern Spain and Portugal, and once walked its maze of narrow and winding streets and tightly packed alleys. Next to Mouraria stands Alfama – from […]
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Os muçulmanos que Portugal expulsou e esqueceu
EXPRESSO (1/2/2020) Brafame Gordo e o seu irmão Galebo partiram do Alentejo tão contrariados que chegaram mesmo a pedir autorização ao rei para os deixar regressar. Numa petição dirigida à coroa portuguesa (hoje guardada na Torre do Tombo) dão o nome de três cristãos seus vizinhos em Elvas, que poderiam fornecer recomendações, e pedem para […]
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