A few years ago Ustad Ghulam Farid Nizami was honored to be able to perform traditional Pakistani classical music during one of President George W. Bush's visits to Pakistan.

Back when Muslims and Arabs had a major part to play in the Indian Ocean economy, a huge market crisscrossed by commerce they sustained and often extended. Today these monarchies enjoy more stability and success than neighboring republics (perhaps excepting Turkey); they suggest that non-modern forms of loyalty can outdo the Arab political modern.

"Shooting Kabul." The title would have you thinking it's a war story, a story about terrorism and heartbreak. And while it is all of those things, it's also a children's book, a story about starting fresh with a hole in your heart, and in your family. Above all, "Shooting Kabul" is a story about a kid with a camera and a taste for peanut butter.

Meet G. Willow Wilson. She's an American. She lived in Egypt for a while. She converted to Islam. She fell in love with a local. She wrote a book about all of this called The Butterfly Mosque. You should read it.

Footnotes in Gaza provides a look into events that are almost entirely unknown except to those who were alive in Khan Younis and Rafah in 1956.

Award-winning filmmaker Cherian Dabis makes her directorial debut with "Amreeka," (2009) a semi-biographical account of a mother and son trading in war-torn West Bank for small town Illinois.

By no means am I a Bollywood (Indian Cinema) fan. I have only seen a handful of Bollywood movies in my life and never watched one in a theater – before last night.