Author Archives: Charles Proctor

Ghaith Mahmood had a childhood not unlike that of a typical middle-income American. He lived in a modernized city with cars and shopping malls. There was always plenty of food to eat, and he remembers wiling away the hours playing computer games. But Mahmood did not grow up in American suburbia. He was born and […]

SAN FRANCISCO ““ They seem to spring up overnight. They travel by train, car, bus, plane, bicycle or foot. They come in ones, twos, threes, small groups or massive armies. They engage in curbside debates or tabletop discussions, arguing politics, ethics, history, war and peace. They represent one of the loudest and fastest-moving movements in […]

The Muslim Students Association will be holding an event titled “Why in God’s Name Did You Choose Islam?” tonight where Islamic converts tell their stories as part of Islamic Awareness Week on campus. Mohammad Mertaban, a fourth-year psychology and French student and president of the MSA, explained one of the key goals of the program, […]

While most UCLA students are still snoring away at 5 in the morning, a select group of Muslim women plan to wake up and pray for peace at that hour. In a show of piety and empathy, around 10 to 15 Muslim students will be getting up before sunrise Thursday and Friday morning to say […]

The frustration of Iranian refugees was characterized by a sign stuck in front of the Wilshire Federal Building Monday evening: “We Know the Lies You Tell / Islamic Regime, Go To Hell!” This sign and others like it were much in evidence throughout Westwood as roughly 1,000 members of the Persian community marched down Wilshire […]

Is Big Brother watching you? According to many librarians around the nation, the answer is a resounding “Yes.” Provisions in the USA PATRIOT Act that would allow the FBI to access library records to aid investigations have drawn outcries from the American Librarians Association, which is afraid that the government is violating First Amendment rights. […]

As Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon completes a crushing victory of the Israeli elections, UCLA faculty and members of the local community gathered to debate the implications of such an outcome. Steven Spiegel, a political science professor at UCLA, and Leonard Fein, a writer and educator on contemporary Jewish life, discussed the Israeli elections with […]