Tag Archives: Dr. Abdullah Alrebh

WKTV introduces new series — Voices: 9/11 at 20 — with GVSU professor talking history, causes of attacks

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WKTV Voices: 9/11 at 20 Interview #1 Dr. Abdullah F. Alrebh, GVSU professor

By K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

WKTV Journal recently welcomed into our studio Grand Valley State University professor Dr. Abdullah F. Alrebh for the premier episode of “WKTV Voices: 9/11 at 20 — Our Islamic neighbors 20 years later”.

This special WKTV Voices project will present video interviews, and online/print stories, covering a range of personal stories of the 9/11 attacks and their impact over the following two decades. After initial background interviews dealing with American Islamic history, global politics, and the current Islamic world, we will present the voices of local Muslim community leaders and, finally, Muslim American citizens, especially young people who grew up in the age of 9/11.

Dr. Alrebh’s field of study is in Sociology of Religion and Sociological Theory, and he has published a number of academic articles and essays focusing on religion, the Middle East and its social movements, and education.

He is also very knowledgeable about the Arabian Peninsula region and specifically Saudi Arabia — a country forever linked to the 9/11 terrorist attacks as the plan’s leader, Osama bin Laden, who was the initial leader of the pan-Islamic militant organization al-Qaeda, was a Saudi.

WKTV Journal’s “Voices: 9/11 at 20 — Our Islamic neighbors 20 years later” airs on cable television in the Wyoming and Kentwood areas on Comcast WKTV Channel 26 and on AT&T Channel 99 Government channel (For dates and times on Channel 26, see our Weekly On-air Schedule. For dates and times on Channel 99, visit here). All individual interviews are also available on YouTube at WKTVvideos. Online/print stories are available by searching “9/11 at 20” on WKTVJournal.org.

WKTV Journal brings Saudi Arabia — past, present and future — In Focus

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K.D. Norris

ken@wktv.org

 

On the latest episode of WKTV Journal: In Focus, we present an interview Dr. Abdullah Alrebh an assistant professor of Sociology of Religion and Sociological Theory at Grand Valley State University. He has published a number of academic articles and book chapters focusing on religion, the Middle East, social movements, and education.

 

Described by one expert as being a country Americans “know so much, yet so little” about, Saudi Arabia in much in the news recently, so we wanted to talk with someone who knows the country and the Arabian Peninsula region intimately.

 

With Dr. Alrebh, we discuss the history of the Saudi government, its relationship with the West, especially its military and economic ties with the United States, and what the current controversy triggered by the murder of a prominent Saudi critic could mean in the future.

 

Dr. Alrebh will also be speaking as part of a World Affairs Council of West Michigan discussion series titled “Shifting Sands in the Arabian Peninsula” at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business in Grand Rapids.

 

He will speak, Tuesday, Nov.13, focused on Saudi Arabia, with the final talk on Tuesday, Nov. 20, focused on Yemen, with Dr. Gamal Gasim, also of Grand Valley State University. For more information visit worldmichigan.org .

 

“WKTV Journal: In Focus” airs on cable television in the Wyoming and Kentwood areas on Comcast WKTV Channel 26 and on AT&T Channel 99 Government channel (see our Weekly On-air Schedule for dates and times). But all interviews included in episodes of WKTV Journal: In Focus are also available on YouTube at WKTVvideos.

 

Lecture series will focus on ‘Shifting Sands in the Arabian Peninsula’

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By WKTV Staff

ken@wktv.org

 

Perhaps there is no region of the world about which Americans “know so much, yet so little” than the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, that according to the World Affairs Council of West Michigan.

 

In response, the Council’s Fall Lecture Series will feature four presentations about four distinctly different Middle Eastern nations in a series titled “Shifting Sands in the Arabian Peninsula”, beginning Thursday, Oct. 18, with a free-to-the-public opening program. The series will take place at Grand Valley State University’s Seidman College of Business in Grand Rapids.

 

In the series, the public can learn why Oman is on many “safest countries to visit” lists, how Qatar is coping with the blockade instituted by its neighbors, what the loosening of long-standing cultural laws means for Saudi Arabia, and if there is any hope for an end to the war in Yemen.

 

 

“What happens in this part of the world impacts us,” a World Affairs Council release states. “Let’s be informed global citizens.”

 

The Oct. 18 lecture will focus on Oman and will be presented by Dr. Fahad Bishara, University of Virginia.

 

Fahad Bishara (UVA photo by Dan Addison)

According to his supplied biography, Fahad Bishara specializes in the economic and legal history of the Indian Ocean and Islamic world. His  book, “A Sea of Debt: Law and Economic Life in the Western Indian Ocean, 1780-1950”, is a legal history of economic life in the Western Indian Ocean, told through the story of the Arab and Indian settlement and commercialization of East Africa during the 19th Century.

 

He is currently working on a history of the Arab dhow trade between the Gulf and the Indian Ocean during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, a project which takes on issues of global capitalism, international law, empire, mobility, and scale in historical writing.

 

The remaining lectures will be Wednesday, Oct. 24, focused on Qatar, with Ambassador Chase Untermeyer (ret.), U.S. ambassador to Qatar; Tuesday, Nov.13, focused on Saudi Arabia, with Dr. Abdullah Alrebh, Grand Valley State University; and Tuesday, Nov. 20, focused on Yemen, with Dr. Gamal Gasim, Grand Valley State University.

 

The cost to the public to attend the series is $10 per evening or $25 for a series pass. However, the Oct. 18 lecture is free and open to the public thanks to support from the Sultan Qaboos Cultural Center and the World Affairs Councils of America.

 

All programs are 7-8:15 p.m. and a special reception will kick off the series on Oct. 18 starting at 6:15 p.m. The Seidman College of Business’ Multi-purpose Room is  located at 50 Front Ave. SW. Free parking in Fulton Street Lot. No RSVPs necessary.

 

For more information visit worldmichigan.org .